jackdaww

2 hours ago, Mantis said:

Technically we could go down and technically we could go up but neither are very likely at all.

of course.

i think we need to sign AT LEAST 2 QUALITY players this month , just to stay mid table.

to reach playoffs we will need 4/5 new quality players.

we have a poor squad with at the most a handful of promotion quality players , which is just not enough .

we are outplayed in almost every game , which means we will finish bottom 6 , possibly bottom 3.

its clear to me from bruce's body language that he knows this. 

19 hours ago, Mantis said:

Given up on this season now. We're not going up and we're not going down. Couldn't care less.

we could actually go down.....

johnstone - very good - could well be the goalkeeper solution.

hutton -- gives all , useful going forward - weak link in defence.

chester -- good.

baker -- good.

amavi -- inconsistent - varies from brilliant to awful.

jedinak -- good but needs resting between games.

tishoba -- good - promising strong confident - some guile - gets caught out - should improve with game time .

adohma - good - automatic pick.

bacuna - very useful versatile but not a wide man - better central midfield.

grealish - automatic pick - just hope he steps up a few gears.

agbonlahor - must play - he give defenses a hard time - still fast - always challenges in the air - better wide left  .

mccormack - i see nothing there - 12 million wasted.

bruce -- when he took agbonlahor and jedinak off , that decided the result - with them we could have scraped a draw and replay .

13 hours ago, GREAT_BEARD_OF_ZEUS said:

For those saying they are concerned that we lost to a Spurs B team, just have a look at the cost of today's starting line ups:

Spurs £120m v £40m Villa
And that's without even taking wages into consideration

The BBC made a big deal out of the £50m we spent in the summer, but like it or not, it was always going to take that kind of investment in the squad simply to buck us out of our tailspin down the divisions.  That money bought us just enough quality individuals to make us competitive, but it didn't buy us a team - like it or not that takes time. Other Championship teams with more cohesiveness may have tested them a bit more, but very few if any would have won the tie, so let's not worry too much about that.

My positives:

Bruce got his tactics spot on for what we were capable of. Gabby scuffs that shot in or Baker gets a head on that corner and who knows what might have happened.  Playing like that was our best hope.

The new GK showed enough in one game to tell me we have improved that position significantly.

Gabby is making an effort and whatever you think of him, we need every little help we can get.

Chester and Baker continue to look an impressive pairing.

 

We're still a right back, a proper left winger and two midfielders - all of significant quality, away from serious playoff contenders, and our attacking play needs to seriously improve - however we're a team going in the right direction.

 

blimey , a sensible post ...

there is clearly a good case for both teams to rest their key players , at the same time giving youngsters and outsiders a chance to show what they can do .

spurs should still have the better team and should win.

On 02/01/2017 at 17:02, TRO said:

This squad needs more than tinkering with.

we have been relying on individual players to bail us out, for too long.

its always the same players that are doing it.

westwood & Gardner are no longer debatable.....it should be clear to all and sundry.

unless we are happy to stay where we are.

bruces selection was all wrong , which he has effectively admitted .

in the second half , with bacuna and tishoba in central midfield , we were different .

as we cant play football , a target man is needed , agbonlahor was a big improvement but not enough , he is better out wide.

adohma didnt turn up first half , he was lucky to stay on .

tishoba should start every game , he is strong and confident , made mistakes but will improve with time .

i would even consider playing someone like elphick up front , at least he would occupy the opposition CB.s ,  it sometimes works , and we are desperate.

On 02/01/2017 at 17:54, One For The Road said:

Haha. Were they? Why? Cardiff is a tinpot town populated by Liverpool and Manchester United glory hunters, with a smattering of egg chasing anti-English dimwits. Not many 'bluebirds' in this village.

i worked in cardiff one year , its a CITY with some great features and fine people.

On 03/01/2017 at 08:10, Raver50032 said:

It is low I agree. In Stefan's defence I guess sometimes people are guilty of spouting words with emotion and sometimes misplaced passion. I'm guilty of it too at times on the Holte End. I'll shout 'Come on Villa... b*gger 'em...' - not that I would ever wish to see Jedinak or Chester pull down their pants and commit a sex act on the pitch.

I really do hope someone punches Warnock on the nose though... And that's a day after the game.

there is absolutely no excuse for that breaking legs kind of talk .

On 02/01/2017 at 20:34, One For The Road said:

I was right next to the Cardiff fans behind the goal, which is the family stand, and I didn't see anything other than banter back and forth.

i was with the cardiff fans , and they were fine.

On 03/01/2017 at 13:02, StefanAVFC said:

I don't get the goal.

It just rolled in at a snail's pace while everyone watched it go in.

I'm still confused now.

both baker and mccormack were a yard from that slow moving ball - i can only think they both thought the other would get it , or that it was going wide .

a really very silly goal , which as it turned out cost us a point .

but in any case we need 3 points to progress up the table.

and cardiff were streets ahead of us anyway .

