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.
Yep, disappointed. It’s as simple as that 🙁
We was poor Badger, and I mean poor, that performance will not get us in the top 6, i know its only half way in the league but we need a centre forward bad, Davis is not the answer with his performance yesterday. Derby will tell us if we stand any chance of being in the play off.
In my mind on Davis, he hasn’t put the performance in like the time he was looking to sign a contract, the kid was playing to get a contract, and boy my thoughts was hes one for the future. Yesterday’s performance was didn’t win the ball, lost control when he had it, then all his lay off went astray, I know he can get better, might be we played the wrong man along side of him, still in Bruce I trust till I see January’s team but at the minute we will not be in that top 6 if we play like that again.
davis is being found wanting more, because teams are knowing off him they are preparing for him. they are surrounding him, which is good for us, should mean more spaces for others. if he has runners to lay it to and if he releases it quickly, but none of those happens and he keeps hold to long. needs a rest badly
I think we need to be careful about criticising Davis, as he’s only young and there’s been a lot asked of him.
But you’re certainly not the first one to make that sort of point, Bill.
My Derby fan workmate suggested that we should go to that game together, but it just hasn’t happened and I suspect I might be glad about that, as he’s the worst I know for banter.
(Note to self) There’s two L’s in Millwall, duh!
You mean 4, surely!!!
You’re right, of course.
I don’t have a problem with the “wall” part though 🙂
don’t know how i type my thoughts on this game. i am damned if i am positive and damned if i am over critical. millwall are a good team and many thought they aren’t, that’s a big problem. fans don’t rate any teams in this league except maybe wolves who they dribble at.
we should beat millwall if we are playing good. but i seen bad signs in our play for weeks. whether its fatigue or just another off day. without the ball we are not committing to a good defensive shape with a good press. they are disorganised and pressing in ones and twos. with the ball they are just as bad. we are too predictable and slow. two bad traits lethal when you suffer both.
fans attending were showing their discontent rightly or wrongly really early. this attitude can hinder the players more. i think the players just had a collectively bad day. millwall had a decent game plan like wednesday. they pressed us and unlike the teams we used to suffer that sat back.both millwall and wednesday took the game to villa, we are simply not as good as we think. millwall were most dangerous at villas own corners. thats the bad organisation i was talking about.
when you play teams aggressive like those two. you have to be quicker with the pass, pass past the pressing or simply tire them out by moving the ball quickly, keeping lots of possession. we don’t do none of this. grealish is the one player that can play the tippy tappy stuff but not sure they were told to play slow and tippy tappy stuff milwall knew our game plan and they stopped us reaching the areas we wanted. we also lacked a leader yesterday
take it easy on me iam suffering from flu
Sorry to hear about your flu Nath.
There’s a lot of it about.
But are Millwall really that good a side?
If we stick to “the table doesn’t lie”, they’re 17th.
And we were at home.
And if Millwall came at us with a plan similar to Sheffield, surely it’s equally disappointing that we can’t seem to counter it?
i have had it since monday last. its easing up slightly. feeling better for the week ahead i hope, cant afford not too.
millwall are a good championship side. they are not gonna be relegated or suffer many hammering. they are really organised, that alone is a game changer when you are hard working. you can be a handful.
millwall had a good game plan to play villa. villa haven’t the tools to combat them as shown. i think and hope this is a blip. but teams are seeing villa suffer at home especially. with the crowd and expectation. when they are being pressed they are not comfortable handling this. we are missing jedi or terry these things can be sorted out with a leader on the field.
don’t know how many times i saw millwall hit villa with counters directly from our corners that was not a accident it was a weakness they spotted.
it is very worrying we haven’t found answer to the pressing issue. its a respect the opposition give us, they feel they have to press us to a point they are exhausted like leeds did and failed to keep up the press. we lack leaders that organise as the game changes, we cant seem to do this at moment.
millwall deserved to win and they were happy with a point but at the end of the game millwall players were spent and villa players were not. that shows you we had given our all and they had. as did leeds before them. its a much harder game plan to hustle the opposition than sitting back and just limit spaces.
