Aston Villa v Brentford Post-Match Thread

[Bermuda Villa]

Nyland should have done better for the 2nd but to be fair to him he has come from the German second division straight into into a very physical league and will need time to adjust. The weird thing is Bruce is not prepared to gamble throwing outfield players in with little experience as seen by his comments after the Yeovil game with talk of big boy football but has done just that with one of the most important positions on the pitch. This has a huge impact on the rest of the back four and the their confidence.

It just makes you scratch your head.

[Keeno]

Not a fan of how Bruce sets his teams up generally - but tonight for 70 minutes he got it spot on - we played a high line, pressed and made them go long so many times. Their goal was against the run of play and their keeper/CBs had nowhere to go. The amount of headers Chester and Jedi won must have been well in double figures. Should have been out of sight in the first half and with a proper RW rather than Elmo whipping good crosses in Kodjia could've had a hattrick tonight .

Problem with that style is that it tires you out, we faded after the hour mark and he should have been quicker in bringing Connor on in the centre.

Smith made a number of good changes to the midfield which brought them back into it - took off McEachran and added a lot more energy in the centre with Yennaris which coincided with Jack pressing less. Stifled him in second half - intelligent.

If this was an audition of sorts for him as a potential manager of us in the future, I like what I saw. Brentford were clearly well coached, played to a game plan to target our weaknesses, prepared good set pieces and worked the ball well. I wonder what he'd be able do with the talent and resources available to us...

Draw fair result in the balance of play across the 90. Really fun game with two good sides IMO. There's no Wolves in the league this year - if Brentford were our top 4/6 rivals, I still think we're in for a shout of automatic. Onwards.

I thought Brentford looked a bit of a different side to the past couple of seasons tonight.  I thought they seemed a bit more physical than in previous seasons and had pace in attack.  They might be ones to watch this season in the promotion picture.

Agreed. In a few months time tonights performance and the draw may look a decent result.

[john2710]

We were easily the better side for 70mins. Brentford, up to that point offered nothing.  We simply didnt make the most of what was comfortably our best performance since Wolves. We ran out steam with 20 mins to go.

If there's any criticism its that we're not clinical enough. Some people forget how shit Elphick is but the continual moans about Whelan & Jedinek is all a bit tedious.

Nyland made some decent stops,  Kodja & McGinn were great.

[brontebilly]

Nyland - Wrists like jelly for their second goal. He worries me
Axel - Ball watching for the first goal, did ok otherwise
Hutton - Should have closed the cross down for the first but was solid enough
Jedinak - Why CB?
Chester - Solid enough
McGinn - Great work rate and quality
Whelan - Ran out of legs after aout 65 minutes
Grealish - Seemed to underhit too many passes today but he causes problems.
Adomah - Looked great until it was time to deliver quality balls into the area but all too often showed lack of quality when it was needed
Elhomady - worked hard but like Adomah quality was lacking until the very last cross of the game
Kodja - starting to look like the Kodj of old!

Axel was at fault for both goals. Elmo or RDL for right back and we would be a lot more balanced.

[paul_e]

Someone posted (not sure if it was this thread) about so many of our good chances falling to Adomah's left foot and him onlygetting 1 decent cross in.  I agree completely with that but would add that Hutton being behind him makes it even worse because we have almost no threat in behind down that wing.

[Legion]

Is it too late to get JT back?

[Sexual Ealing]

Is it too late to get JT back?

It is. He's 50 now.

[Drummond]

This reminded me a bit of Wolves last season, without the finishing.

We can play against teams who are open and should have done better tonight. Unlocking a team who get men behind the ball is our failure.

I'm not happy as we should have won, however, at least we went after them.

Subs were shit again and original positions were the same, defence shit again. Keeper did ok (despite conceding 2).

We should be winning not fucking drawing games like this. We have to win on Saturday or I'm firmly in the Bruce out camp. He has no excuses left.

[QuintonVilla]

We played well tonight for 65-70 minutes, best this season by a mile. The criticisms are we looked knackered after that which isn't good enough and our final balls let's us down. Adomah can't cross and Grealish won't shoot, to name two examples.

If we play like that though with El Ghazi and Bolasie in the mix we'll be up there.

The defence is a concern, but that's what happens when you play a right back at left back, a centre half at right back and a midfielder at centre half. Play players in their proper positions and stop playing Jedinak at the back ffs.

[joe_c]

That was a weird one, simultaneously a game we should have won by half time yet perilously close to a defeat by two or more goals. Positives, an improved performance from Nyland, one corner he could have come for in the first half that ended up being cleared off the line aside, and of course Kodjia looking like the player we had two seasons ago. Negatives, too much of the usual sluggish, safety first rubbish that somehow forgets the safety element but I remain 100% tolerant of Bruce for a few more days.

[St AustellAVFC]

Just back to my inlaws with 40 quids worth of Chinese. . Lovely day and first trip to The Bartons ( thanks for recommending it).
Front row lower Holte so I couldn't make much out past halfway but Kodj celebrated right in front of us and my youngest daughter was over the moon.
My 13 year old has a bizarre crush on Hutton much to our amusement.  My kids now asking for shirts and when we're going next so for me a hugely positive night ☺

[AV82EC]

Played well for an hour, they were lucky to still be in it, Bruce left his substitutions too late and we let Brentford dominate for the 10 mins up to their second.

Got a deserved point and probably just about deserved all 3. Kodjia is back as well, played well tonight.

Lowlights - Adomahs crossing was abysmal, Bruce dragged his feet on subs and the defence is inconsistent.

[Kimaster1976]

By 70 minutes we should have had the match already won.

Then Green comes on and we look abysmal......coincidence? I dont know.

What i do know is that kid is in no way ready to be out on that pitch.

[QuintonVilla]

Just back to my inlaws with 40 quids worth of Chinese. . Lovely day and first trip to The Bartons ( thanks for recommending it).
Front row lower Holte so I couldn't make much out past halfway but Kodj celebrated right in front of us and my youngest daughter was over the moon.
My 13 year old has a bizarre crush on Hutton much to our amusement.  My kids now asking for shirts and when we're going next so for me a hugely positive night ☺

That's class mate.


Re: Andre Green. He isn't ready for first team football for us. He offers nothing when he comes on, he looks clumsy and nervous and his first touch is poor.

[SoccerHQ]

We played well tonight for 65-70 minutes, best this season by a mile. The criticisms are we looked knackered after that which isn't good enough and our final balls let's us down. Adomah can't cross and Grealish won't shoot, to name two examples.

If we play like that though with El Ghazi and Bolasie in the mix we'll be up there.

The defence is a concern, but that's what happens when you play a right back at left back, a centre half at right back and a midfielder at centre half. Play players in their proper positions and stop playing Jedinak at the back ffs.

I think taking Adomah off killed a fair bit of our attacking threat. Green has potential but he's looked a little boy lost so far this season.

I get the out of position stuff but I thought we were fairly strong attacking down our right throught the game with Axel bombing on and also worth remembering our out of position RB at left back is better than the only left back on our books.