Heroes & Villains, the Aston Villa fanzine
Heroes & Villains => Match Threads & Player Ratings => Topic started by: PeterWithesShin on August 25, 2018, 04:57:06 PM
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2 points dropped
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Results starting to look familiar, and not in a good way. Dropping too many points when games are there to be won. Needs sorting out and quick or we'll be 'there or thereabouts' the playoffs again. I didn't see the game today so will be interested to hear the views who did.
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poor!
think i'd rather be sat on the bench at Spurs!
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The only consolation is I failed to see any of that!
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Fucking shit. Not good enough.
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Shit result down to a lack of clinical forward play(again) and appalling defensive structure. We’re already drawing too many games again. Jedinak and Chester are far too slow as a pair.
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Just fcuk off Bruce. Post match cliche bingo:
‘That’s the championship.’
‘Var would sort these decisions out.’
‘Every game in this division is tough.’
‘We’ve lost seven, eight maybes nine players from the play off final.’
‘ I can’t believe the boy Fredericks wasn’t sent off.’
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Very poor. A good start to the season and now 4 points behind top 2. We need to take our chances and kill teams off.
So frustrating.
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Never a penalty.
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Just fcuk off Bruce. Post match cliche bingo:
‘That’s the championship.’
‘Var would sort these decisions out.’
‘Every game in this division is tough.’
‘We’ve lost seven, eight maybes nine players from the play off final.’
‘ I can’t believe the boy Fredericks wasn’t sent off.’
Someone makes this joke pretty much every week. There must be more original ways to slag off the manager.
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And, the ref looked happy to give a dubious penalty in 93 min. Ffs
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These are the games where it should be a routine three points and two or three goals added to the goal difference. Until that's sorted the levels of frustration with Bruce will continue to soar.
The irony is that should there not have been two last minute equalizers in the last week, we'd be a point better off.
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poor!
think i'd rather be sat on the bench at Spurs!
At least we have a stadium, I suppose
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At the end we had a RB at LB, a CB at RB, a CM at CB, a LB at LW and a LW as forward when Reading scored.
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Groundhog season in the making. We will not get promoted automatically with this manager and his staff.
Even with the embarrassment of riches he has and has had since his fucking arrival.
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Inability to keep a clean sheet, or take our chances at the other end when we’re playing well. That’s the championship!
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Warning signs were there, Reading could easily have equalised ten minutes earlier. We're a horrible Steve Bruce side and already play-offs look the best case scenario with him. A chequebook manager with a bit of motivational skills, pretty inept at anything else.
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Why is any one surprised?
Why are we 1 nil up at home to Reading and looking desperate?
Why do too many players look like they don’t give a fuck?
Why so many players out of position considering the resources available.
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Another calamity by Bruce. He can have no excuses left that he hasn't used several times already, surely the new owners will see through him soon
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First half like a pre-season friendly, second half better but only for a 15 minute spell did we look like we really knew what we were doing. Reading will struggle to stay up this season, they're a very poor side. I can't recall ever seeing a side that knock the ball out of play at every given opportunity. Maybe it was a tactic as they probably knew we still struggle to take a throw-in.
Hopefully the new owners saw today exactly what is holding us back. He's on borrowed time. October is my bet.
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To not win that game today says it all. We have had five easy games to start with this season none I believe will be top six contenders.
I am sick of watching Bruce try to defend a one nil lead instead of going for a second. Why bring Neil fffing Taylor on for Kodija. Why not Hepburn Murphy make the pitch big no instead he invites pressure.
These drop points today and not taking advantage at Ipswich will comeback to bite us.
Two points at home this week simply not good enough.
Sheff United and Blackburn away next much harder tests.
He has kept big players and now signed players I assume on big money. No more excuses.
Bruce needs to get a much more attacking style of play and quick or he needs to go.
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It clearly wasn't a penalty - shafted again by a ref. We have suffered too much this season with bad refereeing. That said, we should have been out of sight in the first half and the blame for that lies with Bruce and to some degree the players.
We will be more thereabouts, than there :(
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Classic villa.
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It’s the end of the world!!! Aaaaaarrrrgggghhhhh!!!! We’re the worst team in the world, ever!!!!! It’s all over!!!!!!
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At the end we had a RB at LB, a CB at RB, a CM at CB, a LB at LW and a LW as forward when Reading scored.
Which tells you everything about his idiotic football thinking, no Fein idea.
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It’s the end of the world!!! Aaaaaarrrrgggghhhhh!!!! We’re the worst team in the world, ever!!!!! It’s all over!!!!!!
You forgot knicker wetters
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What's Chester gone to ground for the fucking idiot?
Poor today but still comfortably the better side. We've gone to bury shit like Reading, but for the 2nd time a few days we spurn chances to put a side away.
The negatives
Thor on the ball slowed us down.
Hutton was diabolical in possession
Far too slow
Chester and his gross stupidity
Albert, Elmo, Hutton and Tuanzebe all woeful in their end product.
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It’s the end of the world!!! Aaaaaarrrrgggghhhhh!!!! We’re the worst team in the world, ever!!!!! It’s all over!!!!!!
Or people expect to beat the bottom side in the league at home, shocking.
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It’s the end of the world!!! Aaaaaarrrrgggghhhhh!!!! We’re the worst team in the world, ever!!!!! It’s all over!!!!!!
Well that's added to the debate, thanks.
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Good thing we never went down the route of appointing erratic, pretentious, unfamiliar-with-the-Championship foreign frauds like Marcelo Bielsa. Good to stick to the shit you know eh.
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It's like deja vu all over again innit. All very well dominating games but little point when you have the cutting edge of a blancmange and a defence as solid as, well, another blancmange. 5 out of 9 (and somewhat fortunate to get that many) at home, and 3 out of the last 9 with two games at home. That form won't get us top two and might not get us top 6. It's still a "Fuck off Bruce" from me.
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It’s the end of the world!!! Aaaaaarrrrgggghhhhh!!!! We’re the worst team in the world, ever!!!!! It’s all over!!!!!!
Has anyone actually said that? I think people have said we’ve had a poor set of results, look off the quality to contend for promotion and a to of it seems like familiar Steve Bruce failings which is about right.
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Very. Annoyed. Indeed. WHY can't we score again when we go 1 up and kill games of???
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Dreadful result.
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Takes a ‘special’ person to jump on a message board immediately after a disappointing result to have a pop at your fellow fans.
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Aaaaah cunty McCunt fuck off Villa.
Deep breath and out to drink my body weight in gin.
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Shit result down to a lack of clinical forward play(again) and appalling defensive structure. We’re already drawing too many games again. Jedinak and Chester are far too slow as a pair.
This.
El Ghazi should have stayed on. He was our danger man.
RHM should have been brought on to support Kodjia against a tiring Reading back line.
Inept management.
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Does anyone really think we dominated that game? Reading sat back and let us try and play; they didn’t press us further forward up the pitch as they didn’t need to. None of of our defenders can bring the ball out of defence because;
We’re playing an average right back at left back who whenever he goes forward cuts inside. A defensive midfielder at centre back who even for a defensive midfielder can’t pass water. A centre half at right back who is not comfortable going forward with the ball.
McGinn and Grealish just look constrained in the middle, one of them needs to be 15 yards further up the pitch. AEM scores yes but he just stands there doing very little. If Bruce wants to keep playing him put him at right back but he’s no winger.
Kodjia with little service and when we do knock it into the channel for him no one gets within 30 yards of him.
Well done the keeper for rescuing us again.
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Takes a ‘special’ person to jump on a message board immediately after a disappointing result to have a pop at your fellow fans.
Indeed!!!!!!! Perhaps he just wanted to make sure that his exclamation mark key was working??????
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He brought Taylor on for Kodjia instead of RHM? Says everything you need to know.
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This has been the MO with Bruce. Once a while a great result and performance but mainly grind out results before the luck runs dry and we start to draw. The first defeat isn’t far away. At the same time we start to fall behind the pack. I just fucking hate it.
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E's gorra goo!
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In fairness to Bruce, El Ghazi last started a competitive game in the middle of April so it's not really a surprise he was taken off.
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In fairness to Bruce, El Ghazi last started a competitive game in the middle of April so it's not really a surprise he was taken off.
Maybe better to start him on the bench then and bring him with 30/35 minutes to go against tiring players?
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Just got back to the car and still furious with the way we gave that away. It seems we played at 75% and never managed to play with any intensity against a very very poor Reading team. I just can't see top two with Bruce in charge. The clock is ticking for him as the new owners will not accept such a poor return when he has a vast squad.
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He brought Taylor on for Kodjia instead of RHM? Says everything you need to know.
You are right, it is Bruce in a nutshell.
I thought Kodjia had tired and we needed fresh (RHM)legs 75 mins.
