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Chelm Canary

Can we stay up?

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Brentford are a side we need to try and finish above, and that win yesterday puts them a healthy 7 points ahead of us. 

I know it's only late November, but tomorrow night for me is very a much must not lose. 

Edited by Creedence Clearwater Couto

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We will become defensively solid when Hanley stops being accident prone and stops making stupid mistakes.  One howler against Saints saved by Tim and another against Wolves again saved  by Tim.  Errors that could be easily rectified. 

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2 hours ago, VillaFan said:

In 3 years of watching Villa under Dean Smith, I don't believe I have ever seen a Villa team he has put out not go to try and win the game

@Petriix and this from VillaFan (thanks) is exactly why I think we’ll get a few “shock” results along the way. I appreciate you’re wearing your ‘realist’ hat but the Premier League isn’t realist and you just never know especially if we go out to win as pointed out above. Under Farke, much like Hughton, things had become about damage limitation and the shackles were on. My feeling is Smith knows we’ve got s0d all to lose so may as well go out there with no fear. Tuesday has ACN written all over it but like we’ve seen, when we’ve been on the front foot we’re a match for most. 

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6 minutes ago, Danke bitte said:

@Petriix and this from VillaFan (thanks) is exactly why I think we’ll get a few “shock” results along the way. I appreciate you’re wearing your ‘realist’ hat but the Premier League isn’t realist and you just never know especially if we go out to win as pointed out above. Under Farke, much like Hughton, things had become about damage limitation and the shackles were on. My feeling is Smith knows we’ve got s0d all to lose so may as well go out there with no fear. Tuesday has ACN written all over it but like we’ve seen, when we’ve been on the front foot we’re a match for most. 

I hope you're right. There's nothing to stop us, apart from the wonderful stat about us having scored from the lowest proportion of our shots (under 6%) of all Premier League teams.

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25 minutes ago, Petriix said:

I hope you're right. There's nothing to stop us, apart from the wonderful stat about us having scored from the lowest proportion of our shots (under 6%) of all Premier League teams.

I’m not saying we can survive but I think we’ll get some shock results along the way. I think we left replacing Farke a little too late. But going down swinging is better than going down belly flopping. 😊

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We'll score a few, given the number of bodies we had in their box on Saturday it'd be impossible to continue to miss that number of chances. Just need a better quality of cross coming in from the wings, and a fraction of a second better reaction from those receiving the through balls. 

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Can we stay up? Yes. Do I think that we will stay up? No.

I think that we will put up a brave fight, get a few results but ultimately still get relegated.

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2 hours ago, Danke bitte said:

@Petriix and this from VillaFan (thanks) is exactly why I think we’ll get a few “shock” results along the way. I appreciate you’re wearing your ‘realist’ hat but the Premier League isn’t realist and you just never know especially if we go out to win as pointed out above. Under Farke, much like Hughton, things had become about damage limitation and the shackles were on. My feeling is Smith knows we’ve got s0d all to lose so may as well go out there with no fear. Tuesday has ACN written all over it but like we’ve seen, when we’ve been on the front foot we’re a match for most. 

To add to that. Last season, we (Villa) won 16 and lost 15 games. Many Villa fans moaned about how few draws we got and if we could convert some losses to draws we may have finished top 7. But, because Smith always goes for the win we won some games we probably would have lost or drew, had we played with negative tactics. Yes, NCFC will lose a lot of your remaining games this season but I think u will also win more than you would have under Farke. And with the points return you had from the first 10 games you really need to be getting wins whenever possible.Sacrificing a few draws for a few wins could mean the difference between Championship football and PL football next season. My own personal view is that trying to win and pressing is much more entertaining football and even if u don't get the win, at least you watched a game of football where your team tried to play.

Edited by VillaFan
Fixed a typo
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I'm still skeptical really, we played really well against Wolves but lets not forget we were the home team and failed to score.

Our lack of firepower I feel will be our downfall.

That seems to be the biggest failure of our summer transfer business, the failure to bring in Pukki competition or goals from midfield.

We rely entirely on him being on form or having his shooting boots on, I can see that Sargent has a bit to offer as a deeper or wide player but he's clearly not a centre forward.... Idah is well off the required level and will go and need a full season of football somewhere as a starting point.

