Heroes & Villains, the Aston Villa fanzine
Heroes & Villains => Match Threads & Player Ratings => Topic started by: Legion on March 04, 2011, 07:40:08 PM
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Available Saturday evening.
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So fuckin predictable.
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We got what we deserved
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Absolutely pathetic.
That way relegation lies.
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Wheater, who should have been sent off, fouls the defender to set up the winner. There is no God.
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Young is a cock, and Friedel should retire at the end of the season, he has nothing left to offer.
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A bag of shit. We didn't really play well did we?
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We are in more trouble than I thought......
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FA Cup thrown away for Real Bolton. O points. Cheers Houllier.
Can't wait for the 'difficult travel' platitudes in the interview
(http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_ok5p5uzcCaA/TOMG-DUBJII/AAAAAAAAC98/Sc3wdX783gs/s1600/work.371315.6.flat,550x550,075,f.rabbit-in-your-headlights-card.jpg)
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We got what we deserved
I disagree.
I can only think of 3 chances that Notlob had, and they scored them. We had 7/8, including a poorly taken penalty and we failed to put them away.
Overall though we were the better team of the two, and on another day we'd have won.
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Well if it's not the manager's fault then who is at fault for us throwing in the towel in the FA Cup for a game that we went on to lose.
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As pissed off as we all are, anyone watching that can clearly see there is no way we're going down. Bolton are one of the better teams in the league and we were better than them. How about we talk about our good play instead? I'm still looking up the league rather than down. There's no way we should've lost that, but, unfortunately, we did, it happens.
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Do we now hold the all time record for most points lost from a winning position? We must do, at least be close. Ally that to the fct that we haven't come from behind to win ourselves in a year and it paints an awful picture.
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Great game for a neutral!
Sadly as I non neutral I thought it licked balls. Utterly fucking infuriating!
Fair enough we only had half a defence out there this afternoon, but same old shit has been happening all season. Grinds my grears
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fuck off villa what a pile of shit. how many times do we take the lead and immediately we all think right watch us lose this
obvious points but im making them anyway
1 we cant defend corners
2 Friedel its somehow glued to his line
3 ash cant take free kicks, corners and isint great at penalties
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The reason we've had such a shit season are summed up in this game, we don't mark players on corners and we concede late goals, we've been doing it all bloody season.
The result is harsh, but when you don't do the basics that's what happens, how the management and the players can't sort out such basics remains a mystery.
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We would of won this if Cuellar and Dunne/Collins were in defence.
Thankgod my twat of a boss is off work for a week he's been ripping me since we got knocked out of the CC.
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Well if it's not the manager's fault then who is at fault for us throwing in the towel in the FA Cup for a game that we went on to lose.
Unfortunately, when he made that call in mid week, he was just asking for this to happen, and lo and behold, it has gone and happened.
Poor management to have done that in the first place, poor management to have managed to keep us so clueless at the back for so long, and although we play some nice stuff further up the field, it is absolutely fucking pointless, pointless if you throw it away as spectacularly as we do with such regularity.
We need pretty one or more of the following next season - a defensive coach, a new goalkeeper, an entire new defence, a new manager. I'm starting to think that the latter is the best option.
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Utter fucking gash.
Bent was anonymous in the second half
Downing and Albrighton worked hard. Why Albrighton was subbed for Gabby is beyond me.
Comedy defending and apalling goalkeeping.
Ashley Young couldn't score in a brothel.
Deserved to lose in the end after not putting our chances away in the first half.
Fuck this shit, i'm going to kill people on Call Of Duty.
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We played really well, missed to many chances and our inexperience at the back showed.
Young should be off pens, he is too predictable.
Cahill celebrating was a shame.
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Looked good going forward for the most part.
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Why does Friedel keep pushing his saves out into the danger zone?
I think we would have won that tbh if Collins or Dunne had been fit.
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As pissed off as we all are, anyone watching that can clearly see there is no way we're going down. Bolton are one of the better teams in the league and we were better than them. How about we talk about our good play instead? I'm still looking up the league rather than down. There's no way we should've lost that, but, unfortunately, we did, it happens.
I don't disagree with you, but the problem is if we keep dropping points like that, we will be in the shit whether we play well or not.
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So frustrating. The positives to take? We played brilliantly, but were not clinical enough.
We're awful at the back, but with new additions that should hopefully improve. We conceded 2 silly goals today.
We're not far from being a good side again, but it's so fucking frustrating.
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Despite having had what seemed like 8 really good chances to score more goals and a penalty (Wheater being the last man should've walked but didn't even get booked), we are back in the shit 3 points off relegation.
I'm struggling to get anything but pure frustration from watching us this season. It's painful, not enjoyable.
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Just not good enough. The really troubling thing is that it doesn't even hurt any more. There's just a feeling of numbness, and a dreadful inevitability about the whole thing. Desperate, desperate times.
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Missed penalty and chances blah blah blah meh.
We lost that game because we cannot defend and havent been doing so for most of the season. That is a managerial and coaching issue which is not being addressed. So sort it GH or leave. Personally I wish he would just go now. He has taken us this week to a new recent low.
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All the more annoying as we played well in parts. Defensively however, despite playing ok we're in the crap if we can't sort it out. I want to see a couple of truly boring 1-0s to us next.
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Enough chances to win 3 games. 3 defensive cock ups and we lose.
I thought we were the better team, but that is no comfort when you lose.
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thats what happens when you pish about with a team thats going well
£100 dots on them at 5/2 when we were 1 up - the only good thing about today
the nail in the coffin for us was when Randy gave Gerard 18-24 million for Bent
we are shite, we are clueless, we are going down
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We got what we deserved
That is just plain stupid, did you see the game because I did. We absolutely murdered that Bolton team on possession and chances created. A missed penalty at the crucial time in the game was the turning point. We did not "get what we deserved" because an easy victory is what we deserved based on the clear chances we created in both halves.
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Thank you Monsieur Houllier, fat lot of good it did us playing all the reserves at Man City.
After that I suggest we all go out and get pissed as farts, but no French wine or Cointreau.
We should set fire to sheep and throw them on his front lawn in protest.
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As pissed off as we all are, anyone watching that can clearly see there is no way we're going down. Bolton are one of the better teams in the league and we were better than them. How about we talk about our good play instead? I'm still looking up the league rather than down. There's no way we should've lost that, but, unfortunately, we did, it happens.
Lots of us have spoken about our good play, and for much of the season, but the plain facts are, on a great number of occasions this season, we have thrown it away, and it you carry on doing that for any length of time, you are going to find yourself perilously close to the relegation places, and that's where we are currently.
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Not being funny but we were odds on to lose i mean 12/5 maybe the games bigger than we think who knows?
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And so it begins.
Let's pray Wednesday's debacle doesn't have the effect that Moscow had on our results.
We are very fucking far from safe.
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As much as i am still fuming from Wednesday, i dont put the blame for this with the manager. We outclassed them but we had a scratch back 4 and a timid goalkeeper and missed chance after chance.
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We would of won this if Cuellar and Dunne/Collins were in defence.
How can you say that? - all three have been involved in conceded goals from corners and late goals conceded. It's more about poor training / coaching and Friedel's lack of presence in the 6-yard box.
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Bolton fuckin Wanderers. They will know they got lucky today. Gutted.
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We got what we deserved
I disagree.
I can only think of 3 chances that Notlob had, and they scored them. We had 7/8, including a poorly taken penalty and we failed to put them away.
Overall though we were the better team of the two, and on another day we'd have won.
let me know the "another day" cause im sick of saying the same thing myself that elusive another doesnt seem to happen for us
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We got what we deserved
I disagree.
I can only think of 3 chances that Notlob had, and they scored them. We had 7/8, including a poorly taken penalty and we failed to put them away.
Overall though we were the better team of the two, and on another day we'd have won.
I don't mean on the basis of the play but on our attitude in midweek.
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We really should have won, played some excellent football at times. Beaten by the season long inability to defend corners and react quick enough to the ball in tthe penalty box. If we cut out the defensive errors we will be safe in mid table come the end of the season. We really need to beat Wolves.
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How can people not blame Houllier? He is the manager, he gives the team instructions. First goal, on the stroke of half time, Cahill scores when he loses Baker.
So, at half time does he re- think this strategy? No, Cahill goes out and does the same again in the second half.
To do it once is fair enough, to do it twice is fucking criminal
Houllier and experienced coach? - You could pick a Sunday league manager to spot that one.
Bent missed how many chances, Young missed his pen with most stupid pre penalty routine ever.
Fuck off Villa and Fuck off Houllier.
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People blaming Houllier for the result today are fecking clueless or just too wrapped in their emotion to know better. We had the chances, when leading, to put the game firmly to bed. We didn't which then invites pressure on a very young and shaky defence, which to top it culminates in us missing a penalty. Stomping feet at the manager is simply futile, and the players need to take a bit of flak, Friedel as the experienced man does nothing to inspire in goal, while Young insisted on taking the pen when Bent and Reo Coker tried to dissuade him.
Might take a week or so away from the site, as the hysterics will start now about GH and be so boring.
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We got what we deserved
That is just plain stupid, did you see the game because I did. We absolutely murdered that Bolton team on possession and chances created. A missed penalty at the crucial time in the game was the turning point. We did not "get what we deserved" because an easy victory is what we deserved based on the clear chances we created in both halves.
jesus wept
this is what is wrong with us
this shite
we had loads of chances
BOLTON 3 VILLA 2
stick your fucken chances up your fucken hole
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We got what we deserved
I disagree.
I can only think of 3 chances that Notlob had, and they scored them. We had 7/8, including a poorly taken penalty and we failed to put them away.
So therefore got what we deserved. Only ourselves to blame.
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Can't quite get my head around how we played so well going forward, should have won by 4 or 5 and end up with fuck all....again. Young Downing Bent chances, any one of those and it would have been game over...Should be used to it by now I suppose.
Get Bent on pens please...Young was due a miss, he's simply not a penalty taker, just twats it, and not very well at that most of the time...
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Absolutely great game from both teams, really exciting to watch.
We were the better team on the day and were punished for not taking our chances.
I think we saw the frustrations that Spuds fans talked about in Bent today, yes he will score goals, but he's going to miss a shed load in the process!
Walker looked a proper player again, I really hope he kicks up a fuss in the summer and forces a move our way.
NRC is still showing he's worthy of a new contract, thought he and Delph worked really well.
Didn't deserve to lose, shouldn't have lost, we even had the officials on our side. Except for their goal aat the end!!
We are not one of the three worst teams in this league!
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One step forward, two steps back. You just knew we'd pay for not scoring the penalty. The season cant end soon enough.
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Thought we played really well actually. Baker lost Cahill badly for two goals and Walker needed to be a lot stronger for their third. Friedel gave his defence not much help today I felt. Some excellent performances - Reo Coker, Young, Albrighton in particular. Downing also and Bent played well while Delph improved in the second half. Petrov was a waste of a subsitution.
The complete lack of height in the team will always be exploited by other teams at set pieces. We should have scored more than two plus Wheater should have been sent off for two yellows. How did Downing miss that chance either but no points which is hard to believe given the performance where I thought we were the better side.
Friedel 4
Walker 7
Young 7
Clark 7
Baker 4
Albrighton 8
Reo Coker 8
Delph 6
Downing 7
Young 8
Bent 7
both subs were crap. Gabby looks fat and Petrov cant run. Would like to see us keep Reo Coker to be honest. Delph and himself have the makings of a good partnership. We lacked a ruthlessness today but couldnt fault the football.
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We just are not clinical enough to bury a game, and we have a really soft centre when it comes to shooting ourselves in the foot.
Defensively we have been making these mistakes all season so you cannot blame the young and inexperienced defence we had out there today.
We are playing well going forward but as for our set pieces conceded this season, it is truly abysmal and one of the key reasons we are were we are in the league.
Points lost from winning positions tells you that our concentration levels are not up to scratch, as you learn to kill games off, and at the moment we just cannot do it. Passing football is great and pleasing on the eye, but we really need to secure survival and quickly because we are now only 3 points from the relegation zone again, with blues having two games in hand. I dont think we will go down but it aint going to be a walk in the park, unless we can shut up shop at the back.
How many clean sheets have we had this season?
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We played well for large parts of the match and but for sloppy finishing we'd have been 4 or 5 up. The problem is you always know that we're liable to concede and the makeshift back 4 we had out today made it even more likely. My son said to me earlier when we were talking about the injuries that it would need to be 4-3 if we were going to win.
The other night people were saying that we had no chance of being relegated and I argued that our defensive frailties meant it was still a possibility and today underlined that. We've got enough going forward to trouble most teams but while we're such a soft touch at the back it is going to remain a worry.
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I thought we played well. No way did we deserve to lose. The defence was iffy but given their experience, on the whole played ok. 3 goals from set pieces is not good though. As an attacking force we looked very good. We should have been 3 or 4 up though.
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We got what we deserved
That is just plain stupid, did you see the game because I did. We absolutely murdered that Bolton team on possession and chances created. A missed penalty at the crucial time in the game was the turning point. We did not "get what we deserved" because an easy victory is what we deserved based on the clear chances we created in both halves.
It isn't just about creating chances, though, it is about defending, and unless you defend, you get fuck all.
Losing that match was criminal, but it was far from a rare occurrence this season. To lead twice but throw it away and end up with nothing, almost entirely due to shite defending is just pathetic.
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People blaming Houllier for the result today are fecking clueless or just too wrapped in their emotion to know better. We had the chances, when leading, to put the game firmly to bed. We didn't which then invites pressure on a very young and shaky defence, which to top it culminates in us missing a penalty. Stomping feet at the manager is simply futile, and the players need to take a bit of flak, Friedel as the experienced man does nothing to inspire in goal, while Young insisted on taking the pen when Bent and Reo Coker tried to dissuade him.
Might take a week or so away from the site, as the hysterics will start now about GH and be so boring.
I am fecking clueless.
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Sounds like I missed a corker!
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If we won today GH could have had a little satisfaction in his decision in the FA Cup (which I think was disgusting). We lost though.
I can see under Houllier we will play decent football and lose....and endless 'we are almost there/we were unlucky' press conferences. It would be nice if the captain had scored the penalty too.
We may have enough up front to trouble teams, but we aren't clinical enough. Downing and Bent missed three sitters today
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We got what we deserved
That is just plain stupid, did you see the game because I did. We absolutely murdered that Bolton team on possession and chances created. A missed penalty at the crucial time in the game was the turning point. We did not "get what we deserved" because an easy victory is what we deserved based on the clear chances we created in both halves.
jesus wept
this is what is wrong with us
this shite
we had loads of chances
BOLTON 3 VILLA 2
stick your fucken chances up your fucken hole
Yeah shit like you mate who supposedly support the club
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Gobsmacked by everything Villa at the moment.
Clusseau you really are incompetent.
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Gutless and pathetic.
We threw away the FA Cup for that.
I honestly think we'll be relegated, no team can afford to continually ship the goals that we do.
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This is how we will be relegated. Houllier unfalteringly pleased with himself for giving us attractive football, but getting done by shit teams with more bottle because we can't do the easy stuff at either end.
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Same old same old.
Once again we concede from a corner... and the usual bonus too - right before half-time!
And once again we fail in the last 10 minutes.
Why does this keep happening?
Sickening to think if we'd gone 3-1 up we'd all be happy tonight.
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very unlucky not to come away with 3 points and considering the defence we had they did well to have won the game in every respect but the scoreline.
Easy to see why Bolton are so high in the league this season with luck like that.
Still good ammunition for the knives to be sharpened and you have to admit if we can't win matches when we are so superior and should be 3-1 in front away from home, relegation might just happen.
What makes it worse is with only 1 game left in March there isn't a quick reply. 2 dismal defeats on the trot, not good.
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Brontebilly gave Young 8................OMG
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People blaming Houllier for the result today are fecking clueless or just too wrapped in their emotion to know better. We had the chances, when leading, to put the game firmly to bed. We didn't which then invites pressure on a very young and shaky defence, which to top it culminates in us missing a penalty. Stomping feet at the manager is simply futile, and the players need to take a bit of flak, Friedel as the experienced man does nothing to inspire in goal, while Young insisted on taking the pen when Bent and Reo Coker tried to dissuade him.
Might take a week or so away from the site, as the hysterics will start now about GH and be so boring.
I am fecking clueless.
Me too,fecking fecking clueless
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The other night people were saying that we had no chance of being relegated and I argued that our defensive frailties meant it was still a possibility and today underlined that. We've got enough going forward to trouble most teams but while we're such a soft touch at the back it is going to remain a worry.
That's nothing new is it Chris?
We've had a leaky defence all season, people on here have been saying for ages that it will cost us.
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Sounds like I missed a corker!
If watching us throw away 3 points floats your boat then yes you did. ????
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We got what we deserved
That is just plain stupid, did you see the game because I did. We absolutely murdered that Bolton team on possession and chances created. A missed penalty at the crucial time in the game was the turning point. We did not "get what we deserved" because an easy victory is what we deserved based on the clear chances we created in both halves.
jesus wept
this is what is wrong with us
this shite
we had loads of chances
BOLTON 3 VILLA 2
stick your fucken chances up your fucken hole
Yeah shit like you mate who supposedly support the club
yea shit like me
bottom line is Villa lost
now i hope the fact we made loads of chances but got 0 points dosent come back to haunt us
anyway what a fantastic week for my club
thank you Randy and thank you Gerard
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As pissed off as we all are, anyone watching that can clearly see there is no way we're going down. Bolton are one of the better teams in the league and we were better than them. How about we talk about our good play instead? I'm still looking up the league rather than down. There's no way we should've lost that, but, unfortunately, we did, it happens.
Not having a go at the poster, but why do people contine to peddle this shite ?
Of course we COULD go down.
By keep saying we are too good to down, is just burying your head in the sand.
When you are down amongst the deadmen bad shit happens. Things go wrong and you can continue to get sucked in.
Decisions don't go your way.
You miss sitters
You miss penalties.
And all the time, games are drifting away, time starts to run out. Then suddenly you HAVE to start winning.
This builds up the pressure on you, and all the things that go wrong get magnified 10 fold.
Thats another one of the winnable 11 gone - and we've one so far. They are running out thick and fast.
We MIGHT be too good to go down, but we have a very soft underbelly and always look vunerable.
To my eyes we are in shit street and I'm struggling to see a way out.
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Defence let us down yet again. And don't tell me we would have won with Dunne and Collins in today. They've been shite since day one.
Please let this season end so we can finally be rid of Houllier.
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Let's not be too negative about all this when there are positives. Most notable, the fact that we don't have to watch them play until the 19th March.
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Football is about results and by his own design and bad luck, this bloke is not getting them.
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Young is a cock, and Friedel should retire at the end of the season, he has nothing left to offer.
Young has one good game in 6. If he's not winning pens for throwing himself to the floor he's no use. Billy Big Bollocks. Get rid.
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People blaming Houllier for the result today are fecking clueless or just too wrapped in their emotion to know better. We had the chances, when leading, to put the game firmly to bed. We didn't which then invites pressure on a very young and shaky defence, which to top it culminates in us missing a penalty. Stomping feet at the manager is simply futile, and the players need to take a bit of flak, Friedel as the experienced man does nothing to inspire in goal, while Young insisted on taking the pen when Bent and Reo Coker tried to dissuade him.
Might take a week or so away from the site, as the hysterics will start now about GH and be so boring.
I am fecking clueless.
Me too,fecking fecking clueless
Sorry I am more fecking clueless - think of Dougal from Father Ted and you ain't even close.
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Agree about the height issue bronte.
Personallyi would'nt use Petrov again, and if we get a decent offer for Gabby and Ashley, then i would let him go.
You have to be better and stronger on the ball in the position that Ash plays.
Bentmissed a few, you get that with him, but as long as he continues to get chances, then thats ok with me, need more from the rest of theteam.
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The goalkeeping position needed addressing but we will have to wait until the summer now, our defending has been pathetic all season but again that was not sorted out.
Another game that we should have won full of ifs & buts, some good play ruined by the inability to defend,it is pointless calling for Houliiers head as he will not be sacked, still GH has now got the 2 weeks off that he wanted.
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People blaming Houllier for the result today are fecking clueless or just too wrapped in their emotion to know better. We had the chances, when leading, to put the game firmly to bed. We didn't which then invites pressure on a very young and shaky defence, which to top it culminates in us missing a penalty. Stomping feet at the manager is simply futile, and the players need to take a bit of flak, Friedel as the experienced man does nothing to inspire in goal, while Young insisted on taking the pen when Bent and Reo Coker tried to dissuade him.
Might take a week or so away from the site, as the hysterics will start now about GH and be so boring.
We've not been able to defend ALL season. Who's fault is that?
Are we trying to zonal fucking mark or some shit, but we never get close to players? If it is zonal fucking marking Houllier can piss right off. Space never scored a goal.
We've gone from having a tight defence to shipping two goals a game. With the same players
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Well there we go Moscow all over again. Yes we played well however the team selected today was under lot of pressure to deliver just as the team against Stoke post Moscow. So under pressure they panicked and allowed a donkey team to win. Who is responsible for putting our team under that sort of pressure?
It's the man who thew in the towel at Eastlands on Wednesday. Mr Houllier there was no need to do what you did.
I am gutted. We gave up the FA cup for what?
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People blaming Houllier for the result today are fecking clueless or just too wrapped in their emotion to know better. We had the chances, when leading, to put the game firmly to bed. We didn't which then invites pressure on a very young and shaky defence, which to top it culminates in us missing a penalty. Stomping feet at the manager is simply futile, and the players need to take a bit of flak, Friedel as the experienced man does nothing to inspire in goal, while Young insisted on taking the pen when Bent and Reo Coker tried to dissuade him.
Might take a week or so away from the site, as the hysterics will start now about GH and be so boring.
Delph & Albrighton where the stand out players for us - GH decides it would be good to take both off with us winning 2-1 & guess what we lose - the chant 'you don't know what your doing' was made for games like this!
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Young is a cock, and Friedel should retire at the end of the season, he has nothing left to offer.
Young has one good game in 6. If he's not winning pens for throwing himself to the floor he's no use. Billy Big Bollocks. Get rid.
Like we did Cahill you mean
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The one common denominator in the defense this season has been Friedel. He used to dominate his box - now he hardly comes off his line even when the ball is there to be claimed. He inspires no confidence in his defenders and leaves us open to the knock-down /2nd ball. He should have been replaced in the January window and must be replaced in the summer. He has almost become another Peter Schmeichel - once a keeper worth having but now well past it.
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Had Ashley buried that penalty we'd be on here now praising a fantastic win and 3 points. Instead a couple of lapses of concentration and we're not. I've seen us play a hell of a lot worse than today though and win matches, and (defensive mistakes aside) I've seen enough from our midfield/attacking play to say that we're not going to go down.
Anyway, my ratings -
Friedel - Should've done better with 2 of the goals. 5
L. Young - Don't remember seeing much of him to be honest 6
Walker - Excellent assist for the first, and played well. 7
Clark - Unlucky to be booked, played well 7
Baker - Lost Cahill for his goals and seemed to struggle 5
Reo-Coker - Broke up play well and full of energy 7 (MOTM)
Delph - Anonymous, had that been Sidwell we'd be slagging him off to high hell 5
A. Young - The sooner someone takes him off set pieces the better. Corners, Free Kicks and the Penalty were all terrible 4
Downing - Should've scored, but was a threat throughout the game 7
Albrighton - Did well with his scuffed goal and was quite threatening too 7
Bent - Scored one but should've had at least another. On another day he'd have had a hat trick 6
Petrov/Gabby - Not on long enough to have impacts
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Today was the day I believe we could of really got out the relegation propersition and have genuine hopes of finishing in the top 8. What a fine line.
Why are making things so difficult for ourselves? So fucking frustrated.
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We are without doubt in a relegation battle and with a defence that will concede goals every game it looks like it will go to the wire
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People blaming Houllier for the result today are fecking clueless or just too wrapped in their emotion to know better. We had the chances, when leading, to put the game firmly to bed. We didn't which then invites pressure on a very young and shaky defence, which to top it culminates in us missing a penalty. Stomping feet at the manager is simply futile, and the players need to take a bit of flak, Friedel as the experienced man does nothing to inspire in goal, while Young insisted on taking the pen when Bent and Reo Coker tried to dissuade him.
Might take a week or so away from the site, as the hysterics will start now about GH and be so boring.
This.
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We got what we deserved
That is just plain stupid, did you see the game because I did. We absolutely murdered that Bolton team on possession and chances created. A missed penalty at the crucial time in the game was the turning point. We did not "get what we deserved" because an easy victory is what we deserved based on the clear chances we created in both halves.
jesus wept
this is what is wrong with us
this shite
we had loads of chances
BOLTON 3 VILLA 2
stick your fucken chances up your fucken hole
Yeah shit like you mate who supposedly support the club
yea shit like me
bottom line is Villa lost
now i hope the fact we made loads of chances but got 0 points dosent come back to haunt us
anyway what a fantastic week for my club
thank you Randy and thank you Gerard
We are at the business end of the season and still in the mire. How we play and how many chances we create are irrelevant compared with the only thing that matters. Fashioning a way of playing matches where we get more goals than your opponents, or failing that getting as many. Today Houllier failed on both counts
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We actually played well today with the team that Houllier put out so despite the result he can't be the one to point the finger at here. Ok, we need to defend corners but we missed a hatfull of chances to win that game and could have done so even if we'd conceded 4 or 5.
