Harry

Cracks and paper

 Based on watching this shite I give Bruce two more games. Text book demonstration by Bruce of  not knowing how to change a game or for that matter having a Plan B.

I feel a hiding like this has been coming for a while. Our performances have been getting worse each game from a pretty low starting point. I fully expect it to be 5 or 6 nil at the end.

Signing the like of Abraham makes naff all difference if we are shipping goals this way. Not signing a CB early I the window was a cataclysmic error on Bruce’s part that will cost him his job in due course. 

On 29/08/2018 at 09:16, Stevo985 said:

He's not a good player.

We’ll see.

Crazy to let a good player go just because he has been poorly coached at Villa. This is all down to Bruce. A better manager will get more out of Hogan and the squad in general. Sadly we have a growing back story of players deemed not good enough for Villa who turn out to be really quite good for other sides.

*Tin hat on* but the criticism some players get from the fans is beyond the pale.

2 minutes ago, Zatman said:

I cant be the only one happy he missed, pointless us being in the competition 

Hmmm...

13 minutes ago, HeyAnty said:

Who gives a **** about Moxley and the rest of his mates.  All i give a care about is getting out of this league, not what the rag journalists say.

Agreed, the likes of a James Nursey are creaming their jeans at the prospect of publishing another anti Villa story.

Got to go (sadly). I’m not a fan of sacking managers on a whim but the direction of travel is all wrong. Bruce will grind out some results for sure but given the squad he has we should be top three. We should have buried the sides we played in the last three games but what we are is a team shot of confidence and going backwards.

Just now, jim said:

Not Bruce’s fault Albert missed a penalty.

We don’t need the distraction of the cup, we can concentrate on the league now.

Sorry I can’t agree with that. I don’t give a whatever about this competition but is all about confidence and the direction of travel. We have a good squad who are very poorly managed and coached. Sadly we are going backwards.

Shambolic mess. Bruce really does not have a clue.

On 22/08/2018 at 22:59, OutByEaster? said:

Strange again, lots of promising stuff, some less so.

I should start with a couple of apologies - Jonathon Kodjia is not dead. He looked stronger, livelier and a threat, it was his best performance in a long time. He's very much alive and deserved a couple of goals. Axel Tuanzebe - sorry Sir. This was easily Axel's best performance in a Villa shirt, particularly in the first half where he defended very well, used the ball intelligently and got forward, showing that he's got a very decent cross on him. I've upgraded him to youthfully inconsistent - a few more performances like this will get him upgraded again.

The concerns for me were in a couple of areas - we still look a little shaky at the back - we got away with Jedinak's undercooked header to the keeper today, but he seems to have one in him every game - which is a shame as he was otherwise excellent - indeed the defence looked much more solid - except for when they didn't - we have an 85 minute defence in a ninety minute game.

We fell off a cliff on about 65 minutes - whether that's fitness or mental tiredness or a lack of depth I don't know - but the legs went just after an hour - we need to find a way to fix that - that's a big worry.

Our wide men are also a little concern - Elmohamady is sort of competent without ever being a threat down one side - he's never going to try to take someone on or go on a Hutton-esque galavant - he's far too risk averse for that - he instead plays a sort of sensible wide midfield role and hopes someone else will come and get the ball off him. On the other side, Adomah is all out of form, his timing is a little off and he's struggling to make anything happen - Green if anything is worse, the snap has gone out of his game and he doesn't seem to have the edge he'll need to succeed - confidence will go a long way with both, but they aren't at the races at the moment.

That said, for 65 minutes we played the best football we've played all season - we moved the ball well, we moved off the ball well, we held it up, we took people on - Brentford are a football side but we completely out footballed them - this was not the Bruce-ball of legend. I thought we were excellent for much of that period. For the first twenty minutes of the second half in particular we were utterly dominant and should have put the game to bed... and then we spluttered and there only looked like one winner.

For them Maupay was a handful and a horrible little shit. Their first goal was both well worked and well finished and he showed good opportunism for the second. However, he seems to think he's big enough to celebrate in front of the Holte End and have a bit of a go and he also thinks he can fight fully grown men - for that and being a whopper in general I hope he's got very brittle hamstrings. I didn't see the stamp he's supposed to have made on McGinn and I'm unsurprised that the referee didn't either - he 's away with the fairies is Jon Moss - today was one of his better performances - I thought he was awful.

We have the talent to pull a goal out of anywhere though and we deserved an equaliser - it was a game we deserved to win handsomely for a bit and then a game we deserved a little luck in. I thought overall we were the better side 

What's most promising for me was the football we were able to play despite areas of weakness - McGinn and Grealish are the best attacking midfield in the Championship - and what's more, they compliment each other very well. Bruce has them rooming together on away trips and tonight I think we saw the start of an understanding that will suit us very well. They each create space for the other. I also think Whelan is a good sensible foil for their wit going forward. It's a very promising midfield.

What's really exciting is what we could become this season - If El Ghazi or Bolasie arrive with any form, we will be something of a force going forward. We looked like we could be today with wingers in no form at all - if one of those two arrives and is a real threat, we'll score bucketloads of goals. A midfield four with McGinn and Grealish and two wide threats could make this Villa side the most fun to watch in years - it could be sensational. I can see us in a couple of weeks letting in a couple of goals a game and scoring four or five - genuinely. If this clicks we're in for real entertainment, because that middle two are almost able to blow teams away on their own - almost - if these loans pay out, I think it's going to be all the fun.

