Heroes & Villains, the Aston Villa fanzine
Heroes & Villains => Heroes Discussion => Topic started by: eric woolban woolban on July 01, 2011, 09:32:39 PM
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Goalkeepers - Brad Guzan, Andy Marshall - Two new keepers required
Defenders - Luke Young, Stephen Warnock, Richard Dunne, Ciaran Clark, Habib Beye, Carlos Cuellar, James Collins, Eric Lichaj, Nathan Baker - Two full backs required, plus replacements for whoever leaves
Midfielders - Stewart Downing, Stephen Ireland, Marc Albrighton, Fabian Delph, Jean Makoun, Stilyan Petrov, Barry Bannan, Chris Herd, Daniel Johnson. Replacement for Young is a must, another experienced centre midfielder * 2 needed. + a replacement for Downing if required
Strikers- Gabby Agbonlahor, Nathan Delfenouso, Emile Heskey, Darren Bent, Andreas Weimann. Another top striker needed. Hopefully Weimann will come on a bit.
25 players in the squad at the moment.
Feel free to sticky and then we can add, remove players as the summer goes on.
1st July and I'm already worried.
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I don't think it's that bad a squad if we manage to sign decent players in the positions you've highlighted. I'd have thought that squad would finish 7th-10th, which I'd take for McLeish's first season. Also, why do we need two new keepers if we keep both Marshall and Guzan as cover?
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There's no need to be worried. It's still a decent squad of experienced internationals mixed with talented youngsters. We'll be fine. I have a feeling we'll be similar to the sides under Gregory; solid, dependable... And slightly boring.
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Think we only need one keeper and one extra central midfielder. But adding that to a replacement for Ashley Young, two fullbacks and a striker equals six players. I guess we'll sign four, tops.
Ideally I would like to see us ship out Dunne and sign a (better) replacement, but that seems totally unrealistic.
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I guess the strength in depth/merits of our squad depend on whether you view 2010/11 as a season of underachievement through poor man management by Gerard or about right for a team shorn of it's leader (M'ON) and best player (Milner)
We ended up 9th and spent all bar the last two weeks in the bottom half of the table so for me without significant strengthening will struggle to even replicate this at the moment
Young, Friedel and Walker all gone and Downing getting itchy feet... not saying Big Eck not got all this in hand but for me he has his hands full
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Goalkeepers - Brad Guzan, Andy Marshall - Two new keepers required
Four keepers? Plus the very promising Siegrist?
Really?
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I should have said I think Guzan will probably move on.
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We need a goalkeeper, left-back and a winger. Anything on top of that is just luxury.
Central midfield is absolutely fine; I would much rather give Delph and Bannan playing time over an older central midfielder that will be worse in the long-run. Even if we do play 3 in the middle of the park, I think that the six central midfielders in Petrov, Makoun, Ireland, Delph, Bannan and Gardner would provide more than enough cover.
Bent, Gabby, Delf and Weimann are more than enough strikers, especially if we're only playing one up front.
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I should have said I think Guzan will probably move on.
Which would be a bit pointless.
Why not just keep him, get a good first choice keeper and then keep Guzan as our reserve. They we only need one keeper.
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We lost Reo-Coker too.
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add to that squad i think gary gardner will get a squad number what about shane lowery has he been released ?
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GK - Guzan, Marshall Sign Foster or Given
FB - Young, Warnock, Beye, Lichaj Dunno who we could sign
CB - Dunne, Cuellar, Collins, Clark - Fine
Wing - Downing, Albrighton Sign N'Zogbia
CM - Makoun, Petrov, Delph, Bannan, Ireland
ST - Bent, Gabby, Heskey, Delfouneso - Fine
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GK - Guzan, Marshall Sign Foster or Given
FB - Young, Warnock, Beye, Lichaj Dunno who we could sign
CB - Dunne, Cuellar, Collins, Clark - Fine
Wing - Downing, Albrighton Sign N'Zogbia
CM - Makoun, Petrov, Delph, Bannan, Ireland
ST - Bent, Gabby, Heskey, Delfouneso - Fine
that squad reeks of mid table mediocrity at best
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GK - Robinson/Foster, Guzan, Marshall
RB - Young, Lichaj
LB - New Signing Baker
CB - Dann/Johnson, Cuellar, Clark, Collins, Lowry
CM - Parker, Delph, Makoun, Petrov, Gardner, Hogg, Herd
AM/W - N'Zogbia, Downing, Albrighton, Bannan
ST - Bent, Agbonlahor, Heskey, Delfouenso, Wiemann
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It does not look a bad squad with four or five signings we will be ok.
