Carlos_the_third

Agree he totally needs a song. Carrying on the kids theme, the following to the tune of old macdonald should do the trick (edit: I should add this first one is in jest as apparently it wasn’t obvious) “Robert Snodgrass scored a goal. Ee-aye-ee-aye-o. And from his cross we scored again. Ee-aye-ee-aye-o. With a snod snod here and a snod snod there. Here a snod there a snod everywhere a snod snod. Robert Snodgrass scored a goal. Ee-aye-ee-aye-o” Or a slightly more serious attempt - an adaptation of the Carlos Cuellar song: “The Scottish boy who makes the goals, Snodgrass, Snodgrass He assists with his right and assists with his left, Snodgrass, Snodgrass, He causes the Villa fans to sing, running riot on the wing, Robert Snodgrass, Villa through and through”

Was at the Fulham Villa game last week and the Fulham Wolves game this week - Fulham are definitely a decent team, and my biggest worry in the competition for second, but they are by no means world beaters. Last week we were absolutely awful there, in a large part due to our well documented injury issues, and apart from a 10 minute spell in the second half Fulham didn’t really look all that. Yesterday, Wolves were even worse than we were last week - Neves was suspended and Jota rested/dropped, and they did nothing all game. Fulham also didn’t really do much, and both their goals were arguably down to poor keeping also from where I was sat. Obviously it’s a real boost for them beating two top teams in the division within two weeks, but given the relative performances of the opposition it’s not as impressive as it might appear.

Didn’t watch the match so can’t comment on his overall performance, but surprised more isn’t being made of how good his goal was - amazing piece of technique to pull that off, especially at such a crucial moment. Cant be many CMs in the championship (or even the bottom half of the Prem) who could do that, let alone after running around like a madman for 87 minutes (I’m assuming this holds for yesterday as his work rate is always great)!

Instead of BB on the left I’m reading that more as 4-3-3 with Onomah left wing, as at Fulham. If so, hopefully JO will have a much better game there than at Fulham! And if not, you’ve really got to hope that O’Hare comes into the picture soon.

Actually thought he was decent yesterday, other than a shocking last ten minutes when we were attempting to push forward and he kept giving the ball away (along with the entire rest of the side, but he was one of the main culprits). In the first half, he was responsible for a couple of good driving runs that resulted in two of our most dangerous attacks of the entire match, so not sure I subscribe to the theory of him having a shocker. Agree that he should have played DM though, with Lansbury/O’Hare in his position - that was not a game for Jedinak.

Yeah I don’t think Elmo will be dropped (and don’t think he should either, given the partnership he has with Snod and our overall defensive solidity), but it is a major concern for sure as he will really have to be on it. From memory Bree played in this fixture last season (was potentially subbed on/moved positions after JK got sent off?) and was one of the players having real problems.

Not at all based on his performance against Blues, just on horses for courses. As I see it, there are basically three teams in the division that play quick, intricate passing, attacking football consistently - Wolves, Fulham and Brentford. Against these teams, mobility is so key - against Brentford away we had Jedi and Whelan in the middle of the park (as Bruce wanted to go more defensive so as not to get overrun) and got absolutely destroyed, because they just couldn’t keep up. Obviously that was exacerbated by having both in there, but even with just Jedi plus Hourihane I really think we’d struggle to keep up with the movement (Wolves away we had Whelan and Hourihane and again got nowhere near them, but this was in a 4-4-2 tbf so no extra help from a CAM). Fulham are barely ever going to be playing it long, and so Jedi’s main strength (aerial ability) won’t be required, and I really think Birkir’s mobility would stand us in far better stead. However, if Jack and Lansbury are out I don’t think we have a better option than Jedinak-Bjarnason-Hourihane, unless Bruce is prepared to throw in a curveball and play someone like O’Hare which seems highly unlikely. Again, this is nothing against Jedi and I’d have him back in against the sides (of which there are plenty in this division) who you know will just be lumping it long and playing for set pieces, but Fulham aren’t one of them.

Fulham are the one team I’m worried about in the battle for second - don’t think anyone else in the play off places are a good enough side to outperform us for the rest of the season unless we go on a poor run. Would definitely take a point (especially as I’m going and I don’t exactly have the best record when seeing us this season), but don’t think setting up for one is the way to go as they are a good attacking side, so can’t let them have too much of the ball. Concerned about their left hand side as they absolutely tore us apart down there in the away fixture last season (although they have I think since sold their left back from that game), and Sessegnon will no doubt be a real handful for Elmo. Only change for me would be Bjarnason in for Jedi - if Adomah is injured bring in Green, if Grealish is then bring in Lansbury (if fit) or Jedi and move Hourihane to no. 10.

Agree it’s a tough one to work out who will play CDM next week - we should really be looking to give them an absolute battering, but Bruce has in the past tended to come out before derbies with ‘form out the window’ comments (which are fair to an extent), and erred towards accepting that it will be a scrappy game before we’ve even kicked off, rather than adapting to this eventuality if and when it happens. In the last game against Blues also, we were really struggling to deal with the massive guy they had playing CAM (who I’m almost certain was not actually a CAM but just stuck there for that one game to put himself about in a derby and get the fans up) until Jedi came on, at which point we took control of the game - this would also point to maybe Jedi being included. However, this is by far the most secure Bruce has been in his job when entering a derby, and I’m sure the fans would forgive him far more easily if we tried to play football and got beaten off a set piece than if we revert to a more defensive setup and lose/draw - it will be really interesting to see which way he goes, and could potentially show whether recent good football/results have given him more confidence in going for it.