we need to tire the pressing team out more by keeping better possession, it has to be quick passes and for longer than we do. this will stop them pressing and give us more spaces and time. also i notice millwall stopping us going wide and that bamboozled us lmao it took until grealish arrived to answer that. shoot at goal. ok you have been told to cross the ball but if the opposition is stopping you out wide change the plan and attack the centres. we are too predictable
We drew the game after playing pool that’s the only real positive. But it’s another point and if Readinh beat Cardiff it’s another point into their lead. We’ll get a lot more space against Derby, Sheff U and Boro. Still going at over 2 Pts a game since Terry was injured. Still 2 Pts per game at home. We just need to improve away. Derby, Brentford and Boro away soon. I’m confident we’ll do enough in these games to still be in contention for automatic. Despite a poor performance it’s 5 games unbeaten and 11 points from 15. Wolves didn’t beat Sunderland at home, we did. That means we are better than Wolves!!!! Hahaha! Just going on some peoples logic on here!
sheff wednesday started off this pressing villa into errors. they hoped to achieve,that we would start rushing our possession. starving our forwards. but they also went further. knowing villa would hit davis more and more,they surrounded him cutting off any platform we could hoped for. they also backed up this with a more passing style game, which had us chancing shadows. this combination made villa fans get onto the home players and they rushed more and played into sheff wdnesday plan.
i said after that day others will try this. but not all can. leeds did try this and almost pulled it off, millwall definitely had the same plan as wednesday. but they lacked the same possession style of wednesday, they had to come up with some other way to finish us off. they didn’t quite manage that. but they managed to find a massive flaw into our marking from our own set pieces. yes we are attacking, but their is always a plan in case of a clearance. you generally have your fullback and the defending mid back on halfway ish millwall broke on villa loads of times. scary to think they couldn’t manage to stop as many times as it happened,
finally back to how to beat the press. well you do need leaders to organise this. but you have to move the ball quickly and crisp from one side to the other. mostly you want to bypass the press. so you don’t want to pass into the press with small tippy tappy passes. like we did. you go longer into the target man or your wide boys. this would tire them quicker and then you can get a grip. as we did against leeds. finally the crowd get nervous and onto the players backs this makes players want to be more precise and measured, so not making mistakes to annoy the crowd more. but that is too slow to move the pressing players about, this wont get them moving enough to tire and so they could manage to press us most of game.
at the end i saw many millwall players stretching hamstrings callapsing to the ground,they spent of all their energy. none of this from our players. that says it all. need to be better al round with and without ball. working just enough is not good enough,
Explain this Nat, your saying we was fitter yet we have two down,Meanwhile, midfielder Henri Lansbury completed his first 90 minutes of the season having previously struggled with a knee injury. However, the ex-Nottingham Forest skipper has since complained of a similar injury to Samba.
Asked specifically about Samba, Bruce told us: “I’m not so sure whether it’s a calf or a hamstring – it looked like a hamstring. Lansbury has got one as well. So that’s a disappointment.
Bill, I don’t think Nath is saying we’re fitter.
It’s more that Millwall ran their nuts off and we didn’t.
Lansbury? I suspect that’s a case of expecting too much, too soon.
And it’s easy to say in hindsight, but I think he should have been eased in more.
Who’d be a manager?
And Samba? Well, that’s what I expected.
Too muscle-bound and he’ll strain anything at the drop of a hat, at his age, same as Gabby.
Which is why I thought he was a poor signing, especially in the cold.
no i am not saying we are fitter i did mention us not being as exhausted as millwall. but i think this was down to us not working as hard as millwall; with and without the ball. we have bad habits i see one is we only do just enough. while this can be a blessing its also a curse. as you are not working the opposition enough. keeping juice in the tank when you shouldnt leave anything in reserve
Ok , do you think Bruce was wrong in not playing Conor Houihane when he plays Lansbury, he’s now saying he thinks he made a big mistake. We defiantly was lacking in that middle again, 1 shot on goal, Grealish made a different coming on.
i red bruces comments about this lansbury and houihane we still would have struggled if he hadn’t switched them. its because of reasons i said earlier. they had a plan how to stop us and get at us and switching them two players wouldn’t make a raft of difference.
grealish i think would have made a difference, playing in the role the spuds loan player is playing. another way to beat a press is somebody playing direct somebody who is accurate at passing. grealish loves dropping a shoulder and slipping past his marker, this would mean defenders and midfielder’s would have to double up on him this means a less affective press on other villa players and less effective press
That suggests that Bruce knew playing Lansbury was a risk, Bill.
