Villa 1-1 Wolves; Plenty for Bruce to ponder

I don’t know which manager will be more annoyed today, Zenga or Bruce.
Zenga will probably come away from Villa park wondering how his team failed to collect the three points.
Whereas Bruce will be fuming that we just looked awful.

Pre-match, it was all good, as Bruce selected a side with players playing in position and went with a 4-4-2 or 4-4-1-1 maybe. It was a sensible choice on paper.
And that’s about as good as it got.

We actually looked okay in the first few minutes and you could see the players had upped the pace and were passing the ball quickly. But Wolves came into it more and more as the game went on, so much so that they completely dominated the game.

We got the early penalty then, after Grealish was judged to have been clipped and Kodjia duly put it away.
A good shot from Kodjia apart, that was it though and I hardly remember another chance being created. Oh, sorry there was one chance where Kodjia feebly went for goal instead of passing to McCormack who was in a much better position.

Wolves got a penalty when Cissokho handballed and it all went downhill from there.
Again we instantly lost all our shape and composure, which allowed Wolves to get in the game even more and create more chances. Fotunately they didn’t convert any and we came away lucky to get a point.

Which is what makes it all so frustrating.
We have a very decent team on paper and it’s not just us fans that say it.
Why then, can’t we seem to do even the basic things right? Grealish is the only player we have that looks remotely comfortable with the ball at his feet. The rest? well the ball just seems to always bounce awkwardly or it’s poorly controlled. Our passing at times is abysmal and there are far too many wayward passes.
A plus for me is that McCormack didn’t take any corners, which left Adomah taking them. But they were mostly poor.
You really have to wonder what the players actually do in training.

For what it’s worth I’d have taken McCormack off and replaced him with Gestede and gone with a more direct style.
I’d have pulled Grealish off too, as while he looked okay, he just didn’t produce anything really.

I thought Richards did reasonably well considering he hasn’t played for a while and Chester did well.
There were too many players that weren’t good enough though and it’s hard to know why when they’re well rated.

I’ll be interested to read Bruce’s after-match comments, but I’ll bet he’ll be more than a little concerned, as Wolves don’t look a paticularly good side to me, yet they dominated massively. At home too.
It’s difficult to know what Bruce is going to be able to do about it, but watching that game today, I’ll bet he can’t wait for the transfer window.
It’s all totally disappointing. Again.

108 Comments

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  1. Swampduck
    Swampduck October 17, 2016 at 1:08 pm . Reply

    And they could do with changing the kit back to claret and blue it looks more like purple to me on tv

    1. pat57
      pat57 October 17, 2016 at 2:06 pm . Reply

      Looked at some photos of it on the Villa website and I agree, it does look as if there’s a tinge of purple in there.

  2. VillaAwayInDiv3
    VillaAwayInDiv3 October 17, 2016 at 4:20 pm . Reply

    changing the kit will take years…still got old badges at BMH and the shop in Brum….

  3. Dave67
    Dave67 October 17, 2016 at 7:03 pm . Reply

    I believe the Doc was having a pop at DM with is first tweet.

    http://www.birminghammail.co.uk/sport/football/football-news/dr-tony-xia-explains-real-12038850

    1. badger123
      badger123 October 17, 2016 at 7:33 pm . Reply

      I’ve just been reading about that Dave.
      We all think we know it was Xia who wanted RDM when he wasn’t the advisors’ choice, yet after sacking him, he’s basically calling him useless?

      I’ll tell you now Xia’s tweeting like this will backfire on him big time, somewhere down the line.
      Keeping the fans updated is good, but taking it too far isn’t, imo.

      1. giddyvillan
        giddyvillan October 18, 2016 at 8:41 am . Reply

        He probably will fuck up but I’ll stand by the way he portrays himself to the fans being I’m one of you compared to a Howard hughes type we previously had.we’ve cried out for a chairman who keeps the fans updated now we’ve got one.

    2. OriginalLondonLion
      OriginalLondonLion October 17, 2016 at 10:07 pm . Reply

      Much more interesting than Twat Tweets is the article in the B’ham Mail – reached with the same link – by sports psychologist Jenny Trueman about Aston Villa. SB could do worse than appoint her as his assistant. She is more needed than Birds*** and a darn sight prettier. Read this article in full and see if it describes what you see.

