Aston Villa vs West Bromwich Albion (Play-off Semi 1st leg): Pre-match Thread

[chrisw1]

A dangerous game. 

I would be amazed if he dropped Taylor - Hause will be on the bench and that is great cover for us.
I think Whelan gets the nod over Hourihane in all three games if we get to the final.  We are just a better team when he plays in his current form.
For me only decision is Green / Adomah.

[robbo1874]

They were decent enough to finish just above us and our goals for / against is remarkably similar.  I think it'll be a close one.  1-0 to us.  Tammy. 

we’ve finished stronger though, haven’t we? Ten wins on the spin and just the one narrow loss whilst fielding a weaker team. Over 2 legs it should be ours. I’m still shitting it though and we shouldn’t underestimate them at all. And I’m sure Dean, the coaching staff and all the players won’t be doing that.

All that said, I still can’t help but think history will play a part. Call it misplaced arrogance if you like and I’m sure they would, but we’re Villa and they’re Albion. They should run that Benjamin Zephaniah video on the big screen just before kickoff!

[manic-road]

I honestly think that over two legs we will win comfortably. I would be more worried if it was just the one game but over two games our class should come through.

[SW9-VILLA]

Only real decisions for me are Hause or Tayor at LB and Green or Adomah at RW.  I would be tempted to go for the former over the latter in both cases with the rest of the team picking itself.

From the Albion callers I have heard on WM in the past couple of weeks, it sounds like they have been playing 3-5-2, which I think could give us opportunities to get at them.

Green?  He's hopeless. Adomah hasn't been brilliant, but he's a much better option than Green, and I fully expect Albert to start both games, and the final if we get there.

A lot of harsh criticism of Green on here, which i don't think he deserves tbh. He's only 20 ffs.

[SheffieldVillain]

A dangerous game. 

I would be amazed if he dropped Taylor - Hause will be on the bench and that is great cover for us.
I think Whelan gets the nod over Hourihane in all three games if we get to the final.  We are just a better team when he plays in his current form.
For me only decision is Green / Adomah.

Agree with all of that.

I'd pick Adomah for the first leg. Better at tracking back. And also Green is more useful as an impact sub.

I'd also make sure Davis is on the bench. He's looked sharp in his last couple of sub appearance. Good option to have if we need to push another striker on.

[robbo1874]

I’m really relieved El Ghazi’s red was overturned. I’d start with Adomah on the other side, over Green.

Question for me is what to do about Kodjia and Abraham. Tammy’s goal tally speaks for itself, but JK has been finding the net recently. It’s a big, big call to leave out a striker who has been scoring.

I’d be maybe tempted to start with JK in all honesty and give Abraham
an extra week’s recovery and training. They’ll all be bang up for this I reckon.

[Lastfootstamper]

A dangerous game. 

I would be amazed if he dropped Taylor - Hause will be on the bench and that is great cover for us.
I think Whelan gets the nod over Hourihane in all three games if we get to the final.  We are just a better team when he plays in his current form.
For me only decision is Green / Adomah.

Agree with all of that.

I'd pick Adomah for the first leg. Better at tracking back. And also Green is more useful as an impact sub.

I'd also make sure Davis is on the bench. He's looked sharp in his last couple of sub appearance. Good option to have if we need to push another striker on.

El Ghazi, Adomah, Green, Kodjia, Abraham, Davis, I'd have all six involved for all three games. Three start, three on the bench. Hause & Tuanzebe likewise, either one on the bench gives us effective cover across the whole back four if the other's already on the pitch. Hourihane too, leaves one seat in the dugout. I think it'll be Jedinak, gives us a couple of options.

[Hookeysmith]

Definitely would not change Taylor - and I have been a huge critic of his.

Previously he would get to the half way line and have a nervous breakdown - in our great run his link up and overlapping with El Ghazi has been superb and has been getting further forward than I have seen him in all the time previously. He has even found his way into the box on occasion.

The same for Elmo - as much as we all love Hutton the amount of exposure he gave their left winger on Saturday was unbelievable and accounted for the first if not both goals. It proves what a decent RB Elmo is as well as what he offers going forward with some excellent crosses.

I am hoping the football gods remember how they kicked lumps out of Grealish and blatantly cheated with the hand ball and right the wrongs but if honest we drew that game because of missed chances more - we cannot afford that this time.

[mallo]

It's definitely in our hands this one, but it will be tetchy and edgy. I think like a lot of others if we convert our changes we'll be fine, if we're as profligate as we have been of late we might only manage a draw. Since they won't be playing much route 1 then Jedinak is probably not needed at all. I would play Albert over Green as this is a big game and we're not sure how Green will react - at least Alberts been there before.

[ktvillan]

Back in Jan/Feb I was very confident we could make the play-offs if we could rediscover the early December form, get Jack back fit and the new defenders clicked.  Now we are there I don't feel very confident at all.

The reasons being I think we have been fluffing too many chances recently and although the defence is massively improved, we always seem to have at least one error in us that always seems to get punished.   Plus I can see the meatheads heavily targeting Jack.

We are due a bit of luck against the boggies though so I think we'll sneak the home leg 1-0 or 2-1.   

[Des Little]

I'm very confident that we'll win on Saturday.  That said, can whoever has installed a washing machine in my stomach please come and switch it off? Cheers

[Chico Hamilton III]

Most important Villa Albion game since the Cup Final at Crystal Palace in 1895??  We scored the winner after 30 seconds....

If it's an omen, I went for a walk around Crystal Palace park, scene of that victory, yesterday.   

[frank black]

Albert Adomah? I remember when he was good. Never witnessed a players form disappear and not return to make at least make a few fleeting appearances. He works his socks off and helps defensively but blimey he seems a spent force in the attacking sense. If he can by some miracle regain a smidgen for the playoffs please.

[The Moose]

It would be good to avenge that meek 0-2 surrender earlier this season. Hopefully by enough to make the 2nd leg a formality.
Maybe Woodhall's rant will get an airing? With updates....

[Risso]

Back in Jan/Feb I was very confident we could make the play-offs if we could rediscover the early December form, get Jack back fit and the new defenders clicked.  Now we are there I don't feel very confident at all.

The reasons being I think we have been fluffing too many chances recently and although the defence is massively improved, we always seem to have at least one error in us that always seems to get punished.   Plus I can see the meatheads heavily targeting Jack.

We are due a bit of luck against the boggies though so I think we'll sneak the home leg 1-0 or 2-1.   

During the ten match winning run, we kept 5 clean sheets, and only conceded 5 goals in total.  We scored 23.

Stop worrying!