I had said I was going to do a post about the Colchester game, but unfortunately I just didn’t get time.
Suffice to say, I wasn’t happy at what I saw with us making so many changes.
My thinking was that we needed to continue to get the “top” eleven playing together and basically just get to know each other more.
But having bitten my tongue while reading comments from on here and many other sites, I began to doubt myself, as it seems many fans thought changing things up was definitely the way to go.
So I asked my Stokie mate what he thought and he was totally in agreement with me.
Indeed, he said all the things I was thinking without me having to prompt him; particularly “why do players need resting when they’ve just come back from three months off?”
Let’s look at the facts of the game.
We scored two goals. One an own goal and at least one probably offside. Steer saved a penalty.
And they scored a cracker.
Ok, we won and it’s alright in the end. But my opinion says while we were possibly the better team overall, Colchester were easily the better team to watch when attacking, as they were far more incisive.
You don’t agree? Maybe you’re right. But they have a directness about them that we just don’t and our lack in this area will see us dropping points, as things stand, in my opinion.
Consider Colchester are a league two side and ask yourself if a club that’s supposed to be amongst the favourites to win the championship really ought to have stamped their authority on that game.
Frankly, you could even say we were lucky to win and that isn’t good enough for where I want us to be.
I can see that view causing some debate, but it’s just how I see things.
Bruce should have played his best side and looked for a decent, dominant win.
Ok, these games are always a potential banana skin, but does he have faith in what he’s got or not?
I wonder.
And I also wonder what John Terry thought?
Oh, didn’t he go to meet his old mates at Chelsea, or something?
Anyway, Amavi has gone then and it’s interesting that Villa seem to have been quite happy to defer the payment until next season. I can’t quite get my head around that, but it’s no doubt to do with FFP, where Wyness suggests we’re ok this season. Just as I knew we would be.
It’s a shame he’s had to go, but we all knew it was going to happen.
Bacuna is almost certainly a goner after he’s apparently got the hump about the fans scapegoating him.
Well, sorry Leandro, but if you were any good in your proper position, you’d have been playing there.
The fact that you were used all over the place sums up what you were for Villa. A dead average player who won’t take us anywhere. Bye and don’t let the door smack you on the arse on your way out.
Good luck in the Champion’s league too.
Except you won’t be playing there, because no doubt the mighty Reading pay more than even the top Dutch or Belgian clubs, don’t they?
Good riddance.
And then, there’s another tricky game tomorrow, against Cardiff.
Neil Warnock has been on a charm offensive, in saying he loves us and “there’s always been an aura about the Villa”.
He’s dead right there, but you can can bet your boots (or should that be slippers these days?) that he’ll send his team out to stop us anyway he can.
The thought that I considered him as a pragmatic decent bet for us before Bruce came, makes me shudder.
But I was far from alone at the time, when we just needed someone to stem the negative tide of what was going on.
I’m not going to go into details about anything regarding the game, but my thoughts are that if we come away with a point, we’ll have done reasonably well, albeit conforming with the “we’ll draw too many games” mindset that some of us have.
And I have the nagging feeling that if we’re really going to challenge for the title, we have to be looking to take all three points in this sort of game.
I just don’t see that happening, I’m afraid.
1-1 is the prediction.
UTV!
Tough game that will tell us what we’re really about this season, imo.
Win this and my spirits will be massively lifted.
Lose and I see a tough season coming up.
Off to Cardiff tomorrow…75th different ground watching the Villa. Hope to make it to 100 before I ‘pop me clogs’. Tough game against a very physical team. But I’m confident, as always!
2-0 to the Villa
UTV#PartOfThePride
I’m loving the positivity Langford 🙂
If we win 2-0, I’ll be right behind your way of thinking!
i hope you reach over 150 lol
Lol Nath, I’ll ‘take each game as it comes’! 🙂
langford
if you get 100 grounds we are fucked,i would guess you have been at most top teams ,missing out div4 or whatever its called
but good luck on your 75th
There are alot of the newer grounds in the top divisions they I haven’t been to. For example I’ve been to Ninian Park twice but not the new stadium!
Cant beat a bit if positivity :)….I hope the new ground is a bit more welcoming than Ninian Park used to be. 4,800 Villans. Our support is amazing away from home, just wish I could make more games than I can these days. UTV
the club made the correct decision in making changes for the Colchester game. had they played a more stronger team and taylor got injured. what do you think the negative boo boys would have made of that. so we were dammed either way.
fielding some youngsters gives the incentives for these kids to keep improving and the first team is not out of bounds. this also keep the first team playing to the best of their abilities. finally we have created competition for first team, players fighting for their positions
Sorry, but that’s bollox mate.
If Taylor gets injured, it shows we haven’t sorted the squad properly, simple
🙂
Add the odd one or two, yes.
But progress the main 11, imo.
