Ratings and Reactions: Nottm Forest v Villa

[Troglodyte]

The team does need time to gel.  There's a lot of promise for next season and hopefully things will click sooner rather than later so that we can hit the ground running in August.  Obviously it's gutting that we're having to look that far ahead when we're only a few days into February, but that's how it is.

They do seem a yard off the pace all the time, though, and we don't seem to want to take the game to the opposition or get in their faces.  Low confidence is one cause, but it is concerning that Bruce doesn't seem to be having any effect at all at the moment.  Personally I can't see much benefit in sacking him.  Give the guy a bit more time (we can afford it now!) and see if he can get us playing properly.  We don't want to just seem trigger happy, especially with someone who has a strong record and straight off the back of a transfer window.

I'm really, really annoyed with how things are at the moment, but we're going to have to show some patience.

[S-Platt]

If you have the talent we have we should be attacking teams and dominating games.   We just sit back and get our bellies tickled.  That is coming from the Manager.   Their keeper made some great saves and Grealish was a clearing in the woods but that cannot excuse a mind boggling play on the break tactic at the cannon fodder in this league.   Seriously we should blow teams away with the money we have spent on players.  What do they do in training all week!? I can't see any improvement and that is worrying.   You can say we improved on Tuesdays performance but we were playing a much worse opposition. 

FRUSTRATING 

[pacbuddies]

At the end of last season I decided that I needed something different to focus on other than AVFC because they have depressed me for years so I decided to follow the BTCC and  i can't wait for the season to start as AVFC are just a pile of shit managed by a turd of a manager. If he was sacked tomorrow I would have a beer to celebrate.

[VillaCas]

Just to be clear Grealishs first booking was well deserved - you can't kick the ball half way up the pitch well well after the whistle and expect not to be booked. Not soft at all and we would all have been shouting for a forest player to be booked in a similar position. Absolute Plum

[OutByEaster?]

I thought the shape worked, I thought we did enough for a point and with eleven on the pitch we looked the more likely winners.

We're disjointed, we aren't fluent, but you'd expect that of a side that hardly know each other - I thought there were lots of positives in the opening 92 minutes. Of course, that doesn't matter, we're kicked in the teeth again.

Johnstone (4) - NO. First goal is on him and he gave me kittens every time they had a shot.

Bree (7) - a reasonably assured debut from such a young player, he looked comfortable and at home.

Elphick (5) - Could have had hat trick - in general his touch wasn't good enough but he's a big game fella who defends with all he's got. A little lucky with the handball.

Chester (5) - Probably his worst game for us - far too many silly fouls

Baker (6) - I thought he was okay. We're better with him in the side.

Bjarnason (5)  - I thought he got better as the game went on, which I'm taking as a good sign - I'm not sure on the quality but he's giving it an effort and I think he might settle a little better.

Lansbury (6) - Again, he's assured on the ball and a calming figure - he's certainly got a whole lot more about him in the deep role than Jedinak for my money.

Hourihane (4) - A better second half, but he's had 180 minutes in a Villa shirt and for 150 of them you could have wrapped him in bandages - he needs to be a lot less the invisible man. He's got quality, he needs to settle.

Grealish (4) - Without the red card I'd have had him as our man of the match, everything good that we did came through him and he looked our best route to winning the game. The first booking is idiotic, it's not even petulance, he didn't seem angry, it didn't look like dissent, it just looked like idiocy. The second isn't much better. Now he's suspended and we lose another opportunity or two to bed into a system of play. Looking good at times and then doing something shockingly bad - he's Villa in a nutshell.

Hogan (6) - Some very promising things in his debut - I think he'l get better as the others get used to him - the run in the first half was excellent.

Kodjia (6) - Great goal. Really greedy and a lot of what we did broke down on him. I think he needs to stay up the field, when he comes back to pick up the ball from deep he often ruins our pattern of play. He's got some massive plusses, and he can be a great goalscorer, but he plays on his own and we need to make sure we let him.

I'm sure there will be wailing and gnashing of teeth tonight, it's a huge kick in the balls when we lose like we did and the performance was patchy, but I think there are some positives in there too. Better than Brentford; not there yet.

 

 

 

[VillanousOne]

I'm done. After the Brentford shit show I was weakly tempted back by another match on TV. **** it. I'll spend my weekends slamming my bell end against a wall and it'll still better than this shite.

[Eastie]

6 minutes ago, brummybloke said:

Out fought and out thought

 

Shit tactics shit keeper and harkett ? Played total dog shit in his first 2 games and a waste of a shirt.

 

They had more time in the ball more space and controlled the game from start to end.

 

When your tactics are wrong be man enough to change things. 

 

Grealish wrongly booked then acts like a cock and gets a 2nd yellow losing us the 1 miserable point we may have scraped.

Getting very bored of shit football and shit results. I can take shit football if we win.

 

We don't look capable of doing anything but lose

Embarrassing 

 

Grealish knows if you kick the ball away there's a good chance of being booked - no sympathy for him - needs to grow the **** up 

[pacbuddies]

2 minutes ago, PhilGibson said:

However turgid Bruce football may have been at previous clubs he has four promotions on his CV. Villa just seem too big of a club to tame or get right, the pressure just gets to every single one of them and they panic and turn to mush. 

