Heroes & Villains, the Aston Villa fanzine
Heroes & Villains => Match Threads & Player Ratings => Topic started by: Risso on August 27, 2011, 09:14:38 AM
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Available after the final whistle.
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Uninspiring.
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What a pile of boring shite.
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Good God that was shit.
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0 - 0, 30k crowd, sold L. Young during the game.
I don't feel good.
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Toothless, Heskey was terrible for last 20 mins and should have been brought off.
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Garbage.
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No idea why he did not take Heskey off, he stopped running with 20 minutes to go, very uninspiring stuff-
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We've sold two classy players and N'Zogbia isn't showing anything yet.
It will be a dull season.
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Well, three games, two 0-0s. With Heskey on the style isn't working.
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Very poor.
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How Heskey stayed on the pitch for 90 minutes i'll never know. Did he touch the ball in the second half? Could Ireland have done any worse? We played well for 20 minutes after half time, but as soon as N'zogbia went off we barely had another touch.
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Welcome to the new era
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Looks like the decision to appoint AM has hit the attendance quite hard...any other explanation how we can be 8000 down on last season for the same game?
Poor performance all round apart from Herd.
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Kind of summed up the way things are at the club of late.
Flat performance, uninspiring times, terrible crowd.
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he was asking a lot of Emile
should of taken him off for BB earlier
shme DB9 didn't put that one in at the end-I had a feeling BB would set him up for the winner
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Not very inspiring. Bar twenty minutes at the beginning of the second half, we were insipid and unthreatening. We have a squad of distinctly average players, Bent apart, and consequently I reckon we'll have a season of distinctly average performances. We don't even appear to be playing to the strengths of our one quality player.
When we eventually play some quality sides we may well struggle.
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Heskey that tackle in the 88min, f*** sake., if you shot the Wolves player dead it would be less offensive.
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On the positive side, last year's defensive liabilities seem to have been ironed out, which was our biggest weak point. Herd played well too.
On the negative side, it's not working going forward yet, very toothless for large parts of the game. Also, the attendance was absolutely shocking.
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Could have been worse. In no danger against a form team, defence working Dunne fittest he's been since he got here.
But yeah not very inspiring. Heskey a passenger by the end, gabby reverted to type made it look like hard work and kept running into blind alleys, need to get bent involved and CN'Z not shown anything yet.
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people paid good money for that.
If they think people will put money aside for this when they can hardly afford petrol and basic Heating and lighting they might have a wake up call coming.
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We aren't half the force we have been.
Selling your best players every year and not replacing them = low gates and heading backwards.
We'll miss the two Youngs and Downing so much.
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Looks like the decision to appoint AM has hit the attendance quite hard...any other explanation how we can be 8000 down on last season for the same game?
Poor performance all round apart from Herd.
We have sold two of our three best players and spent the summer saying we're not buying anyone else, and made a desperately uninspiring managerial appointment.
Throw in the current economic situation and it is no surprise. Very depressing.
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The defence hoofing the ball aimlessly at every available opportunity is a winner for me. Think the words Aston Villa Nil will be making several appearances this season and there will be a lot of empty seats.
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Fair result, but disappointing non the less, don't think it was as shit as people make out, think we had about 20 attempts, just to few actual scoring chances,
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I spent most of the second half contemplating cancelling my Sky subscription
Mid table mediocrity, the likes of which we are going to see an awful lot of this season. We used to often play poorly but still win, now we just play poorly. So little quality with the final ball, so little movement off it
Petrov had a good'ish game but lacks composure when it really matters, Gabby is still not a wide player, Heskey should never have stayed on second half. I could go on....
Pleased for Herd though he looks rather reckless at times. Thought I had read somewhere that N'Zogbia can shoot but I must have been dreaming...
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Boring boring Villa (to misquote Arse fans)
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Aside from the 1st 15 - 20 minutes of the second half, that was utter shite.
Both teams looked very average at a push. If ever you are trying to convince someone the Premiership isn't the best league in the world, just show them a tape of this game.
No tempo to our play, little creativity or movement in the final third. Bannan on too late and the wrong player came off. While Heskey undoubtably works hard he offers very little going forward in games like this.
I suppose the defense grew stronger as the game went on, but Wolves were so powder puff its impossible to place any real store in that.
We are definitely going to struggle against decent sides.
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Dont forget with our 2 best players we lost this game last season
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Could have been worse. In no danger against a form team, defence working Dunne fittest he's been since he got here.
But yeah not very inspiring. Heskey a passenger by the end, gabby reverted to type made it look like hard work and kept running into blind alleys, need to get bent involved and CN'Z not shown anything yet.
Agree, Gabby looked entirely different to last week, looked like he was playing under a different model, and Bent, have to say this, I'm yet to see the guy impress this season, and its nothing to do with the lack of balls to him, he doesn't look like he want's to get into the game and go for it.
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We aren't half the force we have been.
Selling your best players every year and not replacing them = low gates and heading backwards.
We'll miss the two Youngs and Downing so much.
We'll miss Ashley Young as any team would but the other two are easily replaced, one already has been. The crowds will come back when we start winning regularly, they always do
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Looks like the decision to appoint AM has hit the attendance quite hard...any other explanation how we can be 8000 down on last season for the same game?
Poor performance all round apart from Herd.
We have sold two of our three best players and spent the summer saying we're not buying anyone else, and made a desperately uninspiring managerial appointment.
Throw in the current economic situation and it is no surprise. Very depressing.
Let this be a wake up call to Randy Lerner. Invest some dosh....
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Looks like the decision to appoint AM has hit the attendance quite hard...any other explanation how we can be 8000 down on last season for the same game?
Poor performance all round apart from Herd.
Our two best players leaving hasn't helped.
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Dull, but we're getting the basics right first. Not much sign of last season's shambolic defending yet, which is about the only positive.
Worryingly low crowd.
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people paid good money for that.
If they think people will put money aside for this when they can hardly afford petrol and basic Heating and lighting they might have a wake up call coming.
I agree. As I have just posted, I spent most of the game either contemplating cancelling Sky as I am just getting bored with such over-hyped mediocrity or admiring those people who had paid very hard earned cash to watch and travel to the game....
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deadful, how could he not make changes Heskey, Petrov stopped after 70mins
A better team would have dicked us, worrying times
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Had twenty minutes at the start of the second half then went flat. Why Heskey stayed on i do not know.No point in having a forward of Bent's class and then not have the tools to supply him, its like having a big car but being unable to put the petrol in it.
Positive point Herd looked and Gabby is looking sharp.
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Just looked like two limited, uninsiring, mid table teams playing out a fairly tame 0-0 draw.
We looked lively for the first 25 mins of the 2nd half but apart from that it was pretty ordinary.
That's exactly where we lacked the delivery of Downing and Young.
On the plus side, they never looked like scoring either and as Dunne and Collins mopped up everything while Herd and Delph looked impressive.
On the downside, Bent is going to get pretty pissed off pretty soon if that's the sort of service he's going to be getting, Heskey and Petrov are both pedestrians and that's a worrying attendance however you look at it.
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Dull, but we're getting the basics right first. Not much sign of last season's shambolic defending yet, which is about the only positive.
Worryingly low crowd.
The really worrying thing about your summing up is the fact you could have been describing B'ham City last season, good in defence, naff all anywhere else.
Is this a case of the truth always outs.
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We desperately need some craft, Bannan has to start games.
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Tactics were terrible, how he thinks Heskey is better than Bannan in that position is beyond me!
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Pretty unispiring stuff. Turgid atmosphere and turgid performance. Wolves happy to slow the game down. There'll be plenty more of these games to come.
Wasn't absolutely horrific stuff. We did do ok in patches. Gabby played well I thought.
Worried about the real lack of service to Bent. He must be frustrated.
We're crying out for the likes of Bannan or Ireland to come in, but it's a tricky one as you can very easily see us having Bent even more isolated if we do that. Heskey really gives us an easy out ball and his movement is very good at times.
N'Zogbia was just starting to look dangerous when he came off I thought. But not impacting hugely so far.
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Had twenty minutes at the start of the second half then went flat. Why Heskey stayed on i do not know.No point in having a forward of Bent's class and then not have the tools to supply him, its like having a big car but being unable to put the petrol in it.
Positive point Herd looked and Gabby is looking sharp.
Agree, Gabby is looking sharp but he looks tethered to me.
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I hope AM gets some backing next week in bringing in a player or two. We lack the spark that both Downing and Ash gave us, and until N'Zogbia gets up to full speed we're going to be very short in the creativity department. Defensively we'll be fine for the most part, but unless we can score goals, and create more chances for Bent, it will put a lot of pressure on our back four to keep clean sheets.
Today's attendance was very poor indeed, and sometimes fans make a difference to the mood of the home team. McLeish is going to build a solid team that won't lose much, but unless we score we won't win many either. Hopefully the board sees that everyone needs a bit of inspiring right now to get this going again.
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Negatives: we didn't score, we should of won, we didn't go for it in injury time. Emule.
Positives: Herd played very well. I thought Zogbia, Gabby and Delph did well. We dominated the second half and created more. Our defense wasn't threatened.
Overall we should of won, we were close to scoring a few times and Wolves will be more pleased with the point. We didn't play great, but we did look a lot better in the second half. Today was a case of nearly winning but just not actually doing so.
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Heskey cannot play the number 10 role, it's not his fault but he just cannot.
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Us - 17 shots with 3 on target
Them - 3 shots with 2 on target
What do we make of thise stats?
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Sometimes you just know we aren't going to score today of one of those days. Herd was definitely motm, he played really well until that dodgy penalty area challenge.
Who cares if we're still unbeaten i rather we lost one and won two!!!
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So 3 league games gone and 1 cup game and still UNBEATEN
Just trying to be positive here chaps
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I wonder what games like this mean for Ireland? I caught one glimpse of him on the bench in the second half and he always has a rather mocking look on his face as if he has no idea how he ever ended up at the Villa and wants to disassociate himself completely from the mediocre fare on show. You might say you can't blame him...
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Dull, but we're getting the basics right first. Not much sign of last season's shambolic defending yet, which is about the only positive.
Worryingly low crowd.
The really worrying thing about your summing up is the fact you could have been describing B'ham City last season
The crowd wasn't as bad though.
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Has Mcleish been interviewed? Just switched the cricket on and the Rugby's come on SS2 now.
He's been pretty honest so far, hopefully he won't try to dress this performance up.
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Us - 17 shots with 3 on target
Them - 3 shots with 2 on target
What do we make of thise stats?
they came to park the bus. We're not very good at getting shots on target because they are likely not very good chances to begin with.
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Us - 17 shots with 3 on target
Them - 3 shots with 2 on target
What do we make of thise stats?
That we had more of the pressure across the 90 mins but did'nt really threaten while they came for a point.
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I wonder what games like this mean for Ireland? I caught one glimpse of him on the bench in the second half and he always has a rather mocking look on his face as if he has no idea how he ever ended up at the Villa and wants to disassociate himself completely from the mediocre fare on show. You might say you can't blame him...
Just a theory, but my guess is that AM has indentifed fixing the defence as his first duty. So we have to become much more disciplined and we are seeing that. The creativity I hope, as well the involvement of players like Ireland will come after.
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I hope AM gets some backing next week in bringing in a player or two. We lack the spark that both Downing and Ash gave us, and until N'Zogbia gets up to full speed we're going to be very short in the creativity department. Defensively we'll be fine for the most part, but unless we can score goals, and create more chances for Bent, it will put a lot of pressure on our back four to keep clean sheets.
I think that's spot on: the goals and assists from Barry, Milner, Downing and Young just haven't been adequately replaced. N'Zogbia will get a period of grace while he adjusts to the club but even then he's more of a goalscorer than creator, I reckon. Benching Heskey and finding a way to get Bannan, Ireland and Albrighton involved is a must.
Can't see any sense in letting Young go, other than saving money. I know he wanted to go because he wants games, but the point is he should be getting games here.
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Go to the pub and watch that with a couple of beers is certainly a little less painful than forking out x amount of £'s at the ground.
Jamie Redknob was waxing lyrical about how great Lionel Heskey was in the first half, and then he went missing in the 2nd half!
