Credit to https://www.flickr.com/photos/graham_pride/albums/72157662420335941
A very happy new year!
It is for us Villa fans anyway.
How great was it for us to get three points today when practically everybody, myself included had written this one off a a “no chance”?
Maybe Dean Smith reads the Villa websites after all, but it wasn’t rocket science that made him go five at the back, was it?
Whatever, it worked and the defence in the first half particularly, looked much more confident.
Jack Grealish played more centrally and you can see the difference it makes.
He’s much more involved where the real action is and even managed to bring Wesley into it for a goal.
It’s taken the manager a while to realise this, but fair play, he made the changes and they worked.
That said and I’m not trying to detract from the performance, but Burnley looked a really poor side, especially in that same first half. We were beating them to all the second balls in midfield, which made a really pleasant change.
As for the goal that was ruled out for Wesley being offside, what an absolute joke.
Even BBC sport said the goal should have stood. I was reminded of Liverpool’s goal against us and it was almost identical. I said then that their goal should have been classed as good, so you can’t say it’s bias on my part.
VAR is supposed to be looking at obvious and clear errors.
That simply wasn’t one.
My hope is that they will sort this over time, but in the meantime my concern is that it’s decisions like this that can turn games and maybe even get a team relegated.
If it’s that close to call, just don’t bother with VAR, simple.
I’m tempted to brush over the second half, but basically we knew Burnley would come out all guns blazing and we looked a lot poorer, being sloppy, sitting back and nearly letting them back into the game.
The bad news is that both Wesley and Heaton have possibly suffered Anterior Cruciate Ligament injuries, which can leave a player out for many months. As a worst case, we might not even see them again this season.
But I’m sure another player had the same injury not so long back and recovered a lot quicker. I just can’t think who it was.
Regardless, we have no choice now, but to get a decent striker in and hopefully we’ll have already been planning for it.
Kodjia, who I’ve often espoused should start for us, looked horrendous today. Some say it was a lack of interest, but the commentators I listened to said he looked leggy, even though he’d only been on a few minutes.
Which makes sense, given that you’d think he might want to put himself on display for a move. He definitely didn’t look in good shape.
Ultimately, it was a decent first half against a very poor Burnley which got us three points and got us out of the relegation places.
I’m not sure how long that will last, but I’m happy to say I got it wrong in my prediction.
Up the Villa and happy new year!
2 Hours Ago3rd January 2020
DEAN SMITH has insisted Manchester United target Jack Grealish is NOT for sale.
The Aston Villa boss told reporters: “I think he’s a big target for many teams and you can see why.
“He’s a top player but as I’ve said before, our owners are very ambitious and want to establish us as a top Premier League club.
“To do that you have to keep your best players, so we’ll be keeping hold of Jack Grealish.
“People can look but they can’t touch
True up,your utd. …….
I never doubted it for a second, Bill.
In fact I said exactly the same to someone trying to wind me up this morning.
We might be seeing some youngsters today according to rumours,
This comment is not Villa but amusing. I’m watching the scum play Blackburn and the attendance is about 8,000 -9,000 the FA cup game you might just as well scrap. No interest in that cup yet 40 years ago you’d need tickets, times are a changing.
i think loads of teams will play weaken teams.but i don’t mind that teams don’t want their best players injured.say grealish plays and picks up a serious injury that keeps him out of the league games.that would hinder us and not worth us risking that.
but i think the club should warn fans to expect this without giving the team. so fans can make up their minds to watch a weakened team or not. i hope we play some kids and they force their way into the 1st team. it will all help to make us competitive
You know that old saying “Be careful what you wish for?”
Before our visit to Turf Moor my main moans about the team were the continued first choice selection of Wesley and Heaton. In the worst of circumstances, and wishing both a complete recovery, I am now going to find out of the team will be better with Nyland and A N Other. Hopefully Davis is given a chance, I think his mobility will cause teams’ defences’ problems. Hourihane will have to play, because an accurate shooter from distance is needed and McGinn is out. I accept he isn’t going to be a midfield ball-winner but that role now falls to Luiz.
Davis holds the ball up well but he needs a quality strike partner. How after will we (Smith) play two up top?
We will miss Heaton’s EPL experience but, on balance, not sure I’d want to see us splash out on Butland (rumoured)!
I wish Nyland well; assume he will play against Fulham to get game time.