Really enjoy watching him play left back, as you never know what he’s going to do when he gets the ball given that he’s not too confident on his left foot. Sometimes this is a bad thing (e.g. in the first 20 minutes yesterday he lost the ball once by trying to dribble out of a dangerous position and had nearly done the same twice more, but then he seemed to snap out of it after knocking out that Bristol player with a ball to the face), but his charging runs into midfield allow us to get the ball up the pitch with a much higher chance of retaining it than if we just lumped it up from the back as usual. Sometimes a bit of chaos is just what is needed for a team that struggles to create things (as we often do), and that’s certainly what happens when the Scottish Roberto Carlos gets going on one of his advances. Also, there was nothing chaotic about his assist for the fourth goal - what a pass!

Really impressed by his crossing with his weaker left foot today (set up the first two goals this way from memory)! This coming on the back of a similar assist for the winner against Boro. Top work.

Gotta be something doable from 'we built this city'... Brucey signed Chris Samba, nightmare for the oppo, Don't you remember, he stops them scoring, he stops them scoring an-y goals, He stops them scoring, stops them scoring an-y goals, Stops them scoring, he stops them scoring an-y goals.

Was a bit worried when we signed him due to his age, and then even more so after the first few games. However, those initial performances were clearly down to a lack of football, having spent most of the previous season on the bench. He's such a good player - his legs maybe about 8 years behind where he'd want to be, but his football intelligence is worth far more than any legs in the championship, that's for sure. That clearing header over the bar from Preston's fancy corner routine in the first half just summed it up - the entire side had switched off, four Preston players had broke the offside trap, but who was there to virtually head it off the line? Big JT.

Played really well tonight, was noticeably trying more forward passes. Also I don't think he randomly lost balance and fell over until stoppage time (at which point he fell over twice in ten seconds), which is another marked improvement on previous matches.

Obviously very concerned (as everyone else is) about the left back spot - haven't managed to see much of Wolves this season, but most of my mates are Wolves fans and they rave about their forward players, so whoever plays at left back has a big job on their hands. This will be my third competitive away game - crossing my fingers it goes better than the previous two (3-1 loss away at Man City and 4-1 loss away at man united), but reckon we might take a bit of a beating. Would go with the same team as the last few matches but with RDL (if fit) in for Taylor.

By 'best football' I meant 'best football to watch from a purists point of view', as in he allowed us to build phases of play and play as close to 'proper football' as we have done for ages (this is obviously only my opinion of course and is very subjective, and I did use the word 'some' to indicate it wasn't necessarily the absolute best...). Yes we played some very exciting counter attacking football under MON (without Emile), and even under Lambert for a few months, but that's not quite the same as above. I even stated further down my post that Heskey signing for us when we were third may not have been the right thing, or what we needed right then, and if the alternative was say Falcao (which it was rumoured to be at the time) then of course we may well have finished that season in the top 4 and everything could be very different right now, but the point I was getting at was that rightly or wrongly I enjoyed watching us play when we had Emile in the team, as you knew the ball would stick up front, he would bring others into play and allow us to properly build attacks. This is in contrast to what we have seen since when playing a team that sits back which is just to lump it up front without any real plan and hope for the best - obviously when benteke was here (and to a lesser extent Kodjia last season) he would often make something out of nothing from one of these hoofs forwards, but it never felt like we actually had anything planned other than to hope he did it himself. Maybe there have been other spells of good play that I'm forgetting due to having been exposed to dross for so long, but if Davis helps us to keep the ball and build attacks then it will mean I can actually enjoy watching us play, rather than enjoy watching us win, which is a very different thing and has been the case for far too long.

Agreed. Personally I think we played some of our best football over the last 10 years with Heskey in the side, his hold up play was superb and he really brought our creative players into the game. Obviously his scoring record wasn't as good as it could/should've been which is why he's generally labelled as not being very good, but I think if he'd been a foot shorter, Spanish, and showed some of the close control and link up play that he did then people would've been raving about him (as you can probably tell, I have a soft spot for Emile). Yes there are questions about whether we should've signed him when we did (third in the prem in January), but we're not anywhere near third in the prem any more, and I would take the Heskey we signed back then in a heartbeat now. Davis is still pretty raw, and comparisons of young players aren't always helpful/informative when there's still a lot of development to take place, but if he has a career like Heskey and, like Heskey, enables us to play good football (which there are very early signs that this might be the case), then we will have unearthed a gem.

No way are we gonna win two televised games in a row - therefore I'm going with another bore draw

Was listening to some of those 'hits of year x' playlists on Apple Music the other day, and the 1999 one inspired the following, to the tune of Livin La Vida Loca: Left foot right foot head, You can't stop Jonny Kodjia. He'll score and score again, You can't stop Jonny Kodjia. He'll de-stroy your defence, And his nickname's Jimmy Danger. He will bang them in, You can't stop Jonny Kodjia, You can't stop Jonny Kodjia, You can't stop Jonny Kodjia. Then there could be a bit of a singalong to the 'duh duh, duh duh duh duh duh' bit as well. Maybe too long for a football chant, but kept me amused for the five minutes I spent coming up with it at least!

As others have said, from the limited number of times that I watched Hull in the PL I never noticed him looking out of place (in a bad way) and he often seemed to be one of their main threats going forwards, so hopefully he will prove very effective in the Championship!

Long time Villa fan and reader of the site, thought it was about time I signed up! Go to the odd game when I can but am unable to make most of them, so find the posts on this site very useful.