Aston Villa v Rotherham , Tuesday 18th September 19.45 kick off. | Page 14 | Vital Football

Aston Villa v Rotherham , Tuesday 18th September 19.45 kick off.

Yes he needs to focus on developing the talent he's got at his disposal rather than trying to win points against those who have dared to criticise him. Does himself no favours when he responds with those kind of comments.

All he does with those comments is ensure an even louder response the next time we draw or lose. If you want to let your play shut up the neigh sayers, then you best keep your own mouth shut.

No manager is bigger than any clubs fan base, and nothing good can come from him escalating this row with the fan base (however “deluded” or sane they may be).
 
Well, I can't really complain about a 2-0 win, but then again, I am not getting over the top either..

It was all very "mwh" against probably the weakest side we have played in the league in about 40 years.

We won, there were glimpses, but then again , there wereworries

We got three points, that was the minimum requirement for tonight, Saturday will be more of a test.
 
Glad of the win happy to see Abraham off the mark good goal well worked. But do wonder wtf the coaches do all week. I know possession football is all the rage but feckin hell sideways and backwards when we should have been going for the throat is frustrating if we are going to play like that no point in selling Westwood. Yes we won but for me it was another ground out win rather than the thrashing we should have given em. Not much wrong with the team sheet either apart from Jedi at CB. he played well but against these not surprised,the clean sheet will give the Keeper a bit of confidence at least.
 
A wins a win.
Sick of people saying a better team would of beat us.
As we have seen for 2 plus seasons now, any team can beat any any team in this league.
That's why fans love it unlike the dull premier league.
Didn't Rotherham beat the big spending Derby 3 days ago?
Yes the football was average, apart from leeds every team has played average.
Cant really moan to much when we win and are back in the top 6, closer than we have been this early in the season since we joined this league, to the top.
 
A win's a win, but promotion needs a lot of wins, which means you have to win against the noticeably weaker teams barring the odd glitch. Of our 4 draws from 8 games, only Brentford was a decent result; to draw all the other 3 was poor.

We need consistency to match our talents, and that only comes from the right coaching and a consistent approach, which we haven't got. The way we started I thought we were going to tear Rotherham apart, and the first goal had some inevitability about it. But then nothing quite clicked and Rotherham managed to get their act together. We're still trying to make it up as we go along; we're not acting as a team.

So a welcome 3 points and return to the top 6. But we have to improve, and we've been saying that for 2 years.
 
Bruce has the nerve to say he's wanted to play two forwards for a long time but, for some reason it's never worked here.
Why is it that he "has the nerve" to say that? He has said on numerous occasions since he walked through the door that he prefers to play with two up front in this league and has done so with his previous clubs. He walked into a club with McGatemack and Agbonlahor as two of his "forwards" along with Kodja and subsequently Hogan, who have spent the best part of 18 months on the treatment table. He now has two fit and in-form forwards and has the option to play them together, and he has done so.... Lots to criticize about Bruce for sure, but he's been consistent in saying that he likes two up front in this league....
 
Reality check guys:

We were at home and you tend to win more often there. Rotherham are pants (especially away from home).

To suggest Jedi has the makings of a CB based on this performance would be naive. We all know he is good at winning headers, but that is pretty much it.

What I heard (radio) was an extremely workmanlike performance with lots of flat patches. I have never heard the crowd so quiet.

Lastly, Steve Bruce is deluded if he thinks an average home win against weak opposition will "win people over". Quality will win the fans back, excitement will win the fans back. That's why they are busy jizzing all over the custard bowl - they have belief - we still have Bruceball.
 
I really enjoyed that last night, thought we could have easily been 2 or 3 up at half time and it would not have flattered us.

Cannot think of a bad performance, and McGinn / Kodjia i thought were brilliant.

I don`t think Rotherham were a bad team by any stretch, i can see them upsetting quite a few teams this season.

Both teams fitness levels looked very good, we looked strong last night i thought and loved the 2 up top.

