Ratings & Reactions: Villa v Rotherham

[MikeAVFC]

40 minutes ago, KenjiOgiwara said:

Really don't wanna be negative after three points, but sweet jesus we are disjointed, poor and boring. 

I still don't get what Bruce's game plan is. 

Put wor boots on and go out and play lads 

[foreveryoung]

16 minutes ago, pintpotvilla said:

No such thing as a hollow victory in this league. Every win is precious. It's a horrendous league to get out of no matter how good you are!

Wolves didn't find it to hard last season! 

[MikeAVFC]

It's such a crying shame at the talent we have yet a terrible manager. Pleased with the win but it just buys him more time to **** up again 

[MikeAVFC]

4 minutes ago, foreveryoung said:

Wolves didn't find it to hard last season! 

They had a manager who knew what he was doing with a clear way of playing. Meanwhile we have this negative clearing in the woods 

[Darth Villa]

We're not pretty to watch, seemingly lacking an effective system but Mr Potato head lives on to fight another day. Kodjia had a cracking game alongside Tammy with McGinn man of the match for me. Jedinak provided the physical presence at CH too.

I just wish we inspired more confidence as I still can't see Bruce getting us up this season or any season for that matter!!

[briny_ear]

48 minutes ago, JB said:

Obviously pleased with the result (if not the performance) but I think it will end up costing us more points than the 3 we’ve gained.

Can you explain what this means? I’m mystified.

[Lichfield Dean]

Very impressed with Abraham and Bolasie.  Excellent home debuts. Jack didn't really work amazingly well on the wing but he wasn't a disaster. 

The superior quality of the players saw us through the game - Rotherham were very poor. As expected though it was another Steve Bruce 'throw players on the pitch and hope' affair, but hey, it's not like I expected anything else.

[OutByEaster?]

If you don't have a pattern you're building to; a "Villa way", then it's important to show that you have the flexibility to pick the right sides for individual games. Fair play to Mr Bruce, he got this one spot on.

It all hinged on the big tactical surprise - I certainly hadn't picked up on it, even after the team was announced, but there we were, straight from kick off ,4-4-2 for the first time since August 2017 when Keinan Davis made his debut and we tried it for two games before Kodjia was injured - to try it again under huge pressure is a ballsy call in fairness.

It worked perfectly for this game for a number of reasons - the first of those is that this front pair are excellent. I didn't think they'd work as well together as they did, I thought they'd be too similar - they are, but it works. They're both tall, strong, quick and rangy, physically they're a handful - they can go past you, they can run onto long balls, they can hold it up and they can beat you with a trick. Two of them is too much for Championship defences - if we can find a way to keep them both on the field, we'll cause everyone trouble.

The midfield tonight were excellent - Grealish and El Ghazi probed and prodded and both created chances while McGinn harried and bustled and bullied and Hourihane kept everything ticking over in a disciplined display, they dominated.

They were allowed to - there's a but, and it's as big as the moon - the second reason it worked perfectly is that Rotherham were the perfect side for this midfield because a. ) they're not very good and b. ) they bypass the midfield looking for their big target man - that meant we could play four players who are all naturally creators, attacking midfielders - if we're to use this formation again, and it'd be nice to get the front two together more often, then McGinn and Hourihane are going to have to work very, very hard and be very, very disciplined. The whole of this evening's match had a sort of 85% feel about it, like it  wasn't the full blood and thunder. Saturday brings what the stats say is the best passer of the ball in the division to Villa Park - a Mr B Bannan, he and his passing side might create different problems. For tonight though, those was absolutely the right selection .

The back four seems comfortable enough - another reason tonight's line up worked is that Jedinak had a big slow fella to play with. He enjoyed it like a bull terrier with a marrowbone, Hutton enjoyed the responsibility of joining in and creating width down the right and Elmohamady enjoyed the safety of playing a less expansive right back role where he wasn't going to get into any trouble.

The keeper did not have any major calamities - (okay, he nearly did when dealing with a 50 yard backpass, but he got away with it) - that'll do.

Both goals were nice in different ways, I think there's real promise in the Tam-Kodj combo if we can find the right way to use it, the team seemed to really enjoy playing it, two new boys scored, we kept a clean sheet and got three points - what's not to like?

McGinn got MotM from me for his second half rampages and I give full credit to the manager for picking exactly the right side for the night, it's a difficult trick to maintain and I'd prefer we picked a side and a method that was about us rather than our opposition, but tonight Mr Bruce is right and I'm not.

Wednesday will be harder than Tuesday on Saturday. Or similar.

