Aston Villa v Sheffield Wednesday Saturday 22nd September 3pm . | Page 18 | Vital Football

Aston Villa v Sheffield Wednesday Saturday 22nd September 3pm .

Stephen Jay Hawkings said:
I wanted Howe when Lambert was on his way out, he's done brilliantly since then which of course would make it harder to get him.

But again, as Deano pointed out, you would have the question how they would handle a club like Villa? He's at no pressure at Bournemouth to achieve anything, getting them promoted was amazing in itself, surviving in the Premier League is the cherry (boom) on the cake. You could probably say the same of Smith. Brentford fans are just happy to be there.

But on the other hand, pressure to achieve or not, they have sides playing good football.

To be honest, that's as much as I ask for right now, forget promotion, the Premier League and all that nonsense, I just want to see something resembling football. I didn't grow up watching Villa play this muck and I've had enough.
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I too don't find promotion the issue. We might get it this year, we might not. We might spend next year labouring under a points deduction, which would clobber promotion chances.

What matters is building a team so that it is constantly improving, making the best use of the resources we have. This is where Bruce's 4 promotions is irrelevant. It's improving the football we play which is the key to the future.
 
As children, we came to love football for many reasons - the greatest being the pleasure of watching your team play well, score goals, win games. The last ten years of being a Villa fan have been torture. The number of times, the team has fulfilled those objectives mentioned can barely reach double figures. Today one of the greatest goals ever witnessed at VP was scored, yet we are left feeling empty and angry and it is rendered meaningless.

In those ten years, I have gone from not wanting to watch the highlights on Match of the Day to not wanting to watch the highlights of Football on Quest. I have a ticket for the Preston game and at this moment, I don't even feel like going to a Villa Park full of angry and disappointed fans. There is just no pleasure or joy in it. Football is meant to be life affirming not soul destroying.

Bruce is finished although we may have to suffer more embarrassment before he leaves. At the worst point in the season, with limited options, we need to make the right appointment, some one with strength, vision and a clear playing strategy. I have no idea who that is. What I do know is that they will be walking into a shitstorm of difficult fixtures with a team lacking in direction and confidence and a defence with limited options that at the moment would struggle to cope in League 2.

Sometimes I just fucking well hate football when it adds to the list of lifes disappointments.
 
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Ok, sucker for punishment that I am, player ratings...

Nyland: 6 - fine.
Elmo: 4 - ineffective in attack and defence.
Chester: 3 - shockingly bad throughout.
Jedinak: 5 - best defender. Yes, we were that shambolic at the back.
Hutton: 4 - a liability (again).
Adomah: 2 - did nothing. Literally.
Hourihane: 5 - busy, to no avail.
McGinn: 7 - best of a bad bunch by a mile. Extra point for his wonder goal. MOTM.
Grealish: 5 - started brightly but faded into nothing. Not helped by being moved around positions he can’t play.
Kodjia: 4 - had moments. Sulked as game slipped away.
Abraham: 5 - totally isolated but did his best. Must be missing Chelsea reserves.

Subs

Bolasie: 5 - tried. Should have been on sooner. Spent most of his appearance moving positions as Bruce kept changing his ‘tactics’.
El Ghazi: 4 - anonymous.

Bruce: 1 - presided over a farce. I just thank my lucky stars that he “knows what he’s doing”.
 
The sickening thing is that with a win, which with any sort of performance we would have had, we'd be sitting pretty in the top 6. With this loss we're in the bottom half of the table. Fed up :arrghh:

Yes it can happen to the best of teams. But happens to us far, far too much and it's only luck and the odd individual spark which stops it being more. Under Bruce we always fail when there's a prospect of progress.
 
Very disappointed to wake up to that scoreline. In mitigation Bruce had a hell of a lot to deal with pre and early season. Maybe it's taken it's toll on him. If the new owners are as determined as they make out it's probably better to do something now in preparation for next season. How about Arteta?
 
Zaijianforth you're very lucky to wake up to that scoreline, some of us had to watch it!
Bruce is finished mate and has been for some time, he's conned a few with his "record" but the majority had sussed him ages ago.

He can't motivate players that he's just got in, let alone his favourites Like Elmo Hourihane and even Jack has lost the will to live.

Personally, I'd take anyone as a manager right now even Henry who I thought would be a joke of a manager given his lack of experience,

Today's team don't remember Bruce as a player they weren't even born when he was at Utd. So perhaps they might have more respect for someone they will see as a superstar
 
Woken up early on this miserable looking Sunday morning where I'll be having to spend my afternoon with my girlfriends awful grandparents and strangely enough I'm not any less annoyed about that performance than I was yesterday.

I listened to WM on the way home yesterday and the presenter made the same point many fans have made before. He was talking about the wolves boss saying that he knew the way he wanted to play so he bought players that he knew would understand and fit into the way he wanted to play. On the other hand our manager has admitted that he doesn't know what system go play that will suite the players we have. So in essence he's saying he's brought in 6 new players just completely randomly because they were available and now is attempting to fix things around them.

A totally ridiculous way of doing things. When big Sam went to West ham he knew what type of football he wanted to play so he bought in Carroll and Nolan. The wolves guy bought in Neves and Jota. We have a manager who reeeeeeeally wants to play 3 centre backs but left us at the end of the transfer window with only 2 at the club and brought in 2 wingers who cannot play in that system anyway. He's no clue what he's doing whatsoever.
 
Very good points made by most, Bruce is making it impossible to defend him because he is getting so much wrong. Not sure what goes on behind the scenes but whatever it is it needs to change now.
 