      1. pat57
        pat57 October 17, 2016 at 10:28 pm . Reply

        Agree OLL, she makes a lot of sense. A few quid spent on her telling the players that wouldn’t be badly spent.

      2. Hitchens 60
        Hitchens 60 October 18, 2016 at 7:30 am . Reply

        Agreed OLL – very good article

  4. badger123
    badger123 October 17, 2016 at 10:47 pm . Reply

    The article is here;

    http://www.birminghammail.co.uk/sport/football/football-news/aston-villa-worst-enemies-sports-12037227

    I’m afraid I don’t swallow it, as it reeks of “give me £100k and I’ll sort it”, just like an American advert, that highlights what we already know, but doesn’t really give a solution.

    The over-thinking is there though and I noticed it against Wolves. We didn’t make the easy pass, lots of times and tried to over-complicate things. It doesn’t need a psychologist to see that at all and I’ll bet Bruce already knows it.

    That said, there’s definitely something wrong and there’s been many millions wasted over the years, so I don’t suppose it’d hurt much to try.

    1. pat57
      pat57 October 18, 2016 at 1:35 am . Reply

      @Badger
      Very much my view. We have the players and the manager but something strange is going on. This ‘hanging on in the last 10 minutes’ she talks about is a definite thing with our team. All she’s saying is if you score don’t think straight away about defending but try to go on to score more.

      Okay sounds a bit like NLP (which is a bit suspect alright) but right now we’re a bit like drowning men clutching at straws aren’t we? If we try enough things then perhaps something might work.

      Here’s hoping

      UTV

  5. Bill Pearson
    Bill Pearson October 18, 2016 at 7:55 am . Reply

    That is what I’ve been saying, you go on a pitch to win, all this so called drawing board coaching has ruined the game, player’s are given instruction off what to do and where to go, sod it you play to win , I’ve always been a bad loser I get angry to not be better that other players, the game is all about winning, good job its not the Romans and lions days you’d want to win then.

    1. pat57
      pat57 October 18, 2016 at 11:16 am . Reply

      @Bill

      Mmmm…training with real lions.

      Now that might help increase their fitness a bit 🙂

      1. Bill Pearson
        Bill Pearson October 18, 2016 at 11:44 am . Reply

        Pat57,
        I bet they would move then. I know I’m long in the toothe Pat, but any footballer should not throw the towel in at anytime of a match, to give in because it happened before not good enough, fight they get the money fight for your honour. I had my little grandson say to me Saturday after watching that shit performance, can I support another Team? My reply was no you cannot because you should never give up.

        1. Hitchens 60
          Hitchens 60 October 18, 2016 at 12:03 pm . Reply

          Bill, I’m 100% on the same page as you. Trouble is the woolly jumpered lefties think winning is unequal and therefore a bad thing. Schools don’t teach kids to win anymore – it’s not politically correct and it isn’t fair on those that are less able at sports. School sports day is now a taking part day!

          Sorry but life is about winning as well as taking part and helping others. We had a hard task master for sports who preached winning but he was also a stickler for fair play and sportsmanship. Amazing how the nanny, taking part society has destroyed all of those attributes!

          I’ll retire to my box now!

  6. Hitchens 60
    Hitchens 60 October 18, 2016 at 12:08 pm . Reply

    I see Dwight Yorke is now claiming racism is the reason he didn’t get the Villa’s management job. What happened to lack of experience appropriate to the job compared to other candidates?

    1. Bill Pearson
      Bill Pearson October 18, 2016 at 12:26 pm . Reply

      Hitch, if he gets away with that old saying. I’ll put it in they didn’t give me the job because I’m old, (ageism ) what planet does Yorke think he’s from.?

  7. giddyvillan
    giddyvillan October 18, 2016 at 1:37 pm . Reply

    Possibly the PRICKs got to dream up some excuse to why clubs won’t appoint him,going down the racial root is well below the belt.for starters he’s got fuckall experience besides assistant manager to his national team in 2009/10 fucking whoopy doo.he should approach national league teams & try his luck there fuckall to do with colour get your head out that black arse of yours buster

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