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It’s the end of the world!!! Aaaaaarrrrgggghhhhh!!!! We’re the worst team in the world, ever!!!!! It’s all over!!!!!!
Glad you're enjoying mediocrity.
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It isn't Bruce's fault that an opposition player who shouldn't have still been on the pitch equalised against us in midweek and it isn't his fault that we had an iffy penalty given against us today. What is his fault is the fact that every time I see our starting line up I am nearly always concerned about where the goals will come from. As for the big picture, I have said before and will say again that I am convinced the new owners were right not to change manager so close to the start of the season given how late in the day the takeover was finalised. But I am also convinced they won't hesitate to make a change in a few months if they aren't satisfied with results. Bruce is basically on trial with the new owners, as I am sure he himself knows.
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Does anyone really think we dominated that game? Reading day back and let us try and play; they didn’t press us further forward up the pitch as they didn’t need to. None of of our defenders can bring the ball out of defence because;
We’re playing an average right back at left back who whenever he goes forward cuts inside. A defensive midfielder at centre back who even for a defensive midfielder can’t pass water. A centre half at right back who is not comfortable going forward with the ball.
McGinn and Grealish just look constrained in the middle, one of them needs to be 15 yards further up the pitch. AEM scores yes but he just stands there doing very little. If Bruce wants to keep playing him put him at right back but he’s no winger.
Kodjia with little service and when we do knock it into the channel for him no one gets within 30 yards of him.
Well done the keeper for rescuing us again.
Well argued.
We had 60 percent possession, but 4 corners compared to their 9.
I would love to know how many online betters at the game piled on them equalising after 80 minutes or so.
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Calderwood arguing with fans too.
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It's just all so typically Bruce, play badly but get a few victories, then the victories stop coming and you get a bad run, it could be 3 games it could be 6-7 and then someone will pull a win from nothing and we'll go on a run of good results and he'll slag off the people who complained during the bad run. He's always been like it, the length of the good and bad runs changes depending on the league he's in but the overall pattern is always the same.
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We got what we put into it, very little. Too many wayward strikes, poor crosses and decision making throughout is the reason why we only managed to produce a slender, risky one goal margin.
After watching that tripe, it's clear as day these dum-dums do not learn from their mistakes. That Adomah cross at the end when he could have used his brain and pulled it back instead of kicking it straight out and Hourihane's pathetic attempt at shooting and crossing summed up the game perfectly, garbage!
We play the same predictable style over and over, tippy-tappy crap with no end product.
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Just fcuk off Bruce. Post match cliche bingo:
‘That’s the championship.’
‘Var would sort these decisions out.’
‘Every game in this division is tough.’
‘We’ve lost seven, eight maybes nine players from the play off final.’
‘ I can’t believe the boy Fredericks wasn’t sent off.’
Someone makes this joke pretty much every week. There must be more original ways to slag off the manager.
Well Chris that’s the championship !!!
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Poor all round except for the two new lads on field McGinn and answar. No plan b, powder puff, always open to a defensive mistake- not a happy witton tonight
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I've wanted Bielsa at Villa for some time now so I'm not surprised that Leeds are doing so well, but Tiny P is top of the league right now...let that sink in for a moment and then judge Bruce's performance.
I'm afraid it's "Off with his head" for me.
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It’s oh so bloody typical. Play well in one game then play badly the game after. That was awful today, against one of the weakest teams in the division. We’ve played well in one game so far, it just isn’t good enough.
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Typical Bruce heading for solid 60 points. No different from past two seasons. We must not kid ourselves that he will deliver more than he is capable of delivering. Lets not waste another 5 games when we will be 10 points behind leaders. Get rid of him now.
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Disgraceful performance, particularly after Wednesday.
How you can follow up a high tempo, up and at em game with today’s walking football shite is beyond me?
So many passes were under hit, hence the receiving player waiting for the ball and playing from a s5anding start.
Jedinak, whilst good in the air, continues to be a fucking liability.
4 home points dropped this week and suddenly a decent start doesn’t look so decent, especially when you consider wh o we have played.
Fuck knows what his excuses are this week..
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It’s oh so bloody typical. Play well in one game then play badly the game after. That was awful today, against one of the weakest teams in the division. We’ve played well in one game so far, it just isn’t good enough.
But I still don’t think we played that well against Brentford. Yes we had more possession but in terms of actual chances created there were very few.
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Like a bad record.There to be won.1-0 up 7 mins to go,we're attacking down the right.Just need a cross into the box or work it on the Reading box.
No, don't commit anyone forward,lose possession,then shortly after Reading get a punt forward and bag a pen
Bruce cost us last season and he's costing us this.We're like the Harlem Globetrotters but with a negative attitude.
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Anyone know what’s wrong with Grealish?
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He has a squad depth now to rival all bar possibly stoke and West Brom in the league and yet still says we need to add more quality
What player has he made better with coaching? I can name many he hasn’t
Like of Lansbury RMC, RDL on big wages cast aside for many championship teams this would send them to the wall.
It’s a joke how poor we play and how few ideas we have
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And we still need a left back, central defender and front man.
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Reading are one of the worst sides I've seen in ages yet we still fail to beat them.
Not good enough.
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Unbeaten or not, 9 points is actually a poor return when you consider who we've played. Brentford the only team who will even trouble the top half. Ipswich currently bottom of the league and we couldn't even muster a shot against them with 10 men. Lucky against Wigan. Failed to capitalise against a decent Brentford side. Couldn't beat a dreadful Reading side.
We were sleepwalking towards the final whistle today and you always felt something was going to happen. We score and the tempo dies and we don't do anything else, just hope that the opposition don't score.
Not good enough at all and our performances are concerning for when we actually play somebody good. It's very early in the season but these are the games you look back on at the end where we drew and dropped silly points. The difference between finishing 3rd instead of 2nd or 7th instead of 6th.
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I'm hoping someone is carving Bruces' name on the bullet as we speak and it's not Steve Bruce carving it
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Just back. Awful result - one goal from 60% possession against a truly abysmal Reading side is beyond bad ; we never treated this game with any urgency and got what we deserved. And for the last time Steve, please start playing people in their proper position.
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Th Villa back office is getting worse, first AVTV and now https://twitter.com/avfcofficial/status/1033395532763459584?s=12
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Played well, didn’t kill em off, got tired and paid the penalty.
Smash and grab from them, didn’t look like a penalty.
Encouraging signs from the team, new guy looks decent and Jedinak looked assured (but has the odd error) for the overwhelming majority of the game.
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Tweet deleted whatever it was!
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Th Villa back office is getting worse, first AVTV and now https://twitter.com/avfcofficial/status/1033395532763459584?s=12
What did it say?
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Sky highlights (http://www.skysports.com/watch/video/sports/football/competitions/championship/11481942/aston-villa-1-1-reading)
Bruce OS post match interview https://twitter.com/AVFCOfficial/status/1033396639359217666
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It isn't Bruce's fault that an opposition player who shouldn't have still been on the pitch equalised against us in midweek and it isn't his fault that we had an iffy penalty given against us today....
It is his fault in a way Damo, if we put games beyond the opposition by playing on the front foot with tempo and taking our chances, it wouldn't matter if we dropped a bollock at the back occasionally or get an unfortunate decision. His approach leaves little or no margin for error, and we, and the refs, make a lot of errors. I mean bringing on Taylor for Kodija when 1-0 up at home against fucking Reading FFS. Also let's not forget Kodija could have walked the other night before he got either of his goals.
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Played well, didn’t kill em off, got tired and paid the penalty.
Smash and grab from them, didn’t look like a penalty.
Encouraging signs from the team, new guy looks decent and Jedinak looked assured (but has the odd error) for the overwhelming majority of the game.
Unbelievable synopsis.
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Just fcuk off Bruce. Post match cliche bingo:
‘That’s the championship.’
‘Var would sort these decisions out.’
‘Every game in this division is tough.’
‘We’ve lost seven, eight maybes nine players from the play off final.’
‘ I can’t believe the boy Fredericks wasn’t sent off.’
Someone makes this joke pretty much every week. There must be more original ways to slag off the manager.
Agreed. So how about he is a useless, negative, prick?
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Chester was wading through treacle before giving that pen away, thought Gabby had ate it all so I’m blaming him.
Inexcusable not to have won today, proper pathetic.
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In a week we have dropped 6 points (4 against two sides in the bottom three presently).
In every game many have been unsure how we will line-up given the names posted in advance. Bizarrely Bruce is clearly happy to have three of the back four playing out of position.
In terms of performances, the application of players seems decent and there are instances of individual quality and of individual cock-ups as there will always be.
The defining features are we have looked disjointed - inevitable when playing people out of position - and we have no discernible pattern of play. Both are entirely down to the manager and coaching staff.
