Aston Villa vs Cardiff City Match Thread

[AstonThriller]

Decided to start this again as the last one I started we didn't lose!!! . Not much to say tbh. Expect Jedinak to start to help against Cardiff's set-piece attack. Hogan will probably get dropped too for Grabban. Or will Bruce have the guts to start Kodjia and give him an hour? Apart from those changes it's as you were. This game could mean a whole lot IF we manage to win and Fulham slip up. Lose and then the final nail will have been rammed into our second place coffin. Although tbh it probably has been already, but it would mean there are no doubts whatsoever.

I expect It to be a scrappy affair and who knows? Maybe the lads will show some fight and get a win? Let's hope so.

[Saunders82]

Its going to be a real grueler of a match Warnock will have them fired up and in our faces, whether we have the gonads to face up to it I don't know because of late you never know what Villa team will turn up. We all know we have had quite a few chances to cement auto promotion and we have bottled it, it would be just like us to put in a stonking performance and get a great result but I think we seem to have settled for the playoffs, we will be lucky to get a draw, negative I know but thats how they have got to me. UTV

[Villa_Dan]

For me 2nd place is well and truly gone. But we HAVE to get results in our remaining games and go into the playoffs winning games and in form.

However, I'm not confident at all going into this one.

[Army villain]

Cardiff will be up for this match, Warnock is the better manager , Bruce has lost the dressing room, just hope we can make a game of it, and show the fans what they can do, just like the wolves game fingers crossed.UTV.

[deadbuzzardalive]

Even if we win it will feel bittersweet with second already gone. Just want the play-offs to begin now, by which time hopefully the team have got themselves back together.

[De Kuip]

I desperately want us to beat these, even more so than wolves as the depth of my dislike for that slope headed twat Warnock knows no bounds.
I don't think we will win cos we don't have the bottle to get right up in their grills, but feck me I'd love us to give them an absolute battering.

[The Utterer]

Surely a loss is beckoning in this one if recent form is anything to go by. It's a game which requires a lot of bottle of which we have none so 1-3 is my guess.

Remote chances of Automatic promotion stories are nothing more than press trying to fill column inches and get hits as that ship sailed weeks ago with the two bottle job perfomances against Qpr & Bolton.

Just hoping Wolves beat Derby and Sheff utd do Boro whilst Bolton somehow take something against Millwall as i fear these type of results are our best bet of reaching the pantomime show at seasons end called the playoffs, i have more faith in those teams doing us a favour than i do in us doing whats required put it that way!

[deadbuzzardalive]

Seeing so many suggestions that we need to beat Cardiff tonight to allow Fulham to overtake them, as Cardiff would be easier in the play-offs, the kind of sentiment that can come back to haunt you, either Cardiff or Fulham would be favorites against us in the play-offs.

We need to win tonight just to halt this downward trajectory we're on, it will serve no other purpose than that and towards helping us finish top six. We can worry about who we play in the play-offs if and when we get there, by then the dynamics of who we'd rather play, might have completely changed anyway.

[bruka]

Don't fancy us at all in this one. Can see us getting hammered to be honest. Got to a point now where i really don't care about tonight as i don't expect us to do anything and anything more than a loss will be a pleasant surprise. More bothered about Leeds on Friday.

[Dions_Bald_Head]

It's just the sort of game we'll win just to keep me hanging on to this mad relationship with the Villa.

Viva la rollercoaster, I guess.

[FoxyAV]

All else being equal if we lose three matches, Millwall and Boro win three and Derby win two we'll be out of the play-offs.

We've had some great runs where we never looked like we were in control, the luck just seemed to go our way and not our opponents'.

When our wingers don't score goals we're a bit scuppered, relying on the occasional goal from a striker, Hourihane or Grealish.

What's happened to Terry's experience and leadership, Bruce's track record everyone who doesn't watch us brings up in his defence all the time and the real men he's brought in? Two things worry me - subbing on as many strikers as possible when our only game plan (Lady Luck gives us 11 players who seem to work once the rubbish ones get injured and that 11 tries not to concede) isn't working and slowly turning into the Hull team with which Bruce had promotion last time round. It worked then, surely it will work now.

I'm expecting to see Grealish hacked to pieces tonight or Bruce protecting him by playing Onomah instead. It doesn't really matter who starts as striker and if we're lucky we won't see Whelan or Jedi in midfield. If we're very unlucky we'll see both in midfield with Onomah ahead of them! Imagine if Bruce sets us up for the draw. I imagine he'll send out the same team he sends out every week and if we make it to half time they'll score two or three between 45 and 60 minutes.

[FoxyAV]

I just looked at our form over the last five matches and it's the same as Sunderland's!

[Dazzle]

Seeing so many suggestions that we need to beat Cardiff tonight to allow Fulham to overtake them, as Cardiff would be easier in the play-offs, the kind of sentiment that can come back to haunt you, either Cardiff or Fulham would be favorites against us in the play-offs.

