Heroes & Villains, the Aston Villa fanzine
Heroes & Villains => Heroes Discussion => Topic started by: Deano's Mullet on July 16, 2017, 01:48:34 PM
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What do you think then? Maybe a bit early but I certainly have higher expectations this season than last. I reckon we'll be in the play-off places at the very least, whether we'll actually go up I have no idea. Being positive, I've gone for promotion via playoffs. I certainly don't ever see us being so consistent as to finishing 1st or 2nd.
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I genuinely think we'll go straight up, with the others in contention being Boro, Wolves, Reading and Derby.
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I might put money on Terry being player manager before Christmas !!
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9th.
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Under Bruce, bang average, mid table.
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I can't see us going up under this manager, based on the decisions he's made so far. I obviously hope I'm wrong.
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If terry can stay fit and play most games it will help the defence no end. However our major problem is going to be scoring goals. Watching our £20m+ at the harriers the other night doesn't fill me with confidence.Unless the goal scoring problem gets rectified one way or another our best hope may be scrapping into the play offs.
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I can't see us finishing top 2 under Bruce, so we should be expecting to finish in one of the playoff places...realistically I'm not confident or convinced that is achievable under Bruce either so could quite as easily be mid table mediocrity.
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I don't see us as top two. Maybe somewhere in the play off places.
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My views are word for word the same as those expressed by Sexual Earring. Not with Bruce. Not based on what has been done by him, hope I am wrong.
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We'll walk this league, somebody is due a hammering soon etc.
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I dont get the "I don't think we'll go up with Bruce in charge" stuff. Is that what Bruce is best at, getting teams promoted to the PL?
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I'm expecting a similar finish to last season watching the game yesterday nothing has changed we still struggle to create chances and there is just no pace in the side.
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I might put money on Terry being player manager before Christmas !!
I'm not sure about Terry as Player/Manager but I can't see Bruce lasting until Christmas if things remain the same. You may want to lay a few quid on David Moyes coming in until the end of the season.
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Our squad should be top 2, however I think we'll be 6-10th. Bruce just doesn't give me any confidence at present.
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My expectations are to finish in the play offs at least.
Whether that happens is down to the players and manager performing to their best though obviously. So who knows where we'll be come next May
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I expect nothing less than top 2 this season, whether we achieve it is a different matter.
For me there is no hiding place for Bruce once the season starts, he made a lot of changes in January and then had 10 games at the end of the season that were essentially wasted to establish a system / way of playing - if it starts off as tepid as last season then I don't think he will see out September in the job.
The first two signings I am v happy with, solid keeper and a centre half & captain who is an improvement in both roles. What does concern me is the constant links with boring players like Whelan & Elhomady who signing would tell you everything you need to know about the mentality going forwards...we will grind results rather than trying to win with pace, power, finesse, swagger! Yet again relying on a moment of inspiration from Kodjia etc instead of trying to impose superiority.
Anything other than top 2 should not be an option & hopefully will not be tolerated....if the board see it going awry than act fast, decisively and be sure you are not recruiting another dull grinder.
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I can't call it
On paper
- we're still well short of last season's champions Newcastle, in midfield in particular
- but the league is average and if we can find a midfield blend I tend to agree our squad is as good as anyone's
But on the pitch
- I've seen very little to suggest we're top 8 in this league so far.
- we don't pass the ball well
- we don't have a settled pattern of play
- we're very brittle away from home
So I just can't call it until I see us play the first few games
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I am expecting promotion. That said there is not enough to go on to make any informed judgement, in terms of our squad and those of our potential rivals. A couple of friendles which have been about fitness and have featured line ups that will almost certainly never feature in a competitive game gives very little indication.
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I expect nothing less than top 2 this season, whether we achieve it is a different matter.
For me there is no hiding place for Bruce once the season starts, he made a lot of changes in January and then had 10 games at the end of the season that were essentially wasted to establish a system / way of playing - if it starts off as tepid as last season then I don't think he will see out September in the job.
The first two signings I am v happy with, solid keeper and a centre half & captain who is an improvement in both roles. What does concern me is the constant links with boring players like Whelan & Elhomady who signing would tell you everything you need to know about the mentality going forwards...we will grind results rather than trying to win with pace, power, finesse, swagger! Yet again relying on a moment of inspiration from Kodjia etc instead of trying to impose superiority.
Anything other than top 2 should not be an option & hopefully will not be tolerated....if the board see it going awry than act fast, decisively and be sure you are not recruiting another dull grinder.
I agree rumoured transfers not exciting. But there is in theory talent in this squad that could benefit from a sturdier platform. Which is how both the top two last season set up. I think Bruce will do the same, either with 3 at the back or a strong back 4 with two deep holding midfielders
Not saying it will work, but with a solid platform then we should be able to use our attacking players well, given the pedigree at this level or natural talent
E.g.
Johnstone
Hutton / Bree Chester Terry Taylor
Jedinak new DCM / hourihane
Adomah / new player / Thor Green / Grealish / Thor
McCormack / Lansbury / grealish
Kodjia / hogan / gabby
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11-15th under Bruce. Automatic promotion? Dream on.
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I think we can make a fully informed judgement, Chris.
Based on the fact it's the same squad, with the same manager as last year.
I really do not think he will have some sort of footballing ephipany over the summer and will completely change his approach to the game.
I think we will pretty much see the same as last year, but won't be flirting with the bottom half of the table.
Like everyone else, I demand that we get automatic promotion, but right now, expect us finish anywhere between 5th and 10th.
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Mid table as stands.
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I accept that little meaningful stuff can be got from the friendlies so far, except that there's no indication of a more attacking formation/tactics.
The midfield must contribute more going forward. As it stands I've voted mid-table.
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We are in better shape than last season. We Have a far more solid defence and an improved keeper compared to Gollini that should give us at least narrow defeats becoming draws. I only hope our attacking play isn't totally reliant on Kodja. We should go up automatically if it all clicks.
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Boof.
"It's a bad one."
Boof.
Gone by October.
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About 10th
I have little faith in bruce having had 35 games last season and still not knowing what formation to play
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As it stands I think we'll be lucky to be just outside the playoff places.
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11-15th under Bruce. Automatic promotion? Dream on.
How I see it. I've got zero confidence in Bruce.
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Mid-table as it stands at the moment.
The defence wasn't the problem last season, so a centre half and goalkeeper aren't going to make any difference, no style or pattern of play was the problem and that won't change with the same management team in charge.
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Well, the bookies have us as favourites and they're not often wrong......
I expect top two.
Realistically at the moment, I think it will be the same as last season. Mid table.
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The defence was a problem last season: we made lots of mistakes (good example being Leeds away - we were even in that game till Gollini fucked up).
There is an argument that having a strong back 4 plus Jedinak and keeper frees up the rest. But little evidence so far
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Well, the bookies have us as favourites and they're not often wrong......
I expect top two.
Realistically at the moment, I think it will be the same as last season. Mid table.
Apart from last season when newcastle were favourites and us and norwich second favourites
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we'll win more than we lose.
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A decent manager, given that squad, should romp this league. So mid-table it is then.
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I expect to reach the play offs, it's a lottery then.
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Promotion via playoffs with a hope for auto promotion.
Neither will happen though if Bruce continues to play Lansbury and Hourihane as deeper-lying midfielders, they play similar roles for me and only one of them should be on the pitch and about 20 yards further up it too.
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Share the view we should be romping this league, but all my earlier confidence in Bruce getting the best out of this squad had gone. Clueless. So, same pattern and position as last season. They'll leave it too late to sack him so another season wasted. I get that Tony means well, but think he's learning that our window of opportunity is fast closing. If we don't get out of the shit this year, and this league is shit, we'll not be back for a long time.
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11-15th under Bruce. Automatic promotion? Dream on.
Agreed. He will be gone by xmas. I feel worse about our prospects than 12 months ago
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We'll either piss it or he'll be gone by October with us flailing. I honestly have no idea which it will be.
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Automatic promotion.
More realistic is top 6 but I really don't want to take our chances in the play offs. Even at this level I could see us freezing at Wembley again.
I never thought at any point last season we'd go up. Simply too much to do and just a massive adaptation to our first season in the second division in 30 years.
This year there are no excuses. We have to be up in the top pack of teams from the first few weeks otherwise Steve Bruce won't be our manager for much longer and he certainly knows that.
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Zero confidence and zero expectation. I hope to be pleasantly surprised.
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11-15th under Bruce. Automatic promotion? Dream on.
Agreed. He will be gone by xmas. I feel worse about our prospects than 12 months ago
I feel the same
If bruce has a poor run at the start of the season and gets the push then the merry go round starts again
We must go up this season as the parachute money is only 13 million is season 3 compared to the 65 odd million we got in the prem so the good dr will need very deep pockets
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I think we will get automatic promotion. I can't back that statement up with any solid reasoning but it's a gut feeling it will all click into place next season.
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Win it. Really given who we are and how much Xia has spent that has to be our expectation.
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11-15th under Bruce. Automatic promotion? Dream on.
Agreed. He will be gone by xmas. I feel worse about our prospects than 12 months ago
This. I'm certain Bruce will be gone by Xmas, even more so after being at Shrewsbury yesterday (yes I know it was only a friendly etc) so for me, whether we go up or not depends on how far adrift we are and who we bring in to replace him.
I'm not confident at all.
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I was more confident last season but quickly came down to earth with a bump. I think the playoffs are a possibility, a problem arising pretty soon ,will be if we're not in the top 8 at the end of September
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After 71 votes the majority of us don't think we'll be promoted. I understand the good sense of stable management and some proof of experience of 'how to do it's but SB depresses me. I think we'll be trying again next year with a different manager.
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I'd be a lot more confident if I could see evidence that we are going to depart from the system that proved so ineffective last season. A team of strangers pulled together to form a very unconvincing representative side most of the time.
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(http://thumb.ibb.co/iNLMUa/01h.jpg) (http://ibb.co/iNLMUa)
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Even if performances were underwhelming we ended last season with 26 points from final 14 games (started v Derby at home).
Over a season that's low 80s so easily play offs and maybe even automatic promotion if no one runs away with the league.
I know it's easy to take a sample of the season and spin it but given that was the most recent spell under the current squad it's better than comparing things a year ago.
The two diabolical runs last season killed our promotion hopes. 1 win in opening two months which meant we were well adrift of 2nd place so early on and then the infamous new year run.
I really don't see any disastrous run this time. We will lose games but I think we'll bounce back strongly and quickly. Lose a game and then win the next four is the method Newcastle used to good effect last season. We did it after losing to Huddersfield away.
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Like it or not, Bruce has had a LOT of success getting teams out of this league. Let's just vow to get behind him and see what he can do for us now.
Then what will be will be come May.
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Relegated but we'll win the FA Cup to end 61 years of hurt.
It going to be our year !
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I expect us to be a little bit better than last season, in that I think we will be a bit more solid in defence over the whole season, and I reckon that slight improvement should be worth about 5 league places, so I reckon we'll finish 8th. Basically we will be nearly as good as Leeds were last season (which is hard to imagine I grant you).
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Like it or not, Bruce has had a LOT of success getting teams out of this league. Let's just vow to get behind him and see what he can do for us now.
Then what will be will be come May.
Agreed. We've made our bed and we should only consider a change if we're really doing badly. You just can't deny that Bruce has pedigree at this level and we'd just can't change the manager every season
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We will go up as champions, there, I've said it!
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Once you say it you can't unsay it!
I was very confident that the Terry signing would make us confident of success just based on his presence. But if Bruce's style is agricultural and reliant on a bit of Kodjia magic, I'm not too sure. Not finishing in at least the play offs would be unacceptable given our resources.
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Automatic promotion has to be the target.
However I don't think Bruce will last til Xmas, his talk of going back to 352 after the disastrous experiment last year is frightening and will expose the likes of John Terry and Nathan Baker to ridicule.
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Playoffs then defeat in a drab performance in the final with one attempt at goal in 120 minutes and losing to blues.
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Our squad should be top 2, however I think we'll be 6-10th. Bruce just doesn't give me any confidence at present.
I think we will be in that sort of region for most of the season if Bruce remains in charge. If we do go up, it will be a long, hard slog and probably through the play offs.
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"We're going to smash this league" John Terry.
So for me it's this too because love him or loathe him the man's a winner , he's our captain and he's going to be out there on the pitch doing the captains job. I can't see him putting up with tosspot performances from our players and I can't see him holding back on telling them and the management team what they need to do. It was often said that at Chelsea he, Lampard and Drogba exerted too much influence- well I say let's have some of that type of influence here please because it seemed to do ok there didn't it ?
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isn't that what lots of folk said last season?
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i hope that is not an actual quote from Mr Terry, because if it is, then he is very much mistaken
I said last season we would finish between 8-13th and for this season I can see us finishing higher, hopefully play offs, but I still don't think we will get promoted (and I have renewed my season ticket again!)
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Other than the two second halves against Brighton we smashed nobody last season and I cannot see Terry making that much difference. Not quite so turgid as last season but thud and blunder will see us falling short of top six.
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Between 8th and 12th
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First.
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Hope I'm proved wrong but I can't see it being much different to last season to be honest. We've got much the same squad with the exception of Terry, with players who performed well for their previous clubs but seemed to regress here, and we're still pretty pedestrian with no apparent set pattern of play. Apart from Kodjia it's difficult to see where the goals will come from, in spite of the fact that McCormack scored 71 goals in the three seasons before coming to us. If Bruce can get us playing quicker and more creatively from midfield I'd be more confident of going up, but as it stands I'm not very optimistic. Even the Aston Expressway is shut for the first couple of games same as last year!
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We can think big,
We can't stay the same
There's got be changes...
We've got big dreams,
Dreaming all about, new sensations,
Great Expectations
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I can't see it being much different to last season to be honest. We've got much the same squad with the exception of Terry, with players who performed well for their previous clubs but seemed to regress here, and we're still pretty pedestrian with no apparent set pattern of play.
That pretty much sums it up for me. No significant changes on the pitch in terms of players and Bruce appears to be no clearer how he wants to play or get the best out of the players at his disposal.
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We have some okay names in at our club but I don't think we're much of a team. If we can figure out a style of play then we may do well, but if we're anything like last season (dull, unimaginative, ponderous and consistently out-footballed by other teams) then I think we'll be midtable again.
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8th
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Champions with 100 points +, NO EXCUSES.
Time for this football club to stop dicking around and deliver.
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I think the top six will consist of (in no particular order) any six of seven teams. Villa, Boro, Cardiff, Leeds, Reading and the two Sheffield clubs.
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Aren't Wolves spending loads of money? They could be contenders.
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We do have largely the same squad but we have to hope that for one they will come back physically fitter than they started last season...that would make a difference and would also hopefully reflect in the tempo of play.
Like everything at every club at this stage it's all guess work but there are no excuses from us this summer, the manager has been there long enough have it his way, the DoF has been there long enough to have a genuine influence and we aren't getting 10 new players.
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With the money we've spent and the time Bruce has had, 2 transfer windows, signing of John Terry etc = promotion. Nothing less will do now.
