Aston Villa v Sheffield Utd - Match Thread - Friday 8th Feb, 7.45pm | Page 23 | Vital Football

Aston Villa v Sheffield Utd - Match Thread - Friday 8th Feb, 7.45pm

Credit to Whelan, I joked (at his expense) during the game that Whelan coming on would mean we win 4-3 and he nearly did make the difference. The timing worked because the game wasn’t being battled in the middle of the park where his dropping deep costs us our shape IMO but given the game was stretched he dropped in as he does and played the ball.

Jedi was shocking but that’s his first game back for a while in central midfield unless I’m mistaken.

I though Green was poor however he popped up in the right place at the right time, two seasons ago he wouldn't have scored that.
 
gdav said:
Like I said last night smith has no chance with that midfield & unfortunately with injuries etc he has no choice. He gets hammered weekly for picking Whelan so tries Jedinak & he puts in a performance like that.
Does anyone really think he would be picking Hourihane if he had other options?
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I'm sorry but I don't agree. The midfield 3 of Hourihane deep and McGinn as an 8 and Grealish as a 10 was working brilliantly.

Grealish got injured and rather than replace him like for like by take a gamble on O'Hare or moving El Ghazi inside he bottled it, put Whelan in and shuffled Hourihane and McGinn around.... Classic Bruce move!
 
El Ghazi had a decent game, I think there’s a promising ball carrier in there when he finds his feet a bit more. The problem is that we need a defence and central midfield who can play the triangles and bring him into play in the final third.

If he can prove himself a bit more he might be a player worth buying.
 
ASPINALL said:
Never in a million years do you play Jedinak and Hourihane defensive midfield against anyone decent, Bjarnason and McGinn surely as they can run.

Although i don`t think anyone could predict exactly how bad Jedinak was yesterday, looked like he`d been in the pub for 4 hours.
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Yes Bjarnason can run......most of the time it's as if he's on a Sunday afternoon jog in the park! Done absolutely nothing to warrant a starting place. Would select Glenn Whelan in front of him every time.
 
Barney has a chance to nail a place, proved himself to be a headless chicken in the middle and didn’t quite have the right technical ability for me to get on the ball and move it on.

At best he’s a sub who can come on somewhere on the wing.
 
I’m one of Hourihane’s biggest critics (after Villan57) and there was little to change my mind last night. Having said that, he did carry on until the bitter end, looking for the ball and trying his best. You can’t ask for more than that.
It was a bad selection in that department yesterday and began to raise early concern about Smith’s nerve. The combination of Hourihane and Jedinak was tried tested and failed under Bruce and look what happened to him. It’s a negative selection and must have delighted Wilder when he saw the team sheet. True, there are few options due to a poor January window and a number of crocks but this one never to be repeated.
 
Where was Carroll last night? Our best results have come without having a stereotypical holding player, I’m convinced we don’t need one and if we can get the likes of Tammy and El Ghazi on the ball that’ll take the pressure off defensively.
 
Agree that Jedinak was poor, but let’s not forget that this was his first start for months, and first game in midfield since the play-off game last May. The only other options available yesterday were Bjarnasson, who has been very poor in his last few starts, and Whelan (whom I think is far better than many give him credit for on here) who can’t go the full 90 minutes.
Oh and it’s no coincidence that 80% of Sheffield’s good attacking play came down whichever side of the pitch Kodja was strolling around on....
 
DeanoVilla said:
I'm not even bothered about the last 8 minutes.

We're fucking shit. Smith isn't improving this group at all, it's as if they've stopped listening.

Pinned in our own half against Sheff United. Embarrasing.
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Come off it Deano, fair enough you think we're 'fucking shit' but to emphasise your point by suggesting we were pinned in our own half for the whole game is just not an accurate assessment. First ten minutes we were but that's all. And you say you're not bothered by the last 10 minutes? So does that mean you'd have preferred to have lost 3-0? What if,by some miracle, we reach the play offs by a single point.....could be a very important point irrespective of how crap we were.
 
danvilla2 said:
Where was Carroll last night? Our best results have come without having a stereotypical holding player, I’m convinced we don’t need one and if we can get the likes of Tammy and El Ghazi on the ball that’ll take the pressure off defensively.
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I'm convinced you're right with Mings at the back we can condense the play and play 15 yards further up . Just need Jack SJM and another footballer who doesn't give the ball away under pressure
 
You pay your money you take your choice but I give a shit about the last ten minutes.
After sitting through shitty Friday night traffic. After watching 80 mins of utter durge and not walking out like the many cry babies that did and staying to watch more utter durge. I fucking deserved to have a few minutes of enjoyment and to see my club grab a ridiculously stupid point

So I do give a shit personally. After the utter crap that I watched last night to walk out of villa park with a smile on my face was one of the more bizarre moments of my villa supporting career.

And just to finally say that after reading back through the match thread it confirms what David O'Leary once said about the fickleness of villa fans.

There are people posting about Smith with an undertone of suggesting he be replaced that I know for a fact were posting about wanting Bruce gone and wanting Smith in.

You know who are. You are either fickle or a typical modern day fan boy who have swallowed the want it here and now Sky pill.

UTV.
 
Very pleased for Green he belongs here and can do well at this level. We don't half concede some soft goals. I can't tell whether it's just us or simply that defenders & goalkeepers at championship level are at championship level for a reason.
 
I never wanted smith but I will get behind him and he deserves time . We should judge him in about a years time.
I do think he's out of his depth and his inexperience is showing already.
 
Life, and football especially is all about opinions so if someone didn't want to celebrate coming back frim 3 nil down in the last 15 minutes then that's entirely up to them. What I'm not so sure of is that that person should be telling those who choose to celebrate that they should be embarrassed in some way.
 
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