Ratings & Reactions: Play Off Final v Fulham

[The Fun Factory]

23 minutes ago, onmeedson said:

Their manager got it spot on to many old legs, the first half was dire due to the fact most of that set up knew they could not compete over 90 mins. We were passed to death by a reasonable side who played as a team, our game plan was easy to negate as Fulham just had to stop one man.  They have just put a new dinosaur in the museum in Birmingham maybe the slot along side it is for our manager. The writing was on the wall after the wolves game it may work occasionally but the price is failure in the following games because teams know what you are about. We were never ready to go up with the style of football and a manager who turns up for press conferences looking like the local butcher in a villa top.

Well apart from the fact that football dinosaur colin warnock got Cardiff up playing even worse football on a smaller budget.  Yes I'd rather have better football and yes for the premier league that would be more likely for the team to stay up but there is more than one  way to win games.

[flashingqwerty]

3 hours ago, The Fun Factory said:

Well apart from the fact that football dinosaur colin warnock got Cardiff up playing even worse football on a smaller budget.  Yes I'd rather have better football and yes for the premier league that would be more likely for the team to stay up but there is more than one  way to win games.

i watched quite a lot of cardiff this season. they often play better football than we do but they also have pace in the side and have players capable of bullying the opposition as and when needed.

they can and do play multiple different styles and always have a plan b - something villa under bruce do not have.

its one thing playing defensively when you have a big man up top and pace throughout your midfield - but we stopped playing with a big man up top some time ago and whilst we have 1 or 2 players who can run fast they are ponderous on the ball which negates their running speed.

to play good counter attacking football the midfield needs players who not only run fast ( of which i think we only have 2) but also think fast (of which i think we only have 1).

this 11 wasnt built with our 'style of play' in mind - its an assembly of players who did well at other cĺubs playing a multitude of different styles.

i see no efgort to assemble a team to suit how we play or a group that offers us the ability to play multiple ways.  it appears we went and bought the 'best of the rest' without any plan to turn them into a cohesive unit and i believe ultimately this was our undoing.

i dont believe SB has what it takes to assemble a squad with an identity and strong playing style that offers fluidity and flexibility- he is much like oleary in that he wants an honest bunch who work hard and he couldnt even get that right.

[Skills]

On ‎27‎/‎05‎/‎2018 at 04:24, Juju said:

You know what, knowing as little about football as I do, I'm going to have a bit fat disagree with most here.

Reality check - we were playing a team who were on paper, a team who should have been promoted automatically. They weren't some dead end team. They were our peers. Any game was going to be, if both teams played well, tight and edgy.

Over the 90 minutes, we played better football than Fulham. It's just regrettable that a lapse in concentration cost us. There's was a good goal, we shouldnt begrudge them that. They were fractionally better in and around the box, and yes, that's important. But I thought Fulham looked fat, slow, and their league position flatters them. Unless they spend big, they're coming straight back down. Neutrals in the pub I was drinking in, all agreed, but we just couldn't do anything right in front of their goal. Most of the second half, the game was compressed into their half. What was so badly wrong there?

Nor or can I  criticise the subs particularly. If one had scored, you'd be praising Bruce as a genius.  We hadn't scored in the prior 70 mins, and on a big pitch, on a hot day, its not a bad thing to make a couple of late subs to shake things up a bit, any game is a lottery by that point. They were, arguably attacking subs as well.

Frankly we owned the second half, and the first was tight, with their goal making the difference. They played defensively, forcing a team to rely on counter attacking football to actually pass it about, which frankly we did.

Disappointed, but there's not many in the team I'd identify as failing to try. Adomah had a lot of the ball, and any player who does is going to be noticed when he slips or trips occasionally. Jack dived about a bit, but that Bestesque oement when we almost danced it into the goal was lovely to watch. We had the pressure we just didnt create enough really good chances. And thats as much about Fulham, a team who frankly were way better than us in our last meeting, as it is about us.

Disappointed, but not displeased with the performance, just the result. Anyone who expects a beautiful game when so much is at stake is a fool.