Tonight was entertaining, and promising - ultimately you'd have to be a complete idiot to not be happy to snatch a point with a 95th minute equaliser. I thought we should have won it.

Draw your own conclusions.

 

 

 

 

I agree with pretty much all that. The collapse in our play coincided with Green coming on for Adomah. Whilst Adomah was struggling to get his crosses in he remained a threat. Green seemed to pose little or no threat and IMO was pretty poor, and he is a player that I rate. For me the game highlighted two problems: firstly our inability to convert possession and chances into goals and secondly how fragile our defence is. Yet agin we conceded two silly goals that came from nothing. To each a few posters we desperately need another CB, Jedinak is good in air but way too slow and I shudder to think how we would look if Chester was injured. Ideally a specialist LB would be good too.

Just a final word on Brentford. I saw no evidence of the 'footballing' side that is supposed to be what we aspire to be. They were the typical well drilled Championship side that make themselves difficult to beat. The fact we did not win by 2 or 3 clear goals says more about us than it does them. As for the ref we were treated to yet another masterclass in incompetence.

One to keep as his goals and assists justify it.

On 21/05/2018 at 11:02, tom_avfc said:

I was under the impression that Club Wembley doesn't qualify for tickets for the Playoff Finals. Isn't that why Villa are selling tickets in the middle tier which would otherwise be Club Wembley tickets?

At nearly 40k tickets for each set of fans plus the corporate seats for sponsors etc. I can't see how Club Wembley members can have tickets for this either with a maximum capacity of 90k.

It does no, you are right. We have four club Wenbley seats at work and I have been luck enough to go a few times. A good day out of you do not care about the result as the atmosphere is pretty sterile.

6 minutes ago, Robtaylor200 said:

Coach 28 too ?

23 mate so clearly it was not our driver.

Fulham deserved to win and good luck to then because I think they will need it. For me they are a very well organised and disciplined Championship side. They did everything right; they keep it very tight in midfield, were in our faces from the off, they targeted our best player very effectively and fouled him shamelessly and were lucky to have a very forgiving referee and their youth and organisation shone through, Their manager called it precisely right as our 'experienced' and ageing ex-Premiership players laboured in the hot sun.

This game exposed yet again Bruce's shortcomings as a manager; the total absence of an effective game plan and the total inability to change the game by having anything near a Plan B. In reality we should not have been there. Our late season wobble against QPR, Norwich and Bolton cost us dear, three p*ss poor sides we gifted three point to. We should have had our feet up yesterday watching probably Fulham and Cardiff slog it out in the POF. I was happy with Bruce in the belief that his experience could get us up and we could worry about the Premiership once we got there. Sadly there is a major rethink required. Fortunately we say goodbye to the expensive loanees most of whom were found wanting yesterday and will have to rely on our youth which is good enough as Fulham proved with theirs. Given that is what we will have to do Bruce is not the manager to do that. Maybe Dean Smith is the man but we do need a younger manager with fresh ideas like the Fulham manager.

I think we will keep Grealish for another season and amongst the experienced players we should keep Kodja, Adomah, Chester, Bjarnasson, Jedinak, Hogan and Hourihane The rest either return to their parent clubs or should be moved on. That represents the core experience around which we blend our youth either already bought in like Bree or have come through the Academy like Green.

I wish I had not gone yesterday and followed TRO's example. I hate the place. The infrastructure is woeful. You can build as many hotels, shopping centres and flats as you like but the road system is a joke and the parking worse. Our coach wandered around for about 45 minutes trying to get to the coach park and failed. It took well over an hour to travel the, what, three miles to the A40 after the game. World class stadium with third world transport links.

Not a classic but job done. Oh and a special shout out to the t*ss*r Boro fans in the coach park who started throwing coins at the Villa fans heading home. I now have nice lump on my head from where I was hit!

Having said that I loved the video, some great memories. You just wonder how MON's side did not achieve so much more.

Gabby could have been a much much better player for us. The trouble is his sole ambition in football was to play for Villa. Once he achieved that.....well the rest is history.

Having said that he scored some crucial goals for us over the years so thank you for them.

Cannot below we did not win that one.....by several goals. Looking good for the playoffs I think.

Shambles 

After the Lord Mayors show and all that

Could not go tonight so bullet dodged.

PNE what can I say. One of the dirtiest sides I have seen at VP and shameless time wasters. The antics when we were awarded the penalty were appalling but the ref did nothing. He seemed to reserve his effort for awarding non-existent fouls to PNE. They came to VP to mug us and largely did.

Having said that we were very poor in the first half, error strewn does not even begin to describe what I watched. Amazingly we managed to craft some half decent chances and were perhaps unlucky not to score. Their goal was the usual calamity defending from us which was not good.

Equally amazingly was after substituting our most creative players, on paper at least, we looked much better. At least we had a couple of big lads to hoof it too but we also strung together some decent moves and in the end were probably unlucky not to win the game. I think overall a point was a fair result but disappointing none the less.

Personally after the experience of the Fulham game I don’t think Bruce started with the right eleven, it was way too negative and invited pressure. In his defence he did not have too many options on the bench but I think he maybe could have used his available players better. Just my opinion of course.

For all his so called potential he has never done it at Villa and never will despite all the chances he has had. A good League 1 player at best

Only disappointment for me was not being at the game today, on holiday:( 

Mind you my son came home from Uni specially for the game. I think I brought him up properly.