Ratings & Reactions: Ipswich v Villa

[Ingram85]

Worrying, seems par for the course with Bruce at the helm. Certainly following his trend. He stopped the rot and got us back on track and new owners coming in should have been where we parted ways. We appear to be static now, Bruce has shown us that he is too inconsistent and lacking in ideas when and where it matters. We need someone to take us that next step forward right now and Bruce needs to go for it in the next handful of games or the owners may just decide he isn’t that person. Shit or bust time for him imo. 

Edited August 18, 2018 by Ingram85

[Troglodyte]

7 minutes ago, VillanousOne said:

he just doesn't cross the ball quickly enough or at all

That's probably an instruction, because he's terrible when he puts the ball in early.

[The Fun Factory]

Sounds like it is square pegs in round holes. We are trying to form  a new team but currently it is unbalanced. Keeper is a worry. Needs some good loans before the end of the month or we are looking at mid table.

[PieFacE]

All I can say is that I'm not surprised that we struggled to break down 10 men. 

[Paul33]

Just now, The Fun Factory said:

Sounds like it is square pegs in round holes. We are trying to form  a new team but currently it is unbalanced. Keeper is a worry. Needs some good loans before the end of the month or we are looking at mid table.

We need loans because Bruce can't create a team out of what we have ..... a half decent manager would have a settled starting XI and an identifiable playing style. If he brings in more of his old Hull mates then (a) he still won't craft a style/team and (b) he will destroy yet more young talents who will get sidelined for his old mates.

This club is suffering horribly because of a dated and out of touch manager who is tactically clueless and evidently does not have the backing of his players ...... and so it goes on !!! 

[foreveryoung]

Is it that we have no decent striker. Should be plenty of chances with Grealish and Mcginn creating, although I think we have hyped Grealish up a bit to much, thought he was poor today. Hope he don't turn out like the rest of them after signing a new lucrative contract.

[One For The Road]

30 minutes ago, Alakagom said:

Very lucky to win against Wigan. Very lucky to win against Yeovil. 3rd time lucky. Luck runs out.

We will go nowhere if we keep Bruce, same old same old. 

We are lucky to have 7 points on the board.

I predicted 9th and I stand by it. If we buy a quality CB, ST and a wide player then all we need is a proper goalkeeper to push for the play offs. As it stands we are the new Leeds.

(Not the one top of the league but the one struggling for years in the abyss)

 

[Cizzler]

Nyland is awful. At fault for the goal obviously with a terrible bit of keeping, but looked shaky throughout. Can’t kick it. Shame the other lad looked toilet and all against Yeovil mid-week. Shouldn’t have let Steer go. 

Tuanzebe - quite simply not good enough on the ball to make it at Man United. Don’t want to see him at Rb again.

Chester and Hutton were meh, fine.

Mile Jedinak is a rancid centre back. Sure, he wins every header - but his distribution is absolutely shocking. He fundamentally can’t retain possession and he will shank/let one roll under his foot a couple of times a game and all. Why can’t Bruce see this? Never should be at CB again.

Bjarnason was awful. McGinn a mixed bag, good set pieces and assist but lost the ball a lot too - actually looked a lot better in DM when Bjanason went off. Hourinhane needs to start as we don’t look like getting goals, and he has a knack at this level.

Grealish was our best player by far, and visibly frustrated with the shite he was playing with.

Elmo just can’t beat a man, should never be played RW. Needs to be moved back to RB ASAP. Adomah has lost it. Green did nothing when he came on either.

Kodjia did nothing bar the goal except give away territory with stupid free kicks. A shadow of the player he was, but feeding off scraps.

Bruce clearly has no system, no idea. He’s called a dinosaur on here, which is an easy swipe at him, but he’s clearly yesterday’s man. Not creating a chance against 10 man Ipswich for 90 minutes is an absolute disgrace.

[One For The Road]

16 minutes ago, Cizzler said:

Nyland is awful. At fault for the goal obviously with a terrible bit of keeping, but looked shaky throughout. Can’t kick it. Shame the other lad looked toilet and all against Yeovil mid-week. Shouldn’t have let Steer go. 

Tuanzebe - quite simply not good enough on the ball to make it at Man United. Don’t want to see him at Rb again.

