I attempted my usual drive up the A38 to work at six o’clock this morning and only made it as far as the Horse and Jockey in Sutton, before I decided that I was being stupid and headed back home.
The roads didn’t look like they’d been gritted at all and the thought of going down the hill at Weeford frankly scared me.
Hence I really would advise against driving today, as the roads are lethal.
Anyway, it means I’ve got a chance to post my thoughts on yesterday’s game and frankly they can be summed up as “disappointed”.
We really ought to be beating a side that is barely in the third quarter of the league; especially at home and we just can’t afford to be dropping points like this if we’re to challenge for the play-offs.
As is often the case of late, I didn’t see or hear anything of the game as I was stuck at work, but by all accounts we were very poor. The stats would seem to back this up, with us only having one shot on target against Millwall’s eight.
Now, we can all have off days, but that frankly isn’t good enough is it? And that’s not bias of any kind, it’s just pure fact.
It says a lot that Johnstone was head and shoulders our best player and not a single other player came out with much credit and I really don’t know what else there is to say.
I suppose you can look on the positive side and say that at least we didn’t lose, but I’m not finding much comfort in that, especially after we’ve dropped a place to Derby. Continuing the positive vein, at least they’re only one point ahead of us now that they’ve used up their game in hand.
But what makes yesterday so disappointing is that on paper, it was the easiest fixture we’re going to have for the rest of December, with Derby (A), Sheff U (H), Brentford (A) and Boro (A) coming up.
I really don’t see many points there, do you?
The lads are really going to have to dig deep.
Which is pretty apt, as it happens, because I’m looking out the window and seeing 4 inches of snow, with the forecasters saying we have another seven hours worth to go.
If you really do have to drive today, be careful out there.
think we need to play – johnstone – elmohamady for his crossing, elphick because he doesn’t become a bad defender over night, chester and taylor – snodgrass whelan because he’s the irish iniesta jedinak to make us solid adomah- hourihane behind davis as they linked so well against norwich and we haven’t played that way since strangely – grealish at the moment hasn’t done enough to suggest he can be anymore than an impact player – not yet…
A chance to see the young guns at Villa tomorrow, tickets £4 kids, £1
Coventry City fans are hoping to turn out in force to support the club’s Under-18s who face Aston Villa in the FA Youth Cup tomorrow night.
For some of the Sky Blue Army, it will be the first time they have returned to Villa Park since City were relegated from the Premier League back in 2001.
And there will be one noisy spectator ensuring Andy Crabtree’s boys get a thumping good welcome on the night, the Ricoh Arena’s resident drummer from Block 14 in Singers’ Corner.
“The Under-18s have taken time to adjust this season but they are a good young side and they deserve the support,” said season ticket holder Nick Robinson, who believes there could be up to 500 away fans making the short trip down the M6 for the clash.
davis does need to be rested and does need to be eased into the second half of season. so getting a replacement like ulloa would be so beneficial to are promotion and davis would learn the ropes from him. davis has been brilliant but he is getting found out more and more, teams are marking him out as danger. they surrounding him and lately the back up for davis is not fast coming. he has been holding onto the ball too long.
grealish has come on and played the onomah role and looked dangerous. against wednesday we were weak all game. grealish introduction with ohare changed our game. grealish found ohare with a nice through ball inside right. ohare crossed and samba scored. against millwall grealish came on again in the onomah position. he striaght away got close to davis. he was again looking to thread through balls. he his looking to beat defenders. and he had the one shot in the game i think. grealish is our best attacking player. he has the ability to beat the defenders with quick feet. he can pick out a forward pass. he will get close to davis or whoever is the forward.
i worry about the millwall game i saw worrying signs our shape was wrong and work rate both with ball and without was not good. leadership was lacking. jedi is vital we lacked organisation when the shit hit the fan against leeds and millwall we had no answers against millwall they out worked us and had better organisation. two attributes i would have said we were the best in this league at. i hope that millwall game was a wake up call and they now work and take all games serious
predicted villa side for weekend. not mine on the news page
they got us switching to 442. davis and hogan up front. i myself wanted this formation since hogan arrived. but last time we tried this was the wednesday game. it never looked like working. but the formation wasn’t the reason we was mauled on that day.
davis wouldn’t be so knackered if he had another striker sharing the load. what makes it hard for him is doing all the donkey work, plus trying to get onto crosses.hogan should benefit from playing off davis as will davis benefit with hogan closing down defenders and his pace will automatically stop the derby defenders from pushing high.
i think the defeat to wednesday will haunt bruce and he will keep the same formation, onomah will continue as support. i think he can play this role. just he not managed it yet. the position is new to him and he is drifting to the ball and this leaves davis stranded. if he can work with and near davis. be more direct and when in range shoot or think forward passes. he could play the role. i personally would drop him and stick grealish in. but call me deluded i would go with davis and hogan 4 4 2
Young guns beat Coventry 2 -1 , live on Birmingham mail live football.
any decent prospects for us to keep a eye on bill
Fast game Nath, names escape me due to commentary, but the captain of Villa scored the two goals, one Nath from 25 yards and it was a cracker, he was midfielder and have to say Villa played some neat football, the centre forward was a black lad and I believe he was French, in fact 3 of them lads are foreign,
Good football though and pleasure to watch.
Colin Odutayo got both goals, Dmitri Sea was our striker. Both signed over the summer due to our improved scouting. Other than those two, though Odutayo looks the brightest, Jacob Ramsey is going to be a quality player. Those 3 could do very well for us in the future.
http://www.coventrytelegraph.net/sport/football/match-reports/aston-villa-under-18s-2-14035788
If you wanna read up on it.
Apparently we’re interested as well as other Championship teams, in Peterborough striker, Jack Marriot. Apparently they want around 2.5m and he’s scored 17 goals so far this season. Not sure Bruce would be willing to take a risk on a 23 year old who’s played for Luton Town and Peterborough so far in his career.
Bruce has apparently been in lengthy talks with Steve Rounds about transfers in January, Ulloa seems our number 1 striking target.
definitely going up if we get ulloa – would be great signing
https://www.express.co.uk/sport/football/892377/Aston-Villa-News-First-January-Signing-Oli-McBurnie-Instagram-EFL-Championship
Not sure what to make of it. I do wonder how many strikers we’ll try signing. Guess it would depend on if we can get rid of Hogan and how long Kodjia will be out for. If Hogan goes and Kodjia’s out for a while, possibly two loan strikers could come in.
In even better news though. Green has tweeted he’s ready and focused, so he may very well be back in training. That would be excellent for us come January if he comes back.
selling hogan, that will be a big mistake. we have simply failed to provide him with any type of service. let alone a service he would thrive on. playing to his strengths wouldn’t take to much changes.the guy has had bad luck with injury and needs to be given a chance and i mean a chance in his position not shoved on the wing or made to run around closing down defenders,he never gets anything to attack in the box. i think he’ a better striker than kodjia he is defiantly more a team player. kodjia can score his own goals. but kodjia isn’t the fox in the box that hogan will be.
p/s i remember a player like kodjia in my days, having head down never looking at who is in the better position. this is all well as long as they score. but it ends up frustrating the team and i recall we hated the guy.