I’m fed up.
I have a very decent, well paid job, but it involves long hours and weekends are the most important part of the week.
I quite simply have to turn in.
Which makes it a pain for me when we get a normal Saturday afternoon kick-off.
Hence this is yet another game that I won’t get to see live.
I must be one of very few who actually like the late Sky starting times.
Whatever, what do I say here?
We all know the score and it’s simply that we need to win if we’re to maintain momentum and keep the pressure on the clubs above us.
I have to be honest and say I know very little about Wednesday or how they play, save to say I have a work colleague who supports them and he’s been very quiet lately, which suggests to me that they just haven’t been very good.
From what I’ve read on flicking around, Carvalhal is under serious pressure, which strikes me as odd, given that he was flavour of the month not so long back. It is indeed a funny old game.
Straight on to squad news then and Kodjia might be ok, but it’s doubtful.
Jack Grealish is in contention, but I reckon he’ll be on the bench, if he’s involved at all.
Bruce obviously rates him, so will probably look to bring him on if things are going ok.
Gabby is still injured. Enough said there.
Bruce could change things up, but I doubt he will.
Taylor could come in for Hutton, for instance, but why would you do it?
Hutton is probably our best player over the last month, even though he’s played out of position.
In this sense, I think the manager is calling it spot on.
Play the same players every game, until there’s a reason not too, in my opinion.
14 players won us the league, all those years ago, after all.
As Bruce has said, the likes of young Callum O’Hare will get their chances.
I believe we have seven games in December, when it’s proper cold and injuries will creep in.
And this is where squads will show the difference, when it comes to lasting the course.
As for the Owls, Daniel Pudil is a major doubt and Midfielder Sam Hutchinson, striker Fernando Forestieri and winger George Boyd remain sidelined.
So given that I’m very much guessing then, so I have to go on form and ours is just better.
Wednesday (it’s a strange but great name isn’t it? Nearly as good as ours and very British) won their last game, but have only achieved back-to-back wins once this season.
Add in our home advantage, coupled with the fact that the corresponding fixture last season saw us get a 2-0 win, I have to think we should win this.
The bookies agree, with us being near evens and Wednesday 2-1.
I’m hoping this will be a decent game and am going to predict a 2-1 win.
UTV!
Games gone, had to turn the stream off its painful to watch. Being taught how to pass the ball from one half to the other.
sheff wed are just playing keeps good game management why should they do anything other
game lost first half, no answer to wednesday pressing and lacklustre in possession, plus terry injury 2nd half much better in terms of efforts
it will be like winning the world cup for wednesday this result hence playing for time all second half
davis scores but disallowed by the most frustrating referee, gave villa fuckall all game whats his problem
chester blows free header 6 yards out the end lol
samba scores in last seconds
Bruce out. As soon as we go a goal down we lose every time. The team stil have a defeatist attitude. Get potato head out my club
iam off to buy myself a dingoes kit and a ps4
Bruce isnt going anywhere when were 5th in the league unfortunately..and in all honesty i dont think a change of management now would make us improve, just cause more unrest in the team. Terrys injury worries me though! Out for a couple of months probably.
Awful news re Terry going to cost us a lot of points. We are in a false position Bruce has to go
i have to agree, if terry is out for month maybe 6 weeks playing samba and chester we are going to lack pace at the heart of the defence. we have some good young more mobile defenders waiting in the wings. i think bruce needs to be brave in the international week and fast tract one of them to partner chester. keep samba as fall back from the bench
Be serious. It’s Bruce. Samba it is.
bruce was a defender i think he should know more than me. but i think samba is accident in waiting. if i was opposing manager i would allow him the ball ,because he is poor at distributing the ball. he looks clumsy and slow of the mark. surely them young defenders in pre season. one of them could fill in. along side experienced chester. samba could pop on if the youngster is having a mere.plus the youngsters looked the part in preseason surely they have improved since then
Nath, I agree. Samba is clumsy, slow and makes mistakes. Occasionally he is awesome. Bruce doesn’t take risks though. That’s why the team doesn’t take risks. We don’t overcommit when attacking – midfielders are reluctant to make runs past the CF. We could be so much better.
That’s what frustrates me.
on first half showing today you were right. personally i think wednesday had a game plan to press villa high right from the first whistle, catch them cold. the way wednesday pressed as a team impressed me and shocked us and we couldnt cope. hence miss placed passes. the early goal. we were a shambles second half we did improve but wednesday had shut up shop, so we hard to create many clear chances if we had got a goal back early enough things would have been different, but back on samba i fear he might be a massive weak link. just watching today i was nervous for him. just the simple passes he over hit or miss placed. bruce needs to look to the youth more. ohare made a difference coming on. created the goal for samba. grealish looked like he has come back fighting. two weeks for bruce to sort out replacements
O’Hare looks interesting. Maybe it’s a problem of expectations. Given Villa’s history and the money we’ve spent, plus the experience of Bruce means we should be nailed on for promotion. If we don’t achieve that Bruce will be deemed a failure.
At a more extreme example, Chelsea and Man City don’t generally promote players from their youth team/reserves. They loan the most promising ones to see if they make the grade, and buy ready made players for the first team. Fear (and cost) of failure. Lukaku and De Bruyne spring to mind.
I just want Villa to take an aggressive attacking approach to games. The best time to blood players is often when you are comfortably in front. To do that you have to take the initiative. Too much about Villa’s game plan is caution – don’t get caught out, take the safe option.
It just isn’t Bruce. He is a pragmatic, safety first manager. It could end up costing the promotion we all want, and most of us think we are capable of.
the youngsters like ohare have no fear and no respect of opponents or hold fear of losing. they can only lack ability or strength in a physically way. but snodgrass today offered nothing without ball and little with. i dont think we have the players on show first half to press high. down both sides we struggled we lack something without the ball. watching england under 17s last week they pressed like how its supposed to be. they made spain hit long balls thats unheard off. but it happened. england pressed in packs of 4 or 5 huntig the ball down in areas where sheff did us, we never press this high and havent in manymany years. so we have problems and thats just without the ball
stories on snodgrass say hes broken a rib ?? before game. watching his reaction after being subbed. was very poor was he angry at the injury or being subbed. if it was the latter then this was poor on his part. he was in affective apart from one tame long shot. second half we had more about us. just because we had more effort with and without the ball and further up field. but by then the game was already lost. wednesday were never gonna entertain being a contest in the 2nd half and rightfully so they deserved their win
Today’s result isn’t disastrous. It should show everyone where we are though. We are play off contenders. We will not get anywhere near top 2 based on the season so far.
I keep banging on about this but I am convinced we have the players to automatically qualify. I don’t have any faith that Bruce can get us that far. We may go up through the play offs, but do we really want to be in that position?
That said, I think we have no choice but to keep going with Bruce. I find that depressing. We will probably make the play offs, and are at least as likely to fail as get promoted.
Anyone who thinks we will go straight up needs to try and see things as they are, not what we would all like them to be.