Now is the time, no excuses, if we fail this year our best players will leave and we'll be marooned here for years.
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I reckon we'll sneak in the play-offs after Bruce has gone, but probably not go up.
People are making out like Bruce is a specialist at going up, I'm only really looking at recent years as the league has moved on a lot and managers like Wagner, Stam etc. are mixing it up and doing well. In recent years he came 6th with Hull 2 seasons ago, that's all well and good but I think that's the height of what he could achieve as it's becoming a more difficult league and leaving him behind, if he manages us for the whole season I'd expect somewhere between 6th-10th.
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Bruce knows he's got one last shot at this, hence going all in on Terry. If we aren't top 5 at the very least by November he'll be gone. I'm still confident, mind you.
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I think we might scrape into the play offs, but Steve Bruce won't be the manager by then. John Terry will be caretaker boss by then. We'll get promoted via the play off final and JT will be player manager and captain. He'll probably score the winning goal too.
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You're right about the league moving on AVH87, in addition to the two managers you've mentioned, the Fulham guy has really turned them around, they play the best football in the league, he also got Watford promoted. I'd be beating down Fulhams door if SB fails to get us where we wanna be.
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You're right about the league moving on AVH87, in addition to the two managers you've mentioned, the Fulham guy has really turned them around, they play the best football in the league, he also got Watford promoted. I'd be beating down Fulhams door if SB fails to get us where we wanna be.
Knock knock can we speak with your manager right now- with Bruce do well to finish top 8 - without Bruce possibly go up
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This season I mainly expect some very good tips on new music, bands and old music which has passed me by. I'm sure I will here about some great TV which I would have otherwise missed, ie; Detectorists. I'll probably get some great life advice at some point over the next few months.
As for the football, my expectations are not very hopeful.
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Bruce's approach has obviously worked at this level before but the times they are a changing and I think he's looking increasingly dinosaur-esque. The squad should be good enough to get at least play-offs but based on Bruce's "tactics" and decisions so far I have my doubts that he will get the best out of them and whether we'll even achieve that level. In short, not very optimistic as yet.
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Based on what we've seen so far under Bruce I suspect we'll float around 6-10th until about February/March and then he'll get kicked with someone coming in to try to ensure a playoff spot at least. I think we'll make it and will get through in the playoffs.
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Despite the fact he took them up after sixteen years out of the top flight and managed to beat 'the vile' a few times, Small Heath fans I knew who went to home games (a small selection obviously) were never impressed with the style of football they were watching.
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I would like to think we will give it a proper go this season we have a season under our belts at this level with the players we have we should at the very least get a play off place but I hope we will be challenging for automatic promotion with the luck we have had over the past few seasons we are due a bit of good fortune.
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I get the idea Bruce understands the need for a strong defence and that we need to be scoring more goals. It's the bit in between he doesn't get.
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This season I mainly expect some very good tips on new music, bands and old music which has passed me by. I'm sure I will here about some great TV which I would have otherwise missed, ie; Detectorists. I'll probably get some great life advice at some point over the next few months.
As for the football, my expectations are not very hopeful.
I tend to come on here for anything but the football.
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With Bruce mid-table.
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I think our fitness must be better this time round so that should give Bruce more chance to secure more dour 1-0 wins. A lot depends on how fit Kodja is and if we keep him should he prove his fitness before the end of the window as I'm convinced Bruce doesn't like him.
It's a truely rubbish league which we should just be able even under Bruce make the play offs. If we can secure ten boring 1-0 wins out of the first 13 or 14 games and get momentum going we may even get automatic. Don't expect any entertainment in the slightest.
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I expect us to go up as Champions. Whether Bruce can deliver is another matter. He showed enough in the two unbeaten runs last season that he can set a team up to not make mistakes and win games. Whether he can do it over a season remains to be seen. Whatever happens it'll be eye bleedingly awful.
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8th-12th. Top half just same problem as last year no creativity and goals.
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Champions. It won't always be pretty and we are bit lucky the other major contenders are not the calibre of Brighton or Newcastle. Boro will be second in my opinion.
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With the squad we've got, we should be aiming for and achieving automatic promotion and I think we will fall short and finish in the play offs I reckon.
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Bruce really has no excuses now. I think it'll be meat and potatoes nick a goal football. I just don't think Bruce has enough to get us top 2, but I always hope. I think realistically he'll get the boot and we'll get someone else in around Feb and go on a free flowing football masterclass and finish champions. In my dreams.
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No excuses this season, top or second.
If we get Elmohamady in then I think it is likely we will go 3-5-2 with wing backs similar to when Sir Brian was in charge.
Johnstone
Chester Terry Baker
Elmohamady Taylor
Jedinak
Lansbury Hourihane
McCormack
Hogan
At least until Kodjia comes back I see that as the likely starting 11. Bench could be Bunn,Elphick,Hutton,Bjarnason,Adomah,Grealish,Agbonlahor
Really hope we can get a couple more in though and ditch the likes of gabby,Richards etc once and for all, although I'm sure Gabby won't be going anywhere.
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If we sign Elmohamady Bruce will go
Johnstone
Elmohamady Taylor
Hourihane Jedinak. Lansbury
Adomah Gabby Kodjia. Hogan Davis. Green
Sometimes called the post war pyramid.
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Don't be silly Brian there's 12 in that line up 😎
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How many are you allowed to have?
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Not enough.
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No excuses this season, top or second.
If we get Elmohamady in then I think it is likely we will go 3-5-2 with wing backs similar to when Sir Brian was in charge.
Johnstone
Chester Terry Baker
Elmohamady Taylor
Jedinak
Lansbury Hourihane
McCormack
Hogan
At least until Kodjia comes back I see that as the likely starting 11. Bench could be Bunn,Elphick,Hutton,Bjarnason,Adomah,Grealish,Agbonlahor
Really hope we can get a couple more in though and ditch the likes of gabby,Richards etc once and for all, although I'm sure Gabby won't be going anywhere.
I can see that set up. It does mean you've got three central defenders plus a screen (sir Brian never played an absolute stopper in midfield). Plus Taylor is really a left back rather than a wing back. I just think it's too defensive
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I think Elmo will be wide right midfield and Green reverting to the left/bench.
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why sign Bree ?
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why sign Bree ?
Thought of more as one for the future I assume.
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I always thought it was done to either persuade hourihane to sign - a familiar face to prose him from barnsley. he may be a player who is loyal/homesick etc etc no idea.
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I was once prosed from Barnsley. The said they really wanted a poet.
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I stand by what I said near the end of last season. If we do not think Bruce can get us in to the automatic promotion positions, we should have got rid of him at the end of last season. If he fails, we are stuck with him until the failure is beyond doubt. By which time it will be too late for this season. I am praying that it does not play out this way. How has it come to this.
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Playoffs then defeat in a drab performance in the final with one attempt at goal in 120 minutes and losing to blues.
Scrub out SHA and that's the sort of reason I want to avoid the play offs at all costs.
Given some of our dreadful Wembley performances I could easily see us freezing in a play off final particularly with 100m at stake for the winners.
Really need to go out for automatic promotion even if people think that's optimistic at this point. If you want to finish top 6 you need 75 points usually and automatic promotion is only another 10 or so points on top.
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I predict Bruce is sacked in December. A new young modern (cheap) manager will come in and we will be in transition again for another year or so. Finishing safe, around 13th, much like last season in fact.
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Bruce gone by Labor Day, we're in with a shout of uppedness.
Bruce still here for Bonfire Night, nay feckin hope.
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I predict Bruce is sacked in December. A new young modern (cheap) manager will come in and we will be in transition again for another year or so. Finishing safe, around 13th, much like last season in fact.
That's the spirit nothing like a bit of Pre-season optimism.
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I predict Bruce is sacked in December. A new young modern (cheap) manager will come in and we will be in transition again for another year or so. Finishing safe, around 13th, much like last season in fact.
That's the spirit nothing like a bit of Pre-season optimism.
what would you base this optimism on?
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I've got my money on somewhere between 8th and 4th
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I predict Bruce is sacked in December. A new young modern (cheap) manager will come in and we will be in transition again for another year or so. Finishing safe, around 13th, much like last season in fact.
That's the spirit nothing like a bit of Pre-season optimism.
Be honest it is hard to find any optimism when we look as clueless tactically as we did for most of last season - bringing in a very good, but aging Terry and some no mark from a previous club whilst not addressing :
a) The stench of shite players needing to be got rid of
b) Adopting any set formation or ideas in pre season
c) To actively involve the stench players from a) in pre season - supports the claim that he does not see what is wrong so he has very little chance of putting it right
Cannot see any reason for optimism if I am honest
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On b) give the guy a chance!
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On b) give the guy a chance!
I think A,C and D puts paid to that.
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On b) give the guy a chance!
I think the Watford game will give us a better indication. In all but name, that should be our 'first' game in the season in that with the season only a week away we should really be fielding close to the XI who are to start the following week. If we look like a disorganised rabble in that game, then the outlook won't be too good.
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We have no other choice, Matt. My fear as I stated many times is that if you are going to replace a manager you do it in the summer, not in November/December when there's few quality alternatives. I disagree with Dante's 'A new young modern (cheap) manager' as I still expect David Moyes to roll up here before the end of the year.
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Jumping straight in on page eight without reading the thread:. With Bruce in charge I feel it will be a hard fought campaign to attain mid-table mediocrity. *
* I shall return at seasons end with a napkin around my neck to eat my dose of humble pie after storming the league with a month to spare.
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We won't be relegated - that's for sure.
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Automatic Promotion.
Expect nothing less.
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My biggest complaint last season was that we had no discernible method or shape to our play. You could look at it and often wonder "WTF is he doing". Now he tried 442, 352, 4132 and one could argue that he did not have the personnel available to him to adopt to the style he wants. He claims he likes 442 and 352 then comes January and he has a spending spree but seemingly does not buy players that comfortably play in either way. He buys 2 of the highest rated attacking midfielders in the league and then plays them completely out of position, he uses Jedinak as an additional stopper and we see whatever striker combo put out completely isolated. Anyway once our own relegation fears were ended most were just glad to look to the future when he has had a pre season under his belt.
Roll forward.
The club have gave him:
The coaching team he wanted (Calderwood - contract paid up at Brighton / Clemence etc)
The preseason venue he wanted - and has used in all his previous promotions
The star player he wanted - John terry
We play a decent team on paper at Shrewsbury and do not create a single effort on goal - same old same old.
I know its pre season and results do not matter. But what I am looking for is a way he wants to play and players fitting into that - not having players and trying to accommodate them as best he can.
'
I just cannot see anything changing other than defensive, negative football based on "nicking" a goal here and there. I doubt tonight's team will be any different
Ye
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Spot on Hookeysmith but you missed the fact that having been told they needed a pre-season we're now told that pre-season doesn't matter. I do wonder just how long he'll have us playing the same dull shit before these people start to think that it might just be what he wants.
The result against shrewsbury doesn't matter, we conceded goals with a makeshift defence, the issue is that for an hour before that we were comfortably held by a team who will be midtable in the league below us. Yes Kodjia's missing along with a few others and yes some people played that probably won't start against Hull but the whole point of having tactics and a style is to make you less dependant on individuals and reduce the impact of international call ups, injuries, suspensions, etc.
We will, I'm sure, have phases in the season where things click and we don't concede many and we score a couple of goals every game and when we do I'm sure people who rate Bruce will use it as an example of how great he is and how he's guaranteed to get us promoted, we had 2 of them last season. My worry is that we'll have a run where we can't score and we concede shitty goals and we ruin our chances , just as we did in January and again towards the end of the season. He's had poor runs like that at pretty much every club he's managed so it's not like it's something unique to his time with us.
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We absolutely need the pre season
We can only judge whether the pre season has been effective once the real stuff starts
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We absolutely need the pre season
We can only judge whether the pre season has been effective once the real stuff starts
but if the same mistakes are there in pre-season that were there last season then why would anyone think that they're going to disappear in the next 2 weeks.
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He's got promoted with far less talent. I think he'll get us promoted but like I said it might not always be pretty.
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Lets hope we get off to a good start this time. TV is right, it wont be pretty and it will be frustrating at times. We won't make it easy for ourselves, we never do.
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We won't go up with Bruce, I think it's a myth that scrappy 1-0 wins will work. Newcastle, Brighton, Huddersfield and Fulham (yes I know didn't make it) played good football.
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We won't go up with Bruce, I think it's a myth that scrappy 1-0 wins will work. Newcastle, Brighton, Huddersfield and Fulham (yes I know didn't make it) played good football.
I agree with 3 Spires, our football will be dire and we might scrape some single goal wins but unless we get the strikers we have scoring regularly, it'll be the same old story
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We won't go up with Bruce, I think it's a myth that scrappy 1-0 wins will work. Newcastle, Brighton, Huddersfield and Fulham (yes I know didn't make it) played good football.
Huddersfield won 25 league games last season, 22 were by 1 goal. So 1 goal wins do work. I agree though that I don't think we'll go up with Bruce.
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Ok, fair point, but the football they played, from what I saw was better than anything under Bruce. By the way do you know what Huddersfield spent compared to what Bruce spent in January or what we spent combined last year?
Only my opinion but I think you need to play attacking, good football to get up
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Ok, fair point, but the football they played, from what I saw was better than anything under Bruce. By the way do you know what Huddersfield spent compared to what Bruce spent in January or what we spent combined last year?
Only my opinion but I think you need to play attacking, good football to get up
Bruce didnt spend a huge amount in January. His biggest buy was Hogan.
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Ok, fair point, but the football they played, from what I saw was better than anything under Bruce. By the way do you know what Huddersfield spent compared to what Bruce spent in January or what we spent combined last year?
Only my opinion but I think you need to play attacking, good football to get up
Bruce didnt spend a huge amount in January. His biggest buy was Hogan.
We spent the best part of £20m but offset it with sales. The problem is that we probably can't repeat that in this window.
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Huddersfield are a bit of an anomaly. All those 1 goal wins, went up with a minus goal difference, and didn't win a play-off game. What they did do was have a fantastic team spirit and a system best suited to their limited resources. We spent more on Fat Ross than they spent on players in 2 or 3 years. And that's just what they paid for players, it doesn't take into account any money raised from player sales.
Meanwhile we just seem to hope someone will do a bit of individual magic and nick us a goal.
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What was his spend though? Hogan was 12, is that correct? How much were the others, around 15 to 18 million all in. I don't know as our transfers seem to be a mystery, but generally accepted more than anyone else in the league. I just think he's a poor manager.
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This squad is capable of top two.
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This squad is capable of top two.
Squad maybe, manager nope, in my humble
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What was his spend though? Hogan was 12, is that correct? How much were the others, around 15 to 18 million all in. I don't know as our transfers seem to be a mystery, but generally accepted more than anyone else in the league. I just think he's a poor manager.
