Heroes & Villains, the Aston Villa fanzine
Heroes & Villains => Heroes Discussion => Topic started by: swiftyelvis on February 04, 2011, 06:58:54 PM
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I'm a Villa fan from Birmingham, who currently lives in San Francisco. I have an American friend who is a big 'soccer' fan, he follows the EPL, tracking the American players progress. He is very upset at Villa's handling of Lichaj, whohe feels was unfairly dropped after one bad game.
I'm interested in people's opinion of Lichaj, is he any good, anyone seen him play in the reserves, does he have a shot of making it, worse then Walker, etc ? It would maybe enable me to defend our club.
BTW - he thinks Bradley is going to be a superstar in the EPL.
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I think Lichaj has a decent reputation among Villa fans - he did well in the main against Gareth Bale, say - but at the moment he's being used as cover more than a first team prospect because Kyle Walker's come in and done very well. There's a healthy competition amongst our defence and Lichaj is being used in rotation so if your friend can't see that he's a decent squad player in a competitive league then I'd tell him to sod off.
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i thought he could play at left
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i thought he could play at left back , would try him there instead of clark
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personally, i have never been that impressed with lichaj.. he is a solid enough player, but he doesnt stand out for me, and hasnt ever for the reserves either...
walker is by far a superior all round footballer, and tbh, im surprised that lichaj was given a new contract... although i was also surprised that hogg and herd have too, as i dont rate them that highly either...
i think in a few years time, we may see him at either a lower end of the prem club, or somewhere in the championship...
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Don't worry too much about Eric ...........he appears to have the right temperament
to make a career for himself over here
I've watched him regularly for possibly three years now and he reminds me of an
all time favourite from the late 1960's John Gidman
Not only does the lad resemble him in stature but relishes going forward and
beating players with pace and getting a cross or shot at goal
The scouting staff of KMac & Gordon Cowans think highly of him and I'm sure he
will get another chance in the first team before too long
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personally, i have never been that impressed with lichaj.. he is a solid enough player, but he doesnt stand out for me, and hasnt ever for the reserves either...
Have you ever known a good full back to stand out? It is one of these positions where slow and steady wins the race. The only right back I remember standing out recently is Glen Johnson with his attacking intent and ability to cut inside and score and that comes at the expense of the defensive diligence and intelligence necessary to play full back. Lichaj has that at least.
After a bright start I'm starting to get a bit concerned with Walker.
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He had a super games vs Spurs & nearly drew us level, but was exposed away at Man City. Looks a great prospect for us in the years to come with the right coaching & devleopment.
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I'm a Villa fan from Birmingham, who currently lives in San Francisco. I have an American friend who is a big 'soccer' fan, he follows the EPL, tracking the American players progress. He is very upset at Villa's handling of Lichaj, whohe feels was unfairly dropped after one bad game.
I'm interested in people's opinion of Lichaj, is he any good, anyone seen him play in the reserves, does he have a shot of making it, worse then Walker, etc ? It would maybe enable me to defend our club.
BTW - he thinks Bradley is going to be a superstar in the EPL.
Yea! Another California based Villain! Swiftyelvis, can I suggest you drop an email to Rick Leong at avfc.california.com? Rick runs AVFC California which is linked officially to the Aston Villa Lions Clubs, globally. We have quite a few Villans here...a lot located in the Bay area, and a few down here in the L.A. and San Diego areas. We try to meet up on a local basis to watch televised games. The San Fran lads get together at the Kevar (?) Pub to watch, and I try to get folks together at the Olde Ship Pub in Santa Ana.
You should hook up with us...it's free to join, and we exchange email on a regular basis. We need all the Villa support we can get over here!
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Eric's very promising. I think he is second choice right back behind Walker and Beye and Luke Young will be off in the Summer.
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Still developing but has theakings of a decent full back- his time and chance will come again.
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I like Eric, he's showed great confidence and belief in the games I've seen so far. More development and experience and we'll have a good player. He just has to be patient.
