Aston Villa vs Swansea City Pre-Match Thread

[Drummond]

Nyland

-------Bree----- Chester----- Tuanzebe

Elmo---------------------------------------Albert

------------McGinn---Hourihane--------------

----------------Grealish-------------------------

----------Abraham----Kodjia-------------------

Subs: Bunn, Hutton, Jedinak, Lansbury, Bolasie, El Ghazi, Hogan

3-2 Home win.

The trouble with that is that if I were a Swansea midfielder I could basically stroll right through the middle of the park and not see a challenge until I met Chester. Maybe put Bjarneson there instead of Hourihane? Or is my thinking too Brucey?

Yeah, I reckon we just go out to score more, not concede less.

[Dave P]

Smith won't be able to fix the defence overnight, I'll go for 1-1.

No but Terry can!  2-0 Villa.

[Clark W Griswold]

1-1.

I think we'll only really see a difference after Xmas, maybe even later.

[Richard]

Pretty sure we won't see a 3 5 2 as Smith likes 4 2 3 1 so I'm going for :

Nyland

Elmo
Tuanzabe
Chester
Taylor or Hutton - whichever he thinks is the better going forward - no idea !

BB
McGinn

Bolasie
Grealish
Hourihane

Abrahams

Subs - Bunn, Bree, Jedinak, Adomah, Hogan, Kodjia, El Ghazi

[Hookeysmith]

Pretty sure we won't see a 3 5 2 as Smith likes 4 2 3 1 so I'm going for :

Nyland

Elmo
Tuanzabe
Chester
Taylor or Hutton - whichever he thinks is the better going forward - no idea !

BB
McGinn

Bolasie
Grealish
Hourihane

Abrahams

Subs - Bunn, Bree, Jedinak, Adomah, Hogan, Kodjia, El Ghazi

That looks promising

[chrisw1]

Hoping for a win.  This would be my line up:

             Nyland

Elmo Chester Tuanzebe Hutton

         Barny   McGinn

              Grealish

Bolasie   Abraham   Kodjia

[themossman]

Nyland

-------Bree----- Chester----- Tuanzebe

Elmo---------------------------------------Albert

------------McGinn---Hourihane--------------

----------------Grealish-------------------------

----------Abraham----Kodjia-------------------

Subs: Bunn, Hutton, Jedinak, Lansbury, Bolasie, El Ghazi, Hogan

3-2 Home win.

The trouble with that is that if I were a Swansea midfielder I could basically stroll right through the middle of the park and not see a challenge until I met Chester. Maybe put Bjarneson there instead of Hourihane? Or is my thinking too Brucey?

To perform like Bruce you’ve got to think like Bruce. NMA.

[robbo1874]

Be interesting to see how they set up. I’m quietly confident about this one.

2-0

[Toronto Villa]

While the team he puts out will be important it will be the attitude they come out with and the tactics employed that will be telling. I’m pretty sure we won’t play in our own half hoping to pinch a valuable point.

[pauliewalnuts]

While the team he puts out will be important it will be the attitude they come out with and the tactics employed that will be telling. I’m pretty sure we won’t play in our own half hoping to pinch a valuable point.

What i want to see is some indication that we have a plan and are trying to put it into place, or, to put it another way, that we are at least trying to play in a definable, distinguishable way.

Rather than the shapeless fucking hacking of Bruce.

[cdbearsfan]

Opening games in recent times:

2016 Bruce: Villa 1 Wolves 1
2016 Di Matteo: Wednesday 1 Villa 0
2015 Garde: Villa 0 Man City 0
2015 Sherwood: Villa 1 Stoke 2 (although he seems to have had some involvement in the previous week's two-one FA Cup win at home to Leicester)
2012 Lambert: West Ham 1 Villa 0
2011 McLeish: Fulham 0 Villa 0
2010 Houllier: Villa 3 Blackburn 1 (League Cup, first League game was a 2-1 win at Wolves)
2006 O'Neill: Arsenal 1 Villa 1
2003 O'Leary: Portsmouth 2 Villa 1
2002 Taylor (second spell): Villa 1 Chelsea 1
1998 Gregory: Villa 2 Liverpool 1
1994 Little: Villa 1 Wednesday 1
1991 Atkinson: Wednesday 2 Villa 3
1990 Venglos: Villa 1 Southampton 1
1987 Taylor (first spell): Ipswich 1 Villa 1

[brontebilly]

Pretty sure we won't see a 3 5 2 as Smith likes 4 2 3 1 so I'm going for :

Nyland

Elmo
Tuanzabe
Chester
Taylor or Hutton - whichever he thinks is the better going forward - no idea !

BB
McGinn

Bolasie
Grealish
Hourihane

Abrahams

Subs - Bunn, Bree, Jedinak, Adomah, Hogan, Kodjia, El Ghazi

Id expect Bree to retain his spot at right back. Showed a bit of promise v Millwall going forward. I honestly hope Neil Taylor never plays for the club again after his effort v Millwall. Hutton for me on the left.

Going to be a very interesting team selection but it's still the same group of players unfortunately.

I don't see the likes of Jedinak, Whelan, Hutton, Elmo, Kodjia and Taylor lasting too long in the new regime.

[Ads]

We lost to Stoke under Sherwood.

I think he will go with;

Nyland

Hutton
Chester
Tuanzebe
Elmo

McGinn
Thor

Bolasie
Grealish
Albert

Tammy

[SoccerHQ]

Think we'll win this 2-1. New manager bounce and all that.

A few times I've looked at Swansea's matches this season and genuinely have no idea who half their team is...Daniel James, Joe Rodon, Connor Roberts, Yan Dhanda and Courtney Baker-Richardson (was sent off after 5 minutes at Millwall) all been regulars recently for them.

Had a good clear out of their bigger names which is probably what we should've done in 2016 so Graham Potter has done a pretty good job to get them on the cusp of the top 6.

Tricky one but think we'll just edge it as they're not prolific scorers and think we'll see improvement in our forward play which won't be tough after Bruceball.

[SoccerHQ]

I'll cheer on anyone in a Villa shirt, but if Neil Taylor is anywhere near the starting 11, it will be like starting with 10 men and a goal down.

Given it's his ex team he'll probably score the winner!