Blackburn Rovers vs Aston Villa Post-Match Thread

[Chinchilla Bathhouse]

I’m going to support Grealish here. He is by far the classiest player in our squad and possibly the only one who would fit into a premier league team. A player with his natural ability must find it almost unbearable playing under Bruce. So let’s put the blame for our shocking performance where it should be, the manager, not the player who will ultimately play at the highest level, hopefully for Villa

Exactly, we’ll put mate.
When you think of all the options a player like him gives you.
Can someone tell me what the plan is for Grealish?

Judging from last night, it is to cover the left back.

Yes, what the bloody hell was he doing back there?

[SamTheMouse]

This comment made my piss boil ....."its just finding a system that suits everyone"

So into his third season and he has no discernible system or way of playing.

Abso-fucking-lutely. That's a sacking offence, that comment.

How about, one of these days, we appoint a manager who, y'know, actually has a philosophy, an identity, a preferred style of play, and then recruits players to fit his style.

Bruce is the epitome of quantity over quality, and he can fuck off.

[andyh]

His post match “interview” again is full of spin and bullshit.
Bleating on and on about the penalty but completely ignores the perfectly valid goal they had chalked off a few minutes earlier.
It’s all about deflection, look at what’s going on here, so you are not looking at what’s going on over there.

The more I think about the way we play the game, the more and more angry I get. It seems to be based on these 2 footballing philosophies.

Sideways, sideways, whack and chase.
Or,
get it to the wide man and try to cross it.

God, I hope we are coming to the end of this blokes time at the club, I really do.

[TopDeck113]

Ewood Park is the closest Championship ground to where I live, but, typically, this weekend is my local music festival and I bought my ticket back in January. When the fixtures came out I thought about going to the match and then to the Festival. Then I thought f*ck it. I get a Head for the Hills Festival once a year; I get a Bruce-inspired Villa fixture every week. One I enjoy; the other I don't.

[AV82EC]

Putting aside the fact it was yet another woefully disjointed performance there were some bright spots.
Actually playing a recognisable back 4 was the first one and we did look more solid.
The midfield was all over the place again, Jedinak was woeful, McGinn lively but Grealish useless. Elmo and Adomah get up and down but offer little end product and for me we didn’t look a proper fwd threat until Bolasie and Kodjia appeared. Was impressed with Abraham as he grew into the game and became less isolated.

If we stick with Bruce it’s more of the same I’m afraid we’ll be “there or thereabouts” until Christmas then go on anothe shit run, lose touch, go on another good run to get us there or thereabouts ,then blow it again. His throwing shit at the wall approach isn’t good enough and he needs to go. If he’s still trying to find a system to fit his players after being here 2 whole years with 4 transfer windows and the biggest budget in the division, I think he’s proved someone else should be implementing that system.

[QuintonVilla]

On reflection of yesterday, if that performance and result was in the middle of a good run and we were top 6 it would have been decent. However, it just added to the notion that all we're going to get with Bruce is negative football and a striker who is miles away from the nearest player. He's got the best squad in the league, especially in attacking areas, yet we set up scared of Blackburn. He played two wingers whose only job was to track back and neither of whom can cross a ball.
We need to set up on the front foot, play with pace and swagger and if we do that I genuinely believe we'll take apart most teams in this league. If we start Bolasie, El Ghazi, Kodjia and Abraham against Rotherham we'll score 3 or 4. Ok we might concede but we're already conceding anyway with this shit football we're playing.

That was also arguably the quietest away end at Blackburn I've been a part of. That's not a dig at the fans by the way, you can just tell everyone is bored. We're all waiting for us to let the handbrake off and go at the opposition but it never happens. He's sucked the life out of our away support in the same way McLeish did.

[Mister E]

… That was also arguably the quietest away end at Blackburn I've been a part of. That's not a dig at the fans by the way, you can just tell everyone is bored. We're all waiting for us to let the handbrake off and go at the opposition but it never happens. He's sucked the life out of our away support in the same way McLeish did.