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During the Peace Cup in the pre-season before the 2009-2010 season I thought Lichaj was one of the 'stand out' players. As others have said, I think the lad has a bright future with the club. He's only a youngster and is still learning his trade. But he has some excellent mentors within the club.
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Yup, he's not pulled up any trees, but give him time, would probably benefit from a loan spell at a good championship outfit. I was quite suprised not to see him loaned out after we signed Walker as Cuellar doesn't seem to be able to get a look in and only plays at RB. Seems to get sucked in to the middle more than he should, but he just needs more game time.
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If Lichaj works his bollocks off he'll be a part of this club for a good while. I think having him and Walker we have two different but potentially very good international quality players. GH has he'll rotate and Lichaj, if he's dedicated will get plenty of playing time.
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I like Eric and I hope he does well. But his position is one where your mistakes are always more obvious than the things you get right.
Look at Gary Neville (yes, I know). Made the difficult things look easy, and made flashier players look better. That's the job.
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I thought Eric had no worse a game at Citeh than anybody else. For Houllier to single him out for pilloring was very unfair.
It was significant that Marc Albrighton stood up for Lichaj against Houllier and was promptly dropped! It appears that you can't say anything against the man or you will be ostracised. And we thought O'Neill was the one with an ego!
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I think if he keeps improving he could be a good player for us but we will just have to wait and see.
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I thought Eric had no worse a game at Citeh than anybody else. For Houllier to single him out for pilloring was very unfair.
It was significant that Marc Albrighton stood up for Lichaj against Houllier and was promptly dropped! It appears that you can't say anything against the man or you will be ostracised. And we thought O'Neill was the one with an ego!
You know this for sure do you?
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I think Eric and kyle will be good players in time, walker looks great bombing forward but then gets caught out defensively, his first job is to defend then get forward when he has cover behind him.
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I like the guy and think he has a very bright future. Hopefully at Villa.
He, like Bannan, Clark and Albrighton are still young and still learning their craft. As such, they have to work that much harder than the senior players to reach the stage where it's difficult for the manager to drop/rest them.
I also suspect that Houllier will listen very carefully to Sid Cowans and I'm sure he'd much rather see Lichaj brought into the first team gradually, taking what he's learnt back to the reserves to consolidate his experience.
I kind of like that he's pissed off with being dropped. If he was happy to sit about in the reserves then I'd be worried.
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Probably a better defender than Walker but still learning. Walker's a little too cavalier for my liking.
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Have you ever known a good full back to stand out? It is one of these positions where slow and steady wins the race. The only right back I remember standing out recently is Glen Johnson with his attacking intent and ability to cut inside and score and that comes at the expense of the defensive diligence and intelligence necessary to play full back. Lichaj has that at least.
After a bright start I'm starting to get a bit concerned with Walker.
dont get me wrong, i dont think he is rubbish, but i have not seen anything in him that makes me think he will make it as a top pro....
looking at quality full backs, the best do have something about them, baines, a cole, evra, sagna, etc, all have something about them that makes them excellent...
he can do a job, but if we want to improve, we need more than that....
clark, bannon, albrighton, gardner, and delfouneso have something about them (some more than others), possibly baker and weimann too (and below that, the likes of graham and grealish even more potential), but the likes of hogg, herd, lichaj, lowry, etc, are players that i think will be seen as not good enough for us over the next few years, and end up at lower quality clubs than the villa...
and thats the way it should be...
but, thats just my personal opinion, and i could be totally wrong... time will tell...
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I thought Eric had no worse a game at Citeh than anybody else. For Houllier to single him out for pilloring was very unfair.
It was significant that Marc Albrighton stood up for Lichaj against Houllier and was promptly dropped! It appears that you can't say anything against the man or you will be ostracised. And we thought O'Neill was the one with an ego!
You know this for sure do you?
It was reported as much as any internal bustup so no I don't know this for sure as much as anything else we read but Lichaj was publically criticised by Houllier I thought unfairly and was dropped. The fact that Albrighton seems to have been relegated to the bench also adds credence to the story.