At today's press conference the Gaffer confirmed that Tomas Kalas is still out but Floyd Ayite has trained with the squad this week, as has Tom Cairney who was left out of Tuesday's game because he was carrying a 'knock'. Showing a bit of frustration Jokanovic summed up saying, "We need to find some balance. We don't want to be going up-down-up-down in the league." Whatever, the same conundrum exists as for Tuesday night - do you (or in Jokanivic's case how much do you) change a team that has got results? A few tinkering questions perhaps; like do you start with Fredericks or use him as an impact sub and lingering doubts about Ream. However the twist and the biggie is whether to bring back Cairney and if so who do you drop? The key to that is the Parker/McDonald partnership. Like SuperBri I'm not convinced about the pairing (mind, wish I'd 5p for every time we've said that about Parker and 'another' over the last three and a bit years). But just can't see Jokanovic splitting them and if he does decide to risk Cairney then I suspect it's Piazon for the fall. Jokanovic's starting eleven then - .....................Button................. ..Odoi....Sigurdsson..Ream...Malone.. .................McDonald..Parker.... ......Cairney.....Johansen.....Aluko... ......................Martin...
Basically we need a top class keeper in January. Madl in for Ream, as Ream lacks concentration. .....................Bettinelli................. ...Odoi.....Sigurdsson..Madl....Malone.. ...................McDonald.................. ....Fredricks..Johansen...Sessegnon.... ...............Aluko.....Martin.. McDonald for me over Parker. Johansen can go box to box. Both the youngsters either side have speed and defensive qualities if need be. No Cairney for me, although he can be a match winner on his day, no defensive skills.
Difficult to argue against that line-up , except maybe Piazon for young Sessegnon? However, as you well know SuperBri, Jokanovic 'aint going to lean that way.
I would not go without Parker. We are never at our best without him. Piazon had a good game on Tuesday and I think he will just get better. I'd agree though with Madl over Ream. Good that we have good options though. I shall be there so will report back.
The man in charge today is Andrew Madley We've seen Mr Madley three times before. Last November when we lost 3-1 away to bogey team Burnley and he kept his cards in his pocket that day. Before that was the 1-1 away draw at Charlton in April 2015; Dan Burn and Scott Parker got yellows. Then there was the horrific game just a month earlier when he sent off Nando and booked Fofana as Bournemouth thumped us 5-1. All in all Madley is a fairly quiet ref. Last season in 40 games he handed out 118 yellows and 3 reds. So far this year he's covered 12 games and given zero reds and 36 yellows, which is not bad considering 8 of of those were in one match (Brighton v Nottingham Forest). Mr Madley is another of those who joined the Select Group 2 ref mob this summer and became full time - I'm going to have to stop accommodating these guys with the title Mr since they're no longer amateurs (allegedly!). Fair play to Madley though, he had to give up playing the game at the tender age of 18 (back in 2002) because of a serious injury and has worked his way through the local Leagues to where he is now. Sure it won't be the case, but there's a wee thought that he might be looking over his shoulder as he ref's games given that his footballing career ended at Huddersfield Town Academy.
SuperBri pulls it off again, well nearly almost. The team is: Button, Odoi, Sigurdsson, Madl, Sessegnon, McDonald, Parker, Paizon, Johansen, Aluko and Martin Subs: Bettinelli, Ream, Malone, Fredericks, Cairney, Smith and a return for Ayite PS McCormack is on the bench for them
Glad to see Madl back in defence, feel more comfortable with him there rather than Ream. Hopefully we can keep those goals coming, Chris Martin could be just about to come good for us!
You have to share Gentleman Jim's frustration at "over-elaborating" at the back (again!) being the cause of our own downfall. And reflect on SuperBri's regular criticism of Button's kicking as well. However, at least in part you also have look to Jokanovic's insistance that we play this way and bring pressure on ourselves. The boss keeps going on about silly mistakes and a lack of concentration costing us, yet it persists; in this game there were numerous occasions when we apparently gave away possession on the edge of our box with sloppy passes - Sigurdsson's name (again!) cropped up more than most. But .. but .. elsewhere on the pitch it was the same old same old. Overall we had 66% possession - 72% in the first half - and zero shots on goal. Only 3 attempts in total, one of which was blocked. That's pretty pathetic. The only good news was an encouraging last 10 minutes by Floyd Ayite.