Hard to know with all the undisclosed fee stuff, but we got £5m for Westwood, £6m for Rudy, Taylor and £5m for Ayew, and bought Hotlips, Angie, Bjork, Bree, Bedeau, Hogan and I assume a loan fee for Johnstone. Don't think i've forgotten anyone!
I'd fancy that it was an outlay of the best part of £10m in total. Good business overall I think, but not peanuts to spend either in Jan at this level either.
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Top two.
The squad we have, there can be no excuse.
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When was the last time a slow, ponderous team with only one player that ever scores got promoted?
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When was the last time a slow, ponderous team with only one player that ever scores got promoted?
This
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When was the last time a slow, ponderous team with only one player that ever scores got promoted?
Hull 2 years ago. Possibly.
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When was the last time a slow, ponderous team with only one player that ever scores got promoted?
you forgot we have a promotion specialist as manager
4 times with really shit clubs it's been mentioned once or twice
Relax, Promotion is guaranteed
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With Samba and Gabby as possible stalwarts in the side it's 2010 and the relative glory days all over again.
100 points.
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With Samba and Gabby as possible stalwarts in the side it's 2010 and the relative glory days all over again.
100 points.
'hold on to your seats'
as someone once said on here
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Expectations? No don't ask me it's too painful as disappointment is guaranteed.
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Well after watching Saturday's and tonight's 'performances', what little enthusiasm I had for the coming season has already evaporated. (sigh)
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Bruce will be gone by the end of October. He does not possess the tactical nous needed to get the players he has playing in a winning formation or with a winning mentality.
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Hopefully we will be top two but it won't be under Bruce.
The pre season has shown that nothing has changed in his tenure and the signings of whelan and el ma', whilst we are happily looking to ship out Vertoute, Gil, Amavi says it all for me.
He was under pressure last season and he is now under more pressure (that's what you get for screening friendlies live I guess). Imagine dire performances and poor results in the rest of the friendlies coupled with a poor start and he could well be gone by end of September at this rate.
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Hopefully we will be top two but it won't be under Bruce.
The pre season has shown that nothing has changed in his tenure and the signings of whelan and el ma', whilst we are happily looking to ship out Vertoute, Gil, Amavi says it all for me.
I'm not sure we're happily looking to ship them out. I don't think Gil or Veretout want to hang around and I think Amavi said he wanted to move on as well.
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Of Gil, Amavi and Veretout, only the latter would be of much use to us, IMO.
Samba actually looked reasonable last night, alongside Terry.
However, the general level of play (simple things, like passing to a player in the same colours, taking free kicks that apply some pressure on opponents) and the tactical ineptitude and lack of offensive impact - all of these are just at such low levels that, once again, I found myself asking the age-old question: "what do these f***ers do during training and why has there been no apparent coaching input?"
From being very 'meh' about Bruce's appointment I am now definitely firmly against his continued involvement at VP and would prefer the pain of yet another managerial search to bring in a Proper Manager.
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There is an international break in early October - after Bolton at home.
My guess is he'll go then.
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Hopefully we will be top two but it won't be under Bruce.
The pre season has shown that nothing has changed in his tenure and the signings of whelan and el ma', whilst we are happily looking to ship out Vertoute, Gil, Amavi says it all for me.
He was under pressure last season and he is now under more pressure (that's what you get for screening friendlies live I guess). Imagine dire performances and poor results in the rest of the friendlies coupled with a poor start and he could well be gone by end of September at this rate.
Dr X needs to be looking now for a new modern manager. Bruce is proving to be the old school type I expected him to be, and will be out thought by the majority of managers in the Championship. If there was a decent replacement available now, Bruce wouldn't see out the friendlies.
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I would say 10th at best. Possibly 8th if Kodjia has a good season again, but things will be dull and we'll be nowhere near promotion.
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I'll be very, very surprised if we don't get into the top six, at least - although automatic promotion has to be the aim and target.
I don't really get all this doom and gloom stuff going on at the moment and, likewise, I don't get this belief that some Villa fans seem to have, of us needing to be playing like 1970s-era Ajax to get out of this league. Bruce has the CV and track record for the position we find ourselves in. It isn't going to be pretty, there will be a lot of huffing and puffing and grinding results out but one has to believe he knows what he is doing.
Pre-season is pre-season and the results are meaningless, all that matters is what happens in the league. As soon as kick-off arrives, and the squad settles, I hope and expect us to click into gear picking up as many points as we can week in week out. This isn't the time, in my opinion, to be looking for a progressive manager and an "Aston Villa" style - save that for next season when, all being well, we're back in the PL. Steve Bruce is, surely, a stage in the journey back to the top?
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Like the positivity!
I am a bit concerned that fan negativity will be a problem if we get off to a mediocre start (and I reckon we've got some tough games early on)
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I think a lot of people are being overly negative at the moment. If nothing else, we'll be a lot more solid than we were last season. Terry and Samba are big upgrades on Richards and Elphick, and we still have Chester and Baker. Johnstone in his end-of-season form will be an upgrade on Gollini.
Despite their current form, having a summer together will eventually benefit the likes of Lansbury, Hourihane, Hogan and Bree.
I don’t expect it to be pretty, in any way shape or form, and we’re still going to be very reliant on Kodjia’s individual brilliance for most of our goals, but I do expect us to be top 8 by Christmas, and then hopefully in a position to bring in a couple of reinforcements to push for Promotion from there.
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Top six. Based on nothing except a hunch.
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It's worth bearing in mind just how bang average most of this league is - including us
We don't have to improve that much to get into the top 6 I reckon.
Obviously there's a risk that Kodjia doesn't replicate last season's form and we really do struggle for goals
No afcon will help
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For me the negativity has ramped up since it became apparent that the next 2 planned signings were Elmohamady & Whelan...we all know that the problem in the team was creating chances so we chase two more efficient plodders.
Normally at this time I say let's see what the squad looks like on Sep 1st but I do worry that Bruce has no inclination whatsoever to sign a player whose first mindset is to go forward.
Zzzzzzzz
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.... Pre-season is pre-season and the results are meaningless ...
Well, you may be right but the way that the games have been played out gives a clue to the likely league performance (after all, what is practised is usually what is seen in performance).
Against Shrewsbury and Walsall the players showed poor passing, poor set-piece play and an inability to sustain pressure on the opposition; all of which meant that goalscoring opportunities were few and far between. Bear in mind, these are skills not unreasonably expected of professional footballers.
My caution for the forthcoming season is that we continue to demonstrate ineptitude in the basics of the game and that - additionally - the manager continues to demonstrate the limitations in game management and tactics that we saw last season. Putting both together will result in disppointment (to say the least).
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I do worry that Bruce has no inclination whatsoever to sign a player whose first mindset is to go forward.
Why give him more money when he bought three players in January that have exactly that mindset but for some reason they no longer do it?
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I do worry that Bruce has no inclination whatsoever to sign a player whose first mindset is to go forward.
Why give him more money when he bought three players in January that have exactly that mindset but for some reason they no longer do it?
Pretty obvious where the mindset problem is.
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In his defence we've had what, 3 1/2 weeks of pre season
It's not long to solve some critical problems so we do need to judge a bit later down the line
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Against that he's had 9 months to improve things, and apart from looking a bit better defensively we still struggle with all the other basics. I really hope Bruce proves everyone wrong, or right depending on point of view, and we storm this league, I just don't see anything that suggests we can or will.
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We significantly improved under Bruce as opposed to under RDM, Garde, Sherwood and the mauling the club took and was still taking.
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Our passing is still shit, as are our set pieces, pass and move is still an alien concept in B6, as is moving into space off the ball, we rarely score and don't create much. Midfield and attack still look totally disjointed only the defence is decent and has improved in 9 months. There seems no tactics or ideas on how to score apart from get it wide and hope. Those things worry me, as does watching Walsall pass the ball better than us.
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We significantly improved under Bruce. It's an inescapable fact. We won 15 games. More than we won in the previous two seasons and the previous 86 league games.
Take some to digest that and just how shit we were. Shit does not quite do it justice. The club wasn't on its arse it was decomposing.
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By playing the likes of Burton and Rotherham instead of Chelsea and Man City. Winning more games in division 2 than we did in division 1 isn't a sign we have improved or will be promoted.
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Inheriting the 3rd worst side in Prem history and then RDMs botch job is certainly an improvement in regards to where / how we ended up last season.
There have been double relegations of squads not as bad or toxic as ours last summer.
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A dull uninspiring 11th with a new manager in December
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Finishing 13th with the most expensive squad in the history of the division, what a time to be alive!
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3rd worst Prem squad in history,
Probably most toxic. Taking over 3
Months in, 11th all day long.
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Finishing 13th with the most expensive squad in the history of the division, what a time to be alive!
Because Bruce was responsible for Richards, Gabby, Lescott, Vertout, etcs contracts?
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3rd worst Prem squad in history,
Probably most toxic. Taking over 3
Months in, 11th all day long.
Of which few of that squad, management, coaches etc were left by September, and we finished 13th and were one of the lowest scorers in the division. Closer in points to the bottom 3 than top 6. World's worst ever big improvement imo.
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Finishing 13th with the most expensive squad in the history of the division, what a time to be alive!
Because Bruce was responsible for Richards, Gabby, Lescott, Vertout, etcs contracts?
Lescott had gone, Veretout was out on loan. So they played no part in us finishing 13th, either through contracts or being on the pitch.
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My personal expectation is that we should piss our way out of the division with the squad at our disposal. Do I realistically expect that to happen? No.
Until he releases the shackles on midfield it will be dull, grinding football and play offs at best. The man is a dinosaur.
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Comparing results against Chelsea and Man City are certainly an improvement aren't they.
Prefer to focus on Performances against Brighton than Rotherham, but hey, it's an easier life to be negative.
Brucey we trust.
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Comparing results against Chelsea and Man City are certainly an improvement aren't they.
Prefer to focus on Performances against Brighton than Rotherham, but hey, it's an easier life to be negative.
Brucey we trust.
We drew with them twice.
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Comparing results against Chelsea and Man City are certainly an improvement aren't they.
Prefer to focus on Performances against Brighton than Rotherham, but hey, it's an easier life to be negative.
Brucey we trust.
We won 3 out of 12 games against the top 6 last season. 5 out of 20 against the top 10.
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And managed something preposterous like four points from games where we didn't score first.
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By playing the likes of Burton and Rotherham instead of Chelsea and Man City. Winning more games in division 2 than we did in division 1 isn't a sign we have improved or will be promoted.
From somebody who walked away from all those previous 86 games, I can assure you it was an improvement. Equally, RDM proved incapable of winning games in the 2nd Division.
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After five years of shit, with the spends of last summer and last January, the least we should have expected would be a play off place, and even allowing for bedding in of new players, to finish where we did was a disgrace. Yes we won matches, but no discernible tactics, players played out of positions and certainly not to their strengths, or even a basic rudimentary ability of one Villa player to pass to another, leaves me in no hope whatsoever for the coming campaign.
I would love to, just for once, come on this board and be positive and optimistic, but a shit pre-season (Wallsall??!!) and an absolutely fuckng toothless front-line, apparent to everyone on here except, once again, the manager, will see us languish in mid-table from the off.
Bruce has no clue, is now tactically out of his depth, and even at this seemingly early stage of pre-season, still has no ideas or direction of what he's at. I would even go as fas as to say he's lost the players, because if he doesn't know what the fck he's at at this stage, how are they meant to know.
The malaise throughout Villa Park continues...players feeling they've made it once they pull on that shirt, being paid ridiculous amounts of money, being led by United, who doesn't know what he's doing.
I watched Arsenal play Bayern today, and will watch Premier League teams play the cream of the world for the rest of the summer, as a matter of course. Villa couldn't score against Walsall last night. How far we have fallen.
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I'd say winning 15 games in division 2 is the bare minimum you'd expect from Villa. And well below what you'd expect from the most expensive side in the history of the division. We did the bare minimum and looked crap doing it. To me that isn't a significant improvement, a significant improvement would be playing well for more than the odd 30 minutes here and there.
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We went into last season with one of the worst PL teams in history so we had to spend big to improve it. Constantly claiming we had the most expensive squad in history doesn't really tell the whole story though. The starting point was rock bottom, and you don't turn around a club after 7 years of sabotage over night, let's not forget that.
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A year ago I doubt many of us would have been satisfied with 13th, shit football, 15 wins and one of the lowest goal scorers in the division. So I don't see how a year on it's now a massive improvement.
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We went into last season with one of the worst PL teams in history so we had to spend big to improve it. Constantly claiming we had the most expensive squad in history doesn't really tell the whole story though. The starting point was rock bottom, and you don't turn around a club after 7 years of sabotage over night, let's not forget that.
Nope, but sacking the first guy to have a chance it after 10 games was fine.
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I'd say winning 15 games in division 2 is the bare minimum you'd expect from Villa. And well below what you'd expect from the most expensive side in the history of the division. We did the bare minimum and looked crap doing it. To me that isn't a significant improvement, a significant improvement would be playing well for more than the odd 30 minutes here and there.
You really need to stop assuming our great clubs name is enough to win points when the Fact is we have been rotten turgid crap for the season and bit before Bruce to charge.
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I'd say winning 15 games in division 2 is the bare minimum you'd expect from Villa. And well below what you'd expect from the most expensive side in the history of the division. We did the bare minimum and looked crap doing it. To me that isn't a significant improvement, a significant improvement would be playing well for more than the odd 30 minutes here and there.
You really need to stop assuming our great clubs name is enough to win points when the Fact is we have been rotten turgid crap for the season and bit before Bruce to charge.
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I don't base it on our name. I based it on the squad we had. If I thought our name was enough I wouldn't be saying i'm worried we'll struggle this season would I.
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A year ago I doubt many of us would have been satisfied with 13th, shit football, 15 wins and one of the lowest goal scorers in the division. So I don't see how a year on it's now a massive improvement.
Yes and I also remember posters on here during the dreaded '15/16 season ridiculed for suggesting we could follow up our relegation with another relegation battle in the Championship. As I said we went down with one of the worst teams ever and I don't believe anyone really thought we'd turn it around overnight if we were being really honest with ourselves.
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What squad did we have in August suggested that after being the 3rd worst in Prem history and easily the most toxic, was good enough to go straight back up?
Don't talk about wages, or money spent, because none of which were Bruce's until January when it was too late.
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So I can't talk about signing most of the league's top scorers because it doesn't suit your point of view?
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What squad did we have in August suggested that after being the 3rd worst in Prem history and easily the most toxic, was good enough to go straight back up?
Don't talk about wages, or money spent, because none of which were Bruce's until January when it was too late.
Correct. We had to spend huge just to stop the rot. If we had finished 6th or 7th in the championship then went out and spent huge then yes we should expect us to go up, but we didn't, we were relegated with a skeleton of a football club and we had to rebuild from the bottom. If we're looking for bad guys then look at the previous owner who did this to us.
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So I can't talk about signing most of the league's top scorers because it doesn't suit your point of view?
Who's to say the players signed in January won't come good next season? I haven't completely written them off like some other fans have.
