For what it’s worth, the scoreline I had in my head for this game was a 2-1 defeat, but I’m not at all happy that I got it right.
Hence it’s no surprise to me that we lost, but I didn’t think the way we approached the game was good.
You just can’t let a team like Chelsea put you under pressure for such long periods of the game and expect to withstand it. They’re just too good in attack and it was always just a matter of time before they scored.
That said, there’s no doubt that at half time the tactic was working and somehow we went in 1-0 up, but even so the writing was always on the wall.
I found myself asking what has happened to the swashbuckling footy that we played early in the season?
Are we really going to be doomed to watching us sit back and let teams attack us without really taking it to them?
Okay, this was against Chelsea, who we all know are a good side, where you might want to be very cagey against them.
But look at the fixture list.
We have Newcastle (a), Wolves (h), Liverpool (a), Man U (h), Palace (h), Everton (a), Arsenal (h) and West Ham (a).
The Wolves, Liverpool, Man U, Everton and Arsenal games are games that I would think we can pretty much write off as defeats. Are we going to sit back against them too?
Which leaves Newcastle, Palace and West Ham as maybe our only winnable games. And two of those are away.
My point is that if you consider 36 points will be required to survive, we are simply not going to get them as it is.
Hence we need to change something.
It can’t be the personnel, because I think most would agree we’re playing very close to our best eleven.
So that only leaves the tactics. Which means we need to really start attacking the opposition.
I’m sure Dean Smith would say we’re playing tactically as well as we can, given what we have and the opposition we face.
But it simply isn’t working and as it stands, I think we’re doomed.
Fair enough, going out and really taking it to sides might be doomed to failure too, but surely it’s better to have a proper go and maybe catch one of the big boys on the hop?
If we can pinch just one result against the big boys, it might make a massive difference.
The sad reality is that we just aren’t good enough, but we have nothing to lose by at least having a proper go.
The problem there is I just don’t think we have the battlers to do it. Take the odd couple of players out who I think might have the mental ability and frankly the team just looks like a load of wimps.
How many of them would cope in the Championship, where you have to battle even more, is a worrying thought.
I wonder if Dean Smith secretly sees it like that too?
As for the actual game today, well, there’s not much to say.
Our nine men behind the ball did as well as they could for as long as it lasted, but the result was always going to happen with the way we approached the game.
Which leaves me thinking that Dean Smith has bottled it too.
As much as I’m trying to stay positive, I think we’ve had it.
I don’t think for one minute Smith will change his approach.
I’m convinced he realises our players just aren’t good enough and it’s about damage limitation.
You summed it up pretty well Badger. We haven’t got any battlers. Successful teams have more than one captain. Grealish is our captain but he isn’t a leader. Mings can talk and look commanding but apart from him that’s it. Smith comes across as being too nice. Maybe in the dressing room he let’s rip, who knows? My feeling is that throughout the players and management, everything reeks of inexperience. We had an entire summer to address those issues but totally messed up. Smith needs to offload Terry if he keeps his job. We shouldn’t accept an apprentice learning his trade at our expense. Smith might be suited to the championship and unless we get an experienced replacement such as Benitez, it will be a risk to change manager. Make no mistake, with Newcastle, Wolves, Man Utd, Liverpool and Arsenal coming up, there is absolutely no chance of us staying up! Anyone who thinks otherwise after today’s performance is kidding themselves.
newcastle is the important next game. as bad as we think we are, newcastle are not much better than us. its a 50 / 50 game we can win that and we should go there with with intent on coming home with nothing less than the win to keep our hopes alive. lose that game and it really is over.
even collecting three points next game still might be too late. we are gonna need to beat some good teams i think we need to win at least 4 of them tough fixtures,
pool might be champions and play the kids again and we beat them once lol man utd are there for the taking. 4th place is soon out of reach for them. wolves is a derby and anything can happen in them games. arsenal are also not the same team that used to batter us, palace are just defensive team, everton are also nothing special. hammers newcastle we really have to win. these two and pick up two more from somewhere
I admire your optimism Nath. Alongside Norwich and Bournemouth we are where we deserve to be. We can’t beat a top 6 team so Liverpool, Man Utd and Wolves will be damage limitation.
