Dr Gloom

the sooner we all accept the fact that smith is garbage in midfield the better

not really. more a case of the current midfield three creating jack shit all season. i'd like to see at least one player in the centre of the park that can pass the ball forward.

he should start ahead of smith or butt

annoying. mostly due to the brass band and the number of total dickheads in the crowd.

what a dick

is there any appetite for an article on the failings of alan smith?

gut to be gutted if you're a Villa fan blowing a 3 goal lead with half an hour on the clock

i'd line them up like this personally --------------------------given beye------cacapa (taylor)-------rozenhal-------enrique milner--------geremi--------------emre----------n'zogbia ---------------viduka-------------martins bench harper taylor smith butt

It would have been a pretty spectacular save if he'd got there. hard to blame Given. It was just a class free kick.

great. i look forward to another month of the dynamic midfield triplet of smith, butt and geremi

Taylor was crap against city

is Remy an attacking midfielder?

If Smith wasn't purchased we could have used the £6m on a player we actually needed. As regard to N'Zogbia, it seems Sam prefers him as a left back over the £6M paniard adn would rather go with 3 cloggers in midfield instead of lining up with width. The Sky pundits were spot on yesterday - if you play 4-3-3, you need one of your 3 central midfielders to support the front man. I imagined Smith might do that job but so far none of them are doing it

I always fancied Sven over big Sam. Wouldn't surprise me at all if City finish above us.

in fts and starts. one thing, he hasn't been as consistently rubbish and at least offers something in terms of creativity, unlike our current midfield cloggers Really? Really. A midfield of him and Butt performed better than anything else we've put out there since 2004/05. I wonder how long Allardyce can continue with the negative midfield of Smith, Butt and Geremi? Occasionally. Ok, even I think that Emre is on paper the normally better midfield player. I also don't rate Smith very much and said so in the past. I also would play Emre ahead of Smith in central Midfield (as on the wing Emre has been totally shite himself). But I do think that a lot of performances of Emre in the past were of the very same standard of what Smith is producing at the moment. Late tacklings, yellow cards and loads of misplaced passes with hardly any positive contribution to the game. Hopefully Barton is fit next week and we see neither in the first team. True but at least he occasionally offers something going forward, unlike Smith, Geremi and Butt

in fts and starts. one thing, he hasn't been as consistently rubbish and at least offers something in terms of creativity, unlike our current midfield cloggers Really? Yes. I remember him having the odd good game for us. Smith is yet to have one

in fts and starts. one thing, he hasn't been as consistently rubbish and at least offers something in terms of creativity, unlike our current midfield cloggers

Because it's annoying. get a grip matt

Smith was awful, again. Geremi was worse. Milner tried but was generally poor. Viduka started well but looked like he lost the fight/bottle when their second went in. Complete no show from him second half. N'Zogbia was wasted at left back. When is sam going to start starting enrique and move zog up to his proper position? Oba looked lively again. He should start along viduka next game instead of out wide.

because i'm lazy. why do you care? and, no.

Surely he should start ahead of one of smith, Geremi or Butt? we threatened at times today but it was mostly down the flanks. There was NO creativity or forward runs from central midfield. If we're going to continue with a 4-3-3, one of those 3 has to be dropped for the next game to make way for Emre or eventually barton. If we move to a 4-4-2, Zoggy should start at left wing and Enrique in at left back with Smith on the bench where he belongs.

dunno if i'd be happy with 12th like

he's no worse than Robinson and James

he had three glorious chances. the first one was well saved by the keeper. the second one he ballooned over the bar when well set. the third one was probably the worst miss. he rounded the keeper then hit a really tame shot into an open goal, the lack of pace on the shot allowing sendaros to get back and clear off the line. overall though i thought he was our biggest attackign threat. shame he didn't have anyone alongside him until the last 5 minutes of the game. leading the line and winning long balls in the air isn't his strong point...

got to agree to disagree then. on this season's evidence i haven't seen anything to convince me that he can do a good enough job in midfield I was agreeing with you man!