villianusa

Bruces seems to have his tactics working well.

We know Whelan can perform consistently well, Bacuna had one good run before his long suspension. Lansbury and Whelan should play together and someone else further up.

The first half was a very good performance and on another day we could have been 2 or 3 goals up. The forwards need to start taking more of their chances as opponents are always going to get a chance or two and they normally score them. Didn't get to see the second half but it seems it may have been a little like last year. Bruce needs to get it sorted very, very, quickly, or it will be the owner who will be wanting him out and not just a minority of the fans.

Thank you for pointing that out.

Bacuna is a bit of a surprise, but the manager has given him the nod. Let's get behind them all and pray Bruce is right.

Thor replaces Green.

Stream anyone? *Found it

Maybe if they give us a hour break in between halves, we'll be okay?

He played well today and was tracking back when he was playing out wide. I was glad he was giving them a little bit back, dirty f%#$ers!

I'm pretty sure that's a life - size Barry Bannan emerging from that trophy! Oh, wait! :))

Kaka climbing out of the trophy, I had wondered where he had gone.

Because we scored a few goals?

I would think left as McKirdy is a forward.

Richards can do the running because he can't do much else.

Someone said was this on stream, "Steer, "bree, richards, samba, amavi, bjarnason, whelan, lansbury, grealish, mccurdy, gabby" Not sure if it is 100%

I thought it was O'Hare (17), who played the more defensive role alongside Hourihane and Haynes (29), who played the #10 role. Either way, they both played really well. Hayes, the new Bannan? Too soon?

Finally got a chance to sit down and watch the first half of the game. I will watch the 2nd half tomorrow. Not knowing what Bruce wanted the team to work on during the game, I thought the balance with the 4141 was pretty good. The team defended very well as a unit and only saw a couple of times when players were out of position. Hansbury was caught out a couple of times when he pushed on too quickly and too close to players without much of a chance of getting the ball. The ball was moved quickly around him and that is where Walsall's chance came from. If Bruce wanted them to focus on defending as a team, then I think the team succeeded. On the attacking side of things, I felt Gabby held the ball up well and brought players into the game. The balls from out wide weren't the best but I think if some of the chances hadn't of fallen to someone who had been out for nearly a season, and a few games back into his recovery we may have scored. Green, even though he can be exciting, he needs to learn when to release the ball. He took some good positions but when he received the ball, he was too slow to release the ball or picked the wrong pass. He needs more time and I look forward to his future. I would like to see the crosses delivered into the box a little bit quicker and not allow teams to get back into position. It was good to see center mids making moves into the box and the lone forward not being isolated. There was good delivery from corners, and I think we will score some goals this season from them if he can keep it up. I believe the ref got the call wrong on Terry's goal. Samba was being held around the waist and it seems the ref called it on him. I would like to see us pull defenses further up the field at times and feed balls in behind them and get them on the back foot. We play a lot in front of them and give them too much time to get set. Yes, there we sloppy passes, some confusion, but when you are learning something new then there are going to be mistakes but certainly some positives along with the negatives. Onto the second half.

451? or is Green playing up top? I like Amavi as a left winger with Taylor behind him.

I see what you did there!

If it is a valid attempt to win the ball. He would have done better to slide in and try and take the ball. May have given a pen but would probably only been a yellow. Either way, he didn't impede the shot, he had already missed before he pulled him back.

I guess you can slide in and take someone's legs inside the box and it isn't a penalty these days.

Game plan worked to perfection!

Gabby showing Grealish how to be a true legend!

Showing over the last couple of games we can be competitive against teams higher than us in the league even when we are injured prone. I'm looking forward to the remainder of the games and not dreading a loss at every game. We should be a force after a full preseason together.

Since Bruce took over we have beat Reading, Fulham, Blackburn, Cardiff, QPR, Burton, Derby, Bristol City, Rotherham and tied Blues, Brighton and Leeds when all four have started. So you could be right!