Aston Villa vs Bolton Wanderers Friday Night 2nd Nov | Vital Football

Aston Villa vs Bolton Wanderers Friday Night 2nd Nov

Villan57

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I'm moving forward to Friday night.
Gets our weekend sorted early, I quite like the idea of Friday night home games.
Any views on who should or will play and how the game might go ?
 
If we can't beat Bolton at home we really are struggling. Try Bolasie from the beginning. I'd be tempted to play Kodjia at centre forward. He holds the ball up better and has a better touch than Abraham.
 
I agree Ironside, I was thinking the same Koj makes his own goals whereas from what I've seen so far Abraham needs to be set up and is yet another who can't hold the ball up. I wonder how far Davis is away from being fit
 
This should be an ideal game for us to get out of our current awful form (12 points from 13 games is relegation form). Bolton are in even worse form than us, having scored just 2 goals in 8 games. However, we have struggled against equally poor teams so nothing is a given.

We need to be on the front foot from the start so I would definitely start Bolasie. Unlike Elmohamady, he is direct and will cause problems even though his delivery (like most wingers) is not consistent. I would still rather play Bree than Hutton, but you can’t really change the rest of the defence in spite of the obvious deficiencies. If Bjarnason is not fit then I would go Jedinak ahead of Whelan.

I still expect us to be in the bottom 6 on Jan 1st, but lose against Bolton and we are in really big trouble. Smith has a huge job on his hands. Yes, our approach play looks a little better but we still need to sort both penalty areas (ie the most important areas) where we are still failing. I think Smith is the right appointment but he is going to need a couple of transfer windows (at least) to turn us into a potential top 6 team, in my opinion.
 
Yes I agree with Fulford. Saw a lot of improvement last night and with a good weeks training where Smith & co can really get their ideas across we will batter Bolton.
 
Dean smith has said they will give it a few weeks to decide how they want to move forward, I bet he has made some very quick decisions. If John terry is fit I would give him a contract.
 
Im expecting a decent improvement and a fairly straight forward home win. We might even keep a clean sheet. It would be nice if Barny is fit.
 
If Bolasie has been having fitness problems then I think bench is best thing for him.

Having got a defence which stands up better than under Bruce I think we have to stick with it. Midfield depends on whether Barney is fit; if not I'd play Hourihane. Front I'd stick Kodjia in the middle and Abraham on the wing. So:

Nyland
Hutton Tuanzebe Chester Taylor
McGinn Hourihane
Elmo Grealish Abraham
Kodjia

Elmo because if Kodjia is up front his crosses do have a knack of finding Kodjia's head.

I think the team played well enough last night that we'll progress better by keeping it together as far as possible.

I'd line up Bolasie and Lansbury as the main late substitutions. Deano will want to see how Lansbury shapes up.

I know Bolton is the sort of on-a-bad-run team that we trasditionally give a helping hand to, but I don't think Deano will stand for that. And I think the lads have something to prove.
 
I posted before the QPR game I didn’t want to see Elmo, I may have also said the same before the Norwich game. Given we’re at home to a lower league team I want Elmo no further forward than right back if he has to play.

I can’t get over how a professional footballer is so bad at crossing.

Bolasie will never get fit if he doesn’t start, even playing at amateur level like probably all of us at some point I can safely confirm that there is no fitness like match fitness. You can run 20 miles a day for a month and it isn’t the same type of fitness as match fitness.
 
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Im expecting a decent improvement and a fairly straight forward home win. We might even keep a clean sheet. It would be nice if Barny is fit.

I don’t think Bolton is straightforward, they’re style of play has beaten us before and Milwall were equally as ugly and direct the other week and beat us convincingly.

I’m not as confident of any clean sheet at the moment, what it does tell me is that we need 2 goals as a minimum. One goal for us just isn’t enough.
 
I don’t think Bolton is straightforward, they’re style of play has beaten us before and Milwall were equally as ugly and direct the other week and beat us convincingly.

I’m not as confident of any clean sheet at the moment, what it does tell me is that we need 2 goals as a minimum. One goal for us just isn’t enough.
We will slaughter them