I like both players, so it’s hard to say.
Maybe Bruce just thought Hourihane needed a rest?
I think Conor had a slight niggle, in fairness, which was why he was benched?
It still stems down to we have attacking mids in Lansbury and Hourihane, but sit them far too deep to be effective, on the whole, imo.
But that’s Bruce, isn’t it?
End of the day, he’s the manager and I’m not.
And it’s his (very well paid) job on the line, whereas I just spout crap, along with the rest of us 🙂
And tbh, I really don’t see Grealish being the answer to much at all, in this league.
He needs far better players around him, imo.
grealish is the only player capable of going past a defender. he is a step ahead of all villa players in attacking. yes he is not the finished player and he can be liability, but you have seen at leeds and home to wednesday and again yesterday. he scares the shit out of defender. they hate a player running directly at them. he can go left or right. he has a shot on him, (something the team should have done. shoot at goal. instead they reached the box only to filter back or try the impossible ball out wide)
grealish has to be played instead of the spurs loanee who should play deeper role or wider role. he isnt affective at attacking defences. grealish is attacker and is clever, he finds spaces, plays balls that pulls out defenders makes spaces for other attackers.
him and davis would work better than spurs loanee and davis. they don’t work in tandem where grealish would work with davis and off him.
And Nath seems to think Grealish is the answer.
Long live opinions, of whatever flavour! (as long as they’re reasonably balanced) 🙂
I’d just say that doubling up isn’t the answer, if the rest of the team don’t take advantage of it.
Regardless, I think we shouldn’t forget one basic thing;
Bruce has said he doesn’t do tactics.
Yes, it strikes me as odd too, but explains why and who he plays.
But it’s worked for him up to now and I’ll take it, as long as it works this season.
Badger, Grealish came on again and was by far the best player on the park, which admittedly isn’t saying much. I can’t for the life of me understand why he gets criticised, he got the only shot on target in his cameo, another effort blocked, won free kicks and even won headers and tackles yesterday. If Grealish is not the answer then we do not have the answer at the club because he is by far our most skilful player and I include AA and JK in that. Would like to see him getting a chance and also potentially Doyle Hayes and O’Hare at least getting on the bench. Davis needs a rest and perhaps a kick up the arse but we don’t have too many alternatives
doyles is another player who has got a brilliant game. he links up all the team. spreads the ball around. something we lacked yesterday. we moved the ball around way too slow. and never switching the ball from left to right. which doyle does in his sleep
Sid, I agree.
Grealish is easily our best/most creative player.
But he doesn’t work as part of the team, the way it stands, imo.
He doesn’t defend well enough, doesn’t have an engine and is too individual to be part of a Bruce team, imo.
Don’t get me wrong, he’d be great in a much better side, but I just don’t see him working for us, as much as I’d like him to come good.
Hence I actually think Bruce should look to cash in, as unpopular as that might prove.
I suspect it would be better for Grealish too.
Interesting statement regarding Grealish you’ve made there Badger.
“Grealish is easily our best/most creative player.
But he doesn’t work as part of the team, the way it stands, imo.
He doesn’t defend well enough, doesn’t have an engine and is too individual to be part of a Bruce team, imo”.
If he is to individual to be part of a Bruce team then how the hell does Onomah keep getting picked?
Good question.
I suspect there’s some sort of personal agreement that we’ll play him as much as possible, myself, but don’t know is the simple answer.
i think he is the best option for the role we have. grealish is as i keep saying our best attacking thinking player. that can link midfield and forwards. he can beat a player as in playing one twos or he can simply beat him with his fast feet. the spurs loanee i forget his name. he just doesnt affect the game he has no end product. grealish has got more in his locker and should be given a chance.