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I honestly cannot remember being so fucking angry after a Villa game, even under the previous two managers who drove me nuts at times. My wife has just done a runner from the house to escape my raging fury. I think it's because we actually play some good stuff and have some good players, but somehow we contrive to repeat the same errors over and over again. And nothing is done about it. GH you can play all the pretty passing football you like but if you can't get your forwards to bury easy chances and can't get your defenders to perform the most basic of defensive duties then you aint going to win many games.
I've supported GH but today has taken me very close to calling for his head. If he he can't or won;t see that Ashley Young can't take a set piece to save his fucking life he needs shooting. If he can't see the defence, whoever is playing, don;t know how to mark or organise themselves then he needs his eyesight testing.
And it's the last straw for me with Ashley Young, the sooner he fucks off and we get 20 m or so for him the better. It was obvious a mile off he was going to miss that pen - Jaskelainen offered him the left side of the goal and he fell for it hook line and plonker, sleepwalked right into it. He had the chance to kill the game and put an end to any relegation fears in one fell swoop and the over rated, snood wearing, tumbling tosser blew it massively. FUCK RIGHT OFF YOU ****** and take that useless piece of shit Freidel with you..
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At the moment conceding a corner is almost like conceding a pen, guaranteed goal chance. It hasn't been rectified all season, so either GH and co are trying to work on it and the players just aren't responding or they aren't even bothered or concerned about it. Genuinely not sure which one of the two it is.
At the moment we need to score 3/4 to have any hope from winning.
But then, we can't be expected to beat a team above us, that's the new mindset. isn't it?
Fine (though that type of defeatism will hopefully depart when GH does). I'll play ball until the end of the season. If it means maximum points against all the sides below us - or who spend less than us. Only fair, right?
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Delph - Anonymous, had that been Sidwell we'd be slagging him off to high hell 5
Look again at our second goal - great pass from Delph to start the move!
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It is a brave and admirable stance to defend the manager, but having sacrificed the FA Cup for a league game and then lost (however unfortunate) the bloke looks like a pratt.
What a shame for man so dignified and respectful, but the mirror of GT Mk2 screams from every angle.
He and his assistant never moved on Wednesday but never sat down today, but the result was the same and I fear that the result of his reign will echo around Aston Villa for years to come, and not in a good way.
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Mac, all, don't suddenly pretend the defence issue is new. I agree, and said we should get, a defence coach or consultant months ago, even as far as Phil Thompson 3 days a week to help out, BUT before GH came were shipping goals and looked poor at the back starting from Christmas 09-10. It is a long term issue, and one we need to combat badly. Coaching is the key, but taking your chances helps out the defence. We score to make it 3-1 it changes the psychology of the game. I just think there is more too it than coaching, the trust has to be there when they go out to play. A kid lost his man twice today. I don't think Collins would have twice. Someone questioned what GH said to Baker - I am sure as our tallest defender it was don't lose him again, short of holding their hands what more is there.
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Maybe we wanna be pointing the finger at Young, Bent and Downing for missing howlers before pointing it at Houllier. Quite how that is his fault is beyond me... we just don't take advantage and close it out, never have done for years now.
Keeper and two centre backs are gonna be a must...
Wolves Wigan Blackburn Stripeyfilth Blose Blackpool will all finish below us...but it's fucking twitchy
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He'll be moaning about the lack of Dunne, Collins and Cuellar, but the defensive errors were schoolboyish.
How many times do we concede in the last 5 minutes ?
Crap, utter crap - Bolton are, I have to say, a wanky club mind you - their Manager deserves better.
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At the moment conceding a corner is almost like conceding a pen, guaranteed goal chance.
That's what I was thinking earlier today.
The fact we never seem to learn from it is just unacceptable.
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I never want to talk or hear about what happened last season ever again!
This season is really frustrating it went from one extreme to another, nothing ever seems to go our way. It's all very predictable i'm not a neutral i don't care if we played well.
2 wins away from home all season, 35 goals conceded is 'that' sort of form it really is worrying. Mainly because we have to score a shit load of goal just to draw/win.
How do you make players more clinical when half of em aren't capable. Remember reo's shocking miss against chelski i can't forget!
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People blaming Houllier for the result today are fecking clueless or just too wrapped in their emotion to know better. We had the chances, when leading, to put the game firmly to bed. We didn't which then invites pressure on a very young and shaky defence, which to top it culminates in us missing a penalty. Stomping feet at the manager is simply futile, and the players need to take a bit of flak, Friedel as the experienced man does nothing to inspire in goal, while Young insisted on taking the pen when Bent and Reo Coker tried to dissuade him.
Might take a week or so away from the site, as the hysterics will start now about GH and be so boring.
I am fecking clueless.
Me too,fecking fecking clueless
Sorry I am more fecking clueless - think of Dougal from Father Ted and you ain't even close.
Agreed.
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Today was so predictable that I actually laughed when Bolton got their third. I don't remember ever being so angry that I actually laughed before. Words cannot describe how thoroughly fucked off I am.
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We got what we deserved
That is just plain stupid, did you see the game because I did. We absolutely murdered that Bolton team on possession and chances created. A missed penalty at the crucial time in the game was the turning point. We did not "get what we deserved" because an easy victory is what we deserved based on the clear chances we created in both halves.
jesus wept
this is what is wrong with us
this shite
we had loads of chances
BOLTON 3 VILLA 2
stick your fucken chances up your fucken hole
Yeah shit like you mate who supposedly support the club
yea shit like me
bottom line is Villa lost
now i hope the fact we made loads of chances but got 0 points dosent come back to haunt us
anyway what a fantastic week for my club
thank you Randy and thank you Gerard
We are at the business end of the season and still in the mire. How we play and how many chances we create are irrelevant compared with the only thing that matters. Fashioning a way of playing matches where we get more goals than your opponents, or failing that getting as many. Today Houllier failed on both counts
andy you basically summed up what i was trying to say
im sorry for the language in mine
but at times this club gets on my tits
surrendering the FA cup match on Wednesday for what
absolutley nothing
i have a feeling, we are the BIG club to go down this year
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There are so many positives about the way we played today, but some recurring, underlying negatives that mean yet again the game was a wasted opportunity. The most significant underlying negatives seem to be defending set pieces, and taking set pieces. Several less talented teams than Villa have built their whole game-plan on a rigorous approach to these. Today I think that you can blame the defending on the dearth of personnel available. However, the taking is more of a problem, as pretty much every corner, free-kick, as well as the penalty, was wasted by our first choice takers. Why is almost every corner floated beyond the far post without pace - how many goals are scored from these kind of corners?
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Just not good enough. The really troubling thing is that it doesn't even hurt any more. There's just a feeling of numbness, and a dreadful inevitability about the whole thing. Desperate, desperate times.
This.
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Same old story , 21 points dropped from leading positions now, another 2 goals from corners and again a chance to kill a team off and a missed pen and bang we lose .
Five yrs ago randy came and we began to dream of great days, 5 yrs later we have won nothing, are in a relegation battle , have a manager who has split the fans, have lost our best players , and have record debts.
Bright future?
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Maybe we wanna be pointing the finger at Young, Bent and Downing for missing howlers before pointing it at Houllier. Quite how that is his fault is beyond me... we just don't take advantage and close it out, never have done for years now.
The point is, if we had even half a clue how to defend properly, those missed chances wouldn't matter at all right now.
We play some more than decent stuff up front, but we now genuinely need to score at least three goals to be in with a chance of winning.
Today was just the best illustration of that you will ever see, and comes with the added bonus of us having given up in the FA Cup a few days ago to further our chances of winning.
It's not his fault we missed those chances, not directly, that much is true, but the fact our defence is so shit, and has been so shit all season, is ultimately his responsibility. Throw in events of earlier this week, plus the comments re Manchester City, and it smacks of rank bad management - of the club, not just the team.
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He'll be moaning about the lack of Dunne, Collins and Cuellar, but the defensive errors were schoolboyish.
In fairness the only centre backs we could put out today were nearly young enough to be actual schoolboys.
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I'm fecking clueless as well.
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People blaming Houllier for the result today are fecking clueless or just too wrapped in their emotion to know better. We had the chances, when leading, to put the game firmly to bed. We didn't which then invites pressure on a very young and shaky defence, which to top it culminates in us missing a penalty. Stomping feet at the manager is simply futile, and the players need to take a bit of flak, Friedel as the experienced man does nothing to inspire in goal, while Young insisted on taking the pen when Bent and Reo Coker tried to dissuade him.
Might take a week or so away from the site, as the hysterics will start now about GH and be so boring.
I am fecking clueless.
Me too,fecking fecking clueless
Sorry I am more fecking clueless - think of Dougal from Father Ted and you ain't even close.
Agreed.
Well I'm glad we agree on something.
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Houllier got it spot on today!
Ash Downing and Bent all missed sitters.
They let us down today not Houllier.
We had a very inexperienced defence that were under pressure because we kept missing easy chances.
Friedel NEVER comes for crosses or corners. Most goalkeepers will come for around 50% of crosses, this just adds more pressure to a defence.
People need to wake up and get over them selfs with all this anti houllier shit.
He turned Liverpool into a challenging team regulary in the CL, he has vastly improved us in a short time so let's give him a chance and we might have some success.
I'm certain our defence will be totally different next season.
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People blaming Houllier for the result today are fecking clueless or just too wrapped in their emotion to know better. We had the chances, when leading, to put the game firmly to bed. We didn't which then invites pressure on a very young and shaky defence, which to top it culminates in us missing a penalty. Stomping feet at the manager is simply futile, and the players need to take a bit of flak, Friedel as the experienced man does nothing to inspire in goal, while Young insisted on taking the pen when Bent and Reo Coker tried to dissuade him.
Might take a week or so away from the site, as the hysterics will start now about GH and be so boring.
ozzjim everything you mentioned ( highlighted ) IS Houlliers fault. Pressure on the team was there since Wednesday's selection. Young insisting on taking pens well Manager should sort that out before the game. Friedel not up to it well who selected him?
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Albrighton's goal was class, like. Lovely back heel from Delph, great run and cross from Downing and Marc hit the target. Yeah!
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There is just no point playing great for most of the match if you can't defend in the most vital moments of the match towards the end.
Yet again we un-do all the good work in the last 10-15 minutes. That's where games are either won, lost or drawn for us. It's like it every time.
I'm just annoyed. Not pointing fingers at anyone, not playing the blame game, just in general and wholly pissed off at everything. Missing a penalty, conceding from corners, conceding on the stroke of half-time and concedeing in the last few minutes yet again. When will we learn.
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Christ almighty, the players are not blameless, far from it. But the buck has to stop with the manager.
We played some great stuff, the likes of which we could've done on Wednesday but the manager chose a different path and is has, over the last few days, payed the price and with today will have even more pressure heaped upon him.
Look nowhere else, because despite the misgivings of so many of our well payed players, the manager is in charge and he is not doing a good job.
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We've got 5 home games to get about 5-6 points I reckon (all aways being losses as we have the 19th worst defence on the road), so the dogheads and wigan games really are important. Depressing.
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The ghost of Martin ONiell continues to haunt us. Injured players, missed chances,missed penalty, comical defending,poor goal keeping,players we have spent millions on no where near the team. How can fans want this weak french buffoon to continue at the helm. Get rid now and we have 2 weeks preperation time with a new man in charge.
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Shades of Stoke, two years ago (near enough to the very day). A game we had the best of and had the perfect chance of sewing up but threw it away. Surprised no one's mentioned that Klasnic was offside before he scored the winner. Having said that the ball was clearly gone for a throw-in for the move that led to the penalty. Young's arced run-up and noncholant kick finally cost him and us today.
Very worrying that even when playing really well, like we did today, we end up losing. Can't really blame the young lads at the back today, they are inexperienced. Friedel deserves to be dropped after that though. Fear or inability to stray from his line and inspire confidence cost us big time today, not for the first time.
I honestly don't know what to expect from the Wolves game other than that we will concede at least once, most likely to that body-builder black defender from a set-piece.
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Young is a cock, and Friedel should retire at the end of the season, he has nothing left to offer.
Young has one good game in 6. If he's not winning pens for throwing himself to the floor he's no use. Billy Big Bollocks. Get rid.
Like we did Cahill you mean
Well if you think we should persist with a player who has one good game in 6, is living off a reputation built 3 seasons ago but is clearly much better than shows, then I'll bow to your superior knowledge Malcolm. I'll just remember when I see another corner/free kick going nowhere near the he's such a great player.
PS I wouldn't have sold Cahill and said so at the time
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If Houllier was resting players against Man City - a game that we couldn't win, by his own admission - then why didn't he rest Dunne - our only fit senior central defender? Instead, he risked him in a game we were certain to lose - as Houllier himself confirmed - and he got injured. So we played kids at the back in the next match, because we had no choice, and we got beat. True, we had the chances to win this game and threw them all away, one by one. But the defence just couldn't hack it. I do blame the players, but the manager has to shoulder the blame too. It's his set-up, and we've been unable to defend for the duration of his time here. When's it going to change?
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Houllier got it spot on today!
Ash Downing and Bent all missed sitters.
They let us down today not Houllier.
We had a very inexperienced defence that were under pressure because we kept missing easy chances.
Friedel NEVER comes for crosses or corners. Most goalkeepers will come for around 50% of crosses, this just adds more pressure to a defence.
People need to wake up and get over them selfs with all this anti houllier shit.
He turned Liverpool into a challenging team regulary in the CL, he has vastly improved us in a short time so let's give him a chance and we might have some success.
I'm certain our defence will be totally different next season.
But we might be in The Championship.
It remains to be seen the effect Wednesday's decisions will have on the rest of the season, but we ain't got long to find out.
Houllier can't be trusted. He's proven that much.
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Albrighton's goal was class, like. Lovely back heel from Delph, great run and cross from Downing and Marc hit the target. Yeah!
And our manager took both Delph & Albrighton - totally baffled!
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People need to wake up and get over them selfs with all this anti houllier shit.
He turned Liverpool into a challenging team regulary in the CL, he has vastly improved us in a short time so let's give him a chance and we might have some success.
WIth all due respect, it's nonsensical to just put it down to "anti Houllier" shit.
It's not "love him or hate him" - a lot of us can see the good work he is doing in other areas of the pitch, and are happy to acknowledge it, but you can not just ignore the frailities which persist, especially as we get more results like today, and persist in lingering a tiny number of points off the relegation spots.
As for "vastly improved us" - obviously not that much, or we wouldn't be where we are right now.
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Houllier got it spot on today!
Ash Downing and Bent all missed sitters.
They let us down today not Houllier.
We had a very inexperienced defence that were under pressure because we kept missing easy chances.
Friedel NEVER comes for crosses or corners. Most goalkeepers will come for around 50% of crosses, this just adds more pressure to a defence.
People need to wake up and get over them selfs with all this anti houllier shit.
He turned Liverpool into a challenging team regulary in the CL, he has vastly improved us in a short time so let's give him a chance and we might have some success.
I'm certain our defence will be totally different next season.
Total bollox. Warnock and Beye should have been used today.
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For Heavens sake, no matter what you coach if you are chopping and changing players around in the defence they just are not going to be able to play as a unit, they just are not. Add in the players he had there, Young has hardly played all season, it was his first game in a while, Clarke has been left back, cb,left back and today represented our most experienced cb, and it was Bakers 2nd game. His second game and that after a recent injury.
I appreciate its your desire to get Houllier the sack so we can go into the final run in still looking for a manager, but please try and use a little common sense.
What is more relevant was the miss by Downing, the several misses by Bent and that atrocious penalty miss by Young to say nothing of his delivery from free kicks, most of which he wasted. We were the better side and a makeshift defence was done by some poor marking but our much vaunted and expensive forwards were equally reason we didn't win.
Houllier is an easy target and not my idea of who should be managing Villa, but when we have a defence like that, which was poorer than the one at Man City which caused so much offal to be said and written, then defeat should be no surprise.
Yet it is.
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GHou going mental in his interview apparently:
1717: Gerard Houllier is doing his post-match interviews, and it's fair to say the Frenchman is absolutely livid about Aston Villa losing today's game at Bolton. What a week it's been for the Midlands club. What a week's it's been for the Midlands. Unbelievable.
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Same old story , 21 points dropped from leading positions now, another 2 goals from corners and again a chance to kill a team off and a missed pen and bang we lose .
Five yrs ago randy came and we began to dream of great days, 5 yrs later we have won nothing, are in a relegation battle , have a manager who has split the fans, have lost our best players , and have record debts.
Bright future?
We also have a fantastic training ground, a wonderful youth academy and have finished in the top 6 3 times. Add to that the fact that we have come a lot closer to silverware since Lerner arrived than the 5 years before, smashed our transfer record to buy an international striker and have some of the most promising youngsters in the country.
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Its March..............IT IS March, isn't it ?
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It amazes me that some posters here seem to think that Houllier has been here long enough to be praised for the way we try and play football now, and it's all down to him how well we pass the ball at times. But apparently, it's not his fault we can't kill games off or manage basic levels of defending.
As far as i'm concerned, he's manager, he's responsible for what happens on the pitch week after week. Good AND bad.
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Every other week we either conceed a late goal, wether it be at the end of the first half or second, conceed from a corner, throw the lead away minutes after we've scored or conceed from a long ball, were so unprofessional its ridiculous, Bolton did'nt win that game, we lost it..... Again
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I dont care who you blame for todays defeat but Houlliers post match interview was embarassing!
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Albrighton's goal was class, like. Lovely back heel from Delph, great run and cross from Downing and Marc hit the target. Yeah!
And our manager took both Delph & Albrighton - totally baffled!
Albrighton must have been tired. He played last Saturday and has to play again on March 19th. Now we don't want him to burn out do we! :'(
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Albrighton's goal was class, like. Lovely back heel from Delph, great run and cross from Downing and Marc hit the target. Yeah!
And our manager took both Delph & Albrighton - totally baffled!
I was baffled by that too.
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The worst thing is we've now got to dwell on the last two debacles for two weeks
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Don't know why anyone is surprised by today - look at the date! we never win in March and we always struggle at Bolton, add the patched up defence and this was a home banker.
By all accounts sounds like we played well and created chances so on another day we'd have won. If there was one good thing to come out of today its that hopefully our owner and manager took note of Gary Cahills name and will be offloading the next 20million on a decent defender who should never have been allowed to leave Villa Park in the first place. Gary Cahill and Ciaran Clark is the bright future Randy.
Whilst I'm utterly fucked off with what happened in the FA Cup our first team is not that bad we're not going down.
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Said it before and I'll say it again, but there's too many on here resorting to personal abuse towards players and the manager. We can all be angry about losing when we should have won - we were absolutely robbed today and played some sparkling football throughout the game. I watched the whole game and we threw it away with some sloppy defending, but some of the stuff we played in attack, we should have been out of sight. Some of the reaction is completely out of order.
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If Houllier was resting players against Man City - a game that we couldn't win, by his own admission - then why didn't he rest Dunne - our only fit senior central defender? Instead, he risked him in a game we were certain to lose - as Houllier himself confirmed - and he got injured. So we played kids at the back in the next match, because we had no choice, and we got beat. True, we had the chances to win this game and threw them all away, one by one. But the defence just couldn't hack it. I do blame the players, but the manager has to shoulder the blame too. It's his set-up, and we've been unable to defend for the duration of his time here. When's it going to change?
Well said Jimbo and why hasnt he got a defensive coach ????
Also why does he let Ashley Young do what he wants, play where he wants and take all the set pieces
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Typical Villa conceding at the end of each half! I've lost count of how many times that's happened. Rubs salt in the wounds when Gary Cahill gets two goals.
I have a bad feeling about this season: MON leaving us in the mire from the word go, loads of injuries at vital stages of the season, conceding late goals all the time. The pattern continues and it could yet see us relegated. Collins and Cuellar have to play against Wolves - both should be ready. I would pair Gabby with Bent with Ash and Downing on the wings
I would go:
Friedel
Walker
Clark
Cuellar
Collins
NRC
Makoun
Downing
Bent
A Young
Agbonlahor
Do you agree?
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I've spent the last few months defending mr houllier on here but I'm afraid he's made his bed and has to carry the can - friedal has been poor most of the season and I fear now we are in a real battle- whether mr h is the man to inspire his team I have major doubts- dreadful days indeed.
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Same old story , 21 points dropped from leading positions now, another 2 goals from corners and again a chance to kill a team off and a missed pen and bang we lose .
Five yrs ago randy came and we began to dream of great days, 5 yrs later we have won nothing, are in a relegation battle , have a manager who has split the fans, have lost our best players , and have record debts.
Bright future?
We also have a fantastic training ground, a wonderful youth academy and have finished in the top 6 3 times. Add to that the fact that we have come a lot closer to silverware since Lerner arrived than the 5 years before, smashed our transfer record to buy an international striker and have some of the most promising youngsters in the country.
That's what makes it all the more frustating.
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Houllier got it spot on today!
Ash Downing and Bent all missed sitters.
They let us down today not Houllier.
We had a very inexperienced defence that were under pressure because we kept missing easy chances.
Friedel NEVER comes for crosses or corners. Most goalkeepers will come for around 50% of crosses, this just adds more pressure to a defence.
People need to wake up and get over them selfs with all this anti houllier shit.
He turned Liverpool into a challenging team regulary in the CL, he has vastly improved us in a short time so let's give him a chance and we might have some success.
I'm certain our defence will be totally different next season.
But we might be in The Championship.
It remains to be seen the effect Wednesday's decisions will have on the rest of the season, but we ain't got long to find out.
Houllier can't be trusted. He's proven that much.
Ow right, so your not happy with Makoun, Walker and Bent?
Your angry Sidwell, Carew and Ireland aren't still here.
Yeah yeah he can't be trusted he is shit.
You just only see what you want to and drive the man out the club, we were so much better under Oneil... If we continue to progress at the rate we are the future is bright.
He isn't a magician, he can't make Friedel younger, he can't put the sitters away and he can only work with what he has.
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Brontebilly gave Young 8................OMG
Thought Young was excellent today. He missed a penalty. Big deal he has scored the last four or five. Even Lampard and Rooney miss the odd one. His set pieces were a mixed bag - one an absolutely awful rugby kick but there was also an excellent one in the first half. But his general play was excellent, held the ball up really well and won a consistent amount of free kicks and the penalty. Thought he showed for the ball really well today and passed it well too. Remember more than a few cracking through balls he put in. Had a great shot after the bad Bent miss too swivelled quickly and got the shot on target with his left.
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and we always struggle at Bolton
Do we? I don't think so.
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Typical Villa conceding at the end of each half! I've lost count of how many times that's happened. Rubs salt in the wounds when Gary Cahill gets two goals.
I have a bad feeling about this season: MON leaving us in the mire from the word go, loads of injuries at vital stages of the season, conceding late goals all the time. The pattern continues and it could yet see us relegated. Collins and Cuellar have to play against Wolves - both should be ready. I would pair Gabby with Bent with Ash and Downing on the wings
I would go:
Friedel
Walker
Clark
Cuellar
Collins
NRC
Makoun
Downing
Bent
A Young
Agbonlahor
Do you agree?
Clark is suspended.
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People need to wake up and get over them selfs with all this anti houllier shit.
He turned Liverpool into a challenging team regulary in the CL, he has vastly improved us in a short time so let's give him a chance and we might have some success.
WIth all due respect, it's nonsensical to just put it down to "anti Houllier" shit.
It's not "love him or hate him" - a lot of us can see the good work he is doing in other areas of the pitch, and are happy to acknowledge it, but you can not just ignore the frailities which persist, especially as we get more results like today, and persist in lingering a tiny number of points off the relegation spots.
As for "vastly improved us" - obviously not that much, or we wouldn't be where we are right now.
So the injuries that led to that defensive line up are all his fault. The lack of cover in defence able to fill in his all his fault. The need to play kids, because there's no one else is all his fault.
I despair.
The need to blame Houllier is so important for some they can't see the obvious. Just look at that defence.
Walker, Young, Clarke, Baker.
How many Villa fans would have put that as the best we could offer come 5 days before kickoff.
Would you have Pauli ?
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There is just no point playing great for most of the match if you can't defend in the most vital moments of the match towards the end.
Yet again we un-do all the good work in the last 10-15 minutes. That's where games are either won, lost or drawn for us. It's like it every time.
I'm just annoyed. Not pointing fingers at anyone, not playing the blame game, just in general and wholly pissed off at everything. Missing a penalty, conceding from corners, conceding on the stroke of half-time and concedeing in the last few minutes yet again. When will we learn.
