Aston Villa v Norwich City

Awwww Achilles

Was the performance that much better? We scored 4:
1. Created by an actual striker doing his job. Progress.
2. I think that's the first one he's got on target. Fluke?
3. Deflected from 25 yards. Lucky.
4. A good strike from 20 yards but if we conceded like that then the defenders would be being slated on here.

I'm not saying it wasn't deserved but I think the enthusiasm needs to be tempered. We got lucky today and still panicked second half and sat back despite being 2 up!

Well hopefully it's a well needed dose of self confidence. Keep the same side going with Bree for Hutton. Get O'Hare on as a sub and we're set.

If anything, the biggest worry today was how awful Terry was. He was saved by Johnstone on more than one occasion, and his offside attempt when Johnstone came rushing out was pathetic. And that's not mentioning his position on their goal.

Joppe84 wrote:Well hopefully it's a well needed dose of self confidence. Keep the same side going with Bree for Hutton. Get O'Hare on as a sub and we're set.

If anything, the biggest worry today was how awful Terry was. He was saved by Johnstone on more than one occasion, and his offside attempt when Johnstone came rushing out was pathetic. And that's not mentioning his position on their goal.

I think you're being a bit harsh on Terry for their second goal, mate.

He looks at Oliveira before the cross comes in, so he knows where he is.

I think he's just 'done' by the quality of the ball in.

Murphy digs it out, with no backlift (so no warning), and ball is hit 'flat' with pace. It's over Terry's head before he can react and Oliveira times his run to perfection.

In terms of his positioning, I think he's expecting a shot from Murphy and he's thinking he can cover a cross to Oliveira, but that ball from Murphy was top drawer.

Murphy looked a real threat tbh, especially 2nd half.

well it's quite clear that after all this time I've been the missing link! What a performance and one that we haven't seen In some time.

And as for Davis... wow,we have some player on our hands there! Made a huge difference.

First bullet dodged by Bruce? The gun still has a few left however?

mefromhere wrote:Was the performance that much better? We scored 4:
1. Created by an actual striker doing his job. Progress.
2. I think that's the first one he's got on target. Fluke?
3. Deflected from 25 yards. Lucky.
4. A good strike from 20 yards but if we conceded like that then the defenders would be being slated on here.

I'm not saying it wasn't deserved but I think the enthusiasm needs to be tempered. We got lucky today and still panicked second half and sat back despite being 2 up!

To be honest, we really should have scored eight or nine, so I'm not sure how anyone could say we were "lucky"?

1. Hourihane missed when clean through
2. Davis missed two one on ones and hit the crossbar
3. Elmo hit the bar and Green missed his header

Fantastic first half & what a full debut from Davies, full of threat, movement & strength that belied his age.

I was very surprised to see him start but what a performance, only overshadowed by the fact Hourihane got the goals.

Although Norwich were dogshite for the most part, it did look as though we could throw it away when it went 3-2 but we thoroughly deserved this win.

Hopefully we can gain a little momentum by beating Wigan on Tuesday & be ready for a very tough trip to Bristol City who are very strong at home on Friday.

The only downside had to be performance of Alan Hutton, surely we have seen the last of The Scottish Cafu in a Villa shirt ?

Top performance from Davies - deserved a goal. Very powerful running and bustling defenders off the ball and all Adrenalin performance can he maintain this form ? - hope so.
I must be the only one not overly convinced by John Terry - he doesn't seem to be playing the captains role looked to loose his man for the second Norwich goal.
Elmohady - seems to dissapear for huge chunks of the game.

Hope the players have had a wake up call and we produce this stiff week in week out...

smetro wrote:Top performance from Davies - deserved a goal. Very powerful running and bustling defenders off the ball and all Adrenalin performance can he maintain this form ? - hope so.
I must be the only one not overly convinced by John Terry - he doesn't seem to be playing the captains role looked to loose his man for the second Norwich goal.
Elmohady - seems to dissapear for huge chunks of the game.

Hope the players have had a wake up call and we produce this stiff week in week out...  

Agree completely on Terry. He's been bang average so far.

DelboyVilla wrote:First bullet dodged by Bruce? The gun still has a few left however?

Bruce has possibly been a bit lucky here, in that injuries have forced him into this starting lineup and Davis was a revelation.

