wilko154

I understand what you mean, I think it is just that we have had more key players out injured at once, or for longer periods of time than both Cardiff and Wolves. They have barely had any injuries this season whilst we have been very unlucky. An injury to Grealish, Adomah, Kodjia or Snodgrass kills us everytime as they are the only players in our side capable of picking the ball up and carrying it forward. This is where we struggled against Fulham, and (unless Grealish is back) where we will struggle tonight.

For the most part injuries are the reason we are playing differently in games. The games we won with Grealish back in the side were all pretty similar in style and performance.

Does anyone have any idea how long he will take to get himself match fit now he is able to do ball work? Surely we should see him next month or April at least.

Once again we scapegoat a player... He was poor on Saturday, but then he was playing in a position that doesn't suit him. He's a centre midfielder however we barely ever play him there which is why we don't see the best from him. With Grealish out tomorrow we need to play him through the middle to carry the ball forward for us. Granted he's not as good as Grealish but he's our best option for this currently, especially with O'Hare looking unlikely to be in the squad. If we play someone like Lansbury or Jedinak with Bjarnasson then the team is too defensive and we struggle to get out. Onomah started the season really well for us but he has been limited to 10/20 minute spells here and there, or being played in the completely wrong position, left wing, striker etc.

I would go: Johnstone Tuanzabe Chester Terry Hutton Bjarnasson O'Hare Onamah Hourihane Snodgrass Hogan Unless Elmo, Grealish or Adomah are fit in which case I would stick them back in. Onomah is getting a fair bit of stick as usual but he seems to be coming on in games and playing on the wing, if he plays in the role Grealish has been playing we would get the best out of him. Bjarnasson will provide some energy in the midfield which we will need without Adomah and Grealish tracking back as they have been doing this month.

Another over reaction here, he is by far the best goalkeeper we have had for some time and unfortunately made a mistake yesterday. He's young and it happens. The saves points he has earned us this season far outweigh this one mistake. He receives the ball a lot in games to take the pressure of the defence and midfield and generally deals with it well. Last season when he came in you could see him with the ball looking to play it out from the back and being constantly told to kick it instead, this seems to be Bruce's style of play and has continued this season. In my opinion this should be changed and we should look to drop our fullbacks in to receive the ball from short balls or goal kicks instead of lumping it forward and hoping Hogan wins it.

This is absolute nonsense and a massive over reaction to a poor performance on the back of 7 straight wins. You can't blame Bruce for the the line up yesterday when two of our most influential players were out injured. We are short on wingers currently and with both Grealish & Adomah being injured we had to change things, then with Elmo going off it had to change yet again. Unfortunately Green is injured again yet Bruce is being slated on social media for not playing him... 'The resulting negative team selection with an isolated striker seldom wins games' we have just won 7 games in a row, give your head a wobble. A poor day hampered by injuries, we go again on Tuesday, hopefully with Grealish back, take the 3 points and forget yesterday. Automatic promotion is still in our hands with Cardiff to play at home.

Absolute shambles today. Pretty embarrassing how a couple of injuries can completely derail us. Need Grealish and Adomah back asap or I can see us bottling the automatics.

I've now made a decision on the TV i'm going for LG OLED55B7V... just currently waiting on the price to drop over Easter when the new range of LG's come out. Does anyone know of a better TV available, from my research the OLED55B7V or OLED55C7V seem to be the top of the range OLEDs for the price

No chance, he's rubbish

My confidence in this game has gone if Adomah and Grealish are both out tomorrow. Onomah and Green in and hope for a draw at best... hopefully Adomah and Grealish will be fit by Tuesday.

Impossible, you can't go from finishing 2nd in the Championship to breaking the PL top 6 in a season. It's going to take at least 5 years to be in a position to even challenge the top 6, this isn't FIFA.

In what way did our fullbacks make it difficult?