I will always be respectful of other fans, but if people can't see that and don't think a change is merited, then I am absolutely amazed. UTV.
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The unbeaten run continues...
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Started off brightly and played well for the first 15 minutes, but McGinn favouring a scuffed shot instead of squaring the ball for a tap-in in the first minute became a common theme throughout the game, particularly by Kodjia. El Ghazi looks good and hopefully Bolasie will add threat from the other side. Losing Jack to injury at half time didn't help but as long as it stayed 1-0 there was always a chance we'd throw the points. Realistically if we can't see off teams as poor as Reading at home we'll be staying in this division for yet another season at least
Oh, and how many players were playing out of position at the end - Axel, Jedi, Hutton, Taylor, Albert - Bruce's square pegs/round holes obsession is just getting ridiculous
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the only comfort is that it is a much better start than the previous two years.
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Like a bad record.There to be won.1-0 up 7 mins to go,we're attacking down the right.Just need a cross into the box or work it on the Reading box.
No, don't commit anyone forward,lose possession,then shortly after Reading get a punt forward and bag a pen
Bruce cost us last season and he's costing us this.We're like the Harlem Globetrotters but with a negative attitude.
This is what did my head in, clearly Bruce's instruction to the players. A second goal there and its game over. Instead of which WE all knew what was going to happen, how come Bruce didnt ffs? And Taylor on for Kodjia made me want to spew.
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We were shit and they were even worse. This was a team who had 7 men strung across the back with 20 minutes to go to make sure they didn't lose by more. So what do we do?
Concede possession. Drop deeper. Make ever more defensive subs to the point we don't have a striker on the pitch and then mimic their defensive formation.
He is a fucking clown.
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Jack has a dead leg, Bruce said Mcginn took a knock to his knee...so not a great day at all.
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Where did El Ghazi play on the left or the right?
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In a week we have dropped 6 points (4 against two sides in the bottom three presently).
In every game many have been unsure how we will line-up given the names posted in advance. Bizarrely Bruce is clearly happy to have three of the back four playing out of position.
In terms of performances, the application of players seems decent and there are instances of individual quality and of individual cock-ups as there will always be.
The defining features are we have looked disjointed - inevitable when playing people out of position - and we have no discernible pattern of play. Both are entirely down to the manager and coaching staff.
I will always be respectful of other fans, but if people can't see that and don't think a change is merited, then I am absolutely amazed. UTV.
I agree about the style of play bit, we don't have one and haven't since Bruce has been here. At it's worst it's attritional and ugly at its best its... good, sometimes really good (most often when we play teams who don't park the bus). But I think that is due to the fact that we have very good players for this level rather than good game plan, executed well. I don't think Bruce is a coach. He's more of a man manager, and a good one given that the team clearly plays for him. Getting rid of him now would be a massive risk and our current league placing does not warrant that. I know that other fans disagree.
Maybe we need a new head coach instead.
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Lack of aggression did for us, we Fannied about far too much rather that going for the jugular. Still too one paced and whilst Kod is a fantastic talent, the team suffers when he plays as the lone striker
Defensively sound and good displays by Barney and McGinn
Didn’t create nearly enough going forward
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We should have had Bielsa in a decade ago. He can shove his war of attrition every week up his fucking fat arse.
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Has he learned nothing from last season?
I can hear him now saying 'we're unbeaten and there are calls for me to be sacked' but I'm afraid this game and the Ipswich performance are a rerun of last season, being too negative costs us points that put us in a position where we can't challenge unless it's for the play-offs...not good enough.
Bringing on a left back for Kodija sums him up...hold on and hit them on the break.
Reading were abysmal, they will surely be relegated, and it was only in the last few minutes when Bruceball's tactics forced them onto us that they created anything, don't forget they missed an open goal before the penalty.
We're already more than one win behind the leaders after a generous run of fixtures to start the season.
Poor.
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We have had the easiest start in the league and still aren't running at two points again. And the fucker is spending a fortune on wages again. Unacceptable.
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Players let themselves down today. Too many playing for themselves and their own glory. Complacency is killing us.
Hutton for all his effort kills things going forward.
Chester hesitated and then dived in when there was no need, was probably a penalty.
Jedinek dropped his customary bollock & Nyland saved him.
With Bruce, Play-off is best we can hope for.
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Have we got a fitness coach? We were flagging at Ipswich despite plying against 10 and created nothing. We were out on our feet after 70 minutes against Brentford, despite the late goal. Today there was no urgency or tempo in the last 20 minutes either. We look knackered.
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We have had the easiest start in the league and still aren't running at two points again. And the fucker is spending a fortune on wages again. Unacceptable.
100% agree.
As I said elsewhere he is the Jamiest luckiest manager around.
2 months ago we were doomed and now he is awash with cash again, so he is making fucking sure he spends it.
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In a week we have dropped 6 points (4 against two sides in the bottom three presently).
In every game many have been unsure how we will line-up given the names posted in advance. Bizarrely Bruce is clearly happy to have three of the back four playing out of position.
In terms of performances, the application of players seems decent and there are instances of individual quality and of individual cock-ups as there will always be.
The defining features are we have looked disjointed - inevitable when playing people out of position - and we have no discernible pattern of play. Both are entirely down to the manager and coaching staff.
I will always be respectful of other fans, but if people can't see that and don't think a change is merited, then I am absolutely amazed. UTV.
I agree about the style of play bit, we don't have one and haven't since Bruce has been here. At it's worst it's attritional and ugly at its best its... good, sometimes really good (most often when we play teams who don't park the bus). But I think that is due to the fact that we have very good players for this level rather than good game plan, executed well. I don't think Bruce is a coach. He's more of a man manager, and a good one given that the team clearly plays for him. Getting rid of him now would be a massive risk and our current league placing does not warrant that. I know that other fans disagree.
Maybe we need a new head coach instead.
Maybe, but I can't see it happening. Reference how Bruce reacted to the suggestion that he needed help with scouting/recruitment when evidently it could be better.
Not only are we hit and miss on who we bring in, but look how poorly balanced the squad is. We stockpile RBs and keepers and do nothing about LB and CB.
Re coaching, Bruce bought in Agnew with no discernible change. With Bruce, Calderwood, Agnew, and Clemence seemingly happy with the present approach no new coaching appointment is going to be able to change things.
We have arguably the best squad in the league, yet the selections are random, there is no plan and he is too defensively minded.
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I know it is painful, I have voted out every time the poll has been reset, but I think the new owners are not going to rush into doing anything.
For them this is year zero.
Get a structure in place, appoint a CEO, consider your options, think about what you want going forward and who potentially could follow this through.
Then sack Bruce
This year could be another frustrating time, but hopefully with light at the end.
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Where did El Ghazi play on the left or the right?
On the left. Looks real quality
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You get the impression that if we had a one goal lead in injury time and the opposition had everyone in our penalty for a corner, if we broke away, Bruce would direct the players to run the ball slowly into the corner.
Had enough of him now.
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Has he learned nothing from last season?
I can hear him now saying 'we're unbeaten and there are calls for me to be sacked' but I'm afraid this game and the Ipswich performance are a rerun of last season, being too negative costs us points that put us in a position where we can't challenge unless it's for the play-offs...not good enough.
Bringing on a left back for Kodija sums him up...hold on and hit them on the break.
Reading were abysmal, they will surely be relegated, and it was only in the last few minutes when Bruceball's tactics forced them onto us that they created anything, don't forget they missed an open goal before the penalty.
We're already more than one win behind the leaders after a generous run of fixtures to start the season.
Poor.
Sums up very well the game,the opposition and Bruce's approach.Why didn't we just pass and move for the last 15 against such a poor team ?Why not bring on Rushian to run ragged a weak defence ?
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Where did El Ghazi play on the left or the right?
On the left. Looks real quality
He does. Why did he get taken off? Looked fine to me, wasn't off the pace or anything like that.
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As energetic and enterprising as we were on Wednesday, today was back to labourous Bruceball I'm afraid.
Aside from a bright first 15 minutes, far too slow in moving the ball and counter attacking.
Reading are a poor team yet defeat would've probably been harsh on them which says it all.
Even a 1-0 wouldn't have convinced me much but given our flattering start to the season the results are now really balancing out now.
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Chester hesitated and then dived in when there was no need, was probably a penalty.
Agreed, it looked like he thought about letting it run out of play then changed his mind.
Ive not seen a replay but the challenge did look clumsy because the foot hes not tackled with, has come across as well in a scissor like motion. Even if you get the ball the ref is tempted to give them.
Our build up play was so slow today.
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Where did El Ghazi play on the left or the right?
On the left. Looks real quality
He does. Why did he get taken off? Looked fine to me, wasn't off the pace or anything like that.