I’ll partially agree with competition for places and it’s a good squad for this league, imo.
all players can get injured in contact sports. you never heard of protecting the players. all clubs do this its professional. you want the players which you call regular fit for the big games. not some micky mouse bulshit cup game. which if you go all the way to final you earn less money that it probably cost the club in expenses.
bulshit is playing the team you regards first team week in and out and then how many cup games etc. what is the point of paying the rest of the squad. also where do other players get experiences . wait for somebody to get injured and then throw the kids in the deep end and hope they swim not sink
Bree can play anywhere across the back line though and I think de laet can play left bk
Badger; if Villa were alone in fielding alternative sides for cup competitions then I would tend to agree with you and your Stokie mate. I think it says more about sides general view of cup competitions where the reality is that the real money (Prem / Championship) is in the league. So lower league sides go for it with their best sides and the Prem / Championship sides protect their best players.
I agree with you insofar as I don’t like it but it says more about the state of football generally than the attitude of individual clubs.
Ah, but that’s just it Hitch.
We’ve always been an innovative club.
Even Warnock knows it and that’s the aura he talks about.
You should play to win, simple, imo.
Part of the problem for me was the ending of ‘the Central League’ which was always a good, competitive league for youngsters and fringe players to get a game. Seen some really good games in that competition…..all the fringe players are now subs for the first team. Thats another advantange given to the wealthier clubs. Money in football stinks!
That’s bang on the money Langford.
This was where we really saw what was coming though.
And why the academy is just not on a par, imo.
The kids are just not seeing the same sort of competition, when everyone’s loaned out all over the place.
Need the youngsters to play against better and tougher opposition imo. Its the only way that they can be properly tested against superior players….they would kearn far more in that scenario imo!….but, hey ho, there’s no going back, I suppose!
I always ‘believed’ in fielding your strongest team in EVERY game, but now think a bit differently. What I mean by that is if all the other championship clubs play weakened teams we are at a distinct disadvantage by risking injuries which could ultimately cost us dearly as the season goes on! I know it stinks, but its the ‘modern way’!
It seems to me we get more injuries in training!
5 out before we started, wasn’t it?
Get the bloody players on the pitch, playing actual games and then think about it, imo.
Load of fannies, the lot of them.
(league won with 14 players, remember?).
seems like somebody is on a high horse this evening. Friday is my chilling evening lmao I doubt any team will try to play just one team in championship and all the available cup games must be talking 60 games or very close too.
Badger
What?
Don’t play other players, stick to same 11!
The Colchester match allowed O’Hare and Steer to shine, thus creating pressure on others to or form. How many criticisms were placed on this board that Westwood had no competition? We saw plain below average players like Bacuna think they were Champions league.
No, blooding youngsters, allowing other squad players to gain playing time are all essential to driving a team forward.
I really don’t know how tomorrow will pan out. I hope our loan signing from Spurs plays and SB moves to a system of where we are 2-0 up before looking to be conservative. Then we can hit teams in the counter attack.
UTV
Sid, this is good debate.
While I want the kids to come through, so too, I think it’s more about maximising our best bet.
O’hare might get the odd game, but I’ll bet Steer won’t get many, so what’s the point?
Nope, I’m not having it, in the slightest.
Westwood was utter crap, simple, so I’m not seeing that argument.
Same as Bacuna.
As for Onomah, I really don’t understand why we should be training a kid who will undoubtedly go for millions down the line, but not have his heart at the Villa.
How would you feel if we got a top 4 second eleven in to play for us and won the league?
And then lost them all, next season?
I know you can’t really do that, but the principal is the same, for me.
It isn’t our team, simple.
I’d ban loans tomorrow.
Other than we’re helping a player develop and he’ll be playing for another team next season most likely (or possibly back on loan if Ponchettino doesn’t think he’d be ready), I don’t get what’s wrong with loans. We needed an attacking mid, we have no money, we have very little wage room, his loan fee is likely under a million, his wages are likely 5k or less as Spurs are probably paying some of that, he’s minimal risk. If he helps us get promoted, then he’s the best small, short term investment we could ever make. It makes far more financial sense to go for season long loan deals and make them better for other teams, than buying in 36 years old and paying them more than any other player makes, or bringing in awful free agents who were never good in their prime, and make probably as much as the rest of the players do, and also being 33-34ish. Loan deals makes financial sense. Seeing you never want to see our youth play. Which also baffles me too no end.
Priorities.
Now squads are big enough to field two completely different teams, it is likely to happen. We all know promotion is our priority. The Mickey Mouse cup is a distraction, but we have to enter it. We do not have to play our first 11. I would hope we show a bit more respect to the FA cup but you can still see the manager pulling players who are one caution away from a ban, or the only player we have fit for a position from an FA cup tie to save them for a league match.
