AVFC Players senior through to U21s and beyond

Chris Harte wrote:As painful as this is going to be in the short term, I feel we have to stick with Steve Bruce and put our faith in his signings. There is absolutely no point us making changes in the management structure. Our club needs stability now.

I agree Chris. We need to stick with Bruce at least this season, but SB must change his approach to the job. Unless we adopt a far more positive approach to training and games, Bruce's tenure will be a short one.

Sandie wrote:I agree with that Chris, though I'm starting to get very concerned about whether he knows how to stop the rot.

Johnstone was once again underwhelming, is it time to bring in Bunn again? Or is he also too weak a keeper?

I share your concerns. Does he know what our problem is? I also agree about the mind numbingly depressing choice of keepers. We shot ourselves in the foot bringing another inexperienced keeper in to play behind a mistake ridden defence.

Allan McGregor went to Cardiff, Adrian is still kicking his heels on West Ham's bench. That's just two keepers. Bringing in one of them would have strengthened us and they would have helped Gollini too.

Instead we bring in an inexperienced keeper ON LOAN who actually seems to be a downgrade on our previous inexperienced keeper (now bombed out on loan) that we actually owned. Bruce's biggest dropped bollock?

Sandie wrote:Allan McGregor went to Cardiff, Adrian is still kicking his heels on West Ham's bench. That's just two keepers. Bringing in one of them would have strengthened us and they would have helped Gollini too.

Instead we bring in an inexperienced keeper ON LOAN who actually seems to be a downgrade on our previous inexperienced keeper (now bombed out on loan) that we actually owned. Bruce's biggest dropped bollock?

Definitely, and we're stuck with the consequences until Johnstone goes back to his club at the end of this season.

Veretout looked really good against Man U last night, even though he was on the losing team.

Mail reporting that Hogan's injury is less bad than first feared and he might be back after a month or so.

Sandie wrote:Mail reporting that Hogan's injury is less bad than first feared and he might be back after a month or so.

That's good news, I hope it's correct.

http://www.birminghammail.co.uk/sport/football/football-news/james-bree-injury-update-latest-12643768

This is also good news.

https://www.avfc.co.uk/News/2017/03/03/bacuna-ban

Bacuna is an idiot. I trust we will move him on this summer.

http://www.expressandstar.com/sport/aston-villa-fc/2017/03/03/alan-hutton-triggers-aston-villa-contract-extension-clause/

A willing runner who has no positional sense or end product, and makes regular costly mistakes. That's obviously good enough to get a contract extension at Villa these days.

To be fair to Hutton he's played reasonably well recently (in the scheme of things), but he's definitely not the way forward. "Onwards and upwards" in the near future will be put in jeopardy by his regular defensive positional naivety and fatal errors.

I knew you'd be delighted by that news.

Not surprised about Bacuna's ban. The club should take a hard line but instead they are considering an appeal.

I'm probably guilty of getting on Hutton's back, but for me he's a better player when he's fighting for a contract .... now he's got the extension will the real Hutton appear once more?

Hutton being Bruce's first choice RB highlights how SB changes direction every couple of weeks. Remember how a few weeks ago he was saying that we were only two days into our new system (3-5-1) so we had to be patient. He also said that Bree was going to be first choice. That scenario lasted about a week. I know Bree picked up a knock, but he's been fit for a couple of games now. Bruce reminds me of a moth flitting around a flame.

villabromsgrove wrote:I'm probably guilty of getting on Hutton's back, but for me he's a better player when he's fighting for a contract .... now he's got the extension will the real Hutton appear once more?

Against Derby I noticed he was caught out of position a few times, which has always been your main complaint. I would say, however, that he wasn't as conspicuously poor positioning wise as I felt Taylor at left back was.

I wouldn't say it was him playing for a new deal as it seems to have been triggered automatically. Though perhaps the competition from Bree has motivated him to up his game a bit. I think we all know what we get from Hutton in terms of his weaknesses (positioning, the crosses to team mates that seem only to exist in his mind) and strengths. He always gives 100% and, maybe I'm wrong, but I genuinely feel that he is one of the few top pros at the club. I don't really have much of a problem with him though I know I'm very much in a minority on that within our support. However, he is also one of those players that has been with us over years of underachievement and has seldom been involved with a successful Aston Villa side.

Sandie wrote:

villabromsgrove wrote:I'm probably guilty of getting on Hutton's back, but for me he's a better player when he's fighting for a contract .... now he's got the extension will the real Hutton appear once more?

Against Derby I noticed he was caught out of position a few times, which has always been your main complaint. I would say, however, that he wasn't as conspicuously poor positioning wise as I felt Taylor at left back was.

I wouldn't say it was him playing for a new deal as it seems to have been triggered automatically. Though perhaps the competition from Bree has motivated him to up his game a bit. I think we all know what we get from Hutton in terms of his weaknesses (positioning, the crosses to team mates that seem only to exist in his mind) and strengths. He always gives 100% and, maybe I'm wrong, but I genuinely feel that he is one of the few top pros at the club. I don't really have much of a problem with him though I know I'm very much in a minority on that within our support. However, he is also one of those players that has been with us over years of underachievement and has seldom been involved with a successful Aston Villa side.

I really hope he does cut out the fatal errors and turn in some good performances. I would not have put that clause in his contract, but he's our player for the next sixteen months so I wish him well.

For my money, the return to fitness of Mile Jedinak has been crucial to our mini-revival of recent weeks, more than any of the new signings.