Bolton Wanderers vs Aston Villa Post-Match Thread

[amfy]

soccerhq yes the rebrand of our club killed alot of our support and as of yet fully recovered . caused massive ructions around these parts , you would only undestand if you lived in south wales  . as mentioned we have to put up with alot of plastic liverpool and man utd fans around this way too .

put it this way if a very rich owner came in to aston villa and changed your kit to blue , changed your club badge  , the colour of your stadium and seats basically wiping out your heritage of a club would you lot be happy ?

I don't think anyone has suggested we would be, and I don't think you have to live in South Wales to understand that changing a clubs heritage in this way would piss a lot of fans off to the point of no return.

[Mister E]

I think we should of looked at the conditions and started with Kenian Davis and just gone route one all game.

We DID go route one all game anyway!! Did you see the size of their CB? - enormous, and Davis would have got very little change out of them.

It's pointless having tricky wingers trying to use pace and dribbling when the ball just holds up in the snow. You might as well just launch it into the box and hope for something just like their goal.

The snow was not so thick that it was holding the ball up significantly. I thought we used the wings quite well but didn't seem to be able to get meaningful crosses into the middle. As someone earlier said, not having a left-footer on the left and a right-footer on the right really is frustrating when we have a quick and smart striker like Grabban waiting in the middle: the quick ball in  when the oppo has large, cumbersome CB would have garnered at least one goal in the game. And, it didn't really help that Elmo was particularly poor supporting Snodgrass last night.

The ref was awful. But I think the reason we lost was they won the physical battle

Agreed. And: we continually launched aimless balls into the heart of their defence, pointlessly; and, Lansbury should been introduced into the game at about 55-60 minutes for some more energy and physicality.

[paul_e]

It's pointless having tricky wingers trying to use pace and dribbling when the ball just holds up in the snow. You might as well just launch it into the box and hope for something just like their goal.

The snow was not so thick that it was holding the ball up significantly. I thought we used the wings quite well but didn't seem to be able to get meaningful crosses into the middle. As someone earlier said, not having a left-footer on the left and a right-footer on the right really is frustrating when we have a quick and smart striker like Grabban waiting in the middle: the quick ball in  when the oppo has large, cumbersome CB would have garnered at least one goal in the game. And, it didn't really help that Elmo was particularly poor supporting Snodgrass last night.

This is important. They did their homework and realised that the best way to defend was to pull the fullbacks in and defend the box as a solid 4 and 4 holding midfielders right in front. That meant there was no space in the and Snoddy/Adomah were either cutting back into a crowd or having to go outside on their weak foot where they just couldn't get quality deliveries in. If we had a proper left back and Elmo didn't always cross from 25 yards out we might've been able to push the full backs on to counter it but as was we needed to swap the wingers for a while and try to make them respond to a different threat.

As I said on the match thread, I think RHM for Houri was the right change but the next one should've been to take Elmo off for Lansbury and go to a back 3 so we could get back to a 3 in midfield.

[Chris Jameson]

Hull City supporters don’t live in South Wales and they understand the heritage of their club and have protested against their owners as have many other club’s supporters.

[PeterWithesShin]

You change things for clubs with no fans or history though. When your heritage is division 4 and gates of less 3K no one minds. Like Hull and Cardiff.

[Villafirst]

Ironically last night was probably the right game to play the likes of Whelan, Hutton, Tuanzebe and maybe Jedinak. Would've added grit, determination and physicality.....once again, injuries have taken away those options.

[Ads]

I was surprised Jedinak didn't play given what a bunch of over physical lump it merchants they are.

We needed more running on Tuesday.

[CT Villan]

Bruce post-game...

"It was an awful night and I don't want to make that an excuse but the conditions certainly didn't help," the manager said. "We couldn't play any sort of real football out there. They adapted to the conditions better than we did and it wasn't a night for our wide players because they couldn't run with the ball. It was a difficult night for all. We have played a certain type of football but on a night like tonight, if I had seen it coming down the way it was, I might have picked a different team. When we left the hotel it was a glorious afternoon, by the time it kicked off. When we came in from the warm-up there was grass. When we came back out there was two inches of snow. It was a difficult night."

Is this true ? Was the snow a complete surprise and not in the forecast ?

[Chris Jameson]

You change things for clubs with no fans or history though. When your heritage is division 4 and gates of less 3K no one minds. Like Hull and Cardiff.

I think the supporters of those clubs do mind and care just as passionately as those who support clubs with bigger gates and history, or so called bigger clubs.

[spangley1812]

What was going on with that Steward and the Ball-Boy late in the 2nd half ??

[PeterWithesShin]

Lean day on the boat today, just the one.

[Chris Jameson]

*shrugs shoulders*

[PeterWithesShin]

Our support yesterday, pic from Ian Taylor on Twitter.

[PeterWithesShin]

For any masochists

[David_Nab]

Bruce post-game...

"It was an awful night and I don't want to make that an excuse but the conditions certainly didn't help," the manager said. "We couldn't play any sort of real football out there. They adapted to the conditions better than we did and it wasn't a night for our wide players because they couldn't run with the ball. It was a difficult night for all. We have played a certain type of football but on a night like tonight, if I had seen it coming down the way it was, I might have picked a different team. When we left the hotel it was a glorious afternoon, by the time it kicked off. When we came in from the warm-up there was grass. When we came back out there was two inches of snow. It was a difficult night."

Is this true ? Was the snow a complete surprise and not in the forecast ?

I think thats a shit excuse , any changes to the first 11 would have been within the subs bench so if he needed to change it he could have done it at half time , hell he could have even been proactive and sacrificed someone in the FH .Given that when he did make subs he just lumped on 3 strikers I'm not sure what other tactic he had in mind to start with ...