Same here - couldn't believe he was being subbed - didn't look like he was tiring at all. Not as weird as subbing Kodjia with Taylor mind, but still a bit of a mystery
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Very frustrating as so many times in the second half we got into good positions but shot tamely at the keeper or wide - half chances admittedly and I don't remember their keeper having to pull off anything other than routine saves.
They should have scored about 5 mins before they did and can't judge if it was a pen as opposite end to me - no one seemed to protest though.
We miss Terry I think.
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Not seen a replay from a different angle so it's hard to tell if it was or not, but I can see how the ref thought it was, Chester was fecking stupid for making the challenge and giving the ref a decision to make.
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Just got back, so fucking frustrated.
Thought we were decent for the first twenty minutes and had several chances to have been comfortably ahead. Warning signs were there before half time as we got sloppy and nearly conceded.
The new boy did really well, looking a real speedy threat (I guess we'll coach that out of him) as did McGinn, as did Axel.
Where we really fell down, for me, was Kodjia. When he could actually be arsed to make the effort, his selfishness cost us massively. I thought he was appalling.
The negativity is just mind blowing. We're just so slow, and then when we have a chance to attack the space, we stop and go backwards. Safety first. Several times in that second half, we did it again and again - and it cost us.
The Penalty was just the icing on the cake. I haven't seen a replay, but it looked a really stupid challenge from the one player we have that never normally does things like that.
Huge two points dropped.
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I counted 5/6 pathetic daisy cutter type shots from what I’d rate as a decent attacking position, in the first hour of the game. Whilst finishing may well be an issue, if 2 of them had been put to bed then the game was over.
Whilst I’m far his biggest fan, I fail to see how the ineptitude of our strike force today is Bruce’s fault.
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We never seem to go for the jugular and kill teams off. Bruce is too cautious especially when we have a makeshift central defense.
The positives are that we are playing from the back now and we have some real quality in midfield. Bruce has finally twigged that it’s worth allowing the ball to pass through them. Oh and our threat out wide has improved.
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I thought our shooting technique was poor on several occasions today. So many shots underhit, scuffed and wayward at times.
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We have the squad and should be putting teams like Reading to the sword. Has Bruce got it in him to get the best out of them..
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I counted 5/6 pathetic daisy cutter type shots from what I’d rate as a decent attacking position, in the first hour of the game. Whilst finishing may well be an issue, if 2 of them had been put to bed then the game was over.
Whilst I’m far his biggest fan, I fail to see how the ineptitude of our strike force today is Bruce’s fault.
It's not. I commented Wednesday that we don't shoot enough, so I was glad to see us at least having a (weak) pop. But like Wednesday, his reaction to a game through the use of the bench cost us. Then, it was his failure to react to a game that was turning. Today, it was mental changes based on what I must assume was a belief that the game was won.
Every game is a 14-man game nowadays. He needs to wise up.
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He brought Taylor on for Kodjia instead of RHM? Says everything you need to know.
I think that double save from Nyland spooked him as Taylor was warming up for a good five minutes after that.
I actually thought Bjarni was really good today, got his foot in and passed well. I like the combination of him and McGinn as duo, good mobility and passing.
Shame the rest were so off.
As exciting as Wednesday was as a game to watch, today was very boring in how we attacked and then decided to hold on for the 1-0 with twenty minutes left.
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He's not going to wise up at this stage of his life. I can see us being eight to twelve points adrift of top two once we have a horrendous December out of the way with - we have to stockpile points over the next couple of months and hope that a couple of player combinations click. Otherwise, we won't even reach last season's achievement.
And the fact that he hasn't replaced Terry, who he worked hard to bring in (on the golf course in Portugal admittedly) and was so important for us last season, beggars belief.
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Who knows what his remit is though? If it's to be in the mix he is delivering again although of course the performances and results are becoming more shaky.
I imagine the owners want to sort out getting a new CEO in and also other off field stuff (given the mess Xia was creating) so they trust SB to keep us in touch and then around November-December they'll be a change.
Considering the poor run we had in November and December last season I'd say it's likely we'll have a similar period of results as we are playing top 8 teams every week then so can't see SB getting to the New Year.
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That's it for me I'm afraid. I am breaking the resolve of a lifetime and getting Sky next Thursday. I am not doing the hard miles any more to watch a Bruce game.
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I'm not sure which is worse, this kind of result or the fact that I just don't expect anything else out of a Steve Bruce team, it is what it is.
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That's it for me I'm afraid. I am breaking the resolve of a lifetime and getting Sky next Thursday. I am not doing the hard miles any more to watch a Bruce game.
Hope the owners take note.
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Just not good enough I'm afraid.
The only way Bruce ever seems to win games is by having better players than the opposition, and hoping they will somehow come up with something. I honestly struggle to see what input he has, that your average armchair football wouldn't be capable of providing. Motivational, perhaps. The basics. No more than that.
We did score a good goal, with some nice movement from Hourihane and Hutton to create space for Ghazi to cross well. But we did it once in the entire game. I can't really remember any other clear cut chances.
If this team had a really intelligent coach, instead of a nice but dim bloke in charge, they would be tearing utter cloggers like Reading to shreds, not huffing and puffing for the best part of 90 minutes before panicking at the end.
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We tried too hard to score the perfect goal today at times instead of keeping it simple and passing it to unmarked players in the box. Utterly frustrating because they were rubbish and we should be putting teams like that away. Not seen the pen back since but even if it wasn't, we've only got ourselves to blame.
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Any team with a half decent attacking threat would have that game won by half time, such was Reading’s ineptitudes - they were there for the taking. Relying on Kodjia to create something (or create for others) simply isn’t good enough. Toothless.
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I still don’t think Kodija looks right and he was awful today, why he was not substituted earlier.
He acts like he is too important to be subbed.
Bruce man Management again.
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That's it for me I'm afraid. I am breaking the resolve of a lifetime and getting Sky next Thursday. I am not doing the hard miles any more to watch a Bruce game.
A man up to my own heart there Brian - I have managed to resist SKY in the house thus far even with two grown up kids who have craved a dish on the roof like all our neighbours :)
I've not attended a game so far this season and to be honest I'm hardly likely to anytime soon with Bruce as manager - the new owners need to appoint a CEO/DOF pretty smartly otherwise this season will be written off soon after it started
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We have regressed to two seasons ago. Kodja wants to play on his own and we look edgy and liable to concede at the back.
With the squad we have we should be doing much better.
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With the squad we have at our disposal and the opening fixtures we’ve had, we should be top two at the very fucking least.
We played okay vs Brentford for an hour though and only just didn’t lose, so why are people up in arms. Some people just aren’t happy ay
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People are up in arms because this is Aston Villa Football Club we are talking about. Chill out. We drew at home to Reading. Cue pants pissing insults.
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People are up in arms because this is Aston Villa Football Club we are talking about. Chill out. We drew at home to Reading. Cue pants pissing insults.
Most are up in arms because we don’t show any semblance of being a team. The football is dreadful, even with many very good players. It’s been like this since he stepped in. His answer seems to be; moan a lot after dropping points against a side who have nowhere near the resources we have and then he’s charmed enough to be able sign even more players that he won’t play or don’t necessarily need.
Wake up man.
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It isn't Bruce's fault that an opposition player who shouldn't have still been on the pitch equalised against us in midweek and it isn't his fault that we had an iffy penalty given against us today....
It is his fault in a way Damo, if we put games beyond the opposition by playing on the front foot with tempo and taking our chances, it wouldn't matter if we dropped a bollock at the back occasionally or get an unfortunate decision. His approach leaves little or no margin for error, and we, and the refs, make a lot of errors. I mean bringing on Taylor for Kodija when 1-0 up at home against fucking Reading FFS. Also let's not forget Kodija could have walked the other night before he got either of his goals.
Of course it his his fault in a way. You edited out the part of my post where I said that every time I see our starting line up my first thought and immediate concern is where the goals will come from. I also pointed out that I firmly believe that he was kept on by the new owners due to the fact the takeover was so close to the start of the season and that I suspect he is very much on trial in their eyes.
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That's it for me I'm afraid. I am breaking the resolve of a lifetime and getting Sky next Thursday. I am not doing the hard miles any more to watch a Bruce game.
A man up to my own heart there Brian - I have managed to resist SKY in the house thus far even with two grown up kids who have craved a dish on the roof like all our neighbours :)
I've not attended a game so far this season and to be honest I'm hardly likely to anytime soon with Bruce as manager - the new owners need to appoint a CEO/DOF pretty smartly otherwise this season will be written off soon after it started
Will see both of you at Villa Park shortly then. The pull of Villa is so adicitve I am afraid. Think most regulars have had their moments over the years but you know what.
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You won't see me if I am brown bread.
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If it is a choice between watching what Bruce serves up and building sandcastles with my granddaughter on a Saturday afternoon it is no contest.
