Following yet another unkind international break, Aston Villa head down to Loftus Road to take on Queens Park Rangers without Jonathan Kodjia and Scott Hogan. While Villa sit 6th and QPR 15th, there are only five points between the sides. And QPR have managed to beat Wolves and Sheffield United in their five wins. So it’s all very tight and this will not be an easy day. The upside is that QPR have been much less sturdy at the back. We’ll see how Villa fare without Terry, who is replaced today by Christopher Samba.

Hogan I’m not so worried about. Kodjia? Well, all the talk about these international obligations is spot on. We all get it, but I’m annoyed and angry that players coming off injuries are jetting around to play qualifiers and getting injured again. We can talk about all sorts of solutions, but in Kodjia’s case, I’m actually going to look at the player and ask “What were you thinking?”.

So, those who were predicting one up top against QPR seem to have been right. Based on the team sheet, I’m not sure exactly how Bruce will be lining them up, but Keinan Davis, who just signed a new deal (good lad), looks to be leading the line. Josh Onomah and Conor Hourihane are also in the side, which makes one assume we’re playing five in midfield. We’ll soon see.

Elsewhere, Elmohamady and Mile Jedinak are taking a seat, Hutton goes back to the right, and Neil Taylor returns. I have to say, I think Hutton is a better left back than right back. He put in some very good shifts while Taylor was out, and while I initially looked at Bruce’s choice and thought “You really just can’t bring yourself to let go of the old players,” Hutton justified the decision.

At any rate, not much of a change from what we might have expected to see anyway, despite the post-international break woes Villa have had so far this season. What’s nice to see is that both Jack Grealish and Callum O’Hare are on the bench. I was having a look round the official site, and saw John Terry’s praise for O’Hare. Nice to know we’re not crazy. The kid is a bright prospect and needs to be brought along.

Getting something from the game is vital because we’re now nine points off second. Automatic spots might seem a bridge too far, but for all Villa have spent, we really should be up in that mix rather than simply hoping to be in the playoffs. Hand on heart, I really don’t like the idea of the Villa we’ve seen so far having to play themselves through in those games. It’s a long time off, I know, but the last article talking about Villa’s lack of soul comes squarely into play in that situation. I just haven’t seen the spark consistently enough yet to feel good about consecutive matches with so much on the line.

Today, while I’d very much like to see a win, I’m feeling in my bones that a draw is the best we can hope for. Love to be wrong, but…

Over to you.

Comments 62

  1. Good on Adomah. Will SB go for a win or try to protect the draw? I hope he goes for the win, QPR a bit dodgy at the back. Lots of opportunities missed.

  2. JC
    Yes we seem to have toughened up, & not before time.
    Winning does change the culture to an extent.
    Why Davis doesn’t get more fouls seems to be a championship thing with refs consciously seeming to allow more physicality, which is actually outside the rules of the game as far as I remember.

  3. good win
    adoamh he who wasnt rated at the start of season keeping bruce in a job
    it would be nice for some of them wins by more than single goal i know it still only 3 points but at least might have some nails left

  4. Great win lads and we don’t have to sit and defend who’d of thought it? I like Davis as the foil for our midfielders/wingers, he’ll get a few but he allows us to make runs in and around him. Dare I say it but are we better without Kodjia as a team? I certainly think so and I can see us getting better with plenty of options on the bench to change the game if we can keep Davis fit.

    Great win by England in the Rugby and I just might top 100 points in my fantasy prem team today 🙂

    definitely a good Saturday

  5. IanG,

    Indeed. A good hard game is fine, but I just don’t understand how you can allow defenders to manhandle a player all day when they’re clearly fouling him and stopping him from playing. Not sure what the point of having rules is when you just ignore clear violations.

  6. JC bemuses me how you are allowed to put hands on a player at all? its so blatant, there are ways of using your arms that are less obvious than grabbing a player, like more guiding him, have we had a good ref in two seasons in the champs? He gave us a pen though so mustn’t grumble I suppose

  7. 3-3 at HT. Scotland played well in first-half against ABs but look battered.
    Ian/JC/MK et al
    Right about Davis having to cope with all the attention.

  8. Mark I’ve thought Kodjia has been overshadowed too. Being hurt hasn’t helped his cause other than to point out he isn’t needed as much as we thought.
    All the grabbing is a slow creep of the rules. I think the refs want to keep things somewhat even and also don’t want to chop the game up with too many whistles. So grabbing becomes more a part of the game and so it gets worse.

