Aston Villa v Wolves Post-Match Thread

[damon loves JT]

Yes it is but I don't think it's anything to do with SB it's more a product of very poor performance yesterday and general realisation that we are not going to get out of this division this season.

I suppose you're right.

[Lsvilla]

Some of you must be seeing a different Micah Richards to me.

The Micah Richards 2016 version is a dim-witted manchild who thinks he's better than he is. He is not alone with that delusion, a few on our books have similar delusions of grandeur.

No, you're seeing exactly the same one as me. He's utter shite

Same here.
Whoever told him he was a footballer needs was taking the piss.
 

n
Thirded - or fourthded - wherever we're up to - I think he's an absolute joke as a professional footballer hopefully Bruce saw yesterday why he shouldn't be anywhere near the team again

[ez]

Yes it is but I don't think it's anything to do with SB it's more a product of very poor performance yesterday and general realisation that we are not going to get out of this division this season.

Not the way we want anyway. Seriously though, I always get worried when there is no new manager bounce.

[PaulWinch again]

Don't think I've ever seen a more dispirited post-match thread. Considering that it's SB's first game in charge, that's quite something.

Yeah I think it's the constant long term failure.

[Walmley_Villa]

I saw Richards in those shorts and thought he was carrying Gabby around in them. Athlete my arse!

[brian green]

Perversely the awfulness of yesterday's game might be a good thing.  Steve Bruce will have seen from his third day in his job just how bad we are.  He can be under no illusions about the magnitude of the task ahead of him. By the same token we can get right down to finding out how good a manager Steve Bruce is. No foreplay, no honeymoon, no dead cat bounce, just the stark realisation that our players are not good enough and Tony Xia's money has been wasted on inadequately researched purchases.

[john e]

has Steve Bruce been living on the moon until yesterday then

the world and his wife know how bad we are, we've won one game in the last 8
 months,
We've lost David Bowie Ronnie Corbett and Victoria Wood since we last won away,

I think he had a good idea we were pretty much shit when he joined
I really don't think he's been taken by surprise, we've been playing like that for years  he's got a telly and he's into football I think he would have noticed

[pauliewalnuts]

Some of you must be seeing a different Micah Richards to me.  Maybe you want to see the promising 18 year-old that broke through at Citeh and was making the England squad. The problem is he never developed from there. 

He always had the physique and decent pace, so Citeh probably reasoned that with good coaching and big match experience the other stuff: the positioning, game awareness, basic passing technique et.c would come. But it never did.

The Micah Richards 2016 version is a dim-witted manchild who thinks he's better than he is. He is not alone with that delusion, a few on our books have similar delusions of grandeur.

There was one moment in the 2nd half where Richards was facing their wide man and he actually made a 360º turn in front of him. In all the years I've been watching football I honestly don't think I've ever seen a player do that before. What the hell he was thinking I'll never know but you're right, a dim-witted manchild just about sums him up.

Richards is a fucking brainless idiot.

In fact, if I had to choose one word to describe Aston Villa these last six years, it would be "brainless". We are utterly fucking brainless as a team and seem to specialise in signing players with zero nous.

[brian green]

Of course Bruce knew we were bad.  However, until last week it was not his concern.  Now it is.  When he looks at them now he can't say "aren't they utterly crap" he has to say "what do I have to do to improve that lot?".

Seeing a car crash and being involved in it are very different things.

[paul_e]

Of course Bruce knew we were bad.  However, until last week it was not his concern.  Now it is.  When he looks at them now he can't say "aren't they utterly crap" he has to say "what do I have to do to improve that lot?".

Seeing a car crash and being involved in it are very different things.

This is the key, lots of people seem eager to praise him for asking the question, personally I'm more interested in the answer he comes up with.  I hope it's more than just getting them to do a few extra laps of the training ground and some shuttles, my worry is that it won't be.

[tomd2103]

Of course Bruce knew we were bad.  However, until last week it was not his concern.  Now it is.  When he looks at them now he can't say "aren't they utterly crap" he has to say "what do I have to do to improve that lot?".

Seeing a car crash and being involved in it are very different things.

This is the key, lots of people seem eager to praise him for asking the question, personally I'm more interested in the answer he comes up with.  I hope it's more than just getting them to do a few extra laps of the training ground and some shuttles, my worry is that it won't be.

