Stevo985 Posted January 11 VT Supporter Share Posted January 11 49 minutes ago, Keyblade said: We got pipped to second place and automatic promotion by Cardiff City led by Junior **** Hoilett, which was embarrassing and even to 3rd by a late surge from Fulham. It was a fun season given it had been eons since we had won so many games in a single season, but 4th place and failure to win the playoffs was ultimately pretty poor going. Yep I agree. We should have been winning the league, probably. But there’s a lot to be said about seeing us win all the time and scoring loads of goals Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Keyblade Posted January 11 Share Posted January 11 13 minutes ago, Stevo985 said: Yep I agree. We should have been winning the league, probably. But there’s a lot to be said about seeing us win all the time and scoring loads of goals Yeah all that said I still really enjoyed that season. Snodgrass and Adomah having about 40 goal contributions between them was exciting. It was also my favourite season to watch of Jack Grealish, he was just immaculate that year playing in the 10. Chester - Terry was also one of my favourite CB partnerships in recent memory, they were so good. Glenn Whelan was surprisingly not the clogger I always thought he was when he played for Stoke. We had a great squad. Ultimately what let us down was Steve Bruce and his inability to set up against decent teams especially. He always played like we were 1-0 up and holding on for a win for some reason. Even in the damn playoff final we seemed to be defending a 1-0 lead despite actually being down 1-0. He was just awful honestly, when it was all said and done. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Stevo985 Posted January 11 VT Supporter Share Posted January 11 38 minutes ago, Keyblade said: Yeah all that said I still really enjoyed that season. Snodgrass and Adomah having about 40 goal contributions between them was exciting. It was also my favourite season to watch of Jack Grealish, he was just immaculate that year playing in the 10. Chester - Terry was also one of my favourite CB partnerships in recent memory, they were so good. Glenn Whelan was surprisingly not the clogger I always thought he was when he played for Stoke. We had a great squad. Ultimately what let us down was Steve Bruce and his inability to set up against decent teams especially. He always played like we were 1-0 up and holding on for a win for some reason. Even in the damn playoff final we seemed to be defending a 1-0 lead despite actually being down 1-0. He was just awful honestly, when it was all said and done. No argument there Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mark Albrighton Posted January 11 VT Supporter Share Posted January 11 I’ve posted it before, but Bruce’s record with Grealish was worse than his record without him. We’re talking a PPG of 1.906 v 1.476. And games without Grealish was not a small sample size - 32 games. It’s actually an automatic promotion rate. I’ve checked this. Twice. He was better than Smith in that regard, he could get more points without Grealish. The stats suggest something was not quite right when he had him available. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mikeyp102 Posted January 11 Share Posted January 11 He signed McGinn for us so can’t be that bad 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Keyblade Posted January 11 Share Posted January 11 1 hour ago, Mark Albrighton said: I’ve posted it before, but Bruce’s record with Grealish was worse than his record without him. We’re talking a PPG of 1.906 v 1.476. And games without Grealish was not a small sample size - 32 games. It’s actually an automatic promotion rate. I’ve checked this. Twice. He was better than Smith in that regard, he could get more points without Grealish. The stats suggest something was not quite right when he had him available. To be fair, a good chunk of that includes the 16/17 season where Grealish's head was not quite right. That was the season he got pictured laid out in Tenerife if I'm not wrong. It was really only starting from like November/December 2017 after he came back from that freak kidney injury that he started to become the indispensable Grealish that we know. We soon went on a 7 game winning streak after that, where even Scott Hogan was banging in the goals. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mark Albrighton Posted January 11 VT Supporter Share Posted January 11 5 minutes ago, Keyblade said: To be fair, a good chunk of that includes the 16/17 season where Grealish's head was not quite right. That was the season he got pictured laid out in Tenerife if I'm not wrong. It was really only starting from like November/December 2017 after he came back from that freak kidney injury that he started to become the indispensable Grealish that we know. We soon went on a 7 game winning streak after that, where even Scott Hogan was banging in the goals. A search suggests that happened in June 2015. To an extent he’s still finding his feet in that first Championship season. If Bruce has discovered the formula to get the best out of Grealish (and therefore the team) in the second season, then on the showings of the third season he’s lost it. