Aston Villa’s Steve Bruce, Adomah feature in November’s nominations
Aston Villa’s recent run of form has seen strong recognition in November’s manager and player of the month nominations.
Steve Bruce has a chance of winning the Sky Bet Championship Manager of the Month Award, facing competition from Reading’s Jaap Stam, Wolverhampton’s Nuno Espirito Santo and Cardiff City’s Neil Warnock. Meanwhile in the player nominations, Villa’s top-scorer Albert Adomah has been picked alongside Sheffield United’s Leon Clarke, Wolves’ Barry Douglas and Derby County’s Matej Vydra.
We look at each nominee’s form throughout the course of November:
Steve Bruce:
Under Bruce’s guidance, Aston Villa have had a particularly strong November, collecting 12 points out of a possible 15, thanks to convincing wins against Preston, QPR, Sunderland and Ipswich. The team scored a total of 9 goals and only conceded 4, keeping clean sheets against Preston and Ipswich, all helping elevate the club to 4th in the league. Villa are now unbeaten in 4 since their 2-1 defeat to Sheffield Wednesday, showing the side’s renewed versatility to bounce back after a disappointing result.
Jaap Stam:
Despite lying 14th in the table, Jaap Stam has engineered a small resurgence at Reading over the past month. The team secured a total of 8 points in November, recording high scoring victories against both Derby and Barnsley, as well as 2 draws versus Bolton and Sheffield Wednesday. A 3-1 win over Sunderland last weekend now means the Royals are unbeaten in 4 and look to be in good form ahead of the Christmas period.
Nuno:
It is no surprise that we are seeing Nuno’s name in the manager’s nominations; Wolverhampton Wanderers currently sit top of the table, having won all their games in November, scoring 13 in the process and only conceding 2. They have a 4-point cushion over 2nd place Cardiff and look in unstoppable form. It looks as if Nuno will be Bruce’s main competitor for the manger of the month honor.
Neil Warnock:
The final manager to be nominated is Cardiff City’s Neil Warnock. Much like Wolves, Cardiff have been in scintillating form, currently occupying the other automatic promotion spot after a November which yielded four victories. There was a damaging defeat at the hands of 4th placed Bristol City, but the bluebirds quickly bounced back from this disappointment and are now also unbeaten in their last 4 games.
Albert Adomah:
Heading up the player nominations is Villa’s very own Albert Adomah, a man in the form of his life. Adomah scored 5 goals in November, with 4 of those coming in fantastic braces against QPR and Ipswich. This earned him 3 Man of the Match awards and a WhoScored.com rating of 9.39 in the Ipswich game, his best this season. The Ghanaian winger is emulating Jonathan Kodjia’s fine scoring record from last season, taking his tally to an impressive 10 goals.
Sheffield United’s talisman striker had a phenomenal November despite his team only picking up 7 points. Clarke converted 9 goals in 4 games, scoring a hat-trick in the 4-3 loss to Fulham as well as all 4 in the 4-1 demolition of Hull. This form has made the 32-year-old the division’s top scorer with 13 goals and probably Adomah’s chief rival out of the player nominees.
Barry Douglas:
Scottish left-back Douglas is the only non-striker in this month’s nominations, but produced some impressive stats in the 3 games he played. The Wolves man was part of the defense that kept a clean sheet in their 2-0 win over Fulham, assisting both goals before scoring himself in the 4-1 victory vs. Leeds 2 weeks later. Douglas finished the month with another assist in the team’s win over Bolton at Molineux, a fine output from a man playing at the back of the field.
Matej Vydra:
Gary Rowett’s Derby County owe a lot to star striker Matej Vydra after a series of stellar performances in November. The Czech forward knocked in 5 goals for the club, most notably scoring a hat-trick in the 3-0 win away at Middlesbrough, putting him 3rd in this season’s top scorers with 11 goals, just the one ahead of Adomah’s tally for Villa.
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The winners will be announced on Friday, December 8th, where we hope Villa will take a clean sweep and win in both categories!