peterms Posted January 2, 2018 Share Posted January 2, 2018 1 hour ago, sidcow said: Can't believe we win 5 - 0 and people are squabbling about if we were good or the opposition (first away defeat since August) were awful. I don't see why you think it must be one or the other. We were excellent, after the first 20 or so minutes, which was much like previous games. They were poor for the most part, with a couple of spells at the start of each half where they were dangerous. They looked knackered. I see it was their fifth game in 12 days, and according to their fans' site they have played nine of their outfield players pretty much all season, so perhaps it's not surprising. Is there a concern that in acknowledging things like this, we are somehow disparaging our own team? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lexicon Posted January 2, 2018 Share Posted January 2, 2018 8 hours ago, Heretic said: From the Twitterverse (quoting WM). Bruce on loaning a striker: “We dont think it’ll happen until the end of January. We’ve got one or two things bubbling.” [bbc wm] #avfc Wonder how poor old Scott Hogan's feeling... That said, it would be good to have an extra option heading into the home stretch. Could offer some crucial goals to keep us in the hunt. Sounds like he's being given a chance to produce the goods more consistently but if he doesn't, we have a plan in place. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Villarocker Posted January 2, 2018 Share Posted January 2, 2018 Seems like the media think Villa winning last night eases the pressure on Bruce. personally, I think that the 5-0 victory, and the manner of it, adds pressure because now everyone has seen what we can do when playing with freedom there won't be many who would defend Bruce if the team reverts back to being over-cautious in our approach to games. 4 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Keener window-cleaner Posted January 2, 2018 Share Posted January 2, 2018 It quite interesting, in August we were playing very poorly and defensively and Bruce admittedly feared to be sacked, we suddenly changed, played more open, won and scored goals. At the time Bruce said that the team now was ready to play more expansive. After that we have step by step reverted to the cautious tactics of defend and kick, and relying on converting the few chances we create. We play poorly, dont win, and the preassure mounts on Bruce leading to speculation that he will be sacked. Then suddenly, just like in August we go out and play attacking football, win and score a lot of goals. Perhaps we should keep up the mass hysteria before every game to make him worry more about not playing football than loosing. 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
omariqy Posted January 2, 2018 Share Posted January 2, 2018 5 minutes ago, Keener window-cleaner said: It quite interesting, in August we were playing very poorly and defensively and Bruce admittedly feared to be sacked, we suddenly changed, played more open, won and scored goals. At the time Bruce said that the team now was ready to play more expansive. After that we have step by step reverted to the cautious tactics of defend and kick, and relying on converting the few chances we create. We play poorly, dont win, and the preassure mounts on Bruce leading to speculation that he will be sacked. Then suddenly, just like in August we go out and play attacking football, win and score a lot of goals. Perhaps we should keep up the mass hysteria before every game to make him worry more about not playing football than loosing. I think it's more to do with how teams play against us. Bristol had a go yesterday and we have the players to expose the gaps left behind. All our best games have been when we have countered well. Be interesting to see how we do against a team who sits against us. The good thing for us is that most teams we play will either need to a win to get closer to or stay in the playoffs or avoid relegation. 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sne Posted January 2, 2018 Share Posted January 2, 2018 Didn't see the game, but from the highlights it looked like we put in a lot of crosses and had a lot of players in the box when attacking? 5 goals from 6 shots on target is of course more than we can hope for most days but if we can continue to get people forward and create more chances our odds of being successful are much higher. We have the players for trying to win rather than trying not to lose. Keep it up! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Eastie Posted January 2, 2018 Share Posted January 2, 2018 A good point ,made by Bruce is that we’ve played all of top 10 away except for sheff utd so fixture wise they all have to come to villa park and we are now very much in the race 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Stevo985 Posted January 2, 2018 VT Supporter Share Posted January 2, 2018 1 minute ago, sne said: Didn't see the game, but from the highlights it looked like we put in a lot of crosses and had a lot of players in the box when attacking? 5 goals from 6 shots on target is of course more than we can hope for most days but if we can continue to get people forward and create more chances our odds of being successful are much higher. We have the players for trying to win rather than trying not to lose. Keep it up! The 6 shots on target also misses chances like Grealish hitting the post and two chances from Snodgrass, one especially that he should have buried to get his hattrick. Not to be picky, but we did create more than 6 chances. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bobzy Posted January 2, 2018 Share Posted January 2, 2018 1 minute ago, Eastie said: A good point ,made by Bruce is that we’ve played all of top 10 away except for sheff utd so fixture wise they all have to come to villa park and we are now very much in the race This can't be right, because we have had an easier fixture list than the other teams and are still behind them!!! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sne Posted January 2, 2018 Share Posted January 2, 2018 1 minute ago, Stevo985 said: The 6 shots on target also misses chances like Grealish hitting the post and two chances from Snodgrass, one especially that he should have buried to get his hattrick. Not to be picky, but we did create more than 6 chances. Yes I know, we had 13 attempts apparently. Very nice. Never mentioned that we didn't. Just that 5 from 6 is really very good and more than a team really can hope for most nights. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Stevo985 Posted January 2, 2018 VT Supporter Share Posted January 2, 2018 Just now, sne said: Yes I know, we had 13 attempts apparently. Very nice. Never mentioned that we didn't. Just that 5 from 6 is really very good and more than a team really can hope for most nights. Oh I know. Sorry wasn't picking on you, I've just seen a few posts mentioning that stats and the implication, deliberate or not, is that we scored 5 goals from 6 chances so was just putting it out there 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Stevo985 Posted January 2, 2018 VT Supporter Share Posted January 2, 2018 Just now, Stevo985 said: Oh I know. Sorry wasn't picking on you, I've just seen a few posts mentioning that stats and the implication, deliberate or not, is that we scored 5 goals from 6 chances so was just putting it out there Of course a counter to this is that the shot on target that didn't result in a goal was probably Hogan's header which led to the second goal, so isn't really a separate chance in its own right. