wilko154

Great finish!

Not really, we have a habit of being poor in the first half and coming to life in games for the last 10-20 minutes. If we start Grealish tomorrow against an injury riddled Derby side we could start the game strong, get the home support back on board and get the team playing the football we know they can play. Bring Grealish off in the second half when we would hopefully be leading the game and then let the momentum carry us through for the rest of the game, also bedding in Carrol at Villa Park. It sounds very simplistic and probably won't happen that way, but bringing Grealish on 2-0 down with 20 minutes to go is a hell of a lot more desperate.

Fairly confident he will start Grealish tomorrow. From his press conference he said that they need to work out if it's better to start him and take him off, or bring him on later. We would be much stronger playing him from the start, taking him off with half hour to go and bringing Carroll into the mix to get 30 minutes under his belt. Tuanzebe to return for the Blackburn game as well. Four more games until we are full strength once again.

Does anyone know if there is a press conference today pre match?

I hate to be the one to say it but you talk some utter nonsense.

I agree with some of what you say, Bruce did get a tune out of him last year but I would imagine most managers would have been able to. After his return from injury he was a much better all round player and instantly became our driving force in games. Bruce can get the credit for playing him consistently of course, as no manager before him had done so. At the start of the season he was superb in the first few games, it was mentioned that he looked as though his head had been turned but he was still delivering in games. As the team performaces dipped his performances also dipped. The move to the wing wasn't due to his performances in the middle being poor, it was due to Bruce not knowing how to fix the problem and panicking. With him out wide we beat Rotherham, lost to Sheff Wed and drew to Bristol and Preston - all winnable games. With you on Saturday though, I am hoping he starts and we see him bringing the Villa team back to life. Jack Grealish's Match History Played' Rating EC 06-08-2018 Hull 1 : 3 Aston Villa 83' 7.41 EC 11-08-2018 Aston Villa 3 : 2 Wigan 90' 7.8 EFLC 14-08-2018 Yeovil 0 : 1 Aston Villa 33' N/A EC 18-08-2018 Ipswich 1 : 1 Aston Villa 90' 7.84 EC 22-08-2018 Aston Villa 2 : 2 Brentford 90' 7.72 EC 25-08-2018 Aston Villa 1 : 1 Reading 45' 6.64 EC 01-09-2018 Sheffield United 4 : 1 Aston Villa 90' 6.06 EC 15-09-2018 Blackburn 1 : 1 Aston Villa 90' 7.01 EC 18-09-2018 Aston Villa 2 : 0 Rotherham 90' 7.17 EC 22-09-2018 Aston Villa 1 : 2 Sheffield Wednesday 90' 6.49 EC 28-09-2018 Bristol City 1 : 1 Aston Villa 90' 6.72 EC 02-10-2018 Aston Villa 3 : 3 Preston 90' 6.69 EC 06-10-2018 Millwall 2 : 1 Aston Villa 90' 6.86 EC 20-10-2018 Aston Villa 1 : 0 Swansea 83' 6.65 EC 23-10-2018 Norwich 2 : 1 Aston Villa 90' 7.22 EC 26-10-2018 Queens Park Rangers 1 : 0 Aston Villa 90' 8.09 EC 02-11-2018 Aston Villa 2 : 0 Bolton 90' 9.8 EC 10-11-2018 Derby 0 : 3 Aston Villa 90' 7.06 EC 25-11-2018 Aston Villa 4 : 2 Birmingham 90' 8.24 EC 28-11-2018 Aston Villa 5 : 5 Nottingham Forest 90' 7.55 EC 01-12-2018 Middlesbrough 0 : 3 Aston Villa 90' 7.44 EC 07-12-2018 West Bromwich Albion 2 : 2 Aston Villa 87' 7.31

Surely that attendance is incorrect? Villa Park couldn't hold 48,000 in 1999 could it?