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The thing is finishing 13th is only part of the story, not being able to reliably get shots on goal, keep possession in midfield, deliver decent set pieces or get anyone within 30 yards of our strikers are the problems that people are talking about and are still seeing this summer, can we blame those on Lerner still, or RDM?
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A year ago I doubt many of us would have been satisfied with 13th, shit football, 15 wins and one of the lowest goal scorers in the division. So I don't see how a year on it's now a massive improvement.
A year ago we didn't believe we'd crumble like a soggy wheatabix at places like Bristol City after conceding a goal.
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I'm not writing them off, i've said that I think we have a squad that should be top 2. It's the manager i'm worried about. Same as I believe we had a squad that should have been better than 13th last season. The managers were we had, imo, the problem last season not the squad we had.
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So I can't talk about signing most of the league's top scorers because it doesn't suit your point of view?
So buying RM with huge personal issues, and an injury prone Hogan in January means we should have pissed the league last season?
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A year ago I doubt many of us would have been satisfied with 13th, shit football, 15 wins and one of the lowest goal scorers in the division. So I don't see how a year on it's now a massive improvement.
A year ago we didn't believe we'd crumble like a soggy wheatabix at places like Bristol City after conceding a goal.
but you're constantly pleading patience for someone who lost all but 2 games that we went behind in (out of about 15), so where's the significant improvement?
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So I can't talk about signing most of the league's top scorers because it doesn't suit your point of view?
So buying RM with huge personal issues, and an injury prone Hogan in January means we should have pissed the league last season?
No because we had, and bought, a lot of other players as well. I also haven't said we should have pissed the league, you do like making things up don't you. I have however said that imo the squad massively underperformed last season and that I believe that is because of the managers and coaches.
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So I can't talk about signing most of the league's top scorers because it doesn't suit your point of view?
So buying RM with huge personal issues, and an injury prone Hogan in January means we should have pissed the league last season?
but in Bruce we trust right?
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Live streaming of friendlies has kicked up a shitstorm as far as I'm concerned, I've been to about four in nearly forty years.
Not a Bruce man myself, but lets wait for the first 3 or 4 games before a balanced opinion is voiced.
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A year ago I doubt many of us would have been satisfied with 13th, shit football, 15 wins and one of the lowest goal scorers in the division. So I don't see how a year on it's now a massive improvement.
A year ago we didn't believe we'd crumble like a soggy wheatabix at places like Bristol City after conceding a goal.
but you're constantly pleading patience for someone who lost all but 2 games that we went behind in (out of about 15), so where's the significant improvement?
15 wins in 36 versus 14 in 86 as a match going fan is huge.
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Live streaming of friendlies has kicked up a shitstorm as far as I'm concerned, I've been to about four in nearly forty years.
Not a Bruce man myself, but lets wait for the first 3 or 4 games before a balanced opinion is voiced.
Absolutely nailed on comment mate.
I've been to Pre season games pre Big Ron, Little, Gregory and so forth and been so drunk I couldn't remember anything, all seasons have surprised me at some point, but this pre season for all to see online is definitely dangerous for mass opinions.
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A year ago I doubt many of us would have been satisfied with 13th, shit football, 15 wins and one of the lowest goal scorers in the division. So I don't see how a year on it's now a massive improvement.
A year ago we didn't believe we'd crumble like a soggy wheatabix at places like Bristol City after conceding a goal.
but you're constantly pleading patience for someone who lost all but 2 games that we went behind in (out of about 15), so where's the significant improvement?
15 wins in 36 versus 14 in 86 as a match going fan is huge.
Yeah, and the quality of the opposition has no bearing on it. The key thing is if you extend 15 in 36 out to 46 games it gives you about 19 and to be reliably into the playoffs we need more like 23-24 so it's not enough.
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Not enough when you take over in October with someone else's squad after 3rd worst Prem squad ever?
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I have never known such hullabaloo over friendlies before.
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Jack grealish is our third most experienced player. The churn has been incredible. It's going to take time. We've had a whole three weeks of pre season
There are still quite a few worrying signs, but the histrionics about a couple of friendlies is a bit ridiculous
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So is getting so worked up about a few people on the internet having an opinion.
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I have never known such hullabaloo over friendlies before.
Didn't you know we should be hammering these teams a division below us 6 nil. It's the law.
Especially from the YouTube safety net.
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I have never known such hullabaloo over friendlies before.
Didn't you know we should be hammering these teams a division below us 6 nil. It's the law.
Especially from the YouTube safety net.
No one's saying we should be hammering them six nil. Just that we shouldn't be looking worse than them. Is that so outlandish?
What on earth is the YouTube safety net?
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We'll absolutely bore our way to around 12th. Thats ok though because Bruce has pedigree and just needs a Pre-season behind him.
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We'll absolutely bore our way to around 12th. Thats ok though because Bruce has pedigree and just needs a Pre-season behind him.
For all his faults Bruce knows how to get teams out of the Championship. And yeah, having a pre-season helps.
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We'll absolutely bore our way to around 12th. Thats ok though because Bruce has pedigree and just needs a Pre-season behind him.
but only for fitness, tactics and passing the ball to each other aren't things you can work on in 8 months during the season or in pre-season, all the other teams that do it must be cheating.
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Yeah pre season didn't make any difference to Huddersfield last season
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Live streaming of friendlies has kicked up a shitstorm as far as I'm concerned, I've been to about four in nearly forty years.
Not a Bruce man myself, but lets wait for the first 3 or 4 games before a balanced opinion is voiced.
Absolutely nailed on comment mate.
I've been to Pre season games pre Big Ron, Little, Gregory and so forth and been so drunk I couldn't remember anything, all seasons have surprised me at some point, but this pre season for all to see online is definitely dangerous for mass opinions.
So, people are not allowed to form opinions outside of true competition?
Okay, but the problem with that is: what gets done in practice often repeats in the real world. Our poor passing, indifferent set pieces, lack of movement and static defence become the norm, if practised enough.
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I think we're all concerned. We'd all wanted to see much better passing and penetration; and that Bruce has worked out a plan to get the most out of our players
There's little sign of that so far
But I don't think we can make the judgment until a fair few games in. Even if he's doing all the right things in pre season or still might take a dozen or so games to really take effect
We've been a fucking shambles for ages. It's a big job to turn this around money or not
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9th.
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Ok I'm taking £50 bets on us going up top 2, any takers? I'm very easy to find.
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Stick a few grand on it and show us the betting slip works just as well. In fact better than asking people to bet on hoping we fail, which no one does want.
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(https://media.giphy.com/media/MncRccQYx7LVu/giphy.gif)
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Thought as much.
I will do receipts for any sceptics.
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I was just goofing off :) I happen to agree with you. I think we will be top 2. But I cant deny I am nervous about it.
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Stick a few grand on it and show us the betting slip works just as well. In fact better than asking people to bet on hoping we fail, which no one does want.
That's a no then?
No surprise.
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You really don't understand that folks don't want to bet on Villa failing? Go get better odds piling it on at the bookies if you are so confident instead of asking fellow fans to bet on us being crap in an attempt to score a worthless internet point.
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Stick a few grand on it and show us the betting slip works just as well. In fact better than asking people to bet on hoping we fail, which no one does want.
That's a no then?
No surprise.
I'll simplify it for you as much as possible, I won't bet against the Villa on principle, and because I actually want us to win the league. I hope i'm wrong with all my doubts and don't want any 'satisfaction' of winning money because I was right and Villa are shit.
However nothing and no one is stopping you from putting any amount you want on at the bookies on any Villa prediction that you fancy.
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I have and I will win, just testing the know it alls who won't stake a simple £50 against their professional opinion.
Funny how balls shrink when money is on the table.
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You really don't understand that folks don't want to bet on Villa failing? Go get better odds piling it on at the bookies if you are so confident instead of asking fellow fans to bet on us being crap in an attempt to score a worthless internet point.
But it's easy to say how crap we are going to be just known as being right for the sake of it, but ££ involved it becomes a moral issue...mmmm.
Hopefully that simplifies that for you.
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Professional opinion? I didn't realise I was paid to waffle on a fan forum. And I obviously didn't simplify it enough for you to understand.
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You really don't understand that folks don't want to bet on Villa failing? Go get better odds piling it on at the bookies if you are so confident instead of asking fellow fans to bet on us being crap in an attempt to score a worthless internet point.
But it's easy to say how crap we are going to be just known as being right for the sake of it, but ££ involved it becomes a moral issue...mmmm.
No, i've said how crap i'm worried we're going to be. Stop making things up dear.
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Ok I'm taking £50 bets on us going up top 2, any takers? I'm very easy to find.
Easy to find? Haven't you had about 5 different user names?
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I have and I will win, just testing the know it alls who won't stake a simple £50 against their professional opinion.
Funny how balls shrink when money is on the table.
Most pathetic thing I've ever read on here.
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I have and I will win, just testing the know it alls who won't stake a simple £50 against their professional opinion.
Funny how balls shrink when money is on the table.
Most pathetic thing I've ever read on here.
I reckon there's 244 posts that are nearly as bad as that one.
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I have and I will win, just testing the know it alls who won't stake a simple £50 against their professional opinion.
Funny how balls shrink when money is on the table.
Most pathetic thing I've ever read on here.
I reckon there's 244 posts that are nearly as bad as that one.
And all the previous incarnations.
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There aren't any, he's new and shiny.
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edited out as AV did :)
Can I have a word? Honestly you seem like a real Villa fan, love the team and want to rally around. I love that. But do you really need to take a pop at fellow fans who are a bit more worn down by the past few years? Seriously this is a good solid community. But the mods here rightfully don't tolerate that kind of thing for long (I am not one. Just someone who wants you to stick around and have some good times with us).
Genuinely, keep on supporting the team , its great, but please stop the "did you spill my pint?" nonsense. We are all fans here there is no call for it. I say this in good faith.
Supporting Villa isn't easy right now. Its made a lot better by fans having some laughs together rather than having a go. Cheers.
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I'm pure and simply a fan of positivity and would rather be wrong and hopeful than right and smug.
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I've never bet money against Villa and never will. It should be easy to grasp that and yet appears not to be for some reason.
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I'm pure and simply a fan of positivity and would rather be wrong and hopeful than right and smug.
Totally cool man, We need that! I would just avoid the pops as other fans who are more worn down. They aint smug, they are terrified! :)
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The old chestnut I won't bet against my team suddenly comes out when an opinion is questioned with pound signs.
If anyone genuinely thinks Brucey will fail then It's the easiest £50 you will ever make?
because people don't want to, it's that simple. For me it's not about betting for or against my team it's that I don't bet with random people on the internet who are giving it the "you haven't even got the balls to bet on it" bullshit to try to win an argument. It's a grown-up equivalent of my dad is bigger than yours.
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Yeah I can't wait for us to be shit and and quite possibly fuck up the future of the club for McGrath knows how many years just so as I can say "I told you so" to a few dozen people on the internet.
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Ciggies has been more than generous with you there, Snobs. I think you'd be wise to take his advice.
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Neither have I, hence why I'm willing to lose big on betting for them.
And yes I've put money where my mouth is....but I'm trying to illustrate that whilst I'm fundamentally against betting against our club, I genuinely don't believe the level of sceptics amongst this site, it's more to be right (which is 90% of football fans saying they won't hit their remit) than actually having a touch of optimism.
It's a cruel short life, why be so negative other than to be smug at being "right".
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Terrified is having a life threatening illness or not laying a mortgage payment, just remember whilst we love our football club dearly, they don't give a shit about us.
We will long outlive players and owners, but the moment we settle for second best and admit defeat we are no better than them.
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So you're against doing what you are complaining about other people not doing? One day you'll just accept people have a different opinion to yours. I haven't told you that you're wrong for betting 50p or 50K on us being top 2, or that you are wrong for thinking we will. Just that I don't see anything that makes me believe we will be. I'm not sure why the same basic courtesy is beyond you.
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Ok I'm taking £50 bets on us going up top 2, any takers? I'm very easy to find.
I can find you very easily and will take a fifty on a top 2 bet.
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Neither have I, hence why I'm willing to lose big on betting for them.
And yes I've put money where my mouth is....but I'm trying to illustrate that whilst I'm fundamentally against betting against our club, I genuinely don't believe the level of sceptics amongst this site, it's more to be right (which is 90% of football fans saying they won't hit their remit) than actually having a touch of optimism.
It's a cruel short life, why be so negative other than to be smug at being "right".
I think Bruce was and is a negative (some will say pragmatic) choice as manager and is inherently short-term as a choice, he's creating a team that will largely need to be replaced if we are promoted, playing a style that will need to be changed if we're promoted and keen to sell most of the players with the technique to do anything else to fund that. I have consistently said that I think this approach to trying to get promoted is wrong and is based on this out dated idea that the championship is full of cloggers and you need to scrap in the mud for every point.
I believe teams who have been relegated and stayed down for a while or turned into yo-yo clubs are the ones who have filled their squad with championship experience and employed coaches and managers who know the league. Teams that have rebuilt and come back stronger with a new identity (such as Southampton) are the ones who have taken a longer term view and have both restructured the club but have also concentrated on building a style which they can add to on promotion. Even the Baggies have done that, even i the 'style' is to be the most tedious club in the premier league.
If you think that's being negative, pessimistic or smug then so be it but the truth is that I want us to be a club that wins stuff and I don't think brain melting backs-to-the-wall football is a required step to that goal, other people do, which is their prerogative but I'm fed up of people suggesting that thinking the Bruce is the wrong manager for us means I'm less of a fan or don't know anything about the game.
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Yeah pre season didn't make any difference to Huddersfield last season
Or Reading.
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We're not a team full of cloggers.
I find it difficult to reconcile what you say about Championship football when the past two seasons the automatically promoted teams play rigid, game management based football designed to eliminate errors, nick goals and grind their way to victory.
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Huddersfield did massively benefit as they were working to a strict strategy that the manager had started as soon as he joined part of the way through the season. Everything from the second he joined was done with his idea in mind. From double training, changing training times depending on KO times for the next game, building team spirit, bringing in players to do specific jobs etc. It was pretty hit and miss after he first joined but he stuck to it, and mainly hit last season.
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I still find it difficult to believe there's going to be eight or nine teams who'll outperform us.
I look at the state Hull (selling their best players) and Sunderland (just being Sunderland) have come down in and like us 12 months ago I'd be surprised if even are in promotion contention.
Boro will be up there, Derby and Sheff Weds are always thereabouts given the money they spend, Norwich underachieved last season but have gone down the fashionable route by employing a German manager who no one has heard of and Cardiff with Warncock will be up there I'm sure.
We really should be in that pack. When you think about it our home form was pretty good last season, we regularly keep clean sheets and we have a 20 goal striker so surely the important ingredients are there to get at least play offs?
It all falls down by the complete lack of bottle and fight we show whenever we go a a goal down away from home. 3 away wins at this level was a scandal aswell as many of our performances. Just not good enough and what worries me is we finished at Blackburn away in exactly the same manner as in SB's early away games at Leeds and Norwich.
If we can't crack the away form no chance of promotion.
