Aston 'where will it all end' Villa v Middlesvilla Post Match Thread.

[tomd2103]

It means that if you looked solely at the names in the squad on the back of the programme, you would think it looks a pretty strong collection of players.  It is the inability to organise those players into anything resembling a coherent system that is the problem.

Are they really though? If the market is a fair indicator of value, then look at what we paid for the squad last night......

Johnstone; = loanee
Elmohamady = free
Chester = £6M?
Terry, = free
Taylor; = £1.5M?
Jedinak = £6M?
(Hogan 45) = £12M?,
Hourihane, = £1M?
Lansbury; = £1M?
Snodgrass, = loanee
Davis = came through ranks; free
(Kodjia 70), = £16M?
Bjarnason = £1.5M?
(Adomah 45) = free? Swap with Traore.
Unused subs:
Steer = free
Samba, = free
Whelan = not sure, but £1.5M?
Hutton = no comment.

Thing that jumps out is how unbalanced it is. £28M on a forward line that doesn't score enough. Being supplied by a midfield that cost peanuts?

No argument from me however in the fact that Bruce doesn't know how to set them up, deploy them in a workable formation etc.

Agree about that.  Whichever formation we set up in, there are clear weaknesses somewhere on the pitch.  Whelan and Jedinak are too slow to play in a 4-4-2; Hogan and Kodjia can't really play alone up front so any formation involving a lone striker relies heavily on Davis; we don't really have the left sided centre back option to play 3 at the back and so on.  It goes back to an apparent lack of planning and clear vision of how we are going to play.   

[Flamingo Lane]

I'm getting tired of people saying we have the best squad in the league. It's either deluded or arrogant, I'm not sure which.

We finished bottom half last season and are there again this season. Regardless of your thoughts on Bruce (and I want him sacked), we don't have the best squad in the league.

I completely agree; with the possible exceptions of Terry, Kodija and (emerging) Johnstone we have a squad of players who are generally no better than mediocre and in most cases are simply poor.

[PeterWithesShin]

I agree we seem unbalanced,but  it's still a squad full of players that would stroll into pretty much every other starting 11, or at least squad, in the division. Even Hutton, easily better than anyone else's 3rd choice full back. Gabby better than other teams 4 choice striker and so on. I've said it before, our problem is we are a bunch of talented (for this division) individuals, but not a talented team. And for me that is down to the manager and coaches.

[PeterWithesShin]

I'm getting tired of people saying we have the best squad in the league. It's either deluded or arrogant, I'm not sure which.

We finished bottom half last season and are there again this season. Regardless of your thoughts on Bruce (and I want him sacked), we don't have the best squad in the league.

I completely agree; with the possible exceptions of Terry, Kodija and (emerging) Johnstone we have a squad of players who are generally no better than mediocre and in most cases are simply poor.

That's judging it by the standard of players we're used to over the years I reckon, rather than the standard of other squads in division 2.

[passport1]

I'm getting tired of people saying we have the best squad in the league. It's either deluded or arrogant, I'm not sure which.

We finished bottom half last season and are there again this season. Regardless of your thoughts on Bruce (and I want him sacked), we don't have the best squad in the league.

On paper apparently whatever that means.

Well I'm pretty sure someone said over the weekend that 10 different players have scored for Leeds so far this season. I would argue they must have a far better squad.

[Flamingo Lane]

I'm getting tired of people saying we have the best squad in the league. It's either deluded or arrogant, I'm not sure which.

We finished bottom half last season and are there again this season. Regardless of your thoughts on Bruce (and I want him sacked), we don't have the best squad in the league.

I completely agree; with the possible exceptions of Terry, Kodija and (emerging) Johnstone we have a squad of players who are generally no better than mediocre and in most cases are simply poor.

That's judging it by the standard of players we're used to over the years I reckon, rather than the standard of other squads in division 2.

I'm judging it by the standard of the other teams in the division we are in now.

[PeterWithesShin]

Who is Leeds 3rd choice striker? Who is Cardiff's back up RB, and how do they compare to ours? Who has a better CB than Chester, striker than Kod, LB than Taylor, keeper than Johnstone and so on. Individually our squad is a match for anyones, but we're currently significantly less than the sum of our parts and it comes back to Bruce and the coaches imo.

