Villa being discussed at length on Talksport right now

[maidstonevillain]

Stan made one interesting point that had some merit. Said Bent is a luxury we are not presently utilising. Would probably be better off if we sold him for £25m, and spent the money on two good attacking fullbacks, or two good midfielders. Difficult to disagree, in my opinion.

[luke25]

Stan made one interesting point that had some merit. Said Bent is a luxury we are not presently utilising. Would probably be better off if we sold him for £25m, and spent the money on two good attacking fullbacks, or two good midfielders. Difficult to disagree, in my opinion.

Our gameplan should be to create as many chances for Bent as possible, he may miss the first but he'll sure as heck bury the second, its a crime that we have a player like Bent and don't utilise him properly.

[Clampy]

Stan made one interesting point that had some merit. Said Bent is a luxury we are not presently utilising. Would probably be better off if we sold him for £25m, and spent the money on two good attacking fullbacks, or two good midfielders. Difficult to disagree, in my opinion.

Our gameplan should be to create as many chances for Bent as possible, he may miss the first but he'll sure as heck bury the second, its a crime that we have a player like Bent and don't utilise him properly.

It's been our biggest downfall of late. Apart from a header at Spurs, he's hardly has a sniff in the last 3 games, which is not really good enough.

[Chris Smith]

Fulham are essentially the same squad hat have served them well for a couple of seasons and they're not having to fill their midfield with promising but inexperienced kids.

I bet if you asked our supporters if they'd like to have a thirty odd year old Danny Murphy and Dickson Etuhu in our midfield most of them would say no and probably prefer our (limited) options. That may be a bit unfair on Etuhu or Murphy but it strikes me the difference in personnel is much less significant than the quality of management (not just the manager of the team) and the approach of the team.

I disagree with that completely. Bannan and co would benefit immensely from having somebody like Danny Murphy organising them. Herd hasn't looked the same player without Petrov prompting him. Central midfield is the most important part of a team and you need people who understand the game in there.

[pauliewalnuts]

Fulham are essentially the same squad hat have served them well for a couple of seasons and they're not having to fill their midfield with promising but inexperienced kids.

How long does it take for the kids to stop being inexperienced?

Albrighton and Bannan both started the fixture against Man United last season.

[Chris Smith]

Fulham are essentially the same squad hat have served them well for a couple of seasons and they're not having to fill their midfield with promising but inexperienced kids.

How long does it take for the kids to stop being inexperienced?

Albrighton and Bannan both started the fixture against Man United last season.

I don't know but neither looked like they'd got there yet on Saturday. Nor did Herd and Jenas, understandably, was still finding his feet.

[Iago]

Yeah the Villa fans who do phone in only ever seem to prove their argument correct. Apparently the fact that AM plays negative defensive football is a myth, and during training Sid/KM have them playing free flowing attacking football so its the players at fault for not doing this on matchdays.

How do they explain Birmingham City playing the same style last season? Coincidence? But in all seriousness, the media depicts fans as an angry mob and disloyal if they dare boo. These "football" people ( pundits like Mark Lawrenson) need a reality check. Would they feel aggrieved if they went out for a meal and received raw food? What is the difference? 

I do question whether or not another manager would do any better with the shite squad that we have but some ppl clearly see what we see on the pitch in a completely different light and are completely blind to the fact that AM isnt actually a very good manager.

I think it is more to do with nepotism for AM, and not particularly caring about Aston Villa because we are an unfashionable club.

[pauliewalnuts]

Fulham are essentially the same squad hat have served them well for a couple of seasons and they're not having to fill their midfield with promising but inexperienced kids.

How long does it take for the kids to stop being inexperienced?

Albrighton and Bannan both started the fixture against Man United last season.

I don't know but neither looked like they'd got there yet on Saturday. Nor did Herd and Jenas, understandably, was still finding his feet.

Nor did Alan Hutton or James Collins, though, and how many games have they got under their belts?

I also think it's true the midfield is a mess, but it's wrong to suggest that's the only problem. The defence looks dreadful, too, and seems to operate on the basis of "when it comes anywhere near you, belt it as far up field as you can".

Not to mention Warnock reverting to old habits, and Hutton getting pulled out of position every 2 minutes.

[Louzie0]

How difficult is it to play successive balls into the 'penalty area' and therefore to Bent from the wings?  Really not a sarcastic point, just a question.

We've got Gabby and Albrighton and CNZ, all of whom are masters at this, if we look at Youtube of them over the last 3-5 seasons.

Isn't the 'missing link' somewhere else?  Either the insistence of the defence to launch it into space or an absence of somebody in midfield to go, 'hey boys, keep it on the deck, we can cope.'  I've seen our players and, playing to their usual capacities, they can cope.

(And - this is where I lose a lot of you) Including Emile, when he's on, doing the forward holding-up thing, rather than the midfield or defence thing.