I was talking to a Wolves season ticket work colleague this week, and she asked me my prediction for the game, i said "Not many chances for either team, we look tighter at the back, you (Wolves) will string 5 across the middle and we will struggle to break you down and give Bent little or no service."
I'm glad i didn't fork out for my season ticket this season, it's dull, it's boring, it's predictable. Good luck to those who continue to go, you've more stomach for it than me.
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A dull game, with only a few flash points up front from either side. Don't really get the set up up front, i'd much rather see a 442 set up of bent and gabby and Nzogbia and albrighton on the wings. Defensively we seem to have improved, central midfield wise we're desperately missing someone with some creative spark, and another striker who can actually make a difference ie not heskey.
Attendance looked pretty bad, but then it's an early kick off, bank holiday weekend, match is on sky
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Oh, and Herd did really well in many respects. But better going fwds than defending. Got skinned twice way too easily and could easily have given away a penalty. Not being over critical but I'd still prefer an experienced right back.
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Us - 17 shots with 3 on target
Them - 3 shots with 2 on target
What do we make of thise stats?
we cant shoot
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Us - 17 shots with 3 on target
Them - 3 shots with 2 on target
What do we make of thise stats?
they came to park the bus. We're not very good at getting shots on target because they are likely not very good chances to begin with.
[/quote}
Thank you T V ;-)
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Us - 17 shots with 3 on target
Them - 3 shots with 2 on target
What do we make of thise stats?
That we had a lot of low quality efforts from distance as we created sod all.
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I wonder what games like this mean for Ireland? I caught one glimpse of him on the bench in the second half and he always has a rather mocking look on his face as if he has no idea how he ever ended up at the Villa and wants to disassociate himself completely from the mediocre fare on show. You might say you can't blame him...
My feelings too so I hope we're right. We certainly look far more organised already at the back than we were last season - however that aim is setting the bar rather low. Last season we were a shambles.
Just a theory, but my guess is that AM has indentifed fixing the defence as his first duty. So we have to become much more disciplined and we are seeing that. The creativity I hope, as well the involvement of players like Ireland will come after.
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I wonder what games like this mean for Ireland? I caught one glimpse of him on the bench in the second half and he always has a rather mocking look on his face as if he has no idea how he ever ended up at the Villa and wants to disassociate himself completely from the mediocre fare on show. You might say you can't blame him...
That's exactly what i thought when i saw him! He needs more playing time as soon as he gets that goal it could be the turning point maybe?
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Us - 17 shots with 3 on target
Them - 3 shots with 2 on target
What do we make of thise stats?
That we had a lot of low quality efforts from distance as we created sod all.
We created 4-5 presentable chances through the game, and should have nicked it. They were high in confidence coming in, we defended well and NZogbia once he finds his shooting boots will get goals. Also needs to learn when to pass and not shoot.
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Three games in, a sense of solidness about us.
The manager clearly hasn't got the front 5 right yet; the Heskey experiment is interesting but cannot be a long-term solution - otherwise he may as well put Ireland out on loan even if we end up paying most of the wages.
For me, the strange one is the not-playing of Makoun: the obvious starting midfield three would include JIIM along with Delph and Petrov - so what's going on? Maybe he is hoping to offload JIIM before the end of the month and bringing in another MF holding player?
The people who foresaw the implementation of the Blues' approach of last season currently seem to have got it right: I think it's too early to say , since what we're seeing now may not be where McMinge wants to be.
I applaud the new defensive thrift; I hope that the project is still being shaped and that we develop a more integrated offensive approach with more ruthless finishing.
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We might keep a lot more clean sheets this season with an improved defence, but that appears to be at a cost of any sort of attacking ingenuity.
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Oh and I think where Emule is playing is having an effect on how Bent's service is limited. There weren't many good balls played to Bent. If we had Bannan or Ireland playing behind threading balls into Bent I'm sure he get more opportunities to score.
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We have a manager that is allways going to put the likes of Heskey in before Bannan and Ireland, you might as well get used to it
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I agree it wasn't the worst performance in the world. We used to have plenty of performances like that under Brian Little and finished 4th (not that I'm suggesting we'll do that this season) it was just that we had the likes of Dwight Yorke.
Stick one of our very good chances - Heskey's just past the post, Bent's header, N'Zogbia from the corner - and we'd be saying hard fought win.
I can imagine the Everton game being similarly unispiring stuff. Luckily I'll be getting married at the time so I don't have to ensure it!
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He must get a defender in right side and possibly left, we need more in midfield, lets go and pay the 8ML for Parker, right now, and if we haven't got the money lets offer them a decent swap deal such as Ireland, if Ireland can't figure in that type of game, when is he?.
I also think there are certain times against certain teams at points in a game when he must be prepared to look at Darren Bent and admit for whatever the reason he just is not going to have any impact in this game, Wolves did a good job on him, at those times bring him of, move Gabby central, getting away from the classic big bloke in the box routine and push more into the midfield to force Wolves back, Gabby is well used to that role and we may have niked a goal from somewhere, as it was our midfield was none existent.
Few days left of the window and we must get players in.
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Us - 17 shots with 3 on target
Them - 3 shots with 2 on target
What do we make of thise stats?
That we had a lot of low quality efforts from distance as we created sod all.
We created 4-5 presentable chances through the game, and should have nicked it. They were high in confidence coming in, we defended well and NZogbia once he finds his shooting boots will get goals. Also needs to learn when to pass and not shoot.
Nothing clear cut by any means though. Heskey had our best chance, but that wasn't easy, especially for Emile. 2 or 3 half chances and a lot of shots from distance. We did defend well but Wolves offered less than us going forward, which is some going.
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I agree it wasn't the worst performance in the world. We used to have plenty of performances like that under Brian Little and finished 4th (not that I'm suggesting we'll do that this season) it was just that we had the likes of Dwight Yorke.
Stick one of our very good chances - Heskey's just past the post, Bent's header, N'Zogbia from the corner - and we'd be saying hard fought win.
I can imagine the Everton game being similarly unispiring stuff. Luckily I'll be getting married at the time so I don't have to ensure it!
Excuses excuses....tut tut.
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I agree it wasn't the worst performance in the world.
I can imagine the Everton game being similarly unispiring stuff. Luckily I'll be getting married at the time so I don't have to ensure it!
Given a choice I think you should watch the Everton game mate ;)
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I agree Bent did virtually nothing. But he almost scored at the end and that's why he's in.
Hopefully Eck will find a way to integrate our more creative players, but I doubt it will be from the start away at Everton.
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It is a solid performance, in a game we lost last season. We created a lot of chances to shoot, some very good ones, and on another day may hove got our noses in front. The idea that we are not defensively better but offer nothing going forward is flawed. We scored 3 last week, and have players who all threatened today. Sure Bannan in for Heskey may make us creatively better, but would weaken us defensively especially at set plays, where we conceded every week last season. Solid foundations, then build the creation in behind Bent. It is sensible, and will be effective on the counter away from home. I am sure Eck would love to spend 20 million replacing Downings creativity, but he has not been given the money and this has his hands tied.
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Us - 17 shots with 3 on target
Them - 3 shots with 2 on target
What do we make of thise stats?
Did Heskey have 14 of our shots?
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We need someone who "sees the field" that can set up plays and feed Bent and Gabby the ball. Ireland should of come on for Heskey in the second half.
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It is a solid performance, in a game we lost last season. We created a lot of chances to shoot, some very good ones, and on another day may hove got our noses in front. The idea that we are not defensively better but offer nothing going forward is flawed. We scored 3 last week, and have players who all threatened today. Sure Bannan in for Heskey may make us creatively better, but would weaken us defensively especially at set plays, where we conceded every week last season. Solid foundations, then build the creation in behind Bent. It is sensible, and will be effective on the counter away from home. I am sure Eck would love to spend 20 million replacing Downings creativity, but he has not been given the money and this has his hands tied.
Good point, but, you can only mould a midfield to benefit the front men if you have the players to do it, seem's to me we have players sitting on the bench who didn't even get a look in or be considered as a possibility in a very average game against a very average side, and just perhaps the reason RL is giving no money to AM is because he has players like Ireland (correct me if i'm wrong one of Villa's highest paid players) doing nothing, we could go for a player like Parker, West Ham are prepared to get rid but only for 8ML, lets trade.
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Think its worth giving Ireland a start against Everton. Having Heskey, Gabby and Bent on the pitch just wont work.
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I agree it wasn't the worst performance in the world. We used to have plenty of performances like that under Brian Little and finished 4th (not that I'm suggesting we'll do that this season) it was just that we had the likes of Dwight Yorke.
Stick one of our very good chances - Heskey's just past the post, Bent's header, N'Zogbia from the corner - and we'd be saying hard fought win.
I can imagine the Everton game being similarly unispiring stuff. Luckily I'll be getting married at the time so I don't have to ensure it!
Excuses excuses....tut tut.
But its somewhat true. Any one of those chances scored and we would be saying how we deserved to win after playing much better in the second. Like I said, we did not play great at all, but if one of those chances went in we wouldn't be saying how we were lucky to win. We were the better team, we looked better going forward, we should of scored and we probably should of won. Everton will be a testing game next week.
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Uninspiring, boring we had so much of the play but created nothing. I didn't see anything that would encourage stay away fans to come back. Nzogbia is a greedy fucker as is petrov, if either of them had passed instead of going for glory we may have won 2-0 ..poor
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just like the last 4 or 5 years, if a team comes to VP and is organised and solid in defense, we struggle to break them down. its not a problem that has suddenly come about due to mcleish, or selling young and downing. even with young, downing, milner in the team we would play poorly quite often. difference was back then we would have one of them somehow nick a goal and we would scrape a result, so the performance was overlooked. the problem for mcleish is that given where he has come from and his reputation, he cant afford to play poorly at all, and failing to win just compounds it.
that said, i thought we created enough openings, but as happens all too often with us, the final ball was dire. too many of our players lack the footballing brain to make the right decision on when to pass and shoot. see petrov failing to play in a completely open bent 18 yards out, and choosing one of his pathetic scuffed shots instead. all of the crosses that we put straight to the keeper instead of finding the open man for the tap in. too many of our players also displayed poor shooting skills today. nzogbia was very good running at the defence, but his shooting was all over the place. that one from the short corner - he had an absolute age to set that up.
i dont think mcleish is helping himself by continuing with heskey though. cant fault his workrate, but hes meant to the link guy. yet he spends all his time on the halfway line leaving bent isolated. it took till 85 minutes to put a decent ball in for bent and that was bannan. i refuse to believe that ireland or bannan playing instead of heskey couldnt suit us better. still, the defence looks more organised, build from the back and all that. and herd did well, actually provides an attacking threat from open play and set pieces as well.
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Yawn, glad I relinquished a season ticket after nineteen years loyal service.
Although I watched the game today, I haven't missed going down.
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Think its worth giving Ireland a start against Everton. Having Heskey, Gabby and Bent on the pitch just wont work.
Something needs to be done, this could be a snapshot of what we are going to have to endure and the Blackburn game is purely down to the fact that Blackburn are utter sh1te, I know there are good and bad points to Heskey's game, personally looking at him at the end of that game he was blowing and puffing like a steam train, for me I would have let him go in this window and got someone else in and build the side we need rather than fitting round pegs into square holes.
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Firstly well done Chris Herd, very good solid game for the lad and a well deserved MOTM award.
I think obviously AMc is persisting with Heskey because he wants that extra physical presence in the team, but it's obviously negating the creativity going forward. We need that physicality, but slightly further back for me, the midfield general role, protecting the back four, breaking up play and starting attacks. Then we would be able to play Ireland or Bannan in the middle or maybe with two wingers in N'Zogbia and Albrighton.
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It is a solid performance, in a game we lost last season. We created a lot of chances to shoot, some very good ones, and on another day may hove got our noses in front. The idea that we are not defensively better but offer nothing going forward is flawed. We scored 3 last week, and have players who all threatened today. Sure Bannan in for Heskey may make us creatively better, but would weaken us defensively especially at set plays, where we conceded every week last season. Solid foundations, then build the creation in behind Bent. It is sensible, and will be effective on the counter away from home. I am sure Eck would love to spend 20 million replacing Downings creativity, but he has not been given the money and this has his hands tied.