Sorry but you are fighting a losing battle here. Before Smith came in Bruce was playing players out of position on a weekly basis, Grealish included. Bruce was the main catalyst for the poor results and in games where Grealish was being deployed on the wings he was proving ineffective, this directly led to some of the poorer results. When Smith came in and regularly played Grealish through the middle our results dramatically improved. The main reason for the poor results since December has been due to the loss of Grealish and Tuanzebe. It's not rocket science.

You people are depressing...

Grealish has played 21 games this season out of a possible 34 (excluding cup games) With Grealish: Won 8 - 38% Drew 8 - 38% Lost 5 - 24% Without Grealish Won 2 - 15% Drew 7 - 54% Lost 4 - 31% From a points perspective that is: With Grealish: Won 8 - 24 points Drew 8 - 8 points Lost 5 - 0 points 50% take home of points Without Grealish Won 2 - 6 points Drew 7 - 7 points Lost 4 - 0 points 33% take home of points I'm going for a lie down...

Yeh I had the same problem. Have you still got Hogan? I persisted with him in the second half of the season and he ended up with about 10 goals. I couldn't get the strikers to work throughout the season though, even changing their roles each game to make something stick. I found Hourihane, McGinn, Bolasie and Adomah to be the best players first season. Adomah ended up with about 20 goals for me playing as a RW or LW Inside Forward.

Can you not get any wingers in on loan? Check the loan listed players (they are normally pretty pants), but then check the transfer listed players and attempt to loan some, most teams let you loan for very little and some of the unhappy players will join you. I know what you mean though, it's so hard to get decent players in the Championship.

This happened to me in my first and second seasons with Villa. I had Abraham first season then Solanke in my second season, neither scored more than 10-12 goals in all competitions. I then signed Barbosa who was a massive step up in terms of stats, he scored about 35 goals in his first season and is still prolific three seasons later.

I would keep hold of: GK - Kalinic, Nyland & Steer RB - Guilbert, Bree LB - Clark CB - Chester, Mings, Hause (buy), Tuanzebe (loan) CM - Hourihane, McGinn, Carroll (buy), Grealish, Doyle-Hayes, O'Hare LM - Green RM - El Ghazi (buy) ST - Davis, Hepburn-Murphy This means we would release: Jedinak, Elphick, Hutton, Whelan, Richards, Lyden & Bunn This means we can try to sell: McCormack, Hogan, Kodjia, Elmohamady, Adomah, Bjarnason, Gardner, Tshibola, Taylor, Lansbury It's a massive task, and there is no way that we would be able to sell all of those players. We will also be extremely lucky to hang on to Mings, Tuanzebe, McGinn and Grealish and so they also may need replacing. In all likelihood some positions will not be strengthened over the Summer, it's a 1-2 year rebuild that is required.

Nah I just think Hause would offer more at centre back. Better distribution and can bring the ball out to help the midfield. Elphick is a very one dimensional centre back.

Steer Elmo Mings Hause Taylor Whelan El Ghazi Hourihane Grealish Adomah Abraham

Bumping him back up. Back Saturday, really hope he makes an impact in the midfield.

Where have you heard that?

Finished Season 4 in fourth once again after a horrible end to the season. Completely fell apart in the final month when I should have gone on to take the title. Season 5 - Entered November top of the league. This is going to be the season! Season 5 signings include Tammy Abraham (free but somehow now worth 40 million?!), Malang Sarr, Reece Oxford, Leon Goretzka & Bertrand Traore.

Yeh I was there on Saturday and the support was absolutely brilliant as usual. It's been said a lot this season on social media but I have to agree that I much prefer an away game over a home game. The atmosphere at Villa Park is not nice at the moment and the fans get on the players backs straight away, away they cheer them throughout the 90 minutes even after going a goal behind. The support of the Gordon Banks tribute was brilliant.

Jesus christ, the lad only joined Cambridge last month and we are already writing off his career. He's gone there to get some first team experience not to prove he's the next Lionel Messi, give him a chance.

Depressingly I think we will get absolutely humped in this game. Even more depressingly I am going to the game. The only small bit of light in this is that our midfield have been absent since December, and so actually being physically absent in this game may not be much different.