villan-scott Posted September 16, 2018 VT Supporter Share Posted September 16, 2018 9 minutes ago, Keyblade said: Actually we've gained a point on 2nd A successful weekend for Bruce then. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dn1982 Posted September 21, 2018 Share Posted September 21, 2018 On 16/09/2018 at 03:58, One For The Road said: I disagree with all of this. You seem to think we are something we aren't. "This squad will challenge for the playoffs regardless" Really? Based on what?? I think it will be miracle if we finish in the top 6. It just isn't going to happen. And you really are in dreamland when you start talking about finishing top 2. I'd bet everything I own on us not being in within 15 points and 5 or 6 places of the top 2. We have no defence and League 2 standard goalkeeper. Plus a manager that doesn't know how to get the best out of the squad, which isn't a great squad to start with. Play offs? No chance. We have the best attacking players in the league by a mile. Name another team with a £30m winger or a a CM worth that? Our players should be top 6 easily and with a good manager we’d piss this league. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
One For The Road Posted September 22, 2018 Share Posted September 22, 2018 2 hours ago, dn1982 said: We have the best attacking players in the league by a mile. Name another team with a £30m winger or a a CM worth that? Our players should be top 6 easily and with a good manager we’d piss this league. There are two sides to a football pitch. Our attack isn't up for debate. Its probably the best in the league on paper. Our defence is dreadful. That's the issue. Not the attack. You don't piss this league with Nyland in goal and only one centre back. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dn1982 Posted September 22, 2018 Share Posted September 22, 2018 6 hours ago, One For The Road said: There are two sides to a football pitch. Our attack isn't up for debate. Its probably the best in the league on paper. Our defence is dreadful. That's the issue. Not the attack. You don't piss this league with Nyland in goal and only one centre back. Nyland is a good keeper for this level. Our defence isnt great but neither are most in this league. We have the players to dominate every game so our defence shouldn’t be under loads of pressure but we have a manager that lets us get dominated by how he sets up. 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tommo_b Posted September 22, 2018 Share Posted September 22, 2018 On 16/09/2018 at 11:58, allani said: Given the easy start to the fixtures this season it is definitely worse. We picked up 18 points last season against the bottom 3. After a third of the matches against teams in the relegation zone this season we have managed just 2 points. If you compare like-for-like results (based on league position of the clubs we have played) we are 9 points worse off this season compared to last. But teams do change so like for like comparison doesn’t really work. We are no worse off then last season, we are statistically exactly the same. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cjay Posted September 22, 2018 Visiting Supporter Share Posted September 22, 2018 Do wonder if part of the problem amongst your fans is there is a sense of entitlement. "We should piss the league". . . "Best side in the league" etc etc. But you have a lot of unknowns. Yannick Bolasie- nasty injury, hasnt done much last few years, he may not be the player he was before. Albert Adomah- excellent last season, season before he only got 3 league goals, may have been a one off. El Ghazi- Shone in Holland, bit hit and miss in France, big reputation but an unknown in the league. Tammy Abraham- great for Bristol city, but may not repeat it, wouldn't be the 1st player to do that. Kodjia- injury prone, difficult season last season, injuries may have taken there toll. Grealish- yet to show he can dominate games. McGinn- bright start but played his whole career in Scotland, many have shone there and flopped here. Then the experienced but ageing players like Elmo, Whealan, Jedinak, Hutton etc, past there primes in the latter 2 imo. Then a new goalie, young on loan defender etc. Potentially yes a great squad but "piss the league", "should beat every team on paper". No, reputations dont win the league, and nobody knows just yet if the players on paper are as good in reality. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
weedman Posted September 22, 2018 Share Posted September 22, 2018 On 16/09/2018 at 12:45, One For The Road said: I said we had no chance of top 2. I was right. How many days did we spend in the top 2 again? Now I am saying we won't make the top 6. I will be right again. You were not right, we clearly had a chance for top 2 given that we were challenging for it up until the last few games. We didn't make it, but our chances, especially at the start of the season, were considerably more than zero Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
