Aston Villa 2-0 Rotherham Post Match Thread

[Ian.]

Bruce with his ‘dish it out after an unconvincing win’ bollocks is fast becoming my least favourite manager of recent years.

Yep and mine. We won and so we bloody should do.

[Chris Smith]

My only real quibble was that it took us too long to score the second which gave them encouragement to push on after half time. Once the subs were made we were back in control just as the crowd were starting to get edgy.

Grealish seemed to playing within himself, perhaps a recognition of his slow start to the season, but what he did was mostly good. The front two worked well and as they get to know each other’s game they will trouble any defence in this league.

It also looks like Bruce has been true to his word about using the squad a bit more, let’s hope that continues as there are real options now.

[Steve67]

We were better as soon as Grealish went back into the middle. If Kodjia can play on the left but go inside to support Abraham, we will be better balanced.

[tomd2103]

About as routine a win as you'll see, which appears to have traumaisted and devastated a few.

I'm not quite sure what utter bollocks is being spouted about Kodjia either.

The positives;

Comfortable all game;
Some neat interchange, it just wasn't for a sustained period
Two up top worked;
Abraham's and Bolasie look good players, unsurprisingly;
McGinn, a couple of forced passes not coming up off aside, continues to impress;
Kodjia worked hard especially in the channel and showed his class with the assist. Both he and Abraham have excellent quick feet.

The negatives;

I thought we took too long to move the ball on and it made us too slow against a big side sat deep;
Grealish position isn't out wide and I do wish he had a bit more conviction or selfishness to shoot;
Distribution from the full backs continues to infuriate;
El Ghazi was very quiet;
We need to sustain a tempo around the opposition box with more regularity;


Hopefully that's the end of the bad run. We'll certainly face better sides, although they don't look as desperate as 2 years ago.

We've won 1 in 6, which is desperately poor...yet we're 6th. Perhaps this league is more forgiving than the cliches suggest.

I hope Axel is back for the Wendies, even if it was clear why Jedinak started given Rotherham's solitary weapon.

I think that is a fair summation Ads.  I thought El Ghazi did OK, but it looks like he is going to need some time to settle in and get up to speed.  We have plenty of options in wide areas now, so he should be afforded the time to do that.

[The Edge]

Truly fucking awful. Very positive early on until we scored. Rotherham were on top from that point until our subs came on. We certainly didn't deserve a clean sheet. So wide open at times in that second half and downright unprofessional at other times, Kodjia the prime example. I'm more despondent after watching that to be honest.
Nyland 4 - keeper is a clown, efforts with that back pass in first half said it all
Elmo 7 - solid game defensively and fine assist for winner
Chester 6 - solid enough
Jedinak 6 - hated seeing him selected in that position but won countless headers
Hutton 5 - most of his forward runs ended up with him losing the ball and poor defensively again
El Ghazi 4 - started ok but disappeared
Hourihane 7 - outstanding in first half but midfield partnership with McGinn won't ever work
McGinn 6 - grand going forward but bit like Hourihane is far too easy to get past defensively.
Grealish 7 - worked a lot harder than last weekend, involved in both goals. Much better
Kodjia 2 - assist aside was an utter fucking disgrace. Workrate of a pissed wino stretching out on a public park
Abraham 6 - not great, scored but touch was suspect and movement was poor

Bolasie made a big impression and is off the mark. Adamoah and Bree did fine.

I agree with most of your points. But Kodja "an utter fucking disgrace" I really cant agree with that. His link up play with Abraham looked very promising and he looked very lively. The attempted cross second half was laughable. Mcginn easy to get past? Can't agree with that either. He's the tenacious little fucker in midfield we've been lacking for a long time.

[GarTomas]

Our problems stem from a couple of areas I think.

Our movement off the ball is pretty much non existent. See our inability to take a quick throw or keep possession rather than hoofing it clear. I noticed 2nd half one throw in where Bolasie ran one way then the other to take possession in space. We’ll soon have that coached out of him.

Our distribution from the back is terrible. Elmo and Hutton whilst sound defensively don’t help us going forward. Elmo to hesitant to get further forward which is disappointing as you can see from the 2nd goal he has the crossing ability when further forward.  Hutton keen to get forward but not being left footed limited as to what he can do.  Too often the full backs passed to the wingers when double marked and back to goals. This is fine if you have players moving off the ball to exploit the space which we don’t (see 1st point)

Thought Kodjia was better and seemed more willingly to pass when players were less than 30 yards off him.

