Steve Bruce

[terrytini]

53 minutes ago, dn1982 said:

But can we under Bruce? I don’t think we can. We had a fresh Kodija last year and the football was awful but the results were decent. That’s a all we will get with Bruce. This is as good as it gets.  Let’s hope it’s enough. 

Well ( again, I’m not what one would call “ pro Bruce) I’ve watched every game bar 2 in 2017 and in my view we are clearly a better team now than we were. But of course I accept that’s just opinion. Our results are clearly better over the last 11 games than any other 11 game period, so that’s a bit of back up.

But regardless of that I would still suggest it’s feasible to think we can get more from our players whereas Wolves are at 100%.

[VILLAMARV]

22 hours ago, BOF said:

Did someone say mini-league?  Here's the top 10 versus the top 10 so far.

 

Interestingly, if you have a league table of the top 10 versus the rest (11-24) we're top (although we've played more).

 

6 of those 10 teams in our next 8 games. Ipswich - Leeds [a] - Derby [a] - Sheff Utd - Middlesbrough [a] and Bristol City (with Brentford [a] and Millwall the other two in that sequence).

 

[bobzy]

37 minutes ago, romavillan said:

They were allowed the freedom of Villa Park to do as they pleased, luckily they are shit. They still scored though.

But they weren't.  They were allowed the ball in their half and the middle of the pitch before we compressed, won the ball back and broke.  I'm pretty sure most of the game was played in Sunderland's half despite them having about 60% possession - they just didn't have "the freedom of Villa Park".

For all their being shit, Sunderland do score a fair amount of goals.  Their strength is attacking and we nullified that almost entirely.  We played poorly and were still incredibly comfortable with, IMO, a legitimate tactic for this game.

[BOF]

1 minute ago, VILLAMARV said:

6 of those 10 teams in our next 8 games. Ipswich - Leeds [a] - Derby [a] - Sheff Utd - Middlesbrough [a] and Bristol City (with Brentford [a] and Millwall the other two in that sequence).

Indeed.  Over the next 8 league games, only Millwall have a numerically tougher set of fixtures than we have.  Our opponents average 8.88 in the league.  Millwall at 8.25.  The easiest run in that time is Cardiff whose opponents average 15.88.  Wolves are joint second with 15.50.

[vreitti]

4 minutes ago, BOF said:

Indeed.  Over the next 8 league games, only Millwall have a numerically tougher set of fixtures than we have.  Our opponents average 8.88 in the league.  Millwall at 8.25.  The easiest run in that time is Cardiff whose opponents average 15.88.  Wolves are joint second with 15.50.

Exactly. We've not had the toughest of fixtures thus far. December is surely gonna be make or break.

[BOF]

1 minute ago, vreitti said:

Exactly. We've not had the toughest of fixtures thus far. December is surely gonna be make or break.

I agree, but then December usually is.  It'll be make or break for those around us too   

[bobzy]

2 minutes ago, vreitti said:

Exactly. We've not had the toughest of fixtures thus far. December is surely gonna be make or break.

But after that run, we'll have played 2 of the top 6, twice.  Does that then mean we have had the toughest fixtures?

[dn1982]

16 minutes ago, terrytini said:

Well ( again, I’m not what one would call “ pro Bruce) I’ve watched every game bar 2 in 2017 and in my view we are clearly a better team now than we were. But of course I accept that’s just opinion. Our results are clearly better over the last 11 games than any other 11 game period, so that’s a bit of back up.

But regardless of that I would still suggest it’s feasible to think we can get more from our players whereas Wolves are at 100%.

I think we could easily be a better team but Bruce limits his players. We have better players than most. I’d say our squad is probably the strongest individually but we aren’t a good footballing team. We have better players than last year So we are a better team. I don’t think we will get any better as a team under Bruce this is It style wise hopefully we have enough players having runs of form to see us through. Just imagine how good we could be  if our players knew how to attack as a team not just defend as one. 

[dn1982]

I love people who quote stats on one thing but then dismiss them on another. Bof’s table backs up what I’ve thought and what I’ve said. We need to do better against our rivals to have a chance. December is a massive month and if we can come through it well we may be able to look at automatic with a bit of confidence. A bad run though and it’ll be the playoffs. 

[Stevo985]

15 hours ago, Villan_of_oz said:

My views are known, but it is very pleasing sitting here having my coffee to see us in 4th and safely inside the top 6.

Bruce is doing enough, despite my concerns, he deserves some slack. 

A bit of objectivity from someone who  apparently hates Bruce (ludicrous comment BTW)

UTV

Who said you hated Bruce?

[Stevo985]

38 minutes ago, terrytini said:

Well ( again, I’m not what one would call “ pro Bruce) I’ve watched every game bar 2 in 2017 and in my view we are clearly a better team now than we were. But of course I accept that’s just opinion. Our results are clearly better over the last 11 games than any other 11 game period, so that’s a bit of back up.

But regardless of that I would still suggest it’s feasible to think we can get more from our players whereas Wolves are at 100%.

I cannot fathom the opinion that we are not a considerably better team than we were.

Not good enough? Fine, I accept that, and even agree with it. But we have quite clearly improved significantly since last season.