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I still find it difficult to believe there's going to be eight or nine teams who'll outperform us.
Me too. When you look at the squads and the money spent its difficult to see how we can be anything less than top 6. We should be top 1 and winning the league is my expectation.
But I also said that last season.
I am still astonished, embarrassed and angry that we were unable to compete with teams like Huddersfield across the full season. No disrespect to them, but the gulf in resources should have made that very unlikely.
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Sadly, over the last 6 or 7 years Villa have managed to do numerous things i've found hard to believe. Law of averages says that has to change soon!
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We have up 5 points to Huddersfield. It's a head scratcher.
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I still find it difficult to believe there's going to be eight or nine teams who'll outperform us.
Me too. When you look at the squads and the money spent its difficult to see how we can be anything less than top 6. We should be top 1 and winning the league is my expectation.
But I also said that last season.
I am still astonished, embarrassed and angry that we were unable to compete with teams like Huddersfield across the full season. No disrespect to them, but the gulf in resources should have made that very unlikely.
I never thought we'd be in contention for promotion last season, maybe play offs when we went on a decent run under SB but even then we were quite a bit adrift.
RDM largely relying on the squad that shamefully relegated us and only adding Gollini, Tish and Elphick to start the season at Sheff Weds was ridiculous. Undercooked is being generous.
Bar the odd position the squad is good enough now and there should be no excuses. Manager has to prove he has the mentality to push us on which seems to be an issue for some reason given he hasn't had much trouble getting weaker squads/clubs up before. Our squad is a lot better than Hull 12/13 I'd imagine.
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Bar the odd position the squad is good enough now and there should be no excuses. Manager has to prove he has the mentality to push us on which seems to be an issue for some reason given he hasn't had much trouble getting weaker squads/clubs up before. Our squad is a lot better than Hull 12/13 I'd imagine.
Agreed. Although I also have no idea how good/bad the Hull team was that went up. Did they play good tooball? I dunno. I don't remember much about them from the Premier League even though we played them if I am honest.
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My memory of Hull, and his others clubs, is of not much happening in the majority of the games I saw. My Sunderland supporting in-laws say the same about his time with them and it's how I recall most of last season.
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My memory of Hull, and his others clubs, is of not much happening in the majority of the games I saw. My Sunderland supporting in-laws say the same about his time with them and it's how I recall most of last season.
I don't watch much in the way of general highlights in the past few years, but I distinctly remember watching Hull batter Burnley at home the season before last, 3-0 it was around Christmas, with Hull's left winger giving Matt Lowton an absolute chasing.
I think I commented on here after watching it that I'd take almost every player Hull had over the tossers we were watching capitulate every week in the division above.
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My memory of Hull, and his others clubs, is of not much happening in the majority of the games I saw. My Sunderland supporting in-laws say the same about his time with them and it's how I recall most of last season.
I don't watch much in the way of general highlights in the past few years, but I distinctly remember watching Hull batter Burnley at home the season before last, 3-0 it was around Christmas, with Hull's left winger giving Matt Lowton an absolute chasing.
I think I commented on here after watching it that I'd take almost every player Hull had over the tossers we were watching capitulate every week in the division above.
And we saw a few flashes of that last season, it's just not the norm for his teams.
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I just want to see Villa take the game to the opposition and exert and maintain pressure. Is that too much to ask Steve Bruce to organise the team to do.
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My memory of Hull, and his others clubs, is of not much happening in the majority of the games I saw. My Sunderland supporting in-laws say the same about his time with them and it's how I recall most of last season.
I don't watch much in the way of general highlights in the past few years, but I distinctly remember watching Hull batter Burnley at home the season before last, 3-0 it was around Christmas, with Hull's left winger giving Matt Lowton an absolute chasing.
I think I commented on here after watching it that I'd take almost every player Hull had over the tossers we were watching capitulate every week in the division above.
And we saw a few flashes of that last season, it's just not the norm for his teams.
It's not the norm for most teams, to be honest, successful or not. It's about getting the results either way down here, and I think we will.
I go back to 87-88, with a genius in charge, we were functional and got the job done with absolutely no frills. Any team with Mark Lillis playing regularly can abandon any claim to frills.
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I just want to see Villa take the game to the opposition and exert and maintain pressure. Is that too much to ask Steve Bruce to organise the team to do.
Sadly it looks like too much to ask right now.
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My memory of Hull, and his others clubs, is of not much happening in the majority of the games I saw. My Sunderland supporting in-laws say the same about his time with them and it's how I recall most of last season.
I don't watch much in the way of general highlights in the past few years, but I distinctly remember watching Hull batter Burnley at home the season before last, 3-0 it was around Christmas, with Hull's left winger giving Matt Lowton an absolute chasing.
I think I commented on here after watching it that I'd take almost every player Hull had over the tossers we were watching capitulate every week in the division above.
And we saw a few flashes of that last season, it's just not the norm for his teams.
It's not the norm for most teams, to be honest, successful or not. It's about getting the results either way down here, and I think we will.
I go back to 87-88, with a genius in charge, we were functional and got the job done with absolutely no frills. Any team with Mark Lillis playing regularly can abandon any claim to frills.
I think it's normal for a team aiming to win the title to be on top and creating chances for at least a reasonable amount of most of the games they play. Take the top 2 last year, they generally had a spell of 15-20 minutes per game where they were on top and that's when they scored the goals to win them. For us there were far too many where we could've carried on playing for another 90 and we'd still not have scored. We were just too deep and seemed to play for the clean sheet and if we lost that we didn't have another plan.
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"We're going to smash this league" John Terry.
So for me it's this too because love him or loathe him the man's a winner , he's our captain and he's going to be out there on the pitch doing the captains job. I can't see him putting up with tosspot performances from our players and I can't see him holding back on telling them and the management team what they need to do. It was often said that at Chelsea he, Lampard and Drogba exerted too much influence- well I say let's have some of that type of influence here please because it seemed to do ok there didn't it ?
Oops.... having been at Walsall I want to change to "We're going to get smashed by everyone in this league " ;)
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I expect us to get promoted without too much fuss. There are no excuses now, we have to deliver. Whether Bruce can get the most out of, what surely must be, the best squad on the league is the main question. From where I'm sitting all we need to do is play 10 yards further up the pitch so the midfield can help attack. I don't have a problem with the signings (Terry aside), as we need cover for Jedinak (although I suspect he'll be the cover), and Elmo will provide a bit of versatility (Bacuna will probably be off if we can find a willing victim). I think a 4-3-3 would work quite well with the forward 6 being:
DM: Whelan/Jedinak
CM: Landsbury
CM: Hourihane
AM: Grealish/Ross
AM: Green/Adomah (switching from wing to wing)
CF: Kodjia/Hogan
That should be more than enough to get us up. But I have massive concerns over whether Bruce will get the most out of them....he hasn't so far. Let's hope he proves a lot of us wrong.
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Middlesbrorough will be there or thereabouts and Fulham could also challenge again. Derby look decent on paper.
With our squad we should be clear in the top 2 by Christmas. Bruce deserves to be sacked if we are nowhere near that.
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Love this
(http://thumb.ibb.co/fkxTfQ/IMG_7258.jpg) (http://ibb.co/fkxTfQ)
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We look rock with recent signings. Taking the piss with us will be a thing of the past, and one day in the future we will speak of Steve Bruce in reverential tones, the man that gave the club it's pride back.
I may have imbibed but it still stands.
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I hope we kick Cardiff off the park, the horrible wankers.
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I just hope we're presented with the league trophy at our last game of the season.
I can imagine plenty of friendly handshakes from the home fans and offers of what they call "A right old knees ap".😳
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I remember an old Oldham acquaintance of mine who said that he quite liked Villa until we played them when last in the second division. he said that he thought we were a footballing side but we were just a big team that kicked teams off the park. If that gets us up then good.
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So long as we don't kick our way straight back down again. The Premiership is very good at blowing out cloggers.
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So long as we don't kick our way straight back down again. The Premiership is very good at blowing out cloggers.
mmmmmm, not quite right. WBA and Stoke could argue that point
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And plenty who prove it.
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I remember an old Oldham acquaintance of mine who said that he quite liked Villa until we played them when last in the second division. he said that he thought we were a footballing side but we were just a big team that kicked teams off the park. If that gets us up then good.
And if it worked 30 years ago it'll definitely work now, what with all the relaxation of the laws against kicking people...
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So long as we don't kick our way straight back down again. The Premiership is very good at blowing out cloggers.
I'd hope we'd change and adapt once back.
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I remember an old Oldham acquaintance of mine who said that he quite liked Villa until we played them when last in the second division. he said that he thought we were a footballing side but we were just a big team that kicked teams off the park. If that gets us up then good.
Gage, Evans, Keown Thompson and McInally could all look after themselves, but I wouldn't call any of them cloggers. And I certainly wouldn't call the Gray twins in midfield cloggers.
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I remember an old Oldham acquaintance of mine who said that he quite liked Villa until we played them when last in the second division. he said that he thought we were a footballing side but we were just a big team that kicked teams off the park. If that gets us up then good.
Gage, Evans, Keown Thompson and McInally could all look after themselves, but I wouldn't call any of them cloggers. And I certainly wouldn't call the Gray twins in midfield cloggers.
the line up
Nigel Spink
Kevin Gage
Martin Keown
Steve Sims
Bernard Gallacher
Paul Birch
Andy Blair
Mark Lillis
Mark Walters
Warren Aspinall
Alan McInally
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So long as we don't kick our way straight back down again. The Premiership is very good at blowing out cloggers.
I'd hope we'd change and adapt once back.
Stoke have mastered the art of kicking their way to safety every season since they've been up so it can be done.
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I remember an old Oldham acquaintance of mine who said that he quite liked Villa until we played them when last in the second division. he said that he thought we were a footballing side but we were just a big team that kicked teams off the park. If that gets us up then good.
Gage, Evans, Keown Thompson and McInally could all look after themselves, but I wouldn't call any of them cloggers. And I certainly wouldn't call the Gray twins in midfield cloggers.
the line up
Nigel Spink
Kevin Gage
Martin Keown
Steve Sims
Bernard Gallacher
Paul Birch
Andy Blair
Mark Lillis
Mark Walters
Warren Aspinall
Alan McInally
correct, none of them were cloggers.
We just used to frighten the opposition because they were the ugliest collective bunch of feckers ever to take to football pitch.
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My memory of Hull, and his others clubs, is of not much happening in the majority of the games I saw. My Sunderland supporting in-laws say the same about his time with them and it's how I recall most of last season.
I don't watch much in the way of general highlights in the past few years, but I distinctly remember watching Hull batter Burnley at home the season before last, 3-0 it was around Christmas, with Hull's left winger giving Matt Lowton an absolute chasing.
I think I commented on here after watching it that I'd take almost every player Hull had over the tossers we were watching capitulate every week in the division above.
Sometimes we do anything to get away from family at Christmas.
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I remember an old Oldham acquaintance of mine who said that he quite liked Villa until we played them when last in the second division. he said that he thought we were a footballing side but we were just a big team that kicked teams off the park. If that gets us up then good.
Gage, Evans, Keown Thompson and McInally could all look after themselves, but I wouldn't call any of them cloggers. And I certainly wouldn't call the Gray twins in midfield cloggers.
the line up
Nigel Spink
Kevin Gage
Martin Keown
Steve Sims
Bernard Gallacher
Paul Birch
Andy Blair
Mark Lillis
Mark Walters
Warren Aspinall
Alan McInally
correct, none of them were cloggers.
We just used to frighten the opposition because they were the ugliest collective bunch of feckers ever to take to football pitch.
I would say that our three most attacking players Walters, Aspinall and McInally had boy band good looks compared to the mid eighties Newcastle front three of of Peter Beardsley, George Reilly and Joe Allon. If someone could magic up their pictures from the Panini album around '85-'86 I think everyone will agree.
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My memory of Hull, and his others clubs, is of not much happening in the majority of the games I saw. My Sunderland supporting in-laws say the same about his time with them and it's how I recall most of last season.
I don't watch much in the way of general highlights in the past few years, but I distinctly remember watching Hull batter Burnley at home the season before last, 3-0 it was around Christmas, with Hull's left winger giving Matt Lowton an absolute chasing.
I think I commented on here after watching it that I'd take almost every player Hull had over the tossers we were watching capitulate every week in the division above.
Sometimes we do anything to get away from family at Christmas.
True dat.
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Johnstone
Elmo Chessie. JT or Samba. Tayls
Whelan or Jedi
Hourihane. Lans
Grealish
Jimmy Danger Hulk Hogan
I think this line up is first choices so would expect top 6
And if clicks the top 2.
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Hi eastie.
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I voted top 2, although it could easily be midtable.
A lot depends on how Bruce sets us up, how fit and motivated the team is, and if we have any semblance of tactics when we start the season. Not hugely confident that Bruce is the man to do any of that properly, but lets hope he does. That squad should be winning this league at a canter.
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Chessie!!
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Chessie!!
Charlie is a better nickname
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Anything but Man.
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Top 6 minimum, top 2 ideally, Champions unlikely
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At home;
Johnstone
Taylor
Terry
Chester
Bree
Adomah
Lansbury
Hourihane
Elmo
Hogan
Kodjia
Away:
Johnstone
Taylor
Terry
Chester
Bree
Hourihane
Whelan
Lansbury
Kodjia
Hogan
Adomah
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Agree with that but I think McCormack could come to his senses and make a good up front partner for Johnny Danger. I think McCormack might be the Joker in the pack.
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Really don't see Whelan coming here to be a squad player, he started plenty of games at Stoke last season so I fully expect him to be a regular home and away and ahead of Jedinak in the pecking order.
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I remember an old Oldham acquaintance of mine who said that he quite liked Villa until we played them when last in the second division. he said that he thought we were a footballing side but we were just a big team that kicked teams off the park. If that gets us up then good.
Gage, Evans, Keown Thompson and McInally could all look after themselves, but I wouldn't call any of them cloggers. And I certainly wouldn't call the Gray twins in midfield cloggers.
the line up
Nigel Spink
Kevin Gage
Martin Keown
Steve Sims
Bernard Gallacher
Paul Birch
Andy Blair
Mark Lillis
Mark Walters
Warren Aspinall
Alan McInally
correct, none of them were cloggers.
We just used to frighten the opposition because they were the ugliest collective bunch of feckers ever to take to football pitch.
I would say that our three most attacking players Walters, Aspinall and McInally had boy band good looks compared to the mid eighties Newcastle front three of of Peter Beardsley, George Reilly and Joe Allon. If someone could magic up their pictures from the Panini album around '85-'86 I think everyone will agree.
You'd have to balance it out with Gary Micklewhite looking like he was wearing lipstick in the same albums :-)
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Really don't see Whelan coming here to be a squad player, he started plenty of games at Stoke last season so I fully expect him to be a regular home and away and ahead of Jedinak in the pecking order.
