Richard

Two subs at one time? 

I hate football

Suspect team selection

Woeful decision to pick him

Just now, Demitri_C said:

Cissokho  you absolute tossedtossed

Shouldn't have been picked

Shocking line up to beat the very last optimistic feeling from me , thanks 

1 minute ago, bradarmstrong_ said:

Cissohko over Amavi

Jedinak over Tsihbola 

Adomah over Ayew

 

Yep not inspiring at all

Seeing that line up gives me the same feeling I used to have seeing the Eric black line ups . I hope the result is better 

Not at all keen on the line up 

There is absolutely no chance , IMO, of this team finishing in the play off places.

However,  on saying that , if we did do the monumental turn around in form it would take all season to make it happen would make us the form side in the top 6 and no one would want to play us in the play off games

24 minutes ago, Ikantcpell said:

£10M per fan please

1 hour ago, AvfcRigo82 said:

Not necessarily.. We could be 4-1 up with 8 minutes to go and Petrov comes on for TShibola for a cameo role.  

couple of issues.  4-1 up with 8 minutes to go,  i'd still be glad of a draw. secondly if we are 4-1 up then why do we need him? the whole argument is that his influence in the middle could be invaluable I'd argue if we actually managed to score 4 then the midfield wouldnt be performing badly

31 minutes ago, markavfc40 said:

That is about as relevant as me saying I think we will win 2 or 3 nil tonight and 4 points from two games will be a fantastic manager bounce especially as I think we are going to win by 3 or 4 on Saturday. These boards are hard enough reading without reading posts writing off a new manager bounce after one game and playing mystic Meg.

As for Warnock at Cardiff he got a win on Friday but I don’t have a clue if they deserved it or completely rode their luck. I don’t know if he also inherited a squad that are unfit and rock bottom on confidence or if he inherited other issues or more issues. I certainly see no gain from using him as a yardstick without that information.

Bruce has been our manager for 5 days. Had three training sessions with most of the players only two with some who returned from international duty on Friday. Secured one point from his first game. After tonight he will have either 4 points from 2 games, 2 points or 1. Maybe after the game tonight or the one on Saturday is the best time to talk about if we had a new manager bounce because as things stand to predict that we have or haven’t is crystal ball bullshit guess work.

First of all Mark,  clearly I did not write him off.  The point which said " while I am not knocking Bruce at all as I think the job is very hard, he has only had a few days with them and circumstances are different " sort of says that.

On the crystal ball/ prediction stuff,  let's close the site down for a few months shall we then until he has had ten games or so? Or until January has been and gone? Site is all about opinions and predictions and you are right some are incredibly hard to read,  but read them we still do and contribute as well,  because strangely this is Villa and we are all interested in Villa and talking abut, well Villa. Good ,  bad and ugly.

I think we will lose tonight and quite easily 2-0 or 3-0.  That is hardly the manager bounce we wanted and while I am not knocking Bruce at all as I think the job is very hard, he has only had a few days with them and circumstances are different but Cardiff had lost 6 of their last 7 ,  new manager won on Saturday.  You're not telling me Warnock is a better manager or they have less issues than us or a better squad than us?

And yes their win may be temporary but what would we all give for three points and a win right now.

10 minutes ago, AvfcRigo82 said:

He would be more than just a player though 89'   The presence he would bring, the lift, to train with etc. A voice on the sidelines.  I think you may be surprised what he could still offer - Not just on the pitch basis..

In fairness isnt that what a manager and his team are supposed to do.  IMO we need less complexity from the sidelines and more influence on the pitch.  Stan Petrov, as much as I respect and admire the man and thought he was decent when he played for us,  is not able to influence anything on the pitch.  Having one more passenger in the team will not help the 10 or 11 that are already passengers

I thought it was just me but when i watch other games (which I dont do often as 1. It's not Villa so I'm not interested and 2. It makes me feel worse about Villa because...) the players seem so much more confident , whichever the team is,  seem so much more able,  fitter,  more skillful,  more aware of a plan and formation it just makes us look like a bunch of amateurs playing a game and getting lucky not losing!

I feel a little bit sorry for Bruce.  Not being funny,  i never wanted him from the start but the club had two weeks to appoint him,  he was free and available and he wanted the club. Two weeks and you are not telling me they hadn't discussed what if scenarios while RDM was still here, they would have been mad not to.

Two weeks and they appointed him two days before a match.