Take your point but McCleish has had a decent amount of time with the squad now. We shouldn't be still putting things in place. We should know which formations and which players give us the best balance of attack and defense. A game at home to Wolves, improved slightly though they may be, should be an opportunity to be more adventurous.
I accept that we aren't going to be challenging in the upper reaches of the league, those days are gone for a while, but I would at least like to be entertained.
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I hope AM gets some backing next week in bringing in a player or two. We lack the spark that both Downing and Ash gave us, and until N'Zogbia gets up to full speed we're going to be very short in the creativity department. Defensively we'll be fine for the most part, but unless we can score goals, and create more chances for Bent, it will put a lot of pressure on our back four to keep clean sheets.
I think that's spot on: the goals and assists from Barry, Milner, Downing and Young just haven't been adequately replaced. N'Zogbia will get a period of grace while he adjusts to the club but even then he's more of a goalscorer than creator, I reckon. Benching Heskey and finding a way to get Bannan, Ireland and Albrighton involved is a must.
Can't see any sense in letting Young go, other than saving money. I know he wanted to go because he wants games, but the point is he should be getting games here.
Young seems to have been angling for a move for a while since MON, and even though he has featured again, he has moved his family back to London. He's almost 32 so the club and player (and his family) must look at it as just the right time to do this. McLeish has said that we're short on experience and hinted at there being more than one in which is critical. He also suggested they have targets picked out so one can only hope that we're doing things very quietly. The next couple of days will be very interesting indeed.
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Boring but predictable. For me,our manager was more interested in not losing than trying to win the longer the game went on.Not hard to see why Small Heath scored so few goals while he was their manager.As someone else said,i think we are going to see Aston Villa 0 a lot this season.
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I would have Gabby and Bent right up top playing of each other, have to say you wouldn't want anybody else to pick a goal once the balls at his feet within the box than Darren Bent, but if you are going to stick him in there on his own with 2 wide players, you''ll wait all year for him to get his next goal, old style Centre Forward that needs a link player at his side.
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Boring but predictable. For me,our manager was more interested in not losing than trying to win the longer the game went on.Not hard to see why Small Heath scored so few goals while he was their manager.As someone else said,i think we are going to see Aston Villa 0 a lot this season.
oooops, there's that Noses thing again.
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Think its worth giving Ireland a start against Everton. Having Heskey, Gabby and Bent on the pitch just wont work.
Something needs to be done, this could be a snapshot of what we are going to have to endure and the Blackburn game is purely down to the fact that Blackburn are utter sh1te, I know there are good and bad points to Heskey's game, personally looking at him at the end of that game he was blowing and puffing like a steam train, for me I would have let him go in this window and got someone else in and build the side we need rather than fitting round pegs into square holes.
Heskey is finished. He was finished 12 months ago so it shouldnt be a surprise to anyone that he was pants today. We cant shift him though for another 12 months as he wouldnt even go to Leicester. Blackburn are awful and certainties for the drop and most likely rock bottom so all evidence from that game needs to be heavily qualified.
What is McLeish trying to achieve with him in the side, suspiciously looks like for defending set pieces that Heskey is in. I think today will hopefully have been an eye opener for McLeish and Lerner. I wouldnt be an advocate of playing to the gallery but 30k was a pathetic attendance for a local derby and something needs to be done. Get Ireland into the side and let him sink or swim with his performances. At least he has ability unlike Heskey. McLeish seems to have improve the defensive organisation but Darren Bent will want out pretty sharpish if creative players arent given a chance in midfield. Id give Stephen Ireland 5 game to make or break his Villa carer starting from Everton. Play him deeper in a 3 man midfield with Petrov and Delph and we will be starting to make some kind of a side rather than the current nonsense.
Given
?, Dunne, Collins, Warnock
Ireland, Petrov, Delph
Nzogbia, Bent, Gabby
Bannan, Albrighton, Makoun, Clark on bench. Still not that bad of a pick.
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I'm taking it from the comments on here Sky were showing a re-run of our game against Wolves last season?
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Type of game well have to get use to now. Plus point was Herd,and a clean sheet. Playing too many players out of position obviously don't work. Wee Barry needs games,type of player we needed to start with today.
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Heskey worked his socks off today. We need some serious shooting practice. That game could of been 4-0 but the composure and lack of quality really showed. Nzogbia needs confidence. Bannan should of replaced Delph. Chris Herd great freshness and enthusiasm .........
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I'm taking it from the comments on here Sky were showing a re-run of our game against Wolves last season?
No, Sky were showing a very dull game between two ordinary sides, as the comments reflect.
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That wasn't the worst nil nil draw I've ever seen, thought we were the better team overall, particularly second half. The substitutions didn't work for us though.
We had a few chances, Heskey, Bent and Dunne's thumping header. I thought they had a decent penalty shout near the end.
Our home form hasn't been great for quite a while now, we've had a number of home performances a lot worse than that over the last few seasons.
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That was dour and uninspiring.
I really feel that the whole set of of the club is now one of just 'meddling through'.
The team, to me, looks like a team with little heart and passion.
How many of that first team now would be a regular starter at another top 10 club.
Bent, ? Gabby (at a push) ?I'm struggling after that.
Proud history, mediocre present.
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Looks like the decision to appoint AM has hit the attendance quite hard...any other explanation how we can be 8000 down on last season for the same game?
Poor performance all round apart from Herd.
August bank holiday, third home game in a week, the economy and a bit of negativity are the reasons for the crowd being lower, we generally don't get our best crowds of the season in August, we've clearly lost some support but it's not all down to Mcleish being appointed.
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I'm taking it from the comments on here Sky were showing a re-run of our game against Wolves last season?
No, Sky were showing a very dull game between two ordinary sides, as the comments reflect.
That's what I don't understand. The game I saw from the Lower Holte was completely different to the one being described on here.
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A poor performance with no creativity at home to Wolves, and two more players leave the club. Our squad is now actually comparable to Baggies, Wolves and the rest of the mid-table sides. If we dont sign anyone this week then there will be genuine cause for concern.
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It wasn't that bad, we could have easily won that game and we never looked like conceding really. We just need our forward line to be a bit more cohesive. Bit worried about N'Zog tho.
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Turgid
Uninspired
Tactically clueless
No leadership
The atmosphere was terrible, shit attendance - Wolves couldn't have had more than a 1000.
perhaps people are finally waking up to the fact that the EPL bar probably 4 sides is for the most part shit.
So glad I haven't got a season ticket, fuck me another 17 games of that
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Looks like the decision to appoint AM has hit the attendance quite hard...any other explanation how we can be 8000 down on last season for the same game?
Poor performance all round apart from Herd.
August bank holiday, third home game in a week, the economy and a bit of negativity are the reasons for the crowd being lower, we generally don't get our best crowds of the season in August, we've clearly lost some support but it's not all down to Mcleish being appointed.
Fair comment. I guess we'll see if its accurate next month once we've played a few more average mid-table teams at home.
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I have seen far worse home performances under GH last season and certainly under MON,
It wasn't brilliant by a long way, but not any where near as bad as some suggest. I don't think Heskey should be starting but to say AM's being negative when he starts with three strikers is a bit much
As always if you can grab a goal it puts a whole different gloss on things
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Arent you supposed to be valeting my car this afternoon?
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I must have watched a different game to most on here. I saw a Villa team that defended well and passed the ball accurately, and with a bit more luck in front of goal would have won the game and would now be top of the league with 7 points out of 9 and 2 clean sheets out of 3.
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Arent you supposed to be valeting my car this afternoon?
Can't get out, had my toes cut off for no apparent reason
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I have seen far worse home performances under GH last season and certainly under MON,
It wasn't brilliant by a long way, but not any where near as bad as some suggest. I don't think Heskey should be starting but to say AM's being negative when he starts with three strikers is a bit much
As always if you can grab a goal it puts a whole different gloss on things
This sums it up for me.
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I must have watched a different game to most on here. I saw a Villa team that defended well and passed the ball accurately, and with a bit more luck in front of goal would have won the game and would now be top of the league with 7 points out of 9 and 2 clean sheets out of 3.
...but we didnt score and didnt win. We lacked creativity, imagination, unable to break a midtable team down at home and created very few decent goal scoring chances with 4 forwards on the pitch. Its always nice to hear a bit of positive spin though.
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Nzogbia wide right when his natural position is wide left
The bring BB on and play him wide right when we are crying out for creativity
Heskey - Lost for words
Albrighton on with 5 mins left far too late
Tactital supidity
We were at home against Wolves not barcelona
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More than anything today showed the importance of momentum and capitalising on it. For the first 15-20 mins of the second half we battered Wolves but needed to take one of the many half-chances we created. It was one of those days where the ball landed at Heskey or someone else's feet when we needed Bent on the end of it. Wolves weathered the storm and towards the end of the game frustrated us to fine effect, winning corners and keeping possession in our third of the game.
Gabby looked bright though I'm not sure if he can flourish on the left wing. N'Zogbia slalomed across the pitch to impressive effect a few times (like A Young) but was wasteful with his clear shots on goal. Petrov frustrates me. He has a cultured touch but his lack of pace and poor shooting make me tear my hair out. He and Delph are marshalling the midfield but if there's an opportunity for one to go forward the instruction seems to be for Stan to go forward and Fabian to sit. I'd rather we tried the reverse. Actually I'd like to see Makoun get a run alongside Delph.
I was mildly annoyed with McLeish during the post-match interview when he said that McCarthy had made good tactical substitutions when we were on top and that took the sting out of us. Well it's up to you to make sure that doesn't happen Alec. The game was too physical for Bannan to make much of an impact and Albrighton should have come on for Heskey (not Delph with five minutes left. I don't think Marc got a touch).
It's funny, this time last year we managed a hard-fought win over Everton and had six points from three games despite being destroyed at Newcastle and with no manager. I fear the draws will mount this season. From being a posh Leicester City under O'Neill are we now being diulted further to MON-Lite?
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Two 0-0 draws out of 3 league games against midtable opposition speaks volumes I'm afraid. Lets hope we see an improvement in the next 4 games before we play Citeh against Everton, Newcastle, QPR and Wigan.
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30,000-odd for a local derby is a disgrace - 8,000 less than for the same game last season. For me the game summed up why people are apparently turning away - solid defence against a team who came for a point, and having sold our flair players unlikely to score or entertain. Other than a spell of 20 minutes in the second half we were ordinary and no better than Wolves. They could even have nicked it at the end with what looked a decent penalty shout for them.
Herd did well especially as he was left very exposed by lack of cover/tracking back by N'Zogbia (something else we'll miss from AY); Dunne was MOTM for me; Gabby was threatening at times; other than that - meh.
Hope Randy can see that slashing the wage bill is one thing, but if the product left on the pitch is not worth watching gates will slump and it will be a false economy. Losing 8000 tickets at say £25 each on average is around £200,000 for every home game which could go towards the wages of a couple of decent players. We are now firmly a mid-table side lacking ambition.
Nice to see Ian Bell though - of course the Dingles didn't applaud one of the best cricketers this country has ever produced purely because he's a Villa fan. It would be like stopping listening to Led Zep because Robert Plant is a Dingle. Bit pathetic really
Edit: mind scrambled for Hereford attendance
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Nice to see Ian Bell though - of course the Dingles didn't applaud one of the best cricketers this country has ever produced purely because he's a Villa fan. It would be like stopping listening to Led Zep because Robert Plant is a Dingle. Bit pathetic really
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They did applaud
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Think its worth giving Ireland a start against Everton. Having Heskey, Gabby and Bent on the pitch just wont work.
Do you mean the 3 who all scored against Blackburn?
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Us - 17 shots with 3 on target
Them - 3 shots with 2 on target
What do we make of thise stats?
we cant shoot
Stats are rubbish. Their two on target were pathetic efforts. In our 14 off target there were 3 very close calls that on another day would have found the net.
However I agree hawkeye N'Zogbia can't shoot.
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Nice to see Ian Bell though - of course the Dingles didn't applaud one of the best cricketers this country has ever produced purely because he's a Villa fan. It would be like stopping listening to Led Zep because Robert Plant is a Dingle. Bit pathetic really
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They did applaud
I saw a few applauding in the lower but didn't appear to applaud in the upper - could be my eyesight fading with age though. Apologies to them if that's the case
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N'Zogbia is one of the few players in the Villa team that can actually hit a decent clean shot. He's clearly not fully fit yet and settled in yet, so lets hope he gets upto speed over the next 4 games.
