Leeds United v Aston Villa Post match thread.

[Matt Collins]

It is a really mediocre league isn't it? The quality is poor. I wouldn't fancy any team I've seen in the premier league, maybe Newcastle but I don't think they're great

Part of me thinks we'd be better off having two years down here - Bruce should be capable of turning us into a title winner next year and we'd be better placed to stay up with a better team

The other part thinks we'd lose some of our few premier league quality players if we did stay down here one more year and it would be even harder

[Rigadon]

Being in the 'Championship' for another year would be shit.  The league is full of bang average sides full of journeymen players and the odd promising youngster.  Some are well organised and difficult to break down but the level of quality between the Premier League and here is massive.  We would need half a new team to compete.  As for this team, it's easily good enough for top 6 and I think with Bruce we will achieve this fairly easily and will be ruing the dog of a start we had.

[john e]

I thought they were crap, just like every other team we've played this season. We haven't played anyone who I thought were any good

I agree with this.

me too, this league is lacking in quality

unfortunatly we seem right at home in it

[Axl Rose]

It is a really mediocre league isn't it? The quality is poor. I wouldn't fancy any team I've seen in the premier league, maybe Newcastle but I don't think they're great

Part of me thinks we'd be better off having two years down here - Bruce should be capable of turning us into a title winner next year and we'd be better placed to stay up with a better team

The other part thinks we'd lose some of our few premier league quality players if we did stay down here one more year and it would be even harder

I agree, Matt. Especially regarding staying for a second year. If it was guaranteed that we'd go up, I wouldn't mind. But sadly, football isn't so cut and dry as that. I think we'd possibly lose Ayew if we didn't go up, but the team seems loyal at present and enjoying their football to an extent.

Anyone seems to be able to beat anyone in this league. Barnsley lost 5-2 at home, then best the 4th placed team away, 3-0, as an example.

I think we'll go up. Hopefully second, if not, by beating Wednesday in the playoff final. How about a Westwood screamer at Wembley like Savo's in 1996?

[oswald funkletrumpet]

Play your strongest starting 11

Its quite a simple concept

This for me. 100% agree.

Grealish should always play, Ayew, too. They're the players who will get us out of this league. The two cretins in midfield who don't even need to be named, are the type of players that will help keep us in the Championship.

Totally agree

Where did starting justhead come from?
why didnt ayew start?
why was kodija wide?
Why no tish?

its not astro physics

It's extremely frustrating, mate.

Gestede is beyond dreadful. Should never play a minute for us, unless we are really throwing the kitchen sink at someone, desperate for a goal.

I'd banish those pair of farts in midfield. I'm embarrassed by them, scuttling about like ants, doing absolutely nothing. Stealing a living.

Elphick-deary me. No pace, no stature, no good.

Other teams bring through youth and play them. Leeds are a fine example of this. I can't believe we don't have some decent central midfielders and right backs in our youth set up. I'm sure we do. Get them in.

If I had my way, Elphick, Hutton, Westwood, Gardner and Gestede would never be anywhere near our squad, let alone the first team. Agbonlahor, neither. Fat shit. It's a tough league to escape anyway. Don't make it even harder by playing woefully inept dregs. I've often felt physically sick just seeing their names on a Villa team sheet. It's also weird how players like Westwood rarely get injured. He's a central midfielder in the thick of the action. He rarely gets injured because he does fuck all. No muscle strains, because again, he does fuck all.

My team would be:

Gollini, (youth team right back), Baker, Chester, Amavi, Jedinak, Tshibola, Grealish, Adomah, Kodjia, Ayew for home matches.

Maybe solidify things away, but without compromising the attacking threat. Possibly sticking Bacuna in a three man midfield and rotating Adomah/bringing him on for a tiring Grealish/Ayew/Kodjia.

I think we'll bounce back next weekend, but we do make it unnecessarily difficult for ourselves by playing such talentless rubbish in important positions on the pitch.

Agree with all of that

if we had won yesterday we could have been 12 behind newcastle

if grealish is unwell then he shouldnt be on the bench

Central midfield is our big problem and hopefully bruce has seen it and will get a couple in during the window

perserving with point and gardner will get us to eeerrr exactly the league position we are in now

[Ads]

They key is how we bounce back. Important we respond with a win nect week and take 7 from Wigan, Norwich and QPR.

We've got to pick our best players though.

