Re: Match Thread v Barnsley

by Wookster Sat Jan 20, 2018 3:59 pm

Think i used 3rd or 4th one down

by deadbuzzardalive Sat Jan 20, 2018 4:10 pm

Really need to attack them as much as possible in the second half and test their defence, when they have the ball in our half they look pretty decent. Need a few more goals at least, hopefully an hat-trick for Hogan.

by deadbuzzardalive Sat Jan 20, 2018 4:31 pm

Need to get a grip, giving away too many chances and free-kicks.

by **De Kuip** Sat Jan 20, 2018 4:44 pm

Wookster wrote:Think i used 3rd or 4th one down

Cheers

Match Thread v Barnsley - Page 2 3769219917

by deadbuzzardalive Sat Jan 20, 2018 4:57 pm

McKirdy scored today for Crewe.

by Guest Sat Jan 20, 2018 5:06 pm

Not too bad. Much better in fact. Something has changed in terms of urgency and determination at least. Much more directness and pace when we are attacking. We fell back into our old selves second half, but still not too bad.

Awful subs by Bruce though. Both Whelan and and Onomah are pretty shit even on a good day.

Grealish needs to learn to fucking shoot though. He'd be much easier to like if he wasn't such a total pansy as well. I've seen women playing tougher than him, by miles as well.

by villajk Sat Jan 20, 2018 5:20 pm

Joppe Jack is our best player by far ,have you ever played the game so much ability ,glides past other players ,I think you
like Huff ball

by deadbuzzardalive Sat Jan 20, 2018 5:22 pm

Grealish was our best player by some distance, every time he gets the ball at the moment it feels like something is going to happen. We're actually starting to look like a decent side, seems like Agnew is making a difference to us.

by Dions_Bald_Head Sat Jan 20, 2018 5:22 pm

Well something's finally 'clicking'...slowly. Round pegs in round holes maybe.

Speaking of which, how was Thor getting on in the middle?

by Villa_Dan Sat Jan 20, 2018 5:27 pm

Cracking 1st half and a thoroughly professional 2nd half.
Grealish just looks dangerous with the ball.

Adomah was a threat all game.
Hourihan and Thor worked well, give Thor his credit sitting in midfield and breaking up play is something he's actually good at!
Everything Hogan touches at the moment goes in.

Derby and Bristol drawing and wolves losing suits us too. Great weekend.

by Guest Sat Jan 20, 2018 5:36 pm

Dions_Bald_Head wrote:Well something's finally 'clicking'...slowly. Round pegs in round holes maybe.

Speaking of which, how was Thor getting on in the middle?

Pretty decent. Much better than Whelan and that's putting it mildly.

by FoxyAV Sat Jan 20, 2018 6:28 pm

How long has Thor been here and he finally plays in his correct position and looks good. Crazy. Maybe the revelation has been 'play players in their correct positions'?

I didn't see any of it but the BBC text and stats coverage appeared to be all Barnsley, albeit all Barnsley missing. It sounded lucky they didn't have anyone decent in front of goal.

I'm looking forward to the highlights.

by deadbuzzardalive Sat Jan 20, 2018 6:36 pm

To be fair Bjarnasson historically hasn't really beena defensive midfielder, he's always been an offensive one for both Basel and Iceland, usually cutting in from the left hand side, so can't really blame Bruce for playing him out of position as such. But he's always been known for his combative play, so if he can re-invent himself as a Kanté type player then fair play to him.

by Guest Sat Jan 20, 2018 7:36 pm

Worst bit is that he hasn't really been that good as a CM either. We just look so much better when we have another CM with legs. Whelan and to some extent Jedinak has simply made us worse than we are.

by achilles Sat Jan 20, 2018 8:30 pm

Villa_Dan wrote:Cracking 1st half and a thoroughly professional 2nd half.
Grealish just looks dangerous with the ball.

Adomah was a threat all game.
Hourihan and Thor worked well, give Thor his credit sitting in midfield and breaking up play is something he's actually good at!
Everything Hogan touches at the moment goes in.

Derby and Bristol drawing and wolves losing suits us too. Great weekend.