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On the subject of Bruce's style of play I have to say that in my drinking days, despite Bruce beating Villa regularly and giving their fans their best couple of seasons in my memory, the noses I drank with were not impressed by him mainly due to the style of football.
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No way this side as it currently plays is going to be top 2.
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Sack of Brucie bollocks again, no chance we will finish top 2 with this man.
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If Reading finish outside the bottom 3 they will have had a brilliant season, they were utterly dire but you always felt there was going to be a sucker punch because our team, pace of play and commitment to attack were weak.
A rigid one up front week in week out is easy for opposition managers to organise against. Kodjia is very decent with his back to goal where he can do his twists and turns but he spends far too long offside & isn’t clinical enough to burst a gut at all times to be in the box when we get forward.
Jedinak, for me as a centre back attacking the ball is fine but his distribution of the ball is atrocious, does he ever pass a ball in front of a team mate, time & again he sucked any pace out of play by passing either behind or to feet. Call me old fashioned but I prefer a centre half pship of a bruiser & a passer, Chester / Jedinak is a poor, slow combo imho.
Keeper did very well, El Gharzi did ok & unpicked the lock. McGinn & Hourihane showed great energy.
Adomah, what on earth was that? Think the guys in the half time competition hit harder shots than he did, think he has railed off hugely since Xmas 17.
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Brucey wise enough to now know that his days will be numbered if he criticises the supporters but he also wise to know he will be sacked because of results. As yet unbeaten but he's hiding behind masked inadequacy.
I feel he's a shameless opportunist never signed Kodjia, don't think he outright signed El Ghazi it was recommended or imposed.
Grealish and Hutton were already here.
Bruce has a solid as a reputation in the game and that gives him opportunity
He seems likeable and honest but if we are to progress as well as challenging I think he needs to be brought to task about how he has really failed to deliver an identity .
Or at least a style that is acceptable.
The challenge of the top spots are because of the players including his fantasy football style moves taking great players to perform at lower level vs the lack of quality of opposition is like some bully boy tactic.
He sometimes gets away with things because way I see it is he's tactically inept and that playing no proper left back, no proper centre half is just ludicrous.
It was a standard Bruce performance with his lacking being found out by the end .
The individual error cost us but over the period Bruce being here and just this season why have there been so many individual errors ?
At the moment he's attributing to amount of matches played in short period of time.
However we seem to struggle in beating reading when we play them early season
Very frustratingly obvious that the owners gave him opportunity and not a dynamic forward thinking coach.
I'll be interested to see how we go against Sheffield United away next week perhaps our first actual test !
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We have regressed to two seasons ago. Kodja wants to play on his own and we look edgy and liable to concede at the back.
With the squad we have we should be doing much better.
That was my main thought as well. We look a lot more like the villa of 16/17 than 17/18 so far, for the reasons you mention. There’s no guiding philosophy in evidence, no discrernible progress in any area.
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Steve Bruce is an antique, old and worn.
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I wonder what we would all be saying if Chester hadn't gone to ground, if the ref hadn't awarded what looked like a very dubious penalty, if McGinn hadn't been a bit greedy after 30 seconds and passed the ball to Kodjia for a tap in, if Chester' header had gone under the bar instead of against it. Whilst I thought we were woeful and agree with lots of the comments on here, we have really been mugged twice in a week at home (notwithstanding the late equaliser on Wednesday when we should have been out of sight).
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Tuanzebe should have won that header in the middle of the pitch that ended up with the penalty. Chester, what the fuck were you doing? We have some great individual players, it's the coaches job to get them playing as a team,. sadly, they are lacking as much as Bruce. Most other Manager's would have throw on another forward when Kodjia went off, are Reading that good that we have to send on a terrible left back to shore up the defence, because, as I say, Reading are that good? Utter tripe from individual's, including Bruce.
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We have regressed to two seasons ago. Kodja wants to play on his own and we look edgy and liable to concede at the back.
With the squad we have we should be doing much better.
I have been the first to slag Kodjia off for being too greedy, but he needs someone near to him when he is battling for a ball. I thought he battled well and was gobsmacked when he was taken off for a fecking defender. Bikar was my man of the match, but my one wish following this game is that we get a left back from somewhere that can cross a ball instead of having to cut inside and then go on his right foot.
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I wonder what we would all be saying if Chester hadn't gone to ground, if the ref hadn't awarded what looked like a very dubious penalty, if McGinn hadn't been a bit greedy after 30 seconds and passed the ball to Kodjia for a tap in, if Chester' header had gone under the bar instead of against it. Whilst I thought we were woeful and agree with lots of the comments on here, we have really been mugged twice in a week at home (notwithstanding the late equaliser on Wednesday when we should have been out of sight).
We'll never know because if any one of those things had happened then everything from that moment onwards in the game would have been different.
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I wonder what we would all be saying if Chester hadn't gone to ground, if the ref hadn't awarded what looked like a very dubious penalty, if McGinn hadn't been a bit greedy after 30 seconds and passed the ball to Kodjia for a tap in, if Chester' header had gone under the bar instead of against it. Whilst I thought we were woeful and agree with lots of the comments on here, we have really been mugged twice in a week at home (notwithstanding the late equaliser on Wednesday when we should have been out of sight).
It balances out though. We weren't great at all first two games (certainly the Wigan game they'l have felt should've been a draw for them).
With last minute goals we've lost two today but won three in the other four games.
Even if it was 1-0 our build up play was slow and quite frankly boring. Of course I don't expect us to play free flowing every game but teams develop styles over seasons (Leeds) and pretty worrying to see us lurch from a positive front foot display on Wednesday to slower style in 60 hours.
We need much more to even finish in the top 6.
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Tuanzebe should have won that header in the middle of the pitch that ended up with the penalty. Chester, what the fuck were you doing? We have some great individual players, it's the coaches job to get them playing as a team,. sadly, they are lacking as much as Bruce. Most other Manager's would have throw on another forward when Kodjia went off, are Reading that good that we have to send on a terrible left back to shore up the defence, because, as I say, Reading are that good? Utter tripe from individual's, including Bruce.
I think SB got spooked from that sitter Reading missed. I'm not sure Taylor would've come on but straight after he did a warm up for five minutes.
You'd think we'd have had enough defenders on the pitch regardless so maybe Whelan to press for a few minutes would've been a better choice.
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Well that's the Championship for you.
We didn't lose.
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That's it for me I'm afraid. I am breaking the resolve of a lifetime and getting Sky next Thursday. I am not doing the hard miles any more to watch a Bruce game.
Brian, it's one thing stopping going to Villa matches, there's probably no-one on here with more dues paid or miles on the clock (both personal and vehicular) than you. I'm with you on Bruce, too. But giving Sky your hard earned income/pension is beyond the pail.
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That's it for me I'm afraid. I am breaking the resolve of a lifetime and getting Sky next Thursday. I am not doing the hard miles any more to watch a Bruce game.
Brian. Fair play mate.
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I wonder what we would all be saying if Chester hadn't gone to ground, if the ref hadn't awarded what looked like a very dubious penalty, if McGinn hadn't been a bit greedy after 30 seconds and passed the ball to Kodjia for a tap in, if Chester' header had gone under the bar instead of against it. Whilst I thought we were woeful and agree with lots of the comments on here, we have really been mugged twice in a week at home (notwithstanding the late equaliser on Wednesday when we should have been out of sight).
Easy to blame the individuals but look at 2 of your examples,McGinn's miss and Chester's header were signs that Reading were a desperately poor side ready for the taking.However,with a overly negative team selection and approach we failed to push on after these early openings.Finally we score and then proceed to boss Reading .Do we go for the jugular ? No,take off El Ghazi who was beginning to cause mayhem.Then surely but slowly ,players like Hutton stop supporting attacks.On the other flank,Tuanzebe and Elmo become less adventurous.Now McGinn and Adomah are becoming isolated in midfield and Kodjia is left to fend for himself upfront.We are longer a team willing to attack.
Then the final white flag,taking Kodjia off,leaving no midfield but a motley group of defensive minded players and an invitation card for Reading to do as they please.
Not a mugging ,more a suicide.Looked on by a manager who was too cowardly to press home an advantage against an abysmal Reading.
The best form of defense would have been to keep possession and that would have been keep attacking Reading ,as they were constantly giving the ball away when under pressure.RHM would have been an ideal substitute.
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For the third time at home this season we have dominated 75% of the play and yet not come out easy winners. In fact we've only won one! Thought we were far superior today but once SJM didn't square it to Moody Kodj we we on a downward spiral. We all know it wasn't a pen but it should of been sewn up before by at least a couple of goals. New boy looks promising and SJM is wonderful. Interesting to see how we coped without our Jack in the second half., imho thought we coped ok but ultimately the opposition enjoyed his absence more than we did. We really need to put the opposition to the sword early on and not waste 3 point opportunities like we did today against truly poor opponents
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we did dominate but they could easily have scored twice - a better side would have done so. We look really weak defensively and it makes me realize how much we miss Terry and his influence on the team.
