Maybe we just aren't good enough !!

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I wonder if your gaffer will go with both Gil and Grealish in the same team again, vs Watford?

As neither of them defend, it was clearly a mistake to play both of them away at Everton. (I would have just played Gil as Grealish is clearly out of form).

But at home to Watford who will dig deep.. Villa need to attack. So will he stick to playing both of them?

At least he should be clear that Westwood is not the same quality player that Sanchez is. So Westwood wont start.

Or is Garde going to be as confused and inconsistent as Sherwood was?

Be an interesting one for Villa.

It remains to be seen if we are good enough, but unfortunately so far you would have to say no.

My biggest worry is where are the goals coming from?

I know against Everton we conceded 4, but you can see the defence having games where they will play well and keep a clean sheet, but I wouldn't see any of our forwards scoring 10-12 goals this season.

The Watford game is huge and surely failure to win that shows not only that we may not be good enough, but perhaps more pertinent, we are not up for the fight.

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We're down let's face it, barring a miracle. 5 points from 13 is atrocious and we haven't even gone to Old Trafford, Etihad or Emirates yet, three of last season's top four.

We are clearly not good enough on the pitch. On paper? Well in midfield we have Gana and Veretout who were valued quite highly in France but were not pulling up trees, similar with Ayew who was not known for being prolific. Sanchez was a vital clog in Colombia's World Cup success but has never stood out at club level. Grealish is quite clearly talented but doesn't seem to have the desire to make it to the top level and has failed to live up to the hype of last season. Gil is technically brilliant but goes missing far too often, I do see a bit of David Silva in him funnily enough but Silva is a consistently world class player whereas Gil only has 20 minutes here or there where he looks good, which shows the difference in quality we are talking about here.

In defence Richards is still good but his best position is right back, where he's never played. Clark is too error prone. Okore has potential of course but is injury prone and never trusted to start games due to his dodgy legs. Richardson, Hutton, Bacuna are all bang average afraid to say. Lescott is quite clearly past it.

Up front Gestede is great in the air but immobile and relies on good crosses, which we don;t provide. Gabby was past it five years ago and never developed into the player we felt he could. Kozak is an unknown but most likely not good enough and his injury may have ruined his career.

So yeah there are a few decent players and on paper I can't see we're any worse, and quite possibly we're better, than the likes of Bournemouth, Norwich, West Brom, Sunderland, Newcastle and Watford. However, none of those teams have lost the spine of their team and signed practically a whole new team.

If we are going to stay up January will be a key month. Darren Bent saved us from the drop a few years ago when we gambled £18 million on his goals despite him clearly lacking in other areas - though it worked. However, he had service from Young, Downing, Albrighton (at that time good), Makoun and Petrov. We also had a young Kyle Walker bursting forward on every occasion. I suspect we need to sign several high profile players to make any kind of effort to stay up, yet it's highly unlikely many players would come to Villa in their predicament, even if Lerner was to massively loosen the purse strings and allow Garde a free hand with his cheque book.

Going back to MON, the actual players we had under him getting in the top six (Warnock, Dunne, Collins, Luke Young, Reo Coker) were hardly great. However, we had a hugely confident Ashley Young, a rampaging Gabby Agbonlahor who actually was a real threat at the time, Carew's physical presence and aerial ability, the perseverance and determination of Milner and Downing, and a very steady and consistent leader in Petrov who never hid even when we were under the cosh. Oh and Gareth Barry for a couple of seasons who was basically op quality and led the team. Basically, a few decent players got us into the top six three seasons running, though Dunne was exceptional in 09/10 and played out of his skin for a year. But squad wise, I would actually say we have more options now than under MON, it's just we don't have key players in key positions creating chances, scoring goals, protecting the defence and so on. And when the likes of Stoke and Swansea are signing players like Xerdan Shaqiri and Andre Ayew you know the league has got far more competitive.

Think you're right about those key players. The one mitigating fact is that quite a few other teams don't have those sort of key players either. Norwich strike me as more or less the same as when they were relegated. They've useful players like Redmond and Houlihan, but they're not at that level.

It's also about having a balance. We were still OK when Barry left; he was a cracking good player but the underlying balance of the team survived. But when Carew went downhill we lacked that force up front; Gabby was fine with Carew around, but couldn't do it on his own. Bent saved our bacon, even though he and Gabby didn't seem to hit it off.

In defence I think Clark needs a run; I think he can cut down on his errors, and half of them are due to having a prat like Richardson on his left. I reckon that the team that played against MC had a balance, but we need the attack sorting out (and someone who can fill for Amavi); we have possibilities, Remi has to work out which.

Grealish is training with the reserves. Dead right. With Remi and Duverne cracking the whip maybe the days of easy rides will finally be banished.

Not sure about Lescott being past it.

Yes he has been rubbish for Villa. But that was under Sherwood who asked him to run about. Under Pulis, for the Baggies last season, he never had to move. Maybe if Garde stuck him in between Okore and Clark and told him to stay put, he'd do a good job.

With Richards on one side of that three and Amavi Mark 2 on the other - with both having the freedom to get forward - Villa could be well solid at the back and still get men forward.

OTOH maybe Lescott just is past it...

Lescott is past it. If Okore and Kozak are fit I would go with this team against Watford:

Guzan
Hutton Richards Okore Clark
Sanchez
Veretout Gana
Gil
Ayew Kozak

Subs: Bunn, Sinclair, Gestede, Bacuna, Lescott (sadly no alternative), Gardner, Traore.

If Okore is not fit then Clark would have to switch to centre back and Lescott would be at left back where he has played before. If not Kozak, then Sinclair up front.

Not bad, but I cant see any width for you in that line-up.

I'd give the following a few games...

Guzan
Richards Clark Lescott* Okore "Amavi-the-2nd"
Sanchez
Veretout Gana
Ayew Kozak

And I'd tell Richards and "Amavi-the-2nd" to work their backsides off getting to both ends of the pitch.

*Or if he really is past it, Ilori. Isnt he a CB too? I dont know your squad well enough.