Ratings & Reactions: Villa v Preston

[AVTuco]

LOL... I actually watched the first 30 minutes of the first half twice thinking it was the second half, before realizing and switching to another stream.

Edited October 2, 2018 by AVTuco

[thunderball]

Having just read the match thread I wish to congratulate every participant. It was epic, you deserve medals. I am only sorry it was closed so abruptly.

[OutByEaster?]

I simply do not know.

I thought we got the selection right, then played it slightly wrongly with Kodjia and Grealish wide, but it was fluid enough (or Preston were bad enough) that we made it work with both drifting into a more natural 4-1-3-2 for our better moments. We scored a couple of reasonable goals and went in at half time looking comfortably the better team.

At half time, the players ate a large Sunday roast with plenty of mash and lashings of parsnips. Or something.

We came out for the second half as flat as the women's 1500 meters. I'm sure Preston had had a rocket, but for the eight minutes between the start of the half and the sending off, I don't think we made a pass. Preston looked lively and dangerous and threatened a bit and we were waiting for a reaction from Villa when Chester challenged a little clumsily and the whole world went batsh*t crazy.

I was too far away to see if it was a penalty or a sending off so I can't comment - however, what I will say is that there was a rule brought in last season that said if there was a foul in the box and a penalty was given, then even if the defender was last man it wouldn't be a sending off. Double Jeopardy they called it. The ref didn't remember it as well as I did, but I really hope it exists, because if Chester is suspended for three games, we're in the toilet.

Bruce made his biggest mistake on the night at that point and took off a tall, quick striker who could hold the ball up and bring people into the game - a player ideally suited to a lone role in a ten man team and left on Kodjia - who spent the whole of the second half looking like he was waiting for a conductor to check his ticket.

On came James Bree and we achieved Neville Nirvana - a whole back four of players who have played most of their games at right back. All the right backs made exactly the kind of back four you'd expect them to make and we proceeded to defend our goal like a nine year old girl with a feather duster. I got a great view of the incident that lead to their second and it was never a free kick in my opinion. They then looked like they'd score every time they put a cross in and all the unpleasantness started.

At 90 minutes, Preston started daydreaming about unicorns and tomorrow's tea and we magicked our way back into things before earning a penalty and missing it like knobs. 

A couple of individuals to say stuff about before the meat of it - I don't like Elmohamady but I thought he had a good game, Tuanzebe looked promising at times, Hourihane had a good first half, Jack was lucky not to get sent off for having a go at the ref, Abraham is a proper player. 

I have nothing against Glenn Whelan stepping up to take the penalty, he's a senior professional, he knows what he's about and he had the balls to say "I got this". If he does it again, someone should hit him, but I've got no problem with him stepping up tonight. Even if the effort was insipid.

But this Tuesday night is not football night, this Tuesday night is the Steve Bruce show, featuring Steve Bruce.

On the night, I didn't think he got all that much wrong - I didn't give him too much credit last week when we started the second half fired up against Bristol and I won't knock him too much for the way we limped out for the second half of this one - players should take some responsibility for that. Formation's were odd, and everyone was out of position, but that's sort of standard and not about tonight. In fact, the biggest thing he got wrong tonight was leaving Kodjia on over Abraham.

It's not a one night job though and tonight's game was entirely and absolutely the result of our manager. We have one central defender. One. Not four like everyone else, one. When he's sent off, we fart about putting people into places they've never been. I've met James Bree, he's about five foot nine and he's got a kind face. He's not a centre back. When you've got four right backs at the back, you're going to struggle - we have a midfield that can all pass the ball, but a system that says get it forward and get it wide quickly - when you do that, you don't control the ball - when you don't control the ball and you've got ten men and no centrebacks, you're in trouble. It doesn't look like we practise plan B so we carried on trying to get it forward and wide - it kept coming back and they kept scoring. A really good manager changes that. One that's not entirely negligent in building a squad over two and a half years never lets it happen in the first place.

When you've spent two and a half years building a shambles of a squad, with exciting, talented goalscoring players in parts and huge great gaping massive defender shaped holes in others, what you get is games that are shambolic, with exciting goalscoring but also with huge great gaping gaps at the back which mean you can't defend. We have built a squad to have games like tonight, seven goal nonsenses (and they say he's boring). You could make the claim that Steve Bruce did a reasonable job in parts tonight, but that he's trying to manage an unbalanced squad put together by a really bad manager in the summer. Him. I was disappointed Whelan missed the penalty at the end. I wasn't surprised that we'd need to score four to win a game. 

We don't have a full squad, we don't have a plan, we don't have a method and the manager has fallen out with the support. It looks like he may have lost some of the players too. There is no coming back from this, we are counting the days, in truth we have been since the summer when we failed to get a defence. 

Thank you for stopping the slide, thank you for Wembley - but it's got away from you Steve; take a break, have a cup of tea, put your feet up, grab some sun. You're done here.

Also, have I missed some sort of cabbage based incident?