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If you try and win games against shit teams by one goal then you leave yourself open to getting mugged.
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One goal was never enough.
Once again I've been left frustrated by Steve Bruce - Tactical Genius
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If you try and win games against shit teams by one goal then you leave yourself open to getting mugged.
I think we did try and get another goal though, we just made too bloody hard work of it and it came back to bite us.
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If you try and win games against shit teams by one goal then you leave yourself open to getting mugged.
I think we did try and get another goal though, we just made too bloody hard work of it and it came back to bite us.
We tried so hard to get another goal we brought on a full back.
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I wonder what we would all be saying if Chester hadn't gone to ground, if the ref hadn't awarded what looked like a very dubious penalty, if McGinn hadn't been a bit greedy after 30 seconds and passed the ball to Kodjia for a tap in, if Chester' header had gone under the bar instead of against it. Whilst I thought we were woeful and agree with lots of the comments on here, we have really been mugged twice in a week at home (notwithstanding the late equaliser on Wednesday when we should have been out of sight).
I'd be saying the football is Blues and makes me want to gouge my own eyes out. 3rd season in and we still have no identifiable style of play. Are we a possession team? Are we a counter attack team? Our only plan is get it wide, get it in the box and hope for the best. That wouldn't even be as bad if we had a big bloke up front but most of the time when we cross the ball, Kodjia is floating about in midfield or on the wing.
What's sums Bruce and us up is I don't think many people were surprised when Reading scored in the last minute. We were plodding towards the final whistle and just hoping they didn't score before the whistle went. Not good enough against relegation fodder at home.
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One goal was never enough.
Once again I've been left frustrated by Steve Bruce - Tactical Genius
It was, though. Well, it should have been. They were poor and shouldn't have been in with a sniff for the entire game. He didn't shore up the defence, he threw it into turmoil.
That was his Carles Gil moment.
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If you try and win games against shit teams by one goal then you leave yourself open to getting mugged.
I think we did try and get another goal though, we just made too bloody hard work of it and it came back to bite us.
We tried so hard to get another goal we brought on a full back.
That was very late on though (bang on 90 minutes from memory) so it's not as if he did it twenty minutes from the end but Whelan or the Russian would have been a better choice at the time.
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I thought we actually played some good stuff yesterday, in parts. Bjarnason was surprisingly effective, El Ghazi looks a prospect and Hourihane played well when he came on.
The substitutions revealed to me the manager’s flaws: perhaps he felt that he needed to keep AA sweet by giving him some gametime in place of the young upstart; maybe felt that he ought to appease Taylor by giving him a cameo. Reading were so poor that RHM should have been given 20-25 minutes in place of Elmo, to support the flagging Kodj. Whelan as second sub would have worked for me.
The abiding image of the game for me was its feel of a friendly: in the last 15 minutes, we were stroking the ball around without a care in the world. Good teams take the Readings of this world apart, clinically and ruthlessly.
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We have regressed to two seasons ago. Kodja wants to play on his own and we look edgy and liable to concede at the back.
With the squad we have we should be doing much better.
I have been the first to slag Kodjia off for being too greedy, but he needs someone near to him when he is battling for a ball. I thought he battled well and was gobsmacked when he was taken off for a fecking defender. Bikar was my man of the match, but my one wish following this game is that we get a left back from somewhere that can cross a ball instead of having to cut inside and then go on his right foot.
He’s a fine player but he wants the ball into feet deeper and then to run at the defender. What we need from a centre forward is to stay right up top to give us a focal point and for him to sacrifice himself to make space for our midfield to play closer to goal.
No surprise to me that Jacks game suffers when Kodja is the lone forward.
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Allready this managers limitations are exposed and we are only 4 games in.
Why any one thought that Bruce was likely to experience a Damscene conversion I really don’t know.
It will be interesting to see if the new owners are prepared to write this season off.
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We have regressed to two seasons ago. Kodja wants to play on his own and we look edgy and liable to concede at the back.
With the squad we have we should be doing much better.
Allready this managers limitations are exposed and we are only 4 games in.
Why any one thought that Bruce was likely to experience a Damscene conversion I really don’t know.
It will be interesting to see if the new owners are prepared to write this season off.
I agree with the first bit, which makes me think we don't need to write it off.
I reckon there's more than one candidate out there that's champing at the bit for an opportunity of the like of managing Aston Villa out of this division with a squad including Chester, Grealish, McGinn, Kodjia, Bolassie, El Ghazi, Adomah, Bjarnason and Hourihane.
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We have regressed to two seasons ago. Kodja wants to play on his own and we look edgy and liable to concede at the back.
With the squad we have we should be doing much better.
Allready this managers limitations are exposed and we are only 4 games in.
Why any one thought that Bruce was likely to experience a Damscene conversion I really don’t know.
It will be interesting to see if the new owners are prepared to write this season off.
I agree with the first bit, which makes me think we don't need to write it off.
I reckon there's more than one candidate out there that's champing at the bit for an opportunity of the like of managing Aston Villa out of this division with a squad including Chester, Grealish, McGinn, Kodjia, Bolassie, El Ghazi, Adomah, Bjarnason and Hourihane.
The issue is how long can they let the situation drift, before it is too late.
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Shite.
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we could nearly do a RDM type start here- it's quite possible that the next two games result in defeat followed by a draw or two. The last thing I want to happen, but that sort of sequence saw Bruce arrive
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We never seem to go for the jugular and kill teams off. Bruce is too cautious especially when we have a makeshift central defense.
The positives are that we are playing from the back now and we have some real quality in midfield. Bruce has finally twigged that it’s worth allowing the ball to pass through them. Oh and our threat out wide has improved.
Makeshift defence as Bruce won’t play players in their positions.
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It’s the end of the world!!! Aaaaaarrrrgggghhhhh!!!! We’re the worst team in the world, ever!!!!! It’s all over!!!!!!
This is a forum for people to debate and make their point how they see fit. Would you prefer it if the mods banned all negative comment?
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If you try and win games against shit teams by one goal then you leave yourself open to getting mugged.
I think we did try and get another goal though, we just made too bloody hard work of it and it came back to bite us.
Those subs were not us searching for another goal. Adding another striker would of signalled that.
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Where did El Ghazi play on the left or the right?
On the left. Had some lovely touches first half.Seemed to run out of steam after an hour and got subbed. Very promising debut.
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we could nearly do a RDM type start here- it's quite possible that the next two games result in defeat followed by a draw or two. The last thing I want to happen, but that sort of sequence saw Bruce arrive
Didn't we only have 9-10 points at start of October that season?
It's mad to think we're 4th considering how underwhelming we've been so far. I'd say 8th or 9th would've been fairer reflection of our level so far. It could well be with two tricky away games coming up if we don't wake up.
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‘That’s the championship’ has been replaced with ‘That’s football.’
https://mobile.twitter.com/AVFCOfficial/status/1033396639359217666/video/1
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I’m more pissed off with Chester than anyone else. Terrible defending for the pen.
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Yep SH a terrible and totally needless tackle when one incident aside it had been a totally comfortable second half and looked a nailed on victory.
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At 1-0 anything can happen, you leave yourself open to freak occurences. Grow some balls Potato.
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Yep SH a terrible and totally needless tackle when one incident aside it had been a totally comfortable second half and looked a nailed on victory.
Apart from the fantastic double save from Nyland in front of the North stand?
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Yep SH a terrible and totally needless tackle when one incident aside it had been a totally comfortable second half and looked a nailed on victory.
Apart from the fantastic double save from Nyland in front of the North stand?
Following another terrible error from Jedinak.
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Yep SH a terrible and totally needless tackle when one incident aside it had been a totally comfortable second half and looked a nailed on victory.
Apart from the fantastic double save from Nyland in front of the North stand?
Well I did say one incident aside 😃
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Yep SH a terrible and totally needless tackle when one incident aside it had been a totally comfortable second half and looked a nailed on victory.
Apart from the fantastic double save from Nyland in front of the North stand?
And a goalmouth scramble in the first half in front of the Holte.