Not a fan of Grealish, would like Lansbury behind Davis, Hourihane and Whelan in midfield.
whatever it was it didn’t work yesterday, I go along with Nath on Grealish being our far better player in the middle, Lansbury? i don’t know if he’s the right man, when he first played i thought he looked lost. All I can say is we have to start understanding every game is a cup game. Hey, this time last season we was pulling our hair out, now it the other scenario we want Premiership football and we are sitting within striking distance, we have to fight harder.
Our midfield gets overrun far to much. They also stay on the halfway line to much. Weather this is a Bruce instruction or not I don’t know but there was a situation yesterday where Lansbury was in the centre circle as a Millwall attack was broken up. The ball was then played down the line to Davies who beat his man but there was only Adomah in the box. Landbury was still by the centre circle. The bloke should be busting a gut to get into the box. Same as Onomah, he has to be the laziest player at the club. Other than a decent performance at Colchester in the League Cup and a couple of deflected goals that have gone in for him he has been terrible.
I’d like to see Lansbury or Hourihane played behind the striker. Both are playing way to deep. At there previous clubs they were constantly assisting and scoring but with us they are told to play to deep, more as holding midfielders. If we are going to play 4-4-1-1 at home (which should be made illegal) then using Lansbury or Hourihane as holding midfielders isn’t the answer.
We arguably have the best attacking talent in the division at out disposal but for reasons only known to Bruce it isn’t utilised. Playing Lansbury and Hourihane where is does is like playing Grealsih and Kodjia at centre half.
I wanted Bruce and still do because I believe he will get us up this season but by Christ, he’s making it difficult for himself.
I totally agree B6.
Indeed I’ve been saying it’s the midfield for ages.
seem’s like we all have our idea’s, all sound good to to me. but its down to one man and his idea’s. he has a lot of things to consider. the way millwall had breaks from our corners, i mean outnumbering our defenders was shocking directly from our corners . we had 3 back and 4 attackers rushing at them.derby get the same generosity they will take their chances.
continuing with dead balls our delivery for our corners and free kicks were poor. i think bruce wants the team to pick itself. but some players are dropping standards and this needs to be addressed. millwall game had some serious lessons to be learnt. if we can improve our standards, get back onto the horse which totally threw us off. then the 2 points dropped wont end up being vital.
Eventually the penny will drop. The problem isn’t the players. We have the players to compete at the top of this division. The manager and the coaching staff are too negative. By the way that doesn’t mean I want the team to go gung ho. We just need someone who helps convince the players we can take the game to the top teams in this league and hold our own.
We have spent more on Kodjia, McCormack and Hogan than most teams in this league have spent on their squads. McCormack and Hogan haven’t worked out, yet both were great successes in this division before they came to Villa. Gabby got plenty of pitch time before his latest batch of injuries yet scores about as often as I do.
We play the top teams (not talking about Millwall) and set up not to get overrun, and get outplayed and outfought in the first 45 mins. Sometimes we turn that round at half time and fight back (Leeds is an example), other times it’s too little too late.
The result against Millwall was disappointing, but not the end of the world. The problem I see is the approach Bruce takes.
I said we should put a young striker on the bench when we only had Davis, to give him a rest and give us an option. That would be McKirdy or O’Hare (OK an attacking mid more than a forward) but got slated by some who said we have no forwards. How can you put out a team with a young CF and have no alternative on the bench? Even if it’s just to get some legs on for the last 20 mins.
I’m in Cornwall on holiday. I’ve just spent the evening with friends, one of whom taught Callum O’Hare. She says the family are tearing their hair out because he can’t get game time under Bruce, and are talking about getting him to push harder to get out somewhere else to play. Bruce says he can’t go as he needs him (go figure). The same teacher heard through the same links that a senior player called Bruce out about not being picked and was put in the team for the next game. No idea who that was but the suggestion was that Bruce favoured seasoned pros v any young players. We have injuries so we need to give players like O’Hare a chance. Otherwise when are we going to give him a run and find out if he’s got what it takes. Same holiday group includes a Wolves fan who thought O’Hare did more in 15 mins at the end of the game than any Villa player prior to that.
It’s just gossip but who knows?