That' the most infuriating thing - our problems are mostly self-inflicted. We're actually a decent footballing side, close to being very good at times, we play some great stuff, we set up chances and we shoot ourselves in the foot by missing most of them. We then shoot ourselves in the other foot by defending like giggling schoolgirls. And we never seem to learn from our mistakes, so they just keep repeating ad fucking nauseum.
To those saying we can't blame GH, it's the players' fault, if that were the case no manager would ever get sacked, even for getting relegated. He's the boss, the buck stops with him, it goes with the territory.
I just want this season over and done with now and for us to survive it.
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and we have to get rid of players because of the debt
the results today coudnt have gone any worse for us
just need Wigan to get a result v Man City tonight (although that shouldnt happen after our confidence booster)
we are going down, make no mistake - the only worse team i see apart from us is Wigan
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He isn't a magician, he can't make Friedel younger, he can't put the sitters away and he can only work with what he has.
Yep, so what's he been working on with the defence?
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If Houllier was resting players against Man City - a game that we couldn't win, by his own admission - then why didn't he rest Dunne - our only fit senior central defender? Instead, he risked him in a game we were certain to lose - as Houllier himself confirmed - and he got injured. So we played kids at the back in the next match, because we had no choice, and we got beat. True, we had the chances to win this game and threw them all away, one by one. But the defence just couldn't hack it. I do blame the players, but the manager has to shoulder the blame too. It's his set-up, and we've been unable to defend for the duration of his time here. When's it going to change?
Well said Jimbo and why hasnt he got a defensive coach ????
Also why does he let Ashley Young do what he wants, play where he wants and take all the set pieces
Personally Im gettin more and more naffed off with Ashley Young. Yes let him do what he wants...........and go to spurz.
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Houllier got it spot on today!
Ash Downing and Bent all missed sitters.
They let us down today not Houllier.
We had a very inexperienced defence that were under pressure because we kept missing easy chances.
Friedel NEVER comes for crosses or corners. Most goalkeepers will come for around 50% of crosses, this just adds more pressure to a defence.
People need to wake up and get over them selfs with all this anti houllier shit.
He turned Liverpool into a challenging team regulary in the CL, he has vastly improved us in a short time so let's give him a chance and we might have some success.
I'm certain our defence will be totally different next season.
Improved us ?? Houllier got it spot on today!
Ash Downing and Bent all missed sitters.
They let us down today not Houllier.
We had a very inexperienced defence that were under pressure because we kept missing easy chances.
Friedel NEVER comes for crosses or corners. Most goalkeepers will come for around 50% of crosses, this just adds more pressure to a defence.
People need to wake up and get over them selfs with all this anti houllier shit.
He turned Liverpool into a challenging team regulary in the CL, he has vastly improved us in a short time so let's give him a chance and we might have some success.
I'm certain our defence will be totally different next season.
Mate we're 3 points of a relegation place after 29 games cant keep a clean sheet for toffee , how has he improved us ?.
take your head out the sand
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Same old story , 21 points dropped from leading positions now, another 2 goals from corners and again a chance to kill a team off and a missed pen and bang we lose .
Five yrs ago randy came and we began to dream of great days, 5 yrs later we have won nothing, are in a relegation battle , have a manager who has split the fans, have lost our best players , and have record debts.
Bright future?
We also have a fantastic training ground, a wonderful youth academy and have finished in the top 6 3 times. Add to that the fact that we have come a lot closer to silverware since Lerner arrived than the 5 years before, smashed our transfer record to buy an international striker and have some of the most promising youngsters in the country and you get a more balanced view.
We would have a fantastic training ground anyway. It was being built.
We have always had a wonderful academy
What has finishing 6th won us
Close to silverware ? Well, close but no banana.
Samshed our transfer record, but also sold players for more money than ever before.
Promising youngsters ? yes we do. But so does most clubs.
I'm not saying that I don't welcome RL and his involvement.
But, it seems to me that where it matters, on the playing side, we are no further foward than on day 1 of his tenure.
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I expected to lose, but just not in this manner. Throwing it away. Biting ourselves on the arse. Where's the bloke-shoving-a-sharpened-ship's-mast-up-his-own-ragged-anus emoticon?
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People need to wake up and get over them selfs with all this anti houllier shit.
He turned Liverpool into a challenging team regulary in the CL, he has vastly improved us in a short time so let's give him a chance and we might have some success.
He's vastly improved us!?
There's a pretty good, impartial measurment of how good, relative to one another, football teams are. It's called the league table, and I'm sorry to say that it kind of proves you wrong.
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our away record is shocking, and so is our defence, if this doesn't get resolved we'll be having a lot more days like today.
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Young is a cock, and Friedel should retire at the end of the season, he has nothing left to offer.
Young has one good game in 6. If he's not winning pens for throwing himself to the floor he's no use. Billy Big Bollocks. Get rid.
Like we did Cahill you mean
Well if you think we should persist with a player who has one good game in 6, is living off a reputation built 3 seasons ago but is clearly much better than shows, then I'll bow to your superior knowledge Malcolm. I'll just remember when I see another corner/free kick going nowhere near the he's such a great player.
PS I wouldn't have sold Cahill and said so at the time
lol
Didn't see anyone complaining last week.
The vitriol towards Ash on here is amusing.
Yea, the penalty miss was the key point in why we lost I feel... but if we'd been able to show some spine in the last 10 minutes it'd gone the other way.
Poor defending and not taking chances is why we lost today.
Oh well. It's been a horrific week of football. We need to move on and look ahead to winnning our next important game. Atleast we'll have Makoun and a better defence next week.
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and we always struggle at Bolton
Do we? I don't think so.
Did we struggle today then?
Thought we walked it apart from them scoring 3 inane goals and we missing 5 golden chances.
Perhaps I'm an optimist
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People need to wake up and get over them selfs with all this anti houllier shit.
He turned Liverpool into a challenging team regulary in the CL, he has vastly improved us in a short time so let's give him a chance and we might have some success.
WIth all due respect, it's nonsensical to just put it down to "anti Houllier" shit.
It's not "love him or hate him" - a lot of us can see the good work he is doing in other areas of the pitch, and are happy to acknowledge it, but you can not just ignore the frailities which persist, especially as we get more results like today, and persist in lingering a tiny number of points off the relegation spots.
As for "vastly improved us" - obviously not that much, or we wouldn't be where we are right now.
So the injuries that led to that defensive line up are all his fault. The lack of cover in defence able to fill in his all his fault. The need to play kids, because there's no one else is all his fault.
I despair.
The need to blame Houllier is so important for some they can't see the obvious. Just look at that defence.
Walker, Young, Clarke, Baker.
How many Villa fans would have put that as the best we could offer come 5 days before kickoff.
Would you have Pauli ?
You seem to have missed the entire season up until this point, for the entirety of which we've been shit at the back.
We've kept FIVE clean sheets all season.
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On the way back now...
Arghhhhhhhhh! We must be the most frustrating team in the whole fucking league.
Goals conceded from corners? Check
Goal conceded in injury time first half? Check
Goal conceded late on in the 2nd half? Check
If i were an opposition manager against us i wouldn't bother trying to score from open play, i'd just tell my team to play for corners. Cross it in, and bingo 9 times out of 10 you'll score against us. Friedel is too old and is past it, simple as that. The defence can't mark anyone unless they're stood still and we don't put anyone on the posts. It would be annoying if it happened once or twice but it's almost every bloody game.
2 away wins all season at the mighty wolves and wigan and 0 clean sheets, we're missing easy chances and we can't defend, add all those together and we're in big trouble.
Ashley Young, fuck him off in the summer please. I've never been so frustrated by a player in my life, he can't take corners yet he takes them all, he can't take free kicks yet he takes them all, his penalties are usually shit even though he's scored a few yet he takes them all. WHY? Someone tell him he's shit and to stop taking everything. I honestly can't stand him.
I had to laugh when we brought Petrov and Agbonlahor on, neither of them would be anywhere near my squad. They're both shite.
It comes to something when our best player is a loanee who will be going back to Spurs at the end of the season.
As for the table, 3 points above Blues who have 2 games in hand, and Albion and West Ham playing well. Wolves is a massive game, lose that and it's squeaky bum time. I can't believe people are looking at teams above us, theres only one way we should be looking trust me and the only way we'll stay up is by being slightly less shit than the 3 who go down. And i've always said if we aren't safe before our last 3 games then i'll be worried, Wigan at home who never beat, Arsenal away and Liverpool at home, both of which we'll lose. If you aren't worried then you should be.
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How big is the game next week vs the dogheads? Fuck me. This isn't how I thought the last 7 days would pan out.
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Every other week we either conceed a late goal, wether it be at the end of the first half or second, conceed from a corner, throw the lead away minutes after we've scored or conceed from a long ball, were so unprofessional its ridiculous, Bolton did'nt win that game, we lost it..... Again
We lost this game because the team was under mental pressure after Wednesday...simple.
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Houllier got it spot on today!
Ash Downing and Bent all missed sitters.
They let us down today not Houllier.
We had a very inexperienced defence that were under pressure because we kept missing easy chances.
Friedel NEVER comes for crosses or corners. Most goalkeepers will come for around 50% of crosses, this just adds more pressure to a defence.
People need to wake up and get over them selfs with all this anti houllier shit.
He turned Liverpool into a challenging team regulary in the CL, he has vastly improved us in a short time so let's give him a chance and we might have some success.
I'm certain our defence will be totally different next season.
But we might be in The Championship.
It remains to be seen the effect Wednesday's decisions will have on the rest of the season, but we ain't got long to find out.
Houllier can't be trusted. He's proven that much.
Ow right, so your not happy with Makoun, Walker and Bent?
Your angry Sidwell, Carew and Ireland aren't still here.
Yeah yeah he can't be trusted he is shit.
You just only see what you want to and drive the man out the club, we were so much better under Oneil... If we continue to progress at the rate we are the future is bright.
He isn't a magician, he can't make Friedel younger, he can't put the sitters away and he can only work with what he has.
Given what you've surmised from my post, it's quite clear that it is you who sees want you want to see.
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So we depend on all the others failing to win and we'll be OK...plus ca change
Being out of the Cup hurts more. Those in charge don't have a clue how much!
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Albrighton's goal was class, like. Lovely back heel from Delph, great run and cross from Downing and Marc hit the target. Yeah!
And our manager took both Delph & Albrighton - totally baffled!
Delph looked tired imo and experienced legs were called for. Petrov hardly got a kick when he came on though.
Definitely wouldnt have taken off Albrighton. It would have been Downing who seemed wrecked with Gabby to go up top not on the wing where he is shit. He has far too much weight on him anyway.
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'Ladies and Gentlemen, boys and girls, animals of all species and Gary McCallister! Will you please welcome Sarah Brightman to the stage. This goes out to, everyones favourite French man...'
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How big is the game next week vs the dogheads? Fuck me. This isn't how I thought the last 7 days would pan out.
It's the week after next.
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I thought we played very well, inability to convert our chances excepted. I'm afraid it is difficult to defend set pieces against Bolton at the best of times; having such an inexperienced and lightweight back four and geriatric goalkeeper that have never played together doesn't help.
I'm still thoroughly pissed off about Wednesday, but we did as well as could be expected today. It will exacerbate the criticism on Gerard for the FA Cup surrender regardless. Let's just fucking stay up and get to the end of this horrible, horrible season. The next one can't come fast enough.
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Our propensity to concede goals from corners is not bad play from the defenders as such. It's a tactical issue. The way Houllier sets us up is to string players along the six yard line with a few of other players man marking. The theory is that most corners are cleared from the edge of the 6 yard box. The problem comes when it isn't. Opponents who slip their marker have a run on a static defender who is doing nothing but mark space.
Houllier has previous for this at Liverpool, who also shipped goals by the bucketload from corners when he was there - for much the same reason. He needs to get his head out of his arse and think of something different*
The shame is, this apart, we played well - including the cobbled together defence. Elmander, Sturridge and Davies didn't look like doing us amy real harm. Np mean feat. Going forward we were excellent.
For all Young's missed penalty and the host of other spurned chances, we scored two and should not have been beaten.
* Anyone not wishing to blame Houllier can blame O'Neil for flogging Cahill in the first place.
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Typical Villa conceding at the end of each half! I've lost count of how many times that's happened. Rubs salt in the wounds when Gary Cahill gets two goals.
I have a bad feeling about this season: MON leaving us in the mire from the word go, loads of injuries at vital stages of the season, conceding late goals all the time. The pattern continues and it could yet see us relegated. Collins and Cuellar have to play against Wolves - both should be ready. I would pair Gabby with Bent with Ash and Downing on the wings
I would go:
Friedel
Walker
Clark
Cuellar
Collins
NRC
Makoun
Downing
Bent
A Young
Agbonlahor
Do you agree?
Clark is suspended.
Sorry, didn't realise about Clark, but it kind of backs up my point about the in-form players being suspended or injured at vital times this season - perhaps play Luke Young at left back instead? It'll be a real scrap against Wolves - have we got the bottle and fight in us??
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People need to wake up and get over them selfs with all this anti houllier shit.
He turned Liverpool into a challenging team regulary in the CL, he has vastly improved us in a short time so let's give him a chance and we might have some success.
WIth all due respect, it's nonsensical to just put it down to "anti Houllier" shit.
It's not "love him or hate him" - a lot of us can see the good work he is doing in other areas of the pitch, and are happy to acknowledge it, but you can not just ignore the frailities which persist, especially as we get more results like today, and persist in lingering a tiny number of points off the relegation spots.
As for "vastly improved us" - obviously not that much, or we wouldn't be where we are right now.
So the injuries that led to that defensive line up are all his fault. The lack of cover in defence able to fill in his all his fault. The need to play kids, because there's no one else is all his fault.
I despair.
The need to blame Houllier is so important for some they can't see the obvious. Just look at that defence.
Walker, Young, Clarke, Baker.
How many Villa fans would have put that as the best we could offer come 5 days before kickoff.
Would you have Pauli ?
You seem to have missed the entire season up until this point, for the entirety of which we've been shit at the back.
Quite possibly, just like all those ahead of me who blame today's defence as the reason to justify another inane Houllier out shout.
You are right of course we have been shit at the back all season and for a variety of reasons.
Good man
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Same old story , 21 points dropped from leading positions now, another 2 goals from corners and again a chance to kill a team off and a missed pen and bang we lose .
Five yrs ago randy came and we began to dream of great days, 5 yrs later we have won nothing, are in a relegation battle , have a manager who has split the fans, have lost our best players , and have record debts.
Bright future?
We also have a fantastic training ground, a wonderful youth academy and have finished in the top 6 3 times. Add to that the fact that we have come a lot closer to silverware since Lerner arrived than the 5 years before, smashed our transfer record to buy an international striker and have some of the most promising youngsters in the country and you get a more balanced view.
We would have a fantastic training ground anyway. It was being built.
We have always had a wonderful academy
What has finishing 6th won us
Close to silverware ? Well, close but no banana.
Samshed our transfer record, but also sold players for more money than ever before.
Promising youngsters ? yes we do. But so does most clubs.
I'm not saying that I don't welcome RL and his involvement.
But, it seems to me that where it matters, on the playing side, we are no further foward than on day 1 of his tenure.
Well, actually Milner was bought for 12 mil in the first place and Randy has backed the club in many ways that don't seem to get a mention. Look at our wage bill for a start, where does that money come from? The club as a whole has most definitely benefited from his arrival and will continue to do so. You can't blame Lerner for our England internationals missing chance after chance.
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ppl need to calm down. It's very annoying to lose how we did, we shouldn't of lost and we've handed the 3 points to Bolton and at the same time we're still down there fighting at the bottom.
It always feels shit initially after losing, especially in the circumstances we lost but some of the stuff that's being posted is a bit OTT.
As a footballing team Houllier HAS improved us. We're playing some really good football. On the other hand our defence is pretty frail. Very frail compared to how great our defence was. We can't seem to defend in the most important moments. We lose our heads and ultimately pay for it.
Every week it changes. In terms of who looks like they're going down, what the points total will be, how many points will be enough to survive etc...
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I understand Houllier is ultimately responsible, but we should have been out of sight. With our fragile and depleted defence, we need to put away our chances. Bolton had some fight at 2-1, but at 3-1 that mountain is that much harder to climb. If we point the finger at GH for the collapse, he should be recognized that the team played well enough to win by a hatful, and that the highly paid players royally blew it.
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Malcolm , it's all well and good saying the defenders were just young lads today but the defence has been shit all season , not just today.
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Don't know why anyone is surprised by today - look at the date! we never win in March and we always struggle at Bolton, add the patched up defence and this was a home banker.
True about March, but we havent lost at Bolton (in the league) since 2002.
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He isn't a magician, he can't make Friedel younger, he can't put the sitters away and he can only work with what he has.
Yep, so what's he been working on with the defence?
Are you being sarcastic?
Our defence is injured, we had full backs at centre back and reserves at left back, it was a make shift defence.
As much as we all like Clark he isn't top notch yet, Baker is average, Young is not a CB and Walker is very attacking and our keeper is shite.
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People need to wake up and get over them selfs with all this anti houllier shit.
He turned Liverpool into a challenging team regulary in the CL, he has vastly improved us in a short time so let's give him a chance and we might have some success.
WIth all due respect, it's nonsensical to just put it down to "anti Houllier" shit.
It's not "love him or hate him" - a lot of us can see the good work he is doing in other areas of the pitch, and are happy to acknowledge it, but you can not just ignore the frailities which persist, especially as we get more results like today, and persist in lingering a tiny number of points off the relegation spots.
As for "vastly improved us" - obviously not that much, or we wouldn't be where we are right now.
So the injuries that led to that defensive line up are all his fault. The lack of cover in defence able to fill in his all his fault. The need to play kids, because there's no one else is all his fault.
I despair.
The need to blame Houllier is so important for some they can't see the obvious. Just look at that defence.
Walker, Young, Clarke, Baker.
How many Villa fans would have put that as the best we could offer come 5 days before kickoff.
Would you have Pauli ?
You seem to have missed the entire season up until this point, for the entirety of which we've been shit at the back.
Quite possibly, just like all those ahead of me who blame today's defence as the reason to justify another inane Houllier out shout.
You are right of course we have been shit at the back all season and for a variety of reasons.
Good man
I genuinely can't even begin to make out what you're trying to say there
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Our propensity to concede goals from corners is not bad play from the defenders as such. It's a tactical issue. The way Houllier sets us up is to string players along the six yard line with a few of other players man marking. The theory is that most corners are cleared from the edge of the 6 yard box. The problem comes when it isn't. Opponents who slip their marker have a run on a static defender who is doing nothing but mark space.
* Anyone not wishing to blame Houllier can blame O'Neil for flogging Cahill in the first place.
Thing is if your inexperienc3ed defender, playing only his second PL game leaves the goalscorer alone to run in for a free header, twice it matters sweet fa what tactics you employ.
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What a mad season. Every time I think we're moving on we kick ourselves in the tads. I don't know how we could play any better yet we still lost. Sickening. Get this season over with and go again. New goalie and a new centre back pairing and we'll be fine.
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ppl need to calm down. It's very annoying to lose how we did, we shouldn't of lost and we've handed the 3 points to Bolton and at the same time we're still down there fighting at the bottom.
It always feels shit initially after losing, especially in the circumstances we lost but some of the stuff that's being posted is a bit OTT.
As a footballing team Houllier HAS improved us. We're playing some really good football. On the other hand our defence is pretty frail. Very frail compared to how great our defence was. We can't seem to defend in the most important moments. We lose our heads and ultimately pay for it.
Every week it changes. In terms of who looks like they're going down, what the points total will be, how many points will be enough to survive etc...
Our defence is pretty frail? Understatement of the century.
We've won 2 away games all season at the footballing powerhouses Wigan and Wolves and we have kept zero clean sheets away from home. Our defence is shit no matter who plays in it and we can't defend corners.
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The football has improved, of that there is no doubt.
The results have got worse though.
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RANDY (and his mates) SHOULD CARRY THE CAN
since MON done one on us
we have been an utter shambles
the first few months...understandable
but its now March, and we are beginning to look like West Ham..... 3 months ago!!!
fuck off Randy and your mates
you only have to look at this site when "the general" fucked off when results werent going our way
anyway
we made loads of chances today, a game we should have won etc etc (west brom anyone)
0 points
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People need to wake up and get over them selfs with all this anti houllier shit.
He turned Liverpool into a challenging team regulary in the CL, he has vastly improved us in a short time so let's give him a chance and we might have some success.
WIth all due respect, it's nonsensical to just put it down to "anti Houllier" shit.
It's not "love him or hate him" - a lot of us can see the good work he is doing in other areas of the pitch, and are happy to acknowledge it, but you can not just ignore the frailities which persist, especially as we get more results like today, and persist in lingering a tiny number of points off the relegation spots.
As for "vastly improved us" - obviously not that much, or we wouldn't be where we are right now.
So the injuries that led to that defensive line up are all his fault. The lack of cover in defence able to fill in his all his fault. The need to play kids, because there's no one else is all his fault.
I despair.
The need to blame Houllier is so important for some they can't see the obvious. Just look at that defence.
Walker, Young, Clarke, Baker.
How many Villa fans would have put that as the best we could offer come 5 days before kickoff.
Would you have Pauli ?
You seem to have missed the entire season up until this point, for the entirety of which we've been shit at the back.
Quite possibly, just like all those ahead of me who blame today's defence as the reason to justify another inane Houllier out shout.
You are right of course we have been shit at the back all season and for a variety of reasons.
Good man
I genuinely can't even begin to make out what you're trying to say there
So you always say.
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He isn't a magician, he can't make Friedel younger, he can't put the sitters away and he can only work with what he has.
Yep, so what's he been working on with the defence?
Are you being sarcastic?
Our defence is injured, we had full backs at centre back and reserves at left back, it was a make shift defence.
As much as we all like Clark he isn't top notch yet, Baker is average, Young is not a CB and Walker is very attacking and our keeper is shite.
No, I'm not being sarcastic - what has he done with the defence? What work has he done with it? The same players, by and large, who were solid last season and the season before, so what work has he been doing with what he has there?
My point is that we were shit defensively and had exactly the same weaknesses WITH our best players available.
Have you seen much of Richard Dunne this season? He's hard enough to miss, and fuck only knows how big he'll be after a four week lay off.
I'm happy to credit Houllier where I think he's done good work, and I spend enough time on here doing precisely that, but our rank cluelessness at the back, which has degenerated now to the point where conceding a corner is like conceding a penalty, has been there all season, and wasn't just something new which came out of today as we had injuries.
Incidentally, Luke Young was originally a centre back. He's hardly a newcomer to that role.
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and we always struggle at Bolton
Do we? I don't think so.
Did we struggle today then?
Thought we walked it apart from them scoring 3 inane goals and we missing 5 golden chances.
Perhaps I'm an optimist
That's up there with GH saying on Wednesday "take away the two goals and the first half was even". Like a boxer saying "I was way ahead on points until he knocked me out cold". I hated MON and his football but results are what come first and he got them. I like GH's style of football but it isn't getting results and therefore needs a re-think..
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People need to wake up and get over them selfs with all this anti houllier shit.
He turned Liverpool into a challenging team regulary in the CL, he has vastly improved us in a short time so let's give him a chance and we might have some success.
WIth all due respect, it's nonsensical to just put it down to "anti Houllier" shit.
It's not "love him or hate him" - a lot of us can see the good work he is doing in other areas of the pitch, and are happy to acknowledge it, but you can not just ignore the frailities which persist, especially as we get more results like today, and persist in lingering a tiny number of points off the relegation spots.
As for "vastly improved us" - obviously not that much, or we wouldn't be where we are right now.
So the injuries that led to that defensive line up are all his fault. The lack of cover in defence able to fill in his all his fault. The need to play kids, because there's no one else is all his fault.
I despair.
The need to blame Houllier is so important for some they can't see the obvious. Just look at that defence.
Walker, Young, Clarke, Baker.
How many Villa fans would have put that as the best we could offer come 5 days before kickoff.
Would you have Pauli ?
You seem to have missed the entire season up until this point, for the entirety of which we've been shit at the back.
Quite possibly, just like all those ahead of me who blame today's defence as the reason to justify another inane Houllier out shout.
You are right of course we have been shit at the back all season and for a variety of reasons.
Good man
I genuinely can't even begin to make out what you're trying to say there
So you always say.
And I'm not the only one, either.
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People need to wake up and get over them selfs with all this anti houllier shit.
He turned Liverpool into a challenging team regulary in the CL, he has vastly improved us in a short time so let's give him a chance and we might have some success.
WIth all due respect, it's nonsensical to just put it down to "anti Houllier" shit.
It's not "love him or hate him" - a lot of us can see the good work he is doing in other areas of the pitch, and are happy to acknowledge it, but you can not just ignore the frailities which persist, especially as we get more results like today, and persist in lingering a tiny number of points off the relegation spots.
As for "vastly improved us" - obviously not that much, or we wouldn't be where we are right now.
So the injuries that led to that defensive line up are all his fault. The lack of cover in defence able to fill in his all his fault. The need to play kids, because there's no one else is all his fault.
I despair.