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I thought young Chris Herd was excellent. Despite N'Z not giving him much help.
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Looks like the decision to appoint AM has hit the attendance quite hard...any other explanation how we can be 8000 down on last season for the same game?
I think the fact that it's a morning kick-off live on Sky Sports whereas last season's game was 3 o'clock also might have something to do it. Not that I disagree with your point, just there are other factors to consider.
The OS really needs to stop marketing this as a derby.
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I think there are positives and negatives from this game...
Positives: the defence is far better than it has been, the overall effort put in seamed to me to be better than last season.
Negatives: lack of creativity, Heskey although he played ok at times we really need to be looking for a flair player to play in this position.
We need to either play the players we have, Ireland Bannan etc... More than we are or get rid and bring in players that can perform a more creative role.
As for the attendance, 30K on a bank holiday weekend shown live on sky, and with everyone feeling the economic pinch is no surprise. Our attendances have always fluctuated with the performance of both the club and the economy.
I would describe this game in one word... Frustrating. We could of and should of won
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I wonder how many people looked at the e-mail from the club yesterday and were surprised to arrive at Villa Park today as everyone else was streaming out of the ground? I bet there was at least someone.
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The last twenty minutes reflected AM's realisation that fans would be unhappy with a 0-1 defeat, but merely not happy with a 0-0 draw. Heskey's inclusion makes sense considering the amount of goals we conceded on defensive set-pieces last season, but I question the sense in keeping Makoun out of the side alltogether as he probably is the player most likely to get the ball to Bent somehow. We should at least try to find a way to score against teams that are less shit than Blackburn. The game certainly wasn't great, but we've all seen much worse.
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Dont forget with our 2 best players we lost this game last season
Good point and Wolves are not complete numpties they were about two seasons ago.
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We didn't play bad imo, AML is doing quite a good job.
Gabby and Delph and the newbie Herd were particularly good.
But Heskey behind Bent is useless and so Warnock on the left.
And it's a pity to see SuperMark and BB on the bench.
So, in order to gain a bit of effectiveness and creativity, I'd try this formation:
Given
Herd - Collins - Clark - N'Zogbia
Delph- Petrov
Albrighton - Bannan - Agbonlahor
Bent
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Strikes me that our players just play for themselves, as long as they're fairly neat and tidy and don't do anything daft they're happy with that. No invention, just lay the easy pass off and stand back leaving responsibility to somebody else. While we're disappointed with a draw at home to Wolves they'll be glad to have chalked another game off and now they're off to the Mailbox for couple of sherberts. Easy street it's called.
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lack of creativity and bent feeding on scraps , we look more solid and harder to beat but this formation is creating little in the way of good chances -heskey is not the answer although gabby and petrov have both impressed me this season-could be a season of grinding out 1-0 wins i feel and not too pleasing on the eye football.
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We didn't play bad imo, AML is doing quite a good job.
Gabby and Delph and the newbie Herd were particularly good.
But Heskey behind Bent is useless and so Warnock on the left.
And it's a pity to see SuperMark and BB on the bench.
So, in order to gain a bit of effectiveness and creativity, I'd try this formation:
Given
Herd - Collins - Clark - N'Zogbia
Albrighton - Bannan - Agbonlahor
Bent
Good suggestion however I think we should have 11!
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Randy can't be that worried about crowd attendances in the short term or he wouldn't have appointed AM in the first place
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We didn't play bad imo, AML is doing quite a good job.
Gabby and Delph and the newbie Herd were particularly good.
But Heskey behind Bent is useless and so Warnock on the left.
And it's a pity to see SuperMark and BB on the bench.
So, in order to gain a bit of effectiveness and creativity, I'd try this formation:
Given
Herd - Collins - Clark - N'Zogbia
Albrighton - Bannan - Agbonlahor
Bent
only 9 men -no thanks!
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Heard EH was playing so turned off the wireless. It beggars belief the guy is considered a football player. AM wise up or fuck off.
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edited
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I didn't think it was that bad a game and we generally played ok, I've certainly seen us play a lot worse. It's frustrating that we couldn't score during the second half when we were absolutely battering them.
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We controlled the game.
Wolves are a better team than last year with Johnson at the back.
I like Gabby out Wide and think he's started better there than I thought.
N'Zog is trying a little too hard to get his first goal, but saying that I think he's started better than Downing did.
I would like to see Gab and N'Zog swap side for 45 to get crosses in first time to Bent.
We need to feed Bent more often and accurately. Bannan, Ireland or even Makoun can slide a through ball.
The team look lore like a "TEAM" than last season, organised and a unit all singing from the same hymn sheet.
Dunne and Warnock will never be able to pass.
Delph and Petrov is better than Reo-Coker and Petrov.
Petrov looks more energised this season.
Heskey does good things...then sloppy things.
Herd had a very tidy game at RB, especially going forward.
All in all I'm not to unhappy. We lost our 2 best players in the summer so surely we're going to struggle with creating chances but I did see us struggle a hell of a lot over the last 2 odd seasons creating good chances even with Downing, Young and Milner in the team.
This is Mcleish 4th game in charge and he has done well in my opinion. Identified our weakness which was organisation, leadership, worth ethic and team spirit which we lacked big time.
We look ok and started well compared to others who have either pinched all our players and spent millions on their teams.
MON finished 11th in his first season, MacDonald,Houllier,Mcallsiter finished 9th....anywhere there or there abouts and he's done a good job considering his lack of funds and circumstances compared the previous managers mentioned. Wish people wouldn't judge after 2 minutes into the season.
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Dull, but we're getting the basics right first. Not much sign of last season's shambolic defending yet, which is about the only positive.
Worryingly low crowd.
I am hoping this is it. Hopefully once Alex is confident that we have eradicated "about to concede anytime" habit we can go more aggressive. Petrov and Delph together is far too defensive. I agree with others who have made a case for either Ireland or Bannan. We need one of them in place of either Petrov or Delph to push forward through the centre and also look sideways. This will mean demolishing "the wall" that we currently have in midfield.
Let's hope AM has enough nous to move the team on once we get closer to xmas.
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Dreadful fayre, unless AMc is able to get the board to part with some money next week, we really are in for a crap season.
30k against Wolves, AMAZING.
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I wonder how many people looked at the e-mail from the club yesterday and were surprised to arrive at Villa Park today as everyone else was streaming out of the ground? I bet there was at least someone.
Ah, thats why we were 9000 down on attendance.
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Just got home, so here's some early thoughts.
Defensively, Villa are far more solid this season. Dunne especially, is playing far better.
I was very impressed with Herd (karate kick apart) both defending and going forward. We know about his heading ability from his time in the reserves but I wasn't expecting to see him beating players with ball at feet.
Zog played much better than in previous games.
Delph looks like being a key player this season but he's a ban waiting to happen.
Stan also played better than in previous games this year, almost catching Wolves out with a couple of runs. Somehow I doubt that the words, "we must keep an eye out for the attacking runs of Petrov" were spoken on the Wolves training ground this week.
Ivanhoe played well but I'd prefer to see Ireland playing in that position.
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There are some miserable gits on here. Everytime there is a 0-0 some people will always bring out the old favourites, turgid, dull, uninspiring...
You can't expect to batter every team in this league and you will more than likely see a tight game when there is not that much of a difference between the teams. Wolves have improved and started the season well and look very organised, yet we still put then under a lot of pressure in the 2nd half and probably should have won.
I think Eck has produced a solid start and I expect it to continue. At least the players look up for the fight and ready to give their all, which can only stand us in good stead for the rest of the season. I still think we'll finish 7th/8th.
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There are some miserable gits on here. Everytime there is a 0-0 some people will always bring out the old favourites, turgid, dull, uninspiring...
You can't expect to batter every team in this league and you will more than likely see a tight game when there is not that much of a difference between the teams. Wolves have improved and started the season well and look very organised, yet we still put then under a lot of pressure in the 2nd half and probably should have won.
I think Eck has produced a solid start and I expect it to continue. At least the players look up for the fight and ready to give their all, which can only stand us in good stead for the rest of the season. I still think we'll finish 7th/8th.
touche
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Heard EH was playing so turned off the wireless. It beggars belief the guy is considered a football player. AM wise up or fuck off.
Silly thing to say. We're 4th in the table and Emile has been good this season.
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There are some miserable gits on here. Everytime there is a 0-0 some people will always bring out the old favourites, turgid, dull, uninspiring...
You can't expect to batter every team in this league and you will more than likely see a tight game when there is not that much of a difference between the teams. Wolves have improved and started the season well and look very organised, yet we still put then under a lot of pressure in the 2nd half and probably should have won.
I think Eck has produced a solid start and I expect it to continue. At least the players look up for the fight and ready to give their all, which can only stand us in good stead for the rest of the season. I still think we'll finish 7th/8th.
Jocky's on the oche there.
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Heard EH was playing so turned off the wireless. It beggars belief the guy is considered a football player. AM wise up or fuck off.
Silly thing to say. We're 4th in the table and Emile has been good this season.
Tony Dunce.
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Hessi did alright today I just think we'd be better without him playing where he plays. Too many times it seems he's getting in the way of Bent... he had a couple of good chances today, very close to scoring, but I just don't think the system we're playing him in is going to work. He did put the effort in today.
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Is there any chance of having two post match threads. One for reasonable balanced comments and one for others to just fucking moan and moan and blow everything out of proportion? Its grating.
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We didn't play bad imo, AML is doing quite a good job.
Gabby and Delph and the newbie Herd were particularly good.
But Heskey behind Bent is useless and so Warnock on the left.
And it's a pity to see SuperMark and BB on the bench.
So, in order to gain a bit of effectiveness and creativity, I'd try this formation:
Given
Herd - Collins - Clark - N'Zogbia
Albrighton - Bannan - Agbonlahor
Bent
Good suggestion however I think we should have 11!
Ehm, I meant:
Given
Herd - Collins - Clark - N'Zogbia
Delph- Petrov
Albrighton - Bannan - Agbonlahor
Bent
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Heard EH was playing so turned off the wireless. It beggars belief the guy is considered a football player. AM wise up or fuck off.
Case in point.
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I think it will come together. Its a good system, our defence is rock solid and we have decent attacking options. Id take it over 4-4-2 any day.
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We're still a work in progress side. Still, a much better effort than last season against a better Wolves team and us without nearly £40 million of talent. I think we even did enough to win it as we were clearly the better side.
We're tight at the back and that's an area we desperately needed to improve upon. Good to see Dunne showing good form again and Herd looked streets ahead of Young barring his first 20 minutes.
Wolves got better once they changed, we didn't. Bannan on the wing is a waste of time.
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As much as I wouldn't pick him myself I have to say Heskey has been pretty good for us in the last few games. He does his job without complaining, works very hard for the team and you even get a feeling that unlike many of our players he seems to care as he always fights hard for the team.
He also gets a lot of stick from a lot of people and everything he does wrong is exaggerated. If Bent or Gabby did many of things Heskey gets hammered for doing it would barely be mentioned and they do make poor misses and stupid decisions like Heskey sometimes does. Bent had a very poor game today and was certainly poorer than Heskey yet it is Heskey who gets more stick.
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I'm definitely not a fan of 4-4-2. But I don't think the current personnel is the long term answer.
I think we should transition - probably - into a 4-3-3 with the current wide players playing wide. And then a more creative player in the middle - either Bannan or Ireland. The risk in doing that now is that it ends up looking more 4-5-1, that Bent gets isolated, even more so. Gabby would have to keep playing quite high up the pitch to add a physical presence close to Bent. And N'Zogbia needs to improve.
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It is far too early to judge AM on the team, he's only had us for three league games, after all. Not long enough for him to get us playing as he wants us to, and not a large enough sample of games to make any kind of judgment.
I am more concerned by the degree to which the stuffing seems to have been knocked out of the club over the summer. Just over 30k against Wolves, 8k less than last season, is utterly dreadful, and pretty embarassing.
Having said that, the way we've moved players on and not replaced them, maybe we shouldn't be surprised. It is pretty hard to get excited about the club at the moment.
