I’ve decided to try and keep this post a little bit calmer (it’s still early over here, so I haven’t drunk too much yet, lol).
The first obvious thing to think about is how we lined up from the off.
I think Bree being injured caused a problem, in that his loss would have left a proper 3-5-2 somewhat unbalanced.
Well, that’s my thinking anyway, as it’s the only reason I can think of us starting with five defenders.
Regardless, I called for a threatening, aggressive line-up and it’s quite simply not what we got.
Why we pay so much respect to the likes of Ipswich is beyond me and I’ve spoken before about going down trying as opposed to being canny and still losing.
But then, if you look at the stats, I believe Ipswich only had one shot on target and scored.
So maybe Steve Bruce is totally correct in not being able to trust the defence?
In Bruce’s defence, he did eventually realise that we needed to be more ambitious and he put Adomah and Green on, yet still retained the same setup.
While you can’t say that’s negative, maybe it would have been a better setup from the off?
But then, the commentator’s comments intrigued me.
We were comfortable in the first half and should have gone in a goal or two to the good.
Yet we began the second half poorly. Again.
What the hell gets said to the players at half time? I’d love to know, because it clearly isn’t working.
And what are the opposition managers saying?
I suspect it’s along the lines of “don’t worry lads, you’ve got these; they’re going to bottle it”. And it would seem correct.
Tony Morley said he can’t work it out and asked if it’s the pressure from the fans, the club or whatever. I suspect it’s all of them myself.
Either way, we came out rubbish, not being able to hold the ball or pass. The usual.
And when we did start to play, we couldn’t get telling balls into the box.
Ultimately, it’s only the result that matters and we didn’t get it.
To lose our unbeaten home record, especially with what Morley called a “whimper” to Ipswich is frankly not good enough.
And when you consider we haven’t won in eight games, it’s beginning to get very worrying.
Because the question is if you can’t get a result at home to Ipswich, who are you going to get one against?
Morley said he feels sorry for Bruce and I partly agree with it.
But he’s done himself no favours whatsoever lately and it would be totally understandable if the fans turn on him, which they’re going too.
Me, I side with Morley, in that the side needs to gel.
But I know many of you won’t see it like that and comments on Villa threads everywhere are going to be interesting this weekend.
I just don’t see how changing the manager again is going to achieve anything.
But Bruce needs to start getting results.
Fast.