No doubt he'll claim that Davis's performance was no surprise to him, but that begs the question of why he hasn't started him before, and makes him look even more of a mug.

The best thing for him now is to keep quiet, accept his good fortune and keep playing him.

Davis was the difference yesterday because he held the ball up for those vital few seconds that allows our deep-lying midfield to get forward and join the attack.

This will be even more important away from home, when we're under the kosh, and need the centre forward to hold the ball up, whilst we get out and hit them on the counter.

Having said that, we only had 37% possession yesterday, so maybe this lineup is suited to counter-attacking home or away.

Ultimately I don't care how much possession we have if we win. It is however a worrying factor. As is us choking at half time again. They could and probably should have had 2-2 and that would have changed the reminder of the match for sure.

Possession for possessions sake means nothing. We had something like 70% possession against Cardiff I believe.

Villa_Dan wrote:Possession for possessions sake means nothing. We had something like 70% possession against Cardiff I believe.

Exactly right, look at the stats yesterday and the main one is chances... we had 20 they had 8 or 9.

mefromhere wrote:Was the performance that much better? We scored 4:
1. Created by an actual striker doing his job. Progress.
2. I think that's the first one he's got on target. Fluke?
3. Deflected from 25 yards. Lucky.
4. A good strike from 20 yards but if we conceded like that then the defenders would be being slated on here.

I'm not saying it wasn't deserved but I think the enthusiasm needs to be tempered. We got lucky today and still panicked second half and sat back despite being 2 up!

I'm guessing you didn't watch the reading or Cardiff games, or yesterday's game?

Some very good passing and movement yesterday with lots of very good chances. It could easily have been 8-2.

I think the previous 2 games we had 1 shot in each and played hoofball.

Lots of very good chances or not ... we scored 3 from 18 yards or more and we can't rely on that for the rest of the season

Davis also had a header that was saved by the keeper. We had plenty of chances inside the box that should have been put away. If we had Jimmy yesterday it would have been a cricket score imo.

I don't care if our goals came from deflections off our own crossbar; we've had so much misery I'm still celebrating a 4-2 win & there's no way I'm going to bothering analysing it.

Villa_Dan wrote:Possession for possessions sake means nothing. We had something like 70% possession against Cardiff I believe.

Indeed very often your possession stats shift significantly upward when you are behind chasing the game.....not where we want to be !

I'm actually surprised we had 37% possession. I thought we had the ball loads.

Possesion in of itself doesn't make for a succesful team, but more often than not the better teams will be those who can retain the ball better. Of course that doesn't mean that the team who has the best possesion stats will be the most succesful, just that teams who let the opposition see most of the ball are rarely do well, Leicester City being one of the rare exceptions to the rule the season before last.

Onomah's head injury will be further assessed but doesn't sound too serious. Jedinak was close to being in the squad Saturday but was still a little sore - could be in the reckoning for tomorrow or Friday.
Gabby has that ailment of many workshy slackers - a bad back and will continue to be assessed (or did the OS actually mean will continue to not be assed - can't remember now).
Jedi when fully fit might give the defence the protection that's been missing and Onomah has already shown himself to be a creative and important part of the team.
I know Bruce wouldn't do it, but I'm daydreaming of the time when our team has Onomah/Green/O'Hare/Davis/Hepburn-Murphy/Bree all playing at the same time. I'll up the dream stakes and add Grealish coming back from injury, getting played in the right position, sorting himself out  and being a revelation for the second half of the season. A young and hungry team showing no fear with the fans roaring them on. That's what I dream of seeing.

@dazzle need you to start the Wigan thread mate!

De Kuip wrote:@dazzle need you to start the Wigan thread mate!

I must have gotten lucky this weekend, even my dreamteam soared like an eagle and netted me 93pts with the weekend fixtures!
Shall I give it a go with the Wigan thread, see if my luck is in for the entire week? Even the missus was putting out

Dazzle wrote:

De Kuip wrote:@dazzle need you to start the Wigan thread mate!

I must have gotten lucky this weekend, even my dreamteam soared like an eagle and netted me 93pts with the weekend fixtures!
Shall I give it a go with the Wigan thread, see if my luck is in for the entire week? Even the missus was putting out

Good man!

We'll see just how good at 9.40 tonight haha