The need to blame Houllier is so important for some they can't see the obvious. Just look at that defence.
Walker, Young, Clarke, Baker.
How many Villa fans would have put that as the best we could offer come 5 days before kickoff.
Would you have Pauli ?
You seem to have missed the entire season up until this point, for the entirety of which we've been shit at the back.
Quite possibly, just like all those ahead of me who blame today's defence as the reason to justify another inane Houllier out shout.
You are right of course we have been shit at the back all season and for a variety of reasons.
Good man
Whos fuckin fault is it that we are shyte at the back? Obviosly not our manager and his coaching staff. You are inane if you think anything different.
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RANDY (and his mates) SHOULD CARRY THE CAN
since MON done one on us
we have been an utter shambles
the first few months...understandable
but its now March, and we are beginning to look like West Ham..... 3 months ago!!!
fuck off Randy and your mates
you only have to look at this site when "the general" fucked off when results werent going our way
anyway
we made loads of chances today, a game we should have won etc etc (west brom anyone)
0 points
You have an interesting way of wasting space. In more ways than one.
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THat's football sometimes. I thought we played really well, and judging by way we dominated the second half completely I thought we deserved the 3 points. But alas, our defending of corners. And also the A Young ego roadshowshould end today, Bent to take penalties from now on. In fact if Bent, Downing and Young had all scored from the chances they had, as they should have, we would have been talking about an excellent away performance that brought 5 goals.
Can't fault the manager or the majority of the players today, but we have to change the way we defend corners, change the penalty taker, and start putting away the chances we create.
Delph, Walker NRC, Clark and Baker (except for the corners) and Downing were all excellent.
We should sell Young in the summer if we get a good offer and he doesn't sign a new contract (obviously I know) and Friedel should not be our first choice goalkeeper any more, but for the lack of alternatives.
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People need to wake up and get over them selfs with all this anti houllier shit.
He turned Liverpool into a challenging team regulary in the CL, he has vastly improved us in a short time so let's give him a chance and we might have some success.
WIth all due respect, it's nonsensical to just put it down to "anti Houllier" shit.
It's not "love him or hate him" - a lot of us can see the good work he is doing in other areas of the pitch, and are happy to acknowledge it, but you can not just ignore the frailities which persist, especially as we get more results like today, and persist in lingering a tiny number of points off the relegation spots.
As for "vastly improved us" - obviously not that much, or we wouldn't be where we are right now.
So the injuries that led to that defensive line up are all his fault. The lack of cover in defence able to fill in his all his fault. The need to play kids, because there's no one else is all his fault.
I despair.
The need to blame Houllier is so important for some they can't see the obvious. Just look at that defence.
Walker, Young, Clarke, Baker.
How many Villa fans would have put that as the best we could offer come 5 days before kickoff.
Would you have Pauli ?
You seem to have missed the entire season up until this point, for the entirety of which we've been shit at the back.
Quite possibly, just like all those ahead of me who blame today's defence as the reason to justify another inane Houllier out shout.
You are right of course we have been shit at the back all season and for a variety of reasons.
Good man
I genuinely can't even begin to make out what you're trying to say there
So you always say.
And I'm not the only one, either.
Of course not
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fuck off Randy and your mates
you only have to look at this site when "the general" fucked off when results werent going our way
Tone it down there maddog. The General has said he reads all the posts in his thread and comments are passed on, good or bad, but he can't speculate about playing matters.
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I've spent the last few months defending mr houllier on here but I'm afraid he's made his bed and has to carry the can
And the award for mixing metaphor goes to...
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At least Small Heath lost!
Seriously need a positive right now after watching GH fuck it up again with his 'tactical' substitutions.
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The inexperienced defence angle would work if we hadn't been defending like this all season, we keep leaking goals from corners, we keep conceding late goals, there is something fundamentally wrong with how we defend corners, you don't keep getting unlucky and when it keeps happening no matter who the players are then you have to look at the system, which comes from the manager.
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People need to wake up and get over them selfs with all this anti houllier shit.
He turned Liverpool into a challenging team regulary in the CL, he has vastly improved us in a short time so let's give him a chance and we might have some success.
WIth all due respect, it's nonsensical to just put it down to "anti Houllier" shit.
It's not "love him or hate him" - a lot of us can see the good work he is doing in other areas of the pitch, and are happy to acknowledge it, but you can not just ignore the frailities which persist, especially as we get more results like today, and persist in lingering a tiny number of points off the relegation spots.
As for "vastly improved us" - obviously not that much, or we wouldn't be where we are right now.
So the injuries that led to that defensive line up are all his fault. The lack of cover in defence able to fill in his all his fault. The need to play kids, because there's no one else is all his fault.
I despair.
The need to blame Houllier is so important for some they can't see the obvious. Just look at that defence.
Walker, Young, Clarke, Baker.
How many Villa fans would have put that as the best we could offer come 5 days before kickoff.
Would you have Pauli ?
You seem to have missed the entire season up until this point, for the entirety of which we've been shit at the back.
Quite possibly, just like all those ahead of me who blame today's defence as the reason to justify another inane Houllier out shout.
You are right of course we have been shit at the back all season and for a variety of reasons.
Good man
I genuinely can't even begin to make out what you're trying to say there
So you always say.
And I'm not the only one, either.
No you're not.
He talks in fucking riddles.
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I still don't get what Geoff bloody Capes has anything to do with it.
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fuck off Randy and your mates
you only have to look at this site when "the general" fucked off when results werent going our way
The general did not 'fuck off,' he was advised by us to leave for a while. If you could point in the direction of someone who will pay back the £250 million he has invested and provide a written guarantee of eternal success, I'm sure Randy will look upon your request favourably.
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Albion under Mowbray played good football and created lots of chances but didn't take them and couldn't defend to save their lives and look what happened to them.
2 away wins, 0 away clean sheets, missing easy chances, can't defend. Add all those together and you're in trouble.
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Oh and Bent to take penalties? Are you sure? I've seen him miss a few.
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RANDY (and his mates) SHOULD CARRY THE CAN
since MON done one on us
we have been an utter shambles
the first few months...understandable
but its now March, and we are beginning to look like West Ham..... 3 months ago!!!
fuck off Randy and your mates
you only have to look at this site when "the general" fucked off when results werent going our way
anyway
we made loads of chances today, a game we should have won etc etc (west brom anyone)
0 points
You have an interesting way of wasting space. In more ways than one.
really?
tell me more
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Our players are cowards, if theirs ever a fight to be had they run away from it! We concede soft goals at stupid times! We have no leader, no passion, no heart!
If these players had half the courage of the Blues team they'd be right up the top, they have ability.
The blame lies with the manager, they portray all his attributes! A bumbling idiot, saying foolish things and sitting on his hands when decisions are there to be made! Both manager and players are hiding, we are in the shit!!!
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I understand Houllier is ultimately responsible, but we should have been out of sight. With our fragile and depleted defence, we need to put away our chances. Bolton had some fight at 2-1, but at 3-1 that mountain is that much harder to climb. If we point the finger at GH for the collapse, he should be recognized that the team played well enough to win by a hatful, and that the highly paid players royally blew it.
This...
Lot of emotion on here today, understandably so...
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We got what we deserved
That is just plain stupid, did you see the game because I did. We absolutely murdered that Bolton team on possession and chances created. A missed penalty at the crucial time in the game was the turning point. We did not "get what we deserved" because an easy victory is what we deserved based on the clear chances we created in both halves.
It isn't just about creating chances, though, it is about defending, and unless you defend, you get fuck all.
Losing that match was criminal, but it was far from a rare occurrence this season. To lead twice but throw it away and end up with nothing, almost entirely due to shite defending is just pathetic.
This unfortunately
How long has GH had to work with our defenders - in whatever form they take, however you look at it we are awful (another 6 conceded in the last 4 days) and previously good players look as nervous as kittens - this can only be down to the way they are coached - either it doesn't make sense, they don't buy into whatever they are being coached or they have no faith - whatever it plainly doesn't work - whatever the issue the management team seem have no clue about how to arrest the situation.
We are shipping crap goals for fun, our set piece defending has got to be the worst in the league - and sorry those defending GH for today is madness, ultimately he calls the shots, sure we missed chances - but if you can't defend for toffee your fucked from the first whistle - and we can't - Friedel certainly plays like he doesn't have confidence in them - which in turn shreds his.
Can me a twat i you like - in my humble opinion GH has to go, now or end of season who cares - this season is over anyway, and we will only stumble through to a bottom half safety position with him - what a depressing state of affairs. give it to Sid for the rest of the year - at least he gets it!
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I still don't get what Geoff bloody Capes has anything to do with it.
Capes would get Ashley Young into a bear hug, or perhaps a half-nelson, while someone who can strike a dead ball takes our free kicks / corners. It's the only way we can stop him.
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Houllier got it spot on today!
Ash Downing and Bent all missed sitters.
They let us down today not Houllier.
We had a very inexperienced defence that were under pressure because we kept missing easy chances.
Friedel NEVER comes for crosses or corners. Most goalkeepers will come for around 50% of crosses, this just adds more pressure to a defence.
People need to wake up and get over them selfs with all this anti houllier shit.
He turned Liverpool into a challenging team regulary in the CL, he has vastly improved us in a short time so let's give him a chance and we might have some success.
I'm certain our defence will be totally different next season.
Total bollox. Warnock and Beye should have been used today.
Now that is stupid.
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oh well, at least the lads have got a couple of weeks off.
I hope they enjoy it.
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2 points ahead of West Ham, a team who were racing certainties to go down - ffs, this is going to the wire.
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Last season our defence tended to be Friedel, Cuellar, Dunne, Collins, Walker.
How many times this season has that combination played together, due to injuries, disaffections etc ?
How many times have we played the same defence set up for more than 2 consecutive games this season.
Not many
You can coach all you want if you keep chopping and changing your defensive unit you will concede goals, especially if you have inexperienced kids playing in PL matches against experienced forwards in well used formations.
At least I think so.
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He isn't a magician, he can't make Friedel younger, he can't put the sitters away and he can only work with what he has.
Yep, so what's he been working on with the defence?
Are you being sarcastic?
Our defence is injured, we had full backs at centre back and reserves at left back, it was a make shift defence.
As much as we all like Clark he isn't top notch yet, Baker is average, Young is not a CB and Walker is very attacking and our keeper is shite.
No, I'm not being sarcastic - what has he done with the defence? What work has he done with it? The same players, by and large, who were solid last season and the season before, so what work has he been doing with what he has there?
My point is that we were shit defensively and had exactly the same weaknesses WITH our best players available.
Have you seen much of Richard Dunne this season? He's hard enough to miss, and fuck only knows how big he'll be after a four week lay off.
I'm happy to credit Houllier where I think he's done good work, and I spend enough time on here doing precisely that, but our rank cluelessness at the back, which has degenerated now to the point where conceding a corner is like conceding a penalty, has been there all season, and wasn't just something new which came out of today as we had injuries.
Incidentally, Luke Young was originally a centre back. He's hardly a newcomer to that role.
Luke young was actually ok today.
The point is last season we sat back and had 10 men behind the ball and counter attacked, we are now alot more open and creating alot more.
What do we do differently to last season? Have we gone from zonal to man marking or visa-versa? (that's a genuine question)
Houllier can't help that Dunne was shocking and overweight, or that Collins hasn't performed aswell.
We are improving step by step, maybe the defence will be improved come the summer.
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I knew we had blown it when Young missed the penalty, Bent should be on those now and we certainly had the chances to put the game to be but we didn't.
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So the injuries that led to that defensive line up are all his fault. The lack of cover in defence able to fill in his all his fault. The need to play kids, because there's no one else is all his fault.
I despair.
The need to blame Houllier is so important for some they can't see the obvious. Just look at that defence.
Walker, Young, Clarke, Baker.
How many Villa fans would have put that as the best we could offer come 5 days before kickoff.
Would you have Pauli ?
The injuries to key defenders are clearly not Houllier's fault however his ability to fall out with players including Beye and Warnock who could have been of some use today certainly is.
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Last season our defence tended to be Friedel, Cuellar, Dunne, Collins, Walker.
How many times this season has that combination played together, due to injuries, disaffections etc ?
How many times have we played the same defence set up for more than 2 consecutive games this season.
Not many
You can coach all you want if you keep chopping and changing your defensive unit you will concede goals, especially if you have inexperienced kids playing in PL matches against experienced forwards in well used formations.
At least I think so.
I presume u mean Warnock instead of Walker
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Houllier got it spot on today!
Ash Downing and Bent all missed sitters.
They let us down today not Houllier.
We had a very inexperienced defence that were under pressure because we kept missing easy chances.
Friedel NEVER comes for crosses or corners. Most goalkeepers will come for around 50% of crosses, this just adds more pressure to a defence.
People need to wake up and get over them selfs with all this anti houllier shit.
He turned Liverpool into a challenging team regulary in the CL, he has vastly improved us in a short time so let's give him a chance and we might have some success.
I'm certain our defence will be totally different next season.
Total bollox. Warnock and Beye should have been used today.
Now that is stupid.
Why?
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Last season our defence tended to be Friedel, Cuellar, Dunne, Collins, Walker.
How many times this season has that combination played together, due to injuries, disaffections etc ?
How many times have we played the same defence set up for more than 2 consecutive games this season.
Not many
You can coach all you want if you keep chopping and changing your defensive unit you will concede goals, especially if you have inexperienced kids playing in PL matches against experienced forwards in well used formations.
At least I think so.
You sure?
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THat's football sometimes. I thought we played really well, and judging by way we dominated the second half completely I thought we deserved the 3 points. But alas, our defending of corners. And also the A Young ego roadshowshould end today, Bent to take penalties from now on. In fact if Bent, Downing and Young had all scored from the chances they had, as they should have, we would have been talking about an excellent away performance that brought 5 goals.
Can't fault the manager or the majority of the players today, but we have to change the way we defend corners, change the penalty taker, and start putting away the chances we create.
Delph, Walker NRC, Clark and Baker (except for the corners) and Downing were all excellent.
We should sell Young in the summer if we get a good offer and he doesn't sign a new contract (obviously I know) and Friedel should not be our first choice goalkeeper any more, but for the lack of alternatives.
I'd usually agree with your first sentence except this happens far too often... nearly every game it seems.
The thing is, I don't mind making costly mistakes if it makes us stronger and better in the long-term after learning from our mistakes.
We don't seem to be learning though. It's the same fatal mistakes time and time again. Corners feel more like Ronaldo is stepping up to take a freekick just on the edge of the box. Long balls feel like eternity.
I understand that it's quite hard to have a great attack and great defence... I'm not really asking us to be in a world of Baresi's, Maldini's and Nesta's for our defence; just to not panic, lose our heads and be really fragile in the most crucial of moments. I'd just like to see us defend better from set-pieces, crosses and long balls. I'm hoping we'll learn but it's just becoming such a frequent thing it feels 'normal'.
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Albion under Mowbray played good football and created lots of chances but didn't take them and couldn't defend to save their lives and look what happened to them.
2 away wins, 0 away clean sheets, missing easy chances, can't defend. Add all those together and you're in trouble.
It does make me laugh when people say Houllier's got us playing good football. So, we can now string a couple of passes together outside of the danger zones. But what on earth is good about continually blowing leads, conceding from set pieces, late goals, draws and defeats? Get the basics right, then start developing our passing game, because otherwise we'll be playing like Brazil 1970 at Doncaster next season. And then losing it in the last minute.
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Defending has been a problem all season but that has been made worse by injuries and suspensions. It's no coincidence that results improved after Christmas when we able to play a more settled back 4, it wasn't perfect but it was better. A cobbled together back line today and it cost us.
The criticism of Young today is completely misplaced, he found Bent countless times with through balls that he wasted. Shite penalty mind.
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Just got back. We should have won that, certainly shouldn't have lost, but our defending was criminally bad. Downing was a complete fanny again, and I couldn't see the point in bringing on petrov when he did. Thank god he chucked the FA Cup tie, today really made up for it.
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He isn't a magician, he can't make Friedel younger, he can't put the sitters away and he can only work with what he has.
Yep, so what's he been working on with the defence?
Are you being sarcastic?
Our defence is injured, we had full backs at centre back and reserves at left back, it was a make shift defence.
As much as we all like Clark he isn't top notch yet, Baker is average, Young is not a CB and Walker is very attacking and our keeper is shite.
No, I'm not being sarcastic - what has he done with the defence? What work has he done with it? The same players, by and large, who were solid last season and the season before, so what work has he been doing with what he has there?
My point is that we were shit defensively and had exactly the same weaknesses WITH our best players available.
Have you seen much of Richard Dunne this season? He's hard enough to miss, and fuck only knows how big he'll be after a four week lay off.
I'm happy to credit Houllier where I think he's done good work, and I spend enough time on here doing precisely that, but our rank cluelessness at the back, which has degenerated now to the point where conceding a corner is like conceding a penalty, has been there all season, and wasn't just something new which came out of today as we had injuries.
Incidentally, Luke Young was originally a centre back. He's hardly a newcomer to that role.
Luke young was actually ok today.
The point is last season we sat back and had 10 men behind the ball and counter attacked, we are now alot more open and creating alot more.
What do we do differently to last season? Have we gone from zonal to man marking or visa-versa? (that's a genuine question)
Houllier can't help that Dunne was shocking and overweight, or that Collins hasn't performed aswell.
We are improving step by step, maybe the defence will be improved come the summer.
We seem to be engaged in some half arsed form of zonal marking nowadays.
Our counter attacking style of play of last season doesn't really have a lot to do with the way we defend corners, though, does it?
As for Richard Dunne - no, he can't help the fact that Dunne returned from the summer looking like the fat bloke you see in the local every night of the week, you're right there. The fact he still looks like that seven months later, though, that's a different matter.
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The worst thing is a win today would have seen us virtually safe and we threw that opportunity away. With West Ham and WBA winning it has dragged us right back into the shite. We may need to rely on Blackburn and Blackpool being worse than us for the rest of the campaign. The Wolves match is massive now, fail to win that and I honestly fear we could be toast come May.
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I am so tired of reading posts from people knee jerking, blaming houllier for bad luck and poor finishing, having a go at randy a few weeks after he has just smashed our transfer record. Sometimes you have to sit back and say it just wasnt our day....the media is unanimous in saying we deserved to win.
the night is darkest just before the dawn. see you all in two weeks
UTV
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I am so tired of reading posts from people knee jerking, blaming houllier for bad luck and poor finishing, having a go at randy a few weeks after he has just smashed our transfer record. Sometimes you have to sit back and say it just wasnt our day....the media is unanimous in saying we deserved to win.
the night is darkest just before the dawn. see you all in two weeks
UTV
"it just wasnt our day"
thank fuck for that, we will be okay now
cheers mattjpa
have a look at the table
just the one day?
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I am so tired of reading posts from people knee jerking, blaming houllier for bad luck and poor finishing, having a go at randy a few weeks after he has just smashed our transfer record. Sometimes you have to sit back and say it just wasnt our day....the media is unanimous in saying we deserved to win.
the night is darkest just before the dawn. see you all in two weeks
UTV
So has it just 'not been our day' every other time this season then? It happens far too often to just blame bad luck and say it wasn't our day. We're a piss poor side with a piss poor manager and the only way we'll stay up is by being less shit than the other relegation fodder.
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However well you play, you don't deserve to win if you miss several sitters and repeat defensive errors that have cost you before. You get exactly what you deserve, and we did today.
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Don't know why anyone is surprised by today - look at the date! we never win in March and we always struggle at Bolton, add the patched up defence and this was a home banker.
True about March, but we havent lost at Bolton (in the league) since 2002.
Cheers Charlie nothing like doing your homework before launching one on heroes is there? ironically 2002 is about the last time I went there - after the 5 minutes of James Brown and flag waving every time they score I just thought never again.
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I still don't get what Geoff bloody Capes has anything to do with it.
Capes would get Ashley Young into a bear hug, or perhaps a half-nelson, while someone who can strike a dead ball takes our free kicks / corners. It's the only way we can stop him.
Yep, on reflection I'm with Jimbo.
Geoff Capes alongside Clark at centre-half (okay, so we could never play the offside trap), and he pins Young to the floor whenever we get a free-kick in a promising area.
ARE YOU LISTENING HOTLIPS?
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People blaming Houllier for the result today are fecking clueless or just too wrapped in their emotion to know better. We had the chances, when leading, to put the game firmly to bed. We didn't which then invites pressure on a very young and shaky defence, which to top it culminates in us missing a penalty. Stomping feet at the manager is simply futile, and the players need to take a bit of flak, Friedel as the experienced man does nothing to inspire in goal, while Young insisted on taking the pen when Bent and Reo Coker tried to dissuade him.
Might take a week or so away from the site, as the hysterics will start now about GH and be so boring.
I am fecking clueless.
Me too,fecking fecking clueless
Add me to the fecking clueless club.
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fuck off Randy and your mates
you only have to look at this site when "the general" fucked off when results werent going our way
The general did not 'fuck off,' he was advised by us to leave for a while. If you could point in the direction of someone who will pay back the £250 million he has invested and provide a written guarantee of eternal success, I'm sure Randy will look upon your request favourably.
The way its looking I would rather have someone who hadnt invested £250m and hadnt employed this French idiot.
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2 points ahead of West Ham, a team who were racing certainties to go down - ffs, this is going to the wire.
I think this is a good measure of exactly what GH has "achieved" this season. And to think that you are considered feckin useless if you question GH.
Funny world.
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Frankly its the fact that we often seem to play the better and still lose that worries me the most. A lot of ruvbbish was thrown at Houllier just after he joined but he has been here for 6 months now and spend £30m+ in the transfer window and we're 3 points off the drop. If its not his fault whose is it?
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Apparently, on average, one goal is scored for every 60 or so corners conceded.
Reckon we're anywhere close to that?
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The coaching staff needs a shake up, we have no striking coach or defensive coach and it needs addressing sooner rather than later , although that's been the case fron day one, I don't see what Gary mac brings to the team whatsoever, he's been a flop at every club he's coached or managed and lacks passion .
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I am so tired of reading posts from people knee jerking, blaming houllier for bad luck and poor finishing, having a go at randy a few weeks after he has just smashed our transfer record. Sometimes you have to sit back and say it just wasnt our day....the media is unanimous in saying we deserved to win.
the night is darkest just before the dawn. see you all in two weeks
UTV
Everyone knows we deserved to win. Unfortunately that doesn't put any points on the board. Two wins and 34 goals conceded on the road means it 'just wasn't our day' quite a lot this season, and it's relegation form especially when you aren't doing brilliantly at home either. Wolves is now a 'must win' game - how sad is that?
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Here's some Villa style football from other teams.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/football/9415796.stm
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The way its looking I would rather have someone who hadnt invested £250m and hadnt employed this French idiot.
Doug still in charge and Nigel Clough leading us to Championship mid-table perhaps?
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I actually think Nigel Clough could do a better job.
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I am so tired of reading posts from people knee jerking, blaming houllier for bad luck and poor finishing, having a go at randy a few weeks after he has just smashed our transfer record. Sometimes you have to sit back and say it just wasnt our day....the media is unanimous in saying we deserved to win.
the night is darkest just before the dawn. see you all in two weeks
UTV
"it just wasnt our day"
thank fuck for that, we will be okay now
cheers mattjpa
have a look at the table
just the one day?
You need a lie down Irish this is no time for faint hearts - only 3 go down last time I checked.
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He isn't a magician, he can't make Friedel younger, he can't put the sitters away and he can only work with what he has.
Yep, so what's he been working on with the defence?
Are you being sarcastic?
Our defence is injured, we had full backs at centre back and reserves at left back, it was a make shift defence.
As much as we all like Clark he isn't top notch yet, Baker is average, Young is not a CB and Walker is very attacking and our keeper is shite.
No, I'm not being sarcastic - what has he done with the defence? What work has he done with it? The same players, by and large, who were solid last season and the season before, so what work has he been doing with what he has there?
My point is that we were shit defensively and had exactly the same weaknesses WITH our best players available.
Have you seen much of Richard Dunne this season? He's hard enough to miss, and fuck only knows how big he'll be after a four week lay off.
I'm happy to credit Houllier where I think he's done good work, and I spend enough time on here doing precisely that, but our rank cluelessness at the back, which has degenerated now to the point where conceding a corner is like conceding a penalty, has been there all season, and wasn't just something new which came out of today as we had injuries.
Incidentally, Luke Young was originally a centre back. He's hardly a newcomer to that role.
Luke young was actually ok today.
The point is last season we sat back and had 10 men behind the ball and counter attacked, we are now alot more open and creating alot more.
What do we do differently to last season? Have we gone from zonal to man marking or visa-versa? (that's a genuine question)
Houllier can't help that Dunne was shocking and overweight, or that Collins hasn't performed aswell.
We are improving step by step, maybe the defence will be improved come the summer.
We seem to be engaged in some half arsed form of zonal marking nowadays.
Our counter attacking style of play of last season doesn't really have a lot to do with the way we defend corners, though, does it?
