Blackburn Rovers vs Aston Villa Post-Match Thread

[Fred Crump]

I think one of the biggest decisions of the new manager will be to decide if he can get a tune out of Grealish or whether we could get a couple of really effective midfielders ( Ryan Woods / Tom Cairney type ) for the 25 mil that we would get for him. I don’t want to see him go, but you get the feeling that maybe we could both do with a fresh start.

[PeterWithesShin]

Lowlights

Bruce Sky post-match

OS post match interview https://twitter.com/AVFCOfficial/status/1041041252320456704

[andyh]

It’s not the players or necessarily the formation.
It is the mentality and method.
He just chucks a team together which is inevitably a version of 4-4-2 and hopes for the best.
There is no strategy, no intent and no fucking idea.
People are having a go at Jack, he looks completely lost, our attacks are slow and predictable and when we lose it is every body run back behind the ball and if the opposition lose it, we start again or just kick it in a forward direction.
There is nothing different now to when he walked through the door, this is Bruceball and I am sick of it.

I was going to say something very similar.
We have a bunch of very, very talented individuals.
However, we have a ‘manager’ who is unable to get them to play as a team, with any discernible way of playing, other than whack and chase or rely on a piece of individual skill or brilliance.

Imagine, with a forward thinking manager who knows how to set a team up, this group of players would romp this division.

[Rigadon]

Looks like a man who knows it's time for a change. 

[PeterWithe]

The commentary said it was the best they had seen Villa play all season.

I thought is was one paced, in-energetic, passive bollocks, yet again.

12th, it’s simply not good enough. Let’s make a mangerial change.

[ChicagoLion]

I think grealish is part of the problem. Seems undroppable but producing very little.  Can't play in a midfield two, not a winger and doesn't produce anywhere near enough in the number 10 position. It prevents us playing two up front and I can't see how we can unlock the potential of the attack with him in the team, especially with his current output.

Wouldn’t a better manager sort this out!?

Of course he would, he is the most talented player in the division and we are getting no where near the best out of him.
We are playing a midfield 5 and somehow he is supposed to carry the team, the opposition know that if they stand on him then they have negated any creativity that we have.
His starting position should be a lot further up the pitch.

[brontebilly]

I think grealish is part of the problem. Seems undroppable but producing very little.  Can't play in a midfield two, not a winger and doesn't produce anywhere near enough in the number 10 position. It prevents us playing two up front and I can't see how we can unlock the potential of the attack with him in the team, especially with his current output.

Wouldn’t a better manager sort this out!?

A better manager would spot that we need to have two sitting midfielders with Grealish ahead of them.

Instead, we are playing with one sitting midfielder and due to his lack of technical ability, the two ahead of him (Grealish and McGinn) retreat further and further

Hence the huge gap between Abraham and our midfield today

But there is a bare minimum required from each player irrespective of tactics, application and attitude

Grealish was found badly wanting in both categories today, he should be earning his corn from the bench v Rotherham

[ldavfc4eva]

I think Bruce has been listening to criticism of players playing out of position and today finally decided to play the first 11 where they naturally belong.

Axel and Chester looked good enough at centre half, Nyland looks inept and does not command the box at all, Taylor has no confidence from what I saw today.

Jedinak looked solid enough but lacks energy, which at his age is no surprise.

Jack again looks class on the ball but no end product, McGinn tired after the hour mark similar to Albert.

Abraham looked good but needed some help.

All in all it’s time and time gone for Bruce, the forward options alone should be enough to tear this division up, 12th is nowhere near good enough.

[PeterWithe]

Should he fuck, he’s the best player in this division by a country mile.

 We should be building a team around him and his strengths, not shoe horning him into whatever Bruce’s weekly tactical dogs breakfast is.

[Pete3206]

The whole thing was a fucking Bruce shambles. We got away with 1 point.

After 2 years of Bruce, I would expect to be taking Blackburn's pants down, giving them a good hiding and collecting another 3 points on the way to The Championship title.

As it stands, also rans  again. Not good enough. Bruce out.

[curiousorange]

We had a run of fixtures to have been well out in front in this league. That we're twelfth heading into autumn proper tells you how he's approaching it all. The guy is at least six weeks overdue for a walk around the rose garden.

[kippaxvilla2]

Why does every Villa side under him ‘need time to gel?’  Last season the same.  The halfway (no it wasn’t steve it was october)’ through the season before was the same.  Yet Bielsa can come into Leeds and have six weeks intensive work and they look more cohesive than us.  Monks blues look more cohesive than us despite having Gardner as their saviour.  Brentford with a tenth of the budget have had more cohesion than us throughout our time in this league.  I could go on.  And he wonders why there’s ‘hysteria.’

[The_ads]

Excuses, excuses, excuses..... just like the ones he keeps wheeling out from last season (I.e his relentless statement that Grealish was out for 6 months last year when it was 3) the bloke knows he is on borrowed time, trouble is he’ll just keep doing enough to keep his feet from the fire and by the time we do ditch him it’ll be too late

[paul_e]

A better manager would spot that we need to have two sitting midfielders with Grealish ahead of them.

This is clearly right.  For most games I'd play McGinn and Hourihane/Thor as 'normal' midfielders and then get Grealish 10-15 yards higher up the pitch with those 2 looking to find him early and then 1 of them running beyond him.

Earlier you posted about the squad full of top players bit but I think you misunderstood, I wasn't saying the squad is a title challenging one (because the defence is a mess), but the attacking players we have should be running teams ragged in this league because 6-7 of them are top of championship/bottom of prem standard (or better) and then there's a handful of playoff standard players as well.

[Mister E]

Thought we played well overall we were the better side for most of the game. Still too many errors at the back exemplified by Grealish having to mark two players in one situation. Jedinak much better in midfield. Like the look of Abraham too. He will get us goals. Bolasie’s cameo, he looked sharp and showed a will with the challenge on the keeper.

Really? - we weren't very good, and I thought Blackburn were generally the tidier and more composed.
Most of the people around me were (a) not impressed, and (b) keen to see the back of fistface