Aston Villa FC v Brentford FC

I thought we couldn’t risk not having a match thread again and so have thrown my hand up! The BM are suggesting that changes will again be made after a “lacklustre” display at Ipswich. I think our changes, certainly in personnel, are quite limited at this moment in time. I’d pair Tuanzebe with Chester in central defence, bring DeLaet in at RB, have a midfield 3 of Grealish, Hourihane, McGinn, two wider men in Green and RHM, Kodjia up top.

..........................Nyland.......................
RDL.........Tuanzebe........Chester.........Hutton
.........................Hourihane....................
...............McGinn................Grealish........
....RHM..........................................Green
.........................Kodjia.........................

This is different to what we’ve ever tried and different to an earlier line up I suggested, but due to form and mobility I want to see us try something different. I appreciate it would be asking RHM to do something different but it’s got to be worth a try?! If we start with either Jedinak or Whelan then Brentford will play around and through us easily. Adomah just isn’t at it, he’s miles away from the form of last winter.

26,800

Rather than put forward what we think is our best starting 11 can we try to guess who Bruce will play? I'm going:

simply because Bruce needs to fit in at least two of his old mates and he's not yet tried this formation. Whelan didn't start the last one so it's only fair he starts this one. Grealish and McGinn have to start, Adomah and Hourihane scored lots of goals last season and we need to score some goals.

Brentford have proved very tough opponents since we’ve been in the championship and tomorrow night will be no different, for me Ryan Woods is the best player I’ve seen at this level, really makes the tick, I’m hopeful Bruce knows this & maybe man marks the guy out of the game, everything goes through this ginger ninja from hednesford, how did local scouts miss him?
I’m going 1-1.

FoxyAV wrote:Rather than put forward what we think is our best starting 11 can we try to guess who Bruce will play? I'm going:

Nyland
Elmo Chester Jedi Hutton
Whelan
McGinn Hourihane Grealish Adomah
Kodjia

simply because Bruce needs to fit in at least two of his old mates and he's not yet tried this formation. Whelan didn't start the last one so it's only fair he starts this one. Grealish and McGinn have to start, Adomah and Hourihane scored lots of goals last season and we need to score some goals.

I'm going down the "guess who Bruce will play" route rather than who I want to see.

I think it will be:

...................Nyland
Elmo    Chester     Tuan      Hutton
...................Whelan
Houri  McGinn  Grealish  Green
...............Kodjia



And I think this is how it will look once we kick off:

...................Nyland
Elmo    Chester     Tuan      Hutton
...................Whelan
hoof
hoof
ho0f
hoof
hoof
hoof
up
up
up
up
over
over
over
Houri  McGinn  Grealish  Green
over
over
over
coming down
still coming down
almost down
BOUNCE!!!!!!!!
.................Kodjia
lose possession
Throw arms up in frustration
Rinse and repeat.

1-1 draw for me, at best.

With a view to Dean Smith as a possible replacement, it will be interesting to watch Brentford tomorrow night. I think he has developed a system that works well with the players he has. Much is said about Woods, the little ginger who bossed us twice before but I think Sawyers is just as critical to their success.
Anyway, I'm expecting anything from the Villa having one of their dominating performances (which happen every now and then) to a total footballing lesson from an inspired Brentford team that cost, in total, less than we paid for Hogan. Probably see you all in the Steve Bruce topic (and not in a good way) after the game.

This is my team, similar to Dazzle's but it won't happen:

..........................Nyland.......................
RDL.........Tuanzebe........Chester.........Hutton
.........................Jedinak.........................
.....Hourihane......Bjarnason.........McGinn...
........................Grealish.........................
.........................Kodjia.........................

I expect Bruce to pick something like this:

..........................Nyland.......................
Tuanzebe.......Chester.....Jedinak......Hutton
.........................Bjarnason....................
.............McGinn................Grealish..........
...Elmo..........................................Green
.........................Kodjia.........................

The bottom line is we have to sort out the defense to bring some stability to the team and allow the forward players to play how we know they can and Grealish please shoot when you get the chance don't pratt around!