 

finally a post that I agree with wholeheartedly...  ive had time to let the outcome sink in so here comes my two cents

I don't think the best team won on the day, yes Fulham dominated the first half but equally we dominated the second half, the game could have gone either way all bar the ugly goal imo on the back of poor positioning by Hutton (who has been good for us) at left back getting caught out and it was a simple pass to make.  

Bruce choose to make his subs and im not sure why he is getting abused for it, Mile was the obvious option to come off and Kodija was always going to come on if we were chasing a goal.  I personally would have taken off grabban as he had a quiet game but so be it the right players came on

Also don't agree with the naysayers that the future is bleak.  I think we have the bulk of the team for next year and remember, loans will still be available next season.  Kodjia comes into the starting line up out goes grabban who doesn't need replacing (we have KD and RHM),  out goes snoddy and in comes green.  Out goes Johnstone and in comes Gollini... with a run of games who knows what he can be and as others have mentioned on VT, Steer could be just about ready to take the no. 1.  Out goes Terry - I don't believe we're overly losing out here if we can replace him with a Flint or Huth or someone that wont hurt the bank too much.  Onomah and Tuanzebe wont be missed.  Not sure who else is rumoured to be leaving I can see the important ones staying 

The white elephant is Jack.  I truly hope he does stay cos I think he could take us up next year from a full season of him however wont begrudge him going to a premier league team.  There is a pro if he does leave, we'll get a massive fee for him no doubt which could fund a replacement for his position, a CB and a LB all together.  

whether its Bruce for next year I wont be disappointed if he does stay, this year was a very difficult year for him in all aspects of life and If the board back him in for another season so will I. More importantly, we look to the transfer window and hopefully make some shrewd acquisitions to top up the current crop we have and we go again next year!

 

 

[onmeedson]

The difference between warnock and bruce , Warnock is a meat eater bruce is a vegan 

[flashingqwerty]

next season will be bleak - and i will tell you why:

since getting relegated our revenue excluding parachte money has declined year on year as you would expect.

parachute money reduces dramatically next season.

if we were to take the last 12 months published revenue (and bear in mind this is higher than what we can expect in the next 12 months) and the reduced parachute payments, to avoid FFP we need to effectively half our wage bill.

if we kept our core 7/8 players wed need to pretty much get rid of all the rest of our senior squad to achieve this as that core takes up most of our wage bill (im including mccormack and richards in the keep pot as i cant see us being able to offload them). That means anyone we bring in needs to be on very small wages to avoid FFP.

so unless we find some new revenue stream we are in serious trouble

[Davkaus]

1 hour ago, onmeedson said:

The difference between warnock and bruce , Warnock is a meat eater bruce is a vegan 

Warnock's going to die prematurely due to heart disease?  

[GrassyNoel]

This is a good thread. All the stages of grief are in evidence. Personally I’ll reach acceptance sometime around August I suspect. VTID. 

[The_Rev]

It will hit me on fixtures day, we are guaranteed to get Rotherham away on the opening weekend. 

[Dr_Pangloss]

16 hours ago, The Fun Factory said:

Well apart from the fact that football dinosaur colin warnock got Cardiff up playing even worse football on a smaller budget.  Yes I'd rather have better football and yes for the premier league that would be more likely for the team to stay up but there is more than one  way to win games.

Errmmm wrong, just flat out wrong, they played much better football than us.

[Stevo985]

14 minutes ago, Dr_Pangloss said:

Errmmm wrong, just flat out wrong, they played much better football than us.

I disagree completely. Granted I only watched them 4 or 5 times but they played the exact kind of football that many on here THINK Bruce plays.

Hoof and run.

[Dr_Pangloss]

1 minute ago, Stevo985 said:

I disagree completely. Granted I only watched them 4 or 5 times but they played the exact kind of football that many on here THINK Bruce plays.

Hoof and run.

They play more like MON's Villa, yes long balls but much quicker breaking capacity than us because they have fast players across the front line. There's more method to it, we genuinely are kick and rush for the most part, but our 'rush' is no where near as good, lol.

[Stevo985]

19 minutes ago, Dr_Pangloss said:

They play more like MON's Villa, yes long balls but much quicker breaking capacity than us because they have fast players across the front line. There's more method to it, we genuinely are kick and rush for the most part, but our 'rush' is no where near as good, lol.

