Aston Villa v Middlesbrough League Cup Exit Thread

[Comrade Blitz]

Clueless, potato-headed m*therf*cker

[Villa75]

I know, from the pre-match comments yesterday, that some of you are content that we are out of the cup, and can concentrate on the league, but I'm still gutted this morning.

I spent 25% of my weekly take home pay to travel 200+ miles there and back, and what I saw was a very poor attempt at trying to win a home cup match. If that's the way this club intends to go with the cups - as it seems to make no difference which division we are in or what squad we have - then 11,000 people turning up is more than they deserve.

11 changes is a complete piss take, especially when you decide to have nothing of any quality on the bench. If the club intend to do that they should charge everyone what they charge fans for going to see the 'reserves'. People like me, who have to spend on travel, will probably not bother, but they might get a lot more locals and their children.

However poor we were as a first team, I always thought we would try to win things and do our best. Yes, I know "it's modern football", but copying 'the big clubs' in pretending we can pick and chose which games we try to win has not done us any good at all, from what I can see.

These days we're not only a very poor side, we're doing things that make me dislike the club. Something I, naively perhaps, thought would never happen.

It seems as though we were, yet again, going for the 'all out league assault, or bust' approach. We know how that normally turns out.

Oh well. I can do an extra night shift to claw back the money I threw down the drain last night, and promise myself not to make the same mistake in the FA Cup come January.

Rant over.

[ironmaidenmania]

In terms of cost. Why not make it free for season ticket holders. They knew sales were poor and this would have encouraged more to attend. Bring a friend for free and see if they can get them interested in going regularly. Surely extra pints/pies etc would have been worth it.

Dreadful performance.

[PeterWithesShin]

In terms of cost. Why not make it free for season ticket holders. They knew sales were poor and this would have encouraged more to attend. Bring a friend for free and see if they can get them interested in going regularly. Surely extra pints/pies etc would have been worth it.

Dreadful performance.

Probably because we still have to pay the money to Boro. It's easy to say the club should write off about £100K, which is probably approx last night's gate receipts, when it's not our 100K.  And it's worth remembering there were hardly loads more last round when it was free to ST holders. It should have been £10/5 last night I reckon, but not sure if there's a rule on a minimum admission price to stop going lower than that possible, there is in the FA Cup. From the first round proper it has to be at least £10 a ticket.

[Lobsterboy]

I'm all in favour of blooding a few youngsters in these games but see no reason why Bruce felt the need to rest the entire first team with Saturday's game in mind. This merely creates the same pressure on him to get a result as M'ON did when he took the opportunity to play a reserve side v Moscow with the Stoke game coming up.

The only difference being we were challenging for the Champions League places then and now we aren't challenging for anything!

Saw the Bruce interview post match and he didn't seem overly bothered - whether he looks so relaxed post match Saturday evening will depend entirely on the result I think. He's almost made the game must win with these changes

[Clampy]

I'm all in favour of blooding a few youngsters in these games but see no reason why Bruce felt the need to rest the entire first team with Saturday's game in mind. This merely creates the same pressure on him to get a result as M'ON did when he took the opportunity to play a reserve side v Moscow with the Stoke game coming up.

The only difference being we were challenging for the Champions League places then and now we aren't challenging for anything!

Saw the Bruce interview post match and he didn't seem overly bothered - whether he looks so relaxed post match Saturday evening will depend entirely on the result I think. He's almost made the game must win with these changes

If you don't think we're challenging for anything, why is the game a must win?

[Hookeysmith]

It's easy to say the club should write off about £100K, which is probably approx last night's gate receipts, when it's not our 100K.

Agreed but they allowed that numpty to pick a shit side and to play awful disjointed football which means we miss out on any "big name" draw in the next round.

For what its worth

Steer - awful on both crosses for goal and for one that hit bar
DeLaet - more comfortable on left than Hutton so played on right
Samba - so 1 dimensional and slow
Elphick - Disaster waiting to happen everytime he is near the ball
Hutton - Oh dear - his positional play and defending ability in his rightful position is garbage - at LB?  Took being shit to a new level - truly terrible footballer
Lansbury - I keep waiting for the player who was so rated to appear - its not happened yet
Doyle-Hayes - tenacious and good vision, not afraid of wanting the ball - would pick him over Whelan now!
Onomah - some good some bad - not seen anything that others have raved about as yet
O'Hare - busy but not that effective - could be decent in the future although we will probably never find out
Hogan - I have supported him and thought it was a lot of bad luck but I might be wrong and he might be shit - it is unfair that he is not played in his favoured way
Bjork - seriously one of the worst footballers I have ever seen at VP (and there have been many shit ones)  - what is his position? What are his key attributes?  I cannot find one

Lyden - chased shadows
Taylor - as above
McCormack - Hogan had no support and 40 yard punts in the air - Ross was no different

Honest question

He had a LB on the bench (Clark) who played pretty well last game - why have 4 RB's in the squad and play the worst one at LB. And then choose the have that worst LB behind the worst LM in history. I don't want to just bash Bruce for the sake of it  - he just makes criticising his decisions so easy. WTF does he and his "coaching team" see in training - because I cannot fathom out some of his choices. As for coaching, why did Boro look slicker, faster and moved the ball better than us? Our tempo is terrible and there seems no urgency at any point in the game.

