Aston Villa Superstars 5-0 Bristol City

[tomd2103]

Whilst a win is welcome we should remember they had a poor second choice keeper in goal after their first choice was red carded against wolves on Saturday.

Is that you Franksy?

[remy]

After Brentford I think Bruce must have had a word with his senior pros and said, look Im staring down the barrel here if you lot dont pick up. Boro was a great result.

Elphick clicking into gear making us a bit more solid and dont miss Terry so much and having to play Jendinak there.
Hutton clicking at left back.
Snodgrass coming into form
Pedestrian Whelan dropped (injured?)
Onomah given a rest
Hogan up top and Agnew coaching the players to play to his strengths
Jack....oh....Jack simply superb. My kids have a new hero
Jedinak back in his best position
Much better formation and looked better balanced. Hourihane got forward more.

Hooray!

Considering the opposition we blew them away and a fabulous result. Hope he starts all the U23's v Posh on Sat so they are all fresh for Forest.

[Hookeysmith]

Johnstone -  Will not have an easier game

Hutton - limited with his left foot of course but gives us a lot more down the left hand side - please leave in SB

Elphick - All I can say is fair fecking play mate - never part of the plans and even behind Samba in pecking order but last 2 games has been immense - he is more of a Captain than any other player but JT - always shouting and pointing - really, really good performance.

Chester - Mr Cool - I also liked that when I kicked off a little after a tackle he was straight in and grabbed the Bristol tosser doing the shoving

Elmo - more effective going forward in first half but rock steady all game - probably our best RB

Jedinak - was immense without leaving a circle of about 20 metres diameter - mopped up everything in the middle meaning they could only try to go round the wing route where they also got little joy

Grealish - MOTM by a country mile - so much energy and demanding the ball at every opportunity - only thing missing was a goal - was absolutely shagged at 80 mins

Snodgrass - I have been a huge critic but tonight he worked his balls off - he worked both LB's they used and varied the runs so much they had no idea where the treat was coming from. I think the guy with the blond highlighted afro will need to be unwound as he was turned inside out.

Adomah - classic wing play and they were afraid to leave him alone at any point which created space elsewhere - 2 beautiful crosses for the goals

Hourihanne - He is so much better when receiving the ball facing forward - with Whelan (who I do like) he is always getting it either behind him or in a position to have to control it first and that slows the play. Full of energy and deserved the goal

Hogan - what a difference a bit of confidence makes - superb headers and clever runs all night.

BB - not bad for a first touch of the ball - I do think there is a player in there in the right position, we just have to find out where it is

O'Hara - busy, aggressive, switched on - really hope to see him for full game on Saturday as he is really promising

RHM - little pocket rocket - it was like an elephant being scared of a mouse when he came on - Baker and the other lumps did not know what to do with him - again hope to see a full 90 on Saturday.

and as we were leaving

Lansbury / Terry / Green all on the pitch training - might be a few surprises on saturday 

[Risso]

The pleasing thing for me is that we humped a team in the top 3 who were on a much better run than us.  The defeat against Wolves was their first in 7 and included a win against Man U.  The tiredness thing is a red herring as well.  You can guarantee if Bristol had won, that it would be Bruce moaning about the fixture list and Johnson saying nothing.  After a 5-0 win, I bet nobody is feeling tired in the Villa camp this morning.

Aye considering, bar one player, it was the same team that beat Boro 2 days earlier I'm not sure why we were able to run riot, yet they were all so sleepy tired that they were playing in their PJs.

Could be they're just not very good and on a roll, who have been found out by two much better sides in two days. Seems more likely to me.

That's entirely possible Ads.  More pertinently, why did we look so abject against Brentford, then extremely mediocre against Boro, but then blow Bristol City completely and utterly out of the water and look like the best team by a country mile in the Championship?  I wouldn't expect to win by that margin every week, but if we'd at least try to play like that every week, I'd never have a bad word to say about Bruce again.  Yesterday was absolutely terrific football, no question at all.

Million dollar question that. Shows what we can do and lead to me thinking why haven't we seen that before?

I thought Boro was more a good away performance, second half at least, against Pulis and his tedious crew. That said, it is difficult to fathom how we can click and go from plodding along for 20 minutes and suddenly look as good as we did.

I certainly think the formation helped and it is not a coincidence to me that Whelan being out the side and Jedinak being the holding player allowing four midfielders to attack, saw us play significantly better than Derby, Milwall, Sheffield United, Brentford.