I remember talking to a Liverpool fan at the start of the summer about Downing, and I said - and was utterly convinced in what I was saying - that as we were selling Young, there was absolutely no way Lerner would even consider selling Downing in the same window, so forget about it.
I was wrong on that front, though, clearly underestimating the degree to which Lerner wanted to cut back the spending, and to which he had lost enthusiasm.
Having spent five years carefully growing and nurturing the club, and getting attendances decent again, the speed with which the retrenchment has happened - too much, too fast - has undone a great deal of that work.
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It is far too early to judge AM on the team, he's only had us for three league games, after all. Not long enough for him to get us playing as he wants us to, and not a large enough sample of games to make any kind of judgment.
I am more concerned by the degree to which the stuffing seems to have been knocked out of the club over the summer. Just over 30k against Wolves, 8k less than last season, is utterly dreadful, and pretty embarassing.
Having said that, the way we've moved players on and not replaced them, maybe we shouldn't be surprised. It is pretty hard to get excited about the club at the moment.
I remember talking to a Liverpool fan at the start of the summer about Downing, and I said - and was utterly convinced in what I was saying - that as we were selling Young, there was absolutely no way Lerner would even consider selling Downing in the same window, so forget about it.
I was wrong on that front, though, clearly underestimating the degree to which Lerner wanted to cut back the spending, and to which he had lost enthusiasm.
Having spent five years carefully growing and nurturing the club, and getting attendances decent again, the speed with which the retrenchment has happened - too much, too fast - has undone a great deal of that work.
Pretty much bang on, although I think the kick off time probably had an impact.
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30,000 against Wulfs?
What will be getting against Wig-on, Bolton, Norwich and QPR? 25,000?
If they're wanting to get some decent crowds in at Villa Park then they have to have a hell of a busy few days, they've somehow go to convince Heskey, Beye, Ireland and any other high earners to fuck off and get off our wage bill and then bring in players on a lower wage who actually see playing for Aston Villa as a privilege and then charge fans Bundesliga match day prices.
A whole new re-think is needed at this club to turn it around, which must include McLeish playing players who can actually play skilful enjoyable attractive football (like Bannan) and not useless fucking oxygen thieves like Emule Heskey
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I don't blame Bent for being frustrated we need to give him some chances.
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Defence and keeper sound apart fro Warnock who was terrible. Need 2 up front and more craft in the middle of the park. I thought Heskey had a good game and Gabby looked slot sharper. Can't play Bent,Heskey,Agbonlahor all at once IMO. I was dreading a last minute goal for them, would have been a very different final whistle response and post match verdict o the season so far.
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Re Bannan, bringing him on in replace of N'Zog with only minutes left was not a good move, he's never going to change a game.
I like Bannan but he isn't going to be a top Prem player I'm afraid, FAR too lightweight.
Delph looks the part, Benty needs better service, full backs needed, N'Zog needs games, Petrov needs not to shoot AT ALL, EVER AGAIN, Heskey is Heskey, Gabby = excellent game, Given = zip to do.
Needed - some more options, more accurate crossing, a decent partner for Benty.
Potless at VP, Chairman seemingly run out of money.
I'm normally positive about things, but my £520 is looking very poor value at the moment.
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Heskey is our problem.
Yes he is playing ok, but because he is in the team Bannan/Ireland are not, because he is in the team we cannot keep posession because his touch is shit and because he is playing Bent is getting no service.
We would look a whole different prospect if Bannan were to start in place of Heskey IMO.
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Disappointed not to get the three points against a much improved Wolves side who certainly know how to keep the ball moving, at least at the back and midfield. Our defence led by Dunne kept their attack at bay and Herd should be delighted with today's performance. It's a shame that AM looks like he's going to bring in a new right back as Herd had Jarvis in his pocket.
Whilst we look solid in defence, we really are not looking too threatening up front but that's to be expected when the team is carrying N'Zogbia. So far he's looked lost and despite a better showing today, his performances don't warrant a starting place. AM is obviously trying to give him game time to get up to speed but it comes with a price. Not wishing to bash Heskey but at least at home, we should be looking to be more creative and Villa Park should be the place to give Bannan 90 minutes. We also have Ireland, so it's not as if we don't have options. Our problem is more about team selection than anything else.
Wolves are full of confidence and are a better team than previous seasons but I still see today as 2 points dropped. We only have ourselves to blame and AM needs to be more adventurous at Villa Park and set the team up to play to Bent's strengths. We're looking a lot more solid, trying to pass it around patiently but we have to stop trying to accomodate players in the side.
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Re Bannan, bringing him on in replace of N'Zog with only minutes left was not a good move, he's never going to change a game.
I like Bannan but he isn't going to be a top Prem player I'm afraid, FAR too lightweight.
Delph looks the part, Benty needs better service, full backs needed, N'Zog needs games, Petrov needs not to shoot AT ALL, EVER AGAIN, Heskey is Heskey, Gabby = excellent game, Given = zip to do.
Needed - some more options, more accurate crossing, a decent partner for Benty.
Potless at VP, Chairman seemingly run out of money.
I'm normally positive about things, but my £520 is looking very poor value at the moment.
Totally disagree, Bannan for NZogbia was wrong because it didn't change the tactics, it should of been Bannan for Heskey which would then bring more out of NZogbia.
I think Bannan is going to be a top top player, but he needs the right team/formation to get the best out of him.
One thing Xavi always says is that he is able to do his job because of the job Busquets does. I know Bannan is not Xavi, but he is the best player bar non at villa when on the ball, surely he is a better option than Heskey in the hole. Especially with 2 midfielders behind him.
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I'm taking it from the comments on here Sky were showing a re-run of our game against Wolves last season?
No, Sky were showing a very dull game between two ordinary sides, as the comments reflect.
That's what I don't understand. The game I saw from the Lower Holte was completely different to the one being described on here.
I agree Bazz. At times, particularly in the opening 20/25 minutes of the 2nd half we looked good. Our movement and passing was excellent and at times the Dingles looked rattled.
We have a solid base from which to build. Herd played well, Petrov and Delph were industrious and Heskey had one of his better games before he tired. On any other day we'd have got a couple in the second half when we were on top.
Wolves will be happy with a point but in no way should the doom and gloom merchants be believed in the descriptions on here.
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Probably would have settled for a draw really, which shows you how my expectations have plummented and probably explains the missing thousands. The problem AM has is he's not got the players to play the way he wants and no funds to change it. whether his way is ever going to produce entertainment is debatable but its still a major handicap. The big question though is how this team will fare when we play someone good - 1 decent result against a blackburn side who are already looking nailed on relegation candidates doesn't tell us anything - From today's showing i'll think struggle to get anything unless we go into AM's Blose-era turbo-defensive mode.
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After the dog shit that was served up for most of last season and with the financial constraints McLeish seems to be working under it really isn't all doom and gloom is it?
Still unbeaten and a decent draw in the next round of the Cup, 3 clean sheets in 4 matches and 5th in the Premier League and most importantly the defence actually look like they know how to defend set pieces/have cut out a lot of the silly mistakes.
A 0-0 draw at home to Wolves is not likely to set the pulses racing or have the hordes returning to the Villa but I dread to think what the atmosphere on here would be like had we repeated last seasons scoreline...
Hoping to see a couple of fresh faces brought in this week and on to Everton to keep the unbeaten run going
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Re Bannan, bringing him on in replace of N'Zog with only minutes left was not a good move, he's never going to change a game.
I like Bannan but he isn't going to be a top Prem player I'm afraid, FAR too lightweight.
Delph looks the part, Benty needs better service, full backs needed, N'Zog needs games, Petrov needs not to shoot AT ALL, EVER AGAIN, Heskey is Heskey, Gabby = excellent game, Given = zip to do.
Needed - some more options, more accurate crossing, a decent partner for Benty.
Potless at VP, Chairman seemingly run out of money.
I'm normally positive about things, but my £520 is looking very poor value at the moment.
Totally disagree, Bannan for NZogbia was wrong because it didn't change the tactics, it should of been Bannan for Heskey which would then bring more out of NZogbia.
I think Bannan is going to be a top top player, but he needs the right team/formation to get the best out of him.
One thing Xavi always says is that he is able to do his job because of the job Busquets does. I know Bannan is not Xavi, but he is the best player bar non at villa when on the ball, surely he is a better option than Heskey in the hole. Especially with 2 midfielders behind him.
Bannan is NEVER going to be a top top player, sorry, I wish he was - I hope I eat my words.
Ditto Fonz and Albrighton.
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I'm taking it from the comments on here Sky were showing a re-run of our game against Wolves last season?
No, Sky were showing a very dull game between two ordinary sides, as the comments reflect.
That's what I don't understand. The game I saw from the Lower Holte was completely different to the one being described on here.
I agree Bazz. At times, particularly in the opening 20/25 minutes of the 2nd half we looked good. Our movement and passing was excellent and at times the Dingles looked rattled.
We have a solid base from which to build. Herd played well, Petrov and Delph were industrious and Heskey had one of his better games before he tired. On any other day we'd have got a couple in the second half when we were on top.
Wolves will be happy with a point but in no way should the doom and gloom merchants be believed in the descriptions on here.
Well said, unfortunately our tv bound correspondents get to comment first. I was there today and felt whilst we didn't pull up trees we looked solid if a bit toothless going forwards. I'm reasonably happy with our start tbh.
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Thats a point more than last season off them . Was surprised at the wolves turn out today .
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I agree the stuffing seems to have been knocked out of the club in the summer. The Lower Holte was as subdued as the bad O'Leary days.
McLeish has got a tough job lifting the club with one hand tied behind his back. It feels to me that the fans have got the hint from Lerner as to how he sees the future.
As for the match, I thought we were decent in patches. Unfortunately the changes he made coincided with the team running out of steam. Herd may save us a few quid in the transfer market if McLeish think the signing he can make should be prioritised elsewhere.
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Strange game in many ways, no Villa player stunk the place out, but no one really shone either. Crap crowd, crap atmosphere, although i'm pretty Wolves will win this years award for being the away fans who spent more time singing about us rather than their own team. Previous winners of this trophy are SHA and Cov. Although a lot of them did applaud Bell, so fair play to them for that.
Downside, zero shots on target in the first half. Where were Lichaj and Beye? Pretty much all Wolves best stuff came down the right. Herd did well, but is no way a RB.
Heskey did well, but i'm sure there are plenty of the usual posts on here as usual saying he was shit. However, it was obvious he was knackered with 20-25 mins to go, so why leave him on? Bent did very little again. Zog continues to be a ball greedy fucker, he needs to get his head up a bit more. And learn how to cross. Our crossing from both open play and set pieces was shocking today.
At the same time, the first substitution seemed to totally fuck us, we lost all momentum.
So in closing, a typical Villa performance for as long as I can remember, good in patches, very good in smaller patches, crap in other patches and ultimately not good enough to win 3 points.
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It is far too early to judge AM on the team, he's only had us for three league games, after all. Not long enough for him to get us playing as he wants us to, and not a large enough sample of games to make any kind of judgment.
I am more concerned by the degree to which the stuffing seems to have been knocked out of the club over the summer. Just over 30k against Wolves, 8k less than last season, is utterly dreadful, and pretty embarassing.
Having said that, the way we've moved players on and not replaced them, maybe we shouldn't be surprised. It is pretty hard to get excited about the club at the moment.
I remember talking to a Liverpool fan at the start of the summer about Downing, and I said - and was utterly convinced in what I was saying - that as we were selling Young, there was absolutely no way Lerner would even consider selling Downing in the same window, so forget about it.
I was wrong on that front, though, clearly underestimating the degree to which Lerner wanted to cut back the spending, and to which he had lost enthusiasm.
Having spent five years carefully growing and nurturing the club, and getting attendances decent again, the speed with which the retrenchment has happened - too much, too fast - has undone a great deal of that work.
We scored 3 goals against arguably the worst side in the league, but have struggled to create any chances against two other fairly ordinary sides. It's going to be a safe, dull season. And selling Luke Young, what on earth is that about?
