If you’ve read my replies in previous posts recently, you might have seen that I was invited to attend this game with a Derby workmate.
I’d have had to sit in the Derby seats, but that would have been ok, as the last time I did the same, we beat Derby in their first home defeat at Pride park. Some of you might remember that Dwight Yorke got the 1-0 winner with a penalty, after he might possibly have been sent off.
I can’t say I remember the possible sending-off, but it’s wrankled with the Derby fan, even after all this time and it still makes me chuckle when he reminds me of it. Heh heh.
The invite still applied as of today and I quite fancied it, but have had to decline.
After having been beaten by the snow on Sunday, I also had to take yesterday off work for personal reasons.
Hence my stupidly old-fashioned work ethic tells me that I’ve taken too much time off work already this week, and I’d be taking the proverbial.
There’s also an ulterior motive to be honest, as I don’t see us getting anything at all from this game and the overdue return banter from the Derby fan would probably be more than I could bear straight after the finish.
So what do we know?
On Derby’s part, Gary Rowett has confirmed that Tom Lawrence is out after suffering ankle ligament damage, yet he might be back in a week’s time.
Eh? What does that mean in English then? A bit of a bruise?
Whatever, that’s it and apart from that, they have a full squad to choose from.
Lucky them, I say.
As for us, we all know the score and it seems we have half the squad out at the moment.
The good news is that Mile jedinak might be available and I’d expect him to start, if it’s at all possible.
Hogan’s probably available too.
Oh and Gabby is also close. Hmm.
I’d expect Hogan to start, purely just to take some of the pressure off Young Davis, even though I’m not convinced it’s a good idea. It makes sense that you want someone who can play off the big kid, but is anyone convinced that Hogan is the man to get us goals? I’m afraid I just don’t see it, especially against a very decent Derby side that are going to put us under serious pressure.
Given that I see us under that pressure, there’s a good chance that Steve Bruce will play ultra cautious in playing Jedinak alongside Whelan, which would probably mean we go one up top and try not to concede.
Two hopes, but there you go, in my opinion.
I’m afraid I can’t see anything beyond a defeat and I’m going for a 0-2.
Of course, I live in hope and I’d love to be proved totally wrong.
Even if it’s only so I don’t get bantered to death for the next couple of weeks.
UTV
Comments
100 responses to “Derby – Villa; not at all confident about this one”
millwall 2 bora nil
if i was manager i would emphasise the importance to stop looking to pass back. especially blindly whelen. but most of the chances derby created or wasted where individual errors by villa players. they need to get hogan or gabby on and try turning the derby defenders. its beyond us but if things continue derby will win and comfortably.
enter sandman playing its been a nightmare lol really has we is lucky to still be in the game
much better start second half
its now derby all over the place defensively
they are working derby and ball i sense a equaliser
whelen off onomah in his better position and hogan on
we need to work on corners defending cause again we are really vulnerable at them
2 points to onomah
we looked worse with the striker on or is it worse for whelen off yeah he assisted derby twice but we look worse now without him
hogan first chance with ten minutes left
Think thats 3 times Hogan has got in 1st ahead of teh defender…about time we had someone do that …just need to get the thing on target now,
for all the money spent grealish is our only decent threat we have
our saviour gabby on for onomah
i will stick my neck on this we will get a late late goal grealish scores top corner
results like this will take villa back to were we should be mid table
2 nil
almost 70 % to us….perfect on the break from Rowett…..
we didnt deserve anything from the game, played ok but nothing special derby probably also played shit but they didnt need to reach any great lvl to beat us merry christmas
We have one footballer on that pitch, Snodgrass is slow to react, i don’t care what people say that exam will not get us up.
i don’t want us to go up anymore. sick off all the abuse thrown around. i am with the depressed now. i hope they sack bruce and we remain in the championship. until we play football like barca which could be my life time and my kids and their kids .
coincidently we had more ball today than normally and we really created zero. we passed little tiny neat balls instead of the long hopeful ones ppl complained about. but did this help answer not really we looked toothless and grealish is the only player today who looked like he was trying to create or make something happen.
if i was grealish i would push through a exit because he wouldnt reach his personal goals hanging around vp he would improve with better players around him
With you on that Nath, I’m now sick to the stomach watching Villa and seeing players acting like statues, Snodgrass was slow to the ball Jedi I’d shave that beard off because he cannot find a player through it, corner kicks cannot get past the first defender, Grealish was the only player that can play football and he has been dropped on the bench on most games with excuse he’s not fit, he stuck out a mile in dribbling skills that other don’t have.