That sums it up really.
Adomah was my MOM, superb wing play by him and crosses to boot!
Grealish on the ball is definitely different class to anything we have got, although off the ball he still has a lot to learn and sometimes goes down too easily!
Really, really pleased for Hogan, play to his strengths and he will score, looks a different player now he has a bit of confidence, really unlucky to hit the post in the second half when we played a superb bit of football down the left hand side!
Bjarnason still learning his new position but really does add mobility there, besides a fair amount of skill, which dramatically improves us no end, allowing Hourihane to get forward more.
Ironically I thought Terry and Chester were quite poor for us today especially in the second half but fair play to Johnstone who again looked the part on shot stopping!
Special mention to Elmo who probably had his best game for us, marauding down the right hand side!
Thought Snodgrass had a relatively poor game as well.
The substitution Adomah off and Onomah on was totally bizarre! Onomah playing left wing, you have to be joking!

Overall an excellent performance which I suspect Steve Agnew has a great deal to do with it!

by Guest Sun Jan 21, 2018 8:01 am

It feels different now methinks.

One thing I'd like to point out is that after Agnew came in we've taken the lead in matches and then taken the foot off the pedal so to speak. We come across as very professional in an Italian type of way.

Football was a bit better yesterday as well. On vt they are claiming we got three coaches in Calderwood (defensive), Clemence (team talks) and Agnew (attacking). No idea if they made that up, but it would at least explain why we were solid defensively, but shit at scoring goals until Agnew came along. We do look to attack with a plan and urgency now though, which is more than we did before.

Though it begs the question what Bruce actually does.

by deadbuzzardalive Sun Jan 21, 2018 9:19 am

They've got it from Wyness's interview on BBC Radio WM, he said before Agnew came in we were asking defensive coaches to do our attacking tactics, but now Agnew is here, everyone can concentrate on what they specialize in, whilst he takes care of the attacking side of things (I think he was also credited with 'movement' as well). He actually called Clemence the 'Dressing Room coach' which I thought was strange.

by FoxyAV Sun Jan 21, 2018 9:19 am

Shame about Green being injured so early but once Adomah was in place and not sidelined he's looked great. All because of two injuries (Grealish included there).

Lansbury wasn't working in midfield but Hourihane has made it his, but been held back by Whelan. I don't know if Lansbury will get his time, especially now Hourihane's been freed. All because of Hourihane's display in a cup match.

Whelan wasn't working in midfield but now it shows how much he was holding everyone else back but especially Hourihane. Whelan had two nails (hopefully) in his coffin - being injured and Jedi doing a better job and then all three DMs in Whelan, Jedi and Onomah being injured and Thor doing a good job. So Thor's in and everything looks better, all because of injuries.

Onomah was kind of ok in AM but was apparently a disinterested fish out of water in the wrong position, something Grealish has made clear. All because of an injury.

The other main change is Hutton at LB. I don't normally like players out of position but Hutton seems to work so I don't mind. Elmo's cross for the first goal was superb (imagine if Hutton could do that!) and he now works because we're scoring more goals than we're conceding.

I think we look decent now, albeit with some way to go to stop opponents dominating matches when we go defensive or whatever. I assume in-game decisions are made by Bruce - tactics and subs - and that's what needs working on next. Well, along with Bruce needing to stick with the players and fans no matter what. And perhaps picking up an injury...

I only saw the highlights of yesterday's match and while I'd also like to see Grealish shoot more what I think he has is a very rare and much more valuable skill of taking the ball into dangerous areas and then not shooting, but passing to a teammate in a better position. In Hogan he has a great partner but add Snodgrass and Adomah, and now Hourihane too, and I'd be happy not seeing Jack score another goal all season if he's pulling players away and making those killer passes in the box for everyone else to score. Sure, he's too cautious as well, but when he does pop one in and scores they're usually worth waiting for.