i didnt say we would. but that is what we should be aiming for. nothing is certain in football. if it was that simple there would be no point of bookmakers.
we messed up against sheff utd three points there we were outside the bottom three. chelsea are a good side, seen them lots this season, they dominated better sides than villa and lost the games.i watched them absolutely dominated the ball against man utd and they lost three nil somehow.
next game is what three days away, so before we wave the white flag at least play that, newcastle are dog sh it if we lose that then it is pretty much nailed on, some of our remaining fixtures they will have nothing to play for and that means anything can happen. so its not always a forgone conclusion
if i were put money on it, i would have laid us down after the sheff utd game. we had to win that to stand a chance. we are now reliant on other teams dropping points now. newcastle will be the last chance to get a lift. hammers have a very tough run in but i expect them to pick up some points watford will pick up points so that means we are gonna need at least 4 and that still might not be enough.
but while theres a chance we should remain behind the club as the finishing line is not far away
i bet ste bruce is rubbing his hands, at the prospects of kicking us in the guts, he did a good job in a tough period in our history. some fans didn’t like him. one even threw a cabbage at him, so he will no doubt enjoy beating us and who would blame him.
And Smith reckons we did okay??
Purslow and the rest of the Villa management chumps should hold their heads in shame – Once again this once grand old lady of football has been badly let down by GROSS MISMANAGEMENT!!!
I’d like to see Davis and Samatta play up top together and drop Hourihane. I think we would score. But I think Smith fears an injury leaving him with one of them plus Barry.
There is always a chance of survival, although I do not see it happening. I do think we will be relegated and my posts during the year have been along these lines.
However, I do not see it as all bad news. The last time we were relegated we were in total disarray. We are not in this position now. We have owners who care and a decent set up. Our biggest problem has been the number of players we had to buy and try and gel.
The team that beat Derby for promotion:
12Steer – injured most of season
27El Mohamady – available Not premier class
4Tuanzebe – loanee
40Mings – loanee – purchased
3Taylor- available not premier class
7McGinn – available
14Hourihane – available – not premier class
10Grealish – available
37Adomah- Not premier class
18 Abraham – loanee
22 ElGahzi – loanee purchased
In essence we were promoted with only 2 players we owned who could hack the premier.
If we go down and we can keep the majority of the squad together then I expect us to do a Burnley and come back up. At that time it will be about adding to the squad not rebuilding it. Of course there are rumours that Dyche is available. He might be in lace come September.
Right let’s make plans for next season in the championship sell captain Grealish and T Mings pulling back a few pounds get rid of Dean Smith and JT sorry it never worked out we are supposed to have the fifth richest owners so cash in on prize assets and build the team around John McGinn have a lolly good clear out. VTID
Sounds like a plan Norman although a few more might have to go as well.
The big question for me is where do we go for our next manager? Sounds like yet another lottery on a merry-go-round of ticket buying!
They’ll be bidders for McGinn and he’ll go therefore we’ll need a new spine through the team. The problem is given the record of Smith and Suso neither can be trusted to do so – both must depart before we spend any of the Grealish / McGinn / Mings money
The more the merrier bring it on blood the U23 and yes buy a top manager. VTID
The same mistakes over and over and over again. How many leads have we blown in one season, it’s like watching the same script and plot on repeat. Smith’s approach of going toe to toe with teams at this level has been a disaster from day one but no evidence of lessons learnt at all.
Even the most optimistic of fans must realise the writing is on the wall now.But we can have no complaints about injustices – we are absolutely where we deserve to be. There’s players out there that do care but sadly the recruitment over the summer was truly abysmal and Smith has been found wanting in virtually every department of premier league management.
Absolutely spot on!