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Zatman Posted January 11 Share Posted January 11 3 hours ago, Keyblade said: Wolves were probably the best team the Championship has ever seen. They had Ruben Neves who was the captain of Porto FFS, as well as other players like Jota who were way too good for that league. No shame in not finishing above them. But we absolutely should have come second though. For the amount we spent on transfers and wages, finishing below Cardiff was unacceptable. All well and good but its no Bielsa/Bamford and Kalvin Phillips the greatest football team ever Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mark Albrighton Posted January 11 VT Supporter Share Posted January 11 Just for clarity in case it’s needed. Me saying that I didn’t much enjoy the 17/18 season because Wolves were very good that season is no reflection on Bruce (hence “If I’m being fair…”). I am merely stating it as one of the reasons why I didn’t enjoy the season. If you lived anywhere in the vicinity of Wolves supporters then it wasn’t a particularly enjoyable season. Particularly as they seemingly increased in numbers around then. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Follyfoot Posted January 11 VT Supporter Share Posted January 11 Just now, Mark Albrighton said: Just for clarity in case it’s needed. Me saying that I didn’t much enjoy the 17/18 season because Wolves were very good that season is no reflection on Bruce (hence “If I’m being fair…”). I am merely stating it as one of the reasons why I didn’t enjoy the season. If you lived anywhere in the vicinity of Wolves supporters then it wasn’t a particularly enjoyable season. Particularly as they seemingly increased in numbers around then. And tied to create a rivalry that has never existed with all this mind the gap nonsense. All her family are dogheads and it was as you say not a very pleasant time 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mark Albrighton Posted January 11 VT Supporter Share Posted January 11 3 minutes ago, Follyfoot said: And tied to create a rivalry that has never existed with all this mind the gap nonsense. All her family are dogheads and it was as you say not a very pleasant time If I’m being completely fair, Xia and Wyness didn’t help matters with all that. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Keyblade Posted January 11 Share Posted January 11 28 minutes ago, Mark Albrighton said: A search suggests that happened in June 2015. To an extent he’s still finding his feet in that first Championship season. If Bruce has discovered the formula to get the best out of Grealish (and therefore the team) in the second season, then on the showings of the third season he’s lost it. There was a period while Grealish was injured where he was playing Scott Hogan as a target man and it resulted in a couple of the worst performances I've ever seen from a Villa team (Reading and Brentford away if I recall). What saved him was Keinan Davis being an absolute monster and playing that target man role to perfection. I don't think it was Bruce figuring out some tactical formula. Also remember we finished 13th the previous season. One aspect of that season I always forget that makes me chuckle, was that we signed Lewis Grab an on loan in January. He had just finished scoring 12 goals in 5 months for the worst team in the league. We basically assembled an all-star team, and still couldn't finish in the top 2 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Zatman Posted February 20 Share Posted February 20 Has apparently applied for the South Korea job. A match made in heaven 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rodders0223 Posted February 20 Share Posted February 20 Steve Bruce interested in more money for little to no work. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
VillaAlex Posted February 20 Share Posted February 20 Probably going for the barbeque. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dodgyknees Posted February 20 Share Posted February 20 3 hours ago, Zatman said: Has apparently applied for the South Korea job. A match made in heaven So he will apply for the North Korea job next then. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Zatman Posted March 8 Share Posted March 8 Staveley has said he didnt want to go to work after the takeover happened Must have been a shock to system after riding the Xia/Ashley/dodgy Sheffield Wednesday owner gravy train 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
villa89 Posted March 8 Share Posted March 8 Was the on telly? 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rodders0223 Posted March 9 Share Posted March 9 13 hours ago, Zatman said: Staveley has said he didnt want to go to work after the takeover happened Must have been a shock to system after riding the Xia/Ashley/dodgy Sheffield Wednesday owner gravy train He was barely at work when he managed us. 1 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
VillaJ100 Posted March 9 Share Posted March 9 We should definitely have been up there with Wolves and been a shoe in for automatic, not in a bumfight with an extremely limited Cardiff playing agricultural football - long balls, set pieces and the like. Fulham were annoying that year as well, went about 20 games undefeated and Sessegnon was playing like some sort of championship Ronaldo at 17. I knew we'd effed it for automatic when I think we were level on points with Cardiff or thereabouts and then lost 2-0 I think away to Bolton who were in the drop zone. It was a terrible result and we tailed off from then 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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