markavfc40 Posted September 22, 2018 Share Posted September 22, 2018 14 minutes ago, Cjay said: Do wonder if part of the problem amongst your fans is there is a sense of entitlement........ 14 minutes ago, Cjay said: No, reputations dont win the league, and nobody knows just yet if the players on paper are as good in reality. I don't think a sense of entitlement is right. We shouldn't hide from the fact or play down that we are the biggest club in this division though. Our history, fan base, turnover, the players we can attract etc combined proves that so there is no point in us downplaying it. That doesn't mean we have a sense of entitlement that just means that logically we are able to attract better players than most clubs at this level and therefore should be competing up the top end. I do agree that games aren't won on paper as if that was the case we'd have finished top 2 last season and Cardiff would have been mid table. I think players and managers have struggled with the expectation levels you face when playing for/managing Aston Villa and the pressure that brings. I dare say that has also been the case with Leeds. Conversely though if you can get players who can feed off that expectation, revel in playing in front of 30-40 odd thousand fans every other week then that should again give you an advantage over most clubs at this level. 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
One For The Road Posted September 22, 2018 Share Posted September 22, 2018 (edited) 54 minutes ago, weedman said: You were not right, we clearly had a chance for top 2 given that we were challenging for it up until the last few games. We didn't make it, but our chances, especially at the start of the season, were considerably more than zero I thought we did far better than I expected. And still didn't go up. I said we wouldn't go up and we didn't. Although I do concede that we did better than I thought. As for "challenging for it until a few games before", we were always playing catch up. We never looked like finishing 2nd. As I expected. Edited September 22, 2018 by One For The Road Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
weedman Posted September 22, 2018 Share Posted September 22, 2018 1 hour ago, One For The Road said: I thought we did far better than I expected. And still didn't go up. I said we wouldn't go up and we didn't. Although I do concede that we did better than I thought. As for "challenging for it until a few games before", we were always playing catch up. We never looked like finishing 2nd. As I expected. Had you said "I don't think we'll go up" you'd have been right 100%, but you didn't say that, you said we had "no chance", which was wrong Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
allani Posted September 22, 2018 Share Posted September 22, 2018 7 hours ago, Tommo_b said: But teams do change so like for like comparison doesn’t really work. We are no worse off then last season, we are statistically exactly the same. That is why I compared the results against the results against the teams that finished in the same position last season (so Ipswich are bottom - so compare the result against Sunderland from last season - as that feels more like a direct comparison than comparing last year's result against Ipswich because they finished 12th). Obviously it is still not foolproof as it doesn't reflect that we might have played the team that finished in x position when they were on a good or bad streak. Anyway, the point remains that this season we have played more teams who are in the bottom half of the table than was the case this time last season and that needs to be taken into consideration when comparing the two. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Demitri_C Posted September 22, 2018 Share Posted September 22, 2018 We ar3 not going up with Bruce. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
villa89 Posted September 22, 2018 Share Posted September 22, 2018 Our home form is laughable at this stage Considering the squad we have. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
HongKongVillan Posted September 22, 2018 VT Supporter Share Posted September 22, 2018 Kiss this good bye if we don't sack Bruce now Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ferguson1 Posted September 22, 2018 Share Posted September 22, 2018 Could’ve been within two points of the top tonight Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
turvontour Posted September 22, 2018 Share Posted September 22, 2018 We're helped massively by the fact that there is no obvious run away team, or teams. Which makes our start to this season all the more frustrating. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
villalad21 Posted September 22, 2018 Share Posted September 22, 2018 Can we lock this thread now? 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AVTuco Posted September 22, 2018 VT Supporter Share Posted September 22, 2018 32 minutes ago, villalad21 said: Can we lock this thread now? I came here to say the same, but noticed we're only 5 from top. Unbelievable. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
allani Posted September 22, 2018 Share Posted September 22, 2018 5 hours ago, ferguson1 said: Could’ve been within two points of the top tonight By the same token in Rotherham had beaten us we would be 3 points from the relegation battle... We are exactly where our performances deserve - mid-table mediocracy. 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
VillaChris Posted September 22, 2018 Share Posted September 22, 2018 To me it's a minor miracle we're just 5 points off the top spot given how we've played in majority of games this season. As things stand I think we'll miss out on play offs if we keep SB for majority of the season. All bets off if we get in new manager who can get us on the front foot much more. Automatic still looks way off as our defence isn't suddenly going to become unbeatable though. I would say there is no one in the class of Wolves last season. Leeds are good but we'll see if they have a few more results like today. A low scoring team like Boro will draw plenty of games. Had my doubts about WBA pre season but after a slow start they're on a good run now and imo have the best squad in the division back to front. 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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