Aston Villa v Reading Post-Match Thread

[cheltenhamlion]

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?

[The Edge]

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!

[Ads]

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.

[Ads]

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.

[Mister E]

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!).

[Chris Jameson]

Maybe the speculation over the summer has had a bit of an effect on Grealish?

[simboy]

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.