I'd agree with this.
The things that really frustrated me yesterday were:
- the players don't move the ball quickly enough
- the keeper is rooted to the line all the time
- the players really do not look after the ball
- why can they not take throw-ins that go to players wearing the same colour shirt?!
- why only one up top? Abrahams was isolated for most of the game and bullied by the Blackburn centre backs
- I am personally not enamoured of playing two wingers; Elmo is a FB in my opinion, so play him there or not at all

These issues point to poor coaching and a lack of managerial direction ...

[Chris Smith]

I’m going to support Grealish here. He is by far the classiest player in our squad and possibly the only one who would fit into a premier league team. A player with his natural ability must find it almost unbearable playing under Bruce. So let’s put the blame for our shocking performance where it should be, the manager, not the player who will ultimately play at the highest level, hopefully for Villa

Exactly, we’ll put mate.
When you think of all the options a player like him gives you.
Can someone tell me what the plan is for Grealish?

Judging from last night, it is to cover the left back.

Yes, what the bloody hell was he doing back there?

We hadn’t properly reorganised following the substitutions which reflects badly on the manager but also on the on field leadership. That sort of thing rarely happened with Terry on the pitch.

Overall I thought we were ok, not great but nowhere near as bad as some of the comments above, against a team with a very good home record. Due to holiday it is the first game I have seen since the opening day so perhaps had fewer preconceptions than many on this site so watched it with a bit more of an open mind. Back 4 looked reasonably solid, Abraham looks dangerous we just need to find the right blend in midfield.

I still think Bruce is on borrowed time but he got more right than wrong yesterday.

[Nastylee]

My mentioning of Jack wasn't a criticism of him. I do think he is under par at the moment and not contributing enough but he gives Bruce a headache because he can't leave him out but his style goes against everything Bruce stands for. I do think by including him in the XI means Bruce feels vulnerable elsewhere in the team so that's why we see the defensive players in areas where they shouldn't be such as Elmo on the wing. Albert played because he tracks back and he's worried about the shit defence he's left us with.

[Hookeysmith]

It was clear that both wingers were there primarily to protect the awful full backs being exposed. Both Hutton and Taylor leave glaring spaces to be exploited.
Although jedinak made a couple of very good tackles his lack of mobility is easily worked around by Blackburn or ant team who does not lump it.
Abraham came into it once played with support.
Mcginn was busy but headless chicken sometimes.
Grealish ineffective.

The comments and excuses from the manager is really boiling my piss.
I cannot see anything different if he stays other than stumbling along.

It's got so bad I think having no manager would see a better performance

[john e]

I don't think it was any better or worse than 90% of the performances under Bruce

it was just typical Bruce fare, we could have won, lost, but we ended up drawing,
yesterday is what we are and have been for the last two years, it's no worse than much of what's gone before

we desperately need a change and I hope it's coming soon

[Rico]

Listened to the match commentary on talksport 2 yesterday which was incredibly biased in Blackburn's favour, however there was a lot of interesting points made which indicate that the media are finally cottoning on the shambolic job that Bruce is doing.

Firstly they said that the defence is all over the place and that the goalkeeper looks hopeless, but in my opinion the two most damning points raised were that Aston Villa have no footballing identity. They said its as though he's just gone out and brought a load of, admittedly talented, players and just chucked them together with no thought for the balance of the team.

The other point amongst many criticisms that they made was Jack Grealish. Apparently he was awful yesterday. I wasn't at the match so am only going on the views of the commentators, but they did give some stats about goals scored (3 I think they said) and assists- again I can't remember, but it was a poor return. So we all know that Jack is a very talented footballer. I actually think he should have gone to the World Cup and he would not have looked out of place in Southgate's team, but has his head been turned or is he just out of form? My worry is that the longer we persist with Bruce the more likely we are going to lose the most talented home grown player in a generation. I just can't see us getting promoted under Bruce, so there is no way Jack is going to hang around, and why should he? He could be playing in the premier league not in the chumps league with a dinosaur as a coach.

[QuintonVilla]

Grealish was awful. He's more interested in trying to buy fouls and win free kicks than find a through ball or have a shot. On that note, why won't he shoot? Very very rarely does he pull the trigger when it opens up for him. Have a dig.

He needs to be more positive in his play and run at people, far too often he cuts inside and passes it square 5 yards.

[andyh]

His buying a foul and winning a free kick got us out of jail last night.

[mrfuse]

I find it difficult to criticise individual players with the Elephant in the room.