Re: Villa Vs Leeds - match thread

[Guest]

Kodjia needs to realize that he can go from being a good journey man striker to an excellent striker if he could start bringing his team mates into play.

[deadbuzzardalive]

An unpopular opinion but I honestly think Westwood is our best midfielder at the moment, put two decent box-to-box mids, next to him and I think he'd do alright, like when he was playing with Delph and Cleverly.

[Guest]

An unpopular opinion but I honestly think Westwood is our best midfielder at the moment, put two decent box-to-box mids, next to him and I think he'd do alright, like when he was playing with Delph and Cleverly.

He's definately miles better than Gardner.

[The Utterer]

What is with Amavi is my concern? He's been pretty atrocious the last two games and keeps making schoolboy errors. He nearly cost us against Burton several times giving the ball away all the time in dangerous area's when not even under any pressure as such. He was a little better today but not a lot! He occasionally does something decent of course but way too many errors at the mo! Needs to sort himself out.

[Guest]

What is with Amavi is my concern? He's been pretty atrocious the last two games and keeps making schoolboy errors. He nearly cost us against Burton several times giving the ball away all the time in dangerous area's when not even under any pressure as such. He was a little better today but not a lot! He occasionally does something decent of course but way too many errors at the mo! Needs to sort himself out.

Tbf he had Ayew in front of him to help out defensively on the left flank, and that's about as useful as a pedal powered wheel chair.

I was impressed by that tricky player they put out against Amavi though. He looked half decent.

[mefromhere]

We looked a lot better tonight when we took off Jedinak and were left with just Westwood in there. Was that because we brought on two attacking players and Leeds dropped back to try and preserve the lead? Maybe.

But why can't we go out and start with that mentality? Just for a change. As it stands we will need to win more games than we draw and lose to have any chance of a promotion so lets give it a go and see what happens. We haven't put 3 wins in a row together for 6 years ... and we'll need at least 4 runs like that before the end of the season.

Adomah has quality. Rudy needs service. McCormack needs somebody to play off.

[Saunders82]

Kodjia needs to realize that he can go from being a good journey man striker to an excellent striker if he could start bringing his team mates into play.

The one glaring one was right at the end when he broke through players round him and Green getting in position for the shot, even the commentator said all he had to do was roll it to big mac, non of em would have been able to change their stance to save the shot, just a tap in, but he had to have the shot which Green made a good save, we would have mugged em but who cares. It was also very noticeable that their midfield unknowns, young & hungry, once they scored were pushing up to and through us we were chasing shadows, one day hopefully we will get midfielders to take the game to the opposition.

[1Elliot]

Too many lacking the passion to win, Grealish aside nobody in the 1st half wanted to fight for the ball. In the second half all 3 subs made a difference & gave it some.... Kodjia is quality but needs to pass every now & then... McCormack is often in good positions but nobody gives him the flooking ball... Couldn't make it tonight but was there in Boxing Day & will be at Cardiff on Monday!! UTV SOTC VTID & please just try harder :-)

[Villa_Dan]

A draw was a fair result. We played better than we had for the previous 3 games against a Leeds team bang in form.

[smetro]

happy with a draw - more than i expected.
The league table doesn't make great reading points wise though. whilst i prefer Bunn over gollini - i m still not sure he is good enough to win us games.
Amavi very shaky tonight. notice the way he went to the holte on his own ? - looked like a goodbye to me !

[Guest]

Amavi very shaky tonight. notice the way he went to the holte on his own ? - looked like a goodbye to me !

I was thinking this against Burton. Not because he did a solo lap. But because, just like today, he looks like a defender that's head is elsewhere. Though it might be the weather. Doubt the temperature agrees with him.

[achilles]

Got out of jail tonight against a pretty useful Leeds side!
In the end could have won it but could just as easily have lost it as well!

We do desperately need to actually play as a functional team and less of a bunch of talented individuals.

[Trotters]

What a joy to get a proper group of officials instead of the usual Championship shit that the FA usually lumps us with.

Amavi worries me. I don't know if it's the lack of protection in front of him or what but he keeps getting caught out. And some of his decision-making is horrendous. If SB is willing to drop Gollini for making silly game-costing errors, then surely the quoted 25m offer for Amavi should have been taken?

Fair play to Hutton and Westwood. Anything good that Westy does is overlooked and any mistakes are amplified by a factor of ten but even with that in mind, he did ok. At least for the first half...for most of the 2nd when Leeds got more aggressive in midfield, he looked scared.

Having outlets like Grealish and Bacuna who have the willingness to run will helped him and Jedi but the fluidity of the ball from the back-line to the final third is painfully slow and we desperately need to new midfielders in.

Bunn looked at fault for the goal. Hutton should have been tighter on his man but that should have been saved. And from the look on Bunn's face, he knew it. It'll be interesting to see if he keeps his spot once SB and the coaching staff have analysed it.