A win but for Bruce to claim this as some sort of redemption or justification of his methods is laughable. 

[Ads]

The keeper is a clown because he struggled to control a back pass aimed at his neck?

There's lots to disagree with in that post.

[GarTomas]

The keeper is a clown because he struggled to control a back pass aimed at his neck?

There's lots to disagree with in that post.

Yes thought he did well with that. Took a touch that took the ball away from the goal but helped keep him between the ball and the player so he could clear.

[The Edge]

I only care about what happens on the pitch. He can spout about whatever he wants, just win games Bruce.

I just have to disagree.A good manager will galvanize the players into a strong coherent force willing to run through brick walls for each other. I see very little evidence of that around Villa Park these days. A good manager also bonds with the supporters and unites the whole club leading them to success. I see little evidence of that either. If Steve Bruce thinks beating Rotherham at home buys him enough credits to make  childish comments about the Villa park faithful he is sadly mistaken. That's setting the bar alarmingly low if he thinks that's the case. He'd better carry on winning games or he will find himself on the end of a shitstorm of abuse for antagonizing the fans needlessly. He's like a big fucking baby if you ask me and I for one have had a belly full of his nonsense both on the pitch and off it.

[Villa in Denmark]

^^^
Well said.

[darren woolley]

I only care about what happens on the pitch. He can spout about whatever he wants, just win games Bruce.

I just have to disagree.A good manager will galvanize the players into a strong coherent force willing to run through brick walls for each other. I see very little evidence of that around Villa Park these days. A good manager also bonds with the supporters and unites the whole club leading them to success. I see little evidence of that either. If Steve Bruce thinks beating Rotherham at home buys him enough credits to make  childish comments about the Villa park faithful he is sadly mistaken. That's setting the bar alarmingly low if he thinks that's the case. He'd better carry on winning games or he will find himself on the end of a shitstorm of abuse for antagonizing the fans needlessly. He's like a big fucking baby if you ask me and I for one have had a belly full of his nonsense both on the pitch and off it.

I totally agree with you.

[JUAN PABLO]

routine win but very poor at times . We have so much quality down there but would love to see it more often.

bruce always seems happy when we go 1 up to stick at that .

I thought TA and YB had great games and were a class above and jack was involved in both goals .

Lets see how good Jedi is at CB when he plays a decent team hey Bruce.

[ktvillan]

It took me a few minutes to figure out that Bruce had not selected a defensive midfielder for this one – first time since? Ever?
The good:
It quickly became apparent why he selected Jedi at CB when you saw they had a big rough lump up front who would probably have bullied Tuanzebe.  He tried it with Jedi and failed.

First 10 minutes or so it looked like we could, should and would tear the Millers a new one.  It didn’t last.

Bruce actually made some attacking substitutions at 1-0 with 25 to go.

Abraham and Bolasie both scored and both looked decent.

We have some good dead ball players in Hourahan and Bolasie.

The not so good:
We never seem to play a first time pass into space for runners.  We rarely have the runners allowing that, no-one busting a gut to get beyond the defence or into the space for the onward ball.  Instead we take 2-3 touches, play it back across and sideways.  Too slow and predicable.

The defence still looks ropey and we were somewhat lucky not to concede again.

Not leaving a player up at corners means the clearance comes straight back at us.

Overall I got the impression that this squad, well coached and with a licence to bomb forward, could tear this league up, despite the weaknesses in defence. 

[cdbearsfan]

The keeper is a clown because he struggled to control a back pass aimed at his neck?

There's lots to disagree with in that post.

I stopped reading at "Rotherham were on top" as I just assumed he was referring to a different game.

[QuintonVilla]

I agree with everyone who has said our full backs stunt our attacks and limit us. Hutton can't kick the ball with his left foot so when he overlaps he rarely puts it across with his left and has to cut back.

Full backs are massively important in the modern game. Not for a second am I comparing us to Man City but look at how effective Walker and Mendy are in helping them control the game. They push the opposing winger back and provide an outlet. We should be controlling and dominating games in this league and our full backs should almost be a secondary winger, especially in games like last night where the opposition are poor.