Bluearmyfox28

Looked decent before his move, very good on the ball, aggressive off the ball in the press and appears to have some pace about him. Obviously left footed which gives us some balance, however, he doesn’t look like someone who can play in a 2, instead looks good for a 3 at the back.

Yeah I’m reading through this thread as we speak and I genuinely find it baffling that people think we were better or on par with Cooper’s team. Absolutely delusional, Ruud genuinely has my full backing, I’ve been impressed with how far we’ve come from how we looked under Cooper in the short amount of training time we’ve had. I find it hilarious when some fans are so opinionated but choose to ignore the clear obstacles Ruud has been dealt already. I would go as far to say if we continue to improve the way we have the past 5 weeks, I would stick with Ruud to get us back into the prem too.

Agreed, I think we’ve seen a huge improvement. It’s easy to forget about the past, we was dreadful under Cooper and I was scratching my head how we got the amount of points we had. Questions do need to be asked with regards to Buonanotte not being picked, but I think Ruud tried to nullify Digne today who plays a huge role in their attacking build up. Do I agree with the decision? No. But I can see the thinking and I actually think Ayew had a good game. I asked the same question in the post match thread but for everyone that’s Ruud out based on results how many points did you expect from our last 5 games? To clarify that was Newcastle, Wolves, Liverpool, Man City and Villa. At most I thought we would get 3, I'm intrigued what others think though as I honestly think these negative responses are ignoring how difficult this stretch of 5 games has been. As far as I’m concerned from fixtures we realistically had a chance against (West Ham, Wolves, Brighton) I would have wanted 4-6 points. We got 4?!

If I’m Ruud I’m starting Hamza at right back no matter what. Clear instructions on what you want from him and allow yourself 90 minutes to analyse if you are happy with what you see in case a new signing hasn’t arrived to replace JJ.

So had some time to think about the performance as emotions usually clout judgement as seen by the majority of the initial reactions on here. First of all people need to realise Villa park is a very tough ground to come to and get anything from they’ve played 11 games at home, lost 1, drew 4 and won 6. To nullify them for the majority of the game was impressive. I think a lot of the criticism on Ruud has been very unwarranted so far. He’s had 5 weeks in charge which is around the equivalent of a pre season but a lot less time on the training field, He’s also missing a lot of key players through injuries. For me, his identity is already showing, we’ve been so much better defensively despite individual errors (nothing a manager can do) and I’ve seen multiple sequences moving forward where we look impressive. Today, however, Ruud got his game management wrong, I don’t mind the idea of keeping it compact and tight on the basis the last 20/30 minutes you push for the win if it’s there for the taking. That opportunity arose when we scored the equaliser, at that moment we should have pushed for it. Instead we became more compact which Villa quickly realised and started throwing bodies forward and pinned us in as they realised we wasn’t threatening and happy with a draw. That’s on Ruud. I’ve seen many commenting about “getting a result against a poor Villa side” I honestly believe we made them look poor, we didn’t allow them to build anything in the final third until the last 20 minutes. We closed down quickly and played on their first touch every-time in the final third often winning the ball back which Villa fans were clearly becoming frustrated with. That’s our aggressiveness off the ball which deserves credit. A replacement for JJ needs to be No.1 priority and needs to be done before our next premier league game. Give Hamza a start at right back against QPR and see if you like what he offers. JJ’s confidence is completely shot and he needs to be taken out of the firing line. With regards to today’s mistake I honestly think Ayew was expecting the ball to be hooked down the line and appeared surprised to be given the ball so late, that’s on JJ (Once again). Mavididi also isn’t good enough to be starting. Everytime I’ve thought he’s been dangerous this season has consisted of him coming off the bench and impacting the game with tired legs. Nothing wrong in that but a starter on the left wing is needed. People saying there is no improvement from Cooper are right based of results on paper, but basing that off performances is delusional as far as I’m concerned. We are showing improvements week after week, we’ve been solid defensively, our press off the ball is aggressive and successful on several occasions and we’ve seen tidy patterns of play several times per game. I do wonder if Ruud is struggling with trusting his squad in terms of in game management, we seen similar from Enzo last season yet this year his subs have been completely different. I truthfully believe we’ve seen huge strides forward in Ruud and despite results (individual errors) I’ve been impressed by Ruud other than the wolves game. It’s important to ask ourselves prior to the 5 game stretch how many points did we realistically believe we would get against Villa, Man City, Liverpool, Wolves and Newcastle? I would have expected 3 points at most. Does it feel awful? Yes. But this run of 5 games does not define our season and the league table was always going to look ugly for us after this stretch. Moving forward, we need a minimum of 4 points in the next two games with 6 points obviously being perfect which I think is realistic. Truth is we need 5 signings potentially 4 after Thomas’ performance today. Right back, centre back, winger and striker all in desperate need of reinforcements. Thomas’ performance today may have kept him In as a capable back up until the end of the season. Apologise to anyone that got to the end of this, didn’t expect it to be so long!