The Mail reckon Bruce loves Jedinak and will play 352 with them both. But I tend to agree for the reasons you say - especially at home. If we do play 352 I wouldn't be surprise to see Jedinak in the middle of the back three when Terry isn't available
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He hasn't played yet in pre season so I doubt he'd make the Hull game. He missed a chunk over January last season and our results instantly dipped.
I see nothing wrong with Whelan-Hourihane and giving Lansbury proper licence to get forward into the box. That should be the midfield template at home.
We could do with another wide option tbh especially one who chips in with goals as our current options aren't convincing.
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Agreed that makes sense
Though not certain we'll play with a midfield three however so it might be Lansbury OR hourihane
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I don't think we will finish more than a few places higher than last season but I am confident that with the incoming players the games will be less boring and the whole season more entertaining than last. It will be a platform for the big push that will come in 18/19.
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This year has to be the big push.
Likes of Chester and Kodjia will be sold if we don't go up next season.
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Really don't see Whelan coming here to be a squad player, he started plenty of games at Stoke last season so I fully expect him to be a regular home and away and ahead of Jedinak in the pecking order.
Agree. I think Whelan will start whichever formation we play.
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He hasn't played yet in pre season so I doubt he'd make the Hull game. He missed a chunk over January last season and our results instantly dipped.
I see nothing wrong with Whelan-Hourihane and giving Lansbury proper licence to get forward into the box. That should be the midfield template at home.
We could do with another wide option tbh especially one who chips in with goals as our current options aren't convincing.
If we bring in a target man type of forward, I could see Kodjia starting as a wide attacking player on the left.
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Respect, but for me too much hangs on the first dozen games. Get those right and my expectations will change. However, I think the bedding in of new players and establishing new and better ways of playing makes the season start uncertain. To win the league the way we want to we have to have the best team playing in the best way. There is no room for making it up as we go along.
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Well there's only 3 new players, plus every side has new players to bed in. I've said I think we'll struggle to be promoted but we really do need to go up this season. Parachute money is peanuts next year, I think we're in deep shit if we are stuck in this division for another year.
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I guess it doesn't matter how much parachute payments are if you are not allowed to spend the money
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Yep
Bruce's job is to shoulder that pressure without passing it onto the players. There'll be enough pressure anyway
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Two months from now we will be pretty clear what the future holds. As regards parachute money we have not spent money since our relegation particularly wisely so absence of funds should not make future seasons any worse than those past. In my opinion.
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Well there's only 3 new players, plus every side has new players to bed in. I've said I think we'll struggle to be promoted but we really do need to go up this season. Parachute money is peanuts next year, I think we're in deep shit if we are stuck in this division for another year.
The thing that concerns me PWS is that we haven't gone into this pre season with any momentum. I suppose to end a season on a bit of a high with a clear idea of your best formation and then use the summer to strengthen in a few key areas. We still don't seem to know what our best formation is Terry and Johnstone apart, there are questions where the other new signings are going to fit in.
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We're going up. There's too much proven leadership in this side now not to get this right. The Championship is massively average and I still believe over the course of 46 games we will be the best side. I'm not suggesting we'll walk it. I'm not suggesting we'll play Big Ron football either. But we will have overall too much quality and squad depth to outlast every other team.
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If Whelan and Hourihane provide a good solid partnership in front of an improved defence, we have options further up the field to do well. My concern is whether Bruce has the nous to deploy the resources effectively and get the best out of the players.
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I think we might 1-0 and 1-1 our way to the play offs. I'm not expecting it to be pretty.
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Not pretty but much more entertaining than last year.
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I guess it doesn't matter how much parachute payments are if you are not allowed to spend the money
Parachute payments are supposed to cover the higher wages that clubs were committed to in the PL until they can balance the books in the Championship.
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I guess it doesn't matter how much parachute payments are if you are not allowed to spend the money
Parachute payments are supposed to cover the higher wages that clubs were committed to in the PL until they can balance the books in the Championship.
But don't most of our players have clauses in their contracts reducing their pay upon relegation? The upside for them being a lower transfer value on their head making them more attractive to other teams when relegation occurs. Think that's what happened with GanaGueye last year.
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I guess it doesn't matter how much parachute payments are if you are not allowed to spend the money
Parachute payments are supposed to cover the higher wages that clubs were committed to in the PL until they can balance the books in the Championship.
But don't most of our players have clauses in their contracts reducing their pay upon relegation? The upside for them being a lower transfer value on their head making them more attractive to other teams when relegation occurs. Think that's what happened with GanaGueye last year.
Yes, they have but this is nowhere near enough to match Championship income. In the past when gate money provided most of the income it was not a problem but now PL wages are driven by TV income, being relegated is like falling off a financial cliff. Just look at our income last year if you take away the parachute payments.
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I don't think we will finish more than a few places higher than last season but I am confident that with the incoming players the games will be less boring and the whole season more entertaining than last. It will be a platform for the big push that will come in 18/19.
I'm more confident now than 1 week ago but i've always thought that this was a 3rd season job. if we don't go up next season I think we'll belt it in the 3rd season.
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Respect, but for me too much hangs on the first dozen games. Get those right and my expectations will change. However, I think the bedding in of new players and establishing new and better ways of playing makes the season start uncertain. To win the league the way we want to we have to have the best team playing in the best way. There is no room for making it up as we go along.
I'd say last season was all about bedding in and regrouping at this level. Try to shake off the shackles of the dismal premier league seasons and slowly get a winning feeling running though the club again. We've got in a few new players but nothing on the scale of 8-9 we've seemed to get in every summer for the last 3-4 years.
This year to me is promotion or bust as I really think it will get harder if we don't make it this season.
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Getting a bit worried about Wolves' buying!
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Getting a bit worried about Wolves' buying!
It will all end in tears, filling your team half with kids from Portugal on huge wages and half with Dave Edwards, Danny Batth etc is a dangerous formula
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Wolves are just a halfway house for Mendes production line now, all appears to be a bit of a racket... they'll have days where those flair players turn up and they look good but I'd bet they have more days when they don't.
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I guess it doesn't matter how much parachute payments are if you are not allowed to spend the money
Parachute payments are supposed to cover the higher wages that clubs were committed to in the PL until they can balance the books in the Championship.
But don't most of our players have clauses in their contracts reducing their pay upon relegation? The upside for them being a lower transfer value on their head making them more attractive to other teams when relegation occurs. Think that's what happened with GanaGueye last year.
Yes, they have but this is nowhere near enough to match Championship income. In the past when gate money provided most of the income it was not a problem but now PL wages are driven by TV income, being relegated is like falling off a financial cliff. Just look at our income last year if you take away the parachute payments.
Absolutely
If we dont go up this season we are really in it. Sky money alone will have dropped from 65 odd million to 13. Even with signing shitter players and paying them less losing that amount of money has got to hurt
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We're going up. There's too much proven leadership in this side now not to get this right. The Championship is massively average and I still believe over the course of 46 games we will be the best side. I'm not suggesting we'll walk it. I'm not suggesting we'll play Big Ron football either. But we will have overall too much quality and squad depth to outlast every other team.
I agree that the squad is good enough to go up, but I don't see where the goals are coming from at the moment due to the way we set up.. I still maintain that the right type of centre forward could bring it all together though and Bruce has got to try and break the shackles of his negative mindset.
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Should be able to get into the play-offs at least. Think the defence should remain solid, and if we get a better balance going forward and at least another good striker to help out Kodja then should be there or there abouts. Right now I still have doubts and think it will be another tough season.
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I'd be excited about Wolves signings if I knew who any of them were and had seen any of them play. My knowledge of 20 year old Portguese kids is limited. I expect that applies to the Dogheads supporters as well.
The one person on here who had seen some of last years play told us how they were going to tear up the league and fortunately they day.
This new strip of piss looks 10 years old. 1996, they should be in primary school.
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I too am somewhat more confident than I was a couple of weeks ago. I am factoring in that even Steve Bruce is starting get the message about playing less turgid meat and two veg football. Even if he isn't, the one good thing about older players is that they will not be backward in telling Bruce where he is going wrong. As for the prospect of reduced parachute money, I know I will be in a minority but I believe that having too much money leads to waste and bad decision making. Using our resources wisely is the key to success. Wise with money is the last thing we have been since MON flounced.
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Agree with that Brian, our profligacy over the last ten years has been mind boggling.
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I'm fairly optimistic and i'm looking forward to it. For a change, other than the Terry signing, pre-season has been largely un-eventful on and off the pitch which is not a bad thing and was one of reasons why I thought keeping the manager would be a good idea. Time will tell if it works obviously.
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I'm in the Clampy camp
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I'm in the Clampy camp
Haha. You get a 'Clampy Camp' badge.
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Oooer Missus, Camp Clampy.
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Much the same as under Bruce last season. A few winning streaks but with mostly turgid football. 8th.
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"We're going to smash this league" John Terry.
So for me it's this too because love him or loathe him the man's a winner , he's our captain and he's going to be out there on the pitch doing the captains job. I can't see him putting up with tosspot performances from our players and I can't see him holding back on telling them and the management team what they need to do. It was often said that at Chelsea he, Lampard and Drogba exerted too much influence- well I say let's have some of that type of influence here please because it seemed to do ok there didn't it ?
[/quote
Oops.... having been at Walsall I want to change to "We're going to get smashed by everyone in this league " ;)
I'm not fickle me , but after seeing us play like a team in Germany 🇩🇪 and pick up the silverware I want to revert back to my first post " We'll smash this league" , but obviously reserve the right to change again after Watford, Hull etc 😀
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Thought there were good signs today. Thor, Hogan, Samba, and Elmo all played really well and in both games we appeared to be developing some shape to our game.
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We have the squad to do really well. I think if we go with a 4-2-3-1 formation then we have nice depth in positions also. I worry if we try to force Jedinak and Whelan together or Kodjia and Hogan together.
Grealish, Green, Davis and RHM should all continue to develop and it's nice to have someone like Bjarnason who can play in a variety of positions.
There really isn't any reason why this squad shouldn't be able to achieve automatic promotion.
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He has played 4231 / 4411 in very pre season game and it does seem to be working better. If we stick with that, I can see us rotating quite effectively between whelan / Jedi / Lansbury / hourihane depending on form and opposition.
The key questions for me are:
- do we try and get Kodjia and hogan in the same side (e.g. Kodjia starts from deeper centrally or wide, or we just play two up)
- where does the creativity come from? Grealish is a natural ten but he'll need to improve consistency and scoring
But still much prefer this option to 352, other than for certain games
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My expectation has risen. I now expect us to not just win the league but the FA or League cup as well.
/waves hand arrogantly.
Steve, see to it without delay.
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I agree. My 9th is now 1st and the FA Cup. probably the Eurovision too. if there are any elections in 2018 I'd go for that as well.
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As I said we are going up. A lot of depth in the squad and quality. Today was really encouraging as we actually played some nice stuff as well as looking efficient. But over the course of the season we will have enough for an automatic spot in my opinion.
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I'd now start v hull like this
johnstone
hutton (I think that if he's here Bruce will play him so no point not picking him)
Chester
Terry
Taylor
Elmohamady
Whelan
Hourihane
Lansbury
Gabby
Hogan
Subs:
Steer
Bree
Samba
Thor
Grealish
Green
Davis
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Not getting carried away after a couple of half decent 45 min games. So I now expect 100+ points and goals and unbeaten in the league, FA Cup, LC and youth FA Cup. I expect us to put up a good showing in the Chelsea flower show as well.
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I also definitely think we'll win something like the first 41 games on the trot in the league. Scoring around 200 and conceding 6.
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I also definitely think we'll win something like the first 41 games on the trot in the league. Scoring around 200 and conceding 6.
No way ! We won't concede six .
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Poor start to the season, fans get restless, Bruce gets sacked, Terry becomes manager and we miss the playoffs. Happy times.
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Poor start to the season? Hull will be lucky to put out a 5-a-side team. I think we'll just have a bit to much for them. 1-0. Penalty from Lansbury (89 mins).
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It will be a better year off the pitch too. It will be proved indisputably that Charlie Chaplin was born in a caravan on the Serpentine Grounds and research will reveal that The Bard's first folio actually says "where the B6 there sit I" establishing beyond doubt that William Shakespeare was a Brummie and a Villa fan.
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Poor start to the season? Hull will be lucky to put out a 5-a-side team. I think we'll just have a bit to much for them. 1-0. Penalty from Lansbury (89 mins).
We could probably all name six players we would let them have to make up an eleven.
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I'd now start v hull like this
johnstone
hutton (I think that if he's here Bruce will play him so no point not picking him)
Chester
Terry
Taylor
Elmohamady
Whelan
Hourihane
Lansbury
Gabby
Hogan
Subs:
Steer
Bree
Samba
Thor
Grealish
Green
Davis
More or less agree, but think we need a more attacking player than Lansbury as the main support to hogan. Either Thor or Grealish to come in for hourihane with Lansbury partnering whelan
Not decided on green versus gabby for the left wing slot
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Samba needs to start
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I'm not sure what people are expecting this season, from watching the two 45 minute games as well as the other pre-season encounters, I can see that we do look more assured and solid at the back but as soon as we try to play the ball around whether it's at the back, in midfield or even occasionally in the attacking third of the pitch, we still can't retain the ball for more than 4/5 passes.
We get more and more hurried then give it away or hoof it up the pitch to no-one, even when under no pressure at all, we still give the ball away with sloppy mis-placed passes. I can't see top two until we can control a pass and move it on to a player in the right coloured shirt, only then will we start to create chances for who-ever plays in the striker roles.
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Agree wholeheartedly with that, Sid.
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We are going straight up. Empty your bank accounts and get to the bookmakers. See you all in the Seychelles in June.
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I'd now start v hull like this
johnstone
hutton (I think that if he's here Bruce will play him so no point not picking him)
Chester
Terry
Taylor
Elmohamady
Whelan
Hourihane
Lansbury
Gabby
Hogan
Subs:
Steer
Bree
Samba
Thor
Grealish
Green
Davis
More or less agree, but think we need a more attacking player than Lansbury as the main support to hogan. Either Thor or Grealish to come in for hourihane with Lansbury partnering whelan
Not decided on green versus gabby for the left wing slot
Ooh no. Would prefer Green, Amavi and even maybe Adomah over Agbonlahor on the left wing. I would like to see Green given the chance really and see how he gets on.
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Fair enough but gabby did play well yesterday and goal aside I thought green again struggled. His delivery isn't particularly good but that will come with practice and experience in games. Its a 50/50 call but I'd have Gabby ahead of him right now. Amavi? Not in the slightest.
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I really like Amavi. It does look as if he's finally over his injury but Taylor hasn't done too much wrong to deserve to be dropped either.
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I really like Amavi. It does look as if he's finally over his injury but Taylor hasn't done too much wrong to deserve to be dropped either.
I was suggesting using Amavi more as a left winger.
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Heskey was back at Bodymoor taking part in some tournament organised by Unibet. Deano played too. According to the Mail, Heskey said:
If you go as far back as 10/15 years ago they were probably up there competing to be in the top four in the Premier League
Er...yeah, it was 8 years ago mate, and you were meant to be the final piece in the jigsaw.
