Bristol City v Aston Villa post-match thread

[TonyD]

       Grealish
   Onomah
Davis.   Kodja

Could be deadly(under the right management)

[tomd2103]

Bruce in the headmaster's study again after that I'm afraid.  Put it in the pre match thread, but why a complete change of formation after the last two games?  We looked badly disjointed with three at the back and were all over the place.  When he changed it back to the formation from last Saturday, we were much better and it was a pretty decent display from then on to be honest.  Bruce gets marked down again though, for not changing things earlier when we had a bit of a lull and not bringing Adomah on for Elmohamady, who I thought had a poor game.

Some other positives from tonight:

Bree - thought he did well when he came on and has got to be given a run in the side now

Bjarnason and Hogan - looked sharp and decent when they both came on even if the final product was not quite there. 

[four fornicholl]

Three at the back is a dead duck.A mantra for defensive minded dinosaur managers.
It says let's not go on the front foot.Let's be scaredy cats at Ashton Gate ffs.

Are you serious?  Have you not seen Chelsea or numerous other top teams playing this recently?

It may not have been right for us tonight, but to say it is for dinosaurs when some of the most progressive managers in the world play it is a bit odd.

You do however, need the players who can do it.

[chrisw1]

Three at the back is a dead duck.A mantra for defensive minded dinosaur managers.
It says let's not go on the front foot.Let's be scaredy cats at Ashton Gate ffs.

Are you serious?  Have you not seen Chelsea or numerous other top teams playing this recently?

It may not have been right for us tonight, but to say it is for dinosaurs when some of the most progressive managers in the world play it is a bit odd.

You do however, need the players who can do it.

Yes, that's for sure.  But at this level Elmo ought to be a reasonable wing back. But it didn't work.  It was horrible.  And to his credit Bruce recognised this and had the balls to change it after 20 mins, so I'm not really sure why there is so much angst

[QuintonVilla]

Positives:
We showed a bit of fight when we went 1-0 down for a change
We looked fairly solid
Still got Jedinak, Snodgrass, Grealish and Kodjia to come back in
The fans and the 'limbs' for the goal

Negatives:
We went 1-0 down again in an away game
Negative approach from kick off
Terry can't run or jump
Samba can't run
Bjarnason isn't a footballer
Another away game without a win

Overall there were some signs of improvement and a bit of character on display. However our approach at the start of away games is wrong and just so frustrating. We've got the best squad in this league and it's about time we started to show it. We should be going to places like that and starting on the front foot and letting them worry about us, not the other way round.
His formation and tactics were just bizarre considering our last two games. Too much emphasis is put on playing away, it's just a big green football pitch ffs.
September is a massive month for Bruce, he needs to be in or around the top 6 by the end of it for me.

[AlexAlexCropley]

Three at the back is a dead duck.A mantra for defensive minded dinosaur managers.
It says let's not go on the front foot.Let's be scaredy cats at Ashton Gate ffs.

Are you serious?  Have you not seen Chelsea or numerous other top teams playing this recently?

It may not have been right for us tonight, but to say it is for dinosaurs when some of the most progressive managers in the world play it is a bit odd.

But they don't play a true three centre half system do they?

[chrisw1]

Three at the back is a dead duck.A mantra for defensive minded dinosaur managers.
It says let's not go on the front foot.Let's be scaredy cats at Ashton Gate ffs.

Are you serious?  Have you not seen Chelsea or numerous other top teams playing this recently?

It may not have been right for us tonight, but to say it is for dinosaurs when some of the most progressive managers in the world play it is a bit odd.

But they don't play a true three centre half system do they?

They play three at the back yes.

[AlexAlexCropley]

Three at the back is a dead duck.A mantra for defensive minded dinosaur managers.
It says let's not go on the front foot.Let's be scaredy cats at Ashton Gate ffs.

Are you serious?  Have you not seen Chelsea or numerous other top teams playing this recently?

It may not have been right for us tonight, but to say it is for dinosaurs when some of the most progressive managers in the world play it is a bit odd.