Confirmed that Šarkić has been recalled from his loan which suggests Kalinic will still leave and that we won’t sign any long term replacement,
Yes Nath I did see that with Kodja, didn’t go for the pass, I’m afraid that’s one of his weaknesses. Hope we go for the win today as that’s what football’s all about, no idea what the team will be hope he doesn’t throw it away with fans following the FA , I still believe in our cup matches.
was a great result at burnley, mings was inspirational, you could see and hear him shouting instructions, talking to his mates and always pointing and leading.in a interview after game he was talking about a chat they all had, with grealish stood next to him sounded like some burnley fans still in the ground shouting wanker wanker wanker, mings stopped his interview and turned to grealish said”I think that’s for you, mate.” so funny and so matey response.you can see just there how mings is as a character.
burnley were very poor that game, so lets not get carried away, good performances all around. except was not happy with kodjia we should have been three nil up lots of times. but one play left me so angry. grealish played in kodija but he doesn’t read the game or moment. he just has one thing in mind. he drove into goal and strikes at goal. when soon as he received the ball he just had to roll the ball across to a on rushing trez. this was so frustration. i knew burnley would score and that miss would haunt us. kodija is no team player we all agree and their is no place on the team for him. ppl moaned against wesley but wesley works his arse off and couldn’t catch a break. but boy did he work for the team. kodija does nothing he reminds me of a mate who we used to shone because of his selfish antics. can not see smith playing him up front. he offers zero.
fulham will be tough game if they play their first team, not sure they will so we have a chance. if we both send out the second fiddles we might see a 1 nil win but very hard to second guess what teams both will send out.
transfer window open i really wanted two wingers as el ghazi and trez have been struggling, trez had a really good game last time. but the system offered him a free role almost no defending. which suited him and boy did he use that to his advantage. i would still like to see a winger the long named brentford benrammmia sorry spelling mistake down to lappy. we need strikers do not want kodija anywhere near the first team. unless he learns the word teammate
p/s not got time to see if my typing is good today so please do not count the mistakes. lol 1 nil villa today stick your hard earned on that
Nath
I agree with your comments. I was taken aback by our victory over Burnley, but we proved we are not dead and buried yet, as I felt before the game.
Today is a free pass for the team today. Win and it’s confidence building and lose, one less distraction or further matches for the team to suffer further injuries.
Against Liverpool I was impressed by Nyland. I hope he continues in the same vain. Kodja has always been selfish and not a team player.
I wonder if Ramsey will play today?
sorry to repeat or harp on about kodija. that incident was just one example, but we could have mentioned two or three more. having made a wrong decision ok if he never saw that ball. much worst than not seeing the trez pass. is never considered the roll across to trez. which was a tap in compared to kodija acute angle, also this kind of selfishness affects the team.
i hope we can find two strikers this window, Hogan might be worth a look in. because if he fit and can be given supply like last game we produced. i really think he can finish,he certainly makes the right runs. he is also much more team player.
Saïd Benrahma i have watch this guy a few times since season having been linked with us in summer. i think he would definitely be able to step up and he will cause opposition lots of trouble. he is lightening quick like traore was but said seems to have more footballing IQ and has more tricks.
My post did a Hitch. It’s jumped up 4-5 places.
do you think we will be able to find some =links looking bleak sofar bill
Ive got it nath, its on BEIN MENA 11 508.
strong team picked for fulham. its like the micky mouse league cup smith picked his players who are not in 1st team. which is utilizing the squad, a few youngsters on the bench. not seen fulhams team yet but i think they will do the same, they are 4/5 th in league they will want to avoid injuries too
anybody wondered where josh onomah ended up. well he is in the fulham team today hope he didn’t take offense with most villa fans who didnt rate him much.
fulham team looks strong, not sure if they made many changes as i expected
i got a link bill 🙂
tight game, not many chances jota had a half volley edge of box and el ghazi had a late chance but a comfy save and wait for this chance made from a pass from kodjia.
better second half we can only hope for
1 shot on target and we miss it. It’s time to throw the FA cup in the bin.
my 1 nil prediction looks good now. lol
Shots in now…one – nil…
Once again we concede a goal shortly after half time.
Even acknowledging this is a weaker side, when are we going to concentrate for a full 90 minutes?
Not watching game but reading fans posts suggests we are poor again. No Grealish = No chance! Unfortunately our squad is a championship squad excluding a few of our team.
Also Smith has gone 4-3-3 again despite having success with 3-5-2. I know we are down on strikers but he could play El Ghazi or Jota down the middle.
Having said that, I would rather lose than draw and get an unneeded replay.
