Aston Villa v Blackburn Rovers Post-Match Thread

[tomd2103]

Thought Brucey fell into same trap as RDM first half with trying to shoe horn 4 attacking players into the team whilst not having enough strength & physicality behind them to win enough ball to make use of those 4.

Jedinak looks like that player we thought we were buying now.

McCormack is looking like the player Fulham & Leeds fans told us we were getting, one who doesn't look like he fits any formation...if his legs went as fast as his arms wave he'd be quite an athlete.

Bar the brain fade for the goal Chester / Baker look very good at the back...look forward to that developing as Bruce coaches them more.

Hutton, runs around a lot and is always willing to go forward, shame he has zero ability to deliver anything remotely useful when he gets there.  When you are playing with snow whites dwarves up front why keep crossing in air, you just know if Gestede came on it would have been daisy cutters.  With de Laet out for season hope there is a right back out there come January on loan. (ps am not a hater just want to see better)

Understand groans when Westwood came on as rightly or wrongly his bang averageness is associated with how we have fallen in recent times, any booing is plain stupid though!

The shape of the side seems to be coming together.  Interesting that Bruce went with a 4-2-3-1 formation at home yesterday rather than the 4-3-3 he employed at Blues last week. 

Edit - every time I see the tactic of bringing an extra defender on in the final stages (like Elphick yesterday) it results in one thing - increased pressure on the defence as there is no one pressing the opposition higher up the pitch.  Although it is seems a pretty logical move, I've always thought it is a questionable tactic.

[not3bad]

At a loose guess, we are going to lose less games than before.

Excellent stuff, cheers!

[UK Redsox]

Edit - every time I see the tactic of bringing an extra defender on in the final stages (like Elphick yesterday) it results in one thing - increased pressure on the defence as there is no one pressing the opposition higher up the pitch.  Although it is seems a pretty logical move, I've always thought it is a questionable tactic.

I'd prefer an extra midfielder to harass the opposition further up the pitch. Therefore, I'd have brought on Tish

[Old Kodjia]

Edit - every time I see the tactic of bringing an extra defender on in the final stages (like Elphick yesterday) it results in one thing - increased pressure on the defence as there is no one pressing the opposition higher up the pitch.  Although it is seems a pretty logical move, I've always thought it is a questionable tactic.

I'd prefer an extra midfielder to harass the opposition further up the pitch. Therefore, I'd have brought on Tish

It was the 89th minute.  Blackburn were firing the ball high into our box at every opportunity.  Elphick won several headers in those few minutes that he was on, it's the one thing that he's good at.  No complaints from me there.  Grealish would have been a passenger for those last few minutes.

I remember a few years ago, away at Spurs.  We were 4-1 up and they were simply firing everything into our box.  The midfield was always being by-passed.  We had Curtis Davis on the bench and MON bought someone like Marlon Harewood on.  I'm convinced to this day, that if we'd have bought Davis on, we would have won that game.

Sometimes, when teams get desperate, they play over the midfield, meaning that however many we have there, it makes no difference.

[Lobsterboy]

I could get used to this winning games malarkey...

Shame the international break has come now but hope we can carry on the good form into what looks a very difficult game at Brighton

Bruce has only been here five minutes and has already won as many games as Garde, Black and Di Matteo combined - it's amazing what a difference it makes when you someone who knows what they are doing in charge

UTV

[rob_bridge]

Thought played well 2nd half. More organised and resilient.

Kodja is a good player took 2nd goal well. Jedinak is a player we have been missing for years. Gardener is looking more like the player we thought he could be. Collini, Baker and Chester solid base of spine.

Thought Amavi speed of thought and positioning was generally sound, not always been the case. Adomah ditto. Jack had some good touches.

Downsides

RMC looks way off the pace, Hutton tries but is frankly pretty hopeless though did have some decent moments is 2nd half and Jack needs to stop that Westwood style pointing. Subs were a little too negative but result counts.

A big test await us against Brighton - it'll be a measure of how far we have come. Onwards

[Brend'Watkins]

Has much been discussed about McCormack's miss? It might have been offside in any case but my word, it really took something special to miss from where he was.

[tomd2103]

Edit - every time I see the tactic of bringing an extra defender on in the final stages (like Elphick yesterday) it results in one thing - increased pressure on the defence as there is no one pressing the opposition higher up the pitch.  Although it is seems a pretty logical move, I've always thought it is a questionable tactic.

I'd prefer an extra midfielder to harass the opposition further up the pitch. Therefore, I'd have brought on Tish

It was the 89th minute.  Blackburn were firing the ball high into our box at every opportunity.  Elphick won several headers in those few minutes that he was on, it's the one thing that he's good at.  No complaints from me there.  Grealish would have been a passenger for those last few minutes.

I remember a few years ago, away at Spurs.  We were 4-1 up and they were simply firing everything into our box.  The midfield was always being by-passed.  We had Curtis Davis on the bench and MON bought someone like Marlon Harewood on.  I'm convinced to this day, that if we'd have bought Davis on, we would have won that game.

Sometimes, when teams get desperate, they play over the midfield, meaning that however many we have there, it makes no difference.

The problem though is that when you take an attacker off it just gives the opposition more time to launch balls.  It also means that you have no attacking outlet and it just goes straight back to the opposition when it is cleared.

Not having a go at a Bruce at all, just questioning that often used tactic.

[Old Kodjia]

Edit - every time I see the tactic of bringing an extra defender on in the final stages (like Elphick yesterday) it results in one thing - increased pressure on the defence as there is no one pressing the opposition higher up the pitch.  Although it is seems a pretty logical move, I've always thought it is a questionable tactic.

I'd prefer an extra midfielder to harass the opposition further up the pitch. Therefore, I'd have brought on Tish

It's a "problem" whatever you do. It's what happens when you're holding on at the end of the game-The other team come at you.  When a team are behind, they tend to have more of the ball and they attack more.  The team in front rarely commit men forward so attacks are broken down quite easily in any case.  No manager is going to bring on an attack minded player when holding on to a slender lead.

The Blackburn striker had a great header first half and scored from one in the second.  He was a threat.  They started to go long at every opportunity and Elphick certainly proved useful in those dying minutes.

It was a substitution that definately worked and no matter who we had bought on, Blackburn would still have launched the ball into the box every time they had possession. 



It was the 89th minute.  Blackburn were firing the ball high into our box at every opportunity.  Elphick won several headers in those few minutes that he was on, it's the one thing that he's good at.  No complaints from me there.  Grealish would have been a passenger for those last few minutes.

I remember a few years ago, away at Spurs.  We were 4-1 up and they were simply firing everything into our box.  The midfield was always being by-passed.  We had Curtis Davis on the bench and MON bought someone like Marlon Harewood on.  I'm convinced to this day, that if we'd have bought Davis on, we would have won that game.

Sometimes, when teams get desperate, they play over the midfield, meaning that however many we have there, it makes no difference.

The problem though is that when you take an attacker off it just gives the opposition more time to launch balls.  It also means that you have no attacking outlet and it just goes straight back to the opposition when it is cleared.

Not having a go at a Bruce at all, just questioning that often used tactic.