Couldn’t agree more.

He’s clearly played Ayew in an attempt to nullify Digne, what I don’t understand is when you play defensive like that you invite pressure onto you which makes the player your attempting to nullify more effective!

I just don’t understand it at this point, our attacking movement looked the best it’s looked all season, so why change it? I could understand if Bounanotte was a luxury player, lazy in the press but he sets a better pressing tempo than Ayew does. All I can think at this point is Ruud thinks Ayew is a better defensive option to support JJ for obvious reasons.

I have to respect Nixon’s arrogance to just knowingly make up stories yet still act as a reliable journalist. Either pure delusion or just an arrogance to do what he wants and have fun pulling fans along

Asking price, which usually means high point.

Been suggesting Amass since the summer, his pre season displays got Man United fans asking for him to be starting. Very talented attacking left back.

Ever heard of Jon Rudkin?

Wasn’t it Nixon that broke the Ayew signing when we all said it was garbage?

Not good enough technically for how Ruud wants to play.

Skipp is fourth choice though, potentially 5th depending on how Ruud views Hamza. Mental to think the money we spent on him but Wilf, Soumare and Winks are all ahead in the pecking order. In my opinion this is one of two positions I think we can avoid for this season investing in, the other being goalkeeper.

MLS or not the touches, movement and finishing in that video looked class. Ruud focused so much of his play around De Jong at PSV so not surprised to see us being linked with a similar profile of player. If we do bring in another striker this month which seems likely ultimately I trust Ruud’s judgement for that specific position.

This would be a class signing for us, with 6 months left you’ll imagine he’ll be available for no more than £7m? What concerns me is if he chose to come to us over signing a new contract, how much extra pennies are we offering?

Harry Amass could be a possible option for us to look at on loan.

I’ll be honest I wasn’t very impressed with him against us and that’s against a defence that’s questionable at best.

Then why not sell? Where’s a Saudi prince when you need them!

Hard to judge the recruitment team, the one time we’ve had a gaffer who’s happy to take chances on young players from foreign leagues the recruitment team sign talents like (Fatawu and Mads) how much is the recruitment team or the management in place? They can only make suggestions after all.

Highlight from yesterday’s game was me standing and chanting, getting involved for a person a few rows in front to turn around and tut followed by a shake of the head. I sit in B1 which I acknowledge isn’t gonna be jumping about but fu*k me.

Been holding off saying this for a while as knew I will probably get shot down for it, heard a lot of rumours from people that do a bit of business with the club’s higher up that prior to relegation, there was serious interest in listening to potential offers hence they were trying to push a stadium expansion to increase value. Relegation and a build up of debt made the club a lot less attractive and massively decreased value. Partly a reason Top cleared some of the debt himself. Could be BS but came from people last year that would be impacted negatively should they sell up, take of it what you will. No idea what the current situation is.

Yup, I watched all 3 goals back yesterday and I genuinely think Ward should have saved all 3.

Just further clarify on this, Jakub wasn’t cleared by the medical staff to play… the choice was between Ward and Iversen.