So with me worrying somewhat that we might not be able to sustain our run against the Blues, it would seem we actually performed really well, with us dominating the game and grabbing a well-deserved 3 points that kept the momentum going.
The good news for me was the continuing fact that we don’t need to rely on the strikers these days and it seems goals are likely to come from any of our players, which is always a good sign.
I won’t harp on about that game, as although it was a great result, so it’s gone and we move on to another very tough test against Fulham, at the Cottage.
Squad news first and Albert Adomah has a tight hamstring, while Jack Grealish suffered a knock on the calf.
Both are quite a bit doubtful, but my guess is they’ll be itching to play and probably will do, unless they’re over-ruled.
It’s amazing how differently players feel, when they’re playing well and the team’s on a roll.
Fulham will have a late look at captain Tom Cairney, after a niggling knee injury.
Otherwise, both squads are pretty much ok.
It’s interesting to note that many of us see Fulham as perhaps the major threat to the Villa taking second place in the league.
It’s a view that I concur with, as they’re playing some nice footy and have won their last six games at home.
But I wonder how many of us knew that Fulham face six of the top eight Championship teams in the next three weeks?
I certainly didn’t and if they come through that particularly well, they’ll definitely be challenging.
I’m minded to think that it’s a big ask though and it may be a chance for us to gain some more daylight between us and them, regardless of what happens tomorrow.
If you’d asked me a few months ago how we’d get on in this fixture, I’d probably have said that we have very little chance and the draw would be the best we could hope for.
But following on from the “Can you see it now?” post, I now think our chances are better than that.
While I don’t think we’re anywhere near perfect, we’re a much more cohesive outfit these days.
There’s a resilience about the defence and the team seems much more “together” than it’s been for a very long time.
All in all, it makes us very tough to beat.
But that doesn’t mean that we should sit back and try to nick the point, at all.
Fulham have the guile to unlock the tightest of defences and they will, if you let them.
Fortunately, I think Bruce has a lot more confidence in the team these days and will not shackle the side.
The players are brimming with confidence too and I’m sure they’ll try to take it to Fulham, as best they can.
If we can keep them on the back foot, I’d be quite confident of us actually winning this.
But I’m not going to take that extra step in predicting a win.
This is a really tough game, I reckon and if we can nick the win, it might actually be a game-changer in my outlook.
But given that I can’t pick my nose, let alone the right result, I’m going for the draw.
I suspect we’ll concede.
So 1-1 it is.
And I’d happily take that.
Comments
61 responses to “Fulham – Villa; Perhaps the ultimate test? I’m surprisingly confident”
Bugger. Looks like we were wrong Hitch.
Roll on Tuesday!
Keep on being positive Bum Bum – we got blind sided by the injuries to Adomah and Grealish
Well he needs to look at that game again and again and understand what he put out was not good enough , I look at it like this , young players need to show their skills and be played, all our youngsters are ready to go in, stop holding them back , its the sign that you are trying to play safe.
not sure all the young players are ready, just want to point out mckirdy and suliman both dropped to the old div three to get game time. both are not starting yet. mckirdy is only getting on late in games. suliman has also not see much action if any,
green may not be ready to 1st team fitness if you cant do the 90 minutes some managers dont like to have them on the bench. maybe he is close but wasnt risked.
the length of his injury would also play a part. if it was a long time they will want him to play a few under 23 to get his strength back, without him being stretched to much too soon. best to have him assessed and eased back in
Disappointing but not completely unexpected. It may well have been a different game with Adomah and Grealish but we should still have had enough to get a draw. Sometimes we look a bit frail, and it also looks like we take a cautious approach to games against the better teams.
We just need to get back to where we were quickly, and keep pushing on. Ha! I sound like McLeish and Lambert – we regroup and go again!!
I must be generation’s apart , when your in your 20 s plus you should have learnt the trade, like my grandson last year under 12s 56 goals, this year 20 plus, he knows where the goals are , your all the same size on a football pitch and the game is to win, to be honest I don’t see that at Villa , the only one that runs his socks off is the youngest player, he makes players move with his passing and chances in creating them., that was not there today.
Andre Green is suffering with a hamstring problem – again – hencechis no show today. Looks like our injury hoodoo is about to hit us again at a critical time.
*hence his
This is such a competitive league that I knew our run probably wouldn’t go on for much longer. Losing away to Fulham is no humiliation but it’s what we do next that will tell us whether we’ll stand a chance of automatic promotion or not.
If they can bounce back on Tuesday then I honestly think we’ll go all the way.
Not long back from Craven Cottage. Fulham are an excellent side as I expected, they for me are the clear favorites for 2nd and I think they’ll finish comfortably ahead of us – Jokanovic is a class above our management and staff I’m afraid to say.
First half was pretty even but they dominated the possession as you’d expect. 2nd half Fulham dominated from start to finish and should really have scored and won by more than 2.
Yet again against a top side in this league we were nowhere to be seen. Credit to the players, we’ve had a great run but even despite that we’re still not in the automatics. The club has gambled on promotion and IMO we’ll fall just short and that will be a financial disaster waiting to happen, Hope I’m wrong.
Special shout out to the fans today who were excellent, apparently 7000 there. I was in the “neutral end” and even that was 75% plus Villa. Outstanding support.
As some said, it was likely we were going to lose. Fulham are on a great run like we were and were the second most inform team as we are and they were at home. It was the hardest game we have left, with the other big teams pretty much all being at home. I will question however the strength of the actual team though. Losing Adomah and Grealish while two of our biggest players, shouldn’t have that kind of effect, should it? Our fans like claiming we have the strongest squad, but if we lose a couple players and we start not being able to score, that’s a problem.
But we’re only 2 points off 2nd again, with 14 games left.
