Season expectations 2017-18

[SoccerHQ]

I still find it difficult to believe there's going to be eight or nine teams who'll outperform us.

Me too. When you look at the squads and the money spent its difficult to see how we can be anything less than top 6. We should be top 1 and winning the league is my expectation.

But I also said that last season.

I am still astonished, embarrassed and angry that we were unable to compete with teams like Huddersfield across the full season. No disrespect to them, but the gulf in resources should have made that very unlikely.

I never thought we'd be in contention for promotion last season, maybe play offs when we went on a decent run under SB but even then we were quite a bit adrift.

RDM largely relying on the squad that shamefully relegated us and only adding Gollini, Tish and Elphick to start the season at Sheff Weds was ridiculous. Undercooked is being generous.

Bar the odd position the squad is good enough now and there should be no excuses. Manager has to prove he has the mentality to push us on which seems to be an issue for some reason given he hasn't had much trouble getting weaker squads/clubs up before. Our squad is a lot better than Hull 12/13 I'd imagine.

[ciggiesnbeer]

Bar the odd position the squad is good enough now and there should be no excuses. Manager has to prove he has the mentality to push us on which seems to be an issue for some reason given he hasn't had much trouble getting weaker squads/clubs up before. Our squad is a lot better than Hull 12/13 I'd imagine.

Agreed. Although I also have no idea how good/bad the Hull team was that went up. Did they play good tooball? I dunno. I don't remember much about them from the Premier League even though we played them if I am honest.

[paul_e]

My memory of Hull, and his others clubs, is of not much happening in the majority of the games I saw. My Sunderland supporting in-laws say the same about his time with them and it's how I recall most of last season.

[LeeB]

My memory of Hull, and his others clubs, is of not much happening in the majority of the games I saw. My Sunderland supporting in-laws say the same about his time with them and it's how I recall most of last season.

I don't watch much in the way of general highlights in the past few years, but I distinctly remember watching Hull batter Burnley at home the season before last, 3-0 it was around Christmas, with Hull's left winger giving Matt Lowton an absolute chasing.
I think I commented on here after watching it that I'd take almost every player Hull had over the tossers we were watching capitulate every week in the division above.

[paul_e]

My memory of Hull, and his others clubs, is of not much happening in the majority of the games I saw. My Sunderland supporting in-laws say the same about his time with them and it's how I recall most of last season.

I don't watch much in the way of general highlights in the past few years, but I distinctly remember watching Hull batter Burnley at home the season before last, 3-0 it was around Christmas, with Hull's left winger giving Matt Lowton an absolute chasing.
I think I commented on here after watching it that I'd take almost every player Hull had over the tossers we were watching capitulate every week in the division above.

And we saw a few flashes of that last season, it's just not the norm for his teams.

[old man villa fan]

I just want to see Villa take the game to the opposition and exert and maintain pressure.  Is that too much to ask Steve Bruce to organise the team to do.

[LeeB]

My memory of Hull, and his others clubs, is of not much happening in the majority of the games I saw. My Sunderland supporting in-laws say the same about his time with them and it's how I recall most of last season.

I don't watch much in the way of general highlights in the past few years, but I distinctly remember watching Hull batter Burnley at home the season before last, 3-0 it was around Christmas, with Hull's left winger giving Matt Lowton an absolute chasing.
I think I commented on here after watching it that I'd take almost every player Hull had over the tossers we were watching capitulate every week in the division above.

And we saw a few flashes of that last season, it's just not the norm for his teams.

It's not the norm for most teams, to be honest, successful or not. It's about getting the results either way down here, and I think we will.

I go back to 87-88, with a genius in charge, we were functional and got the job done with absolutely no frills. Any team with Mark Lillis playing regularly can abandon any claim to frills.

[garyshawsknee]

I just want to see Villa take the game to the opposition and exert and maintain pressure.  Is that too much to ask Steve Bruce to organise the team to do.

Sadly it looks like too much to ask right now.

[paul_e]

My memory of Hull, and his others clubs, is of not much happening in the majority of the games I saw. My Sunderland supporting in-laws say the same about his time with them and it's how I recall most of last season.

I don't watch much in the way of general highlights in the past few years, but I distinctly remember watching Hull batter Burnley at home the season before last, 3-0 it was around Christmas, with Hull's left winger giving Matt Lowton an absolute chasing.
I think I commented on here after watching it that I'd take almost every player Hull had over the tossers we were watching capitulate every week in the division above.

And we saw a few flashes of that last season, it's just not the norm for his teams.

It's not the norm for most teams, to be honest, successful or not. It's about getting the results either way down here, and I think we will.

I go back to 87-88, with a genius in charge, we were functional and got the job done with absolutely no frills. Any team with Mark Lillis playing regularly can abandon any claim to frills.

I think it's normal for a team aiming to win the title to be on top and creating chances for at least a reasonable amount of most of the games they play.  Take the top 2 last year, they generally had a spell of 15-20 minutes per game where they were on top and that's when they scored the goals to win them. For us there were far too many where we could've carried on playing for another 90 and we'd still not have scored. We were just too deep and seemed to play for the clean sheet and if we lost that we didn't have another plan.

[brentastonb6]

 

"We're going to smash this league" John Terry.
So for me it's this too because love him or loathe him the man's a winner , he's our captain and he's going to be out there on the pitch doing  the captains job. I can't see him putting up with tosspot performances from our players and I can't see him holding back on telling them and the management team what they need to do. It was often said that at Chelsea he, Lampard and Drogba exerted too much influence- well I say let's have some of that type of influence here please because it seemed to do ok there didn't it ?

Oops.... having been at Walsall I want to change to "We're going to get smashed by everyone in this league " 

[boozey182]

I expect us to get promoted without too much fuss. There are no excuses now, we have to deliver. Whether Bruce can get the most out of, what surely must be, the best squad on the league is the main question. From where I'm sitting all we need to do is play 10 yards further up the pitch so the midfield can help attack. I don't have a problem with the signings  (Terry aside), as we need cover for Jedinak (although I suspect he'll be the cover), and Elmo will provide a bit of versatility (Bacuna will probably be off if we can find a willing victim). I think a 4-3-3 would work quite well with the forward 6 being:

DM: Whelan/Jedinak
CM: Landsbury
CM: Hourihane
AM: Grealish/Ross
AM: Green/Adomah (switching from wing to wing)
CF: Kodjia/Hogan

That should be more than enough to get us up. But I have massive concerns over whether Bruce will get the most out of them....he hasn't so far. Let's hope he proves a lot of us wrong.

[Walmley_Villa]

Middlesbrorough will be there or thereabouts and Fulham could also challenge again. Derby look decent on paper.

With our squad we should be clear in the top 2 by Christmas. Bruce deserves to be sacked if we are nowhere near that. 

[jwarry]

Love this

[LeeB]

We look rock with recent signings. Taking the piss with us will be a thing of the past, and one day in the future we will speak of Steve Bruce in reverential tones, the man that gave the club it's pride back.

I may have imbibed but it still stands.

[Ads]

I hope we kick Cardiff off the park, the horrible wankers.