Victorious Villa v Drizzle Brizzle post-match thread

[Drummond]

We've actually had some fortune on our side. The miss-kick assist was the sort of thing that has gone against us. Same as a ball bobbling around the box and landing nicely for them rather than us.

Back-to-back wins and clean sheets for the first time in 7 years is an absolutely extraordinary statistic.

[Chris Jameson]

But that would mean giving Bruce some credit.

Thanks for the snidy comment but it's not about giving credit or not, it's about whether this is a turning point or not. 

I'll be honest I skim read most posts but the fact you seemed to think it was the player who decided to do whatever it was he did rather than the manager really came across as your reluctance to give Bruce any kind of praise for anything.

[Ivo Stas]

People need to maintain the toilet trip, pancake eating, twitter viewing and match avoiding. It works, but only in combination.

I have to take my share of the credit for this win tonight.  I adjusted the elephants in the room.  I'll explain.  Our daughter's first teaching job was in Aston and one of the kids was particularly fond of her, the child was Asian.  One day the mother gave our girl the gift of a little wooden elephant that she'd brought back for her from a holiday in India which was a lovely thing to do.

When our girl came back home, she brought this elephant with her and it's lived on our hearth ever since.  Now, I read somewhere that it's supposed to be lucky if you have him pointed towards the front door and I noticed today that he was a bit skewiff so I adjusted him back to his rightful place and lo, look what happened.  We also have a tiny little ceramic elephant that sits on the base of a clock on the mantlepiece, I have no idea where he came from but I adjusted him too, just to be sure.

Hmm. When did you acquire this elephant? Was it, by any chance, on 9th August 2010..?

[Clampy]

I would imagine midfielders breaking into the box and joining in with attack is something all managers urge their players to do when possible (except maybe Tony Pulis). Lack of goals from midfield has been a problem for a few years, not just this season.

[remy]

Like everyone, I wish this was the win that sent us six points clear at the top of the table. But we have to eat what's on our plate.

If, by the end of the season, we have eleven players who can function as a team, if Green in particular has become a first team regular, if Lansbury and Hourihane and Jedinak develop a proper understanding, if Hogan comes back hungry and fully fit and we've found a way to use Grealish, I would have to be satisfied with that.

But looking at that wish list it's quite a lot to ask. Would be surprised if half of it comes true.

Not sure it is too much to ask Damon.  If the side below can get a run of games together in the remainder of the season (I accept Green is now injured ) then we might be in a decent place with only a bit of fine tuning required in the summer:


                                            Johnstone

Hutton                       Chester               Baker               Taylor

                                              Jedinak

                        Lansbury                         Hourihane

Adomah                                    Kodjia                         Green

Oh my days!

In that XI - it's bereft (bar one) of all the wankers who relegated us! Yay!

We're a new team!!

According to most that Hutton played well last night. One game does not make up for the previous I am afraid. He is at the end of his contract come summer so goodbye.

[Toronto Villa]

It appeared from what I've read and the little I've seen that in the second half, Bruce for the first time since coming to the club unlocked the shackles of conservatism and let the team play.

[simboy]

The second goal was something of a novelty, to have a central midfielder that far forward that he can poach one in from less than ten yards. Hourihane found acres of space and by his presence, made space for Green too as he took a Bristol player deeper or inside with him. We looked a lot more capable and had an idea about how we were going to break them down.

I'd like to see Abraham with us next season - 16 goals in 30 games for Bristol City, only 19, light years away from the first team at the Chavs; even on loan it would be a useful addition, particularly given Hogan's injury record.

I'd rather give RHM a go. I think his pace could cause a lot of problems. Just look at Green last night and the trouble he caused.

I agree that it's a novelty, my issue really is that, even with the midfield we started the season with, it shouldn't be.  midfielders and the wingers breaking into the box like that is a fundamental requirement for this setup and it's taken us 3/4s of the season to see it.  Loads of people on here have been saying that we need to close the gap between midfield and attack for months but this is the first time I've seen any evidence that the club had identified that problem.  My concern is that it was Hourihane that did something about it rather than management because we weren't doing it before he came on.

I agree on giving RHM a chance, my concern with going for someone like Abraham is that it's a decision made on the same basis as Gestede, RM, Kodjia and Hogan (i.e. they have a good scoring record at this level) rather than any concept of how we can help them replicate the same form.

To praise Hourihane is fine but it was Gardener who got the penalty by getting beyond Kodjia wasn't it? 

If i was going to criticise the set up with what resources we had at our disposal last night it would be that Lansbury is lying far too deep. Shelvey at Newcastle directs play from the centre circle, runners go off him and he plays balls into the channels. We dont do that.

I don't know if its because Lansbury was one card away from a suspension since he's arrived but Bruce has played him far too deep and hes not had the aggressiveness i associated with him at Forrest. As he moved up field last night he played some delightful passes [not always anticipated by his team mates granted] but he really should be doing more of that for me.

Overall my view was it clicked for about twenty minutes in the second half, no more. By that time we were out of sight as Bristol really had no threat at all.

 

[dave shelley]

People need to maintain the toilet trip, pancake eating, twitter viewing and match avoiding. It works, but only in combination.

I have to take my share of the credit for this win tonight.  I adjusted the elephants in the room.  I'll explain.  Our daughter's first teaching job was in Aston and one of the kids was particularly fond of her, the child was Asian.  One day the mother gave our girl the gift of a little wooden elephant that she'd brought back for her from a holiday in India which was a lovely thing to do.

When our girl came back home, she brought this elephant with her and it's lived on our hearth ever since.  Now, I read somewhere that it's supposed to be lucky if you have him pointed towards the front door and I noticed today that he was a bit skewiff so I adjusted him back to his rightful place and lo, look what happened.  We also have a tiny little ceramic elephant that sits on the base of a clock on the mantlepiece, I have no idea where he came from but I adjusted him too, just to be sure.