[AV82EC]

Against one of the better teams in this league we got shown up in midfield as the game progressed. Thought their defensive midfielder Viera (?) was very solid as was their back 4.
Highlights for us were Jedinak and Adomah before he clonked his thigh. Kodjia suffered the last usual curse of winning player of the month by having his worst game in ages.
All in all we were in it for an hour then got overpowered. Ho hum, Wigan next.

And sign some midfielders in January.

[Ads]

I disagree. We were poor but it wasn't because Leeds showed us up; let's have it right, they were as shit if not worse than us.

They created zip from open play and Gollini being a tit cost us a point.

[Clark W Griswold]

I thought we again played well until they scored the first in terms of stopping the opposition, I think it was their first shot on target and only their second chance. We were a little sloppier than we had been though, and giving them free kicks and corners was always likely to concede at some point as their ball delivery into the box was very good and far better than ours I must say. Which brings me onto the second point, that our performance when in possession was very poor and we never really looked like scoring. Gestede is ok as an impact sub when throwing the ball into the box constantly, but shouldn't be starting as he's not mobile enough to build play. Kodjia should be in the middle and of course Ayew should have been left side. In the midfield we need replacements for Gardner and Westwood in the form of two players who get all over the pitch and particularly join attacks as we don't ever seem to get enough men forward at present. Elphick is really poor, Hutton tries but is also poor, and although I think Adomah is a top guy and great to have in a team in many ways, his delivery into the box is comically bad and link up with team mates needs a lot of work. Gollini continues to show his inexperience at times.
Still a brilliant start though for Bruce and I hope he adds at least 3 in January if we're serious about going up through the play offs.

[Abbeyfealeavfc]

When I saw the team news yesterday, I immediately thought of Brighton away, the only difference being the ineffective gestede for the ineffective agbonlahor and elphick for the injured baker. Some questions for Bruce...
Why did you set your team up in the same way as you did for a game 2 weeks ago? It wasn't perfect then (the performance only started to come together after agbonlahor went off vs Brighton) so why would it work against Leeds? Besides championship players don't have the consistency to transfer performances between away fixtures.
Do you believe in playing your best/in form players in their best positions? If so why didn't the best forward (Kodjia) currently at the club start as the main striker?
If you're prepared to give an old has-been like agbonlahor game-time why are you not prepared to give hungry talented players like Murphy and greene game time also, or do you have an aversion to youth?
What are you doing to get the best out of Tish? Surely if managed /coached properly he is better than
some of the dross you have in midfield?
I like what Bruce has started to do, but there's a long way to go and the more games Bruce manages the more responsibility he has for the performances/results.

[AV82EC]

Oh I agree Ads being one of the better teams in this league is hardly a compliment but our lack of midfield strength meant we couldn't shift a limited but very well organised Leeds team to get back in the game.

[Boz]

Losing away to Leeds isn't the end of the world as it's obvious we'll lose a few before the end of the season, the concern for me was how bad we looked.

We were no worse than we were at SHA.

It's funny how points on the board can change perceptions of performances.

An astute observation and very true

[JUAN PABLO]

Elphick is the weakest link. Him, gollini, Westwood and Gardner is some right soft shite through the spine of the team.

exactly mossman , these players lost RDM his job , come on SB get rid .

[Chris Jameson]

Maybe it's an indication of how poor we were but i'm another who thought Westwood was one of our better players. January will hopefully see the likes of Gestede, Elphick, Gardner, Hutton and Gollini replaced, they are all very average at best and two are amongst the worst I've seen in a Villa shirt. Amavi looks decent going forward but a liability in defence and I wish Kodjia would stop spending so much time rolling about in agony whenever he's tackled.

Leeds were poor, we were slightly worse but Bruce has got his hands tied until January. I wish we'd sell Tshibola simply because every time I see his name I get bloody Bohemian Rhapsody in my head. Damn, done it again.

My son is dreading getting 'roasted' by his Leeds supporting mates at school on Monday.

[avfcpg]

Thought we looked ok if not spectacular for most of the game and were the one's most likely to score. Set pieces aside, they offered very little at all.
Harsh on Gollini as was a great ball in and right in between the two CB's. Even if he had stayed on his line he wouldn't have got a sniff.
Adomah's one on one was massive..and didn't even get a corner from it. Just looked like one of those days when we weren't going to score..could have had a pen on another day too.
Thought Bruce got this one wrong..Kodija out wide is wasted when you've got Ayew and Adomah to play wide. And as solid as the midfield three are (thought they did well until Leeds scored), the lack of creativity hurt us today. Jack / Bacuna / Tishbola would improve that..at least one of them should start.....