Andrew – against pretty much any other side (other than perhaps Wolves) I would agree with you but losing two of our best players who combine with such devastating effect against a very good Fulham side at a ground which has never been kind to us then ………..
for all you die hard villa fans that can only see black and white. don’t get too upset. the game yesterday was lost when grealish was not playing. he is the focal point to all our play. you can remove hogan adomah and we can cope but you remove grealish and you stop villa playing completely.
the game yesterday was decided by the first goal. after that yes fulham were better but that because we tried to chase the game. without anybody able to pick out a decent aggressive pass.
grealish makes other players around him look better than they really are. its obvious isn’t it he creates spaces that are not there without him. he passes through balls that other players cant see.
blues whole game plan was to hurt grealish and that was because they know we are a miles better side with, than without him. mission completed by the blues
I agree with nath in that one player crucial to us getting promoted is Grealish. If he plays for rest of the season then we have a great chance. Our opponents know he is the one who makes us tick. He nearly always has two players around him, creating space for the likes of Adomah and Hogan. The biggest difference in Grealish since his injury is his work rate. We have to get back to winning ways on Tuesday because teams around us will drop points. No reason why we can’t get another winning run going.
that is 100% true about the players he attracts around him. which is the reason our other players have space, when grealish is waving his wands.
this affect is only a part of the reason grealish is so affective. he also delivers in aggressive types passes his angles he creates with give and goes. also runs, going past opposition players as if they are road cones
You said that better than I did Nath, that is what I’m saying, surely we have another youngster with out saying he has to learn his trade, most in our team are in their late 20 and early 30s , if we hit injuries slot a runner in the team it has to help in some way.I wonder how many will miss the boat in the youngsters and never given a chance, to me its playing safe ,or taking a chance.
green and ohare are similar in many ways to grealish but are not at his level. i think green is close really close. needs games and these injuries are holding him back. he must have had a injury yesterday as hitch said. otherwise he would have been ideal replacement.
ohare needs games too, but not at villa. he needed to go out on loan. i cant understand keeping him at villa in the under23’s.
i really think they should have gone back to the target man yesterday. if you lose grealish to injury, we lose good field position, lose good movement and you lose opposition fearing you.
we needed to go more direct with davis and maybe hogan playing off him. concede you will lose midfield battle, you go longer and turn fulham around with balls in behind,
he probably decided against this because of lack of good width but they need to work on a plan b playing without grealish
We were in this game until the second goal. Which was a freak one. The test now is if we can go on another run. Fulham and the teams below us have to play each other. We need another run of 7 wins which is possible and we’ll sew up second. Shouldn’t need to rely Grealish as we were top 6 before he got fit again. Adomahs knack of getting goals on the other hand is a huge miss.
Just looked at Fulham’s next half a dozen games and if they are in top four after those games they will be definite favourites for 2nd. Even though we lost yesterday we should have an opportunity to put pressure on those around us. I did think Cardiff would fade away but they are proving everyone wrong. Does anyone know if Grealish and Adomah will be fit for Tuesday? I heard Elmo went off injured and is doubtful.
bruce said after the game that adomah will not be fit for tuesday. not sure if he means both wont or he just said adomah.
we need to change the style if grealish is again absentee. playing in the same way but without grealish will not work.
i thought the utd loanee had a good game when you consider the level of his direct opponent he was up against. i think he had him in his pocket except for their first goal, which Sessegnon pealed away from him and scored.
I know we won 7 on the trot which is great but with the exception of his goal against blues idon’t think houriane contributes muchtothe team. With grealish possibly out again i think the only player close to him in passing ability (if given a free role) is young O’hare. He also has a high work rate.
Hourihane should be dropped- been poor for a while. Maybe 442 with Grabban and Hogan Tuesday?
I read an article that both players unlikely for midweek game. We will have to change our style with maybe Grabban alongside Hogan or Davis as a target man to feed off. Whatever Bruce does I hope he has options on bench to mix it up if things not working out. Put O’hare on bench instead of Whelan. We don’t need him if Jedinak and Bjarnasson are available. It would be a waste in fact to block promising youngsters getting opportunities.
Was not a great performance yesterday. Fulham definitely deserved the win.
Not having Grealish was a big loss, but we have enough depth in our squad to put in better displays than that. Tuanzabe put in a really good shift at RB especially up against Sessegnon.
Really important that we bounce back and get 3 points on Tuesday now. Its gonna be a hard fought race for 2nd place!
Risk is for us to over react to yesterday’s loss.
SB has said that Adomah will not be fit Tuesday and ‘they will have to see on Grealish’ – so I suspect both will be missing again. Elmo is also doubtful.
If Elmo is out we need someone to play LW or we need to change our game plan to perhaps a 4-4-2. I agree that Hourihane hasn’t been on top of his game but with our injuries he has to play. Assuming Grealish / Elmo along with Adomah not fit, I would move Hutton to RB and bring Taylor back at LB. Tuan what’s his name or Thor can pair up with Jedinak as defensive mids with Hourihane and Lansbury or Bjarnisson playing attacking mids. Grabben and Hogan up front or am I deluded. Answers on the back of a postage stamp!
That now worries me, Grealish not fit? hopefully that is a manager trying to throw the opposition .I still think we don’t have the players to drive us forwards, Houihane not the answer, Bjarnasson ? not creative enough , I know I go on about the youngsters but I look at it like this, at 18 your a man, at twenty your old enough, if that’s not true how on earth was they then heroes In our wars,
Don’t treat them youngsters like children use them , they know its the future and bust a gut to show it., if Grealish can do it so can others at that age.Bruce pay attention to your reserves, go and watch to see what you have. Shit that whisky going down well…🍺🍺👍