wilko154

Looking like a different team tonight

Should have come on against Forest when Snodgrass tired, would have given the defence something to think about and given him a bit of game time over Alan Hutton getting a run-out.

Cracked me up haha

Johnstone Elmo Chester Terry Taylor Whelan Hourihane Snodgrass Adomah Davis Kodjia If it ain't broke... Only worry for me is Whelan but if we can play as we did against Barnsley away from home then we should be good tonight. If Whelan's legs go again then we can pull him at half time and bring in Onomah or Lansbury depending on what the game needs. The game for resting a few players is Saturday at home against a Bolton side bottom of the league. If a professional footballer at this stage of the season can't handle two football matches in a week then they need to take a look at their fitness...

Is this coming after our reserve team with no players from Saturday's side lost a game?

Over the last few weeks I have joined the Steve Bruce out camp. This is based on all of our performances since he took over the job. His style (or lack of style) is unfortunately the reason we are not where we should be so far this season and why we fell short last season. Would I have wanted Villa to lose on Saturday if it meant Bruce would be sacked? No. No supporter should ever want their team to lost a game. Now we come to Saturday, in my eyes it was one of if not the best performance under Bruce. Granted Barnsley weren't the best team we will play this season but you can only play the team that is put in front of you. Now we are 6 games unbeaten, midtable, with our previous game a 3-0 win with a performance to match. I, and we, should be fully behind Steve Bruce now in terms of letting him prove us all wrong, getting a run of results and performances together to pull us back up this table. If his new found 4-4-2 formation and team selection can work and secure us a 12 point haul including the next 3 league games then we will really start climbing the table. Granted most of us wanted him out, and in the grand scheme of things one win isn't enough and won't be if it isn't followed up by another, but everyone should be fully behind both him and the team. I would love Bruce to prove me wrong.

Steer Bree Elphick De Laet Clark Snodgrass Lansbury Doyle Hayes O'Hare Hogan Kodjia This for me, yes it's a nothing game but it gives us the chance to get some players some minutes and give both Snodgrass & Kodjia a 45 minute run out to get their fitness up ( a mini pre season ) Take off Kodjia & Snodgrass at half time or 60 minutes and give another a run out.

He's been fattening himself up like a Turkey...

Heskey-esque... in his prime obviously

Solid win today, enjoyable to watch as well. We finally looked like a team with a style of play, a team who knew what they were doing and a team with round pegs in round holes (or is it square pegs in square holes) Adomah, Davis, Hourihane & Terry were all class. No-one had a bad game. A clean sheet albeit against a fairly poor Barnsley, also breaking the away game & Sky game jinx. Drop some players Tuesday, let the youth put in a decent performance again and build some momentum ready for next Saturday.

Have a day off pal

I'm hoping for this... Johnstone Bree Chester Terry RDL Jedinak Onomah Hourihane Snodgrass Adomah Kodjia I expect Bruce to go with this.... Johnstone Hutton Chester Terry Bjarnasson Jedinak Whelan Elmo Hourihane Kodjia Davis

This is not true, when Leeds went down they were a 'big club', same with all of the clubs I mentioned previously. Unfortunately we are only just hanging onto our big club status... We currently have bigger support but this will dwindle over the next few years should we stay down in this division. It's noticeable at Villa Park already this season, a couple of losses and people stop coming.

I honestly believe that if we don't go up this season we are finished as a competitive football club. We will just become a nobody in football as have Ipswich, Forest, Wednesday, Pompey, Leeds After this season the money becomes even tighter due to FFP. Most of our better players will realise that we are not going up and will leave to sides that will compete for promotion, others on higher wages will have to be sold to balance the books. God it's depressing when you think about it, but so far this season I can't see us being competitive enough in this league.

When we were relegated people said this is the worst time we could go down & money in the Premiership is going to become ridiculous from this season onwards. I though it was a bit far fetched and that we would be fine. This transfer window though has proved how far behind we are now being left.

Round Pegs Square Holes Took me ages... think I'm too young to understand picture 2 and 4...

Didn't know where to ask this so went for this topic... Has anyone been into the Villa Store yet this season? Is there loads to buy like usual? Reason I ask is like most things Villa the Online Store is awful and has barely anything for sale... If the store is full I'll head over this weekend.

I was looking forward to going to this tonight, mostly because it's a free game, but after Saturday I thought we see a decent performance with a few of the young lads being played. But after seeing that squad list I almost don't want to go. Please be a fake! And if it's not... what is the point in giving some of these players game time when Bruce is clearly not going to use them this season.

He wasn't chasing long balls because he was winning them in the air. The fact is they are two different strikers who play in two different ways. Davis was brilliant, but we helped him to play well as the team is set up for a player like him. Hogan has been poor because we aren't set up to play to his strengths. Benteke at Liverpool is the perfect example of this, they didn't play to his strengths and he looked poor for them. However we all know that he is a great player. For me, tomorrow night we need to play Davis & Hogan together. Even if it's just for the first half before giving Davis a rest. If Davis can win the ball like he was doing on Saturday and then feed it to Hogan we could be onto a great partnership.

The difference on Saturday was that our long balls from the back (which constantly bypass the midfield) were sticking with Davis and the midfield were then able to come into the game and play football in the other half of the pitch. For too long now the long ball football we have been playing has resulted in the loss of possession and the midfield having to defend once again. Both Hourihane & Lansbury's strengths are in creating and scoring goals which they have not been able to do.

Sorry but you're wrong. We play long balls forward from the back the majority of the time. In the air against 6 foot centre backs Hogan is always on the back foot and is unable to bring the ball down or win headers to bring in the midfield. Davis on the other hand is more of a target man, he has more of a physical presence in the air and so can bring down long balls and bring the midfield into the game. If we played possession football and looked to feed ball's through to our strikers Hogan would be the best striker for the job. The run's he makes are excellent however we don't pick them out enough. Taking nothing away from Davis, he was brilliant on Saturday and as long as Bruce employs this tactic he should be starting and leading the line for us.

Completely agree However I wouldnt expect Mon would leave his post to come back here However much people dislike him here, you can't dispute the fact that he had us playing good football and put the club in it's best position it's been in for a number of years. He left the club because of Lerner who we now all know to be an absolute cockwomble.

I have joined the Bruce Out Brigade. Hoping to see some development on this today but think he will be given a few more weeks to turn things around. The danger is, as we found out last season, you quickly become left behind in this league. Also hoping when he does go he takes Calderwood with him. Give the team to Terry or Little for a game or two until the new manager is brought in.

Looking forward to this one! I would go with: Johnstone Hutton Chester Terry Taylor Lansbury Whelan Elmo O'Hare Agbonlahor Hogan Drag Gabby off for Green when he inevitably fades in the second half Sure up the midfield bringing on Onomah or Hourihane when Whelan or O'Hare tire Think we could win this won 2-0 / 3-0 UTV

Because he's crap