trom_borg

Conor sure is a frustrating player to watch at times. He obviously has a great left foot and has shown he can find good goal scoring positions. He also obviously lacks the grit and strength to make an impact defensively and often the games passes by him when we dont have the ball. Most frustrating for me though is his lack of movement and willingness to move into forward positions, or even pass into forward positions. So finding the suitable role for him in the midfield is hard cause he's not showing the ability to play any role very well. He reminds me of a Westwood light with better set piece delivery. I still like him, but I think his role should be a squad player that see limited playing time towards end of games and the odd start.

We all agree theres plenty of reasons to be frustrated and angry at the state of the club. The question is, do you think venting those frustration constantly during games negatively affect our club and the teams performances? If the answer is yes, Id think thats something worth trying to change. The fact that it also happens at other clubs is totally irrelevant.

Thats very true, you cant force anyone or anything. Changing the course of a culture or trend is very difficult, but it can albeit slowly. Merely accepting that things have to stay the same or even get worse is for sure not helping. But how change a negative culture? I really dont know, but maybe some supporter groups can join forces, start a hashtag, really put some efforts into creating new chants ect. Maybe the blogs and podcasts can jump on. Forum threads like this. Anything that fellow Villa fans read or consume can be a starting place for some type of change. In the end there seem to be a lot of fans who see all the negativity as hurtful for the team and club so there should be will to try to change things. Probably Im naive here, its just sad to see the decline of our club and the abuse and lack of atmosphere that comes with it.

Do you believe that the players and manager dont understand when their playing shit unless the fans boo? Also, supporting your team dosent mean you have to be cheerful. Supporting your team when things are not going well is not showing you accept mediocrity, but rather that you urge the team to do better by yourself showing some effort and believe in them.

Disclaimer; Im a european Villa fan who visits Villa Park about once a season, and for the rest try to catch as many games online as I can. I understand those who put more money and time into supporting Villa have reasons to feel stronger about this, but I still think my point is valid. Every Villa fan is frustrated and angry over the decline of our football club over the last 10 years, almost culminating in complete disaster last summer. New owners and the eventual hiring of Smith made it feel like we've somewhat turned a corner, but the last couple of months made the light in the tunnel feel like another train, again. I hoped the new setup would get more patience considering Smiths Villa association, Terrys role last year ect, but people seem to turn just as quick this time around. (Based on whatever atmosphere I get from the streams and comments on here ect.) And I get it. We have all the reasons in the world to be pissed and fed up with lackluster play, poor effort, and just general poor decision making on all levels throughout the club. No one can argue this. But now I think many Villa fans need to ask themselves, why do I follow this club? Why am I drawn back to Villa Park despite everything? Surely it is not the desire to feel shit and be angry all the time. (Unless you're a masochist of the purest sort) No, most of us want Villa to make us feel great, proud and united. And the frustration is high because the club has, except the odd performances, failed miserably at this for so long. But all the negativity is not helping anyone, not the players nor the club, and therefor especially not yourself. All the things you want Villa to make you feel, you can try to force it yourself. Imagine if the full support of Villa Park could be a motivator for players rather than always waiting for a great performances to give full support. The players wont always deserve it, neither do the club, but do it for yourself! Make the support of the team something to be proud about and united around, and for sure going to games will be a much more enjoyable experience. Every Villa fan has all the right to be angry and frustrated, but it dosent mean its the right way to go.

As a fellow countryman I've had a bit extra hope and faith in Nyland, thinking he might come good if he could settle in and find some confidence to command his box more and get those costly errors out of his system. At least he'd always be a good shot stopper. Yesterdays game was set up for him in second half, not a lot of crosses and a couple of very saveable shots to help the team turn around and win a crazy game. But he failed at what he should do best, and that lack of consistency is just not good enough. We need a new gk in jan, simple as that. Hopefully with as few points lost possible until then. Very disappointed with that last goal, you have to get that ball. Axel was always covering back post anyway, there was only one place for Grabban to shoot!

Theres a third option here, Smith might think its important for his game plan to have a left footed left back, and that he finds Taylor good enough keep him in the side rather than changing that mentality. I find Taylor to be our weakest link usually, hes just dosent offer much going forward and is not strong enough man man defensively. But fair play to him, I thought the assist last night was great and felt he was the best player in our back 5, though that dosent say much...

Very surprised reading various ratings from yesterday and seeing him scored same as or even higher than McGinn and or Grealish. In here people seem to share my opinion though. He has a great left foot and can be effective (when he releases the ball quickly) in that deep position depending on the opposition and game plan. Yesterday his defensive positioning and pressing/tackling were horrible and he was to some extent involved in all of Forests goals but the last one. I'm far from Whelans biggest fan but think we need him in there on sat

I think the idea behind putting Hogan on, aside from giving him some game time and a chance to show himself, was for him to run the channels more than Abraham as Norwich would likely push higher up to to get that equalizer. But the two very next touches on the ball was the corner and 1-1 goal so game plan changed.

Its puzzling that he got so much game time in pre-season, and doing really well, to then be completely overlooked for our league games so far. Should share/fight for the RB position with Elmo and Bree this season imo, with Hutton on the left and Tuanzebe in the middle.