My worry is that the problems are so deep rooted the answers won't arrive until the January Transfer window opens. 

[paul_e]

Of course Bruce knew we were bad.  However, until last week it was not his concern.  Now it is.  When he looks at them now he can't say "aren't they utterly crap" he has to say "what do I have to do to improve that lot?".

Seeing a car crash and being involved in it are very different things.

This is the key, lots of people seem eager to praise him for asking the question, personally I'm more interested in the answer he comes up with.  I hope it's more than just getting them to do a few extra laps of the training ground and some shuttles, my worry is that it won't be.

My worry is that the problems are so deep rooted the answers won't arrive until the January Transfer window opens. 

If Bruce takes that approach then it's not good enough, there's plenty of things you can do with this squad, even the midfield is nothing like as bad as it looks right now, it's just hard to see any positives after the last 4-5 performances.  We might not have the midfield to compete for the top 2 but we certainly have enough quality to be top half at the very least.  Yesterday is now 13 points dropped  from winning positions, you don't get yourself in front that often if you're irredeemably shit, in the same way you don't drop that many points if everything is ok.  We need to focus on doing the things that are working (or were at the start of the season) and work to address the things that aren't.  It sounds really simple but if you ignore the former then you fall into the trap that Sherwood and RDM did of throwing the baby out with the bathwater.

[old man villa fan]

A team full of the best players is not always the best team and that is certainly the case with Villa.  A well functioning team needs hard work, energy, pace, skill, motivation etc., etc.  Unless a player is truly top class, you are not going to get all of those things in one player, so you have to build a team with players that each have some of those assets.  Bruce has now seen that fitness is a major issue but we have the 15 that generally make up the playing squad being very similar regarding pace and energy.

He needs to give up some of his experienced players to perhaps lesser players (currently perceived).  Who in the full squad has energy and reasonably pace.  I would say Bacuna and Amavi (if he is fully over his injury) are two and I would bring them in at fullback to cover the lack of pace in the centre of the defence.  They may be more of a risk defensively but they would add so much more going forward.

Bruce needs to look at the midfield and bring in one of the naturally fit younger players from the U21's to just add some life to this area of the pitch.  Paul Birch was never the best player but he ran all day.  Then you load the bench with fit players to come on in the 2nd half to stretch the opposition, rather than this happening to us.

We can get away in this division with playing young players as they do not have their inexperience exposed, providing they get involved in the game.  Also, I believe some youth in the team adds to team spirit and togetherness.  The older players look out for them when opposition players start having a go at them.

I have had enough of seeing Richards, Hutton, Cissoko, Westwood etc.  They are not going to change the way they play, even though we are playing at a lower level.  You should always look at a player and assess whether he can play better than he currently is.  If he can't and he currently isn't playing well, you have to get rid.

[tomd2103]

Of course Bruce knew we were bad.  However, until last week it was not his concern.  Now it is.  When he looks at them now he can't say "aren't they utterly crap" he has to say "what do I have to do to improve that lot?".

Seeing a car crash and being involved in it are very different things.

This is the key, lots of people seem eager to praise him for asking the question, personally I'm more interested in the answer he comes up with.  I hope it's more than just getting them to do a few extra laps of the training ground and some shuttles, my worry is that it won't be.

My worry is that the problems are so deep rooted the answers won't arrive until the January Transfer window opens. 

If Bruce takes that approach then it's not good enough, there's plenty of things you can do with this squad, even the midfield is nothing like as bad as it looks right now, it's just hard to see any positives after the last 4-5 performances.  We might not have the midfield to compete for the top 2 but we certainly have enough quality to be top half at the very least.  Yesterday is now 13 points dropped  from winning positions, you don't get yourself in front that often if you're irredeemably shit, in the same way you don't drop that many points if everything is ok.  We need to focus on doing the things that are working (or were at the start of the season) and work to address the things that aren't.  It sounds really simple but if you ignore the former then you fall into the trap that Sherwood and RDM did of throwing the baby out with the bathwater.

Their confidence is completely shot and I just don't think they've got it in them at the moment to fight their way out of it.  Some of them look shell shocked at the moment and we aren't going to get anywhere when we are getting outworked by teams. 

[kippaxvilla2]

He is going to need the rest of this season and a close season to even get us near to challenging to get out of this division.  I just hope he is given the time.