We are halfway through the season and still in the mix. I don’t share the confidence of some on here about whether we will maintain that, or that we have what it takes to get through the playoffs. As for top two……does anyone really believe that? Seriously? Ok we are all fans but at least acknowledge our shortcomings.
Sorry if this is garbled but I’ve driven through the snow for 5 hours and then got a bit pissed. I’m off to bed.
UTV
Those are the same two players I mentioned pre-Millwall and got laughed at because neither are strikers. McKirdy can play as a support striker but has for the U23’s played up front before and O’Hare obviously never a forward, can play a false 9 and has even played on the wing for the reserves. Davis needs a break, and a manager with any sense would change things up when Davis isn’t working. Our problem has always been Bruce doesn’t change anything. While I’m still confident of a top 6 spot, I’m not confident at all we’ll go up through it as we can’t beat teams in and around us. We desperately need a striker in January, and another addition or two to change things up.
In fact McKirdy played as the main striker against Norwich in the last U23 game against Norwich. And he scored. As well as O’Hare played behind McKirdy. If Kevin McDonald can play him, Bruce can too.
My sentiments Andrew, more or les what I’ve said on the next page.
Good post DS Villa,
Your right in saying the young guns are just names to the 1st team, we don’t use player’s that in my mine are worth that chance when you can see things are not working with the 1st team, Bruce will always use an excuse as to why and blame himself, I think the same as you, that team needs a tweek ,a player that can play football in beating players not run onto balls with the hope of getting the chance to shoot, a footballer is need.
I would really like O’Hare to be given his chance
I don’t get the link to Lewis Grabban at all. Why would Bournemouth bring him back from Sunderland just to loan him to us. Unless we agree an automatic fee for the summer whether we go up or not, he’s an automatic starter at Sunderland. While they may go down, his form will draw enough attention someone will buy him in the summer. Not like we have the funds to permanently sign him in January. Unless we can offload Hogan. Or whatever money we apparently have that Bruce wants to use on Johnstone. Johnstone extending his contract at United gives us a good shot at keeping him on loan, as they won’t be in a rush to sell now.
One striker getting little to no game time is Watford’s Okaka. He’s big, he’s incredibly strong, and he’s a decent goal scorer. Likely to stay in the Prem or go abroad to a top flight club, and would be ambitious, he would be a hell of a signing.
Nor do I. Grabban ranks with Emile Heskey and Andy Cole as a misser of sitters. His poor conversion rate would be no good at all for us because we don’t create a bundle of chances. Defoe is playing for Bournemouth – Grabban isn’t – that says it all.
Grabban has 1 Premier League career goal. Defoe is well known for his goal scoring accolades in the premier league while Grabban is known for his goal scoring in the Championship. Although like mcCormack, he’s only had a couple good seasons in his career, mostly between 2011-2015. Fans want him because he’s doing the job for Sunderland. Although quite poor last season for Reading, 11 goals in 17 games is more than any striker we have. Our combined 4 strikers have 4 goals. So I would assume we’re pretty desperate at this point.
I don’t get however why Bournemouth would recall him from Sunderland just to send him back out on loan to us. Unless we really are going to sign him permanently. Which would be a waste as he’s not a Premier League striker.Never has been, never will be. It’s the same with us scouting Leon Clarke, or supposedly. At 32, this is only his fourth ever season of getting more than 10 goals. And he’s never played in the Prem. Sheffield United would want a buttload of money even at his age.
Finding someone who fits the bill is going to be incredibly hard to do. Which is largely why I hope we don’t waste money on Johnstone and instead use every available resource to find a striker. And after watching Solanke vs Everton yesterday, I truly hope it’s not him. He was invisible all game, and we can’t have that. Personally think we should do a Leeds and look for someone from the Bundesliga like they did Lasogga. A few strikers not getting game time. Bobadilla, Drmic, Szalai, None of them are great but could do a job for 5-6 months.
i still reading bruce with the lansbury / hourihane excuse. i don’t understand this excuse. is he trying to take the flak, so the players aren’t. but this wasn’t why we were rubbish. hourihane would have still been over run in the middle. he wouldn’t have been able to find the wide boys, because millwall had done their homework and they blocked the spaces out wide.