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Eastie Posted January 2, 2018 Share Posted January 2, 2018 (edited) 5 minutes ago, bobzy said: This can't be right, because we have had an easier fixture list than the other teams and are still behind them!!! Everyone has played each other now but we’ve played all the top teams away , home form will be key in those big games ahead Edited January 2, 2018 by Eastie Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Vive_La_Villa Posted January 2, 2018 Share Posted January 2, 2018 (edited) Why is everytime we play well and win fans think we setup differently? We set up the same way we always do it's just Bristol City gave us space. Didn't double up on wingers and were second to every ball. We played very well and completely deserved the win. But I'm not buying all this 'the team showed what they capable of if Bruce lets them play'. It seems to be mentioned on every thread. We always play this way. Sometimes we do it well and other times we don't. The way the opponents sets up has a big impact. Especially at home when the emphasis is on to us break teams down. Edit: this is not a defence or criticism of Bruce. Just saying it how I see it. Edited January 2, 2018 by Vive_La_Villa 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bannedfromHandV Posted January 2, 2018 Share Posted January 2, 2018 4 minutes ago, Vive_La_Villa said: Why is everytime we play well and win fans think we setup differently? We set up the same way we always do it's just Bristol City gave us space. Didn't double up on wingers and were second to every ball. We played very well and completely deserved the win. But I'm not buying all this 'the team showed what they capable of if Bruce lets them play'. It seems to be mentioned on every thread. We always play this way. Sometimes we do it well and other times we don't. The way the opponents sets up has a big impact. Especially at home when the emphasis is on to us break teams down. Edit: this is not a defence or criticism of Bruce. Just saying it how I see it. It's football. One week the ball goes in the net the next week it doesn't, people look for defining factors to validate their own opinions. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DCJonah Posted January 2, 2018 Share Posted January 2, 2018 2 minutes ago, bannedfromHandV said: It's football. One week the ball goes in the net the next week it doesn't, people look for defining factors to validate their own opinions. God you wonder how the likes of pep and ferguson ever managed to succeed when it comes down to the brilliance of some weeks it goes in some weeks it doesn't. Wow. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Stevo985 Posted January 2, 2018 VT Supporter Share Posted January 2, 2018 9 minutes ago, Vive_La_Villa said: Why is everytime we play well and win fans think we setup differently? We set up the same way we always do it's just Bristol City gave us space. Didn't double up on wingers and were second to every ball. We played very well and completely deserved the win. But I'm not buying all this 'the team showed what they capable of if Bruce lets them play'. It seems to be mentioned on every thread. We always play this way. Sometimes we do it well and other times we don't. The way the opponents sets up has a big impact. Especially at home when the emphasis is on to us break teams down. Edit: this is not a defence or criticism of Bruce. Just saying it how I see it. I said it earlier in here. Comments like "Bruce finally let them off the leash. Let's not go back to playing defensivley" As if Bruce's team talk last night was "ok we usually defend, but today we should attack!" It doesn't work like that. We don't usually set up to draw or just "not lose" games. I think we always set up to win in this league. It doesn't always happen of course and the way we set up and play can result in us looking negative. But I don't think it's a conscious decision. 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DCJonah Posted January 2, 2018 Share Posted January 2, 2018 10 minutes ago, Vive_La_Villa said: Why is everytime we play well and win fans think we setup differently? We set up the same way we always do it's just Bristol City gave us space. Didn't double up on wingers and were second to every ball. We played very well and completely deserved the win. But I'm not buying all this 'the team showed what they capable of if Bruce lets them play'. It seems to be mentioned on every thread. We always play this way. Sometimes we do it well and other times we don't. The way the opponents sets up has a big impact. Especially at home when the emphasis is on to us break teams down. Edit: this is not a defence or criticism of Bruce. Just saying it how I see it. The way the opposition play can have an impact but certain things we do clearly do as well. Jedinak as the holding player and not whelan or not in defence is better for us. Hutton lb seems to have a positive impact. Hourihane being in more advanced positions more often. Grealish spending more time in that number 10 position. These things have an impact. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bannedfromHandV Posted January 2, 2018 Share Posted January 2, 2018 3 minutes ago, DCJonah said: God you wonder how the likes of pep and ferguson ever managed to succeed when it comes down to the brilliance of some weeks it goes in some weeks it doesn't. Wow. I don't wonder how Pep has managed to succeed at all. Barcelona, Bayern Munich, Manchester City. My mum could win trophies with those but thanks for your input. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Popular Post DCJonah Posted January 2, 2018 Popular Post Share Posted January 2, 2018 2 minutes ago, Stevo985 said: I said it earlier in here. Comments like "Bruce finally let them off the leash. Let's not go back to playing defensivley" As if Bruce's team talk last night was "ok we usually defend, but today we should attack!" It doesn't work like that. We don't usually set up to draw or just "not lose" games. I think we always set up to win in this league. It doesn't always happen of course and the way we set up and play can result in us looking negative. But I don't think it's a conscious decision. Starting with 3 at the back last time we played bristol was not setting up to win. Whelan and jedinak as a cm pair is not set up to win. Onomah as a striker is not set up to win. I think there are times when players have been told to be more defensive in their play and times when we seem to commit men going forward when we attack. I think people take away a lot of what a manager can do if they think its just pick players. Cleary instructions to individuals or the team have an impact on how defensive or attacking our approach can be. 6 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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