So a draw for me as well, as I get more and more frustrated in watching them.

By the way Woods hasn't played this season so far due to all the transfer speculation surrounding him, he was on the bench on Saturday.

He will probably start and play a blinder against us!

I fancy us to boss this one just because everyone is expecting us to get a beating, AKA Wolves, Cardiff, Fulham. UTV

People are talking about Brentford as if they're Barcelona, they're a mid table championship team, and it's a game that we should be winning, otherwise we'll be in danger of seeing a gap between us and top two emerge, and we'll be playing catch up again.

Hopefully Bruce actually plays our players in their correct positions this time, playing Tuanzebe who isn't a right-back at right-back, when we have four other right-backs in Hutton, Bree, Elmohamady and De Leat, was strange to say the least, especially when we're short in central defence, which is Tuanzebe's actually position, and where he'd been one of the few pluses from the Yeovil game, and where he'd been playing for United in pre-season.

I think we have to find a way of fitting in Hourihane, whenever he's dropped we seem to underperform or get disappointing results, and his goals and assists are too vital to us, both he and McGinn do their fair share of defensive work, so I'd like to see them togeother in the midfield with Grealish.

Nyland, Tuanzebe, Chester, Jedinak, Hutton, Whelan, Elmohamady, Grealish, McGinn, Adomah, Kodjia.

Subs: Taylor, Elphick, Bjarnason, Hourihane, Green, Hepburn-Murphy, Moreira.

That we're playing Tuanzebe out of position at right-back, ahead of De Laet and Bree is absurd to me, never mind that we've also got Hutton and Elmohamady who can play there, it smacks of Bruce just giving him game time as a favor to Man Utd, wouldn't be bad if we were playing him in his actual position.

Jesus. Does Bruce never learn?
If this goes as badly as I now fear, I hope the fans start singing for Dean Smith.

Predictably predictable so far.........

I've never wanted a manager gone as much as Bruce, McLeish was bad, but at least he was only here for a season, how Bruce is into his third season now is staggering, just get rid before he ruins another season.

Well done Kodjia.

1-1 but tbf apart from shite defending our performance is streets ahead of what it has been, esp jimmy danger. Just wish we'd try to vary it by playing through the middle more often than channels.

This did make me laugh from Twitter:

Played some tidy stuff considering a DM at CB, CB at RB, RB at LB, RB at RM, LM who has lost it and a Manager who is basically clueless

Can't help thinking if Dean Smith had set us up, we'd be two goals clear by now. Decent performance but the usual failings because of the square peg problem.

I like how Jedi rotated through 90 degrees to let in the goal. He's played a blinder so far. For Brentford.

Really great to see Kodjia score and great to see everyone get stuck in although I'm not sure why Elmo's so worried (he's working his arse of), there are loads more positions he can play when a proper winger comes in.

I wonder how Green feels about seeing two wingers come in, what does he have to do to get a game?

De Kuip wrote:This did make me laugh from Twitter:

Played some tidy stuff considering a DM at CB, CB at RB, RB at LB, RB at RM, LM who has lost it and a Manager who is basically clueless

That's brilliant!

I like how early on from a corner one of our RBs while playing at LB had to come over to cover the CB playing at RB who'd fallen out of position (presumably gravitated back to CB).

I think we're playing really well considering Bruce has set out to hamper us. I wonder if ManU are as happy about their man playing out of position as Spurs were with their man last season?

Jedi's cemented his place at CB as far as I'm concerned.

If Bruce really wants to fuck us over he needs to get this goalie making mistakes again though.

Dean Smith...... Dean Smith.......Dean Smith etc etc

Strike No.2 against Bruce.

Give it a rest we have battered this lot and they have stood up to it with the help of the ref, and they have taken the piss with 2 killer goals, one from a player who should not be on the pitch, we just want far too much time on the ball around the box, and we cant seem to beat the first man with a cross, lets hope once these new guys get in we will be more deadly

Lucky bastards got out of jail