But they don't play a true three centre half system do they?

They play three at the back yes.

Rightio .

[tomd2103]

Three at the back is a dead duck.A mantra for defensive minded dinosaur managers.
It says let's not go on the front foot.Let's be scaredy cats at Ashton Gate ffs.

Are you serious?  Have you not seen Chelsea or numerous other top teams playing this recently?

It may not have been right for us tonight, but to say it is for dinosaurs when some of the most progressive managers in the world play it is a bit odd.

You do however, need the players who can do it.

Yes, that's for sure.  But at this level Elmo ought to be a reasonable wing back. But it didn't work.  It was horrible.  And to his credit Bruce recognised this and had the balls to change it after 20 mins, so I'm not really sure why there is so much angst

Why start with it in the first place when the two previous games had gone well?

[itbrvilla]

Three at the back is a dead duck.A mantra for defensive minded dinosaur managers.
It says let's not go on the front foot.Let's be scaredy cats at Ashton Gate ffs.

Are you serious?  Have you not seen Chelsea or numerous other top teams playing this recently?

It may not have been right for us tonight, but to say it is for dinosaurs when some of the most progressive managers in the world play it is a bit odd.

You do however, need the players who can do it.

Yes, that's for sure.  But at this level Elmo ought to be a reasonable wing back. But it didn't work.  It was horrible.  And to his credit Bruce recognised this and had the balls to change it after 20 mins, so I'm not really sure why there is so much angst

Because it's increasingly likely we'll be here next year with crippling financial issues.

[chrisw1]

Three at the back is a dead duck.A mantra for defensive minded dinosaur managers.
It says let's not go on the front foot.Let's be scaredy cats at Ashton Gate ffs.

Are you serious?  Have you not seen Chelsea or numerous other top teams playing this recently?

It may not have been right for us tonight, but to say it is for dinosaurs when some of the most progressive managers in the world play it is a bit odd.

But they don't play a true three centre half system do they?

They play three at the back yes.

Rightio .

Ok.  So if they don't play three at the back and two wing backs what system do you think they play?

[AlexAlexCropley]

Three at the back is a dead duck.A mantra for defensive minded dinosaur managers.
It says let's not go on the front foot.Let's be scaredy cats at Ashton Gate ffs.

Are you serious?  Have you not seen Chelsea or numerous other top teams playing this recently?

It may not have been right for us tonight, but to say it is for dinosaurs when some of the most progressive managers in the world play it is a bit odd.

But they don't play a true three centre half system do they?

They play three at the back yes.

Rightio .

Ok.  So if they don't play three at the back and two wing backs what system do you think they play?

It's called the inverted Hidegouti system

[Dave]

I reckon just tell them from the start that we're a goal down and maybe they might try a bit.

It's the only time we did.

[old man villa fan]

Three at the back is a dead duck.A mantra for defensive minded dinosaur managers.
It says let's not go on the front foot.Let's be scaredy cats at Ashton Gate ffs.

Are you serious?  Have you not seen Chelsea or numerous other top teams playing this recently?

It may not have been right for us tonight, but to say it is for dinosaurs when some of the most progressive managers in the world play it is a bit odd.

They don't play with Chester, Terry and Samba as a three.  You need some pace and with our three we needed the two wing backs to drop back as cover to then become a 5-man defence.  Also, why play Samba on the left and Terry in the middle which made a completely unbalanced.

[paul_e]

Three at the back is a dead duck.A mantra for defensive minded dinosaur managers.
It says let's not go on the front foot.Let's be scaredy cats at Ashton Gate ffs.

Are you serious?  Have you not seen Chelsea or numerous other top teams playing this recently?

It may not have been right for us tonight, but to say it is for dinosaurs when some of the most progressive managers in the world play it is a bit odd.

But they don't play a true three centre half system do they?

They play three at the back yes.

Rightio .

Ok.  So if they don't play three at the back and two wing backs what system do you think they play?

Chelsea do play 3 at the back but they don't play wing backs.  It's more like 343.