Villa's biggest weakness

[Martyn Smith]

What do think is Villa's, as a club and a team rather than related to any individual players, biggest weakness. For me this is something that's always been there to a greater or lesser degree, and was certainly prevalent in the late 70s when I first started taking an interest, and that's an inability to close a game down, especially from a 2-0 lead. The most recent example of course being v Man U weekend before last. 2-0 up with a quarter of an hour to go at home, we don't seem to change our tactics at all. When you're 2-0 up at home to a club like Man U in the dying stages of the game you concentrate on defending what you have. It just didn't seem like we had the nous to do that, and it seemed so typical and predictable...

[Walmley_Villa]

As mad as it sounds I think it is a Brummie/Midlands thing. Be honest, once Man Utd pulled a goal back did any Villa fans not expect Utd to equalise? I think that the team felt the same. We don't seem to have that killer instinct when it comes to the crunch. Just like Brummies never boast about our City and are quite used to being slagged off hence Manchester's rise to the self-proclaimed second city of the UK. We lack belief and arrogance.

[Legion]

Lack of self-belief.

[Damo70]

Holding the lead doesn't just apply to individual games, it also applies to holding a lead in the league - 1988, 1990, 1993.

[NeilH]

As a Brummie living outside the country I can tell you that the image of the city really does not help. Speak of Manchester and people see Man Utd, music and ''cool''. Speak of Birmingham and its just ''oh isn't that an industrial city, like The Ruhr'' If you're a foreign footballer looking for an overseas move, image counts and like it or not our image is not good and it impacts us.

[pauliewalnuts]

Movement off the ball.

[villasjf]

We are not a 90 minute team, good first half or good second half or something in between flashes of great football then silly mistakes, they need to up their concentration levels.

[Risso]

Movement off the ball.

That's what I'd have said.

[pauliewalnuts]

As a Brummie living outside the country I can tell you that the image of the city really does not help. Speak of Manchester and people see Man Utd, music and ''cool''. Speak of Birmingham and its just ''oh isn't that an industrial city, like The Ruhr'' If you're a foreign footballer looking for an overseas move, image counts and like it or not our image is not good and it impacts us.

It never affected Liverpool or Newcastle when they were attracting big name players, though. We're also an hour and a small bit from London, too, which has to count for something.

[Concrete John]

Movement off the ball is a problem, but it's a symptom of the present team and not a 'club issue', which is what I think the thread is about.

I agree with NeilH - we have a profile issue.  The game has evolved over the history of the PL and during that time the media have been obsessed with London and Man Utd, because of their success, and Liverpool, because of their history.  We appear as one of the poor relations and this hinders our recruitment of both managers and players.   

[Concrete John]

We're also an hour and a small bit from London, too, which has to count for something.

It would if Johnny Foreigner knew where Birmingham actually was.

[PaulTheVillan]

Conceding goals at the end of the first half has cost us a result Sunday and v Spurs.

We lack that belief or concentration.

[NeilH]

As a Brummie living outside the country I can tell you that the image of the city really does not help. Speak of Manchester and people see Man Utd, music and ''cool''. Speak of Birmingham and its just ''oh isn't that an industrial city, like The Ruhr'' If you're a foreign footballer looking for an overseas move, image counts and like it or not our image is not good and it impacts us.

It never affected Liverpool or Newcastle when they were attracting big name players, though. We're also an hour and a small bit from London, too, which has to count for something.

I can only call it as I see it and Brum has a rotten image problem which affects us greatly. Liverpool still has the Beatles legacy and a world famous team. Newcastle were dangling the carrot of unprecedented wages which would have attracted virtually anyone at the time.

[pauliewalnuts]

Movement off the ball is a problem, but it's a symptom of the present team and not a 'club issue', which is what I think the thread is about.

I agree with NeilH - we have a profile issue.  The game has evolved over the history of the PL and during that time the media have been obsessed with London and Man Utd, because of their success, and Liverpool, because of their history.  We appear as one of the poor relations and this hinders our recruitment of both managers and players.   

You've mentioned two teams there which the media have been obsessed with, and those teams are two of the most successful. Coincidence?

If the media is obsessed with teams from London and the north west, that's because they actually win everything.

If another team from a different area threatens to win things or achieve things, the media will switch on to them, too.

Look at the way they kept telling us Newcastle were our second team when they were qualifying for the CL regularly and finishing second.

[UK Redsox]

We're also an hour and a small bit from London, too, which has to count for something.

It would if Johnny Foreigner knew where Birmingham actually was.

Alabama ?