Tactics are important and he has made a number of mistakes, but the players also turn to mush.

Conor Hourihane has been one of the players of the season by all accounts in the championship so far, played two games and looked like a lost sheep.

We are poisonous!

Nothing to do with the players. We can't keep blaming them as we have changed the whole team since last season. The fault lies with a string of poor managerial appointments.

[ermie123]

Taking the forwards off and putting wide men on was like having loads of bread but having nothing in the middle to make a sandwich!  And to think he played under Alex Ferguson!  There is no "never give up mentality" at this club anymore.  Most of the players we have had recently are actually crap.  The only people to have shined today were Bree, Hogan and Lansbury, the rest were crap! 

[avfc1982]

Threw away 3 points through our own stupidity. Keeper ballsed up yet again and Grealish let everyone down with his ridiculous first booking. Honestly we're our own worst enemies. 

I do like the look of Hogan and Kodijia up front though. Look, this season is a write off, let's look to next season where (hopefully) Bruce will install some team spirit. 

[osmark86]

I think I need a break from villa. This is just getting well out of hand ridiculous. I mean, proper **** ridiculous. HOW is it we screw everything up? Beyond poisonous, we're pure death.

[One For The Road]

Shocking. Attendances will start to drop now. Expect sub 30k v Ipswich now that our season is officially over.*  

*Unless we do end up in a relegation battle.

[deadlydion]

4 minutes ago, romavillan said:

Fine lines, shoudl have been out of sight before a goalkeeping error brought them back into the game. Then had a bucket load of chances to take the lead, then down to 10 men after Grealish's cheap first yellow, then didn't look troubled till we leave the lad all alone in the box to volley home.

Another day we win that 0-3 and don't even break a sweat. As it is we've completely blown this season now, we should continue with this 3-5-2 though, we looked far more like a team at times today.

This 100% if you're being objective.  If not then take your pick who to blame.

I thought we looked quite good and whilst I do agree that Grealish was clearly a candidate for taking off before his second card I'mnot sure we had a sub who could have come on and helped play the same way.  Bizarrely, had we had Ayoe or McGatemack then that would have ben an obvious swap but as it was, taking Jack ff would probably have changed our system and i guess Bruce didn't see a benefit in that hence why he didn't make the change. HINDSIGHT, however, says otherwise, but at the time I kind of agree with the decision not to make changes.  We weren't under any real pressure and nobody looked fatigued so, I am going to put it ut there and say I agree with SB on that. 

The keeper made a howler and ultimately that was our undoing, without that we would have walked this.

[VillaCas]

1 minute ago, OutByEaster? said:

 

Grealish (4) - Without the red card I'd have had him as our man of the match

100% Wrong

[AVTuco]

It's beyond frustrating, we're out of luck like early in the season under RDM. 

However, it seems to me we have quality in the team now. Hogan, Bree, Hourihane, Lansbury... we just haven't learnt how to use them yet.

I remain somewhat hopeful, we were much better than Tuesday. 

[macandally]

We have absolutely no shape, what the hell do they do at training.  Why do we retreat to our own half and let teams play out?  Why do we not squeeze teams and get in their faces? Why do we give the likes of Brentford and Forest any respect?  Get in to them and blow them away.

Lastly, why is the friggin ball like a hot potato when we get possession?  No shape to play our way out, no ability to hold the ball, no runners breaking forward. 

There are so many things wrong it is hard to know what to fix first!!!!

 

[Jas10]

Bruce can piss off! I agreed with allowing time etc. before but things are only getting worse and there are no signs of encouragement. He doesn't seem to have a clue and the job and club looks too big for him. He is making us more and more negative and I feel, unless we make the change, he's just going to make us more negative and boring and hyper-defensive just to try to eke out results and not go down!!! 

We have good players, I don't doubt that. We don't have a playing style, we don't try to play football - we are just sitting back and lumping the ball forwards. Bruce keeps saying we need to go back to basics - I'm concerned that the basics he is referring to is just defending, trying not to concede and snatch a goal somehow. We are becoming a very ugly team to watch and  not trying to attack and get on top of the opposition when, man for man, they are weaker but instead work together as a team and keep showing us up. It's utterly embarrassing! We need to train and set up the team to get the best out of this group of players, I don't feel we have the set up for that at all...

We are completely devoid of passion and any form of playing style!

Edited February 4, 2017 by Jas10

[Condimentalist]

Dreadful keeper, Elphick, wastefulness and stupidity costing us again.

Loads of players in, same old shite.

It wasn't all bad - Hogan and Lansbury were positives for me - but I think we can kiss promotion goodbye now.

Johnstone - 3

Chester - 6

Elphick - 5 

Baker - 6 

Bree - 6

Hourihane - 6

Lansbury - 7

Grealish - 5

Bjarnason- 6

Kodjia- 7

Hogan- 7

[Kingman]

Club full of words removed... We're  just a club full of words removed!.. 

[TheMelvillan]

Jesus. Thats it. Im done. Finished. Gone. Left. Outta here. Melvillan has left the building. Sianara. Adios. Au revoir. See ya later alligator. Sod this.

 

Speak to y'all tomorrow