Houlier on Talksport in a minute and Dion tonight ..

[JJ-AV]

Sometimes, when people talk about Ashley Young, I think they're talking about an entirely different player.

How can anyone accuse him of lack of effort last season? You can accuse him of a few things, but lack of effort is the last thing I'd ever throw at him

Agreed.

[eastie]

Ash was not as effective last season in the position he played which houllier made clear was where ash wanted to play , he is a far more effective player out wide but one thing i would never question is his effort and he always gave 100%-his tracking back and defensive work were often overlooked and i for one hope and believe he will get a very good reception when he returns to villa park with united this season.

[Phil from the upper holte]

Young always gave 100% problem is he was our best player and as such defenders doubled up on him. Now he's at manure they have lots of good players and they can't afford to do this. This is why he suddenly looks a better player

[The Laughing Policeman]

Sometimes, when people talk about Ashley Young, I think they're talking about an entirely different player.

How can anyone accuse him of lack of effort last season? You can accuse him of a few things, but lack of effort is the last thing I'd ever throw at him

Agreed.

Well being a student in the art of reality, I'd say that Ashley Young came across last season as being petulant, a spoilt brat who wasn't getting his own way and inclined to argue the toss with referees for the slightest reason.( The real reason Fergie bought him?)
Okay, he may have been frustrated with the way things were going on and off the pitch, but it was plain to see that he didn't want to play for The Villa any more and his goal celebrations spoke volumes when he would just walk away as if to say " I've scored so what".
Having said all that I must admit that his time with us before last season was well worth the entrance money.

[Vanilla]

Sometimes, when people talk about Ashley Young, I think they're talking about an entirely different player.

How can anyone accuse him of lack of effort last season? You can accuse him of a few things, but lack of effort is the last thing I'd ever throw at him

Agreed.

Well being a student in the art of reality, I'd say that Ashley Young came across last season as being petulant, a spoilt brat who wasn't getting his own way and inclined to argue the toss with referees for the slightest reason.( The real reason Fergie bought him?)
Okay, he may have been frustrated with the way things were going on and off the pitch, but it was plain to see that he didn't want to play for The Villa any more and his goal celebrations spoke volumes when he would just walk away as if to say " I've scored so what".
Having said all that I must admit that his time with us before last season was well worth the entrance money.

He was petulant 80% of the time, but in that other 20% he would track back, be eager for the ball, whip in a cracking cross, create something from nothing or whip in a nifty free kick.

[London Villan]

Funnily enough he is playing wide for manu and looks fantastic... Can you see that Mr Houlier?

[Somniloquism]

Sometimes, when people talk about Ashley Young, I think they're talking about an entirely different player.

How can anyone accuse him of lack of effort last season? You can accuse him of a few things, but lack of effort is the last thing I'd ever throw at him

Agreed.

Well being a student in the art of reality, I'd say that Ashley Young came across last season as being petulant, a spoilt brat who wasn't getting his own way and inclined to argue the toss with referees for the slightest reason.( The real reason Fergie bought him?)
Okay, he may have been frustrated with the way things were going on and off the pitch, but it was plain to see that he didn't want to play for The Villa any more and his goal celebrations spoke volumes when he would just walk away as if to say " I've scored so what".
Having said all that I must admit that his time with us before last season was well worth the entrance money.

He was petulant 80% of the time, but in that other 20% he would track back, be eager for the ball, whip in a cracking cross, create something from nothing or whip in a nifty free kick.

Last season I would have said tracking back for more then 20% of the time. But:-
1: Be eager for the ball, yes to an extent he would want demand it and get it in poorer positions then other players were in. He seemed to want to do it all and didn't realise we were a team that included Ash, not Ash and 10 others at times.
2: Whip in a cracking cross, well only when he decided to play on the wing and didn't decide to take on the same man more then once, and even then cracking was very blue moonish.
3: Create something from nothing, more blue moonish then the cracking cross.
4: Whip in a nifty freekick. Yes, when he cleared the wall and managed to not hit row Z. He definitely took enough of them that it was starting to fall into monkeys, typewriters, Shakespeare country on scoring. And I notice you haven't mentioned his corner taking at all. I don't blame you.