millwall worked they nuts off (like badger said) villa did not. millwall pressed certain areas like flanks, they knew we attacked these areas. pressing the whole pitch would be a tall order,so they just pressed us mainly where they knew we wanted to reach.
what worries me is millwall had nothing special to hurt villa, unlike leeds and wednesday & millwall opened villa up with hard work and good tactics. they managed to almost beat us playing our game style.
i think the villa players had the seem attitude as some fans on here, itsonly millwall we just have to play the game to win. even when the game was playing, they risked all on millwall running out of steam. we had no answers to anything millwall did.
villa need to work the opposition more. because teams now are learning our weaknesses. without the ball last weekend we were abysmal,our shape and pressing was none poor and with ball we were same, we was slow and easy to telegraph what are intentions was. you have to work the opposition when they press us,we cant just hope they run out of steam.
still think bruce is the man. but i wouldnt be the players fall guy. they were the reason for the draw. they were bone idle. started with poor attitude, they thought we will win. but the truth was they were evenly matched. we are not special enough to not work hard and win
But isn’t that on Bruce as well? If he can’t motivate the players to play Millwall, what good is he? His biggest and really only attribute is his man management. If he can’t Get them to play, then change it. But he did nothing to change the team either. Elphick for Samba was obviously forced, Elmo for Hutton was completely stupid. Grealish should’ve started over Onomah. Bruce is absolutely right to say his substitutions were awful, because they were.
scott hogan has got to given a chance to shine. instead of davis against derby. hogan has played the lone ranger at brentford. he isnt as good as davis at holding and laying off balls. but he is the better finisher. we just need to supply him with half decent chances.
elmo for hutton was forced on him, because they were breaking in the holes left by hutton wandering forwards and us losing balls. elmo is better going forwards and crossing and bruce still wanted to win the game.
i am sure i spotted hutton in the box for our corners. i am issues with this because they were most dangerous on our corners, usually the two full back stay back and a mid but i could swear i saw hutton in the box so who was our rear guard taylor and whelen and ?? many occasions they had extra man on the break directly from our corners. that needs seriously fixing, its basic stuff
would buster douglas have beaten tyson if tyson hadn’t taken his opponent lightly. lewis took raham lightly both were world champions both fighting a guy not worthy of them. both knocked out cold and lost their titles.
its human nature, we all are guilty of only doing enough. if we can get away with it.
bruce must have told them relax its only millwall or another reason for the below performance, villa players collectively had it in their heads of a easy game. once you start off slow its so hard to wrestle back the control
We’re lacking that leadership from Terry, he’s always barking out encouragement as well playing the captain roll, we all been thinking that Saturday’s game was effortlessly dir with some player’s going missing .I think also Bruce is making excuses to hide players inept performance, he his dropping changers big time not getting the opposition right with his selection of players. I just hope come January he knows what to do.
100 % spot on bill
ohare and mckirdy both are probably good enough for 1st team yeah maybe i will agree but lone striker in place of davis. i very much doubt that would make us better. just because davis was in the under23 and he stepped up doesn’t mean the other two can. they would be bullied to hell. wouldnt give villa any platform to attack from. i wished i was wrong but i doubt i am. oh isee you think bruce is holding them back so you guys wont be proven wrong. theirs a big difference in davis and them 2 and its about size and statue. holding of a big defender when your about 10 stone piss wet through would be a challenge in itself. they are both good attacking midfielders or second strikers. now play them off davis and they will flourish
trying to think of a similar sized successful target man. my memory can’t produce one. adrian heath or david platt both were strikers but both were never target men. in fact platty found his position as a midfielder. i think mckirdy could be like platty from what little i have seen of him. he has good positional skill. he makes intelligent runs. ohare is another with lots of potential but again isn’t a target man and i don’t see him being close to one. he is more of a player that will be better with ball at feet running at defenders.
also davis has been brilliant playing the role. yes he needs help but because he has managed to play the role doesn’t mean the role is less demanding. davis has been holding of as many as 3 or 4 defenders by himself. physically holding them off while the villa reinforcements make their way forwards. yes sometimes davis is holding on to the ball to long. but this is because sometime he is so isolated. hogan is fit and he should be given the chance. if he fooks up throw in billy the fish