Hmm. When did you acquire this elephant? Was it, by any chance, on 9th August 2010..?

Well before that I'm glad to say.  There have been times when I'd like to have seen MON trampled by one but I've got over him now.  Onwards and upwards as they say.

[simboy]

Like everyone, I wish this was the win that sent us six points clear at the top of the table. But we have to eat what's on our plate.

If, by the end of the season, we have eleven players who can function as a team, if Green in particular has become a first team regular, if Lansbury and Hourihane and Jedinak develop a proper understanding, if Hogan comes back hungry and fully fit and we've found a way to use Grealish, I would have to be satisfied with that.

But looking at that wish list it's quite a lot to ask. Would be surprised if half of it comes true.

Not sure it is too much to ask Damon.  If the side below can get a run of games together in the remainder of the season (I accept Green is now injured ) then we might be in a decent place with only a bit of fine tuning required in the summer:


                                            Johnstone

Hutton                       Chester               Baker               Taylor

                                              Jedinak

                        Lansbury                         Hourihane

Adomah                                    Kodjia                         Green

Oh my days!

In that XI - it's bereft (bar one) of all the wankers who relegated us! Yay!

We're a new team!!

According to most that Hutton played well last night. One game does not make up for the previous I am afraid. He is at the end of his contract come summer so goodbye.

Well, only because the other candidate is built of poppadoms

Hutton, as much as Im not overly keen on him played well last night. Worked well with Albert I thought and his crossing ability has improved immensely, it's now one in eight that creates any danger as opposed to one in fifteen last year. 

[paul_e]

I would imagine midfielders breaking into the box and joining in with attack is something all managers urge their players to do when possible (except maybe Tony Pulis). Lack of goals from midfield has been a problem for a few years, not just this season.

Indeed it has, and the consistent is that we've generally had safety first managers who have pinned our midfield deep.  Sherwood was able to make a huge difference for a couple of months simply by letting Delph and Cleverley get into the box before his inability to do anything else became clear and he had to go.  I think anyone watching us in the last few months could see that getting more people around the box was needed so I don't really understand why it's taken so long for us to give it a go.  I'm really glad we've done so and I really hope it becomes the pattern going forward.

I'll be honest I skim read most posts but the fact you seemed to think it was the player who decided to do whatever it was he did rather than the manager really came across as your reluctance to give Bruce any kind of praise for anything.

You're still determined to miss the point so you can try to score points against me for not liking Bruce, my post is more about how frustrating i find it that if we'd done this a month ago we'd still be in the mix for the play offs.  If it came from Bruce then great but I wish he'd tried doing this before the pissing about with formations and teams that happened all through January and February.  I can't give him credit for trying it for half a game after so much fucking about but I will give him credit if he learns from this and what we saw last night becomes a theme for the rest of the season.  If he can do that then I'll be happy for him to get the summer and take us into next season but I worry that the first sign of things going against us will see us revert to the backs-to-wall approach that he's used for most of his time with us.

[KevinGage]

Albert drifted in and Hourihane played a lot further forward. Subtle changes but we looked a different side and you could see the tempo and confidence increase after our first.

This has been a common bugbear for me.  Sometimes we've started games well, but when the opposition have switched it up we have failed to respond.

Bruce has often let it just play out for 60/70 minutes before making an ineffective non-threatening substitution in the latter stages of a game.

It doesn't always even need to be a substitution. Brentford could see that that Lansbury was hurting them with incisive passes from deep early on, so their midfield pushed up after 15/20 minutes and took him out of the game.

Subtle changes, as you say. But sometimes that is all you need.

[Chris Jameson]

Not going to quote but i'm neither determined to miss any point (whatever it is) or score points (no idea how I'd redeem any). You suggested a player was responsible for a tactical change rather than  the manager which seems highly unlikely to me. That's all, don't read too much into what little I post on here about football.

[Hookeysmith]

[quote 
[/quote]

You're still determined to miss the point so you can try to score points against me for not liking Bruce, my post is more about how frustrating i find it that if we'd done this a month ago we'd still be in the mix for the play offs.  If it came from Bruce then great but I wish he'd tried doing this before the pissing about with formations and teams that happened all through January and February.  I can't give him credit for trying it for half a game after so much fucking about but I will give him credit if he learns from this and what we saw last night becomes a theme for the rest of the season.  If he can do that then I'll be happy for him to get the summer and take us into next season but I worry that the first sign of things going against us will see us revert to the backs-to-wall approach that he's used for most of his time with us.
[/quote]


Agree with this 100%

[Tony Erdington]

Got to be honest, I struggled at work today. this winning isn't all its cracked up to be 

[paul_e]

Not going to quote but i'm neither determined to miss any point (whatever it is) or score points (no idea how I'd redeem any). You suggested a player was responsible for a tactical change rather than  the manager which seems highly unlikely to me. That's all, don't read too much into what little I post on here about football.

If you hadn't felt the need to be snide then I'd have no problem with it but if you you have a problem with me not being a massive fan of Bruce just say it, don't hide behind snarky comments, it's not like this is the first time you've done it in the last week or so.  The point, put very simply, is that no one deserves any great credit for last night because what they did was what people on this forum have been suggesting for months.  I pondered whether it could have come from elsewere because it's the first time Hourihane has played since he had to watch a game and a bit as a villa player and he then came on and did exactly the job he did for Barnesley and that needed to be done for us.  I'm not saying anything negative about Bruce to suggest that he might have seen the problem and realised he could be the solution.

In fact I'd give Bruce more credit for signing a player with a brain of his own than I would for him eventually working out what the problem is months later than lots of fans on the internet.