 

 

 

[ExhallVillan]

cannot believe Whelan took that penalty when Bolassie who had just scored Jack McGinn and Birkir were still on the pitch! very poor management tonight with what appears to be the new norm finishing the game with no recognised strikers, and the replacing Hourihane with Whelan made no sense to me neither did the call up for our 4th choice keeper----crazy,

Brucey and his cronies have to go! its way beyond a joke now----and fast becoming a non laugh at circus. for us Villa fans anyways,

Edited October 2, 2018 by ExhallVillan

[OutByEaster?]

Does anyone know anything about Calderwood getting into a row with a fan after the equaliser went in?

 

[briny_ear]

This season is a nightmare.

Can’t really believe that match happened.

Is Whelan our penalty taker? Didn’t know that. Wish he wasn’t!

Ach well, not much for a fan to do now but hunker down and see who Bruce’s replacement will be.

[Stratvillan]

Who voted for Bruce's performance as very good? Can't help the sending off, but to not put whelan on earlier was poor. To take Tammy off and leave kodjia on was poor. To not get birkir to man mark Johnson after half time poor. 

[MikeAVFC]

Everything about this club is **** brain dead. Hope the owners line up their man quickly I can't take much more of this **** clearing in the woods any longer even though I said previously I was prepared to wait for the owners to get the man they really want... **** it put Agnew in temporary charge he can't do any worse than this **** useless clown pretending to be a manager. **** off you potato headed word removed 

[maqroll]

[Brumstopdogs]

https://www.skysports.com/watch/video/sports/football/11515821/aston-villa-3-3-preston

 

 

[tomsky_11]

32 minutes ago, OutByEaster? said:

I was too far away to see if it was a penalty or a sending off so I can't comment - however, what I will say is that there was a rule brought in last season that said if there was a foul in the box and a penalty was given, then even if the defender was last man it wouldn't be a sending off. Double Jeopardy they called it. The ref didn't remember it as well as I did, but I really hope it exists, because if Chester is suspended for three games, we're in the toilet.

Law was changed to say yellow only if denying a goal scoring opportunity in penalty box whilst making genuine attempt to win the ball legally.

If handball, or not attempting to win ball legally, eg pulling, pushing, deliberate foul, then it will still be given as a red as well as a penalty.

Last man not part of the law. 

Suspension will only be one game.

[OutByEaster?]

From what I'm reading Calderwood turned round to the Lower Trinity, told them to "**** off" and made some unpleasant hand signals following our equaliser. 

If that's the case, he should be out of work in the morning.

 

[screwdriver]

 

Bjarnson should have man marked Johnson who changed the game when he came on roughed him up

Bruce made the wrong decision taking Abraham off. Kodjia should have been subbed. Abraham works harder than Kodjia.
Bolasie should have grabbed the ball for the pen.  Even if he had missed he had scored the equalizer which would of let him off the hook.

It reminded me of euro 96 penalty shoot out when hard man ince bottled taking the pen and southgate stepped up

[Harry]

27 minutes ago, OutByEaster? said:

From what I'm reading Calderwood turned round to the Lower Trinity, told them to "**** off" and made some unpleasant hand signals following our equaliser. 

If that's the case, he should be out of work in the morning.

 

Totally agree on that.

[TRO]

2 hours ago, CosmicVillan said:

I went to make a cuppa at 2-3 and came back to hear the penalty miss. I ahve no idea what to make of it

I went and i was stunned by the ineptitude.....he has to go.

but why do we have drift in to the this low level of incompetence, in order for a manager to go.

Edited October 2, 2018 by TRO

[TRO]

23 minutes ago, screwdriver said:

 

Bjarnson should have man marked Johnson who changed the game when he came on roughed him up

Bruce made the wrong decision taking Abraham off. Kodjia should have been subbed. Abraham works harder than Kodjia.
Bolasie should have grabbed the ball for the pen.  Even if he had missed he had scored the equalizer which would of let him off the hook.

It reminded me of euro 96 penalty shoot out when hard man ince bottled taking the pen and southgate stepped up

But no one man marks anyone in our set up......johnson had the freedom of the park....so much for experienced players.

[striker]

Even Lee Hendrie one of his most ardent supporters doesn’t think Bruce will be around much longer.

[VILLAMARV]

Regardless of the equaliser and missing the pen, the home crowd was chanting Bruce out.

He's not coming back from that.

[LakotaDakota]

he got the subs wrong after the red card & sitting back with 10 men trying to defend a 1 goal lead for 40 minutes was never going to work

Kodj should have gone off after the red card rather than Tammy and 5/10 minutes later the 4 in midfield were just useless. Should have swapped Grealish and thor for bolasie & albert and played a proper 4-4-1.  McGinn & hourihane run about like they have duracell batteries up their arse so could have coped well enough in the middle and albert & bolasie would at least have added some shape to the team and offered an attacking threat to give preston something to think about rather than just continually pushing forwards. they are both more than capable of tracking back & getting forwards for 30 minutes.

Showed some grit to  fight back from 3-2 down after completely throwing the game away and then blew it completely by nobody having the balls to take the ball out of whelans hands.

Despite some woeful performances we do not give up until the final whistle which is something positive i guess

The below gif sums up my feelings of the final few minutes perfectly

Edited October 2, 2018 by LakotaDakota

[fifamad]

We would of won had we not got a red card, not bruce’s fault chester hacked the last man down practically throwing 3 points away.