Aston Villa FC versus Wigan Athletic

Here we go then; I’m going for a 3-1 Villa win. Starting 11 to be;

.................. ...............Nyland...........................
Elmohamady.........Chester........Elphick.........Hutton
.....Green........McGinn.........Hourihane......Adomah
..................................Grealish....................
.................................Kodjia.........................

4-0, goals from Jimmy, Jack, Andre and Mr McGinn.

2-0 Villa
On another note, have you seen the advice to season ticket holders to get to Villa Park early tomorrow?
Scenario 1, Jack to sign new contract on pitch?
Scenario 2, Give the club time to give a free gift to all renewing season ticket holders for their loyalty?
Scenario 3, No one is quite sure if our renewable cards will work?
I’m going for scenario 3 with 20,000 trying to get in at 2:55pm

Dazzle wrote:Here we go then; I’m going for a 3-1 Villa win. Starting 11 to be;

.................. ...............Nyland...........................
Elmohamady.........Chester........Elphick.........Hutton
.....Green........McGinn.........Hourihane......Adomah
..................................Grealish....................
.................................Kodjia.........................

Works for me but I'd rather see De Laet at RB, plus against Hull Chester was on the left and Elphick on the right.

What will happen though is Bruce will shoehorn in Whelan, Green will be on the bench so Elmo can be on the wing again and Kodjia will be pissed off after five minutes.

De Laet's suspended for tomorrow's game. I could be wrong, but I think we might see Chester back on the right with Tuanzebe to the left of him, United had been playing him on that side in pre-season, and presumably they loaned him to us, with the idea that we were going to give him some experience in his favored position as a central defender.

Will be interesting to see where McGinn fits in, he sounds like the kind of player who could allow us not to have to use an out an out DM like Whelan or Jedinak, but we'll see what Bruce does.

Didn't know that about De Laet. Is that from a red card at the end of his loan last season? I seem to recall he did something naughty.

I think McGinn is going to be on the left of a three-man midfield in a 5-3-2 although that Bryan not arriving has probably thrown a spanner in the works there. Bruce said he'd canned that formation for now due to lack of players but I wonder if it will make a resurgence when he finds someone to play on the left.

Have to take us to win, really looking forward to tomorrow, which is the first time I have said that in ages.
I have got my buzz back, just can't wait to get down there!
Please Bruce don't spoil it, lets go out there and impose ourselves on the opposition.

Wigan will be difficult, they played well against Sheffield Wednesday especially the left back.
Can't see any changes except perhaps Axel instead of Elphick, which might be a bit unlucky for Elphick but makes sense to me.

Nine mins to go!

CHESTER!

What formation is this, anyone have a clue? Is it a 3-5-1-1 or a 3-4-2-1 or what?

Wigan have bagged an equaliser, Bruce out!

This is going well.

Still no idea what formation we're playing.


Or

Or what? Is Bruce going to spend the next few matches trying out different things?

Wait, is it

And that, my friends, is why we should always play Bjarnason!

Damnit BBC text commentary, you are the shittest way to follow a football match!

VTID85 wrote:Damnit BBC text commentary, you are the shittest way to follow a football match!

The AVFC service was crap, it lurched into action and cut out twice (nothing but background noise after Chester's and Bjarnason's goals) - in fact after Bjarnason's goal the commentary didn't come back.

Sounds like we made a mistake with Jedi failing to pass the ball back to the goalie, who in turn sounded a bit nervous. It'll be interesting to hear what someone at that match has to say about how we played.

Still, two wins from two and six goals isn't bad at all.

2 games, 6 points, 6 goals. Decent start if you ask me!

FoxyAV wrote:

VTID85 wrote:Damnit BBC text commentary, you are the shittest way to follow a football match!

The AVFC service was crap, it lurched into action and cut out twice (nothing but background noise after Chester's and Bjarnason's goals) - in fact after Bjarnason's goal the commentary didn't come back.

Sounds like we made a mistake with Jedi failing to pass the ball back to the goalie, who in turn sounded a bit nervous. It'll be interesting to hear what someone at that match has to say about how we played.

Still, two wins from two and six goals isn't bad at all.

Yep and first time we've recorded back to back wins on the opening games since..... 1999?

6 from 6, that’ll do for me. We have to get as many points on the board as possible from these opening 6 games and we’ve started as we would of hoped. I think things should only start improving as the games pass and new players get settled in and confidence levels rise.

McGinn is some player, he will be brilliant for us always looking to close people down and an eye for a forward yes forward pass, thought the ref was awful today never gave us anything really and they knew they could get away with roughing us up, last few seasons we would have lost that game but we are a different proposition now, when/if we get some quality loanees in we will be better placed. Mind you we are desperate for a central striker to replace Kodja, he is so greedy it beggers belief. UTV

As a footnote just saying on Sky that Joe Bryan went off injured today for Fulham, Karma or what.

I hope Jedinak's hospital pass to Nyland will not ruin the new keeper's confidence before his career has even started.. Quite why we are playing so many of the lads out of position is anyone's guess. Hope to see De Laet at RB and Tuanzebe next to Chester with Hutton at LB as soon as possible.
McGinn looks to be a steal. No wonder Celtic are so upset.

Please will someone tell me what the formation was today because I haven't a clue! Did we play hoofball? I listened to it on AVTV and couldn't tell.

One of your options was sort of right (although I think Grealish was supposed to support Kodjia but he didn't):

 .........................Nyland

......Tuanzebe....Chester....Jedi....Hutton

Elmo...Bjarnason...Grealish...McGinn...Green

.........................Kodjia

That is what I made of it as Grealish played too deep for me, although he was better in the second half.

Nyland - a debut too forget but playing behind Jedinak doesn't help, has to improve massively but he needs time to settle (but make it quick).
Tuanzebe - is not a right back, play him at CH or not at all, disappointed me as I expected better, another who needs to step up.
Jedinak - absolutely appalling, sold Nyland a suicide back pass, which wasn't the first or last time Jedinak did that. Definitely not a CH, a DF yes, were his mistakes aren't so costly.
McGinn - this guy is going to be some player, his delivery is brilliant. We have got an absolute steal as he will eventually go for £30 million, superb debut. Him and Grealish look as though they could form a formidable partnership together.
Kodjia - Needs to sort out his attitude as he has to stop this continual moaning and sulking, just get on with the game. Today he was utter rubbish, suprised he lasted on the pitch as long as he did, definitely need a new striker.
RHM - Just a quick word about his 18 minute appearance, he put himself about and tried, a lot more than Kodjia did, perhaps worth a start?

All the rest were so so to be honest, we still look like a team, of very good individual players, who have met for the first time just before the game.

Think we mugged Wigan if I am honest as they squandered 2 great chances in the second half when Villa just watched Wigan put crosses into our box. I was grateful that we had got it back to 2 - 2 and was happy with a point.
Wigan played the football with a typical strong physical approach with lots of effort and passion. We had the better individual players that eventually counted and won us the game but we can't keep on relying on our best players to get us over the line.

Remember the name John McGinn, already premier league class, he will become a hell of a player, can't believe we have him!

Highlights -

http://www.skysports.com/watch/video/sports/football/competitions/championship/11470164/aston-villa-3-2-wigan