The Three Things Aston Villa Must Do To Beat Reading

After three disappointing results in a row, these are the things I think we must do to beat Reading on Tuesday night:

1) Come flying out of the blocks and get the crowd up for it.

Reading will be buoyed by their win at the weekend and will be looking to keep the ‘new manager bounce’ going against an out-of-sorts Villa who have taken only one point from the last three (very winnable) matches against teams struggling at the wrong end of the table.

We need to be up for this from the word go – failure to secure all three points could be a body blow in our bid to cement a play-off place. Getting the crowd onside early will be important, otherwise the atmosphere could be as flat as it was against QPR, with the inevitably lifeless performance which followed.

2) Push higher up the pitch.

A recurring theme (not just this season) is the failure of the midfield to get up in support of the forward(s). Time and again, the likes of Grabban and Davis win the ball up top, but there is rarely the required support, and how often do our midfielders get beyond the forwards and into dangerous positions in and around the penalty area?

We have a more than capable defence, and particularly at home, we need to get the likes of Hourihane and/or Bjarnason up in support of the front players and looking to get to the second ball much, much quicker. Too often, promising play breaks down because Hogan/Grabban/Davis are isolated up front. We need the midfielders to play genuinely box-to-box, rather than box-to-halfway.

3) Don’t panic!

Bruce’s default position when things are going wrong (or at least, not going well) is to chuck on as many strikers as possible in the hope of lucking out. We end up sacrificing the players with the ability to create something and the whole team looks unbalanced as we resort to hit and hope tactics.

Bringing on Hogan on 85 minutes at Hull was never going to achieve anything, especially as it was one of our key creators – Albert Adomah – who made way. Just pick our best team, Steve, and let them play. Frankly, I’d rather fail to make the play-offs by going down fighting, rather than meekly limping to the finish line in the manner of the last three matches.

Thoughts? Let us know in the Match thread in the forum or in the article comments below (old logins don’t work for comments at the moment)