Don’t forget also the gaffer is having his ear bent by players who think they should be replacing one of the first choice players in the league team. It is a better reply for him to say, you’re going to start in this cup it is up to you to take your chance and impress me.
we have some decent youth coming through. this is not unusual but this time they might be the real deal. our youth players have mostly failed in the transition from youth football to the mans game we know and love. how do they progress if they are not given a chance to show they are ready?? you can loan um or you can blood them yourself in the cup competitions. arsenal have done this for years and years. the league cup for us is a distraction our first team will have to play enough games as it stands. without more games against lesser opposition where they might pick up injury and weaken our team for the bigger games like todays trip to Cardiff
we win today and bruce has managed the squad of players to perfection. he has not injured the team playing against a team 2 leagues down. they are rested up and he has improved the kids giving them a real game against professionals also given longterm injured players a game to blow of the cobwebs
Could I change my VPN change language & then I’d be able to watch the match live on AV TV??
I very much doubt it Giddy.
They want your home address when you register and it’s hard to see how you can get around that.
The best hope is that someone streams it, but even then I’m guessing they’ll be trackable.
Cheers I’d be lost anyway doing it, I read it on Facebook sounded to good to be true
Though O.K. will listen on Radio WM…not got a radio in the Man Room and just found out that the Virgin V box does not get WM……every bleedin channel except…..used to get it on the freeview box……suppose only £70 a month doesn’t receive something from just down the road……have to go and sit in car……
Johnstone,Hutton,Chester,Terry,Taylor,Elmohamady,Whelan,Lansbury,Onomah,Agbonlahor,Hogan
Cardiff score, Hoillett
Game over already
Come on cheer up weve got Gabby up front! Guranteed to score hes going to be top scorer.
Potato head out get in Benitez before it’s too late.
Get tht old dinousaur bruce out and while you at it take them useless t wats round and wyness with him and put them all on the scraphead with a big fckin sign saying old and decrepid and an absolute shower of shit biggest spenders in the league this steve shyte bruce and his ancient tactics couldnt coach a team that had ronaldo messi against a bunch of amateur shyte sissy schoolgirls playin football for the first time in their lifes they may as well resign themself now to league 1 if this fat puffy face bruce is in charge we need to learn from dematteo and get rid of these absolute plonkers right now yes we are now confirmed doing a leeds doing a forest and all the other big name teams that are now scrapping about in mickey mouse shyte leagues with lwners who dont have any clue and while your at it take charlie cham with you absolute shyte champions leage in 5 years he said he must have bin smokin doobies with bacuna whilst dreamking of cloud fckin cuckoo land but never mind still there will be happy clappers brown nosing bruce next week and jumpin up and allluade when we make a 2 yeard sideway pass what is the magter with this utter shower of shyte
Get Benitez
Testing
Bruce out. No excuses.
The report on final score said the score flattered us and could have easily been double that!
Deary me, where do we go from here??
Bruce has to go there is no other option. He’s worse than RDM. Terry was a disaster signing Bruce is useless. I want Benitez if we could get him in I guarantee we will go up.
Terry has never been quick even in his pomp so put some nippy kid up against him and he’s gonna be f@@k@d.
But we all knew that before we signed him except Bruce
I saw that, could have been 6, Bruce has to go, nothing has changed since he took over, if anything we are worse.
Agree mate
I knew that was coming after last week’s second half capitulation, Hull came out second half all guns blazing and we went missing!
Me too I predicted 2.0 so not far off
Two games, one point from a possible six, four goals against and one for.
I’ll leave it to the optimists amongst us to find the positives in that.
Two games gone and we look like we will struggle for top 10 let alone top 2
Season only started and I am pissed off already, no excuse 3 nil .
Where do I begin I’m on the fence with Bruce now not just ready to twist the knife 🗡 lansbury what a waste of fucking space his passing ability is atrocious also his dead ball kicking, onomah looks class gabby was non existant. The sad part is we really do miss kodjia & possibly jedi so without these two we’re totally fucked. I think it’s a case of poor management & lacklustre performances from the players today & where was this JT rallying the troops I saw fuckall urgency fuck it roll on reading 😁
JT is a myth he’s more interested in posing with his old team mates than being any good with us
We’re joint 13th sounds better than 20th
This was a game we needed to get something from if our ambitions were to be realised.
The size and manner of the defeat mean we don’t have the depth to muster a challenge and so we will not be promoted this season under Bruce. Even if the injured players would have made a real difference, they are likely to continue injury prone so the second strings needed to be good enough to get a point in Cardiff. They weren’t.
Bruce has until December to turn it around or quit.
I’d say Bruce will have less time than that, I’d say the end of September rumours say he’s got 10 games to make his mark
Can’t let him have another game he has to go now
They ain’t got the bottle to get anything from a side like Cardiff that battle for every ball for 90 minutes, that was plainly obvious from last week’s second half showing (or lack of!).
December are you having a laugh. RDM had 10 games and we still couldn’t turn it around.