Kodjia...great penalty but what a selfish bastard! There were a couple of times that he could have brought players into the game but elected to shoot instead. Prime example being at the end when a simple 5 yard pass to McCormack would have seen us grab all three points

Still, like many of us, I'd have taken a point before the game so not a bad result and we keep our home record!!

[VillaBill]

In the first 15mins we were full of energy & endeavour & until they scored Leeds were far worse than Burton, I couldn't believe they scored with their first effort on goal.
But IMO, Bruce got the starting XI wrong again, Albert should of been on from the start.
Amavi wasn't worth 25p on last nights showing & Jedi followed up his poor performance against Burton with another poor showing.
It was obvious Leeds had highlighted Amavi as our weak point because they attacked his side whenever possible, although his recovery speed is good, his positioning is awful & time & time again he obstructs his opponent to let the ball roll out of play, it is only a matter of time before this action costs us a goal, he does it every week, "If in doubt, get it out Jordan"
A strange game where which could easily have gone either way at the end, a draw was about right, great spot BTW from the lino on the pen decision, perhaps Bruce should start with the gung ho formation we finish games with ?
4-1-5

[villajk]

OK Amavi had a bad game it happens, but him and jack are the best players we have, YES Fair play to Hutton and Westwood they do try, but Westwood don't hack it,Ayew so over rated all his runs end no where.

[achilles]

Bunn looked at fault for the goal. Hutton should have been tighter on his man but that should have been saved. And from the look on Bunn's face, he knew it. It'll be interesting to see if he keeps his spot once SB and the coaching staff have analysed it.

Kodjia...great penalty but what a selfish bastard! There were a couple of times that he could have brought players into the game but elected to shoot instead. Prime example being at the end when a simple 5 yard pass to McCormack would have seen us grab all three points

Still, like many of us, I'd have taken a point before the game so not a bad result and we keep our home record!!

Baker was supposed to be marking Jansson, like for like, and not Hutton but Baker lost him!
Bunn should have done better but to be fair that is his first mistake.

Kodjia is a total exasperation, without him we are lost as he creates things out of nothing but he will never be a great striker as he is definitely not a team player but he is essential to Villa at the moment.

[Dazzle]

I'm not really understanding the current gripe with Kodjia and the selfish accusations. Would you expect Ronaldo or Messi, having created an opportunity themselves in the middle of the penalty area, to lay it off when they had a clear sight of goal?! It was a great piece of goalkeeping from Green, end of. Kodjia is an attacker, how many times does he pick the ball up in the final third and see options close by? Hardly ever, there are no midfielders running through the middle and generally no other striker to lay off to. Given the option of knocking it backwards to Jedi or Westwood, or going on a run by himself he chooses the latter, and frankly I fucking salute that. You'll likely see a different side to him when decent options are showing for him in the final third not 30-40yds away!

[Guest]

I'm not really understanding the current gripe with Kodjia and the selfish accusations. Would you expect Ronaldo or Messi, having created an opportunity themselves in the middle of the penalty area, to lay it off when they had a clear sight of goal?!

Well firstly both Ronaldo and Messi are highly creative and have a 40% assist/match ratio this season. They are incredibly bad examples to use. Secondly there have been plenty of situations the last couple of matches were Kodjia tries to ping a shot through 4 defenders instead of making a simple pass.

I'm normally all for strikers finishing what they can, but you are miles off here IMO.

The fact that people tend to compare him with Henry in terms of play style is rather ironic, as Henry would rarely be that egotistic.

Does Kodjia have a single assist this season?

[The Utterer]

OK Amavi had a bad game it happens, but him and jack are the best players we have, YES Fair play to Hutton and Westwood they do try, but Westwood don't hack it,Ayew so over rated all his runs end no where.

Did you actually see his performance against Burton too ...If not that was even worse!

Don't get me wrong i'm prepared to reserve judgement until the end of the season as of course he is finding his feet after that nasty injury last season and as Bruce has stated he will likely not be at his best until the latter part of this season....But crikey he's sucked the last two games but saved himself by the skin of his teeth with his speed and a large slice of luck!

[achilles]

OK Amavi had a bad game it happens, but him and jack are the best players we have, YES Fair play to Hutton and Westwood they do try, but Westwood don't hack it,Ayew so over rated all his runs end no where.

Did you actually see his performance against Burton too ...If not that was even worse!

Don't get me wrong i'm prepared to reserve judgement until the end of the season as of course he is finding his feet after that nasty injury last season and as Bruce has stated he will likely not be at his best until the latter part of this season....But crikey he's sucked the last two games but saved himself by the skin of his teeth with his speed and a large slice of luck!

Don't mind players making mistakes but LEARN from them, don't keep repeating the same mistakes, which Amavi is doing at the moment but I agree judge him at the end of the season because if we don't get promotion then he will be gone anyway.

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