Ah yes, the Smiths. They knocked out some good tunes, didn’t they?
I’m sure someone has probably used that as a headline before, so I apologise.
But it just seems so apt.
You’ll notice that I’ve been leaving my ramblings until the day after the match lately, instead of as soon as possible. The reason is that I’m just like anyone else, in that I get emotional and am prone to making knee-jerk comments.
So I’ve decided to give myself time to think things through before writing.
And the result is that I believe it’s too early to sack Steve Bruce.
I suspect that will have a good few of you thinking I’m an idiot and maybe you’re right.
Look, I totally get it. Our football makes me want to vomit too.
Even though I managed to watch a fair amount of the game, I found myself more than happy to flick around here and other Villa sites to gauge the mood of the fans.
It didn’t make for very pleasant reading and the consensus seemed to be that the manager has to go.
I can see why too, as in my opinion, that display was as poor as anything we produced during the relegation season.
There was no heart, no fight, no spirit and the biggest insult of all, seemingly no effort. We quite simply played that game as if it was a training match and it frankly shocked me.
The lack of urgency, pace, closing down and movement was just abysmal.
A simple thing like taking a throw-in takes ages, because no-one runs around and the thrower has nowhere to throw too. Did anyone else see Hutton with the ball, gesturing to the rest of the players to give him an option, as he was being closed down?
This is scandalously bad stuff and shouldn’t be happening amongst professional footballers.
So it has to be the manager’s fault. He’s the one who’s in charge.
or does it?
While mooching around other sites, I noticed a comment which keeps bugging me.
The poster saw that when Reading had a throw-in, Bruce instructed Gabby to mark a Reading player. Gabby totally ignored him and the Reading player received the ball, only for Bruce to throw his hands up in the air in bewilderment.
So what’s going on here?
I haven’t got a clue, but it does make you wonder if Steve Bruce has indeed lost the dressing room, as has been oft suggested.
Then again, if it’s just Gabby who’s being an arsehole, why does Bruce keep playing him?
I can’t profess to know the answer to that one and I can only guess that there’s something going on behind the scenes that we don’t know about.
What was it Sherlock Holmes said? Remove all the options and the only one left is the answer, however unlikely. Or something like that.
Which is my case for the defence of Bruce.
In short, m’lud, the players aren’t doing as they’re told and that isn’t the manager’s fault.
So the prosecution case (how the hell has this become a court battle?) is that Bruce can’t control the players. Again, that’s the only possibility, because Bruce certainly isn’t telling them to misplace passes, stroll around like they haven’t got a care in the world and generally not bother, is he?
So leaving the realms of fantasy and getting back to the real world; We have to remove Bruce and get another manager in.
Which takes me back to my position of “if Bruce can’t control the players, who do we think can?”.
Make no mistake. If things carry on as they are, we’re in serious trouble, I see that.
We face Norwich at home next and while they’ve struggled themselves up til now, if we lose to them, things will look seriously bad.
Bruce has asked for more time (which is usually a sign of the fat lady having done her warm-up), so we can form a better opinion when we have our best team. But how long is that going to be?
We don’t have that long, is the simple answer and with supposedly by far the best squad in the league, a few injuries shouldn’t matter anyway.
But then, make no mistake that thinking the players are blameless here.
They’ve been simply poor too.
For me, something has to happen quickly, because it won’t be Xia sacking Bruce; it’ll be the fans’ clamour for his head, which Xia will not be able to resist.
Such is the power of the internet and why I never liked him posting the way he does, fwiw.
While I’d predicted that we’d struggle in our first few games, we have to get a win, sharpish.
I’d remind everyone that the league will not be won over 4, 5 or even 6 games, as much as it might feel like it will at the moment.
Quite simply, my mind is in turmoil over what to think, but my fairly elderly instincts are that now is not the time.
Remind me, when’s the international break?
That might be more opportune.
Just get us a win Steve or you’re a goner, mate.
But I’m sure he doesn’t need me to tell him that.
And just in case you’re in the mood for a bit of panic, here’s the link;
Comments
169 responses to “Reading 2 – 1 Villa; Panic on the streets of Birmingham”
davis is a type of striker villa need at present. the ball is constantly coming back at villa. gabby and Hogan both cant hold the ball up long enough to set up play bring in midfielders to work off. from what little I have seen of davis he has this attributes. he might not be ready or reached his potential. but he will not let us down. would be wrong thou to make him play the lone ranger. him and murphy/gabby would work better. we might have to get a striker in who can hold the ball up as we cant rely on gabby to cover Hogan and kodjia
Sorry Hitch been watching cricket, Colbeck? New one on me mate ,
Just back tracking that Hitch, not another saviour and has been surely,
Apparently we’re linked to Gallagher on loan.