This weekend in the immediate aftermath of watching Wolves play at Villa park, I was all for us going to get two or three out of contract types,  Muntari,  Essien, Reo Coker are all available.  But then I've thought about it and frankly they are all available for one reason. In addition not knowing anything about their fitness levels and seeing as this is an issue for those we have it may take them two months to get match ready by which time we can buy someone better, and make them crap.  So what's the point. ? On saying that I would not argue if he got one or two and gave them 6 month contracts.  Essien has to be worth a punt but would he just be Jedinak mark two.

Midfield is just a complete mess in reality and bereft of options.

Play one? which one ? and that gives 5 at the back and 4 up front or the other way around. That isn't a workable option

Play two ? which two? we have played two most of the season and it doesn't work the quality is just not there for us to play two and get away with it.  Tshibola looks ok when fit,  westwood is to blame for everything,  gardner isn't far behind him, jedinak is "taking time to settle seeing as he's australian" and Lyden god knows where he is his paper round must clash with game time or something

play three ? similar as for two which three? we hardly have one decent let alone three.  in addition this gives no width,  not that we have any wide players anyway to make use of unless we pick adomah and that gives no balance at all as we have no left winger

play four? do we actually have four midfielders to play in four different positions? doubtful. Especially in terms of having no balance at all.  then we can't accommodate all the 475 striking options we have.

Midfield needs sorting absolutely no argument but it needs sorting after figuring out which forward options are the best for us and how to get the best out of them.  personally I'd play Gestede and Kodjia up front with Ayew in a withdrawn role behind them.  That then means we need three in midfield as personally I do not like the 3 or 5 at the back option.  I'd always go for four at the back so 4-3-1-2.  And I'm doing this to basically accommodate Ayew who I still believe would tear this league a new one if used properly in a floating role as Bruce tried to use Grealish on Saturday. 

So in this formation we need three central midfielders,  a left leaning one,  a central one and a right leaning one and they have to be able to be box to box.  For me tshibola is capable but needs two alongside him. We do not have these two.  Having three central midfielders gives no width but if we have full backs able to push on then they can when they have the ball.  Bacuna and Amavi can do that role and with three in the centre able to help the defence it would not leave us exposed.

So for me at the moment I'd go

--------------------------Gollini

Bacuna-----Chester-------Baker--------Amavi

-----Westwood----Tshibola--------Lyden

----------------------Ayew

----------kodjia----------------------Gestede

Bench- mccormack, grealish,  adomah,  jedinak, Hutton, cissokho, Bunn

and replace westwood and Lyden with better options in january

And I am a traditional 4-4-2 bloke ,  two central midfielders and two wide men but we have no width so I'd also get a left winger in January too.

We basically have to play a formation to get the most out of what we have while he tries to implement his own style .

On 16/10/2016 at 09:58, dont_do_it_doug. said:

 based on one ropey performance is a bit sad really. 

I agree.  For me it is more than one though. 

1 minute ago, Johnnyp said:

We've recruited poor players over the last 4-5 years. The way i see it anyway.

But how and why? We have had various systems: manager responsible, committee responsible,  manager and ceo .  we have tried various methods and it isnt rocket science especially when other teams manage to do it so why?

3 minutes ago, TRO said:

will, desire, endeavour, persistence, bravery, concentration, robustness, durability, conciseness,clarity,passion

in other words professionalism

I have seen , and agree to an extent,  the argument about fitness.  but these are highly paid PROFESSIONAL sportsmen.  You would think keeping fit is something they would want to do,  would look to do and if they know they aren't fit would be raising hell about.

--------------------Gollini 

bacuna-----Chester-------baker-------Amavi 

-----tshibola ------jedinak ---------lyden

------------------Ayew 

--------kodjia ----------------gestede 

6 minutes ago, VillaCas said:

Nice try, but you need to re-read it. That's not what I said. The point was around Bruce's strengths in the short term v long term. Bruce was originally touted as a short term answer to our situation - now people are saying it will take time and we need patience. I think that is true but support the point that if it is a long term job then Bruce has shown little evidence that he has that in his toolbag. The squad he left behind at Hull is a small pointer to this short term v long term thinking. If Hull had scored 17 in their last four and won 6-1 I would have been happy to accept that that shed some positive light on Bruce's team building abilities. As they lost 6-1 and have conceded 17 in 4 I think it fails to support the thinking.

So no, not blaming him but in the way that Pearson was given lots of credit for the supposed foundation that lead to Leicester success, Bruce must accept a proportion of the responsibility for how Hull perform this season. I'd imagine if Hull were top of the league you'd be pointing to that as evidence of Bruce's past abilities- it's got to work both ways 

For the record, Bruce has pretty much free rein from me until he gets a few new faces in January (although I expect to see a change in attitude very soon)

Yes it works both ways, just like people blaming RDM for our situation and saying Bruce is absolved from blame.

Correct, see now we are getting there!