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Disagree with a fair chunk of the people on here as thought Heskey played alright in the first half then disappeared more than likely through tiring.He should have been brought off for Bannan as taking N'Zogbia off in his place was a poor decision as N'Zogbia was really coming into the game and getting stronger.Also a poor tactical move as Bannan is not a wide player as we saw Tuesday.
We created enough chances to beat a reasonable side though just could'nt make our pressure payin 2nd half.
Not as convinced as most in defensive display as Warnock especially in first half was very very poor and went missing positionally on far too many occasions and we will be punished by better teams.
More worrying as most agree is 30000 at home,feel the fans ambitions now match the owners.
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I agree the stuffing seems to have been knocked out of the club in the summer. The Lower Holte was as subdued as the bad O'Leary days.
McLeish has got a tough job lifting the club with one hand tied behind his back. It feels to me that the fans have got the hint from Lerner as to how he sees the future.
As for the match, I thought we were decent in patches. Unfortunately the changes he made coincided with the team running out of steam. Herd may save us a few quid in the transfer market if McLeish think the signing he can make should be prioritised elsewhere.
I thought the gate was as a consequence of; live TV, 12.05 Saturday KO meaning a lot working, Bank Holiday and people away on holiday. It was never going to be a big gate.
We are lighter than last year and most teams would miss Downing and Young. N'Zogbia will never replace either of them because he hasn't got their work ethic.
We need to get the wage bill down still and get rid of Ireland, Cuellar and Beye. That would mean we could get in 2 or 3 real quality young players and the youngsters become the squad players. Then we will be really competitive.
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Just home from the game. Dull uninspiring stuff. The size of the crowd tells you that most people have sussed what is going on. It is retrenchment and survival football. What happens on Wall Street over the next year and the effect on Randy's finances will decide when or if ever we become ambitious again.
N'Zogbia on that showing does not merit a start until he is fully match fit and prepared to assist rather than go for personal glory so much. Heskey works like a rented mule but is not and never will be the strong, ruthless midfield anchorman we are crying out for. Bannan should have come on for Heskey and we should have upped the pace and tempo for the last quarter of a hour. Instead we slowed and at the death Wolves were much the likelier to win the game.
Performances are not going to be any better or worse than last season but the fans have had a bellyful of spin and PR and are voting with their feet. It is the price the club is paying for retrenchment and abandoned ambition.
Delph was clearly very rattled by his early card and to me it reveals a serious problem in depending on him too much. I think he will get a lot of attention from referees in the coming season.
To summarize it is pretty much what I expected when we appointed Alex McLeish.
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Plus points, another clean sheet, still unbeaten, Chris Herd having a very good game and we did'nt look like losing, especially in the second half. McCarthy taking off Hunt and Jarvis was a big help. I'm not sure what he was thinking there.
Downsides, the lack of service to Bent again, Bannan being stuck out wide when he came on, Albrighton coming on too late and the attendance. I hope the poor crowd for a local Derby prompts Randy into helping McCleish in the transfer market before Wednesday.
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I meant to add, what a dumb fuck challenge by Delph after 5 minutes to get himself booked. Totally OTT and unnecessary and left him unable to make a challenge for the rest of the game.
Someone seriously needs a word with him about those kind of lunging tackles.
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N'Zogbia will never replace either of them because he hasn't got their work ethic.
N'Zogbia hasnt got the work ethic of the lazy non-tackling Downing?
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Another clean sheet is certainly a plus point, especially after last season. I wouldn't say I was entirely convinced by the defence today though; they'll need to up their game when we play a good side.
But in the last ten minutes plus injury time I thought Wolves looked more likely to win it than we did. They were certainly creating more pressure than us. After our surge at the start of the second half we petered out. As others have said, that's partly because one or two of players were knackered.
I'd defy anyone to call it entertaining though.
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I can't remember the last time if ever when Gabby had 2 really good games in a row,
So that's a good thing
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Why don't "the twelfth man" get behind the team more?
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Worrying for me is how long will it take for Nzobia to get match fit???
Fuck me he's a professional footballer but he's played 4 games and isn't fit?
he has a good first touch and I hope it will improve with his fitness *coughs* but he seems to lack that initial burts of pace that gets you a yard
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Worrying for me is how long will it take for Nzobia to get match fit???
Fuck me he's a professional footballer but he's played 4 games and isn't fit?
he has a good first touch and I hope it will improve with his fitness *coughs* but he seems to lack that initial burts of pace that gets you a yard
He didnt have a preseason so he's at least a few weeks behind in terms of fitness.
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Re Bannan, bringing him on in replace of N'Zog with only minutes left was not a good move, he's never going to change a game.
I like Bannan but he isn't going to be a top Prem player I'm afraid, FAR too lightweight.
Delph looks the part, Benty needs better service, full backs needed, N'Zog needs games, Petrov needs not to shoot AT ALL, EVER AGAIN, Heskey is Heskey, Gabby = excellent game, Given = zip to do.
Needed - some more options, more accurate crossing, a decent partner for Benty.
Potless at VP, Chairman seemingly run out of money.
I'm normally positive about things, but my £520 is looking very poor value at the moment.
Totally disagree, Bannan for NZogbia was wrong because it didn't change the tactics, it should of been Bannan for Heskey which would then bring more out of NZogbia.
I think Bannan is going to be a top top player, but he needs the right team/formation to get the best out of him.
One thing Xavi always says is that he is able to do his job because of the job Busquets does. I know Bannan is not Xavi, but he is the best player bar non at villa when on the ball, surely he is a better option than Heskey in the hole. Especially with 2 midfielders behind him.
Bannan is NEVER going to be a top top player, sorry, I wish he was - I hope I eat my words.
Ditto Fonz and Albrighton.
Absolute drivel that could only come from the mouth of a closet Stripey.
Bannan moved inside once Mark came on and created our best opening almost immediately.
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Not long back in.
The first half was woeful. We played the dull tempo that Wolves wanted us to. We were lacking in movement, creativity and ideas.
I think you’ve got to look at the middle of the park for that and Delph was poor all day.
The second was better and I thought we created plenty and should have probably stuck one away. We again ran out of ideas with 15 minutes to go. I thought Bannan should have come on at half time to bring some energy to the midfield. No use having him play against some gym rat like Elokobi.
We never looked like conceding, never mind getting beat. But that’s three really frustrating home games against the Wolves in a row now.
N’Zogbia is still finding his fitness. He tends to drift in which can leave us far too narrow and this doesn’t allow the full back to bomb on and hasn’t got the same defensive discipline as Ash had, but when he picks the ball up and runs at players, he’s very dangerous and also exciting to watch.
I thought Heskey did alright for an hour, but as others have probably commented, he was out on his feet.
Gabby looked a threat, when Stearman wasn’t trying to remove his shirt.
A better second half, but the midfield as it played today, was nowhere near creative enough. I’d like to see wee Barry start in the hole against Everton and for Charlie to stay wide.
Wolves came for a point, again, and we weren't good enough to do anything about it. Again.
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I forgot to add what a pretty green frock that was their keeper was wearing. Such a shame he did not have lime green gloves and handbag to go with it.
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No idea how people can not see that Bannan has the ability to be a top player, he was onlly on the pitch 5 minutes and created a decent chance for Bent with a brilliant cross, his first touch is exceptional, he has awareness and vision, what they have got to work out is to how to get the best out of him, a few will be changing thier minds when he inevitably gets poached by a top team
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No idea how people can not see that Bannan has the ability to be a top player, he was onlly on the pitch 5 minutes and created a decent chance for Bent with a brilliant cross, his first touch is exceptional, he has awareness and vision, what they have got to work out is to how to get the best out of him, a few will be changing thier minds when he inevitably gets poached by a top team
He's like a wasp. He just cannot keep still, constantly moving into space and as you say, is exceptional on the ball. We need him in the side upping the tempo. of our play, which can be so pedestrian at times.
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I forgot to add what a pretty green frock that was their keeper was wearing. Such a shame he did not have lime green gloves and handbag to go with it.
What he needed was a bollocking from the ref for timewasting.
He took an age over every single goal kick and back pass.
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Was it really that bad? I'm getting sick of the expections and moaning of our fans. Going to be another year of transition but I'm sure it will be much better than last year if we get behind the team.
1 goal conceded in 3 games and a more solid performance compared to the one against them a few months back. We totally controlled the second half and had a few decent chances but simply looked disorganised up front. I think Nzog has shown a lot of promise but not convinced he should be on the right wing.
The dog heads are delerious after that result - they seem to think they are now the cock of the Midlands. Twats.
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They are the cocks of the midlands, myf.
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Was it really that bad? I'm getting sick of the expections and moaning of our fans.
Maybe some fans are bewildered by the extent to which our expectations have plummeted over the last year or so.
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I still would like to see Gabby inside and central, no question Gabby and Herd where the pick of the bunch by a country mile today ( by the way did anybody see the couple of crosses and passes Gabby did such as the one he laid on for Bent towards the end.....where the phuk did he learn to drop a ball on a sixpence at distance) Its been over a season now since we have seen Gabby in a major scoring role, he's that much older and that much better, could he be doing a better job and most important of all..scoring goals.
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Hawkeye, the people who knock Barry Bannan for being too small are the same ones who never get off Gabby's back and slag him off having speed and nothing else.
Long long ago we had a player the fans moaned about for being too small to be a centre forward. We gave him away to Sheffield United where he broke every club goalscoring record and became a club legend. Doc Pace. Size is completely irrelevant.
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No idea how people can not see that Bannan has the ability to be a top player, he was onlly on the pitch 5 minutes and created a decent chance for Bent with a brilliant cross, his first touch is exceptional, he has awareness and vision, what they have got to work out is to how to get the best out of him, a few will be changing thier minds when he inevitably gets poached by a top team
He's like a wasp. He just cannot keep still, constantly moving into space and as you say, is exceptional on the ball. We need him in the side upping the tempo. of our play, which can be so pedestrian at times.
Sanity at last, people said that Sir Brian and Sid were too lightweight, he is an absoloute gem, I hope that the management work this out, he could mak a difference to what is a pretty mundane outfit
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Hawkeye, the people who knock Barry Bannan for being too small are the same ones who never get off Gabby's back and slag him off having speed and nothing else.
Long long ago we had a player the fans moaned about for being too small to be a centre forward. We gave him away to Sheffield United where he broke every club goalscoring record and became a club legend. Doc Pace. Size is completely irrelevant.
With you all the way Brian UTV mate also regarding Gabby, his hold up play and touch has got better and better,
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With you both.
Bannan has the potential to be an absolutely magical player. I won't guarantee he will meet his potential but the reason he won't do this will have nothing to do with his size. For a wee guy he is very tenacious and I've seen big blokes struggle to knock him off the ball. If you are good enough then you are big enough.
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I can see the logic of playing Heskey in away games, or vs Stoke for example, and in fairness I think he's played well so far this season. But at home, especially against the likes of Wolves i'd like to see being a bit more positive from the start with the lineup. Or at the very least, make subs that are attempts to win the game, I don't think our use of subs today was at all inspiring.
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Bannan is the most talented player at Villa, including the likes of N'Zogbia and the unquestionably gifted Ireland. Without saying he's good enough for Barca, he would doubtless fit right in there in terms of style and prioritisation of technique and busy-ness over physicality. He has vision and skill to throw in as well. How he isn't starting does not reflect well on any of our managers since he's been old enough to play for the club.
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With you both.
Bannan has the potential to be an absolutely magical player. I won't guarantee he will meet his potential but the reason he won't do this will have nothing to do with his size. For a wee guy he is very tenacious and I've seen big blokes struggle to knock him off the ball. If you are good enough then you are big enough.
Totally agree and the stupid thing is Mcleish is playing Heskey in Bannans perfect position.Although Heskey did'nt play too badly today he is not an attacking midfielder.Would even prefer Ireland after Tuesday.
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Was it really that bad? I'm getting sick of the expections and moaning of our fans.
Maybe some fans are bewildered by the extent to which our expectations have plummeted over the last year or so.
Maybe. But it seems to have become moaning for moanings sake and some ppl just want to see McLeish fail. RAdio WM was unbelievable this afternoon. I'm dreading the fallout after we lose our first game!
I can understand fans skipping the game for financial reasons and the uncompetitiveness of football in general - I'm one of them - but I can't abide with ppl turning their back on the club due to Randy's revised "expectations". Fickle IMO.
