Aston Villa v Norwich City Post-Match Thread

[LeeB]

A star is born in Davis. Not only was he excellent throughout, he's made the team an actual team.

I have a new favourite Villa player.

[LeeB]

A star is born in Davis. Not only was he excellent throughout, he's made the team an actual team.

I have a new favourite Villa player.

And a big nod to Brian Green who's been championing his cause all summer, spot on sir.

[tomd2103]

Hallelujah!  We play with a centre forward who can hold the ball up and immediately look much better.  We play three in midfield and allow the two more advanced midfielders the freedom to push on a bit and one of them scores a hat-trick. 

Hourihane will take the plaudits, but Davis deserves real credit as well.  He was a real handful all game and their centre halves really struggled.  His hold up play was excellent and it really made a difference.  I thought Whelan looked more comfortable in the holding role and our wide players looked a threat at times.  Only gripe would be and I couldn't tell too clearly from my seat in the North Stand, but we looked quite open for their two goals. 

[LeeB]

Hallelujah!  We play with a centre forward who can hold the ball up and immediately look much better.  We play three in midfield and allow the two more advanced midfielders the freedom to push on a bit and one of them scores a hat-trick. 

Hourihane will take the plaudits, but Davis deserves real credit as well.  He was a real handful all game and their centre halves really struggled.  His hold up play was excellent and it really made a difference.  I thought Whelan looked more comfortable in the holding role and our wide players looked a threat at times.  Only gripe would be and I couldn't tell too clearly from my seat in the North Stand, but we looked quite open for their two goals. 

Hutton taking a nap for the first. They clearly targeted him from the off, and their number 11 constantly rinsed him. Encouraged by the fact Bruce give him the curly finger after the goal, if not by the fact he picked him in the first place.

[Rudy Can't Fail]

A star is born in Davis. Not only was he excellent throughout, he's made the team an actual team.

I have a new favourite Villa player.

And a big nod to Brian Green who's been championing his cause all summer, spot on sir.

Brian knows a thing or two about strikers.

[Marton]

Not that is solves everything but very happy for the faithful at Villa Park who finally was entertained like they deserve.

Celebrating 4 times and walking out happy. Been so long they probably for got what it was like. 

[Exeter 77]

Keinan Davis had as good a first start as I can remember from a non-established player. The two goals conceded were a bit of a worry as they came from straight aerial balls. It was also interesting to note that both programme kiosks in the upper Holte were closed before kick off.

[Toronto Villa]

Excellent first half and ok second. Very happy for Conor. Special mention for Davis, brilliant today, and Alan Hutton absolutely shit yet again.

Agree with that except the Hutton bit. He was okay in parts but once again up against a pacey winger he looks troubled. After the last game where he again struggled against a nippy winger, you'd have hoped Bruce would have given Bree the job who is far faster.

Still struggling to see what Lansbury brings to the party and not convinced with Elmo. Despite that, we fully deserved the 3 points, something I can't remember saying for a very long time. Well done, lads.

Mark, Simon says hello. With him in Chicago. Not convinced by Lansbury at all and I just don't like Hutton at all. He got turned inside out by an average winger from Norwich. Still take the win.

Tell the Fat lad to keep off the pies.

He's remarkably lean and ripped. Life has treated him well. I'm going ruin all of that with beer and chicken wings.

[KRS]

The highlights are a pleasure to watch for a change...so many chances created and Davis had a stormer of a game.

[KRS]

A lot better today.  We played with tremendous intensity and bullied Norwich in the first half.  Great to see a performance from Hourihane, bearing in mind the stick he's had for being used wrongly by Bruce until now.  So pleased for Davis as well.  Reminds me of Dalian in a lot of ways, just missing a goal.  Couple of idiots in front of constantly moaning about the chance he missed at the start, ignoring everything else he did.

Not so good in the second half, but we gave ourselves the buffer in the first half.  Shows that we can play without this crap slow and defensive we saw at Reading.  Get on the front foot.

How can anyone moan about a chance that he created for himself out of nothing? It would have been nice for him to have scored a few goals today with the chances he had but other than that he was exceptional and added a new dimension to the team that has been sadly lacking allowing our midfield to get forward.

[tomd2103]

Hallelujah!  We play with a centre forward who can hold the ball up and immediately look much better.  We play three in midfield and allow the two more advanced midfielders the freedom to push on a bit and one of them scores a hat-trick. 

Hourihane will take the plaudits, but Davis deserves real credit as well.  He was a real handful all game and their centre halves really struggled.  His hold up play was excellent and it really made a difference.  I thought Whelan looked more comfortable in the holding role and our wide players looked a threat at times.  Only gripe would be and I couldn't tell too clearly from my seat in the North Stand, but we looked quite open for their two goals. 

Hutton taking a nap for the first. They clearly targeted him from the off, and their number 11 constantly rinsed him. Encouraged by the fact Bruce give him the curly finger after the goal, if not by the fact he picked him in the first place.

I thought that left winger looked a real threat all game and as you say Lee, Hutton struggled against him at times.  Think him getting the hook was also because he got booked for a foul on him and looked like a red card waiting to happen.

[LukeJames]

Off the top of my head, Hourihane could of scored 5, Davis 3, Green 2, Elohamady 1. Hopefully this is just the start of us attempting to outscore teams because the signing of Terry seems to have messed up our defensive cohession.

[PeterWithe]

Having watched the highlights we looked great going forward, they didn't have any chances save the goals and they were entirely down to bad positioning by our defenders Hutton and Terry.

Well done Davis, well done Bruce for picking him at long last.

[ADVILLAFAN]

Could have scored 7, the scoreline flattered Norwich. Murphy was their best player by a mile.

Pleased that we actually tried to win a game, rather than trying to avoid defeat.

[CJ]

What a refreshing change! Thought we played really well in the first half, created loads of chances, and scored 2 good goals. Unsurprisingly Naarrich upped the tempo in the second and we predictably started to back off, but we still looked dangerous on the break at least until Bruce changed the formation to 5-5-0 when he brought Samba on. Hourihane was outstanding - funny what happens when you play players in their natural position - but equally outstanding was Keinan Davis, who was strong, skilful, bullied defenders, held the ball up well and was unlucky not to cap his full home debut off with a goal. Thought Green played well today as well and took his goal superbly, but he really needs to start practicing heading the ball into an empty net from three yards out. On the downside Lansbury replacing Onomah weakened our midfield, and Hutton was a weak point which they targeted for most of the game. Thought there was a hint of offside for their first, and a big hint of handball for our fourth. Travel was a doddle with the Expressway open. The only thing which pissed me off today was Bruce's post-match comments, banging on about trolling rubbish on social media after just a week and 4 games - it's not a week Steve, it's 10 months, and it's not 4 games it's 40 - careful not to bite the hand that feeds you