Well, I listened to that and it sounded awful in the first half.
As I suggested in the preview, a lot revolved around how our midfield performed.
And when I saw that Mile Jedinak wasn’t going to start, I immediately worried that they wouldn’t be man enough.
I’m sure I wasn’t alone and surely now Steve Bruce knows that if we’re going to miss out on promotion, it’s going to be because of the midfield.
I know I might be being impatient, but I really expected players in already and am wondering why we haven’t done any business in this area yet?
I mean, surely we can negotiate before the window opens, like it seems we have done with Gestede and Johnstone?
Whatever, we need them in as soon as possible so they can integrate, before our promotion chances go totally down the pan.
And they’re already fading.
So what went wrong?
Well, Cardiff played just as we expected and roughed it up.
The treatment Jack Grealish got was an absolute disgrace, so bad that he was constantly being fouled off the ball.
There’s absolutely no room for that in the game and to my mind Warnock ought to be charged with bringing the game into disrepute.
The amazing thing is the officials either didn’t see it or simply weren’t interested.
Regardless, in the end it boiled down to the fact that Gardner and Westwood weren’t strong enough and Cardiff should have been 4-0 up at half time.
That’s disgraceful.
The pair were duly hauled off at half time to be replaced by Tshibola and Gabby.
You know you’re in trouble when you have to call on Gabby, but things actually improved in the second half.
McCormack hadn’t had a sniff in the first half as we couldn’t link to him.
For me, this problem isn’t going to change until we get at least another two midfielders in.
I know I keep going on about it, but we all know it and I refuse to believe Bruce doesn’t know it.
Tshibola didn’t sound brilliant but at least I heard his name mentioned a few times in the commentary.
How long can Bruce keep starting worse players over him?
The second half was much improved and we created several chances, but it just wasn’t enough.
There’s no other way in looking at this game as three points dropped.
Cardiff have been on a really poor run and we really should have been able to beat them.
I don’t think it quite means the end of our promotion hopes just yet, as there’s still a fair way to go.
But we need to improve, as our performances have been poor of late, even if we’ve scraped wins at times.
And that isn’t going to happen until we get some better players in.
Comments
165 responses to “Cardiff 1 – 0 Villa; A demoralising loss”
Hull were doing ok, weren’t they?
Add a couple of players and they’d have stayed up, this season, I’m fairly sure.
Bruce leaves because of a lack of money?
And it looks like they’re going down.
What has that cost?
Hull are a shambles. Fans are saying that its not the manager but the owners. The club is up for sale and they’re stuck in limbo, sound familiar?
Mail saying we’ve out a £3 million bid in for Lansbury.
http://www.birminghammail.co.uk/sport/football/transfer-news/aston-villa-transfer-news-bid-12401115
Derby may look to up their bid but Forest might not want to sell to their local rivals.
Could be a good deal from what I’ve read.
Totally agreed.
It’s cheap, even if it doesn’t work out.
All about the wages.
And I’d be playing the same game 🙂
I see that the Ivory Coast management allowed Wilfred Zaha to not only stay at least an extra 48 hours more than Kodjia but they also allowed him to play against Swansea.Good to see that it was a pointless exercise, even though he scored, the Swans won 2-1. Maybe fat, greedy, overrated Sam is not the saviour Palace think he is.
Jordan Rhodes at training ground, things are improving.
Morning bill great news where did you read or hear that also How’s the missus mate??
Nigel spink heard a rumour he was was at the training ground hmmm
Sorry Giddy, it was 19 minutes of Birmingham mail Aston Villa News. Been out not checked since.
Another one Giddy, Langbury bid in. 13 minutes ago.
Lansbury – good buy. Didn’t Gardner play alongside him last season with good reviews? Pair them up again and maybe we’ll see Gardner improve.
Gestede to Boro is a strange one and if reports are correct we’ve recouped £6m. Wonder if they’re thinking of reuniting the partnership with Rhodes. Doubtful but I really can’t see why they’ve signed him. Good in the air, but rest of his play is pretty woeful.
Disagree I rate Gestede but he never got a fair chance imo plus we never played a style to suit him. Should of got rid of Ayew instead
Yeah that’s true about style of play, no real service towards him. However I remember at the time that we were linked to Andre Gray and Callum Wilson would have much preferred either of them. More mobile forwards that don’t just thrive off crosses.
In complete agreement about Ayew though. The amount of times he loses possession and tries to beat his man when a quick pass is on is a joke.
sack bruce and sell kodija
Behave Nath 🙂
Seems to be more and more talk about Lansbury.
I think he’s probably exactly what we need.
Gets goals (when was the last time we had that in the middle?), creates and can play attacking or defensive. Apparently a good leader too.
For £3 mill?
Almost sounds too good to be true and I’m surprised some of the Prem clubs aren’t in for him.