watching Gallagher last year he is perfect fit for our need upfront. hes young still needing experience himself. but him or gabby leading the frontline ??? not even a tough choice. Gallagher is strong, good in the air and able to hold the ball up very well. hope it is a done deal
its about time we settle on some sort of style regardless of which manager is hired. Southampton seem to have this. they have changed their manager a few times over the recent years. and they have sold rather a lot of decent players for decent prices. they managed the situation professionally. because they have a footballing identity. a system a style of play. which the club implement regardless of changes in personnel.
they buy players only when needed, or bring them through their system when they are ready. one criteria is they fit their system. where we seem to buy players and hope to god we find a system for them. this has been a problem I noticed for years.
has terry or any other high playing authority come out and discussed the current form. you would think a top professional would come out and reassure the fans that they are doing extra work behind the scenes to amends the situation. massive game Norwich weekend not just for bruce but for our season, our away form can be worked on. but if they fook up at home we can kiss our promotion goodbye
Gallagher and Colback. One’s definitely ideal for the negative long ball tactic and Colback is a semi-decent midfielder.
Long ball? Really? Think you’re chatting crap. For a chap who likes his stats I’d have a read of yesterday’s Birmingham Mail where you’ll see an article showing we play less long balls than most other teams in the division.
I apologize. Long ball + Pass it to the other team style of football. Is that better?
roger
hard to play long ball when you play in your own half
Jedi could be available for tomorrow Elmo says he’s OK for tomorrow plus hogan could play some part aswell
But that’s a terrible stat Langford – no team should be so reliant on one player. Wasn’t Whelan bought to fill the gap as a holding mid fielder in front of the defence?
Having said that the Jedi took a few games to get used to the speed and more aggressive playing styles in the Championship so I suppose there is hope yet.
Whoops! That was in answer to your following post Langford – Internet on the blink – probably open reach messing around again!
Thats good news….saw a stat yesterday that says we’ve never won a league game when Jedink hasn’t started!
brilliant you speak great tuesday night i just wanted bruce out wednesday i was not quite so sure but i will say if bruce his putting his job on the line keep picking agbonlaor he his sure for the sack and if he has lost the dressing room only he knows he should walk and a great reading thank you
Bruce confirms interest in Gallagher but says no interest in Colback.
Gallagher did well on loan for Blackburn last season (in a struggling side) so might prove a decent loan signing.
look I have a problem with ppl saying villa are a long ball team. I watched football and played it, so I know long ball game when i see it. we play no style either long or short. its best described as chaos football. sunday league were everybody is attracted to the ball like magnets. but villa try to work the ball and cross the ball from normal crossing areas. please tell me how this is long ball. I saw some stats backing this up. i am not saying we play good football, but i am saying its definitely not long ball.
Gallagher will be a decent loan signing. he is a target man, unlike gabby Gallagher will get on end of crosses, are crosses classed as long ball these days.
Long balls are what you get when you don’t them very often! 🙂
I’m tripping over the fuckers
hahaha s funny you both should visit your quacks lol
Lol….mine are tucked into me socks! 🙂
The scrum 1- Burton 0 That’s all we need.
Burton won 2-1 hipper.
The scum lose and send us to the bottom of the table – anyone spot the irony in that?
we can always rely on scum to make us feel better in our dark days
So we’re looking at Gallagher and ignoring our own kids?
Long ball it will be then.
Or crosses (which aren’t long ball, imo).
It makes no odds to me.
If we persist in playing two banks of 4 in our own 3rd, it won’t matter what we do up front.
We seriously need more in the middle.
Feed any decent bloody striker who’s being backed up with support, often enough and he will score.
That means not Gabby, obviously.
Regardless, bringing in a battering ram will not be the answer, in the short term.
Might work well with Kodjia though (although I suspect not, more likely Hogan).
But makes me wonder why we sold Gestede????
This is making decisions on the hoof, imo and not a good sign.
Anyway, I’m not sure how i’m going to get to watch this one, but I’ll post something on Sunday, whatever.
Badger, that’s why its turned me against him, its showing lack of tactical knowledge to me, he’s done some senseless changes and its now to be seen by fans.what he’s doing is safety play and opposition can see it and counter his ideas. I don’t want it but its another loss he’s been found out.
it might be we have only davis who can hold the ball up in any fashion. gabby murhy are both strikers that like to use speed to burst past players. they like balls behind defences. Gallagher I have seen a few times and he has the game to be able to hold the ball up.
just because you have a big striker up front doesn’t mean you have to revert to long ball tactics. all good strikers score many goals with their heads. are these long balls or great crosses and nice headers.
davis I would like to give him the chance, but for how long will he be asked to lead the line ??? Gallagher is more experienced than davis. this is the reason why its a good loan signing. we need somebody to keep a hold of the ball which allows the other players to work off them.
Oh, I can’t see past a draw.
A defeat, I really don’t want to think about.
I can’t see anything more than a draw and a small win will only paper over the cracks – really sad times for the Villa…. Huge problems much deeper than Bruce and I can’t see much changing anytime soon.
If we don’t go up this season will the Doctor get bored ??
