flashingqwerty

You honestly think whelan and houihane are equipped to win aerial duels in the centre of the park? If you truely believe that then you are as misguided as SB. Neither of those players at any point in their careers have consistently or overtly controled the game aerially. Its is not what they are good at and they are not equipped to compete in such a way. If you dont see that maybe you are SB in disguise? All you have done by making the aerial argumwnt is reinforce my argument that he is employing players incorrectly in roles that do not suit them.

If you put SB in charge of the Man City squad you would almost certainly start to see individual unforced errors. This is the precise result of players being told to perform roles that are not suited to them and not being properly coached in how to do those roles. Obviously it wouldnt happen to the same extent as Man City's players are a far higher calibre, but they certainly would not be playing fluidly and scoring for fun. Man City's players would also be quicker and more likely to rebel against his management and either force him out or just play there own way on the pitch. Our players are not good enough or experienced enough to do this. But i think you assertion that it wouldnt happen with better players is simply incorrect. Man United under Moyes for example.

Tro i fear you are arguing for arguments sake here. You have said yourself in the past that SB sets the team up defensively and with a negative mindset. Doesnt matter how good or bad a player is, if he is being told to play in a way that goes against his strengths then he is going to lose focus, make silly mistakes and look like a much lesser player. In matches where we have played positive football, and there have only been 2 or 3 in his time here, are attacking players made far less mistakes - funny that eh?

Poor first half. Was clear by half time that gameplan wasnt working. No idea why it wasnt changed at halftime. Fortunate to be on level terms by the time changes were made, but they were made far too late to have the required impact. Poor from Bruce and the players for me. Hope he starts 4-4-2 against Preston.

Dont know which game you were watching but both davis and kodjia were def playing up front. Id give you 6-2-2 but there is no way in hell we ever had 3 players across the middle

To add to the above, he even said before the game that 4-4-2 doesnt work against wolves. That makes his lack of early changes even more confusing and damning for me. Ok maybe he went 4-4-2 to appear more attacking despite his better judgement. But to watch us struggle and not change is a disgrace and to change only after cnceeding twice and the game having gone beyond salvage unforgivable for me. If it were a 1 off or a rare occurence then ok but this happens it more than half our matches.

Or the squads strengths Or the players available for selection Or the form of individuals Or any logical reasoning really

And whose job is it to ensure the team are prepared on matchday? There is no bandwagon here. Ive never supported SB and never will. He is a dreadful manager and does not represent how modern football is or should be played and he certainly does not represent what i want for avfc. I will continue to point out his failings, win lose or draw, until such time as those who have the power take positive action and move to implement this fabled'villa culture' they insist is being worked on but never seems to materialise.

Got to get rid of this pretender. Says before the match that 4-4-2 doesnt work against woles, so what does he do? Yep, plays 4-4-2... At half time every man and his dog could see it wasnt working, but does he do anything? Hell no... Then he waits until the game is safely beyond us before trying to change it?? And what fantastic changes... Take off the only man capable of holding up the ball and bring on a player who only runs and is so far out of form its comical. Replace our most creative player on the wing with a central midfielder when we are crying out for creativity??? Then the last change and the only one that actually made sense, replacing kodjia who was woeful with ohare who was great when he came on and changed to 5 in midfield! Too little too late you muppet!!!

Cant, wont and dont agree with most of this. The vast majority of the players we have signed have played, and looked good and comfortable, in a good footballing side. SB has not signed players that fir into his 'hit and hope' style, if he has a style, of football - as with so many of our previous managers we have square pegs in round holes over a large portion of the pitch. The man bought some of the top talent this division had to offer and is forcing them to play a rigid uninventive slogger type of football which goes against their natural instinct and goes againsts their strengths. We may get into the playoffs this season, though i doubt we will, but if we do we will net win promotion as we cant compete with the better teams in the league because the manager has half the players legs tied together.

Sorry TRO but i fear your footballing philosophy is as dated as SB's. The wide players were unable to get as far up the pitch as their back 3 because when we had the ball it was kept in our own half and passed sideways. For the wide men to recieve the ball they had to drop deep into our own half because noone was prepared to make the forward pass out wide. They've done it in previous matches and at previous clubs so the players are capable. For them to refuse to use the flanks consistently points to an instruction. SB today mentioned before the match that 4-4-2 doesnt work well against wolves, but he played 4-4-2. Then by halftime when even the blind man in the corner could see if wasnt working, he did nothing. He then left it too late when eventually making a change, and imo he made the wrong changes to impact the game. Complete fail from the manager today for me. And i think that most schoolboys could have predicted this and set us up better than sb did. God help us!