One would hope that Bruce has now seen the error of his ways when it comes to picking Jedinak and Whelan as a central midfield pairing.  I'm happy not to mention it again if he doesn't.

[wittonwarrior]

And how poor was baker yesterday lucky to stay on the pitch. So much for no insight in getting rid

[andyh]

Complete agree with Hookeysmiths comments on Hourihane.
It is so frustrating to see him constantly playing with his back to goal and knocking short simple balls when he is so dynamic and influential when going forward and facing up to the opposition.
I’m not knocking him, I guess he is playing to instructions but I hope he is not being stifled.

[tomd2103]

and as we were leaving

Lansbury / Terry / Green all on the pitch training - might be a few surprises on saturday 

Bruce stated in his post match interview on WM last night that Green would be playing on Saturday.  It might be worth giving Elphick some more playing time on Saturday especially if Terry also plays and is going to come back into the side going forward, but apart from him we could field a completely different team from last night:

                                       Steer

De Laet                Elphick          Terry                 Taylor

                                     Whelan
                 
Green              Lansbury                  Bjarnason     O'Hare

                               Hepburn-Murphy

Might be tempted to give Hogan another game to see if he can get in the goals again and boost his confidence further. 

[VinnieChase84]

and as we were leaving

Lansbury / Terry / Green all on the pitch training - might be a few surprises on saturday 

Bruce stated in his post match interview on WM last night that Green would be playing on Saturday.  It might be worth giving Elphick some more playing time on Saturday especially if Terry also plays and is going to come back into the side going forward, but apart from him we could field a completely different team from last night:

                                       Steer

De Laet                Elphick          Terry                 Taylor

                                     Whelan
                 
Green              Lansbury                  Bjarnason     O'Hare

                               Hepburn-Murphy

Might be tempted to give Hogan another game to see if he can get in the goals again and boost his confidence further. 

The fact that this is our spare team is ridiculous (in a good way)

[curiousorange]

I think Hogan should start alongside Hepburn-Murphy. All strikers want the next game after they've scored.

[SashasGrandad]

Grealish - best game since the FA semi final.

Different class to most around him.

[Percy McCarthy]

Only seen the goals. How was Hogan in open play, did he link up better once he’d had a confidence boost from the goal, or take people on? Having never noticed him for Brentford, and only seen him out of sorts for us, I still don’t really know what kind of player he is.

Hogan actually had some decent runs, link up play was better so easily his best game for us.

All the team after 1 nil just looked quicker and sharper all over the pitch, can only wonder what they had on NYE!

Thanks SHQ and Adam for your feedback on Hogan.

[Risso]

And how poor was baker yesterday lucky to stay on the pitch. So much for no insight in getting rid

He had a poor game no doubt, but he's still a key part of a team that are in the play off positions, and above us.

[LeeB]

And how poor was baker yesterday lucky to stay on the pitch. So much for no insight in getting rid

He had a poor game no doubt, but he's still a key part of a team that are in the play off positions, and above us.

Baker is what he is, a limited but effective stopper. Like most players, if you can play him to his strengths and mask his drawbacks hell do well, but I think this is his level.

[Villa Lew]

and as we were leaving

Lansbury / Terry / Green all on the pitch training - might be a few surprises on saturday 

Bruce stated in his post match interview on WM last night that Green would be playing on Saturday.  It might be worth giving Elphick some more playing time on Saturday especially if Terry also plays and is going to come back into the side going forward, but apart from him we could field a completely different team from last night:

                                       Steer

De Laet                Elphick          Terry                 Taylor

                                     Whelan
                 
Green              Lansbury                  Bjarnason     O'Hare

                               Hepburn-Murphy

Might be tempted to give Hogan another game to see if he can get in the goals again and boost his confidence further.

Agree with that except I'd put in Bree for De Laet and Doyle Hayes for Bjarnason.

[Damo70]

And how poor was baker yesterday lucky to stay on the pitch. So much for no insight in getting rid

He had a poor game no doubt, but he's still a key part of a team that are in the play off positions, and above us.

Baker is what he is, a limited but effective stopper. Like most players, if you can play him to his strengths and mask his drawbacks hell do well, but I think this is his level.

Baker was whole hearted and half decent for us. But the way he used to steam in I was never sure if he was going to get the ball, get the man and a booking or sending off or get injured. On a number of occasions I closed my eyes he made me so nervous.