Heroes & Villains, the Aston Villa fanzine
Heroes & Villains => Heroes Discussion => Topic started by: Concrete John on January 24, 2011, 04:33:27 PM
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When we were previously discussing Gezza and whether or not he should be doing better, the argument often thrown up was "It's the same squad that finished 6th minus Milner." And that got be thinking, now that we've signed Bent, does that make the squad stronger than last season or not? Easiest way to judge it is how we would have fared in 09/10 if we had Bent instead of Jimmy.
Would that goal machine we lacked have made up for the loss of of our best player?
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Milner as he has proved himself in a villa shirt. Bent has not yet.
Although if you ask me in a year I am sure my answer will be Bent.
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Bent as he is a natural goalscorer and hugely vital to us- milner was great but bent will be more important!
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We finished 6th with Milner and we finished 6th without Milner the year before and the year before that.
Having a proper goalscorer may have given us the edge especially as our defence was so strong last year.
Does anyone know if MON showed any interest in signing the player when he went to Sunderland.
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We finished 6th with Milner and we finished 6th without Milner the year before and the year before that.
Having a proper goalscorer may have given us the edge especially as our defence was so strong last year.
Good point, but let's not forget that for those other two years of finishing 6th we had Barry, who was hugely influential to our side.
And for accuracies sake we also had Milner the year before, although playing wide and therefore not the same player.
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Can we have Milner but go back in time a couple of years and sign Bent for a pittance when we first had the chance?
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I dont think there would have been much difference in that particular season. All ifs and buts, but I think the increase to the striking department, (Bent being more of an instinctive poacher type) would be negated by the decrease in goals from Midfield. I couldnt see any of the midfielders at the time chipping in with the assists/goals Milner did.
If we had both, I think we would have finished 4th and have two trophies in our cabinet.
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Why is everyone so keen to suck Milner's cock? The guy is good, but not that good. If we'd had a 20 a year man up front we could have broken the top 4. Milner can be, and hopefuly has been, replaced.
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If we had both, I think we would have finished 4th and have two trophies in our cabinet.
Agree with this. A team needs a dynamic player like Milner to set the tempo and to energise the team when things are flat. All too often over past seasons we've seen chances and opportunities going begging because we didn't have a player capable of being there. We may have even pushed Arse for third as they weren't that impressive over last season.
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The Milner in central midfield carried us. Without him we would be well, where we are now. We still need to replace him, and it is testament to that in the way we line up with 3 in midfield at times.
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Makoun is like Milner, hopefully better, so by next season we will have both.
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The Milner in central midfield carried us. Without him we would be well, where we are now. We still need to replace him, and it is testament to that in the way we line up with 3 in midfield at times.
Or we had to play 2 up front every game because we never had a goalscorer, just depends which angle you look from.
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Makoun is like Milner
No he isn't.
They're completely different types of player.
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Bent, all day. Purely because of the type of player he is.
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Bent any day. As much as I love Milner, it's been far too long since we had a natural goal scorer.
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Bent for me . Milner couldnt wait to get out of here ...
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modern art
http://img839.imageshack.us/img839/7208/bentn.jpg
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Quality centre-mids come and go, but natural goalscorers are pretty god damn rare.
Though saying that we've accomplished to get a goalscorer and still have yet to replace Milner properly.
Step up Jean Makoun.
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Makoun is like Milner
No he isn't.
They're completely different types of player.
Well both can play as a box too box midfielder who can chip in with odd goal.
We are yet too see where Makoun will play.
Look at Yaya Toure bought as a defensive midfielder but being played as an attacking midfielder.
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Makoun is like Milner
No he isn't.
They're completely different types of player.
Well both can play as a box too box midfielder who can chip in with odd goal.
We are yet too see where Makoun will play.
Look at Yaya Toure bought as a defensive midfielder but being played as an attacking midfielder.
I think that just highlights the difference in philosophy between Barcelona and Man City under Mancini, really.
As for the thread, impossible to say really, as they're such different types of player.
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We have been crying out for goal poacher like Bent for a long time but Milner did give us that drive in the middle but i will go for Bent definitely.
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very good question, I would say Bent because a natural goalscorer is as rare as rockin horse poo and now that we have one, nil nil will be a thing of the past.
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Bent. And I think Ashley Young was our best player when Milner was here.
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tough one to decide between, bent for goalscoring and milner for on the field effort, but effort is fuck all when you need a goal, id rather bent done fuck all for 80 minutes and scored the winner than running round like a blue arsed fly and us not getting a goal
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When you consider the amount of home draws we had last year (West Ham, Wovles, Sunderland spring to mind) where we were defensively solid, all it took was a natural goalscorer to take one of the chances, that were being created.
Remember Gabby's one on one in the last minute v West Ham??? 99 times out of 100 Bent would put that away. I felt that was the difference last year.
If we were without Milner last year I suppsoe Reo COker would have played a lot more and he did seem in decent form at the start of the season before he got injured.
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When you consider the amount of home draws we had last year (West Ham, Wovles, Sunderland spring to mind) where we were defensively solid, all it took was a natural goalscorer to take one of the chances, that were being created.
Remember Gabby's one on one in the last minute v West Ham??? 99 times out of 100 Bent would put that away. I felt that was the difference last year.
If we were without Milner last year I suppsoe Reo COker would have played a lot more and he did seem in decent form at the start of the season before he got injured.
Although everything you say above is right, NRC isn't half the player Milner is, so we would have lost a lot. We only need to look at the first half of this season to see how much we missed him (OK - other factors effected our form also)
Bent would have finished off the 09/10 side and we would have gotten 4th, IMO, but then that side would have been a lot poorer without Jimmy. If Makoun and Delph can make up for him, then I think Bent will make a big difference to us and 4th is realistic. If not I can see us getting bakc to where we were, but not significantly bettering it.
And that presuming Ash stays.
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You can see what having a proper proven goalscorer gives to your team. With a goalscorer you can hide a multitude of sins when they're on form, and the rest of the team seems to raise their game. But no matter how well Milner played, when we couldn't score, we couldn't make the most of the chances he helped create. But even if you're playing miserably, a guy who knows where the goal is is worth his weight in gold. So Bent.
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Bent.
We've needed a goal scorer for a long time. Eventually Milner's shoes will be filled. I'm sure Delph will be the one to do that.