Not particularly fussed today – we cannot afford more cup games with the paper thin and weak squad.
Having said that Smith should at least have given some of the under 23’s a chance. We didnt need another game to prove the likes of Jota, Taylor and Lansbury are garbage and bottom 6 championship players – we already know this!
my summoning up on this game is, we need to get a striker or two fast. cause if we are relying on kodjia we might as well relegate ourselves now. he will probably fight el ghazi for that goal we scored (greedy t wa t ), but the rest of the game was frighteningly bad. up against two poor defenders. he was caught offside so many times. hardly surprising when he stands in offside position to begin with.he offers nothing no holding up. no actual passes to a claret and blue. he hardly runs into any channels, when he did manage to move he was never found as our passing was also frighteningly not accurate. tbf the game was often in neutral. fulham deserved the win just for the two goals they scored which were too good for the game which they won. both teams won the worst game to watch when you could do doing something more constructive with our time.
ENOUGH SMITH OUT NOW.
Awful players, awful manager who clearly is too arrogant to admit when wrong.
Formation wrong
Players bought wrong
Team selection wrong.
Yes I’m happy for us to concentrate on the Prem and go out but play players who will run, fight, battle and try not players like Hourihanne (can’t believe some suggest he should be a regular starter) he can not run, has no pace, has no physicality, can’t tackle, he runs up to the opposition skips and stops, one of the worse players I have seen at Villa. Can’t believe Smith took Marvellous off and kept Hourihanne on.
Jota probably worse than Hourihanne, but it’s close.
Kodjia lazy, no effort.
These three should never play again.
But they will because Smith has his favourites.
Give the youngsters a go.
If Smith was a Villa fan he would resign.
Smith OUT
Apologies I should have included El Ghasi so so so so so LAZY.
Considering the FA Cup is a distraction too much for our paper thin squad, I don’t know why Smith didn’t give a few more kids an opportunity. At least they would have shown effort and enthusiasm.
Kodja and co keep getting opportunities to shine but fail nearly every time. We desperately need two forwards, a strong CM, a goalkeeper and at least one winger. Try hard to offload Kodja, Kalinic and Lansbury. If we can only get one forward, preferably Mitrovic, could we swap Hogan for Kodja at Stoke? At least he puts in a shift and is a team player. I wish we could get rid of Jota too. None of our wingers are premier league quality but he is too slow and how many goals has he scored? Surely we can loan him out. I would rather bring back O’Hare.
Smith needs to act quickly, especially on the striker front and not leave it till the end of the month or we might be out the Carabao cup and in the relegation zone before we know it.
I didn’t see the game so not going to directly comment other than I’m surprised anyone is surprised we lost. We all know the inherent weaknesses in the squad worsened by long term injuries (as an aside Villa have more long term injuries – in numbers and accumulated days – than any other team in the EPL by a country mile) and, whilst Smith won’t say it I believe he’s concentrating on the EPL and the Carabao Cup.
I did post earlier that I read Stoke we’re considering ending Hogan’s loan period as he isn’t even making the bench, let alone starting. In many ways I agree with Holte in that Hogan would be a better option than Kodjia. Again it seems clear to me that the Villa management agree otherwise they would not be letting his contract run down.
Notwithstanding we just have to sign a quality, experienced striker and quickly.
Here’s hoping we see the back of Kodjia and soon.
A PS – Ted questioned why he substituted Marvelous – i would suggest it was more about protecting him with two major games coming up than any other reason.
Holte, Hitchens why have neither of you mentioned a Hourihanne?
One of the worse players I’ve seen no where near good enough.
Please explain why some supporters are intent on defending him or demanding he plays.
Yes he may score a goal but this is offset by the negatives can’t run can’t tackle can’t go past players can’t dribble no physicality and lazy at best a sub.
Ted, I agree with you in that he is lightweight. The more I see of him, the more I see him as an impact sub. For the reason that he nearly always gets around 10 goals a season from midfield means he’s more valuable than Lansbury IMO. The formation used against Burnley meant Nakamba and Luiz CAN play together. Unless we buy a top striker and winger, we must persevere with 3-5-2 which enabled Grealish to push forward to join up with the front man. If Smith goes back to a 4-3-3 after today’s inept showing, I will have to question whether he should remain as head coach.
Ted – neither have we unconditionally supported his contribution. I think he’s a decent squad player and all teams need them. It doesn’t really matter how he does it but his goal contribution has been critical already this season (as recently as the Norwich game).
If his role is as an impact sub then I personally am happy with that.