Ratings & Reactions: Villa v Millwall

[HanoiVillan]

The performance was shit and I'm not going to defend Bruce particularly. We should have started with Grealish in a game where they were always likely to sit deep and look to counter us, and nobody really emerged with any credit. 

That being said, the thing that annoyed me the most, sat basically next to Bruce in the lower Trinity, was a group of three men who, ignoring all the small children around them, spent the entire second half yelling at the manager and just constantly calling him a clearing in the woods and a word removed. I mean, they must have yelled the same shit 50 times. There's a point where passion shades into outright unpleasantness, and they had crossed it by about the 50th minute. 

[fightoffyour]

2 hours ago, villa89 said:

Just another poor performance that we've seen so many of under this manager. You can count the number of good performances under him on one hand. With the money spent and the talent in the squad it's not good enough. 

Grealish should be in our first XI but I don't think the manager likes him or his style of play. 

I’m not sure you even need one hand

[Rugeley Villa]

How were the Millwall fans today? I've seen the video they made on the holte steps about 11 this morning, but did they behave themselves?

[Stratvillan]

12 minutes ago, Rugeley Villa said:

How were the Millwall fans today? I've seen the video they made on the holte steps about 11 this morning, but did they behave themselves?

Throwing coins at snodgrass in 1st half. 

[S-Platt]

11 minutes ago, Rugeley Villa said:

How were the Millwall fans today? I've seen the video they made on the holte steps about 11 this morning, but did they behave themselves?

They were loud at times got annoyed when Johnson smacked the ball full pelt at them nearly knocking a kid out.  He must have been about 10/11 from my viewpoint in the Upper North looked like he was crying and our fans were laughing and mocking them.  This caused a surge of their fans to run down to the front all dealt with by the stewards.

Though they were decent to be fair.

[Rugeley Villa]

10 minutes ago, Stratvillan said:

Throwing coins at snodgrass in 1st half. 

That's them being well behaved then 

[OutByEaster?]

Lacklustre. The whole thing just seemed very flat - there were the usual worries, our inability to  unlock a team or control a game where we're nominally the better side, and a couple of new ones with the injury to Samba exposing a bit of a lack of height through the team.

We've been worse I think; this was an uninspired performance with a slightly soft underbelly. Johnstone had a good game I thought and Grealish definitely added something. I think it's the kind of game where Kodjia is useful, one where we do nothing and he finds a solo goal.

Millwall were better than had been reported, or we made them look that way maybe. We didn't look hard to play against today.

We'll need to pick it up if we're going to progress.

[TRO]

The lack of football intelligence, particularly taking up positions is alarmingly bad....our ability to challenge for an aerial ball is shameful.....This team needs to learn the art of competing.

our offerings in the air at set pieces, particularly corners is woeful.....are we ever going to meet a ball in the air?.....never mind score.

I can remember in my time watching villa, when we had personnel who made a corner, like a penalty.

This team is not good enough........sorry.

Too many basics.....absent......done well to secure a draw against a better team on the day.

Edited December 9, 2017 by TRO

[markavfc40]

I thought a draw was the most we deserved as Millwall had some very good chances and we created very little.

I don't know what was amiss today other than the fact we were bullied and weren't strong enough against a side that were strong but not overly aggressive. I think the manager summed it up in his post match comments that today we could have done with both Jedinak and Terry.

Games like this will come along every so often where you turn up expecting a win and the opposition stifle you. 

The positive from today is that we didn't lose and our latest unbeaten run is now five games. Bring on Derby.

Edited December 9, 2017 by markavfc40

[turvontour]

3 hours ago, Vive_La_Villa said:

Cardiff drew 0-0 at home to Millwall to. Wolves won by the goal. They are a gritty team and hard to break down. We can play a lot better. 

Bring on the next game. 

Problem is, Wolves and Cardiff beat us.

And prob would again.

[Vive_La_Villa]

24 minutes ago, turvontour said:

Problem is, Wolves and Cardiff beat us.

And prob would again.

True. But at least we definitely won't meet one of them in the playoffs.

