Aston Villa v Tottenham Hotspur Post-Match Thread

[Macho Man Randy Savage]

I think Gareth Bale's "best winger in the world" tag wasn't really justified on today's performance given that Lichaj handled him comfortably in one of his first games.

[itbrvilla]

So poor. If not for the young players, we'd be beyond hopeless. I think we're seeing the marked difference O Neill made. He got a lot out of some very limited players. Seems to me that Houllier isn't particular well regarded in the dressing room by certain sections.

but he also paid a Premium for those very limited players.

[ROBBO]

Sack him and replace him with who? we will still have the same squad. Who is good enough to turn lead into gold?

[Irish villain]

I can't believe how much spurs have overtaken us. In fact they are doing everything i hoped we would be doing since Randy took over.

That's what makes it so so painful. I was sure that'd be where we would be but look at us now.

[Macho Man Randy Savage]

Judging by Houlliers comments about Delph being like a new January signing, has the manager been told to play the kids.

Doug would be proud of a quote like that!

[WikiVilla]

Poor with a capital P, we could easily have lost 4 or 5.

Why did NRC not start in the middle, this was not a game for Delph to make his come back.

Where was Ash ? All these injuries seem too much of a coincidence, GH seems to have alienated the dressing room

I think his position is becoming untennable

[TheSandman]

And the sad thing is despite the bad midfield selection we didn't suffer as badly for that as for our utterly dire play up front where we had no cutting edge. Delfouneso played well BUT he worked for no reason as we had no one to put it in the old onion bag. 

[barrysleftfoot]

   I think supertom is bang on.MON had a system and bought  players to play in that system, and he got the structure of the team right.He tried to bring in VDV or Sneijder in apparently, and you can see what he was trying to do.

  I can't quite work out what GH is trying to do tbh.Sometimes he plays 4-5-1, sometimes 4-4-2, and when he plays that, he plays 2 young inexperienced midfielders.

 

[DaveD]

We look like what we are - a team with a paper-thin squad of Prem quality players, supplemented by promising but unproven youth, who have sold their outstanding player the last two years and look like making it a hat-trick.

Think we've got enough to survive this year, but the trend is down, and more worryingly, the strategy since 2009 is indistinguishable from The Ellis years.

[burtonreferees]

How many times have people been quoted on here stating, that a new defender, striker and creative midfielder will make everything ok?
I can go back possibly 4 years? Nothing has changed...and probably never will !
We are just an un-ambitious club going nowhere fast. A brief flirtation with minor success then back to the sad reality very, very quickly.
We certainly need more than 3 players to make this team tick again.

[Irish villain]

A Liverpool fan said to me that Houllier's thing is he doesn't support his players he always shirks responsibility.

[russon]

absolute garbage....our goal apart we were left with delfounso muffing a volley, petrov scuffing a shot and  carlos 50p'ing two over the bar. We can't even get the basics right. Pires can't believe his last pay-day luck, Warnock wants putting down and Houlier too. Just hope there are 3 worse teams than us from here till May but right now only Wolves are worse than our shower. Happy Christmas.

[brontebilly]

Move Houllier upstairs maybe. I don't think he's a relegation scrap manager.....

The suspicion remains that the board brought in Houllier to do the dirty work and drastically cut the wage bill while remaining competitive. Unfortunately we need someone imaginative at the helm to do this. Someone to get one last good season out of the aging players and looking to move them on for decent money in the summer. Are we really going to take on a relegation battle with kids and a few new signings? I see no imagination or man management from Houllier whatsoever. It is almost January and am I right in saying that neither Carew or Gabby have a single league goal yet? If we brought Jol in to give everyone a second chance Id be hugely confident of avoiding relegation and having a good season. Without the change being made I'm struggling to think there will be three sides worse than us come May.

I thought we were absolutely diabolical in the second half today. Good football my ass, it reminded me of Stoke without the passion and guts.

[ez]

I can't believe how much spurs have overtaken us. In fact they are doing everything i hoped we would be doing since Randy took over.

That's what makes it so so painful. I was sure that'd be where we would be but look at us now.

My mind still goes back to being 8 points clear of Arsenal. Painful is right.

[ROBBO]

Well sack him then, Allardyce is availeable.