[VILLAMARV]

2 minutes ago, BOF said:

Indeed.  Over the next 8 league games, only Millwall have a numerically tougher set of fixtures than we have.  Our opponents average 8.88 in the league.  Millwall at 8.25.  The easiest run in that time is Cardiff whose opponents average 15.88.  Wolves are joint second with 15.50.

Massive potential banana skin or massive opportunity - have it your way VT

Bruce has one question left to answer (aside from the awful football but personally my point on that is he'll have to answer for that for his entire managerial career when he stops!) and that, for me, is the "Can we beat the better teams in this league?" question.

 

[omariqy]

57 minutes ago, BOF said:

Indeed.  Over the next 8 league games, only Millwall have a numerically tougher set of fixtures than we have.  Our opponents average 8.88 in the league.  Millwall at 8.25.  The easiest run in that time is Cardiff whose opponents average 15.88.  Wolves are joint second with 15.50.

Carrying on with the form in your table over the rest of the season would leave us on 76 points. 

 

Edit: Shows you how important those games against the top 10 are. Difference between playoffs and automatic promotion. 

Edited November 23, 2017 by omariqy

[dont_do_it_doug.]

1 hour ago, dn1982 said:

Because they were low on confidence and with out 7 players? but I don’t think he was just on about this game. It’s what we do. 

What about Norwich? Barnsley? Burton? Fulham? Preston? QPR? I mean sure, Forest was scrappy as was Bolton and Sunderland (I'm told) but we didn't necessarily struggle. In fact Forest is the ONLY win this season where you could make a decent case that the result was in some way unjust. We could also talk about Boro and even Hull, games we should have won if not for elements of luck not going our way.  

"It's what we do". Which seems to be win all manner of games at the minute? That's my personal angle. Yes we have been disappointing a couple of times, it's a long old season, but for me on the whole we've been good to watch and we deserve our current position. Can we kick on and carry our form from the last 14 into the rest of the season? I hope so. The signs are good. 

[dont_do_it_doug.]

44 minutes ago, dn1982 said:

I love people who quote stats on one thing but then dismiss them on another. Bof’s table backs up what I’ve thought and what I’ve said. We need to do better against our rivals to have a chance. December is a massive month and if we can come through it well we may be able to look at automatic with a bit of confidence. A bad run though and it’ll be the playoffs. 

Who are those people? 

I think everyone is in agreement we need to do better against the teams around us. But I would say even BOF would agree that sample size is in play. 5 games is not enough to go on. 

[dont_do_it_doug.]

1 hour ago, striker said:

No don't think it's anything due to fitness at the moment. More so that if villa keep losing possession eventually that will catch up with the team at the business end of the season. Thats what i think some posters are worried about.

I understand the concern. I can only say that we either have the fitness and the depth in our squad or we don't. There's no easy way to calculate that.  

Quote

As to the cause of poor possession it might well be a lack of movement (options) around the player in possession or the way in which Villa are set up to play. Both those explanations ( only my opinion) would therefore reflect on the manager and coaches.

Yes - away from home in particular we play counter attacking football. We seem to be pretty good at it. It's reminiscent of the Martin O'Neill era, in which it's fair to say without fail we ran out of legs come April/May. It will be up to the manager to utilise the squad to suit and unlike O'Neill he doesn't seem frightened to make changes, my concern is it seems to be all or nothing. He can be too sweeping.

That's a worthy debate - he should perhaps have made changes for Tuesday night and it would be wise to make a couple on Saturday. 

[Demitri_C]

1 hour ago, vreitti said:

Exactly. We've not had the toughest of fixtures thus far. December is surely gonna be make or break.

I dont understand this point. We have been away to Cardiff, Wolves and Bristol City. We have also played Boro, Forest and been away to tough places and won (QPR and Preston) Yes we still have teams to play like Leeds, Derby and Sheff United coming up but how have we not had tough games? 

 

[vreitti]

1 minute ago, Demitri_C said:

I dont understand this point. We have been away to Cardiff, Wolves and Bristol City. We have also played Boro, Forest and been away to tough places and won (QPR and Preston) Yes we still have teams to play like Leeds, Derby and Sheff United coming up but how have we not had tough games? 

 

I just don't have the energy to argue this anymore. Please look at the tables provided by BOF. Make of that what you will.

[Demitri_C]

2 minutes ago, vreitti said:

I just don't have the energy to argue this anymore. Please look at the tables provided by BOF. Make of that what you will.

Ive looked at them and Wolves have played 3 more games than us for those around us, I still dont understand your point though as we still have had tough games to play a  s highlighted in my post.

Its very encouraging that we are beating teams that we are expected to beat though i find that reassuring at the very least 

[vreitti]

Just now, Demitri_C said:

Ive looked at them and Wolves have played 3 more games than us for those around us, I still dont understand your point though as we still have had tough games to play a  s highlighted in my post.

Its very encouraging that we are beating teams that we are expected to beat though i find that reassuring at the very least 

I never said we haven't had "tough games". Some would argue all games in this league are tough. Considering who we still have to play before reaching half-season, I alluded we've not had the toughest of fixtures. How is that not abundantly clear looking at the tables? I don't know about you, but I'd rather face Burton, Bolton and Sunderland, as opposed to Leeds, Derby and Sheffield U in the coming weeks.