Trying to stay positive and look ahead. As much as it pains me to say it, I believe we need to sacrifice Hourihane or McGinn for the next game. Seriously lacking energy in midfield and even though Nakamba isn’t that good in possession, he has great energy and a little bit of bite about him. Somebody to be a pest and win the ball back, even if it’s a case playing it simple and then laying it off to Luiz or Grealish. El Ghazi has been disappointing the last 2 games also, time to start Trez from the off or even Jota who had a nice little cameo. Neat on the ball and could be a good foil for Jack in the number 10 role.
you can not blame smith yesterday. he had to keep villa in the game to the dying embers, chelsea had not played for 3 months and were bound to tire , if they did that would even up the game and that was the best time to go toe to toe with a side far superior to our ramble.
i understand we are frustrated, but the game to get upset with was sheff utd. we needed to win that one and be more aggressive too. we had chances but not enough to score and not enough to say we are good enough.
against chelsea we did what i expected and probably better than i expected. they are very talented side and we kept them out for almost the timescale i thought was their limit. then they score two quick goals which turned the result to them. man for man they where not just better or lots better they were super superior. to be honest it should have been 4 goal margins and had we opened up earlier and gone for it would have been a 5 innings cricket score.
next game we will go for it. 50/50 game we need to win. lose that and we are really all but dead. we are 1 point still behind safety.
Sadly, the moment Villa scored yesterday our fate was sealed. Previous performances have shown that we can’t kill off top opposition. We’ve taken the lead against Tottenham twice, Man Utd, Chelsea, Arsenal and Liverpool and after taking the lead in all six fixtures, have only come away with 1 point out of a possible 18. Teams in and around us have been picking up points against the so called big teams all season yet we have one point to show for our efforts. We don’t have the quality of players to sit in with a low block and hope for the best. All it takes is for a top class team to break through once or twice in 90 minutes, something Dean Smith doesn’t understand. El Ghazi is beyond frustrating with a lack of work rate and technical ability but he still sticks with him. I would personally like to see Jota given some minutes instead, at least he might over some creativity and something different. Grealish is a number 10 and the fact we completely bypass the midfield, pumping it up to Davis only for the ball to come straight back and sit in again is a tactic which has not worked but Dean Smith seems happy with. His comments after the game yesterday were the real concern for me. If he feels that the performance yesterday was acceptable and can keep us up, then we are in big trouble. I personally felt confident after the game against Sheffield United. We looked to control possession and move opposition players about, something which I know is more difficult to do against top opposition but we looked void of ideas and desperate against Chelsea. If we play like we did against Sheffield United, we have a chance. If we play like we did we yesterday, we’re down.
I will predict now that Steve Bruce’s Newcastle will win comfortably against us. They deservedly beat Sheffield United who are better than us. Our two most influential playmakers, Grealish (who’s head has been turned by Man Utd transfer talk IMO) and McGinn who looks way off the pace have been very disappointing. El Ghazi is terrible as a winger at premier league level. He might do well next season possibly. I thought Hause and Luiz were our best performers yesterday. Hourihane was non existent. When we had a free kick 20 yards out after just a few minutes gone, why on earth didn’t he take the shot? Their keeper hadn’t handled the ball at that point.
For me, this season has been a catalogue of mistakes. Suso and the summer / winter transfer windows. Smith, O’Kelly and JT way out of their depth and learning at clubs expense. I can’t blame the players because they are also playing a level above their abilities. Maybe we should criticise the owners because the buck stops at the top. The recruitment of Suso is their responsibility despite the funds being available.
Huge decisions need to be made at the end of the season. Do we keep Smith or start another evolution. Premier clubs will snap up Grealish, McGinn and Mings for reduced fees when we are relegated. Most of the money will probably have to be spent on debt. I like Smith and after all he is a Villa fan but emotions can’t get in the way when it comes to being successful. It’s interesting to see Brentford doing better this season without Smith and despite losing their players.
It’s a good point – Brentford have kicked on since Smith left. A damning indictment of his management. Brentford’s defence has come on leaps and bounds since. Someone yesterday mentioned they thought last years team would beat the current 11 and I have to agree. The recruitment was that bad – Tuanzebe and Abraham for certain would walk into this team.
It’s easy to blame Suso completely and of course he should be dismissed without question. But Smith for me should share the blame – he himself said he went to watch Nakamba, Engels and Wesley and gave the green light. Then you add in the Smith signings of Drinkwater and Jota which I think all will unanimously agree have been a complete waste of time and resource.