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Was it really that bad? I'm getting sick of the expections and moaning of our fans.
Maybe some fans are bewildered by the extent to which our expectations have plummeted over the last year or so.
Maybe. But it seems to have become moaning for moanings sake and some ppl just want to see McLeish fail. RAdio WM was unbelievable this afternoon. I'm dreading the fallout after we lose our first game!
I can understand fans skipping the game for financial reasons and the uncompetitiveness of football in general - I'm one of them - but I can't abide with ppl turning their back on the club due to Randy's revised "expectations". Fickle IMO.
you really did not need to use the F word
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Im disappointed weimann has gone out on loan as i believe this game would have been ideal for both him and the fonz to have been involved.
Herd was outstanding considering not his position.
I enjoyed players commitment and unfortunately when we put pressure on wolves goal on this occasion we did not score.
I think a slight change in personnel when at home will see us win our next game at villa
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Bannan is the most talented player at Villa, including the likes of N'Zogbia and the unquestionably gifted Ireland. Without saying he's good enough for Barca, he would doubtless fit right in there in terms of style and prioritisation of technique and busy-ness over physicality. He has vision and skill to throw in as well. How he isn't starting does not reflect well on any of our managers since he's been old enough to play for the club.
I think you are getting a bit carried away mate. If he was that good there would have been a load of clubs sniffing round him by now. Don't forget he was in the shop window at Leeds as well and whilst I understand he was okay there not sure he set the world on fire.
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Bannan is the most talented player at Villa, including the likes of N'Zogbia and the unquestionably gifted Ireland. Without saying he's good enough for Barca, he would doubtless fit right in there in terms of style and prioritisation of technique and busy-ness over physicality. He has vision and skill to throw in as well. How he isn't starting does not reflect well on any of our managers since he's been old enough to play for the club.
I think you are getting a bit carried away mate. If he was that good there would have been a load of clubs sniffing round him by now. Don't forget he was in the shop window at Leeds as well and whilst I understand he was okay there not sure he set the world on fire.
I didn't say he was good enough for Barca (in fact I specifically said he wasn't), but just that he would fit in stylistically. You can't really judge a young player on the ludicrously limited playing time he's had so far (MON would never dream of playing his type of player, frankly), nor on performances in a not great Leeds team in a Championship division the physicality and refereeing standards of which would hardly suit him.
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Bannan is the most talented player at Villa, including the likes of N'Zogbia and the unquestionably gifted Ireland. Without saying he's good enough for Barca, he would doubtless fit right in there in terms of style and prioritisation of technique and busy-ness over physicality. He has vision and skill to throw in as well. How he isn't starting does not reflect well on any of our managers since he's been old enough to play for the club.
I think you are getting a bit carried away mate. If he was that good there would have been a load of clubs sniffing round him by now. Don't forget he was in the shop window at Leeds as well and whilst I understand he was okay there not sure he set the world on fire.
Whilst he was at Leeds he wasn't for sale, he was just gaining experience so I can understand why there were not a truck load of offers for him. More worryingly, I thought he was on Alex Ferguson's radar (probably sending him christmas cards...) after he took a Man U reserve team apart. There was certainly some press speculation shortly afterwards.
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Maybe. But it seems to have become moaning for moanings sake and some ppl just want to see McLeish fail. RAdio WM was unbelievable this afternoon. I'm dreading the fallout after we lose our first game!
I can understand fans skipping the game for financial reasons and the uncompetitiveness of football in general - I'm one of them - but I can't abide with ppl turning their back on the club due to Randy's revised "expectations". Fickle IMO.
I don't think there's any moaning for moaning's sake. I think the alarming and rapid decline in the club's ability to compete and, even worse, apparent desire to compete are more than sufficient grounds for concern and complaint. If by "fickle" you mean unwillingness to keep going when things get tough, then isn't that a charge that could also be levelled at the board?
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For all the talk about Bannan, Macoun etc you just know he'l pick the exact same line up next time out, MON mk ll
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Now I'm not comparing player for player just an analogy.
But imagine of Barcelona said right, Xavi, Iniesta your too small and lightweight and decided to play a midfield of Busquets, Mascherano and Heskey.
That's what we are basically doing. We should have Bannan and Makoun in our midfield and try to outplay teams.
I'm aware we don't have the midfield general to accommodate them both, but with Delph and Petrov we should be playing at least one of Bannan/Ireland/Makoun, not bloody Heskey!
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Now I'm not comparing player for player just an analogy.
But imagine of Barcelona said right, Xavi, Iniesta your too small and lightweight and decided to play a midfield of Busquets, Mascherano and Heskey.
That's what we are basically doing. We should have Bannan and Makoun in our midfield and try to outplay teams.
I'm aware we don't have the midfield general to accommodate them both, but with Delph and Petrov we should be playing at least one of Bannan/Ireland/Makoun, not bloody Heskey!
This is true, quite frankly i don't think Emile should even be at the club any more, he should have moved on and so should Villa or at least been a bit more progressive.
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Bannan is the most talented player at Villa, including the likes of N'Zogbia and the unquestionably gifted Ireland. Without saying he's good enough for Barca, he would doubtless fit right in there in terms of style and prioritisation of technique and busy-ness over physicality. He has vision and skill to throw in as well. How he isn't starting does not reflect well on any of our managers since he's been old enough to play for the club.
I think you are getting a bit carried away mate. If he was that good there would have been a load of clubs sniffing round him by now. Don't forget he was in the shop window at Leeds as well and whilst I understand he was okay there not sure he set the world on fire.
Whilst he was at Leeds he wasn't for sale, he was just gaining experience so I can understand why there were not a truck load of offers for him. More worryingly, I thought he was on Alex Ferguson's radar (probably sending him christmas cards...) after he took a Man U reserve team apart. There was certainly some press speculation shortly afterwards.
So only players for sale get sold!? Football players are multi-million pound commodities and clubs have scouting networks to identify the most promising youngsters. They are studied in youth and reserve games, as well as first team games. Scouts are employed to seek out the quality and it is rare in this day and age that those with potential don't get snapped up by the big clubs for large sums.
Bannan looks promising I agree but to declare him as the clubs most talented player is simply ridiculous.
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Very average first half-Dog Heads were on top. Second half don;t think they got in our box until a free kick after half an hour.
I thought this would be a decent Wolves side but they were completely outplayed for most of the second half. We were unlucky and a bit short of confidence which showed in the last 15 mins.
I was clamouring for Bannan to come on for Peskey (One great attempt his main contribution and walked through most of the second half) but until he brought Albrighton on Barry was playingwide in the N;Zog position.
Thought Charlie was promising but needs a few more games. Herd was very good after a nervy start and his interplay with Zog was excellent in the second half-he can head a ball too. Zog also needs to stay wide when we haven't got the ball as this exposed Herd with two in front of him.
Overall-worrying first half-much better second-still not very inspiring.
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Maybe. But it seems to have become moaning for moanings sake and some ppl just want to see McLeish fail. RAdio WM was unbelievable this afternoon. I'm dreading the fallout after we lose our first game!
I can understand fans skipping the game for financial reasons and the uncompetitiveness of football in general - I'm one of them - but I can't abide with ppl turning their back on the club due to Randy's revised "expectations". Fickle IMO.
I don't think there's any moaning for moaning's sake. I think the alarming and rapid decline in the club's ability to compete and, even worse, apparent desire to compete are more than sufficient grounds for concern and complaint. If by "fickle" you mean unwillingness to keep going when things get tough, then isn't that a charge that could also be levelled at the board?
"desire" is different to "ability". Randy has shown desire to compete over the past 5 years but is probably questioning whether he is now able to push on financially with the likes of Man City ruining the game.
The past two home crowds have shown that a lot of fans haven't renewed. A lot of them will be because we have employed a former Blues manager. Thats fickle IMO. The moaning about his tactics etc. after 3 games (which we haven't lost in) is frankly a joke.
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"desire" is different to "ability". Randy has shown desire to compete over the past 5 years but is probably questioning whether he is now able to push on financially with the likes of Man City ruining the game.
The past two home crowds have shown that a lot of fans haven't renewed. A lot of them will be because we have employed a former Blues manager. Thats fickle IMO. The moaning about his tactics etc. after 3 games (which we haven't lost in) is frankly a joke.
There's a difference between not being able to compete with Man City and giving up completely. Whatever desire Randy had over the last five years has been replaced by an aparent desire to save money above all other considerations.
Personally I think the 'former Blose manager' thing is a convenient smokescreen. I suspect the two main reasons why people haven't renewed (economic climate notwithstanding) are Lerner's cost-cutting and McLeish's entirely deserved reputation (over his entire career, not 3 games) for playing mediocre football.
If Lerner's given up the ghost, you can't expect the fans not to.
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Don't know if it's already been discussed but to me N'Z looks a bit overweight :-\
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N'Z is little Heskey!
'
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N'Zogbia will never replace either of them because he hasn't got their work ethic.
N'Zogbia hasnt got the work ethic of the lazy non-tackling Downing?
No he hasn't. Downing works far harder, he may not be too keen to put his foot into a 50/50 challenge but he chases back and gets goal side far more than N'Zogbia seems to.
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Bannan looks promising I agree but to declare him as the clubs most talented player is simply ridiculous.
Ridiculous? so who is more talented? Maybe Ireland and that is it
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N'Zogbia will never replace either of them because he hasn't got their work ethic.
N'Zogbia hasnt got the work ethic of the lazy non-tackling Downing?
No he hasn't. Downing works far harder, he may not be too keen to put his foot into a 50/50 challenge but he chases back and gets goal side far more than N'Zogbia seems to.
N'Zog has had just 3 games for us. How many did Downing have before he put in anything like a decent performance?
Give the guy a chance to get to know his team mates and the system and we will see him improve.
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N'Zogbia will never replace either of them because he hasn't got their work ethic.
N'Zogbia hasnt got the work ethic of the lazy non-tackling Downing?
No he hasn't. Downing works far harder, he may not be too keen to put his foot into a 50/50 challenge but he chases back and gets goal side far more than N'Zogbia seems to.
N'Zog has had just 3 games for us. How many did Downing have before he put in anything like a decent performance?
Give the guy a chance to get to know his team mates and the system and we will see him improve.
Yeh maybe, but Downing had a higher work rate when he first came to us, after being out for some months. Hopefully N'Zog will improve but he just doesn't seem to have the same work ethic.
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I would have Nzog over that wimp Downing,
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N'zogbia always disappears in games and does very little. Basically he's a lazy bastard. thats his m.o. You watch, he'll be unplayable in a few weeks time and then return to normal service. This "he's like a cheaper Young" myth is about as credible as the "Sidwell is the new lampard guff" on this board a few years back when we signed him.
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I was convinced that if we'd been awarded a penalty today, it would have been saved or missed.
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I realise people basing nzogbia on the moments so far.
Well hes not up to macth fitness not having a complete pre season because of injury
he getting up to speed and will show his worth. His work ethic is no question great athelete imho.
Nzogbia will be hoping to be involved against romainia and albaina over the coming weeks
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Just remembered I saw Ian Taylor and a teenage boy who is presumably his son, just before the game. I was tempted to ask for his autograph or a photograph, but chickened out.
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Don't know if it's already been discussed but to me N'Z looks a bit overweight :-\
I'm disappointed with him so far. Nowhere near in the class of Downing or Young I'm afraid.
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Don't know if it's already been discussed but to me N'Z looks a bit overweight :-\
I'm disappointed with him so far. Nowhere near in the class of Downing or Young I'm afraid.
Thought he got stronger as the game went on ,though as others have said he should'nt be as sluggish and lacking sharpness as he is.
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Just remembered I saw Ian Taylor and a teenage boy who is presumably his son, just before the game. I was tempted to ask for his autograph or a photograph, but chickened out.
hey nice one tayls is a legend..
Reflecting thought for day : you miss 100% of the shots you never take
youre not chicken you just decided not to go for it no worries
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N'Zogbia will never replace either of them because he hasn't got their work ethic.
N'Zogbia hasnt got the work ethic of the lazy non-tackling Downing?
No he hasn't. Downing works far harder, he may not be too keen to put his foot into a 50/50 challenge but he chases back and gets goal side far more than N'Zogbia seems to.