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Reading were onr of the worst teams I have seen at VP. It is a sad indictment of the football we are playing that we were unable to break down themndown more than once. Our midfield did noy work. Kodija plays too deep. Tuanzebe is not a right back. Thor gave away a lot of cheap ball. I could go on but it comes back to SB beingntotally bereft of ideas. I worry for us when we start playingbthengood teams
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Nyland - 8
Hutton - 5.5
Jedi - 6
Chester - 6
Axel - 6
Ghazi - 6.5
McGinn - 6.5
Jack - 5.5
Birkir - 6
Albert - 5.5
Kodjia - 6
I'm really concerned with Jack, and i seem to be on my own apart from one other person i've spoken to this past week. The Jack of the last few games is NOT the Jack of last season. His energy levels and graft look way down. When you see McGinn ratting around chasing lost causes it just makes it even more obvious. He's not giving it the 100%. I'd say he's in pre kidney injury form, wafting around not really doing much and looking a bit half arsed.
If anything we looked better when Hourihane came on for me.
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If anything we looked better when Hourihane came on for me.
Don’t be too hard on yourself, everybody on here would love to play even a single minute for the club.
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If anything we looked better when Hourihane came on for me.
Don’t be too hard on yourself, everybody on here would love to play even a single minute for the club.
I thought Bruce must have pulled him offf.
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Delivery into the box again was exceptionally poor, while we laboured in possession. We missed Whelan's passing,as Thor struggles with this.
Sheffield United, Blackburn and Rotherham- we need 7 points out of that lot. I fancy us to go 433, although Bolasie and El Ghazi may take some to get up to speed.
We cannot afford for days like this to become a habbit, as it puts us in a position of having to go and beat one of Blackburn or Sheffield United away.
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Delivery into the box again was exceptionally poor, while we laboured in possession. We missed Whelan's passing,as Thor struggles with this.
Sheffield United, Blackburn and Rotherham- we need 7 points out of that lot. I fancy us to go 433, although Bolasie and El Ghazi may take some to get up to speed.
We cannot afford for days like this to become a habbit, as it puts us in a position of having to go and beat one of Blackburn or Sheffield United away.
Trouble is Ads under Bruce it is a habit. As others have said, a proper attacking performance against the likes of Reading for a team looking to go up automatically would see a 2 or 3 goal win.
This clubs motto used to be Prepared, I struggle to think of a Villa team in the first few months of the season for about the last 20years that’s looked anything like prepared.
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Well we had 21 attempts at goal and realistically ought to have buried a few.
Jack looked off the pace and was too deep. Hourihane being higher up helped. El Ghazi has something about him but it will take time given his lack of games.
Albert again was guilty of some poor crosses, despite some good work.
I felt we missed Whelan although I understand rotating, the whole performance was a curious one of almost total domination yet was lacking a spark.
Every side will have those games, but we'd seen it out. There was no danger and of all the players to conspire to throw it away.
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I’m more pissed off with Chester than anyone else. Terrible defending for the pen.
I don't blame Chester likewise I didn't blame Nyland the other week.
Mistakes are always going to happen, But when we are playing teams of the like of Reading those mistakes surely shouldn't be so costly.
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Well we had 21 attempts at goal
That doesn't really tell the story though does it
8 on target.Apart from the goal they were hardly worthy of the name.
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Anyone at the game must recognise that Reading were actually dreadful. That said they had two fantastic chances in the game. Kodjia was isolated up front, needed people running off him. Elmo scored, but he aint the player for that position, certainly at home and we really need someone at left back who can kick with their left foot. SJM messed up in the first minute, but we really should have beaten that team easily, and I am not just bitter because I lost 35 quid betting on us lol
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Delivery into the box again was exceptionally poor, while we laboured in possession. We missed Whelan's passing,as Thor struggles with this.
Sheffield United, Blackburn and Rotherham- we need 7 points out of that lot. I fancy us to go 433, although Bolasie and El Ghazi may take some to get up to speed.
We cannot afford for days like this to become a habbit, as it puts us in a position of having to go and beat one of Blackburn or Sheffield United away.
Thor hit best pass of the game when he sent the new boy free down the left in the first half.
I like him and McGinn as a combo. Our two best players yesterday.
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Defensively maybe, but he's too slow to move the ball on.
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I’m more pissed off with Chester than anyone else. Terrible defending for the pen.
I don't blame Chester likewise I didn't blame Nyland the other week.
Mistakes are always going to happen, But when we are playing teams of the like of Reading those mistakes surely shouldn't be so costly.
I don't get the logic of that. The reason these mistakes are so costly is that we aren't actually much better than the likes of Ipswich and Reading, so we don't therefore have the luxury of them. Besides which, when Chester made that ridiculous challenge it wasn't as if he didn't know we were 1-0 up with a minute to go.
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We're significantly better than both Ipswich and Reading. We'll finish 20 and 30 points above them respectively.
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We're significantly better than both Ipswich and Reading. We'll finish 20 and 30 points above them respectively.
Probably so but wouldn't it be better being 30 and 40?
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We're significantly better than both Ipswich and Reading. We'll finish 20 and 30 points above them respectively.
Yes, and failed to beat either of them.
That's exactly the problem. Reading were absolute garbage, one of the worst teams I've seen in a very long time, yet we failed to take three points. We were all over Brentford for the majority of that point, yet scrabbled a point in the last minute.
It's just not good enough.
Bruce seems to prosper in that gap between 'not bad enough to get sacked' and 'not good enough to get everyone behind him'.
It will end in failure, I am starting to think the correct course of action would be to bin him.
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It's just not good enough. 2 points from the last 6 is poor.
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We're significantly better than both Ipswich and Reading. We'll finish 20 and 30 points above them respectively.
Yes, and failed to beat either of them.
That's exactly the problem. Reading were absolute garbage, one of the worst teams I've seen in a very long time, yet we failed to take three points. We were all over Brentford for the majority of that point, yet scrabbled a point in the last minute.
It's just not good enough.
Bruce seems to prosper in that gap between 'not bad enough to get sacked' and 'not good enough to get everyone behind him'.
It will end in failure, I am starting to think the correct course of action would be to bin him.
Man City are significantly better than the Dingles. It's football, it's sport.
Bruce did well last season. Not well enough, but the determination to overstate the failure, is an ever present feature on here, something you yourself have challenged in the past few days.
I think the additional pace and quality out wide will help away from home. You'll always have your frustrations, but over the course of the season our home form will remain strong.
Away from home, having an ability to counter attack with pace is something that may well prove the tonic to our middling record.
Having a 20 goal a season striker for the entire season rather than January on should help.
The bloodlust on here is out of kilter for the type of campaign faced. It is long and it is gruelling and this league is often about the fewer mistakes. Bruce isn't failing so far, to me that seems to be part of the frustration. Bruce the Cuncator may well fail again and if things slip away then hopefully structures exist to serve us well in replacing him.
I found yesterday a meterphorical kick in the nads. But after 5 games, where we're 4th, after the daftest close season in my lifetime, maybe yours, maybe in the club's history, I find I still have patience and a belief.
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We were functional yesterday, nothing better. Thought we had three players who played well, Bjarnason, McGinn and The keeper, defensively. The rest? Meh.
Should have won and didn’t. With the squad we have I don’t see what better side we could have picked. We will have less domination and score more goals. The decision making by players was poor. McGinn in the first 30 seconds should have squared the ball. It looked as though they had been told to shoot on sight. If so then Bruce should be criticised for that.
Grealish was pretty poor first half before his knock. Hourihane far better second half. He worked better with mcginn I thought.
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We're significantly better than both Ipswich and Reading. We'll finish 20 and 30 points above them respectively.
It’s a shame we can’t beat either of them though isn’t it. Can you genuinely see Bruce getting us automatic promotion Ads? If the answer is no, then why continue with him waiting for him to fail again.
We have to be bold now and change the management team, otherwise it’ll be yet another year in the championship.
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I cannot foresee the future, but I can entertain one whereby Bruce achieves automatic promotion.
Warrington Wolves are significantly better than Catalan Dragons. Man City are significantly better than the Dingles, Aston Villa are significantly better than Ipswich or Reading. Bayern Brentford are much better than Blackburn. Sometimes events are unexpected and inexplicabale.
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Of course it’s possible, but there are just far too many games where Villa fail to get the result they should. Bruce makes this squad look poorer than they should.
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We were functional yesterday, nothing better. Thought we had three players who played well, Bjarnason, McGinn and The keeper, defensively. The rest? Meh.
Should have won and didn’t. With the squad we have I don’t see what better side we could have picked. We will have less domination and score more goals. The decision making by players was poor. McGinn in the first 30 seconds should have squared the ball. It looked as though they had been told to shoot on sight. If so then Bruce should be criticised for that.
Grealish was pretty poor first half before his knock. Hourihane far better second half. He worked better with mcginn I thought.
I agree with you re Mcginn in first minute, and think it affected him after as don't think he was at his best. Agree with Bikar and Nyland, superb imo. We have some top players now, but will they be allowed to express themselves?
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Sometimes events are unexpected and inexplicabale.
Yesterday wasn't unexpected though. Plenty of us could have predicted it, I expect plenty did. We played well midweek, many voiced fears that we couldn't do it again because we rarely do. But it is inexplicable, I'll give you that.