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For me;
4-5-1 or 4-3-3 formation, and getting use of Delph/Bannan but playing them in the only role they are really suited to, a playmaker behind the striker.
GK; Given/Foster, Guzan, Marshall.
RB: Walker/Hutton, Lichaj.
LB: L Young, Warnock
CB: Dann/AN Other, Cuellar, Dunne, Clark, Baker
RW: Albrighton
LW: N'Zogbia
CM: Milner, Reo Coker, Makoun, Petrov, Hogg
PM: Delph, Bannan.
CF: Bent, Agbonlahor, Delfouneso.
24 man squad - should be plenty considering we are not in europe and most of those would be in serious contention for a place.
Milner is an unlikely one, but he could cover out wide both sides or even in the playmaker position. Agbonlahor could also cover out wide.
Clark could cover LB, LYoung either side, Cuellar RB etc, so we would have plenty there in my opinion.
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How many over 21 players do we have at the moment?
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How many over 21 players do we have at the moment?
In my day, we used to worry about how many over 30 players we had.
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bumping for its value as a point of contention.
since the post on page 1 we have lost 4 more from the squad and 1 for half a season to an injury that has long term implications if not treated and rested in the correct way,
we have added N'zogbia whos going to take time to gel with the team and realise at villa he is allowed to pass as hes no longer the only show in the town,
we have added enda stevens potentially another sheamus coleman but equally a potential o'halloran,
we are sniffing around not 1 but 2 spurs rejects 1 of which i'll welcome as we desperately need a rb and huttons not bad but friken jermaine (jesus how did i ever play for england) jenas. on a day where parker and dann both moved for 5 million each and palascios for 8 to blackburn spurs and stoke is getting silly now. we need a player like dann and palascios for what its worth would shield bannan perfectly.
i have come to terms with not winning the league/fa cup/league cup/european qualification but i desperately want to remain close enough to leave that glimmer of hope that this year may be our year.
gone are the days of big signings and fair enough but when you have 3 or 4 rather large holes in your squad they should be filled.
cb, cm, rb, young winger all could have been filled for under 20 million for decent quality players. if we are bottom 3 in jan how much will we panic splurge then?
heres hoping for at least 1 promising or surprising development in the next 3 hours
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heres hoping for at least 1 promising or surprising development in the next 3 hours
Don't hold your breath!
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heres hoping for at least 1 promising or surprising development in the next 3 hours
Don't hold your breath!
i would genuinely take some solace in trying for a 18-22 year old promising lower league cm as it has the x factor but jenas! i hope the loan has a cancellation clause in it, no point paying him to warm our bench
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bumping for its value as a point of contention.
since the post on page 1 we have lost 4 more from the squad and 1 for half a season to an injury that has long term implications if not treated and rested in the correct way,
we have added N'zogbia whos going to take time to gel with the team and realise at villa he is allowed to pass as hes no longer the only show in the town,
we have added enda stevens potentially another sheamus coleman but equally a potential o'halloran,
we are sniffing around not 1 but 2 spurs rejects 1 of which i'll welcome as we desperately need a rb and huttons not bad but friken jermaine (jesus how did i ever play for england) jenas. on a day where parker and dann both moved for 5 million each and palascios for 8 to blackburn spurs and stoke is getting silly now. we need a player like dann and palascios for what its worth would shield bannan perfectly.
i have come to terms with not winning the league/fa cup/league cup/european qualification but i desperately want to remain close enough to leave that glimmer of hope that this year may be our year.
gone are the days of big signings and fair enough but when you have 3 or 4 rather large holes in your squad they should be filled.
cb, cm, rb, young winger all could have been filled for under 20 million for decent quality players. if we are bottom 3 in jan how much will we panic splurge then?
heres hoping for at least 1 promising or surprising development in the next 3 hours
My impression is Randy Lerner is going for consolidation, he does it at the Browns, goes through a period of getting the most from the little and I feel that this is the real business behind the AM appointment as opposed to most managers saying right at the outset, "how much have i got to spend".
