Gallowgate Toon

Villa have lost more matches than us. They were very beatable under Smith.

Think we need to stick to 4-3-3 for this one to protect the centre and adopt the ol' tactics we had against Man U.

So you'd have wanted Keegan booted out after his first 10 games into his second spell then?

I don't agree with that statement either. I think we'll stay up, personally, but it'll be tight. I just find the 10 games thing a bit OTT to make big judgments, personally. It's not a long time in football and form/performances can be extremely variable for many reasons. Very good teams/managers go through rough spells (not saying we have either).

Leeds have been pretty tragic for a lot of the season though, according to my mate. It's only been the last few games where they've picked up some form and look properly like their old selves again.

The 13th last year thing isn't really a good yardstick, imo. We were in horrific form until supa sub came along, and the teams that were around us then have invested. I'd say our squad is probably about 17th best in the league now but not exactly by a strong margin.

Not too worried about Lingard's motivation in the short term because he'll be trying to get into the WC squad.

Trippier pulling strings. If we can get this done tomorrow (not in time for Leeds cut off) then that's a nice shot of positivity for the weekend, at least, rather than the current limbo.

Going to be a fascinating but probably mind-numbing 10 days. Feels like we've had a couple of really public pursuits which have very clearly broken down because of money; perhaps that was part of the intention... I guess we're really going to see what the consortium are made of over the next 10 days. This is the time where both buyers & sellers get jumpier and deals get done - I think we're going to end up spending but I'm not sure about the quality.

I think we'll grab another draw, tbh, if we play on the counter. Leeds ship almost as many goals as we do but have a more dynamic, athletic attack. Doesn't Wood have a good record against his former teams? He could be an interesting outball for us in a game where I expect us to be more pegged back.

I was going to say that based on me very bog standard Spanish that his quote isn't that damning, but the Tweet about the club considering pulling out doesn't sound very good at all.

They might as well make the January transfer window a week long, tbh. Would save everyone a load of annoying faff.

Lingard would replace Fraser or, dare I say it, ASM, surely? Even if we move to 3-4-3 he'll pick up one of the wing spots.

Hang on... You rate Potter but slate Howe? Potter's win %age in the league is less than Howe's I like Potter, btw, and would've had him here no problem.

If they pull this one off then it'll be pretty impressive, like. Really surprised he wants this although he seems a bit of a mentalist - maybe he's confident that he can do a good job for us and still get another move in the summer if we go down.

I would try him in the midfield 3, like, particularly if we're playing Wood who will occupy defenders in the box.

Kayembe has played one game and may turn out to be absolute shite. Playing well against us isn't really a high bar. Granted, point still stands that we don't need superstars right now. There are plenty of good players out there.

I doubt Vickery will watch him with any regularity. If Sevilla fans are saying he's class then that's the best opinion we can get, imo.

What's defined as an 'error'?

Carlos feels far too good to be true We need to start quickly moving to the middle selections of our targets. While signing the likes of Carlos would probably be absolutely amazing and a good longer-term investment, there's still value in getting players who are good for the situation we're in and can be squad players for the medium/long-term. Have a sinking feeling that we're waiting for things to go mental in the last week of the window and try our luck again, which will probably then lead to some panic buying.

That is a very, very small sample size. I love the idea that coaching is this thing you just flick on and everything is better. Did Rafa teach us nothing? His whole philosophy was about building up everything and that took time. Eddie Howe finished 9th with this squad. He clearly has something as a coach.

I do think Howe is trying to cover weaknesses but keep some form of foundation. I imagine Brentford is how he wants us to play but he quickly saw we couldn't handle that style defensively and has tried to shore up the space between defence and midfield since. To me, that explains his bigger focus on trying to get defensive players in this window so he can reset the shape. I think we do try and counter in a different way to before, with higher pressing and retrieving the ball in the middle of the pitch to get in on goal. Before, we sat right back and would basically run the length of the pitch to get a chance. Joelinton has been amazing at being the guy who wins the ball and gets us on the turn. But what we don't see is commitment in attack when we build play. It feels cautious and like we're waiting for someone to break shape.

For parity, Benitez also went on some pretty terrible runs of results - it can take a while to figure things out and let coaching come through. Ultimately, we need quality through the door.

He really does lack a lot of fundamentals to this game, like. He's not at all unpredictable - you know what he's going to do and he's very talented at that one thing which gets him out of trouble quite a bit. But he has no idea about movement, his passing is 'OK', his crossing technique is poor, shooting can be wayward. He's levels away from HBA in many facets. It felt like he got in the way on a few occasions yesterday but the goal was fantastic. Howe's wingers at Bournemouth were system-focused, from memory. Agile and quick but looked to beat a man and get early crosses in etc. Someone with Robert's attacking game would be perfect.

Howe really did do a good PL job at Bournemouth for a while, like. Look at the squad he got promoted with and was the core for his first two seasons - so many absolute regens. Dan Gosling was a starter in their midfield ffs.