They are different players though, Jedinak will win the ball in the air more than Bjarnason but he no longer has the legs to cover the area in front of the defence by himself when the ball is on the floor. His passing is also pretty suspect at times. Bjarnason will run all game and needs little help from the centre midfielders, which is why we are seeing Grealish and Hourihane in the attacking 3rd more recently. However as you quite rightly point out he won't win every header in this position. Realistically it's now about game management by Bruce. If we are playing a big side who like to pump balls up then we need to be playing Jedinak, if we are playing teams that we need to break down like last night then Bjarnason is the man.

Cracking player in that position, could probably do a decent job at CM as well. Breaks the play up and can pass the ball which is sometimes lacking by Whelan and Jedinak. The biggest bonus about him in at CDM is that he has energy to track runners, get forward when required and then track back again. Nailed on in that position for me.

I don't get why anyone would want him to be recalled?! He played well when he came on and helped vary our play and break down Sheff Utd. Would you rather we bring on Whelan into the midfield late in a game? Baffles me how we win games yet still find something to complain about.

What a win! We weren't great tonight, but we also didn't play poorly. The difference with our side now is that we can defend solidly for 90 minutes and create moments of magic at the other end of the pitch. Johnstone was immense tonight, he's the complete opposite of the keeper we brought in last season. Confident and commanding in the area, and a fantastic shot stopper. Without him tonight we would have conceded. Bjarnason was again fantastic, the energy he brings to the defensive midfield role is something we have missed, he breaks the play up and gets us moving forward quickly. A much better range of passing than Whelan or Jedinak can offer in that position. Grealish didn't get as much of the ball as he has in previous games but when he does have it teams are frightened to death of him. He seems to create space whilst he has the ball at his feet, and his killer balls will create a lot of goals in the run in. And Snodgrass came up with the type of performance we have now come to expect. Offers so much energy down the right flank and doesn't give up on anything. He's an absolute menace to the full backs and can back his performances with moments of magic like that. It's a good time to be a Villa fan, a decent run in coming up whilst our promotion rivals battle it out with each other. Up the Villa! Bring on Saturday!

Results didn't go our way but they aren't going to every single week. Keep winning games as we have been in the past few weeks to keep up the pace and then slowly close or increase the gaps when they do slip. Positives from the day being Baker is now suspended for Bristol City, and Wolves scraped the win in the last few minutes although they were the better team throughout.

Deal done by the looks of things

I'm glad we turned down RVP, it show's the new board are not going to carry on in the same vein as previously bringing in past it players on ridiculous wages and for stupid lengths of time. Granted he would probably score goals in this league, but stick him on a 3 year deal as he would most likely demand and we would end up with him on our books for two extra years when we should be looking at better quality, younger players in the Premier League (hopefully)

Game is now being shown on Sky Sports

We probably wouldn't get far you are right. However you can't just go up, sell 14 players, keep 7 and then buy a new 14. The reason the club will look at a 3 year stabilizing plan when we go up is to drip feed new players in. For example sign a new center midfielder to start, sell Lansbury, Hourihane then has competition to start for a year. Sign a defensive midfielder, sell one of Whelan or Jedinak (not both) The reason we went down two years ago is because we tried to sign a complete new team and it failed miserably. It's pretty much why Blues are in the position they are currently in also. In my opinion, with the squad we currently have, playing as they currently are we would do well against a lot of the lower Premiership teams, add a bit of quality to that and we would have a fair shot of finishing near the top of the bottom half of the Prem. Keep adding over the 3 years and the club will be back competing in the league. Unfortunately gone are the days of getting promoted and immediately signing a load of world class footballers.

Class again today, different level compared to the majority of Championship players. Ghosts past players as though they aren't there

Can the club try to sort out the state of our food and drinks outlets in the ground (the Holte at least). Surely they must realise they are losing out on money every game from the fans who either can't be bothered to queue or leave the queue as they don't think they will have time to get served before the second half starts. I can't understand why there aren't more drink only stands with pre-poured pints ready 5 minutes before half time begins. Let's be honest it tastes pretty poor anyway in the ground, standing in a glass for 5 minutes won't make it any worse. They also seem to have 3 people serving one person at each till, really strange!

An away side that won their last home game 5-0