According to the Mirror SB has £25 million to spend plus money from any sales. So £31 million in the kitty at the moment. (£28m if the Lansbury transfer goes through).
Certainly makes players like Brady at £12 million a real possibility.
Also supposed to be after Smithees so I’m wondering if SB thinks that both Bunn and Gollini aren’t up to it and they’ll be replaced by Smithees and Worthington.
Still like to see a RB in (Jenkinson?) and an attacker (Hernandez for me). If we get those as well as Smithees, Lansbury and Brady then it will have been a wonderful window.
Here’s hoping!
UTV
Good shout Pat.
Don’t forget Xia said we’d sorted a loan and are working on the other.
Seems Johnstone’s the cert and we’re almost definitely after Jenkinson.
That’d be a great start, as you say.
And still £28 mill to spend!
Let’s hope it’s all true.
It makes absolute sense in view of the returns we’ll get if we can get promoted.
However I find myself slightly in Ooohaah’s camp (you won’t hear that often!) in that a second season building a team in the Championship might not be a bad thing in the long run.
Anyway whatever happens I’ll be happy so long as we can see some clear progress in the way we play.
(BTW who the f*** is Worthington??? I did of course mean Johnstone. I’ll have to leave the doubles alone in future)
In a sense, I agree because we’d get murdered if we were to get promoted.
But I’d worry about that if it happened.
We have to get back up asap, imo, before we fall too far back.
Oh, I forgot.
That was a brilliant piece of business getting £6 mill for Gestede.
I’m minded to agree that he wasn’t used right, but his heading ability doesn’t make up for the rest of his play and he’s useless with the ball at his feet,imo.
But that’s my opinion.
What is undeniable is that he hasn’t performed for whatever reason and to get our money back is great work by whoever did the deal.
I’ve just read that Mirror report and it suggests we’d let Jedinak go.
I really can’t see that one.
It also says;
“Bruce wants to bring in a keeper, a right-back, a left-winger and a striker.”
No mention of central mids, which are surely the highest priority?
Yet we’re willing to sell our only decent mid?
I don’t know who this writer, Adrian Kajumba, is but I’m guessing it’s the new trainee practicing the bullshit part of his training.
i wouldnt be surprised at all badger midfield should had 2 players in for weekend give them free match to bed in but bruce is harry rednapp wheeler dealer likes to sign numbers not quality
pat murphy tweeted johnson deal done tomorrow
with
You really have a strong dislike of Bruce, don’t you? 🙂
Each to their own, I suppose.
I agree, I want us to get our fingers out and get them in sharpish.
But concede that it’s always tricky in this window.
As for numbers, we need them, imo and I don’t agree with the quality side of things.
All of the players mentioned would be upgrades, I’d say.
General question here, where I’d appreciate feedback;
Do we have too many replies per page?
Personally, I think it’s not a problem on a PC, but it involves a lot of swipes on a phone, when the page is nearly full.
I think we’re currently set at 50 replies to a page.
Should I reduce it, to say, 25?
25 might make more sense especially as it always defaults to the top of the page rather than e.g. the last post.
Defaulting to the oldest post is my personal preference as it doesn’t make sense to go to the newest.
That way, you see any debate in a logical order if you’ve missed previous replies.
I do have the option to change it to latest reply first if enough people mention it.
I’m minded to change it to 25 as the best solution, but I’m willing to listen to what people say.
Cheers, Pat
I’ve changed it to 25 replies per page, so people can feedback 🙂
Blimey, just realised the site has passed the 1000 posts(subjects) mark 🙂
25 per page makes a big difference Badger improves viewing… congrats on the 1000 – keep up the good work !
Aston Villa will today complete the loan signing of Manchester United goalkeeper Sam Johnstone.
The deal will see the 23-year-old join for the rest of the season, it is expected to go through this morning
Lotus-Cheek apparently available on loan from Chelsea. He would be a good addition -strong, mobile and positive. Everything our midfield (Tish apart) aren’t.
It’s staggering how poorly we play considering the money that has been spent.
Almost like we’re jinxed or something, isn’t it?
I see Gestede says he spoke to Rhodes before signing.
I’d guess that’s the rumour that we’re after him busted then.
Championship leaders Brighton & Hove Albion have rejected a bid from rivals Aston Villa for midfielder Dale Stephens, HITC Sport understands.
that the same player lambert tried to sign,gave up andsigned westwood,
The name rung a bell.
Shame we never got him. He couldn’t be any worse than Westwood, surely?
lambert should did that with all his signings, deli ali another would pay money for ,had enough for grant holt
Johnstone confirmed;
https://www.avfc.co.uk/News/2017/01/05/breaking-news-villa-sign-johnstone
Interesting piece about how the window works;
http://www.fourfourtwo.com/features/truth-behind-transfer-window-rumour-mill-those-know