Maybe for me what's been so frustrating is not so much that we should be steamrolling this league but a) we have some cracking players being made to look average and not allowed to show what they can do and b) we haven't been winning anything on a fairly regular basis since MON and it's not fun not knowing if you're going to win, lose or have a dull draw. Sure, we're not dominating matches (Bristol the possible exception) and that needs a LOT of work, but Hogan, Grealish and Hourihane doing what they did yesterday has me excited about matches again.

by achilles Sun Jan 21, 2018 10:14 am

I think why Hutton works on the left, is that Adomah does the crossing and therefore Hutton doesn't need to do that side of things just support Adomah which he does superbly besides his defensive duties.

It shows on the pitch how well the three (Adomah, Hutton and Grealish) get on as they interlink with each other brilliantly. Whereas on the other side it is not so obvious as Snodgrass, besides wanting to dribble all the time, always keeps on coming back to get the ball onto his left foot and it is left to Elmo to do the majority of the crossing which he is good at due to him being a converted right winger.

by VTID85 Sun Jan 21, 2018 10:58 am

I feel much more confident on the left with Hutton there instead of Taylor. He seems more confident with it too, moreso than he did on the right. And it could be because of having Adomah in front of him, perhaps takes some of the pressure off him trying to be more of a wing-back than he's capable of. Credit where it's due as well, he has the ability to explode past players whilst understanding he doesn't have to try and run the ball all the way up the pitch. I've been critical of Hutton in the past but he's showed some real experience and nouse in the last couple of games.

Great to see Hogan with a big smile on his face yesterday, the guy looked 10ft tall all of a sudden and long may it continue.

by Guest Sun Jan 21, 2018 12:09 pm

Hutton really has been outstanding at LB.

by danclare82 Sun Jan 21, 2018 3:35 pm

deadbuzzardalive wrote:They've got it from Wyness's interview on BBC Radio WM, he said before Agnew came in we were asking defensive coaches to do our attacking tactics, but now Agnew is here, everyone can concentrate on what they specialize in, whilst he takes care of the attacking side of things (I think he was also credited with 'movement' as well). He actually called Clemence the 'Dressing Room coach' which I thought was strange.

If this is the case why has it took until now to get an attack minded coach in??!

by Wookster Sun Jan 21, 2018 4:08 pm

I read a comment somewhere yesterday, may have been on here, that with us now playing to Hogans strengths we are a more threatening team than one allowing Kodjia to be a free spirit. I have to agree

by deadbuzzardalive Sun Jan 21, 2018 4:57 pm

danclare82 wrote:
deadbuzzardalive wrote:They've got it from Wyness's interview on BBC Radio WM, he said before Agnew came in we were asking defensive coaches to do our attacking tactics, but now Agnew is here, everyone can concentrate on what they specialize in, whilst he takes care of the attacking side of things (I think he was also credited with 'movement' as well). He actually called Clemence the 'Dressing Room coach' which I thought was strange.
If this is the case why has it took until now to get an attack minded coach in??!

I guess they'd say because they were waiting for Agnew to become available, who I believe couldn't leave Middlesbrough for another club as he was in some sort of contractual dispute with them.

by AstonThriller Sun Jan 21, 2018 5:51 pm

Just a brilliant result for the lads Very Happy

. And like others have said, It's no surprise that things have gone up a notch since Agnew came in. He was very influential at Boro and also was with Bruce at Hull. And that's another thing we have to think about. Bruce has all but one of the staff members he had when he was last promoted with Hull. Clemence, Agnew and Walsh are all here with Calderwood being his assistant instead of Mike Phelan.

But yeah, just great to see goals and assists coming from so many different sources. Snoddy has around eight or nine assists, Grealish has around five or six and of course the goals are being shared around too. This is a great sign moving forward because it makes all the difference in those tight games when you need a goal from somewhere.

Some claim we took our foot off the gas in the second half but let's remember Hogan and Hourihane could have easily added the fourth goal aswell. So all in all, we've got to be happy that the lads saw out the game with no issues and now they can rest up and prepare for Sheff U.

And in closing, the form Hogan showed at Brentford was frightening tbh, and it looks like his confidence is really growing now. IF he continues this form then I think it will be massive for us because let's be honest we've made it this far with mainly Adomah, Hourihan and Snoddy getting us over the line. Add an inform striker to the mix, then the sky is the limit imo.

COME ON VILLA!!

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