wilko154

That's because Bruce has no intention of adapting his team's style of play to suit the players he plays. Hogan isn't effective as we smash long balls to him for 90 minutes when he is one of the shortest players in our team. Just because Kodjia is tall doesn't mean he is a target man yet Bruce insists on playing him as one with long balls being knocked to him. Invariably the gap between Kodjia and the midfield is always so big that he drops in to get the ball at times and then has much more work to do to get a shot away. If we can sort this problem out and get the midfield supplying him properly then he can be played up top and running at defenders which is much more his game. For me we need to drop the wingers, play a 4 man midfield as a diamond and play someone alongside Kodjia to get the best out of him.

Now get over to the Jedinak thread and predict that he will become the new Sergio Ramos shortly...

Reminds me of Johnstone in his first season with us, dodgy kicking and not commanding enough in his area. I'm sure we can sort this with a bit of coaching.

Swansea are shocking, they look like we did in our first season in the Championship. Blues have been fairly decent, but their finishing is embarrassing. Gardner actually showed there is a player in there, but it may just be because the other 21 players on the pitch are so bad.

Yep I agree with you, first two games of the season he has been frustrating to watch with his selfishness at times. However... a) he's desperate to get amongst the goals b) we create so little opportunities for him that when he does get the ball he instantly wants to take advantage of having possesion of the ball. If we can sort our midfield out, McGinn will go a long way to doing this, and play some more possesion based football it will help Kodjia in the long term.

Defensively he is suspect, but he will only get better by playing alongside a player like James Chester. His pace will help us out, it's an area we were undone at times last season with Terry. His distibution is the biggest plus. This is the main thing we are missing without Terry and Tuanzebe can replace this for us. He's calm on the ball and can pick a pass out instead of lumping it long in a panic as Elphick and Jedinak do.

Did we not win the game last night through Kodjia playing in a better placed teamate? I would say Kodjia made the difference when he came on last night along with Grealish. Hepburn Murphy did well chasing the turgid long balls throughout the game, but the Yeovil centrebacks weren't really in a game until Kodjia came on and began hassling them. A few times, and especially the movement to create the goal were glimpses of the old Kodjia again. As with Benteke a few years ago when he came back from injury, a bit of confidence and a few goals will straighten him out and get him firing on all cylinders again.

True, but he's hardly being helped by Hourihane and Whelan. They've spent 45 minutes running around like headless chickens with Hourihane passing to Yeovil more than his team

Tuanzebe next to Chester would be fine, he's the only one at the back who looks composed on the ball. His distribution is good, unfortunately he is distributing to Whelan. Hourihane looks pants.

Awful Once again we play a striker who is quick and skilful with a ball at his feet yet boot balls long to him for the duration of the game. The midfield is woeful and getting outplayed by a league 2 team. Hourihane looks as though he's not quite sure which team he's playing for and so passing to both just in case. Elphick looks like he's never played football before, I honestly think Tuanzebe is coaching him through the game instead of the other way around. Adomah looks about as interested as he did at the end of the season. We are going to need to put Grealish or McGinn on to sort this mess out Christ

Snodgrass must have not been registered in time

I would sell him to be honest. It's a shame as he was the player I was most excited about when we signed him. Even on his debut I thought he looked immense. I can't quite work out if he's declined as a player or if he just hasn't been utilised in the right way (which with Bruce wouldn't surprise me in the slightest) The main factor here is if we can begin to play with 3 x CM's then Lansbury will prove a useful player this season in rotation with Grealish, McGinn, Hourihane and Bjarnasson. This then leaves Whelan and Jedinak to be moved on in the next transfer windows.

All about mixing the youth with the first team tonight, along with getting some confidence back in some players. If players can't manage two games in a week in the second week of the season they don't deserve to be professional footballers. Nyland Bree Tuanzebe Chester Taylor Whelan De Laet Doyle-Hayes Grealish Adomah Kodjia Bench: Moreira, Suliman, Hutton, Hourihane, McGinn, Blackett-Taylor, Hepburn-Murphy Players needing some confidence for me are Nyland, Taylor, Adomah and Kodjia. If we can get Adomah and Kodjia back in form it's a major boost in front of goal going forward this season. Tuanzebe and Chester need to be played together and in front of Nyland, its a partnership we need to start trying to make work after Satuday's horror show. Second half look at where we are and potentially give Suliman, Blackett-Taylor and Hepburn-Murphy some game time.