All of this is the remit of the Manager and its crap

Oh and stop having sarcastic digs back at supporters - ask DOL how that worked out for him. You have done fuck all yet to be even the slightest big smug about
 

[Lobsterboy]

I'm all in favour of blooding a few youngsters in these games but see no reason why Bruce felt the need to rest the entire first team with Saturday's game in mind. This merely creates the same pressure on him to get a result as M'ON did when he took the opportunity to play a reserve side v Moscow with the Stoke game coming up.

The only difference being we were challenging for the Champions League places then and now we aren't challenging for anything!

Saw the Bruce interview post match and he didn't seem overly bothered - whether he looks so relaxed post match Saturday evening will depend entirely on the result I think. He's almost made the game must win with these changes

If you don't think we're challenging for anything, why is the game a must win?

I don't believe we are challenging for anything but Bruce clearly does; that's why I believe he has made the game must win

[Clampy]

I'm all in favour of blooding a few youngsters in these games but see no reason why Bruce felt the need to rest the entire first team with Saturday's game in mind. This merely creates the same pressure on him to get a result as M'ON did when he took the opportunity to play a reserve side v Moscow with the Stoke game coming up.

The only difference being we were challenging for the Champions League places then and now we aren't challenging for anything!

Saw the Bruce interview post match and he didn't seem overly bothered - whether he looks so relaxed post match Saturday evening will depend entirely on the result I think. He's almost made the game must win with these changes

If you don't think we're challenging for anything, why is the game a must win?

I don't believe we are challenging for anything but Bruce clearly does; that's why I believe he has made the game must win

Of course he does, why wouldn't he?

[Lobsterboy]

I'm all in favour of blooding a few youngsters in these games but see no reason why Bruce felt the need to rest the entire first team with Saturday's game in mind. This merely creates the same pressure on him to get a result as M'ON did when he took the opportunity to play a reserve side v Moscow with the Stoke game coming up.

The only difference being we were challenging for the Champions League places then and now we aren't challenging for anything!

Saw the Bruce interview post match and he didn't seem overly bothered - whether he looks so relaxed post match Saturday evening will depend entirely on the result I think. He's almost made the game must win with these changes

If you don't think we're challenging for anything, why is the game a must win?

I don't believe we are challenging for anything but Bruce clearly does; that's why I believe he has made the game must win

Of course he does, why wouldn't he?

I'm struggling to get your point - I believe the next game is almost a must win because of Bruce's team selection last night - he decided to write off the cup because we 'need' those players for Saturday - fail to win the game on Saturday now and he will be under even more pressure. Given the money spent, start to the season and time he has been here (plus lack of real progress) and he may even face the chop.

Whether or not I think we are challenging for anything (or if SB thinks we are) is irrelevant isn't it?

[Surrey Villain]

A win last night would have continued confidence all round and we would be looking forward to a good home draw in the next round against a team like Liverpool or Man Utd which would mean a bigger crowd and thus more income for the club. Bruce threw all that away last night and most of us are in despair again. A win on Saturday of course and all this will be forgotten but I suspect not for long as he continues to have no idea how to pick a good formation from the players at his disposal. His tactics are bleak and he finds it impossible to adjust to injuries and changes in tactics by the opposition. At least he hasn't got Bacuna to put first on his teamsheet every time. 

[chrisw1]

I'm all in favour of blooding a few youngsters in these games but see no reason why Bruce felt the need to rest the entire first team with Saturday's game in mind. This merely creates the same pressure on him to get a result as M'ON did when he took the opportunity to play a reserve side v Moscow with the Stoke game coming up.

The only difference being we were challenging for the Champions League places then and now we aren't challenging for anything!

Saw the Bruce interview post match and he didn't seem overly bothered - whether he looks so relaxed post match Saturday evening will depend entirely on the result I think. He's almost made the game must win with these changes

If you don't think we're challenging for anything, why is the game a must win?

I don't believe we are challenging for anything but Bruce clearly does; that's why I believe he has made the game must win

Of course he does, why wouldn't he?

I'm struggling to get your point - I believe the next game is almost a must win because of Bruce's team selection last night - he decided to write off the cup because we 'need' those players for Saturday - fail to win the game on Saturday now and he will be under even more pressure. Given the money spent, start to the season and time he has been here (plus lack of real progress) and he may even face the chop.

Whether or not I think we are challenging for anything (or if SB thinks we are) is irrelevant isn't it?

Of course we're challenging for promotion.  It's our absolute No1 priority and rightly so.  Whether we are likely to achieve it or not is a moot point, but to suggest we're not challenging is just silly.

I think he would have been under pressure if we don't be Forrest on Sat anyway (and rightly so), whatever the B team did last night.

[Ads]

A win last night would have continued confidence all round and we would be looking forward to a good home draw in the next round against a team like Liverpool or Man Utd which would mean a bigger crowd and thus more income for the club.

We're not Walsall.

[PeterWithesShin]

Of course we're not, but extra prize money for winning last night, potential for being on TV and say an approx 30K crowd if we drew one of the 'big' clubs at home is probably worth around half a million. Not to be sneezed at when FFP is weighing you down.

[olaftab]

A win last night would have continued confidence all round and we would be looking forward to a good home draw in the next round against a team like Liverpool or Man Utd which would mean a bigger crowd and thus more income for the club. Bruce threw all that away last night and most of us are in despair again. A win on Saturday of course and all this will be forgotten but I suspect not for long as he continues to have no idea how to pick a good formation from the players at his disposal. His tactics are bleak and he finds it impossible to adjust to injuries and changes in tactics by the opposition. At least he hasn't got Bacuna to put first on his teamsheet every time. 

I take it you are kidding with that comment?