51 minutes ago, One For The Road said:

Probably something to do with 3 and half thousand of us in the corner. 

the villa corner was chocabloc , they made more noise than the cardiff fans , where i was sitting.

but they wer poorly rewarded in the first half , when we lost the game .

i was present at the game.

first half we didnt tumn up , adohma was poor except for one flashy run.

bacuna was out of it playing wide.

cardiffs goal was a scrappy mess , but they outplayed us and should have had 3 goals.

gardner and westwood are like frightened rabbits , much too lightweight.

second half we were much better with bacuna and tsibola in midfield and the game came to life!.

agbonlahor made a diiference and we had a lot more play , he was unlucky not to score thanks to their goalie , who also stopped a very good mccormack freekick , sadly mccormack acheived nothin in spite of trying hard.

tisolba looks like a real deal to me , and bruce must play him , we have no chance with gardner and wesytwood togethor.

without grealish we would not have got near goal .

we had some chances both bacuna and westwood blazed over from good positions.

cardiff deserved to win and bruce must get the best team selected . 

i think the ref has a few things to answer for , should have asserted authrity ealier , must have been 8/9 yellow cards . 

i hope agbon will have the last laugh and finish his career here on a high note .

1 hour ago, Keener window-cleaner said:

I'm really looking forward to the first match of the new year! As our allocation was sold out, I had to buy ticets among the home supporters. If we score and you see someone cheering lively among the home supporters and then getting beaten up, please pray for me!

i will also be with the home supporters - but i do live in wales .

10 hours ago, Rugeley Villa said:

Can't complain really. Good point although I really wanted the 3.

spot on - we need 3 points a lot more often now , one point is almost worthless , a wasted game .

10 hours ago, maqroll said:

Why is Bunn our No. 1 now? He sucks.

because he is the least worst option , and has the advantage of experience , importan in goalkeepers.

11 hours ago, TRO said:

Another game where the result far outweighs the performance.

we got a lifeline there.

totally outplayed.

......no wonder our first touch looks poor.....we allow ourselves to be closed down far too easily and in return, we just stand off.

I simply do not know how we got something out of that. The 

we were outplayed football wise , but we are at least getting plenty of chances, which we wernt earlier in the season.

but a big failing is the other teams are first to the second ball.

11 hours ago, Jareth said:

Whatever you think about Kodjia the pressure on that spot kick, for him especially, was huge. Top class player. 

why these pros pussyfoot around with soft tricks i dont know - eg benteke.

as ricky lambert said , its quite simple , just run up and blast it , which is what i used to do , it never failed.

11 hours ago, pacbuddies said:

Potato heads decision to start Grealish behind Kodjia and leave Adomah on the bench could come back to haunt us. Still only 9th and once the teams around us have played their game in hand we could be back in the bottom half of the league again. Simply not good enough considering how much money we have spent and how many of those players have played at Premier League level.

maybe bruce is rotating his squad under a heavy fixture workload .

11 hours ago, Alakagom said:

All strikers waste shiton of chances. At least he gets into positions to have a chance unlike our other strikers lol

if a striker thinks they have a reasonable chance they should go for it , especially if they can smash it .

green made superb saves , they could easily have been tap ins.

on the other hand , if the striker declines to shoot, their is the chance his pass will be defective , and if its a good pass the target man may make a hash of it .

the better odds are to strike.

10 hours ago, Kiwivillan said:

Adomah and McCormack turned the game when they came on. Why didn't they start. Amavi had a shocker. Chester and Baker solid as ever. Perennial villains Westwood and Hutton didn't do much wrong. Bacuna still a nothing footballer for me

agree mostly , except bacuna could be a lot better in his best position and some good  guidence.

8 hours ago, DonRevieTheKing said:

Very close game. Periods in the first half where we could consider ourselves lucky not to be behind. Your failure to capitalise and the brilliance of Pontus Jansson kept it 0-0. Different story in the second. Lot more impetus and more adventure to our play and had a goal to show for it- was then your turn to benefit from piece of good fortune when Jansson cracked the bar. We should have really added to to our lead but you came back- very strong options from the bench like McCormack who livened things up for you. Clear penalty to be honest. Cooper was naive at best- our second choice centre back who's a big step down from our first choice. In terms of how the teams compared- a lot of your players namely Ayew looked as though they'd rather be anywhere else. What's noticeable is the lack of team spirit compared to our lot who fist pump and high five with every block made and every corner won. On the balance of play, although it was close the fact we had more clear cut opportunities and were more threatening in our period of dominance, we probably deserved to win. 

agree on ayew - his mind is elsewhere - not focussed on the game - just acting the part.

9 hours ago, darrenm said:

Yes. But Baker was trying to get across and would have likely had the ball in front of Jansson but Hutton blocked him. No Hutton there means the ball gets cleared.

but do we actually know what the plan is for set pieces and crosses ?

10 hours ago, villa89 said:

Apart from being at fault for losing jansson twice from corners, once where he scored and once where he smashed a volley off the bar?

you are assuming baker is earmarked to mark jannson .

i dont think thats the way it works.

for their goal , hutton was on jansonn and failed to do enough to put him off.

for the volley onto bar , no-one picked him up , quite correct but why should that be bakers job why not chester , hutton or jedinak/westwood ,

3 minutes ago, Troglodyte said:

Are those ratings for real?  Some are beyond bizarre.

absolutely.

i give each player ticks and crosses and calculate a rating from that .

which ones do you disagree with?