I like that, both Adomah and Kodjia would benefit from goals at this stage.

I would bring Terry back, I know we are going for the young, fast player route; but you could see the mess our defence was in on Saturday. It was miles away from how we were last season. Terry would bring some stability back to the defence, and if he mentors Tuanzebe we could have Terry and Tuanzebe switching for all of the midweek games this season. For me the main problem in the last two games has been the distribution from the back, and this is something Terry excels in. One quick ball out to feet instantly brings in McGinn and Grealish, argubaly two of the best centre midfielders in the league. Currently we are bypassing the midfield with long balls forward to a striker in Kodjia who isn't dominate enough in the air. If we were to offer Terry 40k per week and the same 1 million for promotion I think there is a chance he would come back to us and would instantly solidify the defence. Going forward we need to sign a centre back in January, in line with our new model of young hungry players, but a centre back that is with the club long term so we no longer have this issue of loaning them in. Obviously it will depend on FFP restrictions. As long as I never have to witness Jedinak at CB again!!!

So you're writing off Nyland after one game and a dodgy back pass that wasn't his fault? Give the bloke a chance.

Digging out Bruce after not watching the game... He played centre midfield

If you vist https://giphy.com/ Select the GIF you want to use Next to the GIF there is a 'Copy Link' selection, click this 4 options will appear, select the link under 'GIF Link' and copy it Now back to Villa Talk, in the bottom right there is an 'Insert other media' selection Insert image from URL, paste your link into here and click 'Insert Post' Sounds complicated but it's easy ?

https://media0.giphy.com/media/gw3IWyGkC0rsazTi/giphy.gif https://giphy.com/gifs/test-gw3IWyGkC0rsazTi?utm_source=media-link&utm_medium=landing&utm_campaign=Media Links&utm_term=https://giphy.com/gifs/test-gw3IWyGkC0rsazTi I apologise, I now know what I'm doing ?

For me if we are going to sign 3 players we need a left back, a right winger and a striker. Left Back - No idea but I'm sure there are a few around, Bruce hopefully has his eye on one currently for a loan deal. Right Wing - For me Snodgrass coming back would be immense for us, he's the type of player we need and was by far the best loan signing last season. If Wet Spam don't let us have him I would see if Albrighton could be tempted into a loan deal back to Villa. Striker - I think Bruce is playing the waiting game on Abraham which I don't think will pay off, I imagine he is going to be tempted into a season trying to break into the first team. It also looks as though Success is not coming with Watford not signing a striker, can't say I'm dissapointed with this as he hardly has a goalscoring prowess. I think we need a target man up top; we all know that we need to be knocking the ball around on the deck with Grealish feeding a striker through balls or our wingers cutting inside, but Bruce just isn't going to get us playing that type of football. If he did we all ready have Hogan in place who would be perfect. If we can get a target man in, someone in the ilk of Benteke (not Benteke, just let it go guys) from his time at Villa, can bring a ball down, good with his feet and strong in the air, then we are all set. Unfortunately that's the type of striker that teams won't be letting go. All in all its been a decent transfer window, and going from losing Chester & Grealish with no incomings, to signing 4 players and keeping our squad together is immense.

Steer Hutton Elphick Chester Taylor Whelan Elmo Hourihane Grealish Adomah Kodjia No need to change a winning team, especially after a 3-1 win. With Yeovil on Tuesday there is plenty of opportunity to give the new boys 90 minutes, see what they can do and restructure ahead of Ipswich. Personally I would bring McGinn on for Whelan if things are going well, it will be interesting to see how a midfield three of McGinn, Hourihane and Grealish works. If Hourihane and McGinn can both work box to box allowing Grealish to push forward in an ACM role we could negate the need for a DM in certain games. We need to stick with Kodjia, get him firing again and see if we can get him back to the form he was in before injury. Unfortunately we are going to just have to put up with the selfishness for a while.

It's been very quiet for a transfer deadline day, I thought this would be the day where the Villa rumours go mad. I think we will be lucky to see one signing today.

3 o'clock kick off so should be part of the International AVTV package

To be honest if he forces a move by handing in a transfer request it makes the whole thing a lot easier to take. We take £30 million, be shot of him and sign someone to take his place. The last thing you want is a player who thinks he's better than the team and wants out.