As for Richard Dunne - no, he can't help the fact that Dunne returned from the summer looking like the fat bloke you see in the local every night of the week, you're right there. The fact he still looks like that seven months later, though, that's a different matter.
True, although i think Dunne has improved since Christmas.
For me we have missed Cuellar the most, he broke into the team then got injured, also due to injuries we have been unable to say swap Walker for a CB for the last 10 minutes, which would make a massive difference.
We are going to have one of the most exciting summers in memory i think.
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The way its looking I would rather have someone who hadnt invested £250m and hadnt employed this French idiot.
Doug still in charge and Nigel Clough leading us to Championship mid-table perhaps?
Dave i dont think you are far off with that smart arse remark
unfortunatley
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I am so tired of reading posts from people knee jerking, blaming houllier for bad luck and poor finishing, having a go at randy a few weeks after he has just smashed our transfer record. Sometimes you have to sit back and say it just wasnt our day....the media is unanimous in saying we deserved to win.
the night is darkest just before the dawn. see you all in two weeks
UTV
We've had a lot of days which haven't been ours then.
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I actually think Nigel Clough could do a better job.
I don't, he's a whinging cunt.
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1) I'm still confident we'll do enough to stay up. 2) I'm also sure that Houllier will be here next season. Given scenarios 1 and 2, I can guarantee that aside from our kids, our more experienced defensive players (inc goalkeeper) will not be here in August. I won't believe for a second that the coaching staff have not been trying to implement the fundamentals to them. They either cannot do it, or won't do it. Get rid and start again.
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He isn't a magician, he can't make Friedel younger, he can't put the sitters away and he can only work with what he has.
Yep, so what's he been working on with the defence?
Are you being sarcastic?
Our defence is injured, we had full backs at centre back and reserves at left back, it was a make shift defence.
As much as we all like Clark he isn't top notch yet, Baker is average, Young is not a CB and Walker is very attacking and our keeper is shite.
No, I'm not being sarcastic - what has he done with the defence? What work has he done with it? The same players, by and large, who were solid last season and the season before, so what work has he been doing with what he has there?
My point is that we were shit defensively and had exactly the same weaknesses WITH our best players available.
Have you seen much of Richard Dunne this season? He's hard enough to miss, and fuck only knows how big he'll be after a four week lay off.
I'm happy to credit Houllier where I think he's done good work, and I spend enough time on here doing precisely that, but our rank cluelessness at the back, which has degenerated now to the point where conceding a corner is like conceding a penalty, has been there all season, and wasn't just something new which came out of today as we had injuries.
Incidentally, Luke Young was originally a centre back. He's hardly a newcomer to that role.
Luke young was actually ok today.
The point is last season we sat back and had 10 men behind the ball and counter attacked, we are now alot more open and creating alot more.
What do we do differently to last season? Have we gone from zonal to man marking or visa-versa? (that's a genuine question)
Houllier can't help that Dunne was shocking and overweight, or that Collins hasn't performed aswell.
We are improving step by step, maybe the defence will be improved come the summer.
We seem to be engaged in some half arsed form of zonal marking nowadays.
Our counter attacking style of play of last season doesn't really have a lot to do with the way we defend corners, though, does it?
As for Richard Dunne - no, he can't help the fact that Dunne returned from the summer looking like the fat bloke you see in the local every night of the week, you're right there. The fact he still looks like that seven months later, though, that's a different matter.
True, although i think Dunne has improved since Christmas.
For me we have missed Cuellar the most, he broke into the team then got injured, also due to injuries we have been unable to say swap Walker for a CB for the last 10 minutes, which would make a massive difference.
We are going to have one of the most exciting summers in memory i think.
Cuellar was dropped by Houllier after a great game at Wolves.
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I must say I am bricking it for us right now. We're in freefall again it seems. We just can't shake that stench of crisis can we?
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I must say I am bricking it for us right now. We're in freefall again it seems. We just can't shake that stench of crisis can we?
Freefall = lost one league game in a row.
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1) I'm still confident we'll do enough to stay up. 2) I'm also sure that Houllier will be here next season. Given scenarios 1 and 2, I can guarantee that aside from our kids, our more experienced defensive players (inc goalkeeper) will not be here in August. I won't believe for a second that the coaching staff have not been trying to implement the fundamentals to them. They either cannot do it, or won't do it. Get rid and start again.
Hmm, all of them? Cant do it or won't do it, I mean? Maybe the issue is that the manager / coaching staff can't do it?
I don't think GH will be there next season. It'll be a shame, as there is real improvement in other areas of the pitch, but I think a mixture of our defensive frailties pushing us unacceptably close to the relegation zone come May, plus his consistent stream of media fuck ups which seem to have alienated him from the fans (two textbook examples this week alone) to increasingly O'Learian levels will do for him.
It's a shame, really, because the gaffs have all been largely avoidable, and self inflicted. On their own, they're not enough to do for a manager, but when you're struggling to do your job to a convincing level, they will drag you down.
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I'll tell you what, watching today's match makes me think we have the makings of a very decent, exciting, young side. We need to get a top class defensive coach in the summer but we are not far away. The move for the second goal was superb.
Stick with these young lads and they'll do us proud in seasons to come. My main annoyance from today was seeing Gary Cahill come back to haunt us - it had to happen at some point!
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.....
Yep, on reflection I'm with Jimbo.
Geoff Capes alongside Clark at centre-half (okay, so we could never play the offside trap), and he pins Young to the floor whenever we get a free-kick in a promising area.
ARE YOU LISTENING HOTLIPS?
The problem is, we don't have a decent set piece merchant at the club. Downing was taking the kicks early season with pretty much the same result.
Capes would be better deployed at the end of the defensive wall, with instructions to give it a gentle nudge as we are about to take the kick.
Then I would have Walker step up and bladder the ball through acres of the empty space this creates.
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I actually think Nigel Clough could do a better job.
I don't, he's a whinging cunt.
A dreadful appointment at Derby.
Burton manager for years and fuck all else, employed purely on the basis that his Dad was revered there.
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I actually think Nigel Clough could do a better job.
I don't, he's a whinging cunt.
Yeah and Houllier is just a c**t
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Haven't seen it posted so
http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/football/teams/a/aston_villa/9415840.stm
First time we have seen him like that by my reckoning. Looks a bit bothered.
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I imagine this might be the mother of all transfer windows for us. A combination of shipping out every piece of deadwood now at the club, and replacing them with younger options from all over the place, and the promotion of more of our kids. We likely won't win anything next year, but we'll be leaner and hungrier. I can honestly see the following all gone to make way for the future:
BRAD FRIEDEL
BRAD GUZAN
LUKE YOUNG
JAMES COLLINS
RICHARD DUNNE
ASHLEY YOUNG
STILYAN PETROV
JOHN CAREW
ISIAH OSBOURNE
STEPHEN IRELAND
HABIB BEYE
MOUSTAFA SALIFOU
STEPHEN WARNOCK
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I must say I am bricking it for us right now. We're in freefall again it seems. We just can't shake that stench of crisis can we?
Freefall = lost one league game in a row.
Dead right.
God knows what has put people into this frame of mind.
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The way its looking I would rather have someone who hadnt invested £250m and hadnt employed this French idiot.
Doug still in charge and Nigel Clough leading us to Championship mid-table perhaps?
Dream team.
Sky reckon Houllier was under pressure before the game, wonder what they say now
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I can't bring myself to be too bothered about today's result.
Bolton are a good side who on paper (being away, relative league positions) we cannot expect to beat. We played well but didn't win which would be nothing to be worried about if it wasn't a recurring theme. Players let us down more than the manager I have to admit.
It just makes Wednesday's call so unbelievably frustrating. It was unnecessary and no guarantee of a result but in doing it he made it appear as if it was so heaping a load of unneeded pressure upon himself and the team.
Hopefully, we can pick up some points against Wolves in two weeks or that is when my pants will be getting brown.
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People blaming Houllier for the result today are fecking clueless or just too wrapped in their emotion to know better. We had the chances, when leading, to put the game firmly to bed. We didn't which then invites pressure on a very young and shaky defence, which to top it culminates in us missing a penalty. Stomping feet at the manager is simply futile, and the players need to take a bit of flak, Friedel as the experienced man does nothing to inspire in goal, while Young insisted on taking the pen when Bent and Reo Coker tried to dissuade him.
Might take a week or so away from the site, as the hysterics will start now about GH and be so boring.
We've not been able to defend ALL season. Who's fault is that?
Are we trying to zonal fucking mark or some shit, but we never get close to players? If it is zonal fucking marking Houllier can piss right off. Space never scored a goal.
We've gone from having a tight defence to shipping two goals a game. With the same players
I'm convinced that zonal marking bollocks comes from McAllister he introduced that at Leeds. My mate told me that virtually everytime the opposition had a corner or a set piece they looked like scoring. Sounds familiar doesn't it?
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As well as he played in general play, I think its about time that Ash was told that every dead ball is not his sole territory.
His delivery from corners and free kicks is , at best, inconsistent. Usually fucking shite.
Other teams delivery is usually spot on, bolton today, blackpool away, even bloody blose.
Time to let Marc have a go I think.
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I'll tell you what, watching today's match makes me think we have the makings of a very decent, exciting, young side. We need to get a top class defensive coach in the summer but we are not far away. The move for the second goal was superb.
Stick with these young lads and they'll do us proud in seasons to come. My main annoyance from today was seeing Gary Cahill come back to haunt us - it had to happen at some point!
This
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I can't bring myself to be too bothered about today's result.
The day i'm not bothered about us losing will be the day when I turn my back on supporting the club.
It's not going to happen, we're stuck together in this unhappy marriage.
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I can't bring myself to be too bothered about today's result.
The day i'm not bothered about us losing will be the day when I turn my back on supporting the club.
It's not going to happen, we're stuck together in this unhappy marriage.
Like Ken and Deirdre.
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Haven't seen it posted so
http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/football/teams/a/aston_villa/9415840.stm
First time we have seen him like that by my reckoning. Looks a bit bothered.
Sounded more angry than I've heard him before.
Hes not wrong but its not helping he has to play 3 players in defence 21 or less.
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To those saying we can't blame GH, it's the players' fault, if that were the case no manager would ever get sacked, even for getting relegated. He's the boss, the buck stops with him, it goes with the territory.
A point that seems to be lost on a few.
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I'll tell you what, watching today's match makes me think we have the makings of a very decent, exciting, young side. We need to get a top class defensive coach in the summer but we are not far away. The move for the second goal was superb.
Stick with these young lads and they'll do us proud in seasons to come. My main annoyance from today was seeing Gary Cahill come back to haunt us - it had to happen at some point!
I agree, Billy, some of the footbal we played today was superb and for a 20 minute spell we battered Bolton only let down by sloppy finishing. Another day we'd have been 5 up.
If we can get the defence sorted out for next season (and we don't go down) then there's plent to be optimistic about. A worry is though that at least 3 of that side (Young, Walker and Reo Coker) might not be here.
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Haven't seen it posted so
http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/football/teams/a/aston_villa/9415840.stm
First time we have seen him like that by my reckoning. Looks a bit bothered.
He does look bothered. I don't dislike Houllier as a man, he's a decent sort, in fact I feel for him. I just really can't see him being successful with us, I just can't.
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I don't think GH will be there next season. It'll be a shame, as there is real improvement in other areas of the pitch, but I think a mixture of our defensive frailties pushing us unacceptably close to the relegation zone come May, plus his consistent stream of media fuck ups which seem to have alienated him from the fans (two textbook examples this week alone) to increasingly O'Learian levels will do for him.
Don't think so. They have invested too much and backed him to an extent that they won't get rid of him so quickly. He is here to stay barring relegation. Who knows it might pay off as toronto villa suggests.
However, I definitely think that there is an extent of this alienation that will be reflected next season in attendances until we start to pick up or if there is exciting signings.
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I can't bring myself to be too bothered about today's result.
The day i'm not bothered about us losing will be the day when I turn my back on supporting the club.
It's not going to happen, we're stuck together in this unhappy marriage.
Like Ken and Deirdre.
Cameron and Clegg.
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I actually think Nigel Clough could do a better job.
I don't, he's a whinging cunt.
Yeah and Houllier is just a c**t
H&V has missed this standard of debate.
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Haven't seen it posted so
http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/football/teams/a/aston_villa/9415840.stm
First time we have seen him like that by my reckoning. Looks a bit bothered.
What a fuckin embarrassment. The only thing missing was a nurse with a bed pan.
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I can't bring myself to be too bothered about today's result.
The day i'm not bothered about us losing will be the day when I turn my back on supporting the club.
It's not going to happen, we're stuck together in this unhappy marriage.
Like Ken and Deirdre.
Cameron and Clegg.
That pair are blissfully happy. Its the rest of us who aren't so chirpy
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If we can get the defence sorted out for next season (and we don't go down) then there's plent to be optimistic about. A worry is though that at least 3 of that side (Young, Walker and Reo Coker) might not be here.
For the first time this season Chris, I think we're going down.
He hasn't sorted out the comically bad defence and I don't think he will any time soon.
We're fucked.
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I actually think Nigel Clough could do a better job.
I don't, he's a whinging cunt.
Yeah and Houllier is just a c**t
H&V has missed this standard of debate.
I agree its actually better than the tripe villa are serving us up at the moment.
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and don't forget we are out of the FA Cup too!
If we can get the defence sorted out for next season (and we don't go down) then there's plent to be optimistic about. A worry is though that at least 3 of that side (Young, Walker and Reo Coker) might not be here.
For the first time this season Chris, I think we're going down.
He hasn't sorted out the comically bad defence and I don't think he will any time soon.
We're fucked.
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I don't think GH will be there next season. It'll be a shame, as there is real improvement in other areas of the pitch, but I think a mixture of our defensive frailties pushing us unacceptably close to the relegation zone come May, plus his consistent stream of media fuck ups which seem to have alienated him from the fans (two textbook examples this week alone) to increasingly O'Learian levels will do for him.
Don't think so. They have invested too much and backed him to an extent that they won't get rid of him so quickly. He is here to stay barring relegation. Who knows it might pay off as toronto villa suggests.
However, I definitely think that there is an extent of this alienation that will be reflected next season in attendances until we start to pick up or if there is exciting signings.
In reference to paulie's point, GH's problem is part language based, but also partly because he shoots from the hip when talking when a bit more control might be the order of the day. I do think he's done a lot of good things at the club, and I certainly concur with you that the investment has been far too significant to be firing him any time soon. I also cannot for the life of me believe he isn't disgusted at what he sees from our defending. That he's been trying to improve that side of things and despite his best efforts, the current players simply aren't up to it. I'm sure as much as us he just wants the season to end and for the surgery to start.
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We
If we can get the defence sorted out for next season (and we don't go down) then there's plent to be optimistic about. A worry is though that at least 3 of that side (Young, Walker and Reo Coker) might not be here.
For the first time this season Chris, I think we're going down.
He hasn't sorted out the comically bad defence and I don't think he will any time soon.
We're fucked.
we had 3 central defenders injured. Were not going down
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If we can get the defence sorted out for next season (and we don't go down) then there's plent to be optimistic about. A worry is though that at least 3 of that side (Young, Walker and Reo Coker) might not be here.
For the first time this season Chris, I think we're going down.
He hasn't sorted out the comically bad defence and I don't think he will any time soon.
We're fucked.
I think we need 7 points Fletch. We have 4 homes games before Liverpool. It will just be enough to see it through.
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If we can get the defence sorted out for next season (and we don't go down) then there's plent to be optimistic about. A worry is though that at least 3 of that side (Young, Walker and Reo Coker) might not be here.
For the first time this season Chris, I think we're going down.
He hasn't sorted out the comically bad defence and I don't think he will any time soon.
We're fucked.
When we got through that spell of tough matches, we were all thinking we'd got an easier run of fixtures starting which would see us safe.
The first of that batch were Fulham, Blackpool, Blackburn and Bolton. From those matches we've taken 5 of 12 points, which isn't brilliant, but would probably see us safe were we to continue at that run rate.
However, we've actually got some tricky fixtures left - Arsenal away, Liverpool at home towards the end of the season. Next we have Wolves at home next, then followed by Everton away, Newcastle at home, West Ham away, Stoke at home.
If these defensive frailities persist, then I can see matches like West Ham and Stoke (we've got form against them) going against us, and that would put us in a very dodgy situation.
I think we'll be ok, but the fact is we shouldn't be anything like in so much trouble.
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We had our chance at Christmas when there was still enough time to stave off the spectre of relegation but we bottled it.
The standard perceived wisdom then was we don't want to play ugly football a la Allardyce we don't want survival football. If playing a weakened team when a home tie in the FA Cup quarter finals against Reading is the prize in order to play elaborate pretty LOSING football to Bolton Wanderers is not survival football I don't know what is. We are going right down to the wire and I think Liverpool will send us down.
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WeIf we can get the defence sorted out for next season (and we don't go down) then there's plent to be optimistic about. A worry is though that at least 3 of that side (Young, Walker and Reo Coker) might not be here.
For the first time this season Chris, I think we're going down.
He hasn't sorted out the comically bad defence and I don't think he will any time soon.
We're fucked.
we had 3 central defenders injured. Were not going down
this is why we are going down
we created loads of chance, we had 3 central defenders out today
we got
nil points
if we keep getting nil points
we are fucked
end of
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Haven't seen it posted so
http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/football/teams/a/aston_villa/9415840.stm
First time we have seen him like that by my reckoning. Looks a bit bothered.
He does look bothered. I don't dislike Houllier as a man, he's a decent sort, in fact I feel for him. I just really can't see him being successful with us, I just can't.
I can but we've got to stick with him, get behind the team and simply fight our way up that table. No negativity - just positivity to see us through this incredibly frustrating season. There'll be one or two more setbacks between now and season's close but we've just got to stick together and see it through.
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But we don't "keep getting nil points" do we?
We are still in a precarious position but there is no need to exaggerate it to try to make a point.
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However, we've actually got some tricky fixtures left - Arsenal away, Liverpool at home towards the end of the season. Next we have Wolves at home next, then followed by Everton away, Newcastle at home, West Ham away, Stoke at home.
If these defensive frailities persist, then I can see matches like West Ham and Stoke (we've got form against them) going against us, and that would put us in a very dodgy situation.
I think we'll be ok, but the fact is we shouldn't be anything like in so much trouble.
Well hopefully we will soon have Collins, Cuellar and Dunne back, which should help shore up the defence especially if they get a run of games together and the rest perform as they did today and against Blackburn.
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Haven't seen it posted so
http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/football/teams/a/aston_villa/9415840.stm
First time we have seen him like that by my reckoning. Looks a bit bothered.
He does look bothered. I don't dislike Houllier as a man, he's a decent sort, in fact I feel for him. I just really can't see him being successful with us, I just can't.
My thoughts Jimbo.
Decent enough bloke, past it as a Manager.
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Just back from The Reebok.
First of all, as always the away support was fantastic.
Secondly, I can't believe we lost, we had a hatful of chances, they had 3 and took them all. All of their goals from corners !!
Friedl is finished IMO, never comes off his line for the ball or to clear the ball, now a liability.
Bent was wasteful, other than that I thought they played well.
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But we don't "keep getting nil points" do we?
We are still in a precarious position but there is no need to exaggerate it to try to make a point.
True, but he's not a lucky manager is he, in all his years with us Mon never had a season so full of injuries.
In fact its hard to remember when we last did, was it one of JG's seasons.
I can't see us going down 3 wins should do it along with a few draws, but if this injury blight continues as the kids despite the rhetoric aren't up to it, we could just miss out and go down.
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But we don't "keep getting nil points" do we?
We are still in a precarious position but there is no need to exaggerate it to try to make a point.
sorry about that Chris
fantastic game today, loads of goals all jolly good fun
them chaps scored 1 more than us - nil points
hey ho, still too good to go down
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Ah, I love all the posters who decry anyone with a negative take on events. Ok, let's look at it. With 9 games to go, even if we win every damn game left we can't reach our points total of last or the season before's, total. That's impressive isn't it? If we win every one we equal our points total of 3 seasons ago.
It's extremely unlikely that we'll make the 50 points of MON's first season. Believe me, I've no time for MON. However I've no time either for the apologists who excuse every defeat.
If we lose our last nine games someone on here would explain every bastard one away!
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Well said Rob Needed saying.
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If nothing else this season has shown we need a massive overhaul in the summer.
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I actually think Nigel Clough could do a better job.
I don't, he's a whinging cunt.
A dreadful appointment at Derby.
Burton manager for years and fuck all else, employed purely on the basis that his Dad was revered there.
Not ready for the Premier league by any means but I think you are doing him a disservice - he worked miracles at Burton and turned them from a struggling southern league outfit with a tin pot ground into a thriving league club. To the people of Burton he is thought of in the same way we think of Paul McGrath and this is why the club up the road took a punt on him not because of who is Dad is.
He also gives a fuck about the FA Cup something our club could learn from.
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The next 4 games all of a sudden look a bit trickier
Wolves
Everton
West ham
Stoke
Unless the defence is finally addressed we could easily lose them all
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Ah, I love all the posters who decry anyone with a negative take on events. Ok, let's look at it. With 9 games to go, even if we win every damn game left we can't reach our points total of last or the season before's, total. That's impressive isn't it? If we win every one we equal our points total of 3 seasons ago.
It's extremely unlikely that we'll make the 50 points of MON's first season. Believe me, I've no time for MON. However I've no time either for the apologists who excuse every defeat.
If we lose our last nine games someone on here would explain every bastard one away!
Great post. Dave Woodhall will explain the 9 defeats i bet you, at the same time licking Mr Lerner all over.
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After a couple of hours work, I have returned to hear the cat calls.
I just think we need to hold our nerve, and the signs from the rest of the side outside of the obvious (something GH alluded to being well aware of in his interview on sky) defensive issues is that we are capable of playing the sort of football that will bring a lot more happy days than sad, but this season needs to be dealt with first. I sincerely hope we stay up and and then GH is backed to continue his work. I will then enjoy next season, and enjoy the reaction of some on here. I feel rather like Chris Smith must have in the DOL days, but I think he is a good manager, he has a tremendous pedegree, and has seen us play some very good football this season at times. Just need to get the last bit sorted. Collins, Dunne and Cuellar coming back will be a great help with that, as although Bolton may have scored today, I think we would have been much steadier back there.
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If nothing else this season has shown we need a massive overhaul in the summer.
Pointless if we still have the same management team.
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and we have to get rid of players because of the debt
the results today coudnt have gone any worse for us
just need Wigan to get a result v Man City tonight (although that shouldnt happen after our confidence booster)
we are going down, make no mistake - the only worse team i see apart from us is Wigan
Sorry mate but every post is a load of crap. Why bother?
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Iceberg? What iceberg?
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Apparently, on average, one goal is scored for every 60 or so corners conceded.
Reckon we're anywhere close to that?
Don't tell Martin Laursen that. He seemed to score from one in two. ;o)
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Not long back and about to go out again, so to keep it brief.
I can't believe we didn't get 3 points, let alone lose.
Fault? Not Houllier's today. With the exception of bringing off Albrighton, I don't think he got much wrong. If a £20 million striker can't put away the chances he got today, then we may as well have saved the money.
I've said before Ashley is a liability as a penalty taker. I don't know his record, but he's not a nine out of tenner, which is what you want.
Oh, and why the fuck didn't we have a defender on the far post for their first goal? Text book defending from a corner.
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Ah, I love all the posters who decry anyone with a negative take on events. Ok, let's look at it. With 9 games to go, even if we win every damn game left we can't reach our points total of last or the season before's, total. That's impressive isn't it? If we win every one we equal our points total of 3 seasons ago.
It's extremely unlikely that we'll make the 50 points of MON's first season. Believe me, I've no time for MON. However I've no time either for the apologists who excuse every defeat.
If we lose our last nine games someone on here would explain every bastard one away!
Well, thanks to MoN we're struggling to get near his points total.
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When you play well and lose you know you've got problems
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Ah, I love all the posters who decry anyone with a negative take on events. Ok, let's look at it. With 9 games to go, even if we win every damn game left we can't reach our points total of last or the season before's, total. That's impressive isn't it? If we win every one we equal our points total of 3 seasons ago.
It's extremely unlikely that we'll make the 50 points of MON's first season. Believe me, I've no time for MON. However I've no time either for the apologists who excuse every defeat.
If we lose our last nine games someone on here would explain every bastard one away!
Great post. Dave Woodhall will explain the 9 defeats i bet you, at the same time licking Mr Lerner all over.
Hey, that was clever. Really funny, and at the same time veritably Wildean.
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Having watched that, my first thought is that we've missed a trick this season with all the events pre-Christmas because Bolton, being 6th in this league, shows how pish it is. Don't believe all this garbage about Coyle having them play football, because they're the same as they've always been. Their still a side that plays the percentage game, launching balls into the fat lads out wide and eking out set pieces.
Friedel doesn't dominate his area and does not communicate. Today we let in three soft goals again. Similar to Blackpool ikn not pickig up the runner.