Exactly, but personally I'd like them to get a chance with us this season. And I thought we had too considering our positions few weeks ago. It would be a big gamble of course, but one I'd be happy for us to make considering all the money we've thrown out the window the last few seasons. Now that seems to have changed completely, and we're ready to try a similar route again (while not seeming to care about FFP and its "consequenses" whatever that is, but I dont know much about that tbh) That being said, the names already signed and possibly on the way in does look very interesting though from the comments I've read (hardly seen any play except Nyland and Tanzebe ofc). But I thought that of Lansbury and Hogan as well...

We would be as well if we actually give some of the younger guys at our club a proper chance. Those names (except Success for me, ironically) are interesting though, but cant see Clarke, JDH, O'Hare, or even Davies and RHM get much game time if we get 4 or more players in without departures.

From what I remember he's usually quite vocal when playing with the national team, how well he actually is at organizing I'm not sure though. But he should offer some more experience than Steer at least. Will be very interesting to see if he can bring his best game more consistently, if so he'll be a good capture for us I think.

Around 700k is what I've read, decent price if so. I've seen him play for the national team a few times, always looked a decent keeper to me if not spectacular. Can pull off some great saves but also has the odd error or poor positioning ect in him. Feel a bit sorry for Steer who I thought would get the chance at no.1 this season, but will find it way harder now. Still he has the chance though ofc, and competition is good, but Nyland should be in the best position to make the position his to loose.

When you jeopardize the future existence of the club to reach a specific target , and that target is not achieved, it has to go down as a failure. That shoudve never happened of course, and with a more sensible long term approach from day one after our relegation this seasons results could have been seen with a different, less black and white view. (I did enjoy lots of it too, which is the ultimate goal of football imo) But Bruce was always part of the "do everything to get promoted now" approach which failed. Im not sure letting him go now is the best idea though. I think he lacks a lot of the skills we need in the sort of rebuild we find ourselves in now and ideally we should get a more progressive manager in. But I have limited trust in the management to actually find that person given the current circumstances, and switching Bruce for the wrong manager this summer can have dire consequences.

Who else can be? If players who are playing week in and out are clearly dropping in form and looking fatigued, causing the team to not perform well, the only way to try to change that is to actually let other players in the squad have a try. I think very few on here sees Hogan as a given answer to our problems, but more as an option we need to try to change things up a bit cause Davis needs a rest and our attacking play have hit a wall lately.

But we were loosing against Leeds until he actually made some changes. With all the talk about not changing a winning team on here and SB using that argument as well, both Lansbury and Grealish should be in the team on sat. Also, what signal does it send to the rest of the squad if the guys that came on and changed the results still cant get into the first team? Good chance to freshen up and give some lads a needed rest imo, lots of games coming up.

Any news of the extent of the shoulder injury he picked up against Ipswich?

I totally get that, and tbh Im too only interested in whats best for Aston Villa. And while I like Onomah and think that he has merited most of his playing time this season, I dont think he deserves to be a given starter. And I really dont think its best for Aston Villa neither short or long term to keep the likes of Grealish and even O'hare limited to a few minutes on the pitch towards the end of games. They cant challenge Onomah for a starting place if they arent given a proper chance to do so. Not changing the team after the great QPR performance I understand, but not after the Sunderland game.

Getting 15min at the end of a game where we're either protecting a lead or chasing isnt the easiest of stages to make an impact. Onomahs inconsistency and Grealishs sub performances so far is enough in my eyes to at least let him start on sat to really see how he can impact a game from the get go. If all players have to show they earn a starting spot from the bench, even if some of the starting players arent performing well, there wont be much rotation...

So regardless of the actual team performance, or more importantly individual performance, players expect to keep their place because of a win, if not theyll get cranky? How about the guys on the bench that cant get any game time despite some players on the pitch not really performing, cant that equally hamper the spirit in the camp? Id rather see a manager rotate the squad based on performances and fatigue, different tactics ect, rather than following a old school custom.

Thats why we have a squad. Several players looked a bit jaded yesterday and lacked energy and intensity, clearly its due time for some rotation. But Bruce thinks you cant change a winning team so look out for the same starting 11 on sat...

Fair play to SB for getting the team fired up and ready for this one, and we look solid and organised now. Just not very spectacular going forward. I was frustrated pre-match for the lack of rotating. I felt some players didnt deserve to start after their last performance, and Im not sure it gives the right signal to neither the starting players nor the squad that their place in the team isnt really affected by their performance. We're in good form and have performed well over the last 10-12 games, but we've hardly made any changes in the way we set up that wasnt forced by injury or suspension, and different games sometimes needs different approaches and different setups. SB seems to more stumble upon the working formula for some games rather than making conscious adjustments. Yesterday it worked well and we have a good base now so credit to him for that, but I'd wish he'd change it up a bit more often, Wolves, shitty and even Bolton games comes to mind. In the last couple of games SB had got his subs completely right though so thats a move in the right direction.

Im a Lifelong Villa supporter from Norway, growing up with Ian Taylor as my fav player! Now living in Amsterdam and lacking anyone really to discuss anything claret and blue (except a very patient gf) I figured it was time to join in some discussions rather than just reading