Would i trust the current setup to rebuild – i’m afraid i simply wouldn’t. We scraped through the play offs last time and that was with for me the best 2 players in the league at the time with Abraham and Grealish. Without them I think we’ll be a mid table championship club. My fear is theyll stick with Smith and have to sack him next Autumn / Winter when we’re languishing in mid table in the championship. Purslow needs to show his leadership and fast.
Absolutely, spot on. Gross mismanagement yet again in my humble opinion!
Instead of kicking on(excuse the pun), Villa is just drifting again!!!
This was the final straw for me. It confirmed what has been obvious all season. Smith is out of his depth. Worse than that, he’s turned into a Steve Bruce clone. Timid, negative, defensive, ‘tail between the legs’ football. John Terry can go too. Defensive coach with the second worst defensive record in the Premier ! Whoever our next manager is (ASAP) I want a ‘Keegan’ attacking ‘up and at ’em’ mentality.. I’m bored and embarrassed seeing my team roll over without a whimper.
I think we are all agreed in that our management, recruitment and players with the exception of Grealish, McGinn and possibly Mings are totally out of their depth and fear has taken over in the sense of trying not to lose rather than trying to win.
Smith, O’Kelly and Terry have to go. How much longer are AVFC going to stumble from fiasco to fiasco. You couldn’t make it up!
Once we had secured promotion last year, we should have brought in premier league experience. Hutton, Whelan and Jedinak had left who were experienced at top level. Admittedly they weren’t good enough for top flight anymore but should have been replaced with experienced players instead of risking it on promising foreign players. The money on Wesley alone could have bought a few in. Also those three players were leaders and had a big factor in the dressing room. Luiz, Nakamba and Guilbert might become good players eventually but I’m guessing they aren’t as influential.
I don’t have faith in Smith & co anymore. Things have become progressively worse over the season. The formation doesn’t work and Smiths offensive approach has become dull, negative and fearful.
We are stuck with things for now, simply because of the congested run in. Once the final whistle blows away to West Ham, the owners need to have replacements lined up and I really hope they don’t promote Terry.
Oh dear god no, if they give it Terry I am going to stop going, full stop
once we got promotion we tried to get experience premiership players. but the number we needed would have cost more than a arm and leg. we also had only just avoided punishments from ffp hitch is more in tuned with that, but we couldn’t afford the super star premiership players. wages and transfer fees are beyond our means. so we got the best of the rest nobody complained when we bought these players. they are decent but as proven not good enough.
look at luiz he has taken some time to settle and performance were iffy to start with, but last two games he has definitely improved, in fact i would say he hardly put a foot wrong in these last two. compared to earlier where he made plenty in every game.
another point brentford have been building for years 2013 warburton got them into the championship and created some bread too. they have a blue print there and new managers builds onto, but he doesn’t rip up everything and start again cause they are probably one of the best run clubs for many years outside the premiership. so this new chap is reaping the benefits from a great scouting system they built up for close to a decade. they sell their best players and they always have a replacement lined up better than the one they sell. their style of play hardly changes its more like a tweak.
If you could bear to watch MOTD you saw the expert analysis of Chelsea’s tactic of targeting Targett by overloading their right with 2 right wingers. They were up against non-tacklers Grealish, Targett, Luiz, McGinn, and Hourihane. That is a lot of players who will shadow you rather than tackle you for the ball. An extreme tactic can be met by one – moving Grealish to right wing for example would have exploited Chelsea’s unbalanced formation. Not tried of course, stuck with 4-3-3.
Q.Why do we play 4-3-3 boss?
A.The crowd likeds to see attacking football at home.
Q. How many F’s in 4-5-1 boss?
A. There are 2 F’s in 4-5-1.
Q. How many F’s in 4-3-3 boss?
A. There is one F in 4-3-3
Q. How many F’s in Crowd boss
A. There is no F in Crowd.
Q. You noticed! Then why are we still playing 4-3-3?
Hmm.
