The Villa Match Zone

Episode 1 How To Select Centre-Halves, Next On Aston Villa, Preparing For Opposition Players Who Are Suspended

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With tensions predictably high in the world of Aston Villa following manager Steve Bruce’s after match comments following victory over Rotherham United, it hasn’t been difficult for some fans to jump on his latest comments as we go into Sheffield Wednesday later today.

Holding his usual pre-game press conference, Bruce covered a few topics from the Official Site coverage and there was plenty of praise, hope and positivity involved as we got back to winning ways in the last match.

There was another part of the press conference though.

Now you certainly wouldn’t expect him to slam some of Jedi’s expected mistakes as centre-half remains a new position to him, despite being regularly used there by Bruce and our manager does have a point, Jedinak is an easy go-to when things go wrong.

When you take emotion out of it, statistically he often performs a hell of a lot better than people give him credit for.

But, the beard is not a centre-half and he will continue making mistakes. It’s the difference between being an extra body from midfield, and then being the body with nobody to help you.

He also apparently spoke about the threats that Sheffield Wednesday will pose us and referenced Fernando Forestieri, who is, of course, serving a ban.

There were plenty more, but this is the problem with turning on fans. He’s been briefed wrong or had a rush of blood and named the first player that came to mind, presumably to not pick out who we have actually made a focus.

But a slip like that is going to haunt now after his previous words – this won’t be the only time Bruce has misnamed a player since he’s been at the club (and he won’t be the only one) but it’s now an easy dig.

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