We're really not.

We do lack pace which is a huge problem at times, especially like Saturday when we're trying to play on the counter and need pace, but this notion that we're a hoof and chase team is verging on a fallacy. 

[Dr_Pangloss]

1 hour ago, Stevo985 said:

We're really not.

We do lack pace which is a huge problem at times, especially like Saturday when we're trying to play on the counter and need pace, but this notion that we're a hoof and chase team is verging on a fallacy. 

It isn't, we don't retain the ball anywhere often enough and we always look to hit Snodgrass with a long ball, aimless hoofs forward are extremely frequent. We can play with the ball but we're definitely kick and rush as our default approach.

[The Fun Factory]

6 hours ago, The_Rev said:

It will hit me on fixtures day, we are guaranteed to get Rotherham away on the opening weekend. 

In about 8 weeks time. We barely have an off-season to get over the play final disaster. 

[dounavilla]

5 hours ago, Dr_Pangloss said:

It isn't, we don't retain the ball anywhere often enough and we always look to hit Snodgrass with a long ball, aimless hoofs forward are extremely frequent. We can play with the ball but we're definitely kick and rush as our default approach.

[Raver50032]

Not the best Villa atmosphere I've experienced at the red bowl. We fizzled out after the goal. Probably too pissed up from a full day's drinking, puking and littering. A couple of guys staggered past me to their seats five minutes after kick off. The pre-match chuckling about the clappers at the white end seems to have been nothing more than malfeasant bluster - that's all I could hear in the second half. The pre-match overconfidence in that 'there'll be 50k Villa fans at Wembley' just proved to be untrue. Many here were guilty of underestimating Fulham as a club, as a team and as a fan base. Well it came home to roost didn't it? And all the wrist slashing Smiths style post match pontificating. Good grief.

Personally, I'm not a player or a manager... but I do not believe that it's possible to win a 'cup final' setting up how we did on Saturday. It's not possible to win a 'cup final' with such clueless match officiating. It was a challenging experience for us as fans from start to finish, including getting to and from Wembley, and sitting through that 90 minutes. Second half was better to be fair, but we ultimately left ourselves with too much to do and inviting too much pressure in a condensed 45 minute spell. Much of that with an extra player on the pitch... 

The things I took away with me from that day...

Observing the terrorising of the shopping centre with chants of 'We shall not be moved,' whilst actually being moved by the local constabulary. And then singing 'Birmingham, are you listening...' a place that was roughly 113 miles away...

Their goal - nice move and capitalisation.

The Grealish stamp incident unpunished.

The clappers - fair play to them. And it seems there is nothing wrong with waving white flags.

The Grealish meltdown. Understandable given the punishment he had been subjected to from the whites. I was convinced he was going to be off for that.

A wonderful sunset it was on the drive home along the M1... pity it was wasted with such an empty 'what could have been' feeling.

 

Good luck to Wolves, Cardiff and Fulham next season.

[delboy54]

Raver, I agree with almost all of your comments apart from the drive home...I was on the train back to Cambridge.

I hate Wembley not helped by the result of course the experience marred but some young guy puking behind me....he never saw any of the game ....

Why did we play like we did for the first half?...because that is how we play most of the time. Lets face it a team that lost against QPR at home, Bolton and Norwich away don't deserve to go up...

Del

[Tom13]

Seriously struggling to get over how this game went!

[Stevo985]

1 hour ago, Raver50032 said:

Not the best Villa atmosphere I've experienced at the red bowl. We fizzled out after the goal. Probably too pissed up from a full day's drinking, puking and littering. A couple of guys staggered past me to their seats five minutes after kick off. The pre-match chuckling about the clappers at the white end seems to have been nothing more than malfeasant bluster - that's all I could hear in the second half. The pre-match overconfidence in that 'there'll be 50k Villa fans at Wembley' just proved to be untrue. Many here were guilty of underestimating Fulham as a club, as a team and as a fan base. Well it came home to roost didn't it? And all the wrist slashing Smiths style post match pontificating. Good grief.

Their fans were **** shit.

[delboy54]

Well I have seen some videos of our fans fighting each other after the game...