snodgrass is a big disappointment he can reach much better personal standards than he is producing. slow your correct he is very slow and so predictable cutting inside all the time. our corner are rubbish and we can not defend a decent corner for our lives.
grealish was everywhere and you could see he was two maybe three steps ahead of any villa player. he drives at the defence and he passes with a plan in mind not pass to just get rid or pass on responsibility. he passes and moves to offer a option. just a crying shame no other villa player today was on his wave lengths
To be truthful I was streaming it, and a perfect one at that, after 25th minute i had to turn it off, why it was hurting me to see the game , Bruce was throughing his arm’s around shouting instructions and I was thinking ! Well you was the one that picked the team mate, is he the one to see it home? No he’s still in the days of defensive football, safety first his his thinking and not going forwards, 6 teams below us and one point difference, by we needed to fight because now we might as be at the bottom because its anyone’s play off now.
Dreadful tactics, worse performance. No strikers when we had Hogan (Bruces expensive signing) sitting on the bench? Completely clueless.
Grealish best player on the field, and hasnt been able to get a start? Only Chester and him come out with any credit. Whelan and Snodgrass were dreadful.
The truth is Bruce is a very average manager. As much as I want to come up this year, the thought of him managing us in the Premier League is a scary thought.
Indeed, even the championship has passed him by now. He’s just too old school and hasn’t moved with the times.
The board took a short term decision in getting Bruce in and its backfiring badly. And once the parachute money runs out next year, we could be in serious trouble if we don’t go back up, which barring an immediate managerial change we won’t.
Bruce has to go now before he does any more damage. He is clueless
Soon a s we gave them their goal they just sat back so anything Grealish did wasnt going to hurt them anymore….and with that any spark in the final 3rd.
maybe we should go down another level to reach our standards its just like we are papering over the cracks
Bruce out,
Lost first game in 6, lost 3 games in 19, Whelan fucked up otherwise it’s a draw today. Snodgrass and Hourihane should’ve scored second half.
Poor line up agreed but we have all the top 8 to play at home yet so I still expect us to go up in second. First game we’ve lost since losing JT.
But Bruce could’ve played Gabby as a target man and didn’t. Onomah is not deserving of his place. Grealish doesn’t actually have any end product. Jedinak is not a CB. Why not play him and Glenn on the centre to stiffen things up. Crosses into the box were awful today but pointless anyway with no target man.
Derby are not great and on another day it’s a draw.
We will finish 2nd.
Delusional…. the teams above rarely lose games or go three without a win like us. How exactly are we going to finish above them or close the rapidly growing gap.
Every time we come up against decent opposition we get destroyed, it happened against Wolves, and Cardiff and again Derby today. How on earth does that bode any confidence even for the play offs should we scrape the 6th place Bruce has been dreaming of.
You cannot get automatic promotion being negative and cautious and that is Bruce all over. A dinosaur with no place in the modern game. Put even a half decent manager in his place and we’d be challenging for the title with our resources.
Didn’t get destroyed today should have been a draw- I was at the game, were you?
Yeah right. 2nd? You are having a laugh. A couple of threads ago you said we were catching Cardiff and had the best form in the league (wrong on both counts). Our form across the last 5 games is the worst in the top 9. Only Preston and Middlesborough in the Top 10 have scored fewer goals this season.
Hats off to you for going to the game though.
Cardiff have lost 3 games in 22. We’ve lost 5. Do you honestly think we’re making up the 10 points in 24? That’s 3 losses and 2 draws while us winning every game for the rest of the season. It’s all easy claiming we’ll finish 2nd, but you need to actually look into it. And that doesn’t look likely at that they’ll start losing a few.
We have United, Brentford, Boro and Bristol next. How many points do you honestly think we’ll take away from that?
We’re also 2 points above 9th place. We could be out of the top 6 by next weekend.
Onomah must have a play if fit clause in his contract. He shouldn’t even be on the bench
Back it in Owen, your delusional mate, that team is crap to say the lease, Bruce has had his time in the game its out for me.
just when you thought things couldn’t get any worse mccormack is out injured with a bad injury. wasn’t thinking he would return but i hoped they might have sold him for a bag of crisp or cuppa
hope its not really bad for him
My message is a short one. We stank today (again). Our football is turgid and clueless, a truly joyless experience to watch and even worse to pay for. Seeing us makes the eyes bleed.
F*** off Bruce, as of yesterday.