Millwall v Villa, Sat. 6th Oct. 3pm kick off | Page 19 | Vital Football

Millwall v Villa, Sat. 6th Oct. 3pm kick off

Watching the highlights it seems the great team spirit we had last season has completely disappeared. For both Millwall goals the defence are standing there pointing at each other.
 
Beovilla said:
I was surprised at the end of August how few people were totally outraged by the lack of central defenders. The day that loan window "slammed shut" was the day I wanted Bruce out ASAP. It's going to take a bloody good manager to deal with our defensive frailties, if I may call them that.
Click to expand...


Go to summer transfer thread 9.8. 2018 I was banging on about it all summer including saying it would cost Bruce his job. Just as pissed off about it now as I was then will never understand this about Brucie.
 
Beovilla said:
I was surprised at the end of August how few people were totally outraged by the lack of central defenders. The day that loan window "slammed shut" was the day I wanted Bruce out ASAP. It's going to take a bloody good manager to deal with our defensive frailties, if I may call them that.
Click to expand...
Not sure I agree with that, I think most fans were scratching their heads about the centre back situation and could see where it was going to lead to
 
The new manager is probably already in place, whoever it is I wish them luck and give them full support, even if it was David moyes. The negativity has to stop, we have to get going and be a bit brave in what we are trying to do and get some energy into the team.
 
Pretty sad it's early October and the season is a write off.
It just gets worse and worse and who's to say the new owners and quaffered CEO will be any better.
 
Silhillvilla said:
That's just a silly swipe. He did a superb job up until May 2018
Click to expand...


Yep then he lost all sense and reason with the Jedinak saga and then blaming all and sundry for a predictable and preventable feck up . Will never quite understand why but for a manager who was a CB it was just plain stupid.
 
superb job my arse frankly
unless you mean being far worse than Warnock is superb.

Jedi at ch is prob better than most of his signings in the defence but that's water under the bridge now innit
 
Jase Villa 82 said:
The bigger picture is Bruce yes made a few things wrong...the thing is we start with a half new team agn in loans...no spine in the team nothing stable in the team...fact...loans juggling Fp rules...loan out to loan in...every year half a team to gel agn...look at the teams in this league...been there a long time...how many players they got in...half a team...tryed to rush this league and you can't..just to get back in prem....never work ..whoever in charge...then try and rebuild with a bit more money from prem...not a chance...decide 2 yrs ..get a spine in the team and keep them..add to them...how it's done...
Click to expand...

That pretty much sums up my thinking re the background to all of this.

Clearly, any manager would be severely constrained in what he could achieve given the now de rigeur VP circus off the pitch.

We were unplayable for a period last season which didn't last long enough to get us an automatic promotion spot unfortunately but we went pretty close to doing it.

The fiasco (again!!) off the pitch close season would mess any manager up and it's hard to blame Bruce for that.

That said, I have always had the feeling that the overall performance level under Bruce never quite met or exceeded the sum of the parts we had but if you're forced to chop and change half your first team every season due to circumstances way beyond your control then that apparent lack of gelling in your team should probably be expected.

As for Grealish, I'm not a fan but acknowledge that he has some quality but it's the kind of quality that makes you look good in training or on a five a side pitch.

He's 23 now so can't be considered a kid anymore and has very likely peaked imo. None of what's going on should be blamed on him and he's clearly working harder than he used to but the reality is that his assist/goal stats during the time we've been in the Championship as one of the strongest teams with some very strong forwards around him makes poor reading and doesn't bode well imo. Not snatching anyone's hands off at £25m was absolute folly imo and one of a staggeringly long list of major fuck ups on the player transfer side of the equation over the past five years+. £25m would get you a decent (all new) defence at this level.

True or false, there's an entire team of our ex players playing in the PL right now?

Finally, some may recall me saying that if we did everything right then we could recover from the mess that MON and Faulkner left us in within five years.

Clearly, we haven't done everything (anything?!) right since then so we are where we are and I need to reset that recovery clock back to zero and I'd guesstimate we have a 30% chance of relegation during that time - roughly as likely as us being promoted. Get hit by a -12 points penalty, however, and the likelihood of relegation doubles during that season alone.

Overall, it's the late 1970s again imo and we need to find our next Ron saunders ASAP.

I suspect Dean Smith most likely fits that bill, God knows it's been long enough since we saw good football at VP (25 years since BFR's 93 season ffs!) and right now I'd prioritise that over promotion for the next couple of seasons.
 
Haven’t even watched the highlights yet. Going with Match Of The Day and just being so grateful that we are stuck in a ‘proper league’ rather than pitting our wits against the utter quality of that ‘boring closed shop’.

All I will say is that I’m not surprised we lost. I’m shocked Kev Mc is still at the club after the team he picked against Spurs following Sherwood’s sacking. Bruce has left us fucked with the neglect of the defence - the only chance I can see for us is the appointment of a manager who plays an attacking ‘we’ll out-score you’ game.
 
Last edited:
McGrath4Pope said:
Haven’t even watched the highlights yet. Going with Match Of The Day and just being so grateful that we are stuck in a ‘proper league’ rather than pitting our wits against the utter quality of that ‘boring closed shop’.

All I will say is that I’m not surprised we lost. I’m shocked Kev Mc is still at the club after the team he picked against Spurs following Sherwood’s sacking. Bruce has left us fucked with the neglect of the defence - the only chance I can see for us is the appointment of a manager who plays an attacking ‘we’ll out-score you’ game.
Click to expand...

That means no promotion this season then and probably not for another two or three seasons after that either.
The whole squad needs rebuilding, from the unbalanced mess it is.
The last thing we need is another bunch of loan players consisting of other clubs kids and players trying to get fit after a year out injured.
If you look at the squad Bruce put together, without the claret n blue specs on, there aren't many of our players that any other club would snatch your hand off to get.
Maybe Chester, McGinn and possibly Kodjia would about be it.
I can't see Grealish attracting a club willing to pay the ridiculous price that this club has been silly enough to put on his head.
Remember we had one offer for him during the time we were potless last window and that was for £3m cash and the loan of a player for one season.
Without a John Terry type of character threatening to kick his arse, he hasn't really improved since his season on loan at Notts County.
If he was at some other club, he's the last player we'd be looking to buy.
 
Hasn’t Collins been training with us for months? And Samba still hasn’t got a club.

I’m not saying they are brilliant but better than nothing.

Who knows, I’m totally baffled by the club.
 
ironside said:
I can't remember a worse defensive unit in all my years of watching Villa and I've seen some right donkeys. When I think about the centre halves I've seen gracing the shirt over the years and contrast them with this lightweight shower I could cry.
Click to expand...
Bang on...every decent villa team had a good defence and yes worst defence I've seen too
 
You must log in or register to reply here.