[tomd2103]

I agree we seem unbalanced,but  it's still a squad full of players that would stroll into pretty much every other starting 11, or at least squad, in the division. Even Hutton, easily better than anyone else's 3rd choice full back. Gabby better than other teams 4 choice striker and so on. I've said it before, our problem is we are a bunch of talented (for this division) individuals, but not a talented team. And for me that is down to the manager and coaches.

Spot on PWS.

[UK Redsox]

I agree we seem unbalanced,but  it's still a squad full of players that would stroll into pretty much every other starting 11, or at least squad, in the division. Even Hutton, easily better than anyone else's 3rd choice full back. Gabby better than other teams 4 choice striker and so on. I've said it before, our problem is we are a bunch of talented (for this division) individuals, but not a talented team. And for me that is down to the manager and coaches.

On the basis that Elmo started at RB last night, I think that Hutton is 4th choice and Richards is 5th choice

How many other squads have a specialist as 4th choice in any position ? There's not even a 4th choice keeper in 1st team squads

[Rudy Can't Fail]

I also believe that as pro footballers I know we say it's Steve Bruce fault the way he sets us up or tactics or coaching but they are grown men of experience not some young naive Nineteen year old who has never played the game before so if they see things are not working on the pitch they have the intelligence to change things to make the game better Bruce can give you orders but when I was playing semi pro football albeit a long time I didn't always listen to my manager if something needed changing I did it on the pitch and never got hooked and most times it worked so why can't our players as professionals do the same he can't take everyone off and it just might work if they use there initiative.

Good point and agree with you, Darren. We have a team full of 'leaders' but nobody is leading. We have a team full of talent but they're all waiting for somebody else to take the initiative. Only Snodgrass looked like he wanted to drive us forward. How often do we see a player run with the ball, it's always about playing the safest ball rather than getting the opposition on the back foot. Kodja can also do it but he's normally playing for himself.

We don't know if it's down to the players laziness to take the game to the opposition or they're under strict instructions from Bruce not to give the ball away but by god, it's dull and pointless.

[Ads]

Who is Leeds 3rd choice striker? Who is Cardiff's back up RB, and how do they compare to ours? Who has a better CB than Chester, striker than Kod, LB than Taylor, keeper than Johnstone and so on. Individually our squad is a match for anyones, but we're currently significantly less than the sum of our parts and it comes back to Bruce and the coaches imo.

Yes, yes and thrice yes.

The idea that this squad isn't strong enough for the top two is quite incredible.

[ChicagoLion]

Who is Leeds 3rd choice striker? Who is Cardiff's back up RB, and how do they compare to ours? Who has a better CB than Chester, striker than Kod, LB than Taylor, keeper than Johnstone and so on. Individually our squad is a match for anyones, but we're currently significantly less than the sum of our parts and it comes back to Bruce and the coaches imo.

Yes, yes and thrice yes.

The idea that this squad isn't strong enough for the top two is quite incredible.

So you think it is the Managers fault?

[oldhill_avfc]

The peanuts argument only came about because the players - Hourihane and Lansbury were reaching the end of their deals at the previous clubs so we capitalised.  And Snodgrass was a £7.5m signing last January wasn't he

Yeah, it's really quite disingenuous - Snodgrass and Onomah are two quality loanees; nor can you say Adomah was "free", since we gave up an actual asset in Adama for him.

Sorry to single out your quote, but I'm sick and tired of hearing that this  is the best squad in the league.  The midfield is woeful, we lack pace and the forward line is totally disjointed.

Bruce has contributed to that but its a mistake to believe a new manager can come in and easily sort out the shambles

[villabear]

On holiday and I got lucky last night. Not like that though. 

[cheltenhamlion]

I'm getting tired of people saying we have the best squad in the league. It's either deluded or arrogant, I'm not sure which.

We finished bottom half last season and are there again this season. Regardless of your thoughts on Bruce (and I want him sacked), we don't have the best squad in the league.

I disagree. We used to have one of the highest performing fraud departments at any insurance company. We are fighting to get back there. But 3 years of reporting to a clown who doesn't understand it. Who wants everything done on the cheap. And who cannot discern between spending most of your day investigating six figure claims versus accidentally damaged TV's?

It doesn't matter how many people you have our rivals are head hunting if the boss wants them cleaning the toilets.