Aston Villa 0-1 Burton Albion: Reaction from embarrassing Carabao Cup defeat
By Josh Tonti
Aston Villa lost to a League One side stuck in the relegation zone that had their captain and their starting goalkeeper subbed off for injury in the first-half. Steve Bruce exits his fourth domestic tournament with three total victories.
If you thought dropping six points in a week was bad, well, I have another unpleasant surprise for you. A rotated Aston Villa side lost to League One strugglers Burton Albion 1-0 at the Pirelli Stadium.
The Carabao Cup second-round exit means Steve Bruce ends his fourth domestic tournament with Villa on three victories – an absolutely appalling record for a manager known for ‘getting results.’ In all, Bruce lost to Tottenham in the 2017 FA Cup, beat Colchester + Wigan and lost to Boro in the 2017 EFL Cup, lost to Peterborough in the 2018 FA Cup, and beat Yeovil + lost to Burton Albion in the 2018 Carabao Cup. Truly shocking.
It’s how Villa lost today too that matters. Burton lost their captain on the 10th-minute and their starting goalkeeper on the 39th. Still, Villa were held scoreless. In the starting XI, Bruce began the match with 20-year old James Bree, a right-back by trade, at centre-back to partner Tommy Elphick. And instead of playing Axel Tuanzebe in defense, he played the Manchester United loanee in midfield over Glenn Whelan, who did not start over the weekend, either.
The continuation of this lineup Yahtzee has to end for Aston Villa to be successful. It’s bad Villa aren’t getting solid results. It’s so much worse how they’re going about it, and that’s been a staple under Bruce’s ~100 games in charge at the club. To make matters worse, he flat-out threw his own players under the bus in a post-match interview.
Which, from the following tweet, doesn’t reflect well on the manager.
Bruce at the 0:12 mark: “The people who’ve been knocking on my door, who really want to try and get themselves in the team, haven’t done themselves any favor at all.”
— Claret Villans (@ClaretVillans) August 28, 2018
10/18 in today’s squad were Bruce arrivals. 2 were in the academy, 1 retained as a free agent. #AVFC https://t.co/GKE37wxqDK
Aston Villa travel to Sheffield United on Saturday. A loss there and it’s possible Armageddon for Villa supporters. With the international break to follow, perhaps it would be time for NSWE to make a change on a manager who wasn’t really their guy to begin with.