We need to win tonight just to halt this downward trajectory we're on, it will serve no other purpose than that and towards helping us finish top six. We can worry about who we play in the play-offs if and when we get there, by then the dynamics of who we'd rather play, might have completely changed anyway.

Make no mistake, Cardiff in the playoffs is absolutely preferential to coming up against Fulham, especially if it should be in a one off Wembley game and we don’t have to play at their place. Fulham are far more technically advanced than this current Villa side, whereas pretty much any Warnock side you know what you’re up against. 2nd Place is gone for us, so the best we can get now is for Fulham to get 2nd, Cardiff 3rd, and Villa to finish 4th or 5th. Beating Cardiff tonight will help greatly in achieving that. We’ve two games in Cardiff and Derby where we absolutely have to lay down a marker. Another loss tonight and we really begin to start looking over our shoulder, which is not a good place to be heading into any potential playoffs.

[Dazzle]

All else being equal if we lose three matches, Millwall and Boro win three and Derby win two we'll be out of the play-offs.

We've had some great runs where we never looked like we were in control, the luck just seemed to go our way and not our opponents'.

When our wingers don't score goals we're a bit scuppered, relying on the occasional goal from a striker, Hourihane or Grealish.

What's happened to Terry's experience and leadership, Bruce's track record everyone who doesn't watch us brings up in his defence all the time and the real men he's brought in? Two things worry me - subbing on as many strikers as possible when our only game plan (Lady Luck gives us 11 players who seem to work once the rubbish ones get injured and that 11 tries not to concede) isn't working and slowly turning into the Hull team with which Bruce had promotion last time round. It worked then, surely it will work now.
I'm expecting to see Grealish hacked to pieces tonight or Bruce protecting him by playing Onomah instead. It doesn't really matter who starts as striker and if we're lucky we won't see Whelan or Jedi in midfield. If we're very unlucky we'll see both in midfield with Onomah ahead of them! Imagine if Bruce sets us up for the draw. I imagine he'll send out the same team he sends out every week and if we make it to half time they'll score two or three between 45 and 60 minutes.

Bruce’s “tactic” of throwing on every possible striker when needing a goal tells anyone all they need to know about his tactical acumen. Remove the midfield (ie, the goal chance creators) and resort to the centre backs smashing balls into the final third in the hope that something falls to one of said strikers to do something special. It’s like football hasn’t moved on since Wimbledon in the 80s. Even Warnock isn’t that Jurassic.

[deadbuzzardalive]

Seeing so many suggestions that we need to beat Cardiff tonight to allow Fulham to overtake them, as Cardiff would be easier in the play-offs, the kind of sentiment that can come back to haunt you, either Cardiff or Fulham would be favorites against us in the play-offs.

We need to win tonight just to halt this downward trajectory we're on, it will serve no other purpose than that and towards helping us finish top six. We can worry about who we play in the play-offs if and when we get there, by then the dynamics of who we'd rather play, might have completely changed anyway.

Make no mistake, Cardiff in the playoffs is absolutely preferential to coming up against Fulham, especially if it should be in a one off Wembley game and we don’t have to play at their place. Fulham are far more technically advanced than this current Villa side, whereas pretty much any Warnock side you know what you’re up against. 2nd Place is gone for us, so the best we can get now is for Fulham to get 2nd, Cardiff 3rd, and Villa to finish 4th or 5th. Beating Cardiff tonight will help greatly in achieving that. We’ve two games in Cardiff and Derby where we absolutely have to lay down a marker. Another loss tonight and we really begin to start looking over our shoulder, which is not a good place to be heading into any potential playoffs.

Playing Cardiff probably would constitute a greater liking than the alternative of playing Fulham as things stand, but I don't think that should be a motivating factor in our trying to win tonight, Cardff have been a much better team than us all season, so I don't think that they'd make for an especially easier game in the play-offs, get back on form and we can beat any team.

[avfc forever]

We need three points so I'm going for a 1-0 win for us.

[De Kuip]

Who reckons Cardiff will end the game with less than 11?
I do.

[De Kuip]

Team line up

[De Kuip]

No Hutton no Terry and grabban starts - hmmmm.

[Saunders82]

Another late change Whelan coming in for Bjarnason, oh dear

[Saunders82]

I noticed all the back room staff shook hands with Warnock very quick, obviously they didnt want to start him off on one too early.

[De Kuip]

Sounds like we've started brightly at least.

[De Kuip]

Mendez-Laing has hit the post foe them

[De Kuip]

I tell you what, Sheff wed must be glad the season is almost done cos they are abject and relegation form if there were another 10 games I think they'd have dropped..
3-0 down n to QPR after 20 mins!

[Saunders82]

Do our players forget everything they have practiced and discussed in the week, as soon as they cross the white lines ????????

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