Aston Villa v Newcastle United Post-Match Thread

[Goldie.7]

Bent's hold up play was poor today i could see Gabby getting annoyed with him. I'm not the biggest fan of Bent's i think he's too sloppy and could do a whole lot more instead off goal hanging for 75 minutes every match. Harsh but true!

[TheSandman]

How the fuck are we meant to tighten up our midfield when our only options are attacking players who would exacerbate the problem? A bit of perspective is needed.

Clark or Jenas coming in may go some way towards tightening it up but both were injured today so we could hardly pick them. Are we expecting Ireland to do a defensive midfield role?

[Mister E]

Bent's hold up play was poor today i could see Gabby getting annoyed with him. I don't rate Bent anyway i think he's too sloppy and could do a whole lot more instead off goal hanging for 75 minutes every match. Harsh but true!

Harsh, but I'll take the goals he scores! And he will start scoring again!

[Blackcountry Villa]

We are fucking rubbish but am i surprised? Not one bit. No doubt the happy clappers will say 'we're unbeaten' but 4 draws out of 5 considering who we've played is piss poor. We played exactly how Blues did last season, we went 1-0 up and then camped in our own half trying to see it out. You would have thought Newcastle were the home team not us, but like i say it's exactly what i expect from ginger bollocks. He's a shit manager who plays shit, negative football. That was Newcastle we were playing today not Man Utd and we were defending with 10 men behind the ball trying to protect a 1-0 lead, diabolical tactics.
 
Delph is an awful footballer, Championship standard. N'Zogbia has been atrocious in every game so far, i don't know whats wrong with him. Bent looks like he couldn't hit a cow's arse with a banjo at the moment.

I'm half expecting sub 30,000 against Wigan, especially if we lose at QPR. Lets face it, it will probably be a draw and the football will be crap so the fans aren't going to come flocking.

Thank the lord i didn't spend 500 odd quid to watch that garbage every other week.

[Mister E]

How the fuck are we meant to tighten up our midfield when our only options are attacking players who would exacerbate the problem? A bit of perspective is needed.

Clark or Jenas coming in may go some way towards tightening it up but both were injured today so we could hardly pick them. Are we expecting Ireland to do a defensive midfield role?

no, that's why I found the substitution of Petrov so alarming today; even though Petrov is really a 60-minute man, we just had no direct replacement for him.

[TonyD]

Bent seems injured.  I would rest him for the next 3/4 games and play 4.5.1. with Gabby up front and pack out the midfield.

[brontebilly]

The sight of Peter Grant and Alex McLeish pointing blankly at one another on the sideline is already wearing thin for me I'm afraid. Clueless doesnt even come close

[taylorsworkrate]

A very dull, average match between two very dull, average teams.  The only thing that suprises me about our crippling mediocrity is that i'm still suprised by it.

If anything Newcastle can feel slightly aggrieved they didn't win.

Of the bar, how many first class saves from Given.....................If I was a Geordie fan i would be crying into my soup.....

Given is going to get a lot of MOM's for us this season.

[Tom Stewart]

Crap.

N'Zog? What the hell? Woeful.
Bent - clearly injured, should have gone off earlier.
Delph and Petrov, both of whom were poor, had no answer to Tiote and the bloody good Cabaye.
Hutton doesn't look match fit to me. Defensively ok, but very little going forward and some rubbish crossing.
Warnock was a mixed bag, so too Gabby.
Dunne and Collins, not bad, though the former fell asleep for their equaliser.

I thought Bannan looked class, lovely ball for the goal and generally very tidy - certainly shouldn't have taken him off and kept N'Zog on.

Last word - Shay Given was absolutely magnificent.

[Louzie0]

Bent needs more than 1 opportunity for him to score.  I know he missed one but that's what strikers like him do. Bear with me - they tend to score the 2nd or 3rd time out of every 5 chances. If he is leading the line as it were, he needs a succession of opportunities all through the game.  I was listening on 5L so I'm at the mercy of the commentators, but I didn't hear many (any?) opportunities made for him to capitalise upon, apart from the one he missed. That's really a waste of a striker of his calibre.

I love Gabby to bits by the way and totally appreciate his goal.  But he is a different kind of player than Bent and his scoring chances come about in a different way.

I think that a manager should be looking to make the most out of everybody's talents.  Maybe we were hamstrung with injuries so Bent was a loser in the end, but I have to say I was disappointed today with the freedom we afforded Newcastle in midfield, especially.

[TonyD]

The sight of Peter Grant and Alex McLeish pointing blankly at one another on the sideline is already wearing thin for me I'm afraid. Clueless doesnt even come close

I reckon we need a "Questions for the Manager" thread.   

[john e]

Bannan only played today because Heskey was injured, soonest he could he got him of the field.

he doesnt like Bannan, he doesnt rate Bannan, he doesnt want to use him if he can help it in his team set up,
Bannan will have to be MOTM every week to keep his place, AM looks for every excuse not to play him.

todays performance was very reminisant of a lot of games played over the last 4 seasons, wasnt the worst certainly not the best, i can live with it to be honest,

what i cant live with is the manager not wanting to play the best midfielder we have got, and leaving players on who are woefully out of form,
N'Zog is trying to get into the top '5 of worst players for Villa' on the memories thread, if he carries on this way he'l be making it

[Eigentor]

Am I the only one thinking that Given should have come for the cross when Newcastle scored? Other than that he was an obvious MotM, and it's a worry that our keeper is our best player in a home game against a team of the calibre of Newcastle.

[ez]

The sight of Peter Grant and Alex McLeish pointing blankly at one another on the sideline is already wearing thin for me I'm afraid. Clueless doesnt even come close

I've been giving McLeish the excuse that he was at a crap club last season... I'm now coming round to the possibility that he is actually a crap manager.

[taylorsworkrate]

Bannan only played today because Heskey was injured, soonest he could he got him of the field.

he doesnt like Bannan, he doesnt rate Bannan, he doesnt want to use him if he can help it in his team set up,
Bannan will have to be MOTM every week to keep his place, AM looks for every excuse not to play him.

todays performance was very reminisant of a lot of games played over the last 4 seasons, wasnt the worst certainly not the best, i can live with it to be honest,

what i cant live with is the manager not wanting to play the best midfielder we have got, and leaving players on who are woefully out of form,
N'Zog is trying to get into the top '5 of worst players for Villa' on the memories thread, if he carries on this way he'l be making it

I can certainly live with performances like that. 

They just leave me wondering whats the point?