It is no surprise that Fergie is playing Ash wide left with a slight license to roam as it is his best position and he can't play second striker as effectively. I also agree with others that with better players around him, he will play better due to the extras space available.

I also agree with LP that his earlier times with us were some of his best times but would argue it started to go wrong from the time he was sent off against Sunderland and was fined publicly by MON. Also throwing in a bit of Barry going who could be guaranteed to hit Ash with a fine ball on the break when Custard Pants was playing for us.

[curiousorange]

Funnily enough he is playing wide for manu and looks fantastic... Can you see that Mr Houlier?

I might be mistaken but didn;t Young always bang on about his best position being a free role?

[saunders_heroes]

Sometimes, when people talk about Ashley Young, I think they're talking about an entirely different player.

How can anyone accuse him of lack of effort last season? You can accuse him of a few things, but lack of effort is the last thing I'd ever throw at him

Agreed.

Spot on. Young ran his nuts off for Villa in every game. people who claim any different must have been watching Villa with blindfolds on.

[JJ-AV]

What is the issue with a player arguing with the ref? He was our captain, they are allowed to discuss things with the referee.

Should he just accept a decision against us? Wouldn't we do the same?

He won us points. And alot of them. And we're no seeing the difference in class between him and N'Zogbia. Those who didn't like Ash must surely now see his class?

[Macho Man Randy Savage]

Funnily enough he is playing wide for manu and looks fantastic... Can you see that Mr Houlier?

I might be mistaken but didn;t Young always bang on about his best position being a free role?

I think he did, but it isn't. He's much better playing wide left. It's also much easier for him to thrive playing in a team where the opposition doesn't so easily have the luxury of marking him with two players.

[rob_bridge]

The more time that passes, the worse his mistakes look.

It's called hindsight. A more nuanced view might take into account that he tried to have us playing decent football, that he experienced one of the worst injury crisis in living memory and that several players didn't actually spend the pre-season getting into shape. Some of his ideas were good, but his implementation was poor. But to say that Houllier was crap, or a disaster, is biased and one-sided, to say the least, and there is yet little indication that we are better off without him. (People might like to point to our improved defence, but we conceded 12 goals in the last 10 matches of the Houllier/GMac period, which is not much worse than 4 in 5 matches if you factor in the turgid performances and the quality of the opposition so far this season.)

=========================================================

Houllier was a walking talking disaster turning a Top 6 club into relegation fodder at one point with his side kick McDuff (very good coach?) where? This is in a season where only Cit-eh and Albyion really improved on the previous season.
And before those last 10 games? Conceding 1 at home to Wolves and scoring none. Remember that one? Sending a team out to lose v Cit-eh in the Cup. Is that biased?
I will wager with you that we will get more than 49 points this year and not lose as badly in the Cup with that disgraceful approach. Therefore we will be better off with a worse squad. The guy is arrogant beyond belief - he was brought in to qualify for World Cup with France, win the League with Liverpool and consolidate with Villa. Add Abject to the List of adjectives. Failure with a Big F

[rob_bridge]

Funnily enough he is playing wide for manu and looks fantastic... Can you see that Mr Houlier?

I might be mistaken but didn;t Young always bang on about his best position being a free role?

And Beckham used to bang on about wanting to play in the centre for Man Utd. Who do you think was right on that one too?

[eamonn]

I think Houllier tried to indulge Ash too much by letting him play where he (Young) wanted. Back on the wing and the bit more discipline involved in that, coupled with being surrounded by superior players, little wonder that Young has started his career at manure on fire.

[Dave]

He won us points. And alot of them. And we're no seeing the difference in class between him and N'Zogbia. Those who didn't like Ash must surely now see his class?

There were a lot of people who said that he wouldn't amount to anything at ManYoo. That Nani and Valencia were better players and he'd be on the bench the whole time.

Well done him for proving them to be very wrong.