What is there to say - but I bet this will be a massive post. What a shambles. 3 seconds of sheer quality, 95m 57s of utter pathetic rubbish.

Nyland - I don't like him, but lets face it, one of three that kept the score under 5. Played well yesterday 7

Hutton - Usual committed display, one unbelievable interception - 6

Chester - Horrendous performance. ALways thought he was bang average and was carried by Terry, being proved right - 3

Jedinak - this annoys me, I heard coming back, Jedinak this, Jedinak that. Now don't get me wrong, I think it is ludicrous he is playing at centre back, but the fact is , yesterday, he played bloody well, got Chester out the crap time and time again, and was one of three that played well - 6

Elmo - Was meh - 5

McGinn - can't say brilliant after yesterday, but did everything he could. Tackled , ran, drove , just had nowt around him. Best goal at Villa Park since Dean Saunders v Ipswich but even that wasn't enough - 8

Hourihane - effort was there, most our "good stuff" involved him, but not his day - 5

Grealish - cue arguments. He was bloody awful !. Sulked around the pitch, slowing things down, throwing himself to the floor. Is being shoe horned into a side he doesn't deserve to be in. He is not good enough for central midfield, he is not good enough for a winger, he is not good enough to play behind the striker - I have been saying for 3 seasons now - What is he ??? - that midfield should be El Ghazi, McGinn, Hourihane, Bolasie - with possibly Jedi or Whelan behind them depending on formation , but , you are not a fan if you criticise Saint Jack - put it this way - if that had been Ashley Westwood yesterday, he would have been booed when he touched the ball, and tell me I am wrong ! - 2


Abraham - same as Blackburn, due to lack of creativity, was forced to bang it to his head from 50 yards - he ain't Emile Heskey - 5

Kodjia - as Abraham - 5

Subs - Bolasie - guess what, you bring a 30m Left Winger on , onto the right wing, coz the player playing left wing is undroppable !. Was awful at RW, when swapped to left, did well - 5

Bruce - its all been said, I don't want to slag him off, I really respect the bloke, but it is time to go - and everyone, including him, knows it. When they asked him about whether he was being backed above, he dodged the question. He is waiting for a pay off, and to be honest, you can't blame him. He stuck with us in the summer when he could have walked, he has a contract, it is up to us to pay it up - and we should.

All in all, yesterday was pathetic, it should have been 5 or 6, we played as if we had never met before, without passion, without purpose, without pace and without tactics. To me, this club has gone backwards since Calderwood arrived.
 
Don't think this is about individual player performances. This goes down to the management and coaching. We all have opinions about individual players, but a chef can make a lovely meal from whatever ingredients are available to him - it will not win awards but it will be palatable.

Bruce is reponsible for the lethargic, "pull your boots on", disorganised, unfulfilled, turgid offering that he suggests is a football team. While I am dissapointed with the current state of the team, I am optimistic that a new direction is just around the corner.
 
To cap matters off we are looking at -12 points next season under FFP breach
Oh and we are paying all of Bolasie £80k a week wages
 
Again, I was slagged off in the summer for being a "Jack hater" when I said - "sell him, it will get us out the financial mess in 5 minutes" - well we didn't and as said above, we are now going to have points docked.

I kept saying, Xia was slagged off for gambling the clubs future, we have done it again - and lost again !
 
Morning all well what can I say that hasn't already been said we can all see the deficiency's so why the fuck can't Bruce. He was waxing the lyrical the other night claiming to be some tactical genius and calling everyone else thick cus we had just beat the mighty Rotherham and that certainly was no stroll in the park we laboured at times in that game and they could quite easily have scored a couple. Last season was as high as Bruce could possibly take us only to put in an abject performance against ten man Fulham that for me told the story he had took us as far as he possibly could he should have gone then he had his chance and failed. But because of Dr Who's failings we were stuck and this he stuck by us is absolute bollox in my book because now the only way is down for Bruce now he knows he won't get a bigger job than this that's why he stuck around. For me now we got a few weeks till the October break so hopefully Purslow is fully aware of the situation and as already got plans in place for a replacement already bring him in
 
See I don't believe that last season is as high as Bruce can take us, he has delivered promotion several times before, but he has made a real hash of the summer and now he he has a totally unbalanced squad that seems to have no style , no focus, and is performing terribly. Add to that his ill advised comments to supporters and you have a perfect storm brewing. Through his own actions on the training ground and in the press he has evaporated any wriggle room last season had afforded him.He needs to start winning and winning well to stand any chance of remaining at the club.
 
Wasn't there something in the evening mail a week or so ago where some football finance "expert" was saying that he didn't think we'd incur any ffp penalties? This seems to change every few weeks.
 
Erod said:
Eddie Howe might be temped to drop down just as Graham Taylor did.
Prob knows the players.

I think Henry might be able to get us playing as a team.
It’s just Little partnerships around the pitch, that’s all.
Cruff said it’s a simple game.
Shanks called it pass and move.
It’s what Man City do
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Agree. Greenwood said it about keeping players close together all around the pitch. Yesterday we were made to look like statues. Pass and don’t move. Or can’t see who to pass to and caught in possession. We said on Tuesday evening the real test will come in Saturday. Well, it did and we were completely outplayed until we looked demoralised. There’s no way back for Bruce and a lot of fans who were there in numbers yesterday will vote with their feet. This is the moment if the season when the right decision has to be made. I only hope the new owners have planned for it.
 
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