After ten minutes ( of 2nd half )i would have changed the shape to 3 in midfield as Abraham stopped holding it up, but apart from that all good.

And again the ref was very poor for us, i honestly think we are too nice and it costs us.

Where Terry was worth his weight in gold was him in the ear of the ref, we are getting sweet fanny adam from the officials this season.

All in all, we are not perfect by any stretch - but some good signs last night IMO.
 
Wins a win etc but found that very hard watch last night.
Remember looking at the clock second half and saying to those I sit with that it was 20 mins into the second half and we hadn't had a shot that half.
Against Rotherham at home!!?.

I know it's a balancing act when leading by a single goal but if we had played with more intent and zip last night especially second half we would have smashed them. Still too side to side, plodding forward most of the time allowing the opposition to easily get back into defensive shape .

Bruce get a criticised for not having a style. He does. It's work it wide at all times, at all cost. It's bleedin obvious and quite frankly painful when it's ALL we do.

Bruce lost me Saturday. I had defended him as I knew what we needed at the time and up until now. But with the new owners things have changed for me. Maybe that's harsh as the new owners came in late on and we had to crack on and do transfer deals that a short time ago where not on the cards or planned for because of the financial meltdown caused by Dr Knob. Maybe that's the issue. The transfer approach was rushed and muddled because of the time frame we had. Maybe that's why it's a bit of mish mash and disjointed on the pitch He can win me back, I hope he does because that means the club is being successful.im sceptical as to whether he will. In fact I would say that at the moment I am 80/20 that he will go this season . I take no pleasure in that because it will mean a fourth season in the EFL .

But I have no faith that this win will be the start of something. So many false dawns where we think ..Yes. . we are off and running and then ...we stutter .

Onto Sheff weds then. Draw I reckon .
 
Clean Sheet and goals for 2 of the new boys. Can't really argue with that.

Was it a classic? No. Is there room for improvement? LOTS! Were Rotherham the worst team we'll play this season? Probably.

But we won, and won easily in the end.

Now to keep that going into Saturdays game, which will be another tough test but I can see us getting the job done and cementing our place in the top 6.
 
Why is it that he "has the nerve" to say that? He has said on numerous occasions since he walked through the door that he prefers to play with two up front in this league and has done so with his previous clubs. He walked into a club with McGatemack and Agbonlahor as two of his "forwards" along with Kodja and subsequently Hogan, who have spent the best part of 18 months on the treatment table. He now has two fit and in-form forwards and has the option to play them together, and he has done so.... Lots to criticize about Bruce for sure, but he's been consistent in saying that he likes two up front in this league....

He had the nerve gm, simply because he's had four transfer windows to get the number of forwards who can play together to two.
 
Could have had two goals in the first few minutes, shots hit target that were blocked. Hourihane made me eat my words and ran the show in the first half. Signs of a good partnership between Abrahams and Kodiga. Good to see them playing closely together and created first goal between them.
Worryingly we weren’t able to press home the advantage as we should have in the second half. Hourihane went missing unless he was told to stay back or to protect centre halves? Jack often kept the ball too long before releasing it or being robbed of it. Ghazi didn’t make any real sort of impact on the game. Bolassie came on late and immediately affected the game with his pace and power. Brave diving headed goal. Surely he must start on Saturday?
Man of the match for me was McGinn with his powerful forward runs down the middle and strong tackles throughout the game.
The nonsensical and negative substitution of Abrahams for Bree with 10 minutes to go almost cost us a goal.
For me this was Bruce showing his true negative colours having been forced into playing two upfront (which worked) he then closes everything down only to see us lose the little amount of momentum we had in the second half.
 
I don't think taking a goalscorer off when 2-0 up with 5 mins to go to get an ovation is really a bad thing...... neither do I think shoring up the defence when 2-0 up with 5 mins to go is a bad thing either.... plus we all keep saying we want players like Bree given game time.
 
Bruce will always default to the cautious and it costs us. We looked no safer at the back with the extra defender on. Worse if anything, letting teams come at us more.