He certainly has the air of a luckless forward. Hitting the keeper constantly when one-on-one, stretching to and nearly getting his toe on crosses and always getting injured when he starts to get a run of starts.Don't really think it's going to happen for him here but still time to prove me wrong.
I think Hogan depends more on the team around him than most strikers. I imagine he'll be really effective in a team that actually passes the ball. It seems Bruce just looked at goals scored and signed him on that rather than thinking he may need the right service around him. Kodjia only gets away with it under Bruce because he's such a good individual talent.
Hogan looked pretty good at Brentford comes to B6 and seems to have forgotten everything he knows. Meanwhile I'm watching Scott Sinclair playing for Celtic and slotting away goals in the Champions league. He's doing the same as Hogan in reverse. Wtf happens to players when they come to the Villa?
Quote from: The Edge on August 16, 2017, 10:59:41 PMHogan looked pretty good at Brentford comes to B6 and seems to have forgotten everything he knows. Meanwhile I'm watching Scott Sinclair playing for Celtic and slotting away goals in the Champions league. He's doing the same as Hogan in reverse. Wtf happens to players when they come to the Villa?I think there might be a psychological thing around the club now because failure is so ingrained, it doesn't matter who the manager/players/board are, they've been replaced several times, we've been so bad for so long that minor setbacks become big ones because you sense the self doubt and negativity straight away. I knew we needed to get off to a good start immediately but as soon as we conceded the equaliser in the first game and dropped points you could feel the pessimism again, 'only' being 2 points off, then four and now eight, one draw becomes two defeats. We regularly go on long runs of defeats, we cannot bounce back and snap out of it quickly enough. Hopefully other posters know what I mean.I wouldn't mind seeing Dr. Steve Peters working with the club to be honest.
I just don't think he fancies it. His tracking was half arsed at best the other night.
Quote from: TheTimVilla on August 17, 2017, 05:40:20 AMI just don't think he fancies it. His tracking was half arsed at best the other night. That might be because he was probably trying to run off the tackle which eventually forced him to go off. I like him, he never stops running and with the right service, he'd be very useful.
I agree with Smirker that it has become a psychological issue. Many of us posted through the summer that the first half dozen games of this season were among the most important and pivotal games in the history of the club. It was of paramount importance that the focus of the manager and the coaches was on physical, tactical and mental readiness. Instead we had the rolling circus of the completely pointless Terry signing with an undercard of knee jerk equally unnecessary transfers like buying in a worn out defensive midfielder with attitude we did not need and selling a loyal, perfectly adequate championship back up central defender we did need. We took our eye off the ball.The only proven way to overcome the problems posed by the players who are spooked by lack of confidence or lack of luck or the magnitude of expectations at a club of our size is to play young, fresh players whose youth and appetite for the game make them oblivious to everything but the game and the ball at their feet. But Bruce does not do youth. He wants gnarled old sweats to slug out one nils.I very much suspect, know even, that there is at Villa what in the police is called a canteen culture. Since Colchester, Cardiff and Reading the canteen culture has been at its most dominant. The old sweats, Bruce, Wyness, Round, Calderwood and Clemence have been in a huddle, ostensibly seeking on pitch improvement but in reality presenting some sort of fire wall between themselves, the owner and the fans. In short, their jobs are the issue, not us being bottom of the second division.If Bruce is allowed to stumble on thanks to a win or a draw against Norwich this season is lost. Like a forest fire our crisis will burn on until there is nothing left to burn and we can start all over again from scratch just like Leicester, Southampton, Bournemouth, Swansea and the other progressive, ambitious clubs have done.
Quote from: Clampy on August 17, 2017, 06:47:43 AMQuote from: TheTimVilla on August 17, 2017, 05:40:20 AMI just don't think he fancies it. His tracking was half arsed at best the other night. That might be because he was probably trying to run off the tackle which eventually forced him to go off. I like him, he never stops running and with the right service, he'd be very useful.I was referring more to his running before his injury. I found it so bemusing that I started to only track his running! It was Ray Wilkins running. Just sideways, expending lots of effort for very little reward. In fact no reward at all.
Quote from: TheTimVilla on August 17, 2017, 07:25:46 AMQuote from: Clampy on August 17, 2017, 06:47:43 AMQuote from: TheTimVilla on August 17, 2017, 05:40:20 AMI just don't think he fancies it. His tracking was half arsed at best the other night. That might be because he was probably trying to run off the tackle which eventually forced him to go off. I like him, he never stops running and with the right service, he'd be very useful.I was referring more to his running before his injury. I found it so bemusing that I started to only track his running! It was Ray Wilkins running. Just sideways, expending lots of effort for very little reward. In fact no reward at all.So it's gone from half arsed to expending lots of effort for little reward. If there's one thing I can't accuse Hogan of being is half arsed.