More seats aside the north stand is long overdue a redevelopment. It looks very tired and dated and its facilities are not as good as the rest of the ground. Id also say that the Doug Ellis is also not far from needing a face lift if not more. There are several areas around the the ground that would benefit from a sprucing up too!

I'm overjoyed,genuinely, that SB has seen the light and looks to have turned the corner. I do still worry what will happen when we lose a player to injury or suspension or when someone loses form will he revert to type? The reason this concerns me is his comment that he couldnt play 4-4-2 until kodjia was back. Thid baffles me as Davies and Hogan could be just as good imo. Anywho, a stay of execution for SB. Now lets go on a massive run and finish top, eh?

I dont see anything on the pitch that changes my opinion on SB We are still playing poorly and are scoring with either individual moments of brilliance or luck. For someone to suggest that we are 'in good form' on the pitch (by which i mean in team performance) is severely wide of the mark, and 2 wins with 4 draws does nothing for me to mask how bad we have performed as a unit.

I dont think we've played badly at all. Created some good chances and prob should be more than 1 up. Forest despite the posession have created little. Most of our time on the ball has come in the attacking 3rd which is always a positive. Whilst im not overly impressed, i am encouraged

general formation and style of play was the same despite the changed 11. SB pretty much changed everything

He fecked with the formation and made too many changes... there goes any confidence gained from barnsley...

Comparing raw numbers isnt any more even than comparing circumstance. If you look at any random 11 games versus any random 11 games that isnt fair just because its 11 games. SB has had far more than 11 games to prepare for this season so comparing his first 11 this season to RDMs first 11 with none prior is the epitomy of unfair. Thats why i say given the circumstanes surrounding SBs forst 11 this season and RDMs first 11 them SB should be expected to outperform RDM significantly. For me that means 19 pts from 11 games. Anything less and i believe we should cut him loose because he hasnt shown anything on or off the pitch to suggest he is capable of achieving anything here.

The only hypothetical that should lead to SB keeping his job is 4 wins on the trot. Thats the only one thats gets us close to where we should be to be a promotion challenger. Anything less then he has failed and should be removed to give the next man a chance to salvage this season.

Yeah but you missed the opening line where i say if he loses one. After losing one the best he could have is 16 and 14 is probably more likely. 10 vs 14 - yeah if both had started in similar circumstances and only been in charge for 11 games thats a big difference. Problem is SB has had nearly a year in charge, more resources to use and started with arguably a much better group of players than rdm did. With that context 4-6 points is not enough progress to think SB has achieved more than rdm and should keep his job. If he has anything short of 19 he should be sacked.

You're missing the very different circustances of their respective tenures. With 1 more loss the most SB could achieve would be 16 and my opinion is hes more likely to be on 14 after 11 games. Considering how much more time and resouces SB has had compared to RDM he should have us on 24-26 points.

In pure numbers yes he would need to lose all 3 but SB doesnt have a group of players who just got relegated after the worst season in the clubs history. Smilarly RDM didnt get 2 transfer windows, a full preseason and 30+ games before getting sacked. So given how much more time and money SB has had, even if he were on 15-19 points, i wouldnt feel he has progressed us anywhere near as far as he should have.

One more defeat this month for me makes SBs start to the season as bad as RDMs (because he has had 2 windows, a preseason and 40+ games to get it right) Should he lose another, i believe that should be the end of his tenure here. For comparison: RDM 10pts from 11 winning 1, drawing 7, losing 3. SB 10pts from 8 winning 2, drawing 4, losing 2 Considering the players signed and the amount of games hes had to get it right, SBs record isnt an awful lot better...

Steve Bruce for example...

not disagreeing about the result tonight, but the performance was a long way from convincing. I don't think there can be much argument anymore that we should be doing much better than we are given the talent at our disposal. I also think it is quite clear that the way we are set out does not suit the players at the club either. I also don't think it should take 40+ games for a manager as experienced as SB to realized that he isn't putting people in roles that best suit their skill set. He could and should have done more to address poor performances by now, and hasn't. Whether that is down to a lack of willingness to admit he is wrong, an inability to learn from his mistakes, or just blind stupidity is anyone's guess, but he is definitely still getting it wrong despite tonight's good result.