Chester and Hutton were meh, fine.

Mile Jedinak is a rancid centre back. Sure, he wins every header - but his distribution is absolutely shocking. He fundamentally can’t retain possession and he will shank/let one roll under his foot a couple of times a game and all. Why can’t Bruce see this? Never should be at CB again.

Bjarnason was awful. McGinn a mixed bag, good set pieces and assist but lost the ball a lot too - actually looked a lot better in DM when Bjanason went off. Hourinhane needs to start as we don’t look like getting goals, and he has a knack at this level.

Grealish was our best player by far, and visibly frustrated with the shite he was playing with.

Elmo just can’t beat a man, should never be played RW. Needs to be moved back to RB ASAP. Adomah has lost it. Green did nothing when he came on either.

Kodjia did nothing bar the goal except give away territory with stupid free kicks. A shadow of the player he was, but feeding off scraps.

Bruce clearly has no system, no idea. He’s called a dinosaur on here, which is an easy swipe at him, but he’s clearly yesterday’s man. Not creating a chance against 10 man Ipswich for 90 minutes is an absolute disgrace.

So Grealish was our best player by far but Kodjia was feeding off scraps?

How did that happen? 

Why wasn't our "best player by far" creating credible chances for our striker? Not picking a fight, just a genuine question.

[jackbauer24]

I'm not going to vote as I didn't watch the game. And my view is formed purely on following the match thread and seeing the line up.

What does Bruce expect when he plays half the team out of position? What does he expect when we have such a defensive line up? What does he expect when he doesn't make any changes? 

Nyland might be awful but there's still no excuse not to have beaten a poor team with 10 men for 50 minutes. None. We don't need a defensive midfielder and we don't need to have only one up front.

 

Nyland

Hutton Chester Tuanzebe Elmo

Green McGinn Hourihane Adomah

Grealish

Kodjia

 

I don't have any coaching badges and yet I bet if we had a vote between my line up and Bruce's that mine would win easy. Energy and pace in midfield, players playing in the right positions, youth, set up to win. It's not hard to see where Bruce is going wrong.

Not going up with Bruce.

 

 

[Cizzler]

4 minutes ago, One For The Road said:

So Grealish was our best player by far but Kodjia was feeding off scraps?

How did that happen? 

Why wasn't our "best player by far" creating credible chances for our striker? Not picking a fight, just a genuine question.

Did you watch the game? The ball didn’t go through our midfield. Whichever one of Jedinak, Hutton or Nyland were unfortunate enough to have possession would smash it down the pitch.

Kodjia was scrapping with their CBs, but it’s obviously not his game. He barely won anything, actually gave away a lot of free kicks for grappling with them and generally didn’t have a chance (minus on one set piece) except for his goal. 

Jack is clearly our best player. He looked it today, Ipswich found it so hard to get the ball off him and if he had any half decent players around him this would be useful, but in reality he’s just creating space for shite.

The two things I’ve said really aren’t mutually exclusive anyway.

[TRO]

1 hour ago, OutByEaster? said:

There's something fundamentally wrong with this team - the imbalance between areas on the pitch - the appalling mishmash in defence the ropey keeper, the half arsed wingers, we just don't seem to quite function properly. Our inability to control games, to keep possession of the football and pass it is a real concern. 

Yet here we are unbeaten in four - part luck and part testament to the quality we have in those players who do have quality. We desperately need a couple more.

Our problems are in goal where Nyland looks very shaky, at the back where Jedinak (who had a decent game) looks like he could give one away and Tuanzebe has shown nothing in either of his loan spells to suggest he should be starting games in the Championship. Then on the wings where Elmohamady, Adomah and Green carry all the collective danger of a child with a rattle and finally up front with what's left of Kodjia - he scored today at least, but I can only imagine it must have been a heck of a cross.

It's always been the case that it's the football rather than the results that have been likely to put the manager under pressure and whilst he can point at our unbeaten record, for me, this is the worst football we've played since he arrived - albeit with the best centre midfield partnership we've had since we were relegated. 

The sending off ended up being the worst thing that could have happened to us in the game, with the referee immediately relinquishing responsibility for the remainder of the game to the crowd. I thought he was awful, but our lack of a cutting edge and ability to hand the opposition a goal was at least his equal.