I couldn't believe the amount of chances we've missed. If they'd have lost 6 they would have not been able to complain. You cannot be that wasteful and hope to get away with it.
Another three points thrown away. Still, there are plenty of positives. You'd think that attacking like that would see us win more games than not. We're not going to go down, the piss poor defending has made this season poorer than it should have been.
Once the rest of you have seen the highlights you'll say the same thing - "Bolton 6th? Fuck me Villa, what a waste of a season".
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After a couple of hours work, I have returned to hear the cat calls.
I just think we need to hold our nerve, and the signs from the rest of the side outside of the obvious (something GH alluded to being well aware of in his interview on sky) defensive issues is that we are capable of playing the sort of football that will bring a lot more happy days than sad, but this season needs to be dealt with first. I sincerely hope we stay up and and then GH is backed to continue his work. I will then enjoy next season, and enjoy the reaction of some on here. I feel rather like Chris Smith must have in the DOL days, but I think he is a good manager, he has a tremendous pedegree, and has seen us play some very good football this season at times. Just need to get the last bit sorted. Collins, Dunne and Cuellar coming back will be a great help with that, as although Bolton may have scored today, I think we would have been much steadier back there.
Whats he good at that then Ozz? The only thing he been good at is securing Walker on loan and to be fair Warnock led him to that signing.
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I am so tired of reading posts from people knee jerking, blaming houllier for bad luck and poor finishing, having a go at randy a few weeks after he has just smashed our transfer record. Sometimes you have to sit back and say it just wasnt our day....the media is unanimous in saying we deserved to win.
the night is darkest just before the dawn. see you all in two weeks
UTV
Well said.
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and we have to get rid of players because of the debt
the results today coudnt have gone any worse for us
just need Wigan to get a result v Man City tonight (although that shouldnt happen after our confidence booster)
we are going down, make no mistake - the only worse team i see apart from us is Wigan
Sorry mate but every post is a load of crap. Why bother?
no problem Dan
whats your take on things beside that?
dont leave me hanging here ffs
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Ah, I love all the posters who decry anyone with a negative take on events. Ok, let's look at it. With 9 games to go, even if we win every damn game left we can't reach our points total of last or the season before's, total. That's impressive isn't it? If we win every one we equal our points total of 3 seasons ago.
It's extremely unlikely that we'll make the 50 points of MON's first season. Believe me, I've no time for MON. However I've no time either for the apologists who excuse every defeat.
If we lose our last nine games someone on here would explain every bastard one away!
Great post. Dave Woodhall will explain the 9 defeats i bet you, at the same time licking Mr Lerner all over.
Hey, that was clever. Really funny, and at the same time veritably Wildean.
I wasnt being funny I was being truthful.
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A
Just back from The Reebok.
First of all, as always the away support was fantastic.
Secondly, I can't believe we lost, we had a hatful of chances, they had 3 and took them all. All of their goals from corners !!
Friedl is finished IMO, never comes off his line for the ball or to clear the ball, now a liability.
Bent was wasteful, other than that I thought they played well.
balanced view? Ban him!
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sorry we are starting to look a lot like the Aston Vanilla of a few years back, the kids are in danger of being overwhelmed by it which would be a great shame.
I think Houllier really needs to think hard and long about the role that Ashley Young is fulfilling(or not), I feel that he is allowed far too much leeway in a match, tries to make himself the star of the team when taking corners, freekicks etc.....I wait until he takes the goal kicks and then I will know its time to give up.
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Ah, I love all the posters who decry anyone with a negative take on events. Ok, let's look at it. With 9 games to go, even if we win every damn game left we can't reach our points total of last or the season before's, total. That's impressive isn't it? If we win every one we equal our points total of 3 seasons ago.
It's extremely unlikely that we'll make the 50 points of MON's first season. Believe me, I've no time for MON. However I've no time either for the apologists who excuse every defeat.
If we lose our last nine games someone on here would explain every bastard one away!
Great post. Dave Woodhall will explain the 9 defeats i bet you, at the same time licking Mr Lerner all over.
Hey, that was clever. Really funny, and at the same time veritably Wildean.
I wasnt being funny I was being truthful.
And now you're being banned.
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Not long back and about to go out again, so to keep it brief.
I can't believe we didn't get 3 points, let alone lose.
Fault? Not Houllier's today. With the exception of bringing off Albrighton, I don't think he got much wrong. If a £20 million striker can't put away the chances he got today, then we may as well have saved the money.
I've said before Ashley is a liability as a penalty taker. I don't know his record, but he's not a nine out of tenner, which is what you want.
Oh, and why the fuck didn't we have a defender on the far post for their first goal? Text book defending from a corner.
Creating chances and not taking them, that happens to all teams and that's something you can't pin on the manager, in fact he gets credit for putting out a team capable of creating chances like that, but your final point explains why we're in the shit and I'm sorry, I do blame the manager for that because we've been crap at defending corners all season and he doesn't seem to have a clue how to deal with the problem.
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Ah, I love all the posters who decry anyone with a negative take on events. Ok, let's look at it. With 9 games to go, even if we win every damn game left we can't reach our points total of last or the season before's, total. That's impressive isn't it? If we win every one we equal our points total of 3 seasons ago.
It's extremely unlikely that we'll make the 50 points of MON's first season. Believe me, I've no time for MON. However I've no time either for the apologists who excuse every defeat.
If we lose our last nine games someone on here would explain every bastard one away!
Great post. Dave Woodhall will explain the 9 defeats i bet you, at the same time licking Mr Lerner all over.
Hey, that was clever. Really funny, and at the same time veritably Wildean.
I wasnt being funny I was being truthful.
And now you're being banned.
harsh, very harsh Dave
no sense of humour?
anyway tell us why mods on here stopped the general threads agian?
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Gave my ticket away for today in disgust at the other night, so have only heard reports.
Being at home did enable me to watch some Soccer Saturday though and pre-match there was an interesting interview with Bryan Jones of the academy and Barry Bannan. Jones spoke of an exciting group of u16s we now have, and also quite rightly of his pride at seeing Craig Gardner and Ridgewell getting cup winners medals last week. There was mention of all the lads who have come through the academy, including Gareth Barry.
The one that wasn't mentioned was Gary Cahill. Of all the ex-academy players we've let go, he's one that would walk back into our team now. The annoying thing is he was good enough to be in the side when we sold him too.
Also Rambo spoke from the heart about his disappointment as a Villa fan at Houllier's decision on Weds, like most of us he just couldn't understand the reasoning behind it. But I've said enough about that on other threads.
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One league victory and the thread "how much credit does the manager deserve for our progress" is started. Posters generally agree that he deserves a lot, and the future looks bright. And, hey, Randy deserves praise, as well, for not resorting to knee-jerk reactions but backing GH when things looked bad.
One cup defeat against Man City and an unfortunate defeat against Bolton and we're going down for sure.
We will stay up. Next season GH will have the opportunity to mould his own squad and his own coaching team (God knows how many phone calls he had to make to finally get an assistant manager in). He'll have a full pre-season, and then we'll see.
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Ah, I love all the posters who decry anyone with a negative take on events. Ok, let's look at it. With 9 games to go, even if we win every damn game left we can't reach our points total of last or the season before's, total. That's impressive isn't it? If we win every one we equal our points total of 3 seasons ago.
It's extremely unlikely that we'll make the 50 points of MON's first season. Believe me, I've no time for MON. However I've no time either for the apologists who excuse every defeat.
If we lose our last nine games someone on here would explain every bastard one away!
Great post. Dave Woodhall will explain the 9 defeats i bet you, at the same time licking Mr Lerner all over.
Hey, that was clever. Really funny, and at the same time veritably Wildean.
I wasnt being funny I was being truthful.
And now you're being banned.
harsh, very harsh Dave
no sense of humour?
anyway tell us why mods on here stopped the general threads agian?
Oh yes, it's hilarious. I'm just here to be insulted all day long.
It hasn't been stopped; the last time he replied was yesterday afternoon.
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Ah, I love all the posters who decry anyone with a negative take on events. Ok, let's look at it. With 9 games to go, even if we win every damn game left we can't reach our points total of last or the season before's, total. That's impressive isn't it? If we win every one we equal our points total of 3 seasons ago.
It's extremely unlikely that we'll make the 50 points of MON's first season. Believe me, I've no time for MON. However I've no time either for the apologists who excuse every defeat.
If we lose our last nine games someone on here would explain every bastard one away!
Great post. Dave Woodhall will explain the 9 defeats i bet you, at the same time licking Mr Lerner all over.
Hey, that was clever. Really funny, and at the same time veritably Wildean.
I wasnt being funny I was being truthful.
And now you're being banned.
harsh, very harsh Dave
no sense of humour?
anyway tell us why mods on here stopped the general threads agian?
Oh yes, it's hilarious. I'm just here to be insulted all day long.
It hasn't been stopped; the last time he replied was yesterday afternoon.
insulted?
jesus wept, do you get out of the house often?
im away before i get banned
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You won't be missed.
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You won't be missed.
very true.
imagine if they banned both of us?
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I didn't see it but i'm feeling really down and pissed off now other than that i did have Darren Bent to score first goal.
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If nothing else this season has shown we need a massive overhaul in the summer.
And I'm going to disagree.
I saw enough today (okay via a dodgy feed) and against Blackburn to tell me that we need tweaking, not overhauling.
New keeper, yes, one more dominant defender, yes, perhaps another striker, yes, but a massive overhaul? No.
If we could somehow persuade some numpty to pay £25million for Ashley that would probably buy us the players we need to be a very good side indeed, that and a whole summer of training our defence on how to defend a corner.
We aren't far away you know, and we are not, I repeat, NOT, going down.
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Sorry Dave, I didn't make it clear. I was talking squad overhaul rather than team. We are 3 short in the first eleven and 7 for changing of the guard for the squad.
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I actually think Nigel Clough could do a better job.
I don't, he's a whinging cunt.
A dreadful appointment at Derby.
Burton manager for years and fuck all else, employed purely on the basis that his Dad was revered there.
Not ready for the Premier league by any means but I think you are doing him a disservice - he worked miracles at Burton and turned them from a struggling southern league outfit with a tin pot ground into a thriving league club. To the people of Burton he is thought of in the same way we think of Paul McGrath and this is why the club up the road took a punt on him not because of who is Dad is.
He did very well to get Burton into The Conference I'll admit, but the approximately two million quid they made from playing Manchester United in The Cup and the fact that the local council gave them a spanking new stadium with fantastic facilities for nothing meant that they were able to outspend everyone to get into the League.
He didn't work miracles, he did okay, shame he had to be such an arsehole while he was doing it.
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Sorry Dave, I didn't make it clear. I was talking squad overhaul rather than team. We are 3 short in the first eleven and 7 for changing of the guard for the squad.
Fair enough.
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If we'd have won today we would have been safe.
However, defeat has left us looking over our shoulder.
We've got to pray to God there will be three worse teams than us, as I'm afraid Monsieur Houllier, Gary Muck and the Villa squad do not have the balls to win a relegation scrap.
Is Clark now suspended for two games? I think he's racked up ten yellow's now.
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If nothing else this season has shown we need a massive overhaul in the summer.
that and a whole summer of training our defence on how to defend a corner.
We'll need a new coach for that. Or we could just ask the players what they used to do when they were brilliant at it.
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Jesus,come on everybody chill out a bit.I order everybody straight to the fridge for a cold un.
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You won't be missed.
very true.
imagine if they banned both of us?
"Things fall apart. The centre cannot hold".
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I have not seen any of the match and it is very hard reading this thread to get much indication of the game. From some of the constructive points I have gathered we played well but defended poor, again. I see again it was very late goals either half.
I still think Houllier is a good manager but it seems pretty clear we need to buy some good defenders but maybe most importantly Houllier needs help on the training ground with this. I hope he puts his hand up and admits defeat with this and gets someone in to take on these defensive duties. A good manager always needs good men around him.
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People can't be foolish enough to watch that and think we'll go down. We were better than Bolton. We just panic at set-pieces, largely because we've conceeded a lot through them and I think it plays on the players minds.
I think we've also seen why Darren Bent won't go to a bigger club than us. Whilst I'm 100% convinced he will go on to score lots of goals for us, imagine if he put all the chances he has away. I imagine this is how it's been for him down the years. He is always in great positions and so will always score, but the ratio of chances to scoring seems to let him down a bit. Still, I'm totally happy for him to be at Villa and long may his scoring continue (just don't faff around with it when in front of goal again please Darren!).
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How much is Gary Cahill worth now ?
Bolton fans were singing "Cahill, fucking hates villa"
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Defensively, we've been nothing short of appalling all season. This isn't going to change between now and seasons end.
That's why I think we are 50/50 to get relegated. Today, the fact that we played well and lost makes it worse not better FFS!
I'm not a knnejerk reaction type of bloke but IF we get through this season still in the Premier League GH has to go.
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i have watched game from start to finish, should have dicked them!, didnt, really disappointing but all the signs are there for glory to come soon!
wish i could be arsed to get into some of the dickheads on here who dont see the progress the team is making and how much better the club will be!
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How much is Gary Cahill worth now ?
Bolton fans were singing "Cahill, fucking hates villa"
And remind me who was infront of Cahill in the Villa pecking order which meant he wanted out................and then weep.
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Coops, I feel you are being a tad optimistic hoping for £25m for ash- with just a year left I reckon it will be between £12m and £15m max.
Agree, keeper, centre half, 2 full backs and maybe a replacement for ash will be the requirements- is definately keep nige and offload petrov.
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People blaming Houllier for the result today are fecking clueless or just too wrapped in their emotion to know better. We had the chances, when leading, to put the game firmly to bed. We didn't which then invites pressure on a very young and shaky defence, which to top it culminates in us missing a penalty. Stomping feet at the manager is simply futile, and the players need to take a bit of flak, Friedel as the experienced man does nothing to inspire in goal, while Young insisted on taking the pen when Bent and Reo Coker tried to dissuade him.
Might take a week or so away from the site, as the hysterics will start now about GH and be so boring.
We've not been able to defend ALL season. Who's fault is that?
Are we trying to zonal fucking mark or some shit, but we never get close to players? If it is zonal fucking marking Houllier can piss right off. Space never scored a goal.
We've gone from having a tight defence to shipping two goals a game. With the same players
We,ve stopped zonal marking actually Mac, God knows why. We were very good at it over the last four seasons.
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Ian J how can you think Houlier is a good manager, i just cannot understand it
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How much is Gary Cahill worth now ?
Bolton fans were singing "Cahill, fucking hates villa"
And remind me who was infront of Cahill in the Villa pecking order which meant he wanted out................and then weep.
it was martin laursen, end of story!
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So, so, so, so frustrated with today's result.
With the makeshift back four we had out today we had to take the game to Bolton and more importantly we had to take our chances; we didn't take them so ended up with what we deserved - nothing.
I am no fan of Gerard but for me he picked the best team available today and was let down by professional footballers (both up front and at the back) not doing what they are paid to do
So pissed off and not looking forward to the Wolves game in two weeks as with Clark now suspended we are once again going to be in make shift defence territory.
Will we go down? Probably not but frankly I don't class Aston Villa not being one of the three worst teams in the league as much to smile about...
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Ian J how can you think Houlier is a good manager, i just cannot understand it
i promise you mate, you will eat your words!
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How much is Gary Cahill worth now ?
Bolton fans were singing "Cahill, fucking hates villa"
Not as much as I do sometimes.
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Surely the fault lies for defending at the training ground. If we fix this we are in with a good chance. We can create and we can score. With a good strong defence it installs confidence through the team.
Am I wrong in remembering when Gregory left for Wycombe our team under Little struggled.
Houllier needs help on this, infact I think signing someone up for this role could be more important than actually signing a defender.
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and we have to get rid of players because of the debt
the results today coudnt have gone any worse for us
just need Wigan to get a result v Man City tonight (although that shouldnt happen after our confidence booster)
we are going down, make no mistake - the only worse team i see apart from us is Wigan
Sorry mate but every post is a load of crap. Why bother?
no problem Dan
whats your take on things beside that?
dont leave me hanging here ffs
There's things wrong. But we are in no way one of the worst three teams in the league. Bolton are a good side this season, their league position tells us that. I think a lot of the vitriol on here tonight is through resentment over Wednesday and this was always going to be the reaction if we lost. By all accounts we were a missed penalty away from 3 points today and we hammered Blackburn in our last league game. Following that everyone was raving about how good the football was, 1 defeat in 9 etc. etc. People need to calm and look at things objectively, we could have lost 3-1 at home to the baggies today!
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Ian J how can you think Houlier is a good manager, i just cannot understand it
i promise you mate, you will eat your words!
This is shit, I know. It's frustrating. It is 1 step forward 3, 4 back. I still believe he is a good manager but I do believe he needs help.
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Back from the Reebok and even though we lost, agreed with Owen Coyle's interview, thoroughly enjoyed the game. Can't honestly believe some of the over reaction on here as I truly thought we were outstanding going forward. Bent missed two sitters, hit the post, Downing a sitter, Ashley Youngs pen?, on another day we would have scored 6.
I agree with Ads earlier quote, ridiculous league this year and if MON hadn't have left us in the shit 5 days before the kick off, we would have been comfortably top 6.
I also agree with other quotes about next season. We have the base of an excellent team here with a few tweeks here and there in the summer. I can't believe the amount of stick Ashley Young gets, especially today, because apart from the penalty miss he was outstanding. His partnership with Bent is really beginning to click. I hope we can, but fear we won't, keep him next season. Maybe he likes being a big fish in a small pond?.
I honestly believe the defensive weakness we have seen this season stems mainly from the goalkeeper. Been a great servant to the game, but he probably has to move on now. I don't think that having three centre backs missing helps either.
I will never understand or forgive Houllier for Wednesday, but I do like a lot of things he has done at the club since he has been here and certainly our play is much more pleasing on the eye than previously. I wouldn't be that upset if he went, but I believe the board see him for the long term and he will be here next season.
Chin up all, the future could well be bright !!
UTV !!
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Isn't Olof Mellberg out of contract in the summer? What he lacks in coaching experience he would more than make up for in character and mental strength.
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It's been a truly shit season, let's hope it all ends well.
I want a new Manager, but I don't want him appointed when we're in the Championship.
I think we all know we're required to be behind the team now more than ever and hope, pray even, that Randy has enough vision and frankly, the balls to change the Manager come the end of this sorry season.
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We need to take our chances & we need to change what we're doing at corners.
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He will go in May if we get relegated or in December if we scrape survival in the Premiership. This new dawn of flowing sexy football is all smoke and mirrors.
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Oh dear oh dear oh dear. What an awful 7 days.
Now we've gotta wait 2 weeks to try and make amends. The question is can the management, squad and fans handle the pressure of games against teams beneath us?
I just haven't got the faith in Houllier for a relegation battle. He looked like a man on the edge in the post-match interview.
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Totally agree that the the keeper does not inspire confidence , he doesn't command even his 6 yard box and so many goals have been conceded from crosses in the 6 yard box- chances are get a header in that close and you'll score- friedal has worried me for some time but we are stuck with him until may and that's worrying.
I do think moyes and everton will part company this summer but If we stay up I expect houllier will remain in the hotseat.
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as I truly thought we were outstanding going forward. Bent missed two sitters, hit the post, Downing a sitter, Ashley Youngs pen?, on another day we would have scored 6.
Which is ace, but we would have been happy with a scrappy goal off someone's arse, and the three points.
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The kids deserve a mention today, all superb again, particularly delph and baker
And luke young did a good job filling in as a CB, always brave, never shirks a tackle or header
As said earlier, on another day we would have scored 6 at a canter
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as I truly thought we were outstanding going forward. Bent missed two sitters, hit the post, Downing a sitter, Ashley Youngs pen?, on another day we would have scored 6.
Which is ace, but we would have been happy with a scrappy goal off someone's arse, and the three points.
Absolutely. But I am trying to remain positive (quite difficult at times on here) and don't believe we will go down. I just want this season to end, so that we can build on the green shoots of recovery we have seen over the last few weeks and have a good go next season.
And in the cups as well :-)
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How much is Gary Cahill worth now ?
Bolton fans were singing "Cahill, fucking hates villa"
And remind me who was infront of Cahill in the Villa pecking order which meant he wanted out................and then weep.
it was martin laursen, end of story!
And the rest.
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Curtis farkin Davies
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Isn't Olof Mellberg out of contract in the summer? What he lacks in coaching experience he would more than make up for in character and mental strength.
what a load of arse!
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Interesting to see bottom of the table Wigan only lost to a dreadful keeping mistake at eastlands today against citys superstars- if Wigan can push them like that how sad GED doesn't think our strongest available side could do the same- what a lot of confidence it shows he has eh?
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There is a lot of hope for next season with good youngsters and some good football played. But Houllier has consistently failed to address the key problem - the defence, which is the joint third worst in the PL with 50 conceded. I could see Friedel was not up to it at the start of the season and even at times last season. So why didnt we make a keeper a priority in January? Why don't we ditch this zonal marking bollocks which everyone except GH can see isn't fucking working? Why don't we have players on the posts for free kicks and corners? It just drives me mad to see GH allowing the same mistakes to be made over and over again.
And the same goes for letting Ash take all the free kicks. Four seasons ago we scored about half our goals from set pieces. Now we are lucky if one actually ever reaches a claret and blue shirt unless it's sitting half way up the Holte. Yet every time Ash grabs the ball and proceeds to fire it into infinity. Is GH the only one who can't see we are wasting a massive part of our goalscoring potential by letting Ash continue to waste set pieces? I'd just like to see some evidence that he is doing something to address these clear and obvious problems.
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How much is Gary Cahill worth now ?
Bolton fans were singing "Cahill, fucking hates villa"
And remind me who was infront of Cahill in the Villa pecking order which meant he wanted out................and then weep.
it was martin laursen, end of story!
And the rest.
if you can cast your mind back he was going to be martin laursens replacement, however, cahill got sold and laursen got injured vey soon after each other, and for what it is worth, i dont think he is better than our four centre halves at the club anyway!
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Interesting to see bottom of the table Wigan only lost to a dreadful keeping mistake at eastlands today against citys superstars- if Wigan can push them like that how sad GED doesn't think our strongest available side could do the same- what a lot of confidence it shows he has eh?
Fulham got a draw there last weekend as well. Just shows what a bit of belief and fight could have achieved.
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How much is Gary Cahill worth now ?
Bolton fans were singing "Cahill, fucking hates villa"
And remind me who was infront of Cahill in the Villa pecking order which meant he wanted out................and then weep.
it was martin laursen, end of story!
And the rest.
if you can cast your mind back he was going to be martin laursens replacement, however, cahill got sold and laursen got injured vey soon after each other, and for what it is worth, i dont think he is better than our four centre halves at the club anyway!
Aren't you forgetting Cahill wanted/asked to go to meakesure he got regular football. He was not one of our two best centre halves at the time.
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Marshall should be given a run in goal he looked half decent in the pre-match shots in today
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Cahill wanted to go to get first team football and Barry didn't take the penalty because he getting treatment:)
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We won't go down, I'm still reasonably confident of that.
I'm increasingly coming around to the idea that it might be for the best if we stop up by the skin of our teeth though. If we're comfortable, the temptation might be there to continue with this complete travesty of a manager. Just about staying up might focus a few minds. Could GH still be excused in that scenario - with this set of players? Or would that be the stage where the unavoidable conclusion is he has had just as much of a bearing (probably more so) on events than anything that happened at the start of the season?
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People can't be foolish enough to watch that and think we'll go down. We were better than Bolton. We just panic at set-pieces, largely because we've conceeded a lot through them and I think it plays on the players minds.
I think we've also seen why Darren Bent won't go to a bigger club than us. Whilst I'm 100% convinced he will go on to score lots of goals for us, imagine if he put all the chances he has away. I imagine this is how it's been for him down the years. He is always in great positions and so will always score, but the ratio of chances to scoring seems to let him down a bit. Still, I'm totally happy for him to be at Villa and long may his scoring continue (just don't faff around with it when in front of goal again please Darren!).
We can be better than every team we play but if we still contrive to lose to them we will go down. Nothing foolish about it, it's a fact. Agree about Bent, I think he will need four chances to score one, and like Gabby he doesn't look so good with time to think, he's best with instinctive first time finishes (see all his goals for us so far). In fact he's a bit like Gabby but with much better movement and space finding.
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Just got back from the game, not read the thread, i thought defending apart we played some really good stuff today going forward. On another day could easily of scored 5, massively frustrating on the defending side, if collins and dunne were fit would things of been different, this season so far possibly says no, and for me friedel has to go, his command of the area is piss poor and hes constantly glued to his line.
I thought we looked much better than bolton, although that counts for little league wise, davies constantly getting away with fouling all match got tedious, and im sure we must have the worst record for conceeding late goals, thats how it feels anyways.
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some good football played.
Do me a favour.
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Was there anyone on the pitch for us today that you could actually say had a stinker ?
Bent should have had at least 1 more than he got and a few sitters were missed . We conceded 3 stupid goals from siuations that, had we a leader ala Laursen in defence , we would have dealt with but individually I cant really say anyone was shit today.