Good to see he can still sleep easy about it ;)
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It wasn't really his fault though that MON bought him in to be the final piece of the jigsaw when we could have bought someone way better. Darren Bent from Spurs might have been a great addition.
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I know, it just bemused me that I'm not sure if he's talking about his time at the club and doing the "over-estimating how long ago something really was thing" that I guess is human nature or if he's referring to a time from before he joined. The fact that we were top four contenders during his time doesn't seem to be a particularly strong memory for him.
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I'm not sure what people are expecting this season, from watching the two 45 minute games as well as the other pre-season encounters, I can see that we do look more assured and solid at the back but as soon as we try to play the ball around whether it's at the back, in midfield or even occasionally in the attacking third of the pitch, we still can't retain the ball for more than 4/5 passes.
We get more and more hurried then give it away or hoof it up the pitch to no-one, even when under no pressure at all, we still give the ball away with sloppy mis-placed passes. I can't see top two until we can control a pass and move it on to a player in the right coloured shirt, only then will we start to create chances for who-ever plays in the striker roles.
Yes for such a simple game - pass to someone on your own team - it's amazing how badly we seem to play it.
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We are going straight up. Empty your bank accounts and get to the bookmakers. See you all in the Seychelles in June.
Do you own a bookies ?!!
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We are going straight up. Empty your bank accounts and get to the bookmakers. See you all in the Seychelles in June.
Do you own a bookies ?!!
I reckon he's "Tight mouth Larry" and he's getting us to back "Sad Ken".
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I bet he uses Timotei.
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Realistically if we do not promotion this season I cannot see us getting out of this league for a very long time. I can't see dr Tony chucking money in every season. IF we don't go up I can see us being another Ipswich or forest of the league....
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Welcome to the site.......your optimism will fit in well in certain areas
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I just looked at out appearances last season
Put it this way, I don't think these players will make as many starts this year - we've got better quality in
Elphick 25
Baker 32
Bacuna 22
Gardner 25
Westwood 20
Gollini 20
Cissokho 11
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I think that Westwood and Gollini apart, all 5 of the others, as well as Richards, McCormack and one or two others wouldn't weaken us one bit by being sold/released.
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6th with us winning promotion via the play offs.
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They all started at Wednesday last August. Compare that with what will likely start against Hull and there's a leap in quality;
Terry
Chester
Elmo
Whelan
Lansbury
Johnstone
Taylor
The squad and first XI is definitely better going into this season compared to last.
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Our defence was fine last year, though. Our weakness was lack of creativity and goals and we haven't addressed this.
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I disagree.
I think Bruce was afraid of conceding less the mental fragility shown at Bristol and nigh on every game under RDM crop up. So he buttoned us up tight.
Adomah and Hourihane created more than any other midfielders in the league. Lansbury and Elmo carry a threat. Hogan and Kodjia know where the net is. Unleashing them is key and Whelan I think is the pivot to that.
Faster and better distribution from the back and the holding player is key. Terry and Whelan offer that compared to Baker and Jedinak. That touch of mobility with Whelan let's us play higher up.
Better crossing from Bree than Hutton wouldn't go a miss either.
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Who was Hourihane playing for when he created those chances?
Don't get me wrong, I'll think he'll come good, but if you're looking at last season and suggesting him as evidence our weakness wasn't creativity, then that's a bit misleading.
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Fundamentally I think a lot of last season came down to Bruce opening the door to BMH and lifting a lid on Pandoras Box.
The Italian Sherwood hadn't steadied the ship at all and we couldn't get a result for love nor money. I think it came down to a "this shit that's been happening for 6 years now has to stop". Getting twatted by Luton and Bristol and Preston, mixed in with caving to late goals was not evidence of a side going anywhere but the bowls of the league.
He struck up a knack of grinding a result out, was able to add better players in January, when Kodjia had gone and due to the awful run, never let us loose with any purpose. Save Brighton where we bossed them and played probably our best football.
Jedinak was crucial to helping stop all the nonsense, but his poor distribution and lack of mobility means we are not going back to front in anything like time or accuracy we need.
Lansbury often sat in to hold his hand, taking up positions sometimes 30 or 40 yards deeper than where he normally pops up (such as scoring against us the little fucker).
I think the more subtle change to the squad is all that was required. Most of the tools exist for us to do better. I think we will.
Hourihane will.score a lot more if he's receiving the ball higher up the park and doesn't have two ranks of 4 and 50 yards to go to their goal.
Only a friendly but Elmo getting beyond the full back to cross to Hogan square, so Hogan can face his own goal with the defender turned instead. That's playing to his strength and is a different animal to Hutton ballooning one from 25 yards.
I'm not disagreeing that we didn't score or create enough, more that I believe that we have players who can do that in spades already at the club.
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Fundamentally I think a lot of last season came down to Bruce opening the door to BMH and lifting a lid on Pandoras Box.
The Italian Sherwood hadn't steadied the ship at all and we couldn't get a result for love nor money. I think it came down to a "this shit that's been happening for 6 years now has to stop". Getting twatted by Luton and Bristol and Preston, mixed in with caving to late goals was not evidence of a side going anywhere but the bowls of the league.
He struck up a knack of grinding a result out, was able to add better players in January, when Kodjia had gone and due to the awful run, never let us loose with any purpose. Save Brighton where we bossed them and played probably our best football.
Jedinak was crucial to helping stop all the nonsense, but his poor distribution and lack of mobility means we are not going back to front in anything like time or accuracy we need.
Lansbury often sat in to hold his hand, taking up positions sometimes 30 or 40 yards deeper than where he normally pops up (such as scoring against us the little fucker).
I think the more subtle change to the squad is all that was required. Most of the tools exist for us to do better. I think we will.
Hourihane will.score a lot more if he's receiving the ball higher up the park and doesn't have two ranks of 4 and 50 yards to go to their goal.
Only a friendly but Elmo getting beyond the full back to cross to Hogan square, so Hogan can face his own goal with the defender turned instead. That's playing to his strength and is a different animal to Hutton ballooning one from 25 yards.
I'm not disagreeing that we didn't score or create enough, more that I believe that we have players who can do that in spades already at the club.
Totally with you on all of that, spot on.
I feel the stick Bruce gets for last season doesn't take enough into account the abject culture that had existed before, and our 'safety first' approach was exactly that, for good reason.
For the first season in a long time we go into a new season settled, with options and no excuses.
We're going up.
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I'm increasingly confident
This is when villa let me down the most, mind!
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Fundamentally I think a lot of last season came down to Bruce opening the door to BMH and lifting a lid on Pandoras Box.
The Italian Sherwood hadn't steadied the ship at all and we couldn't get a result for love nor money. I think it came down to a "this shit that's been happening for 6 years now has to stop". Getting twatted by Luton and Bristol and Preston, mixed in with caving to late goals was not evidence of a side going anywhere but the bowls of the league.
He struck up a knack of grinding a result out, was able to add better players in January, when Kodjia had gone and due to the awful run, never let us loose with any purpose. Save Brighton where we bossed them and played probably our best football.
Jedinak was crucial to helping stop all the nonsense, but his poor distribution and lack of mobility means we are not going back to front in anything like time or accuracy we need.
Lansbury often sat in to hold his hand, taking up positions sometimes 30 or 40 yards deeper than where he normally pops up (such as scoring against us the little fucker).
I think the more subtle change to the squad is all that was required. Most of the tools exist for us to do better. I think we will.
Hourihane will.score a lot more if he's receiving the ball higher up the park and doesn't have two ranks of 4 and 50 yards to go to their goal.
Only a friendly but Elmo getting beyond the full back to cross to Hogan square, so Hogan can face his own goal with the defender turned instead. That's playing to his strength and is a different animal to Hutton ballooning one from 25 yards.
I'm not disagreeing that we didn't score or create enough, more that I believe that we have players who can do that in spades already at the club.
Totally with you on all of that, spot on.
I feel the stick Bruce gets for last season doesn't take enough into account the abject culture that had existed before, and our 'safety first' approach was exactly that, for good reason.
For the first season in a long time we go into a new season settled, with options and no excuses.
We're going up.
There does seem to be a bit more thought behind it this time, rather than appointing yet another manager and bringing in 12 players and expecting them all to click. I'm glad it's the approach we've took.
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Nothing good is going to happen. Ever. This is Villa we are talking about. There is no point in anyone getting their hopes up.
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Nothing good is going to happen. Ever. This is Villa we are talking about. There is no point in anyone getting their hopes up.
That's the spirit lol.
I'm putting my money on us winning the title outright. I can feel it in my water
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Anyone else spotted the new lampost banners round Villa Park? On the Aston station approach side right up to the ground. 12 mins to Villa Park 10 mins to Villa Park etc etc. Fight like lions and various slogans right up to the ground. They look like they are a permanent fixture.
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Champions, 85 points.
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Champions, 85 points.
I think 80-85 is probably not far off but it will only be good enough for 3rd or 4th. Champions with 85 points is highly unlikely, I think 85 or less has only happened once in about 20 years.
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Playoffs- then it's a lottery.
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As long as we don't do a blues at Preston, with Francis in his bat cave c. 2000
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The fact that Bacuna and Amavi are our first choices at back up when a winger gets injured surely puts to bed the laughable "best squad in the league" claim.
The best squad in the league would have more than two creative players.
If we don't add to that number by the end of the transfer window we can give up on promotion.
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Still haven't seen anything to suggest we've improved much on last season in terms of performance and goal scoring, so am going to stick with 8-10th.
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We are going to be a tough team to score against this season so I don't think we will concede many. Our problem still looks to be goal scoring, if players other than Kodjia contribute regularly then I think we will win the league but if not then probably play-offs.
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The fact that Bacuna and Amavi are our first choices at back up when a winger gets injured surely puts to bed the laughable "best squad in the league" claim.
The best squad in the league would have more than two creative players.
If we don't add to that number by the end of the transfer window we can give up on promotion.
Haven't you overlooked Adomah?
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Yes. Even so, through. He's hardly a World-beater. Get some exciting players in.
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On the evidence of the last couple of weeks, I think we've got the defence sorted. The rest of it looks like a turd.
Top 10, top 6 at a push if we can get Kodja back quickly and scoring.
The midfield really worries me. Whelan looks like the only player in that position, capable of passing to a team mate.
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Yes. Even so, through. He's hardly a World-beater. Get some exciting players in.
What do you expect? This is the 2nd Division. He's created more than any other winger last season.
We have Elmo, Adomah and Green with Amavi and Bacuna who can play there and we're allegedly in for another wide player on loan.
How does that "laughable" collection stand up against Boro with their circus act, Fulham, Wednesday at so? Very well I'd say for this league.
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Still haven't seen anything to suggest we've improved much on last season in terms of performance and goal scoring, so am going to stick with 8-10th.
I am going to cry tears of blood if that happens. It's absolutely desperate now. We need to make at least play offs.
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Yes. Even so, through. He's hardly a World-beater. Get some exciting players in.
What do you expect? This is the 2nd Division. He's created more than any other winger last season.
We have Elmo, Adomah and Green with Amavi and Bacuna who can play there and we're allegedly in for another wide player on loan.
How does that "laughable" collection stand up against Boro with their circus act, Fulham, Wednesday at so? Very well I'd say for this league.
They finished above us and Fulham and Wednesday both scored more goals. Haven't followed events too closely with them but have they got significantly weaker? We definitely haven't got any stronger as an attacking force.
Stop Kodjia, stop Villa. If Kodjia doesn't play, the best we can hope for is a draw.
Our subs bench yesterday had one striker, no wingers, no creative midfielders. No strength in depth whatsoever.
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Bottom line is that for every squad we compare ourselves to and say we have a better collection of players in any position the truth is we desperately struggle to create and score goals. So whatever the other squads have we are either massively over rating some of our players or massively under utilizing them.
I would say it's a mixture of both. We aren't as good as we think we are and aren't set up as well as we could be.
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Bottom line is that for every squad we compare ourselves to and say we have a better collection of players in any position the truth is we desperately struggle to create and score goals. So whatever the other squads have we are either massively over rating some of our players or massively under utilizing them.
I would say it's a mixture of both. We aren't as good as Ads thinks we are and aren't set up as well as we could be.
FTFY.
(I jest)
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Bottom line is that for every squad we compare ourselves to and say we have a better collection of players in any position the truth is we desperately struggle to create and score goals. So whatever the other squads have we are either massively over rating some of our players or massively under utilizing them.
I would say it's a mixture of both. We aren't as good as Ads thinks we are and aren't set up as well as we could be.
Yes agreed. There is no need for Comical Ali level of optimism.
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You are awar that teams can improve aren't you? That includes us.
If you honestly think the two sides you mentioned have better squads then fair enough, we will leave it there.
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Bottom line is that for every squad we compare ourselves to and say we have a better collection of players in any position the truth is we desperately struggle to create and score goals. So whatever the other squads have we are either massively over rating some of our players or massively under utilizing them.
I would say it's a mixture of both. We aren't as good as Ads thinks we are and aren't set up as well as we could be.
Yes agreed. There is no need for Comical Ali level of optimism.
Excuse me?
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Bottom line is that for every squad we compare ourselves to and say we have a better collection of players in any position the truth is we desperately struggle to create and score goals. So whatever the other squads have we are either massively over rating some of our players or massively under utilizing them.
I would say it's a mixture of both. We aren't as good as Ads thinks we are and aren't set up as well as we could be.
Yes agreed. There is
no need for Comical Ali level of optimism.
It's safe and conventional to be a negative Nelly.
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Aha well season starts next week. I hope we win every match we play.
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You are awar that teams can improve aren't you? That includes us.
If you honestly think the two sides you mentioned have better squads then fair enough, we will leave it there.
Genuinely, was there anyone on our bench yesterday who excites you? If not, that suggests a lack of strength in depth, doesn't it? If they do excite you, you must be easily pleased. ;)
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The bench was 3 defenders, barn door Bjarnason, Bacuna who is cack of all trades and Hogan who can't get in the side ahead of Gabby because of the way we play.
Not the best.
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You are awar that teams can improve aren't you? That includes us.
If you honestly think the two sides you mentioned have better squads then fair enough, we will leave it there.
Genuinely, was there anyone on our bench yesterday who excites you? If not, that suggests a lack of strength in depth, doesn't it? If they do excite you, you must be easily pleased. ;)
This is not an 'exciting' league. Once the season starts it is pretty unremitting with two games most weeks so I t is competence and consistency that earns promotion. Of course, over the length of a season there will be times when it is better than that but the ability to grind out results by making fewer mistakes then your opponents is what is required. Everything has to be geared to that and it seems clear by the signings this summer that is what Bruce is doing.
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The bench was 3 defenders, barn door Bjarnason, Bacuna who is cack of all trades and Hogan who can't get in the side ahead of Gabby because of the way we play.
Not the best.
Kodjia and Adomah missing and another month of the transfer window left suggests it is far too early to be making those sorts of call.
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You are awar that teams can improve aren't you? That includes us.