The squad is wafer thin IMO, if players like Gabby (like last season) or Bent got laid up with injury we would struggle badly, aside from that we have players that simply don't have it about them to do a full shift and traditionally fade around the 70min mark, (Petrov) nothing wrong with that, many players have a stamina problem but most clubs have cover, and as the season goes on that period in the game will get less and less and that's when you need the depth.
Tough season but then it was always going to be.
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I've lost track of everything to be honest. Who's injured for half a season?
EDIT- Never mind, just seen it's Eric. Don't think he'd play much anyway.
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For me;
Milner is an unlikely one, but he could cover out wide both sides or even in the playmaker position. Agbonlahor could also cover out wide.
Milner Milner Milner oh yes bound to sign, cant think why any one hasnt thought of that
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So, we need to submit a squad of 25 players by 5pm on Friday
1. Given
2. Hutton
3. Warnock
4.
5. Dunne
6. Collins
7. Ireland
8. Jenas
9. Bent
10. N'Zogbia
11. Agbonlahor
12. Albrighton
13. Marshall
14. Delfouneso
15.
16. Delph
17.
18. Heskey
19. Petrov
20.
21. Clark
22. Guzan
23. Beye
24. Cuellar
25. Bannon
30. Lihaj
31. Herd
32. Baker ***
34. Lowry
38. Gardner ***
The asterisk players I believe don't have to be registered due to their age.
That makes a squad of 24 players - we can't even fill the squad limit of 25 players. Maybe Alex will be bringing in an out of contract player or there is one still to come in that may not have been announced
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James McFadden hasn't fixed up a club yet...
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I can still see him bringing McFadden in. He can take a free kick, but that is about it.
Edit - Amazed that he is only 28. Maybe he is worth a short term, better than Didier Agathe!
Everton would be my bet though.
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McLeish did get some good form out of him at Scotland.
He's consistently inconsistent though.
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Through the season there are Injuries and suspensions, a bad run of these and that squad will be found wanting. Add to this that AM is very much in the MON mould of picking the same players week in week out.
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Really think he would be good for our squad. Nothing to do with having the same birthday. (Within the same 24 hours.) Except he would have the power of the god of Mars, which is never something you would knowingly turn down. Just saying. Mars.
God of War and all that.
Total annihilation.
I love him!
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We submitted a 23 man squad in the end.
Everton submitted an 18 man squad. And Liverpool only 19. Though most of those look quality first teamers.
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Is there anywhere you can bet on McFadden's next club? 'Cos this one is nailed one.
Edit: no reports or anything, it's just so clear we'll sign him.
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I heard Wolves are looking at him. He won't be fit for another four weeks.
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Average squad, with mid-table aspirations, the danger is that AM loses grip of it and we spiral into a relegation dog fight, then when you asses how may players there are either past it, or hand me downs or to young and inexperienced or just don't fancy it or can't be arsed like Ireland and you have the making of a real problem, that is when the quality of the squad kicks in.
For me AM should go all out for the League Cup, he knows how to win it and its a good opportunity IMO.
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Last season we had several average players, several good players and three very good players (Bent, Young and Downing whether you like the last two or not). After a very bumpy ride, with some of the good and very good under performing, we finished 9th.
This season, we still have several average players, several good players, but only one very good player (Bent). How and where the season goes will have to depend on whether the manager can make the average and good players raise their games, and if the very good one can see a future with us.
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Signing McFadden will surely just be the death knell for the Fonz here?