Good to see Luke back today and NRC is definatly putting himself in the shop window. He did a great job today.
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I actually think Nigel Clough could do a better job.
I don't, he's a whinging cunt.
A dreadful appointment at Derby.
Burton manager for years and fuck all else, employed purely on the basis that his Dad was revered there.
Not ready for the Premier league by any means but I think you are doing him a disservice - he worked miracles at Burton and turned them from a struggling southern league outfit with a tin pot ground into a thriving league club. To the people of Burton he is thought of in the same way we think of Paul McGrath and this is why the club up the road took a punt on him not because of who is Dad is.
He did very well to get Burton into The Conference I'll admit, but the approximately two million quid they made from playing Manchester United in The Cup and the fact that the local council gave them a spanking new stadium with fantastic facilities for nothing meant that they were able to outspend everyone to get into the League.
He didn't work miracles, he did okay, shame he had to be such an arsehole while he was doing it.
I don't think we'll agree on this Dave - the reason they got half that cup money was because they took Rooney, Ronaldo and co to a replay a massive result for a none league side. They didn't spend a fortune on players in the conference majority were the same guys that had played for the club for years which is what makes it an achievement - Stride, Webster etc. As for the stadium it was built with help from Pirelli in return for naming rights not the local council plus cash from the sale of Eton park. Cloughie is a really nice guy don't know what he's done to upset you and Rip van winkle.
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Saw nothing of this, other than the result. So not particularly good then?
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How much is Gary Cahill worth now ?
Bolton fans were singing "Cahill, fucking hates villa"
Yes wait till Cahill decides Bolton doesn't match his ambition in the Summer and goes to the highest bidder, wankers.
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Saw nothing of this, other than the result. So not particularly good then?
Some shoddy defending, sitters missed but despite thost 2 vital issues, some very good performances from our boys.
Very frustrated by the result but i have felt a hell of alot worse after defeats this season.
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Why don't we ditch this zonal marking bollocks which everyone except GH can see isn't fucking working?
Surely you mean "Why did we ditch this zonal marking bollocks which was so successful for the last four seasons"?
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What exactly are we doing, it's not quite zonal and it's not quite man marking.
It definately is appalling marking though.
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Just watched the game again, without the added emotions, if we'd won that 4-0 they could've had no complaints, we were by far the best team, which makes it bloody frustrating that we can't defend crosses
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I genuinely don't know what it is.
Andy Gray with his machines last season was adamant we were one of the better sides at defending set pieces because we were man-for-man and Liverpool struggled because they were going the fancy, continental zonal route.
Yet a few weeks back Laursen said we used to be zonal when he was at the club, but it looks like we've now gone man-to-man. Whether the OS got the wrong end of the stick I'm not sure, but I don't see how man-to-man marking can leave so many opponents unmarked - as it has done and countless times this season.
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What exactly are we doing, it's not quite zonal and it's not quite man marking.
It definately is appalling marking though.
I think its called no marking what so ever.
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Cheer yourselves up with the fact that Small Heath Alliance think Curtis is a pub player..
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Spot on, take Cahill's 2nd for example, not only a free header initially but also a free 2nd ball for him to lash home
It really is defending of the lowest order
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At the game today it looked man 4 man. It's the correct way, but you need to coach it.
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We need to take our chances & we need to change what we're doing at corners.
and I thought we need an alternative answer for splitting the atom!
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Cast your minds back to the last few seasons. At corners we would line up with the four best headers of the ball along the six-yard line, no matter where the opposition players were. The big centre-forward, be it Heskey or Carew, then the two centre-halves, then whichever centre-half happened to be playing right-back, all along the six-yard line. Perhaps people won't find the selection of Mellberg/Cuellar as an extra defender so 'baffling' now.
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What a miserable,grim season this has been. I've been going to the Villa consistantly since the Big Fat Ron days and this is the most depressed I have felt about a season. We've had shit seasons in my time, Sir Grahams spell, that twat O'Leary but this feels different, we have quality players, been playing well (I sound like a Baggies fan) and we also have promising young players for the future, but it's still not happening. I want to like Ged, but just can't, it's as though he doesn't understand the club and fans, I'm not a fan of getting rid of managers but I think we need him to get us to the summer and we all move on. Sid for manager.
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Ah, I love all the posters who decry anyone with a negative take on events. Ok, let's look at it. With 9 games to go, even if we win every damn game left we can't reach our points total of last or the season before's, total. That's impressive isn't it? If we win every one we equal our points total of 3 seasons ago.
It's extremely unlikely that we'll make the 50 points of MON's first season. Believe me, I've no time for MON. However I've no time either for the apologists who excuse every defeat.
If we lose our last nine games someone on here would explain every bastard one away!
Great post. Dave Woodhall will explain the 9 defeats i bet you, at the same time licking Mr Lerner all over.
Embarassing stuff. A good performance is a good performance. Injuries to the majority of our first choice defence is a fact, not an excuse.
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Houllier's post match interview:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/football/teams/a/aston_villa/9415840.stm
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Having been today can't believe we didn't win.Cruising before we missed the pen then the same old story,depleted defence apart still hard to take.
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Houllier's post match interview:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/football/teams/a/aston_villa/9415840.stm
Don't want to click and listen. I hate him, for now, for throwing away the FA cup..
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Why are some people describing posters disappointment on here as "knee jerk"? FFS after 29 games we are still in a relegation fight. This is consistent disappointment and ugly reactions is deserved and NOT knee jerk.
I don't think we will go down but we should not find ourselves in this place. 3 points from 3rd bottom and the team in that position has 2 games in hand over us.
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The thing that is a worry from today is, we played really well, yet lost !
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Glad to hear Ged having abit of passion for a change and getting players name right, he loooks fucking tired tho!
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Unfortunately not a suprise today.
There is a real lack of substance to anything the team and management does this season.
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I don't think we'll agree on this Dave - the reason they got half that cup money was because they took Rooney, Ronaldo and co to a replay a massive result for a none league side.
Never said it wasn't, but the money gained was the reason Burton got promotion. You say the majority of the players were there before, it was the additions, paid for by the cup run money, that got Burton up.
As for the stadium it was built with help from Pirelli in return for naming rights not the local council plus cash from the sale of Eton park.
Pirelli gave the land to Burton Albion in exchange for the naming rights, they didn't pay a penny towards the £7million+ construction costs, that came from the council buying Eton Park for well above market rates, basically granting Burton a new ground. Now I have no problem with this, it just winds up Burton fans when I mention it!
Cloughie is a really nice guy don't know what he's done to upset you and Rip van winkle.
Nigel Clough is a whinging c***, he was as a player, he carried it on to his managerial career, I don't feel the need to justify this opinion, I just know!
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Some very good individual performances today but why Petrov was bought on i can't imagine, he weakened the midfield.
We have a goalkeeper that should have dominated his area considering the inexperience at the back, he is the one who can use his hands and should have come out especially for their third.
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Why are some people describing posters disappointment on here as "knee jerk"? FFS after 29 games we are still in a relegation fight. This is consistent disappointment and ugly reactions is deserved and NOT knee jerk.
I don't think we will go down but we should not find ourselves in this place. 3 points from 3rd bottom and the team in that position has 2 games in hand over us.
It's considered 'knee-jerk' because this is a post MATCH thread, not a SEASON SO FAR thread. No-one likes where we are in the league, NO-ONE - or the fact that we lost, but when you actually look at this match in isolation we played quite well and paid the price for having three of our first-choice back four missing.
Do you t'hink Cahill would have scored either of his goals if it had been Collins 'challenging' him rather than young Nathan Baker? Would Bent have missed the pen?
Play like that for the rest of the season, and we'll be fine (as long we get some centre-backs fit).
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Having only seen the highlights on MOTD, we played some good football and created numerous chances. Defensively our season has been awful and that ultimately is why we are where we are in the league. I will be glad to see the back of this season to be honest.
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We're really not far off being a very good team indeed. Better than we ever were under mon. But we need to keep walker, and get a new keeper, left back and possibly centre back. And keep ashley.
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Just watched the hihlights...
So annyoying to throw it all away when we looked so in control.
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As much as I think Houllier is a knobhead, and what he did in midweek was a disgrace, I thought we were unlucky today, and actually felt sorry for him. We played well, created some great chances, things looked like they were clicking, but we had our 3 best central defenders out, who are all good in the air. I'd still prefer him not to be our manager, but I find it hard to have a go at him today.
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You won't fit in... ;o)
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Do you t'hink Cahill would have scored either of his goals if it had been Collins 'challenging' him rather than young Nathan Baker? Would Bent have missed the pen?
Play like that for the rest of the season, and we'll be fine (as long we get some centre-backs fit).
I agree, having seen it on MotD, Baker was at fault for Cahill's two goals and yes Collins/Cuellar would have done better. However not sure about Bent with pens being better than Young. Young had scored the last 4 and missed one. Statistically that's not bad. Bent's pen taking style is nerve wrecking and I have not checked but you he has missed a few.
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Do you t'hink Cahill would have scored either of his goals if it had been Collins 'challenging' him rather than young Nathan Baker? Would Bent have missed the pen?
I'm very surprised there has been so little "Sir Gary Cahill, who MON despotically trampled into the ground before casting away, he who will go on to play for AC Bigtime in Italy" style talk this evening.
Surprised and disappointed. I think we're all worn down by this season.
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Do you t'hink Cahill would have scored either of his goals if it had been Collins 'challenging' him rather than young Nathan Baker? Would Bent have missed the pen?
Play like that for the rest of the season, and we'll be fine (as long we get some centre-backs fit).
I agree, having seen it on MotD, Baker was at fault for Cahill's two goals and yes Collins/Cuellar would have done better. However not sure about Bent with pens being better than Young. Young had scored the last 4 and missed one. Statistically that's not bad. Bent's pen taking style is nerve wrecking and I have not checked but you he has missed a few.
We can whinge all we want about Young recently, but he's been pretty dependable from the penalty spot, so it seems very harsh to give him a hard time over that.
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Do you t'hink Cahill would have scored either of his goals if it had been Collins 'challenging' him rather than young Nathan Baker? Would Bent have missed the pen?
Play like that for the rest of the season, and we'll be fine (as long we get some centre-backs fit).
I agree, having seen it on MotD, Baker was at fault for Cahill's two goals and yes Collins/Cuellar would have done better. However not sure about Bent with pens being better than Young. Young had scored the last 4 and missed one. Statistically that's not bad. Bent's pen taking style is nerve wrecking and I have not checked but you he has missed a few.
We can whinge all we want about Young recently, but he's been pretty dependable from the penalty spot, so it seems very harsh to give him a hard time over that.
I trust him from 12 yards,but from outside the box he should just stop.I would love to know the last time he made the keeper do anything from a free kick.
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Do you t'hink Cahill would have scored either of his goals if it had been Collins 'challenging' him rather than young Nathan Baker? Would Bent have missed the pen?
Yes and Yes, I don't know where this Darren Bent is a great penalty taker rumour has came from and we've been shite at defending corners all season.
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Do you t'hink Cahill would have scored either of his goals if it had been Collins 'challenging' him rather than young Nathan Baker? Would Bent have missed the pen?
Play like that for the rest of the season, and we'll be fine (as long we get some centre-backs fit).
I agree, having seen it on MotD, Baker was at fault for Cahill's two goals and yes Collins/Cuellar would have done better. However not sure about Bent with pens being better than Young. Young had scored the last 4 and missed one. Statistically that's not bad. Bent's pen taking style is nerve wrecking and I have not checked but you he has missed a few.
We can whinge all we want about Young recently, but he's been pretty dependable from the penalty spot, so it seems very harsh to give him a hard time over that.
Apart from the one at Chelsea, Youngs penalties have all been poor and relying on the goalkeeper going the wrong way
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Do you t'hink Cahill would have scored either of his goals if it had been Collins 'challenging' him rather than young Nathan Baker? Would Bent have missed the pen?
Play like that for the rest of the season, and we'll be fine (as long we get some centre-backs fit).
I agree, having seen it on MotD, Baker was at fault for Cahill's two goals and yes Collins/Cuellar would have done better. However not sure about Bent with pens being better than Young. Young had scored the last 4 and missed one. Statistically that's not bad. Bent's pen taking style is nerve wrecking and I have not checked but you he has missed a few.
We can whinge all we want about Young recently, but he's been pretty dependable from the penalty spot, so it seems very harsh to give him a hard time over that.
Apart from the one at Chelsea, Youngs penalties have all been poor and relying on the goalkeeper going the wrong way
Who gives a shit if they go in?
And "rely on the keeper going the wrong way"? Isn't the the entire point - ie put the penalty where the keeper doesn't go?
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it seems that most of the time nowadays if the keeper goes the right way he saves it.
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Even Sid missed the occasional penalty. It happens.
Didn't we miss about 7 in a row one season under JG? I seem to remember Hendrie, Merson and Dublin all having a go and fluffing them.
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Do you t'hink Cahill would have scored either of his goals if it had been Collins 'challenging' him rather than young Nathan Baker? Would Bent have missed the pen?
Play like that for the rest of the season, and we'll be fine (as long we get some centre-backs fit).
I agree, having seen it on MotD, Baker was at fault for Cahill's two goals and yes Collins/Cuellar would have done better. However not sure about Bent with pens being better than Young. Young had scored the last 4 and missed one. Statistically that's not bad. Bent's pen taking style is nerve wrecking and I have not checked but you he has missed a few.
We can whinge all we want about Young recently, but he's been pretty dependable from the penalty spot, so it seems very harsh to give him a hard time over that.
Apart from the one at Chelsea, Youngs penalties have all been poor and relying on the goalkeeper going the wrong way
Who gives a shit if they go in?
And "rely on the keeper going the wrong way"? Isn't the the entire point - ie put the penalty where the keeper doesn't go?
Its risky cus as soon as the keeper does guess the correct way, like today, then he'll save it cus of how poorly he takes them, I've never felt confident when he steps up, much prefered Milners approach of smashing them as far into the corners as possible, even if the keeper does guess the rite way they'll still probably go in
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it seems that most of the time nowadays if the keeper goes the right way he saves it.
When I was a lad the keeper wasn't allowed to move before they were taken, today Jussi made a good save, I don't think he even came off his line but generally keepers are given the advantage on pens these days, it's wrong.
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Even Sid missed the occasional penalty. It happens.
Didn't we miss about 7 in a row one season under JG? I seem to remember Hendrie, Merson and Dublin all having a go and fluffing them.
We missed twice in the same game on a couple of occasions under Gregory
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Its risky cus as soon as the keeper does guess the correct way, like today, then he'll save it cus of how poorly he takes them, I've never felt confident when he steps up, much prefered Milners approach of smashing them as far into the corners as possible, even if the keeper does guess the rite way they'll still probably go in
How is that different from anyone else taking a penalty?
if the keeper guesses the right way, he's onto a bit of a winner in terms of saving it.
Young hits them pretty hard, too.
Dont get me wrong, I can think of things to criticise Ashley for. His free kicks are shite, he wears a snood, he goes to ground far too much, and I understand why opposition fans hate him. Then again, he has a spark that very few of our players have, gets people on their feet, scores some excellent goals, and always gives 100 percent.
There's plenty to criticise at the moment, but it strikes me there are a lot of things deserving of criticism before we get to Ashley Young.
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His record at pens is good, inevitably eventually he will miss one. I don't think he deserves stick for it.
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His record at pens is good, inevitably eventually he will miss one. I don't think he deserves stick for it.
Today, though, I did find myself wondering why Barry didn't take it.
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His record at pens is good, inevitably eventually he will miss one. I don't think he deserves stick for it.
Agreed, he'd scored the last four and today's was saved, if he'd hit it over or wide then that would be fair criticism, as I said earlier, I know Bent has missed them, very few players put them all away.
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His record at pens is good, inevitably eventually he will miss one. I don't think he deserves stick for it.
Today, though, I did find myself wondering why Barry didn't take it.
While listening to your Famous French Rock Bands CD and reading The Search for Ryu.
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Young won it, he's been scoring them so let him take it. No problems with him. It's the bastard defending that makes me want to smash something up. Stick a solid defence (how we defended for most of last season), with a top quality holding midfielder behind the attacking players we now have and we would be back in the top 6 with an outside chance of 4th.
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Young was psyched out by Jaskerlynan (sp) .... But he us our best penalty taker .
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Not wanting to wank my own rod and all that, but during my time as a footballer for Polesworth North Warwick and Hams Hall and then in the Army for various units I took quite a few penalties, I used to win the training session penalty competition for the privilege.
High and in the top corner, no keeper can save that, they can guess the direction, but they can't dive upwards.
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Not wanting to wank my own rod and all that, but during my time as a footballer for Polesworth North Warwick and Hams Hall and then in the Army for various units I took quite a few penalties, I used to win the training session penalty competition for the privilege.
High and in the top corner, no keeper can save that, they can guess the direction, but they can't dive upwards.
Bottom corner, just brushing the post is the place for me... It's a doddle this penalty lark.
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What month normally do shit in? We're in it. I'm surprised we haven't got a song about how poor we do!
Can we beat wolves it's possible i just can't see it happening. The draw is odds on for me, we haven't looked convincing in the past against them . 4 clean sheets all season 2 of them were 0-0 draws so it's very likely they'll be scoring.
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Just hit in any direction, on target, with vemon. GH needs to sit Ashley down and say 'listen, your energy is great, you can score goals from open play. But stop tyring to be the guy that does it all. Bent will take better penalties than you. Downing is a million miles better at corners, freekicks and, well most all else than you. You need to run around alot and be you. You are not that good. Leave the dead ball stuff alone'. Please.
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I used to keep my eyes closed to keep the goalie guessing.
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I can see why Ashley took the penalty, and there is no denying that having scored the last 4 he was correct in going up to take it. Problem being that he has put them all in the same place, so eventually someone was going to suss him out.
Also, there was about a 2 minute delay in the awarding and then taking of the penalty, and for at least 1 minute of that there was a Bolton player stood on the penalty spot putting Young off.
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Let's be clear, ash scoring the pen would have won the game. But he didnt lose the game, it was shit marking that did that.
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Let's be clear, ash scoring the pen would have won the game. But he didnt lose the game, it was shit marking that did that.
Is the right answer.
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Villa didn't play bad yesterday, we were really unlucky and I'm quite satisfied.
The dramatic lack of altenatives made GH to play a formation quite logical.
If AJ7 would have scored the penalty the game would have been closed.
Yes the defence was once again poor on set pieces (it seems that the manager doesn't work on this aspect) and Super Mark Albrighton that had produced goals and assists should remain on the pitch (even because Gabby on the flank is absolutely uneffective). But fair play to Cahill for his goals, and at least we played an attacking, entertaining passing football, against a strong team superby conducted by O. Cole.
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High and in the top corner, no keeper can save that, they can guess the direction, but they can't dive upwards.
This is how they should be taken. All professional footballers should be capable of blasting the ball into the top corner from 12 yards.
Ashley's are generally shite. If you hit them low, they have to be right in the corner, not where he put it yesterday.
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You can't defend like that and miss those sort of chances and expect a win.
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Teams rarely win anything with kids a fact proved by the poor start to the season, the cup exits and yesterdays game. I've seen people blaming Friedel, zonal marking, all sorts but in the end Bakers poor marking of Cahill cost us 2 goals. As it was only his 2nd PL game I don't blame him.
Like others of the reserve side he lacks the necessary experience to cope with the likes of a PL game.
I doubt dunne, cuellar or collins would have allowed so much room on 3 occasions.
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I've seen people blaming Friedel, zonal marking, all sorts
Oh God.
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We've blamed everyone else so why not him Percy.
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Teams rarely win anything with kids a fact proved by the poor start to the season, the cup exits and yesterdays game. I've seen people blaming Friedel, zonal marking, all sorts but in the end Bakers poor marking of Cahill cost us 2 goals. As it was only his 2nd PL game I don't blame him.
Like others of the reserve side he lacks the necessary experience to cope with the likes of a PL game.
I doubt dunne, cuellar or collins would have allowed so much room on 3 occasions.
:o
...but they have though haven't they and have done for the whole of the season. Have you seen the amount conceded this season? Have you seen which team has conceded the most from corners?
Let's not be daft this terrible defending isn't a one off, it's been happening all season. Something needs to change with the coaching, Dunne/Collins/Carlos have already proved this season that having them on the pitch doesn't really have much impact on the standard of defending defending - we're still shit at it.
Them playing yesterday would have very likely made sweet f.a. difference.
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His record at pens is good, inevitably eventually he will miss one. I don't think he deserves stick for it.
Today, though, I did find myself wondering why Barry didn't take it.
If I remember rightly, he was off the pitch at the time?
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You can't defend like that and miss those sort of chances and expect a win.
also up the other end, you cant keep missing sitters [Bent, Downing] and expect to win
Edit, just noticed you already said that, so take no notice of me
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Let's be clear, ash scoring the pen would have won the game. But he didnt lose the game, it was shit marking that did that.
Disagree.
I still think they'd have got it back to 3-3.
The utterly shit defending is going to cost us our Premier League place.
Unless Houllier can somehow fix it.
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Let's be clear, ash scoring the pen would have won the game. But he didnt lose the game, it was shit marking that did that.
Disagree.
I still think they'd have got it back to 3-3.
The utterly shit defending is going to cost us our Premier League place.
Unless Houllier can somehow fix it.
Can't see Houllier at the back myself.
Seriously, we had 3 central defenders out, so it was very much a makeshift defence, and man, did it look it.
At least we're creating chances - Albrighton's crosses yesterday were a centre forwards wet dream.
NRC played well too, but after a night's sleep, I am encouraged ( and I'm not easily pleased).
Friedel is on his last season too - he's not agile enough these days and doesn't come off his line.
So, this is my wish list:-
1) Scraping up by the skin of our teeth
2) Replacing the Manager as soon as the season ends
3) Re-engineering the squad
These are the 3 core things I see as where our club is at the moment.
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Let's be clear, ash scoring the pen would have won the game. But he didnt lose the game, it was shit marking that did that.
Disagree.
I still think they'd have got it back to 3-3.
The utterly shit defending is going to cost us our Premier League place.
Unless Houllier can somehow fix it.
Can't see Houllier at the back myself.
Seriously, we had 3 central defenders out, so it was very much a makeshift defence, and man, did it look it.
But even with our first choice defenders we've defended like amateurs.
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Let's be clear, ash scoring the pen would have won the game. But he didnt lose the game, it was shit marking that did that.
Disagree.
I still think they'd have got it back to 3-3.
The utterly shit defending is going to cost us our Premier League place.
Unless Houllier can somehow fix it.
Us missing the pen gave them a massive boost though. Had it gone in it might have knocked the stuffing out of them a bit.
This one game in isolation, in spite of the result, was quite promising. Good going forward, and midfield seems to have sorted itself out, with any two from NRC, Makoun and Delph to play from now until the end of the season. Walker looks better with every game, and to be fair, the defenders who would be playing when fit have improved since the (first) shambles at Man City. I was probably the most pessimistic poster on here after that game, but as long as Bent, Young, Downing and Albrighton keep playing with confidence from now on I can see us staying up. After that, I'd give Houllier another go, but I'd hope he can get this Berges (sp?) bloke to join him to coach a bit of steel into them. Apparently, the timing was wrong before, maybe he'll be prepared to join in the summer. This team with a solid, well-organised defence and keeper behind them could be contenders. We've just got to limp over the line. Easy to say I know.
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Re: penalty taking, I always try and chip mine in ala Dwight Yorke Sheff Utd
Re: central defenders, Clark out now for wolves! Collins should be back, dunne out, when is Carlos back ?
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Re: penalty taking, I always try and chip mine in ala Dwight Yorke Sheff Utd
Re: central defenders, Clark out now for wolves! Collins should be back, dunne out, when is Carlos back ?
I hit mine weakly and down the middle in fifa 11
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Cuellar and Collins are fit for Wolves apparently. We can say a million things about the defense, but since the turn of the year they have been a bit better and I genuinely don't think we would have conceded 3 yesterday with Collins and Cuellar in there as they are both good in the air, something neither Clark or Baker can claim and something you desperately need away at Bolton. Wolves is a big game, but as Percy rightly says, going forward we have enough to beat them, and at the back 2 big experienced defenders coming in, probably with Clark or Luke Young even at left back will make us more solid. The side is taking shape and when we survive, I would certainly back GH to replace Young and Walker more effectively than most will seeing who he has got in so far.
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Re: penalty taking, I always try and chip mine in ala Dwight Yorke Sheff Utd
Re: central defenders, Clark out now for wolves! Collins should be back, dunne out, when is Carlos back ?
According to Physioroom Carlos is back 19th March. Having said that it also says Luke Young is back 19th March, and he played yesterday. Collins isn't even on there as injured.
So not much of a guide really.
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Let's be clear, ash scoring the pen would have won the game. But he didnt lose the game, it was shit marking that did that.
Disagree.
I still think they'd have got it back to 3-3.
The utterly shit defending is going to cost us our Premier League place.
Unless Houllier can somehow fix it.