Nath or anyone else game should be streamed today on Facebook, we’re bottom so things surely couldn’t get any worse can they??? UTV
cheers giddy I appreciate your help. without it I wouldn’t have been able to view the recent games and todays. I have not used my lappy for ages since I got the firestick . I run into problems before the reading game. I think I sorted these out now. learning as I go lol cheers giddy
Nath, have you got mobdro? It works on Android then you might find it on foreign channels, sometimes it’s on in the state’s, our matches are sold abroad from the UK.if you dont have mobdro just download on tablet.
yeah I have I opened it ages ago and it was working great. I used that more than sportdevils but last week both started to not work. since sly sports changed their formats
oh I hear you bill. I should check the usa channels. I just been using the sly sports not the other channels. it was on the applications on firestick I just run opened the programme. what I couldn’t watch on their I then used sportsdevil
the new backroom staff sporting director etc these ppl need to come out and explain themselves. too many times the manager is getting stitched up like a kipper at villa. that rhymed unintentional. why do we not have a football style worthy of the name. they want to sell shirts and tickets, they have to produce a product worth the price of tickets or sale of shirts. they have failed in the quality of football and end product is below standards.
we fans are just demanding they sack managers. but I am not alone in thinking its goes deeper than the managers. we need to get to the bottom of the continual failures season by season quickly or we will continue to fall.
the relegated team was quickly sold or blacklisted and new team came and we continued to play shit. we have again started fresh with bruce and new team assembled and again we are dog shite. this pattern needs to stop. sack bruce by all means, but somebody else needs to answer why we hire so many losers and buy so much crap players.
I still believe we have a good set of players this season. I am head scratching to fathom why they are not gelling. it could be bruces tactics as most on here say. but I think theirs a strong possibility something is hindering the managers and making their jobs alittle harder than it should be. two thing all the managers in our recent history had before joining villa. that was good reputations before they joined. they wouldn’t have got the job if they hadn’t. then how many are employed now or had decent jobs since leaving. I heard mcliesh saying he blames the time at villa for his lack of opportunities now. he didn’t mean anything nasty just that the time at villa basically ruined his reputation. he went on and exposed the club owner saying he was told to reduce the playing staff wages and he said it will make us weaker but he was forced and he still managed to survive. then lerner hired lambert and again they continued to reduce.
the good dr came in and things looked brighter. but we again are falling into same patterns. we are a massive club and don’t deserve this shit. all we ask is to be competitive and ppl well paid do their jobs. if we don’t managed to do our jobs we are not so lucky to have a contract that the employers cant afford to pay you off. sort the bloody club out for fooks sakes
Nath – maybe thats the problem – we are just not a big club any longer….
We have the fantastic ability to turn quality mangers and players into complete dross – god knows !!!
I don’t claim to know the answer. I am amazed how many changes we make, for what we still heading in the opposite direction. before others jump on my back. bookmakers have so called experts, asses each team before they offer prices for each games and seasons. this is so they don’t pay out like they did for Leicester winning league. they priced villa up as clear favourites. with good reasons we have some quality players for the championship in our ranks
so if the experts got us wrong again what chances have we. I wished we could identify the problem. maybe it is Gabby or Richards oh and hutton they remain where all the others have been flogged.
I would like somebody high ranked with authority to come out and address the fans either in meet some fans groups and answer questions. where are we exactly heading division 1 or premiership. they owe the fans this at least its not just 3 games calm down its 10 bloody seasons and the nightmare is getting worse
count to 10 lol
Deep Breaths Nath….
I don’t think anyone knows the answer – completely agree that even the bookmakers thought we would go up this season – instead, on the pitch we are still playing awful football and this has been the same for years.
We have thrown so much cash around and got nowhere – we are the Woolworths of the football world !!
spot on about the cash. we have spent millions assembling two different squads for just 2 championship seasons. money isn’t the problem, the good dr needs to have a inquiry, quickly find some reason, why we are still pants. whether its happening now or they are waiting for the 10 th game. he has to get to the bottom of this, also keep the fans in the picture. because the fans are supporting the club. they need to know, what is being done, so they can keep continuing supporting. knowing something is happening to change our club finally
hey badger/ ooahaha you should charge for each post we place in the threads. I feel better for getting that shit of my head. who needs the samaritans lol joking about the fee. where else can we villans meet up and have banter, most importantly relieve tensions
The only difference between now and the 1960’s is that we have wasted more money. Unless this is turned round quickly we could see history repeating itself 50 years on.
No jedi folks thought he was ready fed us bullshite to calm the mood, elmos back
davis has a start. he is a player that needs time to develop. but I reckon today we will see villa with some threat upfront,unlike the threat Gabby 30k a week offers. looking forwards to this game, go get them davis. a goal today might be the start of his villa career
theirs no Gabby in starting line up or on bench. is there a injury or has bruce had enough of him,
The media said as much, all the talk about new signings and who was fit to play was just a ply to take the heat off the team. Villa is acting very strange just lately, i wonder why.