Cut and Paste Time again How many more times do we have to go on about loads of possession and no end product, because all our possession happens in our own half. Not really I only got Madl correct, our coach took no notice of my wonderful tactics.
Watch if you dare ...... X-Rated http://www.skysports.com/watch/vide.../championship/10628216/aston-villa-1-0-fulham
Just back but taxi on way to go out again. Poor game, lots of possession but did nothing with it. Can hardly remember a shot. I think we went out to bore everyone. Finally the messing about at the back by Buttion and co cost us. This play by the goalie out of his area frustrates the hell out of me - just clear it. It is so dangerous and we're not good enough to do it. I thought wee'd turned a corner - taxi arrived - to be continued ...
Think its fair to say today was a disappointing result and performance from the boys and a poor way to end the unbeaten run away from home, was good while it lasted. We dont seem to have any consistency, brilliant one game then terrible the next. My plea earlier for the goals to keep coming clearly fell on deaf ears!
Yes Fabulous Fabio you are right, we are a jackel and hyde team at present. Today we dictated the game in the midfield, bucket loads of possession but we just could not turn it into attacking play. It took their goal, 10 minutes before time for us to actually threaten then goal. The usual away crowd was boosted by some 600 or so to 1200 and were patient. You cannot complaint too to much when you have 72% of the possession first half. Second half you are thinking they are there for the taking or conservatively getting an away draw, but we continued with the possession football in the midfield and rarely looked threatening. Something is wrong in the tactics. We are ok now in defending, we are good in midfield (thanks to Parker) but we cannot, cannot put a ball through to attack. Forwards were moving, there were possibilities but the preferred option was either pass the ball back or push it sideways. It's an old age problem with this side. I know Malome gave a couple of penalties away on Tuesday but the did give us some width and created crosses. That was lacking today, Fredericks speed and width too. We had so much of the ball and didn't know what to do with it. It sum up so many games. We need somehow to keep possession, be at times more direct, cross wide and create options. We did it against Norwich, we did it against Newcastle - we have he ability. Christentsien has been frozen out but he is more direct and has ability, not even on the subs bench, For a very rare occurrence, second home game in 7 years or so, I can't make the Huddesfield game. I would hope this Villa game is reflected on, It was a game that was there for the taking. Villa were not good, far from it, They relied on the counter-attack, at home, and were successful due to our flamboyancy in our own half and our ineffective attack. Good however to see McCormack applaud the Fulham faithful at the end. No alcohol served to away fans was soon made up for at the end.
What's your thoughts on the substitutions COYW? Not being there and only going by GJ constantly referring to our negative play, I'm being presumptious. However, seems to me that Aluko was the wrong man to take off and it should have been McDonald or Parker.
the combination of McDonald and Parker together slows the play down and yes you could say it is negative play. In the second half Villa were getting more of the ball but they were there for the taking and I think we gave them too much respect. I can understand the Aluko Cairney substitution but I'd have taken either Parker or McDonald off rather than Piazon or Johanson who in the Norwich game were useful in our attacking. Cairney moved more to the right, Ayitie gave us more pace but it was all too late. Matt Smith didn't really have much of a chance. It was a bit chaotic, a sort of 424, but we were more threatening in those last 10 mins than we had been all match. The game was headed for a bore nil - nil, keeping up our good away record and it would have been a deserved point. I think Slav had his team set up to combat the Bruce effect but in hindsight he could have been more adventurous from the start.
Fair points about the subs COYW. Get the impression though that Bruce had how we'd play well sussed out and Jokanovic had no Plan B. Well, not until he brought on Smith which as you say was far too late.
It's so frustrating. The time for me to play our slow possession football is when we are 1-0 or 2-0 up to frustrate the opposition. Before that we have to put in more intense quick attacks like we seem to do when we go 1-0 down. The question is do we have defenders who are capable of passing under pressure if the opposition press high, I don't think so. We have a coach who is obsessed with possession to the point our players don't know when to shoot or release the ball quickly, it's all about passing 5 yards to feet, taking an extra touch, not losing possession, there's no instinctive quick passing. As I said in a previous Thread there have only been a handful of games that we have dominated ((A) Leeds, Forest, Barnsley) ((H) Burton, QPR) and look at the results of those games.