Edited December 9, 2017 by Vive_La_Villa

[The Fun Factory]

Flat turgid football played in front of a two thirds full stadium in a freezing bleak December day. Offer very little and to be frank I would put this down as a point gained than 2 lost on the balance of play. I have no qualms on the starting XI as Hourihane as gone off the boil recently and Grealish is slowly being brought into the side after a nasty injury. Snodgrass had a poor game (carrying a knock?), Davis continues to look much better away from home than at Villa Park and Lansbury was playing far too deep in midfield and his corners were appalling. Johnstone motm by a mile.

Oh and thanks Villa for deciding to prioritise 2,000 Millwall fans ahead of the home fans who had to wait a hour at Witton station to get home.

Edited December 9, 2017 by The Fun Factory

[TheStagMan]

4 hours ago, Vive_La_Villa said:

Or if the results start matching our performances. This has been the concern of many fans.

Yes , but you are not allowed to say this because it is anti-Bruce.

[TRO]

1 hour ago, TheStagMan said:

Yes , but you are not allowed to say this because it is anti-Bruce.

No, its only anti Bruce, if you think its anti Bruce.

There is an option

It could be anti Players too........like not being good enough.

[TheStagMan]

22 minutes ago, TRO said:

No, its only anti Bruce, if you think its anti Bruce.

There is an option

It could be anti Players too........like not being good enough.

Possibly, but it's funny how these players were good enough elsewhere.

 

I don't know about you but I am sick of seeing the same dross served up week after week and people glossing over our deficiencies when we win. 

[TRO]

17 minutes ago, TheStagMan said:

Possibly, but it's funny how these players were good enough elsewhere.

 

I don't know about you but I am sick of seeing the same dross served up week after week and people glossing over our deficiencies when we win. 

I kinda get that.....and I am not going to disagree, despite being reasonably happy with results

but its more to do with apportioning the blame in the right  area as opposed to a carte Blanche approach to... he is responsible for it all, so it must be the manager, surely we can see broader than that.....Thats what people do when they don't watch the games or follow the club.

right now we must have the biggest striker crisis in this league.......most of them have more forwards in their squad to start with, never mind our injury list.

We will be limping in to Jan for the second season in a row.

 

[Darth Villa]

Poor game, Villa players walking around as Millwall ran past and simply wanted it more. Snodgrass was poor (again!), Davis wasted a great chance but that would have been papering over the problems in my opinion.

I simply can't figure out why we can be so easily caused problems by poor but physical sides - I thought the old heads that Bruce recruited were meant to stop such things?

 

[flashingqwerty]

50 minutes ago, TRO said:

I kinda get that.....and I am not going to disagree, despite being reasonably happy with results

but its more to do with apportioning the blame in the right  area as opposed to a carte Blanche approach to... he is responsible for it all, so it must be the manager, surely we can see broader than that.....Thats what people do when they don't watch the games or follow the club.

right now we must have the biggest striker crisis in this league.......most of them have more forwards in their squad to start with, never mind our injury list.

We will be limping in to Jan for the second season in a row.

 

And who was responsible for ensuring we had sufficient resources for the season ahead again?

[flashingqwerty]

Abdolute shambles tonight and i see a big defeat coming if we dont change.

The players seemingly arent working hard enough when sent out against a team that has less talent but bags of desire.

Is this because the players are overconfident or because the manager is failing to motivate them?

A number of you have posted about players failing to do the basics - and this is a recurring theme and usually aimed at the same group of players.  The same can be said of a number of poor performers.

So either the players are better in training and so get picked, play bad, but continue to get picked because they did it in training, or this is how they look in training but the alternatives are worse.

There doesnt seem to be a cost to playing poorly or a reward for playing well on a consistant basis.  In the few games we saw bree he looked every bit as good as elmo or hutton at rb but has been left out in the cold.  O'Hare looked good in the few cameos hes had.  Why when hourihane and whelan have been in poor form has he not been involved more?

The lack of rotation, i believe, has had a big effect (cause) of our injury problems, coupled with playing people when they arent fit (snod, samba, kodjia) and rushing players back to soon from injury (kodjia, maybe grealish).

So many of the decisions being made are nonsensical and i fear in the long run this will come back to bit us.

I remain firmly sceptical of our chances of promotion as i dont believe the people in charge (let alone the players) have what it takes to get us there.

I give you a vote of no confidence in the current regime and i fear for the long term future of the club.

[sheepyvillian]

I'd rather Bruce than Pullis and that's saying something, trust me .