Brucey Bonus Time
When Reading’s last-gasp shot flew across the face of the Villa goal seconds after Villa had taken the lead with a last-minute penalty, it potentially (hopefully) signalled a change of fortune in Villa’s season. Cast your mind back to late Gollini clearances that have cruelly rebounded and led to opposition equalisers and you’ll know what I mean.
While it was a step up from the recent Wolves game, it wasn’t a convincing Villa performance by any means and there is a lot of work in terms of team bonding to do (which Di Matteo failed to start), but a new manager bounce and a confidence-boosting win should hopefully now propel Villa onwards and upwards.
The next step for Steve Bruce is to turn home draws into regular home wins, with the recent Wolves game showcasing what has been going wrong at Villa Park.
If they can follow-up victory at Reading with a home win against the only unbeaten away team in the Championship, Fulham, then the wheels of improvement will truly be in motion.
[soundcloud url=”https://api.soundcloud.com/tracks/288852412″ params=”color=00aabb&auto_play=false&hide_related=false&show_comments=true&show_user=true&show_reposts=false” width=”100%” height=”166″ iframe=”true” /]
Here’s five reasons to be cheerful as Villa fans…
2. Westwood Dropped
If you’re an Ashley Westwood fan, then look away now. There’s many reasons why Villa have fallen in recent years and one of them is a constantly weak midfield. Westwood would not be a first teamer in a decent Aston Villa team.
He’s meant to be our technically gifted midfielder, but his stats are only good from his backward and sideways passing. He doesn’t make decisive passes, caution is his default setting and there’s not enough assists or goals to his game. He’s also too easily hustled off the ball.
Now, that is not a reason to boo him when he comes on, as that is hardly going to inspire him. There are good games in his locker and maybe he would benefit from a stronger midfield around him, but at least Steve Bruce realises that Villa were going nowhere fast this season with Westwood in a middle midfield two.
There will be no doubt another midfield incoming in January. I truly hope with Bruce coming in, it’s the start of the club finally tackling their midfield woes of recent years.
Great away win against a good side. Still need midfield players that can take a game by the scruff of the neck and move forward. The squad’s short of an aggressive ball winner or two. January should put that right. Bruce is the right man at this time.