If you honestly think the two sides you mentioned have better squads then fair enough, we will leave it there.
Genuinely, was there anyone on our bench yesterday who excites you? If not, that suggests a lack of strength in depth, doesn't it? If they do excite you, you must be easily pleased. ;)
This is not an 'exciting' league. Once the season starts it is pretty unremitting with two games most weeks so I t is competence and consistency that earns promotion. Of course, over the length of a season there will be times when it is better than that but the ability to grind out results by making fewer mistakes then your opponents is what is required. Everything has to be geared to that and it seems clear by the signings this summer that is what Bruce is doing.
Great. Any chance of a goal?
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The bench was 3 defenders, barn door Bjarnason, Bacuna who is cack of all trades and Hogan who can't get in the side ahead of Gabby because of the way we play.
Not the best.
Kodjia and Adomah missing and another month of the transfer window left suggests it is far too early to be making those sorts of call.
Not really. The debate at hand is whether or not we have a strong squad. If we had a strong squad, we would be able to cope with a couple of absences and still have options of the bench that frighten the opposition.
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I bet having a pint with some of you is a barrel of laughs.
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Did you have a point to make, or just snide remarks as usual?
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I bet having a pint with some of you is a barrel of laughs.
Deleted for pointlessness.
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It's a completely relevant point to the predictability of the negative remarks before a ball is kicked.
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Lots of balls were kicked last season, sadly very few of them ended up in the opposition goal.
Only two relegated sides and that hive of scum and villainy on the Coventry Road scored fewer goals than us.
We have done virtually nothing to rectify the situation. This isn't negativity for the sake of it, but pointing out the obvious.
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I bet having a pint with some of you is a barrel of laughs.
At least there's a chance of some intelligent conversation.
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The bench was 3 defenders, barn door Bjarnason, Bacuna who is cack of all trades and Hogan who can't get in the side ahead of Gabby because of the way we play.
Not the best.
Kodjia and Adomah missing and another month of the transfer window left suggests it is far too early to be making those sorts of call.
Not really. The debate at hand is whether or not we have a strong squad. If we had a strong squad, we would be able to cope with a couple of absences and still have options of the bench that frighten the opposition.
I really think you are over estimating the league. To me it's not a question of frightening the opposition it is about doing the basics better, hence why we have signed Terry, Whelan and Elmohamady. Bruce knows it far, far better than any of us and I think he now has a squad that can cope with the grind. Undoubtedly the best defence and probably the best striker of any team in the division. Why anyone thinks enough teams are going to beat us to keep us mid table is baffling to me.
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I'm not overestimating the league. I watched us play in it last year. Only three teams in it scored fewer goals than us last season.
I think you are underestimating the league if you think we are going to go from fourth-lowest scoring team in it, to suddenly having an attack good enough to secure one of three promotion places merely by adding Elmohamady.
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Cutting out mistakes at the back and not conceding the first goal less than last season, which we will do under JT, will propel us alone. Goals for will also improve. Surely it's a no brainer.
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I bet having a pint with some of you is a barrel of laughs.
At least there's a chance of some intelligent conversation.
Surely laughter has a weight of intellect.
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Our defence was already decent, and I'm happy to say it looks better this season. It may even be the best in the league.
There is no evidence whatsoever that we will score more goals. Rudy Gestede was our third-highest goalscorer last season and he left at the end of August. Virtually nothing has been done to address our lack of creativity and goals and your assertion that it is a "no brainer" that we will score more goals seems based entirely on closing your eyes and wishing really, really, hard.
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I bet having a pint with some of you is a barrel of laughs.
At least there's a chance of some intelligent conversation.
Surely laughter has a weight of intellect.
Given that you've been at great pains before to explain that "everyone" tells racist jokes from time to time, I doubt we have a similar sense of humour.
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I bet having a pint with some of you is a barrel of laughs.
At least there's a chance of some intelligent conversation.
Surely laughter has a weight of intellect.
It depends on whether you're watching a man falling over when he thinks there's a bar there to support him.
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In fairness, that is pretty funny.
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I bet having a pint with some of you is a barrel of laughs.
At least there's a chance of some intelligent conversation.
Surely laughter has a weight of intellect.
Given that you've been at great pains before to explain that "everyone" tells racist jokes from time to time, I doubt we have a similar sense of humour.
So you're saying you're not a fan of Chris Rock.
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In fairness, that is pretty funny.
It's moderately funny.
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I'm not really familiar with his work. Being a smug Liberal leftie, Stewart Lee is my favourite.
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Only part time OFAH fans regard that as the funniest sketch.
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Well let me educate you, he's a world famous comedy artist who ridicules all race and creed.
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Only part time OFAH fans regard that as the funniest sketch.
It wasn't a sketch.
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Only part time OFAH fans regard that as the funniest sketch.
It wasn't a sketch.
It also wasn't really funny, well unless you're into physical comedy and benny hill.
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Our defence was already decent, and I'm happy to say it looks better this season. It may even be the best in the league.
There is no evidence whatsoever that we will score more goals. Rudy Gestede was our third-highest goalscorer last season and he left at the end of August. Virtually nothing has been done to address our lack of creativity and goals and your assertion that it is a "no brainer" that we will score more goals seems based entirely on closing your eyes and wishing really, really, hard.
Don't you mean Gestede left at the beginning of January?
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I'm not overestimating the league. I watched us play in it last year. Only three teams in it scored fewer goals than us last season.
I think you are underestimating the league if you think we are going to go from fourth-lowest scoring team in it, to suddenly having an attack good enough to secure one of three promotion places merely by adding Elmohamady.
I think we should probably agree to disagree on this one. I think the midfield additions gives us better options and will see us create more chances. You think it is not quite enough. That's fair enough, we should have a pretty good idea by Bonfire Night.
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Only part time OFAH fans regard that as the funniest sketch.
It wasn't a sketch.
It also wasn't really funny, well unless you're into physical comedy and benny hill.
I agree with you. Jesus Christ.
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Our defence was already decent, and I'm happy to say it looks better this season. It may even be the best in the league.
There is no evidence whatsoever that we will score more goals. Rudy Gestede was our third-highest goalscorer last season and he left at the end of August. Virtually nothing has been done to address our lack of creativity and goals and your assertion that it is a "no brainer" that we will score more goals seems based entirely on closing your eyes and wishing really, really, hard.
Don't you mean Gestede left at the beginning of January?
Oh dear.
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Oh dear what? Gestede's last game for us was 29th December.
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Only part time OFAH fans regard that as the funniest sketch.
It wasn't a sketch.
It also wasn't really funny, well unless you're into physical comedy and benny hill.
What are you talking about?
Del Boy was vertical, then he became horizontal.
And Trigger made a face.
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Only part time OFAH fans regard that as the funniest sketch.
It wasn't a sketch.
It also wasn't really funny, well unless you're into physical comedy and benny hill.
What are you talking about?
Del Boy was vertical, then he became horizontal.
And Trigger made a face.
I love it when Miranda does her pony trot walk and pulls those hilarious faces to the camera. She's a comedy genius and a master of the art of physical comedy. The only one close to her was Rudy Gestede.
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Things could be worse, Sunderland got thrashed 5-0 at home to Celtic yesterday.
Think they'll do even worse than we did last year.
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Only part time OFAH fans regard that as the funniest sketch.
It wasn't a sketch.
It also wasn't really funny, well unless you're into physical comedy and benny hill.
What are you talking about?
Del Boy was vertical, then he became horizontal.
And Trigger made a face.
Chandelier scene pisses on bar scene.
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We can't rely on Kodja to score all the necessary goals. I think Terry will chip in with a few goals as with Samba & Chester. If the midfield can find the net fairly regularly, I'm thinking Hourihane free kicks and a few from Lansbury and Whelan then this should be enough to crack the promotion push. I'm going for us to win the title.
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Oh dear what? Gestede's last game for us was 29th December.
At the convenience of the previous post changing dates to suit ones argument.
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Only part time OFAH fans regard that as the funniest sketch.
It wasn't a sketch.
It also wasn't really funny, well unless you're into physical comedy and benny hill.
What are you talking about?
Del Boy was vertical, then he became horizontal.
And Trigger made a face.
Chandelier scene pisses on bar scene.
Not for me. I nearly wet myself laughing when Del Boy went over so comically. The look on his face was priceless. Mind you I do have quite a childish sense of humour.
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I'd imagine it was a mistake by CD rather than deliberate. It does show the problems we had last season though. Our third highest scorer left early Jan having started 8 games and only Jack and Kod managed more than his 4 goals.
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Our defence was already decent, and I'm happy to say it looks better this season. It may even be the best in the league.
There is no evidence whatsoever that we will score more goals. Rudy Gestede was our third-highest goalscorer last season and he left at the end of August. Virtually nothing has been done to address our lack of creativity and goals and your assertion that it is a "no brainer" that we will score more goals seems based entirely on closing your eyes and wishing really, really, hard.
Don't you mean Gestede left at the beginning of January?
Oh bugger! Well either way, if your third-highest scorer scores four, it doesn't bode well.
And I'd say there was more to the "falling through the bar" than just slapstick.
The context was key. Del Boy was attempting to impress a higher class of woman than he would normally encounter, and was convinced that they couldn't fail to be impressed by his "Yuppie lifestyle". His fall was preceded by the line "play it cool Trig", his tumble was preformed with perfect comic timing and Trigger's deadpan expression helped to sell it. The whole thing was beautifully written and performed.
The best scene in comedy history, though? Nah.
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Our defence was already decent, and I'm happy to say it looks better this season. It may even be the best in the league.
There is no evidence whatsoever that we will score more goals. Rudy Gestede was our third-highest goalscorer last season and he left at the end of August. Virtually nothing has been done to address our lack of creativity and goals and your assertion that it is a "no brainer" that we will score more goals seems based entirely on closing your eyes and wishing really, really, hard.
Don't you mean Gestede left at the beginning of January?
Oh bugger! Well either way, if your third-highest scorer scores four, it doesn't bode well.
And I'd say there was more to the "falling through the bar" than just slapstick.
The context was key. Del Boy was attempting to impress a higher class of woman than he would normally encounter, and was convinced that they couldn't fail to be impressed by his "Yuppie lifestyle". His fall was preceded by the line "play it cool Trig", his tumble was preformed with perfect comic timing and Trigger's deadpan expression helped to sell it. The whole thing was beautifully written and performed.
The best scene in comedy history, though? Nah.
We normally agree CD. Don't throw it all away over a not-that-bad sitcom.
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I'm a Stewart Leeyalist. I just think the falling through the bar scene was pretty good... let's not fall out hun xx.
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Uncle Albert being told by Del to be shocked at Rodney going on a date surpasses all.
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At the risk of further upsetting Sexual Ealing, yes, that was pretty good, too.
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I'm a Stewart Leeyalist. I just think the falling through the bar scene was pretty good... let's not fall out hun xx.
Steady, AV5nobs will be backing you up soon if you coin words that sound like Loyalist. I can't stay mad with you though. x
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At the risk of further upsetting Sexual Ealing, yes, that was pretty good, too.
Too fucking late.
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The bench was 3 defenders, barn door Bjarnason, Bacuna who is cack of all trades and Hogan who can't get in the side ahead of Gabby because of the way we play.
Not the best.
Kodjia and Adomah missing and another month of the transfer window left suggests it is far too early to be making those sorts of call.
Not really. The debate at hand is whether or not we have a strong squad. If we had a strong squad, we would be able to cope with a couple of absences and still have options of the bench that frighten the opposition.
It doesn't even go as far as having a squad. Basically if Kodjia is injured then we have 0 attacking thread, because we create so little that he's the only one capable of creating something out of nothing himself, which is asking a lot anyway. We look solid and organised but once we enter the opponents half there is no fluidity and defending against us is simple. Without the joker in Kodjia springing a surprise we will draw a hell of a lot of home games this season.
Unless we have been sandbagging pre season.
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I liked Del Boy and Rodney running down the street dressed as Batman and Robin. That was funny.
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If you are interested in that sort of thing, you can get 10/1 on us to win the league with our new sponsor, Unibet.
It's a special that is offered to villa fans if you follow the unibet link via AVFC.co.uk.
The best other odds I have seen are 15/2.
I never bet on the Villa but have just put £25 down at 10/1.
C'MON ME BABBIES!!
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I liked Del Boy and Rodney running down the street dressed as Batman and Robin. That was funny.
I always found Only Fools and Horses to be about as funny as cancer.
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You have no soul.
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I liked Del Boy and Rodney running down the street dressed as Batman and Robin. That was funny.
I always found Only Fools and Horses to be about as funny as cancer.
It's funnier than cancer. Not as funny as crabs.
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Funnier than Butterflies though.
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Actual butterflies are funnier than Butterflies.
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Strange show though looking back.
Flirting with infidelity = funny?
And they managed to string that out.
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Did she ever cheat on him in the end? I can't remember.
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Reggie Perrin covered similar ground. But that was funny.
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If you are interested in that sort of thing, you can get 10/1 on us to win the league with our new sponsor, Unibet.
It's a special that is offered to villa fans if you follow the unibet link via AVFC.co.uk.
The best other odds I have seen are 15/2.
I never bet on the Villa but have just put £25 down at 10/1.
C'MON ME BABBIES!!
250/1 and I might be tempted.
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Just watched the England women's team and expect us to do the same this season.
Win ugly.
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You have no soul.
Comedy for the masses, the easily pleased if you like.
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Did she ever cheat on him in the end? I can't remember.
Dont think so. I never made it to the final season.
I do recall a couple of mildly entertaining moments with the sons.
But it was definitely part of the "well there is nothing else on TV so I guess we will watch this." era of home entertainment. I am glad those dark times are dead.
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There was some fantastic stuff in Only Fools. Problem is they've been repeated so much that they lose a lot of the original impact and so you forget how great it was the first time you saw it.
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There was some fantastic stuff in Only Fools. Problem is they've been repeated so much that they lose a lot of the original impact and so you forget how great it was the first time you saw it.
They made way too many series as well. I remember quite liking the early stuff with Grandad but it just went on and on and in the end it gets diluted and you get sick of it. Less is more and all that.
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I'd agree it went on too long. It should have ended when they won the money. It was still one of the greatest ever sitcoms, though.
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From what I remember, it started to become more hit and miss from around the time Cassandra was in it. More miss than hit by the time of Damian. And that's when I stopped watching it very often so not sure how much longer it went on.
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Sheffield Wednesday fans are falling over themselves about being done 2-0 by Rangers at home. It's not just our own support who have a panic about a friendly game.
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There was some fantastic stuff in Only Fools. Problem is they've been repeated so much that they lose a lot of the original impact and so you forget how great it was the first time you saw it.
They made way too many series as well. I remember quite liking the early stuff with Grandad but it just went on and on and in the end it gets diluted and you get sick of it. Less is more and all that.
Yep. I gave up around 1988(ish) should have went to Christmas Specials only thereafter.
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Just watched the England women's team and expect us to do the same this season.
Win ugly.
We have the manager