It’s difficult to disagree with the points made, but as much as it might be an unpopular way of thinking, I’m going to do my best to avoid a knee-jerk reaction to two games.
I see Dean Smith thinks we’re in a decent position, which is interesting to say the least.
Will he prove to be deluded?
Probably, but possibly not.
We always knew this was going down to the wire and many of us said we’d take 17th. I was one of them and would definitely take it now.
I do think there are mitigating circumstances, which Nath has touched on.
I think Smith would have bought better players in and the owners would have funded them if they could. But they couldn’t and their hands were tied.
So we’ve had to go with cheap players, who just haven’t proven good enough.
Fwiw, I think the only genuinely poor buy Smith has made has been Wesley.
Mings was imo overpriced, but I suppose that’s what we had to pay.
The rest mostly are average at best, but in Prem terms we paid peanuts, so it’s not surprising.
I’d like to see us set up a system like Brentford, but it means you at least need some sort of stability to create a base.
We’ve hired and fired managers over the last few years and it simply has not worked.
Does that mean we should sack Smith and do the same again?
Perhaps some think we should, but I’m not convinced yet.
At the end of the day, survival was always going to be a massive ask because we hadn’t even got a team after we got promoted. We’ve probably done reasonably well to be in the position we are, if I think about it.
All that said, I certainly don’t have a strong allegiance to Dean Smith and am undecided if I want him in or out at the moment.
That may change come the end of the season, but for now I’m just trying to stay as balanced as possible.
I totally understand if some think my position is just utter bollocks.
Smith hasn’t helped himself at times, I can definitely see that.
To back up my point about cheap players, I see “Avillafan” have written this;
“The arrival of 13 new players, mostly from abroad helped cover the losses of many experienced players used in last season’s play-off success and per player, Villa spent a measly £11m on average. Where does that get you in today’s market?”
Then consider how much we paid for Wesley and Mings (£43m?)
Take them out and that £11m becomes quite a bit lower.
And what does that say, forget the owners its down to coach and management without a doubt. I’ve been saying it for years even Steve Strides days, theirs a pack of wolves passing where a job is and Villa fall for it time after time we employ crap administrators, coaches, and managers. Its been going on for years now. when have we seen a good team at Villa Park, we are supposed to be a big club ?why are we struggling year after year, because we have people that can talk their way out of a problem. It’s no good making excuses for todays players they just not good enough and never will.
On a different note, it seems we’re dumping Rushian Hepburn-Murphy, Jake Doyle-Hayes and Callum O’Hare.
I thought these were supposed to be our next best things?
Seems to me the club ought to stop talking the kids up and start churning out a bit more than one successful academy kid every 10 years at best.
Sorry, our academy really bugs me.
If it was a company in it’s own right, it would have been closed down years ago.
If those 3 mentioned youngsters are offloaded, we might as well scrap the academy. What’s the point of it? Managers are demanded instant success so won’t ever risk kids. Sending them on loan just postpones their departures.
Exactly.
It’s been my point for ages.
If Smith plays a 4-3-3 tomorrow with Grealish LW and we lose again, then he can’t complain when he is slated by the fans. Therefore, why not play a different system? We probably will still lose but at least we can say something different was tried.
My team FWIW would be:-
Steer (if fit) or Nyland
Konsa, Hause, Mings and Targett
Nakamba
Luiz, Grealish and McGinn or maybe Jota!
Davis and Samatta
No wingers I hear you say. No point if we haven’t got a decent winger. El Ghazi and Trezeguet aren’t good enough.
I’m sure we all have different opinions to formation / line up. It’s purely speculative however because we know pretty much what Smith will do / pick!
No wingers?
Actually, that’s a very good point.
When was the last time a winger played one in for the striker to directly head or shoot into the net?
It seems it doesn’t work like that anymore and any crossed ball might be knocked back or square or whatever for another player to score.
And given the gap between the striker and the rest of the team, it isn’t going to happen.
We need another player close to the striker. Samatta looks decent in the box, as does Davis (as much as he hasn’t found his scoring boots yet) and even Wesley can run about as an attacker should.
Even Abraham would have struggled this season, I reckon.