After last weekends thumping win over an Arsenal team [who were not really up for it] should make Saturdays team selection straight forward.
Aitor Karanka has to choose between Mat Mills and Danny Fox at Centre Back and Liam Bridcutt may return in midfield. I'm not sure whether Daryl Murphy is being rested, or has yet to recover from his back injury.
Has Steve Bruce made the classic mistake of resting just about all his first team squad, losing 1-3 to Posh in the Cup and kiboshed first team confidence as a result? Are Villa going to represent a wounded animal or role over for a tummy tickle?
Bruce said afterwards;
"It is difficult to accept but we have to accept it and live with the consequences.
"The best team won by a country mile. We got off to a good start but Peterborough had 20 efforts on our goal which is ridiculous.
"We haven't competed well enough and that is the disappointing thing for me."
Before we all get to carried away, better remember that Villa humbled Bristol City 5-0 on New Years Day!
'Aston Villa achieved their biggest win of the season against Bristol City to go fifth in the Championship table.
Scott Hogan netted a superb looping header and, although Luke Steele denied him an almost identical second, Robert Snodgrass tapped in the rebound.
Jack Grealish scampered clear to create Snodgrass' second after half-time.
Against a tiring Bristol City side, Alan Hutton set up Birkir Bjarnason for Villa's fourth and Conor Hourihane's deflected shot completed the rout.'
Boxing Day yielded a 2-1 away loss to Brentford;
'Villa, who have won only one of their last 22 away games on Boxing Day, soon levelled when Onomah headed in Brentford old boy Scott Hogan's cross from six yards but the Bees picked up the pace after the break.'
Brentford had to resist some late Villa pressure to take the win.
So Villa sit in 5th place on 44 points, after having only conceded 24 goals so far this season; only Wolves with 20 have conceded less.
K.O. is 1730 Saturday evening.
Live @ http://www.ja606.co.uk/articles/viewLiveArticle/382698
One match ban enabled
Forest V Aston Villa Match Thread
posted on 14/1/18
Experienced Reds - Lichaj, Mills, Mancienne, Traore, Vaughan, Osborn.
Rookies - Smith, Cash, Dowell, Brereton, Clough (?)
So we can't really use lack of experience as an excuse. What we lack more than anything is organisation and a leader on the pitch.
posted on 14/1/18
The problem is the experienced players, by and large, are inconsistent.
Particularly Mills, Mancienne, Traore and Vaughan (Vaughan due to fitness and injury) are unpredictable over the course of a season.
Add to that Hobbs and Fox and you have a huge amount of wages going out for little consistent contribution.
posted on 15/1/18
Agree Bunk.
I think Hobbs will be allowed to leave when his contract expires. I feel a bit sorry for him actually. If he had not had endless fitness/injury problems he would have been the best defender we have had for many years. And he could have been a good captain.
But you know what they say - "It is what it is"
Even without Hobbs we could still put together a decent back four barring injuries that would get us through most games and I expect us to get a few more clean sheets in the second half of the season now Karanka is here.
I think an out-and-out second striker would make a difference. Neither Brereton or Murphy look like twenty a season men at the moment. But maybe if we played both together up front they would cause a lot of problems. As it was Chester and Terry had a comfortable afternoon/evening.
posted on 15/1/18
That was the frustrating thing about that match and so many before this season. So much possession but barely created a chance. A Villa review labelled Forest as having an obsession with possession. They noted that Forest had over 60% possession for the tenth time this season on Saturday. They have lost eight of those games.
posted on 15/1/18
The longer the game went on, the more Villa looked comfortable with what Forest were trying. Really need to change it up a bit. The current trend is for one up front but it doesn’t really lend itself to Forest unless they can get players in around the forward swiftly. That happened initially in the Villa match but they countered it by dropping off deep and the play dried up for Forest.
posted on 15/1/18
Hobbs had a few spells where he looked dominant in the centre of defence for Forest but as his career went on, you found yourself waiting for him to pull up more and more often. A real shame but I guess Hull knew what they were doing when they sold him to Forest.
posted on 15/1/18
It was bottom face who sold Hobbs to us as well, for a large fee as I recall.
posted on 15/1/18
Do we need another reason to despise Bruce?...
posted on 16/1/18
Mind the gap Will
https://www.twtd.co.uk/league-tables/competition:championship/form/matches:8/type:home-and-away/
Baz
posted on 16/1/18
comment by Iwaslevel (U4836)
posted 2 hours, 11 minutes ago
Mind the gap Will
https://www.twtd.co.uk/league-tables/competition:championship/form/matches:8/type:home-and-away/
Baz
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Gonna need a bigger boat...