We need to get into that loan market quickly - because playing as we are right now, if we come up against a good side, we're going to take an almighty and embarrassing beating.

 

I didn't see the game today.....but I can connect with that post.

you said it.....We need players in.....and of merchantable quality.........Quick.

Steer looks the better of the 3 keepers, which is worrying.

Edited August 18, 2018 by TRO

[Made In Aston]

I didn't watch the match but when I checked the stats after 60 minutes we had 2 shots compared to 7 for Ipswich. Baring in mind that the opposition had been down to 10 men for the previous 20 minutes it is absolutely inept and unacceptable.

We have the players to challenge for automatic promotion, but the manager doesn't know how to get the best out of them. The points we have are in spite of Bruce rather than because of him. The sooner he goes the better. 

Edited August 18, 2018 by Made In Aston

[AvfcRigo82]

1 hour ago, PieFacE said:

All I can say is that I'm not surprised that we struggled to break down 10 men. 

I think we would struggle to break down 10 bowling pins. That was not acceptable.

Heat is on Steve.

 

Edited August 18, 2018 by AvfcRigo82

[AVTuco]

It's not that we didn't win against ten men. It's that we didn't dominate and be assertive. They outplayed us with ten rubbish players. Timidity at its' worst. I'm so angry with this performance...

[flashingqwerty]

I want Bruce out of my club.  If the new owners cant see we are going nowhere with him in charge then they can f**k off too.

We dont need their money.

Give me a manager with a brain and a group of average players with heart, even if it mean relegation, so long as we weretrying yo play decent football, it wpuld be better than this.

[A'Villan]

2 hours ago, lapal_fan said:

I suggest they practice 2 touch in training because we're often so slow in our build up.  No fluidity, no interchanges, no-one running through a line to cause out numbering. We rely on 1v1 all the time, such is our ridigity. 

Good overall post. I want to highlight what's quoted though.

There are many drills Bruce could use to enhance our short passing and possession play. Incorporating these drills in to in to designated sets of passing sequences and movement, if the sets break down then the players can fall back on the principles of the drills learnt to freelance it. Bruce can tailor these drills and tactics appropriate to our opponent each week.

With our level of ability in respect to sides like Ipswich, I personally think this should be the main focal point of our tactics. It doesn't have to be Barca-esque.

I'm not huge on stats alone but the research shows that teams which have longer passing sequences produce significantly more shots on goal per possession than shorter passing sequences, although direct play has a higher strike ratio of goals from shots than possession play. Likewise an analysis of successful teams showed that possession play produces more goals per possession than direct play, whereas in unsuccessful teams it was unclear which tactic had an advantage. The case study spanned 30 years, but is obviously partial in its understanding. It is also no coincidence that you look at the top clubs across Europe for possession and it is all the powerhouse clubs from the biggest cities.

We are a big club from a big city, playing in the 2nd division, what is stopping us from adopting a philosophy that clearly has benefits beyond what we are achieving, yet seemingly within our capacity?

Even if we were somehow the underdogs in all this, anyone remember back in and around 2011 when Swansea were playing a good brand of possession based football, they enjoyed their first ever season in the Premier League and were finishing mid-top half table for years. It's taken until this year to come back down. I think they're a great example of how a team working to disciplined principles can achieve success, and play a brand where their fans could enjoy long spells of possession. In 2012 Swansea cracked the top 20 clubs for possession across Europe. Not bad for a club who had no business in the top division. Surely their success has largely been down to the work of managers relatively unknown at the time, Martinez then Rodgers. Carried on by player turned manager Monk.

 

Edited August 18, 2018 by A'Villan

[dounavilla]

49 minutes ago, flashingqwerty said:

I want Bruce out of my club.  If the new owners cant see we are going nowhere with him in charge then they can f**k off too.

We dont need their money.

Give me a manager with a brain and a group of average players with heart, even if it mean relegation, so long as we weretrying yo play decent football, it wpuld be better than this.

[sheepyvillian]

This manager is past his sell by date. Hence, the mouldy football.

[Daniel]

After watching our first few games I really fear when we have to play a top team. I think more could be gotten out of this team and I'm not sure Bruce is going to do it.