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Really? Plenty predicted our most reliable player, one of the best centre halves in the league would have a brain fade in the 93rd minute?
That's some self gratification.
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The error was inexplicable, except that if you fail to make chances pay going into the later stages of games you probably heighten anxiety and that leads to poor decision making.
There are clear trends under the Bruce regime though, fail to finish teams off when we’re on top and we invite pressure onto us. Over the long-term they stop us dominating the league, which we should be doing.
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Yes,1-0 is a funny score. I disagree there are clear trends though. Yesterday and Ipswich are two rare examples of us dropping points from winning positions under Bruce.
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Really? Plenty predicted our most reliable player, one of the best centre halves in the league would have a brain fade in the 93rd minute?
That's some self gratification.
It might be if I'd said anything like it. Plenty are not surprised that the team followed up a good performance with a poor and disjointed one. We've got used to it. It's hardly the one-off freak event you're trying to paint it.
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The performance was poor, but the result was positive and then a curious and unusual event transpired.
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Yes,1-0 is a funny score. I disagree there are clear trends though. Yesterday and Ipswich are two rare examples of us dropping points from winning positions under Bruce.
Vulnerability to us though this season. Let's also remember we were 1-0 up v Wigan and also lost a lead although got away with it in that game.
Last season I was never too concerned when protecting a narrow 1-0 lead like Forest away or even the Boro games.
We'd have probably won Ipswich and yesterday 1-0 if we'd had John Terry at the back talking and keeping everyone calm.
Without that authority we have a soft centre particularly on crosses.
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I agree that shock results happen, one of the key skills for a good manager is to make that rare. I can think of 6-7 games we went into as favourites and didn't win in our last 15-20 games, that's far too common.
Under Bruce it's frustrating that there are very few games that look decided with 10 minutes to go, there's almost always a goal in it either way and every result is very much possible. Sometimes we benefit, sometimes we don't but you can never feel comfortable. My view all along is that his approach is to kill the game as a contest for 60-70 minutes and try to get a goal in the 'active' periods.
The players get the blame sometimes but my issue with that is that he' signed 20ish players for us now, and played probably another 30 who were already here when he arrived and yet the same patterns apply and the same limitations appear. A good striker, in good form, makes us more effective at grabbing goals when we go for it and a solid defence makes things steadier when we 'kill' it but the overall approach doesn't change.
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I’m more pissed off with Chester than anyone else. Terrible defending for the pen.
I don't blame Chester likewise I didn't blame Nyland the other week.
Mistakes are always going to happen, But when we are playing teams of the like of Reading those mistakes surely shouldn't be so costly.
I don't get the logic of that. The reason these mistakes are so costly is that we aren't actually much better than the likes of Ipswich and Reading, so we don't therefore have the luxury of them. Besides which, when Chester made that ridiculous challenge it wasn't as if he didn't know we were 1-0 up with a minute to go.
Seems fairly logical to me.
We have one of the best squads in the league, So when we face teams like Ipswich and Reading we score more goals than them.
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Delivery into the box again was exceptionally poor, while we laboured in possession. We missed Whelan's passing,as Thor struggles with this.
Sheffield United, Blackburn and Rotherham- we need 7 points out of that lot. I fancy us to go 433, although Bolasie and El Ghazi may take some to get up to speed.
We cannot afford for days like this to become a habbit, as it puts us in a position of having to go and beat one of Blackburn or Sheffield United away.
i agree - when was the last time we really came out of the blocks? Gregory’s side -late 90’s - top at Christmas? (Least said about the new year, the better)
Trouble is Ads under Bruce it is a habit. As others have said, a proper attacking performance against the likes of Reading for a team looking to go up automatically would see a 2 or 3 goal win.
This clubs motto used to be Prepared, I struggle to think of a Villa team in the first few months of the season for about the last 20years that’s looked anything like prepared.
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I blame the fourth official for not holding up the board saying how much injury time there was.
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I'm really concerned with Jack, and i seem to be on my own apart from one other person i've spoken to this past week. The Jack of the last few games is NOT the Jack of last season. His energy levels and graft look way down. When you see McGinn ratting around chasing lost causes it just makes it even more obvious. He's not giving it the 100%. I'd say he's in pre kidney injury form, wafting around not really doing much and looking a bit half arsed.
If anything we looked better when Hourihane came on for me.
I actually agree with this and said so to my mates at the game.
It seems to me that JG has either been carrying an injury or believes he’s reached Billy Big Bollox status.
And, Hourihane did play some really neat football in the second half; he looked better than at most times last season, apart from his shooting.
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Bruce is doing pretty much the same as the last two seasons, the patterns of selection, performances and results are pretty much a continuation from last season. Really not sure why some people are clinging to the idea that a that a different outcome might be on the horizon.
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Can I just pick up Simboy on how he has reached the conclusion we couldn't have picked a better side on Saturday.
We could have picked the promising central defender that was playing right back in the centre of defence rather than an old midfield water carrier who has shown time and again he cannot be trusted to play there. We could have played the centre half we brought in to captain the club when we dropped to start with. We could have played the speedy and promising defender the manager signed from Barnsley either there or at left back. We could have played the bloke who did well at Yeovil, was our best player in pre season and who got promoted from this league playing either at right back or in the centre of defence. But he wasn't even in the bloody match day squad. You can't see how we can balance that defence up a bit?
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I blame the fourth official for not holding up the board saying how much injury time there was.
Yeah that was strange wasn't it? No announcement either. I guess the stadium announcer just reads the board same as the rest of us. I always assumed it was more technical than that!
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The Jack Grealish that in every game has had more touches, passes, dribbles completed and chances created than anybody else? Who is playing slightly deeper it seems.
Didn't take long for baseless critical to come back.
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Can I just pick up Simboy on how he has reached the conclusion we couldn't have picked a better side on Saturday.
We could have picked the promising central defender that was playing right back in the centre of defence rather than an old midfield water carrier who has shown time and again he cannot be trusted to play there. We could have played the centre half we brought in to captain the club when we dropped to start with. We could have played the speedy and promising defender the manager signed from Barnsley either there or at left back. We could have played the bloke who did well at Yeovil, was our best player in pre season and who got promoted from this league playing either at right back or in the centre of defence. But he wasn't even in the bloody match day squad. You can't see how we can balance that defence up a bit?
And it would have been highly unlikely to have impacted the result.
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The Jack Grealish that in every game has had more touches, passes, dribbles completed and chances created than anybody else? Who is playing slightly deeper it seems.
Didn't take long for baseless critical to come back.
I'm more interested in impact; of which he sees to have had little so far. Look at the career of James Maddison and David Brooks as peer-examples of what JG could and should be doing. As I said above, maybe he has been carrying an injury; I rather hope so, really; to explain his season-start. More likely, he's looking at the stark reality of another season of Brucieball and wishing himself elsewhere.
I'm not a JG critic by the way (in fact, although you may not believe on here, I'm actually an optimistic, generally!).
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Maybe the speculation over the summer has had a bit of an effect on Grealish?
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Can I just pick up Simboy on how he has reached the conclusion we couldn't have picked a better side on Saturday.
We could have picked the promising central defender that was playing right back in the centre of defence rather than an old midfield water carrier who has shown time and again he cannot be trusted to play there. We could have played the centre half we brought in to captain the club when we dropped to start with. We could have played the speedy and promising defender the manager signed from Barnsley either there or at left back. We could have played the bloke who did well at Yeovil, was our best player in pre season and who got promoted from this league playing either at right back or in the centre of defence. But he wasn't even in the bloody match day squad. You can't see how we can balance that defence up a bit?
Elphick? Really? How not playing improves a player in the minds of most.
Pre season? Green looked a world beater scoring for fun, poor in proper match day situations so far. We also played 3-5-2. We have reverted to 4-1-4-1 again in meaningful games. To select a player because he had a great game against Yeovil seems to be clutching at straws.
I didn’t think Jedinek had a bad game on Saturday, his best game at that position in fact. Suited by a poor team we played.
I would prefer Tuanzebe long term at centre half and with Bolasie coming in (and hopefully performing) that moves Elmo to right back, or Bree if you prefer.
However , Bolasie was a spectator, as was our keeper for eighty minutes except for a couple of corners.
The fault why we didn’t get three points wasn’t that we were overrun at the back. Hence the square pegs in round holes doesn’t really stand up for this game perhaps?
We failed to convert the domination we had with the ball. Look at that McGinn shot after 30 seconds. If he squares it ... Albert through three times second half doesn’t look up for his colleagues... but they don’t. There were other instances when clear positions were squandered. I don’t know if that’s Bruce’s fault, perhaps. He gets the blame for most things on here, but it’s not down to selection. ... just my view.