Friday evening’s tie between Aston Villa and Bristol City at Ashton Gate was always going to see some tasty comments when the starting XI was announced given the current feelings about manager Steve Bruce.
In fairness, whatever squad he selected he was always going to come in for criticism having turned on the fans the other week, especially as we then went and lost to Sheffield Wednesday but ahead of this game I didn’t even bother thinking about a Predicted XI piece as I knew I’d be wrong as I thought we’d either be unchanged or the baby would go out with the bath water as Bruce lurched once again in his selections.
Team news: Two changes for #AVFC at Ashton Gate tonight.
Axel Tuanzebe and Birkir Bjarnason come into the starting XI.#PartOfThePride pic.twitter.com/VW009cxmLO
— Aston Villa (@AVFCOfficial) September 28, 2018
The latter proved to be true as he made two changes, bringing in Birkir Bjarnason and Axel Tuanzebe. Dropping out were Ahmed Elmohamady and Albert Adomah.
Clearly, Jack Grealish was given his central spot back and the purist would say diamond formation with a layman saying we packed midfield in a panic. I guess it was about time our substitutes bench featured three wingers, arguably four given Elmo’s ability to run forward.
Ahhh for the days of Alex McLeish and four forwards, with three being played in midfield and defence…I’ve missed those joys.
were there or thereabouts mate! no worries!
— dan (@dannystator) September 28, 2018
No width sound.
— villa_views (@villanews11) September 28, 2018
No wingers or width.. what is Bruce thinking?! Oh and…. JED IS NOT A CB
— Lewis (@Lbrennan95) September 28, 2018
Wingers are our new right backs. 3(4) wingers on the bench. 2 RBs aswell????♂️ glad we are paying massive money for El Ghazi and Bolasie to sit on the bench though????????♂️ #bruceout #avfc
— Chrsmo (@Chrsmo) September 28, 2018
Right okay lads now can we have the proper line up
— David (@VillaDavo) September 28, 2018
Bruce out
— callum kenny (@callumkenny) September 28, 2018
This is getting ridiculous now!#AVFC #BruceOut
— Phil Roberts (@iamVilla) September 28, 2018
Mind boggling #avfc
— Reece J (@ReeceyBones) September 28, 2018
Lol. We’ve lost.
— D.B (@DanAvFc92) September 28, 2018
For the next episode of “seriously dude, WTF”, I can exclusively reveal we are recalling Jed Steer for left back. We’re going to have four goalkeepers on the bench to really confuse the opposition and Colin Calderwood and Stephen Clemence will attempt to distract the fourth official for 90 minutes as we try and smuggle on every striker we have at the club (down to Under 8 level) and go for a very unique 100 v 11 formation in the hope we can secure a draw.
Mile Jedinak stays at centre-half though – you have to have some consistency.
We better win now! Ten odd minutes in, at least we aren’t losing!