I'm even beginning to wonder whether it might be a good idea to recall Drmic in January if its possible. 

Edited by TeemuVanBasten

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I tend to look at keeping up with a points target as we progress. Rather like 2 points per games to gain promotion, survival is basically 1 point per game.  
If we can beat Newcastle that’s 12 points from 14 games and given we have played some of the tougher teams, and perhaps with a lack of belief, which now looks improved, that’s ok.  
But I’ve got that nasty feeling about the Newcastle game and 9 from 14 starts to make me feel it’s too much to catch up.  But as others have said, I feel we are in with a shout, whereas I had us doomed previously! 

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All my own thoughts have been expressed already. Like several above, I have had some hope rekindled but ultimately I fear it is a little too late. We've already lost too many of the games we would have aimed to get points from, we've lost too much ground on our relegation rivals and I just don't think there are enough goals in the side. I have no doubt we will score more goals over the next 13 games than we did over the previous 13 and I am sure we will win more than two of them too, but over the piece I don't see it being quite enough. However, I no longer fear we will go down with the lowest ever points tally and I do think we can take it close to the end of the season to maintain excitement throughout the campaign when last time around we all just willed for the misery to end early. 

However, I am really enjoying watching my team again. I no longer fear every opposition counter attack is going to result in a goal and it's great to see so much more of the play in the opposition's half. If we do go down it is clearly going to be fighting and it feels like we have some pride back. It's still really early days and we could still just be witnessing the fabled New Manager Bounce that can be punctured at any time. If we can keep on improving and if we can find some goals from midfield after the defence has been stabilised and the fighting spirit restored, we could well make it. My fear about the ultimate conclusion is more of a gut feeling and a cautious personality than anything and two or three more decent performances and results could yet convince me that survival is on.

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Hey all. Feeling much more optimistic since Brentford and Smith is clearly having a positive effect. Until recently I'd see us concede the first goal and automatically I was resigned to 'Game Over'. Now I feel they are fighting better, I witnessed real belief in the team over the last 2 games and with that we have a slim chance of closing the gap and just maybe, maybe pulling safe by the end of the season.

Grant seems to have an error in him every game but defensively we are improving. If Pukki can keep up this level of industry his finishing will return. Keeping Pukki sharp and well served will be key. You tend, on average, to gain 1pt per goal in the Premier league over a season. Newcastle will be a 90 minute brawl, I'd be happy with a point!! OTBC 

 

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We will see some performances now and already have under Dean Smith.

I may have been a little spirited yesterday evening creating this thread, but it's going to be interesting

There isn't going to be a repeat of last time around in this league I doubt. I ask for no more than being competitive like we are now but I do want more.

We will see. Tomorrow is huge. 

Edited by Chelm Canary

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I’d love to think we can stay up but realistically we have to win tomorrow night and it’s got ‘along came Norwich’ written all over it.

win tomorrow and I will really start to believe we can mount a challenge to remain 

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1 hour ago, Big O said:

I’d love to think we can stay up but realistically we have to win tomorrow night and it’s got ‘along came Norwich’ written all over it.

win tomorrow and I will really start to believe we can mount a challenge to remain 

We can win tomorrow. 

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yes we can 


NCFC needs a ruthless striker. Do we need to hire some of our great ex NCFC' strikers to coach our current striker's? Cause at the moment, NCFC isn't scoring goals. NCFC could've won the last several games if NCFC had an in-form striker with confidence. You'll get confidence by scoring goals, and being coached by some of the best in the business to learn their tricks of the trade will give the striker the confidence to score the much-needed goals and points to survive.

Practice taking thousands of long throws at the training ground. So when NCFC is awarded a throw-in in an area near the corner flag on match day, our player can lob the ball as far as possible towards the opposition goal, just like a corner but more accurate and use it as a killer set-piece. (try different scenarios to score goals)

I'm surprised Dean Smith didn't do this; If the game isn't going to plan, switch the players and make subs. How many substitutes have scored this season and changed the game and won? Of course, it could go the other way, but it's worth a go. Be brave.

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