 

 

[VillanousOne]

Pleased with the win, can't fault much at all, think we are low on confidence so didn't get out of 2nd gear, but showed plenty of promise. Here's hoping we can build on this and up the intensity and composure.

I hope we keep the same line up but play Axel for the next game.

[HanoiVillan]

34 minutes ago, Rugeley Villa said:

Thought we played well tonight, but Rotherham made it so easy for us. Will probably not have an easier game all season. Abraham has impressed me a lot since his move. Great touch, great on the ball, and will score plenty of goals. Kodjia played well too. The midfield was very strong tonight, but it was too easy tonight. You can only beat what’s Infront of you though. 5th in the table, and confidence should be high for saturdays game. 

Another thing I will say is, that I thought the crowd tonight were very positive with the team, and even Bruce. 28k which was more than I was expecting, and a bigger crowd than what Leeds got. Was expecting a negative atmosphere, but it was positive. 

Astonishing how different the reaction on here seems to be compared to that at the ground, as far as I can tell. 

[sidcow]

El Ghazi and Bolasie were like night and day. 

El Ghazi not managing to impose himself on the game, made himself the only obvious choice to be taken off. Bolasie storming into the game, all action pain in the ass for defenders. 

[OutByEaster?]

1 hour ago, AVTuco said:

Good game, did what we needed. No fuzz.

[briny_ear]

A goal apiece from the new boys. Yes, I’ll have more of that please.

And did I spot an assist from Kodj? Praise the Lord!

[rodders0223]

Very important to get the clean sheet, at 1-0 for so long you think it is going to be one of those days. In some ways, it was a good little tester, though we should be winning that game every day of the week.

[Rugeley Villa]

6 minutes ago, HanoiVillan said:

Astonishing how different the reaction on here seems to be compared to that at the ground, as far as I can tell. 

Praise when praise is deserved imo. No one is getting excited over beating Rotherham 2.0 at home, but I thought we put in another good home performance. It could have easily have been 3, or 4. As I said, I thought the crowd were great tonight. Not so much loud, but just the overall positive atmosphere. It seems all the Bruce out brigade stayed at home. Not saying I don’t want him gone, but he fights on to live another day. Tickets were selling well for saturdays game before the game tonight, so expect around 35k on Saturday, which is ridiculous considering the whole anti Bruce thing at the moment. 

Edited September 18, 2018 by Rugeley Villa

[OutByEaster?]

One thing I noticed - we go from being devoid of confidence to overconfident in seconds - like a woman who's just discovered contouring. We play one decent pass, someone drops a shoulder and the next man to get the ball seems to think he has a responsibility to add something for the highlight reel. 

Mr Kodjia...that rabona...behave!

 

[Stratvillan]

Thought we played well first half, paced and threatening. Second half was a bit nervous, but fairly comfortable. Mcginn was superb, as was some of the first half movement, and interchanges between the front 3-4. 

[TheStagMan]

33 minutes ago, briny_ear said:

Can you explain what this means? I’m mystified.

He is saying that he thinks that keeping Steve Bruce because we won, rather than sacking him because we lost will mean that in the long term we will be worse off than losing, sacking Bruce and then being able to bring in a better manager to take us places. 

That would make him one of those disloyal people that we were discussing in a different thread. 

 

Whilst I understand the sentiment, unfortunately I can't see Bruce being sacked on the back of a couple of losses. I think the owners are waiting for the right man to be available before making a move, which makes sense, its just frustrating waiting for the inevitable. 

Still, we won, I'm happy, roll on Saturday. 

[TheStagMan]

20 minutes ago, HanoiVillan said:

Astonishing how different the reaction on here seems to be compared to that at the ground, as far as I can tell. 

I wonder if the poor quality of the coverage had anything to do with that? It had the feel of the pre-season friendlies - one camera, no replays, second rate commentator who quickly runs out of anything interesting to say, poor audio meaning the noise in the stadium was not picked up well and just a general "naff" feel. (obviously better than not having anything, don't get me wrong)

If you watch on TV and the coverage is poor, you just don't get the atmosphere so probably don't enjoy the game as much.

 

It does make you realise how polished and professional the "normal" coverage of games is though.

[Ingram85]

Shout out to the lad sat next to me in trinity lower by the tunnel giving their lad Will Vaulks absolute comedy gold pelters all game long. Hilarious stuff and kept us all in the section going when the game got flat. Vaulks even started laughing himself at one point when he came up to take a throw in. Brilliant stuff.

As for the game. It’s 3 points that papers over the cracks. It is what it is, I’m not going to get angry about it. I’m glad we won and Bruce is still a plum.