Can't see Houllier at the back myself.
Seriously, we had 3 central defenders out, so it was very much a makeshift defence, and man, did it look it.
But even with our first choice defenders we've defended like amateurs.
True, but yesterday was as bad as it gets.
Mind you, this is a team that puts Barry Bannan on the goal line at corners !!
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I used to keep my eyes closed to keep the goalie guessing.
Yeah, I do that on Fifa 11
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Most sides have the little men on the posts Tim - they are useless marking in the middle so it is the most effective place for them.
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Back from the Reebok and even though we lost, agreed with Owen Coyle's interview, thoroughly enjoyed the game. Can't honestly believe some of the over reaction on here as I truly thought we were outstanding going forward. Bent missed two sitters, hit the post, Downing a sitter, Ashley Youngs pen?, on another day we would have scored 6.
I agree with Ads earlier quote, ridiculous league this year and if MON hadn't have left us in the shit 5 days before the kick off, we would have been comfortably top 6.
I also agree with other quotes about next season. We have the base of an excellent team here with a few tweeks here and there in the summer. I can't believe the amount of stick Ashley Young gets, especially today, because apart from the penalty miss he was outstanding. His partnership with Bent is really beginning to click. I hope we can, but fear we won't, keep him next season. Maybe he likes being a big fish in a small pond?.
I honestly believe the defensive weakness we have seen this season stems mainly from the goalkeeper. Been a great servant to the game, but he probably has to move on now. I don't think that having three centre backs missing helps either.
I will never understand or forgive Houllier for Wednesday, but I do like a lot of things he has done at the club since he has been here and certainly our play is much more pleasing on the eye than previously. I wouldn't be that upset if he went, but I believe the board see him for the long term and he will be here next season.
Chin up all, the future could well be bright !!
UTV !!
I agree with this post , but I would like to see Ashley Young taking alot less freekicks and corners, he is so frustrating. If he scores that penalty the game is won , continuing the recent good form ( form guide 4th before the game ). I thought NRC and Albrighton were very good and like the look of Delph , his build up for the second goal was great. Still can't believe the Downing miss , I thought that was the worse. .
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Most sides have the little men on the posts Tim - they are useless marking in the middle so it is the most effective place for them.
You're right.
I recall Alan Wright doing that job for us.
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Alan Wright was like a giant compared to bannan
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Let's be clear, ash scoring the pen would have won the game. But he didnt lose the game, it was shit marking that did that.
Disagree.
I still think they'd have got it back to 3-3.
The utterly shit defending is going to cost us our Premier League place.
Unless Houllier can somehow fix it.
Can't see Houllier at the back myself.
Seriously, we had 3 central defenders out, so it was very much a makeshift defence, and man, did it look it.
But even with our first choice defenders we've defended like amateurs.
True, but yesterday was as bad as it gets.
Mind you, this is a team that puts Barry Bannan on the goal line at corners !!
Being 5'3 I was always stuck on the post defending a corner, I thought this was the norm?
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On seeing Houllier in his post match MOTD interview I was given the clear impression that the Villa penny has finally dropped.
Apart from looking very tired, his body language, tone of voice and general attitude was of a man who has finally taken stock of his situation. He has finally admitted to himself that he is making a total fuck up of things.
French men of my acquaintance are never lacking in the self regard department and right up to the binning of the FA Cup his self regard - supercharged by nights like the Anfield love in - was totally intact. Now the cracks are starting to show and reality is setting in.
If he does not take us down we will only escape by the skin of our teeth and like another poster said, I will get no satisfaction whatsoever that Aston Villa are not one of the worst three teams in the Premiership. In many ways the slithering under the wire to safety is more humiliating than straight relegation.
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Strange thing was, corners aside, the defence looked solid yesterday. Sturridge didn't have a sniff
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Shades of Stoke, two years ago (near enough to the very day). A game we had the best of and had the perfect chance of sewing up but threw it away.
After Wednesday, this is what I said I feared before the game. And so it came to pass. Felt strangely numb and not that surprised when their second and third went in. Ended up thinking I'd had a pretty reasonable day out, which says something about my expectations at the minute.
There were some plus points - Walker's cross to Bent and the way that Downing and Albrighton combined. And perhaps the fact that we did create chances for Bent, and if we keep doing that he will keep putting the odd one away, despite some very poor finishing yesterday. But our attacking and defending set pieces - oh dear.
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we would probably top of the league If we didnt concede one corner through the season ..
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Would also like to mention, great positive support yesterday, not one anti Houllier song, we did leave when the 3 rd went in though, not sure if it got ugly after that ?
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This may sound strange but there isnt actually a lot wrong. Its just that what is wrong is fundamental.
It wouldnt take much to tweak this team into very good one that's maybe 20-25 points better off than is the case at the moment. Which I think is encouraging.
In the meantime, the same mistakes are costing us and will continue to do so.
A really frustrating season but once a couple of problems are addressed in the summer, I think we'll be up the right end of the table, with THIS manager.
- New keeper.
- New left back.
- Walker situation???
- One top class centre half.
- Fuck the last of the dead wood off.
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Would also like to mention, great positive support yesterday, not one anti Houllier song, we did leave when the 3 rd went in though, not sure if it got ugly after that ?
Well you missed the "you're getting sacked in the morning" routine then from some of our so called "supporters".
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I was there yesterday and i still can't believe how we did'nt win that game at a canter. On another day we would have scored 6. Going forward we carved them open time and time again.
Bent was in the right place at the right time for the first, he could'nt miss, but he needs stop worrying about whether he's offside or not and just concentrate on finishing. Twice yesterday, he looked across to the linesman before he shot at goal. Downing's miss was equally as bad. Could'nt help thinking that Fonz would have helped himself to a couple had he been playing yesterday.
Carry on playing like that and we should be ok.
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This may sound strange but there isnt actually a lot wrong. Its just that what is wrong is fundamental.
It wouldnt take much to tweak this team into very good one that's maybe 20-25 points better off than is the case at the moment. Which I think is encouraging.
In the meantime, the same mistakes are costing us and will continue to do so.
A really frustrating season but once a couple of problems are addressed in the summer, I think we'll be up the right end of the table, with THIS manager.
- New keeper.
- New left back.
- Walker situation???
- One top class centre half.
- Fuck the last of the dead wood off.
Spot on here.
Friedel was slow off his line which might have prevented the corner and then should have come out and cleaned everyone out of the way when Cahill scored the first (eg Robinson on Baker last week)
A new centre back playing with Clark and having a pre-season to get to know each other plus a decent left back will sort out the defence.
Also think that away from home we are too open - we really need three in midfield with Bent and 2 from Ashley, Downing and Albrighton. I know that will mean leaving one out but with those three behind Bent we are short on defensive quality in the middle of the park which in turn leaves the back four exposed.
I know people have been saying we have been poor at defending all season but how many times have we had the first choice back four actually play - especially in successive games? Very few I would imagine. That is I think the main problem this season - I know Fergie changes his team but generally he tries to leave the back four intact and tinkers with the rest. The fact that this season he has has injuries to his defenders is one of the reasons why they are vulnerable. So it is not only us.
Bolton have lost 2 games at home this season and I think any neutral there yesterday who saw the whole game, not bits on TV or internet, would have said we deserved to win and if we had put our chances away we would have done so as Bolton would have been dead and buried.
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One of the barmaids in the Barnstormers was well fit. Almost worth the journey to see that alone !
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Interesting that SAF & "king kenny" were at the game. Watching Ash ??
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Interesting that SAF & "king kenny" were at the game. Watching Ash ??
I think they will stick with Charlie Adam now .. ;-)
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There is a picture of Bryan Small in yesterdays matchday programme which I found a little disturbing
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There is a picture of Bryan Small in yesterdays matchday programme which I found a little disturbing
He only ever played good against MAnure..
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Most sides have the little men on the posts Tim - they are useless marking in the middle so it is the most effective place for them.
Not that little though Dave, surely ?
Back to our central defense - Collins and Cualler we would probably top of the league If we didnt concede one corner through the season ..
...............and the ref blew 'full time' on 80 minutes.
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His record at pens is good, inevitably eventually he will miss one. I don't think he deserves stick for it.
Today, though, I did find myself wondering why Barry didn't take it.
You may have not noticed but he was on the touchline getting treatment to an injury caused by a fat wallet!
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This may sound strange but there isnt actually a lot wrong. Its just that what is wrong is fundamental.
It wouldnt take much to tweak this team into very good one that's maybe 20-25 points better off than is the case at the moment. Which I think is encouraging.
In the meantime, the same mistakes are costing us and will continue to do so.
A really frustrating season but once a couple of problems are addressed in the summer, I think we'll be up the right end of the table, with THIS manager.
- New keeper.
- New left back.
- Walker situation???
- One top class centre half.
- Fuck the last of the dead wood off.
I have to agree, I think Houllier needs to just sort out these basic mistakes and we have a good team. He needs to get someone in on that training ground and sort it.
I reckon your right too Brian, Houllier did look quite mad. He had "a look" which I just can't place? Madness or just exhaustion I don't know.
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Interesting that SAF & "king kenny" were at the game. Watching Ash ??
Hopefully they were watching Friedel, Luke Young, Petrov and yes Ash at £20+!
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I don't know why people think Clark will be ok for us at centre half? He quite simply isn't big enough and gets bullied by any big centre forward. He's not going to sudden sprout 4 inches! Best bet for him would be to stay at fullback.
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I don't know why people think Clark will be ok for us at centre half? He quite simply isn't big enough and gets bullied by any big centre forward. He's not going to sudden sprout 4 inches! Best bet for him would be to stay at fullback.
Eh?
This is Ciaran Clark you're talking about isn't it? The 6'2" tall Ciaran Clark?
He probably needs to beef up a bit (not to Dunne standards mind) but he's certainly tall enough. He's also, possibly, the best young centre-half I've seen for a long time, he'll be a star for Villa.
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No. Disagree. Clark is not a fullback never will be. He may not be 7 feet tall and 6 feet wide but he is a composed performer who will use guile to make CB position his own. A Gareth Southgate rather than a George Curtis. (If you don't know George C he was proverbial BSH)
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I don't know why people think Clark will be ok for us at centre half? He quite simply isn't big enough and gets bullied by any big centre forward. He's not going to sudden sprout 4 inches! Best bet for him would be to stay at fullback.
Eh?
This is Ciaran Clark you're talking about isn't it? The 6'2" tall Ciaran Clark?
He probably needs to beef up a bit (not to Dunne standards mind) but he's certainly tall enough. He's also, possibly, the best young centre-half I've seen for a long time, he'll be a star for Villa.
Oh sorry i always thought a defenders job was to defend? How many clean sheets have we kept in the games he's played in? Can you seriously tell me your not worried about every ball that comes in to our box when he's on the pitch? He gets bullied everytime.
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Ciaran Clark will be top top class, no doubt.
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Ciaran Clark will be top top class, no doubt.
agree, another Gary Cahill in the making
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I don't know why people think Clark will be ok for us at centre half? He quite simply isn't big enough and gets bullied by any big centre forward. He's not going to sudden sprout 4 inches! Best bet for him would be to stay at fullback.
Eh?
This is Ciaran Clark you're talking about isn't it? The 6'2" tall Ciaran Clark?
He probably needs to beef up a bit (not to Dunne standards mind) but he's certainly tall enough. He's also, possibly, the best young centre-half I've seen for a long time, he'll be a star for Villa.
Oh sorry i always thought a defenders job was to defend? How many clean sheets have we kept in the games he's played in?
How many have we kept when anybody's played? I can think of two, Chelsea and Man City, in which he played.
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This may sound strange but there isnt actually a lot wrong. Its just that what is wrong is fundamental.
It wouldnt take much to tweak this team into very good one that's maybe 20-25 points better off than is the case at the moment. Which I think is encouraging.
In the meantime, the same mistakes are costing us and will continue to do so.
A really frustrating season but once a couple of problems are addressed in the summer, I think we'll be up the right end of the table, with THIS manager.
- New keeper.
- New left back.
- Walker situation???
- One top class centre half.
- Fuck the last of the dead wood off.
Spot on here.
Friedel was slow off his line which might have prevented the corner and then should have come out and cleaned everyone out of the way when Cahill scored the first (eg Robinson on Baker last week)
A new centre back playing with Clark and having a pre-season to get to know each other plus a decent left back will sort out the defence.
Also think that away from home we are too open - we really need three in midfield with Bent and 2 from Ashley, Downing and Albrighton. I know that will mean leaving one out but with those three behind Bent we are short on defensive quality in the middle of the park which in turn leaves the back four exposed.
I know people have been saying we have been poor at defending all season but how many times have we had the first choice back four actually play - especially in successive games? Very few I would imagine. That is I think the main problem this season - I know Fergie changes his team but generally he tries to leave the back four intact and tinkers with the rest. The fact that this season he has has injuries to his defenders is one of the reasons why they are vulnerable. So it is not only us.
Bolton have lost 2 games at home this season and I think any neutral there yesterday who saw the whole game, not bits on TV or internet, would have said we deserved to win and if we had put our chances away we would have done so as Bolton would have been dead and buried.
I agree with all of this. We've just got to give the lads 110% backing between now and the end of the season, finish as high as we can and get going again in the summer. We have the makings of a cracking side.
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I think Clarky will be a hell of a player for us. If he was at Arsenal, the press would hailing him as the next big thing.
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Ciaran Clark will be top top class, no doubt.
agree, another Gary Cahill in the making
You mean we're going to sell him some no mark side and over the next three or four seasons he'll be apart of a defence that will concede 60000 goals aginst us?
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Ciaran Clark will be top top class, no doubt.
agree, another Gary Cahill in the making
He's a better footballer than Cahill. He's played at full back and in midfield for us and there's no way that Cahill could do that.
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Ive always maintained Clark was a better prospect than Cahill.
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I think ferguson was there to watch clark.
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Totally agree, I meant in the sense that within the next year or two he'll be worth 15-20m. If we haven't already we should offer him a long term deal
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Ciaran Clark will be top top class, no doubt.
agree, another Gary Cahill in the making
He's a better footballer than Cahill. He's played at full back and in midfield for us and there's no way that Cahill could do that.
He's worryingly calm on the ball. He needs to beef up, but is the sort of player that needs be alongside a ball winning mentalist like Laursen, whose only brain patterns are "see ball, win ball".
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Just watched the highlights on MOTD after watching the game on the Internet yesterday. It confirms what we all could see. We deserved better and played well. The first goal was very good. Great passing to come from front left, all the way back to go front right and score the goal.
Anyone thinking we might go down after watching that is foolish in my eyes. We'll easily win games playing like that.
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Ciaran Clark will be top top class, no doubt.
agree, another Gary Cahill in the making
He's a better footballer than Cahill. He's played at full back and in midfield for us and there's no way that Cahill could do that.
He's worryingly calm on the ball. He needs to beef up, but is the sort of player that needs be alongside a ball winning mentalist like Laursen, whose only brain patterns are "see ball, win ball".
Cahill and Clark would've been great.
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I have to say that when everyone was raving about Clark earlier in the year, i thought he was ok, but after seeing him in his proper position i think he looks a real talent.The kind of central defender that top level teams have.Quite like the look of Baker as well.
Agree with damon about SAF looking at Clark, according to MM on VT hes been looking at him for a while.
Nobody on the post for their 1st goal yday as well.
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Clark would cost Fergie a fortune if Smalling was 10 million.
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Would also like to mention, great positive support yesterday, not one anti Houllier song, we did leave when the 3 rd went in though, not sure if it got ugly after that ?
Well you missed the "you're getting sacked in the morning" routine then from some of our so called "supporters".
I think the fact that people are willing to spend good money, on a team thats been pretty woeful for most of the season, to watch them in Bolton gives them the right to voice their opinion.
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Anyone thinking we might go down after watching that is foolish in my eyes. We'll easily win games playing like that.
Not if we keep leaking 2 to 3 goals a game.
I can't see how the defence is going to suddenly improve, as if by magic.
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Anyone thinking we might go down after watching that is foolish in my eyes. We'll easily win games playing like that.
Not if we keep leaking 2 to 3 goals a game.
I can't see how the defence is going to suddenly improve, as if by magic.
Yep agreed. We are not 3 points off the relegation zone with only 9 games to go by coincidence.
We are there because performances, on the whole, have been poor.
We may have played ok yesterday. However, if you can't take your chances and defend poorly then you deserve nothing.
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Exactly, no good playing well if you can't defend (not just yesterday but all season). Every game we look like conceding, and often do.
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It's about time we rotated the keeper in my humble opinion, he was awful yesterday and I'd go with Marshall v wolves
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Anyone thinking we might go down after watching that is foolish in my eyes. We'll easily win games playing like that.
Not if we keep leaking 2 to 3 goals a game.
I can't see how the defence is going to suddenly improve, as if by magic.
I think the defence had improved before this latest batch of injuries, it wasn't perfect but it was more like 1 to 2 goals a game we were giving away. All we can hope is that we get them back before too long. I still think that we'll probably stay up but it's by no means certain.
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Atleast Ash will be off penalties now.
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The well connected bloke in front of us on the Holte says Ferguson is after Clark as a replacement for Ferdinand.
Of the two I think Clark appears to have a better temperament than Cahill. If the fans' chant that Cahill hates Villa is true, is this the same Gary Cahill we raised the roof for with There's only one Gary Cahill as he walked off the field having played his last game for us. He has no cause to hate us. MON certainly. Villa fans no.
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Re the Cahill chants it was probably just the Bolton lot on the wind up, he did celebrate his goals though and cupped his ear to the villa fans for the first
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Anyone thinking we might go down after watching that is foolish in my eyes. We'll easily win games playing like that.
Not if we keep leaking 2 to 3 goals a game.
I can't see how the defence is going to suddenly improve, as if by magic.
I think the defence had improved before this latest batch of injuries, it wasn't perfect but it was more like 1 to 2 goals a game we were giving away. All we can hope is that we get them back before too long. I still think that we'll probably stay up but it's by no means certain.
Agreed that in recent matches we have started to look more solid. The answer seemed wholly to be because of the return of Richard Dunne and him playing more to last seasons level. maybe we were being too harsh on him during his spat with Houllier. perhaps he knew he was not playing well and reacted for what he wanted to see in training to help him back into some sort of form. But, that's another point.
I don't put it down to poor managing or coaching as I'm sure they're all at a loss as to why a defence that was so good last season are so poor this. When i heard Dunne was out I feared for the side because he was the one player capable of holding the defence together - especially at a place where winning headers is vital. Without him we looked how we have looked before our mini-revival.
So, Wolves is crucial. We need either Cuellar or Collins back as he need someone with experience at the heart of the defence now Dunne is out.
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Re the Cahill chants it was probably just the Bolton lot on the wind up, he did celebrate his goals though and cupped his ear to the villa fans for the first
yes the cupping the ear to our lot was disappointing, I met cahill in the us on the villa tour a few yrs back and had a nice chat with him. He said how much he loved the villa and was looking forward to the future . He probably felt that he was pushed out . Big loss in my opinion.
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MON pushed him out, frankly a big loss to us, MON doesn't know his arse from his elbow when it comes to defenders
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Anyone thinking we might go down after watching that is foolish in my eyes. We'll easily win games playing like that.
Not if we keep leaking 2 to 3 goals a game.
I can't see how the defence is going to suddenly improve, as if by magic.
I think the defence had improved before this latest batch of injuries, it wasn't perfect but it was more like 1 to 2 goals a game we were giving away. All we can hope is that we get them back before too long. I still think that we'll probably stay up but it's by no means certain.
It's something like 1 clean sheet in 23 games Chris, there will be no improvement until we can get a few clean sheets, it's putting too much pressure on the forwards.
It's like we're playing with a permanent handicap.
it wasn't perfect but it was more like 1 to 2 goals a game we were giving away.
We can't afford 1 or 2 per game anymore, we've let 13 in during the last 6 games.
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Ciaran Clark will be top top class, no doubt.
agree, another Gary Cahill in the making
He's a better footballer than Cahill. He's played at full back and in midfield for us and there's no way that Cahill could do that.
Can't agree, Cahill has excellent ball skills for a CB and you only have to see his goal against Blues to see he's a much better footballer than most CBs. Cahill wouldn't work at FB as I don't think he's quick enough. But then for me Clark didn't work at fullback either, he was exposed badly several times in the away game at Chelsea and in at least one other game. I like Clarke but I''m not convinced I see the superstar others are seeing, he lacks a bit of pace and sometimes gets bullied too easily. I thought Cahill was better at similar stage of his career when he played for us.
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Would also like to mention, great positive support yesterday, not one anti Houllier song, we did leave when the 3 rd went in though, not sure if it got ugly after that ?
Well you missed the "you're getting sacked in the morning" routine then from some of our so called "supporters".
I think it's a bit disrespectful to put the quote marks around supporters. Despite a shit filled, write off of a season, fans are still travelling in large numbers, spending a not too small amount of cash.
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and we are out of the fFA Cup ffs...
You can discuss tactics until you are blue in the face but this was a corporate decision to blow it for no good reason bar money bourne out of US superbowl-style understanding of sporting ambition. Now I can only hope that vicarious grasp on strategy can save us going down the toilet bowl.
I am sure Randy has Titanic ambitions but keeping his fans happy doesn't appear to be one of them.
Football has sunk in someone's estimation when the FA cup is no longer considered worth competing for especially to 'save' a team for a league game!
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Would also like to mention, great positive support yesterday, not one anti Houllier song, we did leave when the 3 rd went in though, not sure if it got ugly after that ?
Well you missed the "you're getting sacked in the morning" routine then from some of our so called "supporters".
I think it's a bit disrespectful to put the quote marks around supporters. Despite a shit filled, write off of a season, fans are still travelling in large numbers, spending a not too small amount of cash.
Indeed. Don't think there were that many chanting it - I certainly didn't hear it myself.
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Well the lads have 2 weeks off now, having thrown the towel in to the FA Cup and very unprofessionally tossing away the lead to get fuck all yesterday
No doubt they'll be fucking off to Dubai to recharge those batteries and for a well earned jolly
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What happend this thread?..It was just begining to get interesting?
A fw too many near the bone comments perhaps?
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Collins will be back for the next game and Possibly Cuellar. With them two Baker and Walker, think we will be solid. Think Delph and Makoun are gonna make a great pairing ......
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34 pages and still going!
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Ciaran Clark will be top top class, no doubt.
agree, another Gary Cahill in the making
I disagree - I think Clark is our next Gareth Barry (in ability not being a fat arsed judas bastard). He'll be able to play comfortably at the back as well in midfield (once he has more experience there).
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Back from the Reebok and even though we lost, agreed with Owen Coyle's interview, thoroughly enjoyed the game. Can't honestly believe some of the over reaction on here as I truly thought we were outstanding going forward. Bent missed two sitters, hit the post, Downing a sitter, Ashley Youngs pen?, on another day we would have scored 6.
I agree with Ads earlier quote, ridiculous league this year and if MON hadn't have left us in the shit 5 days before the kick off, we would have been comfortably top 6.
I also agree with other quotes about next season. We have the base of an excellent team here with a few tweeks here and there in the summer. I can't believe the amount of stick Ashley Young gets, especially today, because apart from the penalty miss he was outstanding. His partnership with Bent is really beginning to click. I hope we can, but fear we won't, keep him next season. Maybe he likes being a big fish in a small pond?.
I honestly believe the defensive weakness we have seen this season stems mainly from the goalkeeper. Been a great servant to the game, but he probably has to move on now. I don't think that having three centre backs missing helps either.
I will never understand or forgive Houllier for Wednesday, but I do like a lot of things he has done at the club since he has been here and certainly our play is much more pleasing on the eye than previously. I wouldn't be that upset if he went, but I believe the board see him for the long term and he will be here next season.
Chin up all, the future could well be bright !!
UTV !!
I agree with this post , but I would like to see Ashley Young taking alot less freekicks and corners, he is so frustrating. If he scores that penalty the game is won , continuing the recent good form ( form guide 4th before the game ). I thought NRC and Albrighton were very good and like the look of Delph , his build up for the second goal was great. Still can't believe the Downing miss , I thought that was the worse. .
Agree with both, only to add that I thought Downing had an excellent game, apart from the missed sitter and I've not been his biggest fan. I can only put the screaming drama queen reaction on here to the last 15 minutes but for most of the game, I thought we were generally on top and on another day could have scored 4 or 5. The only thing we're really lacking is confidence.
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Would also like to mention, great positive support yesterday, not one anti Houllier song, we did leave when the 3 rd went in though, not sure if it got ugly after that ?
Well you missed the "you're getting sacked in the morning" routine then from some of our so called "supporters".
I think it's a bit disrespectful to put the quote marks around supporters. Despite a shit filled, write off of a season, fans are still travelling in large numbers, spending a not too small amount of cash.
Indeed. Don't think there were that many chanting it - I certainly didn't hear it myself.
Me either. There wasn't one song either for or against Houllier that I heard. At the end, he just legged it down the tunnel without even a glance at the fans. I don't think there's an awful lot of mutual respect there.