But - back to the missing link - who is the player who has the say?  Right now, I think it's RD and that's clearly so wrong. I'm just judging from the last few performances. We should have somebody galvanising the lads from midfield, if only to remind the defence that there is one!

I had hopes of Jenas as an organiser but he's out again, and anyway he's not 'ours'.  I'm sorry but I think Petrov is a bit past his sell by, to have that much of an impact.

How's young Gardner as an inspirational leader, and can we hang on till January?!

[Archie]

The defence looks dreadful, too, and seems to operate on the basis of "when it comes anywhere near you, belt it as far up field as you can".

Well said.
Absolutely true!

[Risso]

Fulham are essentially the same squad hat have served them well for a couple of seasons and they're not having to fill their midfield with promising but inexperienced kids.

How long does it take for the kids to stop being inexperienced?

Albrighton and Bannan both started the fixture against Man United last season.

I don't know but neither looked like they'd got there yet on Saturday. Nor did Herd and Jenas, understandably, was still finding his feet.

Nor did Alan Hutton or James Collins, though, and how many games have they got under their belts?

I also think it's true the midfield is a mess, but it's wrong to suggest that's the only problem. The defence looks dreadful, too, and seems to operate on the basis of "when it comes anywhere near you, belt it as far up field as you can".

Not to mention Warnock reverting to old habits, and Hutton getting pulled out of position every 2 minutes.

I was thinking about this early, and there really are very few of the current crop of Villa players I enjoy watching.  Gabby in top form can be an electrifying sight, and I enjoy Bannan's ability when he's playing well, but mostly they're just all horrible to watch.  The defence is dire to a man, with a couple of lumpen cloggers in Dunne and Collins lumbering around booting everything into row Z, and two very poor full backs in Warnock, and especially Hutton who is just so bad he almost defies description.  Then in midfield we have Petrov, who while still being a quality player in my opinion is hardly a player to put bums on seats.  Then there's N'Zogbia, who isn't fit to lace Ashley Young or even Stewart Downing's boots, Albrighton, who I enjoyed seeing last year but who has been rubbish this, Ireland who strolls around without a care in the world, Heskey, well, enough said, Delph who I have to say is extremely underwhelming, and Bent, who is great when he's poking home rebounds, but is anonymous the rest of the time. 

And of course the football that our dismal excuse for a manager is trying to get them to play is just dire, he isn't even good at trying to play dull, yet safe football.  What excitement there has been watching Villa has been completely lost of late.

[KRS]

Stan made one interesting point that had some merit. Said Bent is a luxury we are not presently utilising. Would probably be better off if we sold him for £25m, and spent the money on two good attacking fullbacks, or two good midfielders. Difficult to disagree, in my opinion.

That is perhaps the worst idea I've heard in a long time. There is no point risking selling Bent on the off chance that AM may buy a couple of players who may help create chances, only to find we've just sold the only player capable of putting the chances away.

Bent is not a luxury; he's one of our few players who can actually put the ball in the back of the net and help get us out of this mess. A better idea would be to make sure we keep hold of the first natural goalscorer we've had down Villa Park in years, and play to and utilise the strengths of Bent by actually creating half decent chances. If we cant create those chances with the players at fullback or in midfield then we have a huge problem.

[ROBBO]

My observation on Fulham really was to point out that Villa man for man have better players but no system. The most exited i got against United was when Dunne went on a run, i think even he was pissed off with the lack of any forward movement, we can pick on individual players but collectively the team should be playing well above the performances they are presenting us with and for that the buck stops with the manager. I cannot see AM turning this around my only worry is that Lerner will leave it too late for us to get out of the mess.

[bones.]

I turned it off in disgust after hearing them constantly claim that the only reason Villa fans want AM out is because he used to be Blues manager. I was hoping at least Stan could see the real issues rather than that cop out of an argument.

Indeed. If I hear that argument one more time I will scream and the people I'm most annoyed with are the idiot Villa fans who should know better.

This is driving me nuts at the moment especially when a Villa fan phones in and reinforces the argument, I just find myself groaning nooooooooo at the radio, as is Stans constant claim that pretty football isnt all its cracked up to be and Swansea etc... might be better off playing in the style that McLeish has made his name with, and this point is made as if this style of football is succesful. Its not for f#cks sake!! The only pundit Ive heard talk much sense about the Villa is Ian Danter and he's a nose.

[QBVILLA]

Keegan said on saturday night that it was the most inept performance by a home side since they've been covering football on ESPN.He went on to say that the fans deserve far better and that we'd take losing if we'd seen our players give it a real go.Pretty damning, but I thought he was spot on, in fact at this moment in time i'd take Keegan's kamikaze style of football over the non event which is McLeish.The fact he came from Blues really doesn't bother me.As a bloke i've always thought he came across well as a decent fella and he made all the right noises when he took the job, but against Spurs and Man Utd he raised the white flag.To get a side which consists of Albrighton,Agbonlahor,Jenas,Bannan and Bent playing negative football is quite an achievment.