Ratings & Reactions: Villa v Wigan

[Gompedyret]

12 minutes ago, BG_Villa_Fan said:

Desperately need a couple of good loans in, but Bruce's set up was all kinds of wrong and the team still has zero identity after almost 2 years in charge. It's still send 11 players and let them do something somehow. 

That said, whatever the way, any 3 points gained are so important. They just need to show much more cohesiveness in order to be more consistent. 

Agreed. It was frustrating, even annoying at times, to watch, since there's obviously a damn good team waiting to be unlocked somewhere within this Villa side. No way Wigan should be able to make so much trouble for us if we had performed slightly closer to our potential. Hopefully the last minute victory wont paper over the cracks, so that something is learned from this match.

On the plus side: McGinn!!

[Rugeley Villa]

Don't get all the moaning tbf. 2/2 first time in nearly 20 years I believe. Just enjoy it, and quit moaning. I thought before the season Wigan would do pretty well, and I think they will based on their start. They have some good players, and are decent going forward. By no means a walk over. UTV

[NorthernGordon]

I'll take playing rubbish and still winning every week if it means promotion at the end of the season.

I'll reserve judgement on Bruce until we're a few more games in and we have a clearer picture of how we're performing.

But we got out of jail today I must say.

I'd just like to add that I apologise to Razor for getting personal in the live match thread.  We'll agree to disagree for now and see how McGinn performs over a season or two THEN I can say if he's going to be a club legend or not.

[nnock1984]

Missed the game but struggling to see how that starting team lined up and in what formation? 

[sheepyvillian]

18 minutes ago, eholm said:

If anyone watched that and genuinely believes that Bruce is the future then I am staggered. Atrocious football, laughable team selection and no hint of shape, game plan or tactics. 

We will get left behind very quickly if we don’t remove him. Of course I’m chuffed we’ve got 6 points but in no way have we deserved them and our luck is going to quickly run out as soon as we play anyone decent.

The owners made a huge statement by keeping Jack; IMO it would an even bigger statement to sack Bruce and would have even more of a positive impact. 

Sad, but true.

[ciggiesnbeer]

Credit to Wigan too. Fast and very high energy. But that was a very very enjoyable game. 

[ciggiesnbeer]

1 minute ago, nnock1984 said:

Missed the game but struggling to see how that starting team lined up and in what formation? 

I watched the game and I am not sure myself mate!

[westholmevillan]

Here's what I say.......keep up the shit tactics.....and win every week with them!  

Well done Bruce, well done lads and a special well done to John Mcginn!

[Morley_crosses_to_Withe]

I can’t help but agree with the criticisms, whilst nodding at the more positive posts. 

We’ve got a never die attitude and a good team spirit. Two wins after going behind in both games is testament to that. We knock it about well at times, other times we look like a bunch of strangers on a football pitch. 

There was baffling selections, and one of the substitutions didn’t make sense, whilst one did, and won us the game. 

Bad mistake by Jedinak. He’s an experienced, international level, professional footballer and should be doing better at the basics. He shouldn’t have been playing there, however, and that was a bad decision by Bruce. They can each have a large share of the blame for that goal.

So in weird way they mostly get a pat on the back, but also a smack around the head.

Aside from McGinn - he gets a big round of applause for a cracking debut. 

Edited August 11, 2018 by Morley_crosses_to_Withe

[terrytini]

39 minutes ago, penguin said:

Seems a bit childish...

Did you think we played well?

 

I did.

[rodders0223]

Ref was **** shit, just like last year. Blind **** word removed. If I see that bald word removed one more **** time I am going to have words. Please Bruce, get us out of this league and away from these useless Representatives for Wellingborough.

[jim]

Nothing has changed from last year and papers over the cracks.

A win in spite of Bruce.

[terrytini]

I’d give us 6/10. Defence looked like they’d never played together, which really they haven’t, but stuck at it.

Midfield a bit soft centred at times but nice and creative at others.

A decent striker would’ve had a hat trick.

Great character.

Some good football, a poor spell second half of panicking and hoofing.

Ill certainly take 6/6 Points.

I watched every game in the World Cup. I’d say France played “ the beautiful game” for about an hour in total. A couple of South American teams did it more often... got nowhere.

His methods have been getting results for over 40 games now and I’m fine with it.

[Ponky]

Bruce took a massive risk changing 6 players from a winning team and including 3 new signings, several players playing out of position and a hopelessly out of form striker. We looked disjointed and it was easy to see why.

Fortunately for all of us the dice rolled our way in the end. BUT, despite the luck of having an own goal and a last gasp winner, we were the better team and deserved to win IMO. To be honest Kodjia could have had 2 or 3 with the opportunities he had. He is struggling with confidence and you can tell by his body language, but at least he is working hard from what I can see.

Positives: McGinn, McGinn & McGinn. Oh, and McGinn. Makes a brilliant foil for Grealish. Where Jack wants to dribble past and jink the ball through defenders, McGinn is looking for opportunities 20-30 metres further up and drifting nice little balls into the box. Hourihane will have to work his arse off for minutes on the pitch which is good for us IMO. Hepburn Murphy looked a threat when he came on. I hope he keeps getting minutes into him.

Negatives: Jedi - looked like he was wearing concrete boots out there. Jedi's wobbles make Chester nervous and he starts kicking the ball out instead of playing it through. Nyland needs some time to get up to speed and his kicking was poor. Hopefully this will be a temporary situation. Albert was very quiet and looked uninterested again. 

As usual Jack had the crap kicked out of him and it worries me that teams will now use this as a first resort knowing we lack another dimension to our play. Hopefully McGinn's emergence will address that. 

[westholmevillan]

6 minutes ago, jim said:

Nothing has changed from last year and papers over the cracks.

A win in spite of Bruce.

Cheer up mate, please, pretty please!

[Brumerican]

McGinncredible debut.

[Chewie]

32 minutes ago, NorthernGordon said:

I'll take playing rubbish and still winning every week if it means promotion at the end of the season.

I'll reserve judgement on Bruce until we're a few more games in.

This was the rhetoric literally every time we won last season, unfortunately the final game showed that it doesn't mean promotion.

Bruce has no idea how to setup a team to play to its strengths and we once again limp to a victory when we didn't deserve one.

Better teams than Wigan won't allow us to do this, just like teams with any sort of structure last season didn't.

[delboy54]

Lets look at the positives.... 3 goals scored in the last 2 games

Each time we were behind and came back to win

We play badly yet still win

First time in nearly 20(?) years that we have won the opening two games of a season

and

Fulham lost !

 

[Chewie]

2 minutes ago, delboy54 said:

And

Fulham lost !

 

Why is this now a thing? Fulham are suddenly our rivals because they bested us in the playoff final and beat us to a player signing? 

Is this really how small time we have become?

[ROTTERDAM1982]

Are the highlights on C5 tonight?