  9. Ian- for one Kodjia has probably been rushed back in the false hope he was the answer to our goal problem at the time, once he reverted to type and stopped being a team player his worth to the team dropped as he wasn’t scoring and we faltered a little, This team has to be about the team not one man as last season I hope Kodjia can learn that but? If Bruces thoughts are Kodjiacentric then I don’t think thats right, our strength is our teamwork.

  10. Mark, Ian…

    Kodjia has been a funny one. I do think he was maybe rushed back a little, and then he’s been trying too hard to do too much.

    If he would just bring others into the play more, I think the game would come more easily to him and he’d start bagging goals.

    Not sure how the ankle is, but doesn’t seem like he’ll be back very soon.

  11. Hey John, regarding kodjia, the man can score no doubt but teamwork and a few young faces showing up show he isn’t indispensable for the team.

    In the NHL the referees have meetings Before preseason games start regarding penalties and what should be enforced and what kind of punishment should be meted. Then in preseason these ideas are put into play and the best are kept for the new season.

  12. Scotland lost against the ABs but played the better rugby. Thought it ironic that a player in the France vs Bokkies game gets a yellow and sent to the sin bin for a tug on someone’s jersey, yet in the Championship, they’re getting away with it all the time.

  13. Ian – refs in England have a pre-season brief on decision making but whatever they stamp on the teams find another way to cheat.
    10 metre advance of free kick for dissent – vanished;
    tackles from behind outlawed so shirt tugging became prevalent – Arsenal got a free-kick for an imaginary shirt tug yesterday and scored from it!
    Now refs are letting hugging pass and off-the-ball tackles in the penalty area after a short hiatus.
    Whatever they do – it would not be so bad if they were consistent!
    Anyway good win and next up Sunderland with new manager

  14. It was a performance I didn’t see coming given our record after international breaks. Great pity we didn’t put away a few more of our chances. Had we done so, half arsed Holloway might have been really embarrassed. It would also have given SB the opportunity to unleash Grealish and O’Hare. Instead, he needed to put 3 defensive subs on to close out a tight scoreline.

    The result came after Dr X had spoken to the team earlier. I would love to have been a fly on the wall at that meeting. As it worked, he should do it more often. His main thought this morning will no doubt be -5. If we can see off Sunderland and Ipswich next week (no easy matter) it will become -3. COYVB.

  15. Sky are a joke. Their Sky Predictor currently has Villa finishing 16th this season. It’s supposed to be based on a sophisticated set of calculations. More likely based on David Prutton’s Sky predictions as he never fancies Villa to win. He had us down for a Home Win yesterday.

    But Skybet obviously takes no notice of Sky Predictor. Skybet have us finishing 5th behind Boro, Sheff U, Cardiff and Wolves.

  16. Plug that might be based on us losing to the top sides a fair bit of which there are about 8-10 this season that could crash the party besides us, here’s hoping this is the way we are going to play moving forward, Xia for manager? 🙂

    Clive – you can add throw ins and the keeper holding the ball for more than 6 steps and the 6 seconds they are supposed to use the ball in. Lots of them are out of there area when they kick the ball out of hand too.

    JC/Ian when Kodjia came back he played as a team player for 2-3 matches then came the easily squared ball to Adomah indecent and it became obvious he had switched to a more greedy policy that got him goals last season. Even in the U23 game he played in he created a couple and in fact he has two assists this season to Adomahs 0, I think maybe his old mate being on 9 now is getting to him maybe.

  17. A good result.I loved the variety in our forward play,a lot of short passing around the box,at a quick tempo.Our overall tempo was great,no one taking too many touches and slowing the play down.Well done SB.

  18. Clive,

    Agreed, consistency is the key in officiating. I’m also having a lot of trouble distinguishing calls for coming over the top and backing into players.

    I remember Benteke was always getting called for backing into/coming under defenders who were climbing all over him.

  19. JC/Clive/Mark
    Probably also because he is so tall.
    The amount of times lately, that players are being barged forward at the last minute when they are going for a high ball, by players not attempting to go for the ball, is unbelievable, & it’s also prevalent in the premiership this season.
    The amount of body checks seems to have increased, with the refs letting it all happen to keep a game flowing.
    Letting the game flow is fine as long as the ref indicates that there was a foul & advantage is being played.
    But unfortunately the players seem to be running the refs more this year.

  20. I notice the body checks because it was one of the black arts in Rugby when I played, & I was a diligent student at the time.
    The difference is that in Rugby the point is to disguise it & make sure that the ref doesn’t see it, while in football it is obvious & it has become confused with an issue of strength as the refs just ignore it.
    Crap Referees

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