N'Zogbia is pretty well known for not tracking back and not defending, so dont expect it of him any time soon. If thats the kind of player AM wanted then he's bought the wrong player. What he lacks in the defensive side of his game will hopefully be balanced by his tenacity going forward and I think he will prove to be much better than Downing in that respect once he's on form. If he cant do it consistently then he'll be another lemon to add to the list of lemons we've signed over the MON years.
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I've been very disappointed by the quality of crosses from N'Zogbia so far, both from set pieces and open play.
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N'Z can't cross, can't shoot' can't tackle, doesn't score ..hmmm
I have not ever feared N'Zogbia when we played Wigan and I have been to all 4 of our games and I must say I see nothing there to inspire me.
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N'Z can't cross, can't shoot' can't tackle, doesn't score ..hmmm
I have not ever feared N'Zogbia when we played Wigan and I have been to all 4 of our games and I must say I see nothing there to inspire me.
Scored against us twice in the last 4 times he played for Wigan.
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I still think we have to compare N'Z with the first 6 months of Downing which if I remember was distinctly uninspiring for someone who cost nearly half as much again.Given time and involvement we will see him improve especially if AM can work on his defensive duties but never expected anything from Downing in those circumstances anyway.
Herd looked a good replacement for L. Young where his enthusiasm took him into places of personal danger but his lack of experience did show at times; again something for AM to work with .Could he have the potential to be a Gidmanesque player?.Height and heading ability could be useful especially at set pieces both offensive and defensive.
Heskey looked good in first half but was blown in second would have liked to have seen BB on much earlier.
A bit concerned that Bent is on his own , a player closer to him might be better for us, wonder how long he'll be happy playing in that role when he's not got the service that he thought he would be having?
Anyway we are still +1 for the season over last year so onwards and upwards
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I note that both sky and motd had heskey down as the best player on the pitch. Yet some villa fans think he not only shouldn't be playing, but that it betrays some form of incompetence by mcleish.
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I confess to only having seen the second half but I though we looked good going forward for the first 20-25 minutes and there was only one team going to score. The subs buggered it up to an extent. N'Zog was starting to make some runs and Delph was playing it out from deep, yet he took them both off and we lost all the momentum. Very odd.
Although both Gabby and Heskey did well yesterday, I still think the combination is wrong because it simply fails to provide supply for our most potent weapon - Bent. When I bemoaned this combo against Fulham, some said it was "horses for courses" and that AM would be more adventurous at home. So far they have been completely wrong and the indications are that AM likes to go with the "safe" option of pace, power and strength over the technique and creativity that Bannan or Ireland might offer.
That's one reason I didn't want AM as boss and was sorry to see GH go. Still it's early days and let's hope he is more prepared to rotate as time passes.
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I note that both sky and motd had heskey down as the best player on the pitch. Yet some villa fans think he not only shouldn't be playing, but that it betrays some form of incompetence by mcleish.
Heskey didn't play bad, but having him on the pitch basically means the team is carrying Bent, because Heskey provides fuck all in a position that should.
Horses for courses.
He should have played Bannan against Wolves and we'd have had a better chance of winning then against a big physical team like Stoke yes play Heskey.
I just thought the days of knowing the team before it's release were over.
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I still think we have to compare N'Z with the first 6 months of Downing which if I remember was distinctly uninspiring for someone who cost nearly half as much again.Given time and involvement we will see him improve especially if AM can work on his defensive duties but never expected anything from Downing in those circumstances anyway.
Herd looked a good replacement for L. Young where his enthusiasm took him into places of personal danger but his lack of experience did show at times; again something for AM to work with .Could he have the potential to be a Gidmanesque player?.Height and heading ability could be useful especially at set pieces both offensive and defensive.
Heskey looked good in first half but was blown in second would have liked to have seen BB on much earlier.
A bit concerned that Bent is on his own , a player closer to him might be better for us, wonder how long he'll be happy playing in that role when he's not got the service that he thought he would be having?
Anyway we are still +1 for the season over last year so onwards and upwards
Pravda has Herd's height down as 5'8", which is only an inch taller than what Bannan has been listed at. That's why I thought it was so strange that he lined up at CB against Wolves last season... has he had a growth spurt and they haven't changed his height on the squad list?
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5'8 never that makes him shorter than me....he looked taller than that to me
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I saw plenty of encouraging signs today. Solid defence and much more proper football going forward. We looked very good going forward on occasions although we clearly have more to do.
The worst part of the day is to hear fans still having a go at McLeish despite us being more organised and capable than we have been for years. No wonder fans are staying away with the level of hatred and moaning that's around the place at the moment. If Houllier was still here we would have lost yesterday.
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I'm not Heskey's biggest fan but I thought only one player on the field was more effective and that was the impressive Richard Dunne
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Was it really that bad? I'm getting sick of the expections and moaning of our fans.
Maybe some fans are bewildered by the extent to which our expectations have plummeted over the last year or so.
Fucking hell
Please forgive me for expecting us to beat a team that will finish bdelow mid table at home
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Probably would have settled for a draw really, which shows you how my expectations have plummented and probably explains the missing thousands. The problem AM has is he's not got the players to play the way he wants and no funds to change it. whether his way is ever going to produce entertainment is debatable but its still a major handicap. The big question though is how this team will fare when we play someone good - 1 decent result against a blackburn side who are already looking nailed on relegation candidates doesn't tell us anything - From today's showing i'll think struggle to get anything unless we go into AM's Blose-era turbo-defensive mode.
So the Blackburn game told us nothing yet you go on to draw conclusions from yesterday. As for the first line, come on Greg, we know you, you've always had low expectations and you're in no position to talk about the missing thousands. You're losing your touch, you can't even do a decent wind up now.
We should have won, never looked like losing. Plenty of good things about the performance but the balance isn't quite right.
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In fairness to McLeish, he picked the same side, bar the injured and now sold Luke Young, that breezed past Blackburn.
His mistake came in not adjusting Bannan for Heskey at half-time and also taking off Delph, who looked poor and completely out of it, possibly hampered by the booking.
I’m a little confused by the criticism of N’Zogbia. While it’s evident that he isn’t quite up to speed and that he hasn’t been quite disciplined enough (covering the full back and drifting central), I think this is more than made up for by the fact that every time he gets the ball, he marauds past players with ease. He looks an exceptional talent.
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I forget to mention that Dunne was brilliant yesturday.
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I’m a little confused by the criticism of N’Zogbia. While it’s evident that he isn’t quite up to speed and that he hasn’t been quite disciplined enough (covering the full back and drifting central), I think this is more than made up for by the fact that every time he gets the ball, he marauds past players with ease. He looks an exceptional talent.
Agree with that. It was also his third game in a week so probably right to take him off.
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We huffed and we puffed, but we just didn't have the quality to break them down. Same problem we have had at home for years. This is not something that has suddenly become an issue since Big Eck came along.
I thought N'Zog had a reasonable game. Ok, maybe a little quiet in the first half but he was lively after the break before tiring. I think he will come good soon. Herd had a decent game but was a little rash at times.
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I'm not a fan of over analysing what the manager says but as this quote is specifically about my biggest compliant (playing Heskey above Bannan) I thought I'd post it and ask what you folk think it means as it is vague in it's meaning to say the least:
"Barry Bannan sees pictures. I guess Benty might fancy Barry in the team but it's difficult when you're looking at all the elements of how we want to play to keep everyone satisfied."
I wish journalists would ask what the manager means when they spout bobbins like that.
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Well Bent is the man we need to satisfy not bloody Heskey!
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In fairness to McLeish, he picked the same side, bar the injured and now sold Luke Young, that breezed past Blackburn.
His mistake came in not adjusting Bannan for Heskey at half-time and also taking off Delph, who looked poor and completely out of it, possibly hampered by the booking.
I’m a little confused by the criticism of N’Zogbia. While it’s evident that he isn’t quite up to speed and that he hasn’t been quite disciplined enough (covering the full back and drifting central), I think this is more than made up for by the fact that every time he gets the ball, he marauds past players with ease. He looks an exceptional talent.
Agree with all this.
Gabby really needs to learn more about playing wide, he was sometimes miles up the pitch when Warnock needed cover.
Delph was totally hampered by that early yellow card & almost went missing, he needs to watch his tackling else there is really no point in playing him if he's going to be like that.
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Well Bent is the man we need to satisfy not bloody Heskey!
Hmmm... I though young Miss Bruce was doing that?
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I'm not a fan of over analysing what the manager says but as this quote is specifically about my biggest compliant (playing Heskey above Bannan) I thought I'd post it and ask what you folk think it means as it is vague in it's meaning to say the least:
"Barry Bannan sees pictures. I guess Benty might fancy Barry in the team but it's difficult when you're looking at all the elements of how we want to play to keep everyone satisfied."
I wish journalists would ask what the manager means when they spout bobbins like that.
Still, reading into it as much as you can you could say that this means he's playing Heskey for the defensive side of the game. How he can say that and say that we should have got better service to Benty is fecking amazing, as he clearly knows a possible solution but actively REFUSES to do it. That's just mental.
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I'm not a fan of over analysing what the manager says but as this quote is specifically about my biggest compliant (playing Heskey above Bannan) I thought I'd post it and ask what you folk think it means as it is vague in it's meaning to say the least:
"Barry Bannan sees pictures. I guess Benty might fancy Barry in the team but it's difficult when you're looking at all the elements of how we want to play to keep everyone satisfied."
I wish journalists would ask what the manager means when they spout bobbins like that.
I'm guessing there should be a comma between 'play' and 'to'. It's about the balance between how we want to plan while at the same time satisfying the need for a more physical approach as we're a pretty small side. Personally I'd rather Bannan but can see why the manager might err on the side of caution.
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The "keep everyone satisfied" bit is odd as it implies that he is compromising his better judgement to satisfy someone or a player(s). It was probably just the usual manger double-speak but I wish journalists would do their job and ask for more clarity.
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I'm not a fan of over analysing what the manager says but as this quote is specifically about my biggest compliant (playing Heskey above Bannan) I thought I'd post it and ask what you folk think it means as it is vague in it's meaning to say the least:
"Barry Bannan sees pictures. I guess Benty might fancy Barry in the team but it's difficult when you're looking at all the elements of how we want to play to keep everyone satisfied."
I wish journalists would ask what the manager means when they spout bobbins like that.
I'm guessing there should be a comma between 'play' and 'to'. It's about the balance between how we want to plan while at the same time satisfying the need for a more physical approach as we're a pretty small side. Personally I'd rather Bannan but can see why the manager might err on the side of caution.
That is the crux of the matter: AM erred on the side of caution. Most of Villa's managers in recent years have ended up playing cautiously, but he has started off in this fashion. I can see the logic of trying to consolidate after last season's debacle, but playing one up front at home against Wolves is not going to get pulses racing.
On the question of Heskey, it was noticeable that he was under instruction to mark Fletcher when they had a goal kick, effectively putting him in a left back position, and that he was generally playing very deep. Anybody criticising Bambi for not fulfilling the support striker or "in the hole" role are wide of the mark.
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but playing one up front at home against Wolves is not going to get pulses racing.
I don't think that playing one up front is necessarily defensive or cautious. As long as other players are given license to attack and not have to defend too much. N'zogbia for example should not be instructed to track back too much as we have two holding midfielders already back shepherding the play away from dangerous areas.
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I thought Darren Bent looked well pissed off yesterday and his disenchantment with the club after Barry, Milner, Downing and Young have all been lost would be the last straw. For me anyway. I came away from that game feeling very old and very tired.
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I thought Darren Bent looked well pissed off yesterday and his disenchantment with the club after Barry, Milner, Downing and Young have all been lost would be the last straw. For me anyway. I came away from that game feeling very old and very tired.
It would be a bit stupid of him to be disenchanted about the sale of two players who left before he signed. He'd surely also understand where his transfer came from.
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There's something about N'Zog that makes me think its all going to go a bit Curcic, like it has with Ireland. I can't quite put my finger on it. Don't get me wrong, he's a top player and he was decent yesterday in flashes, but i just have a gut feeling.
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holy crap. He's been with us for 3 games without any pre-season and he's being compared to Curcic. Unbelievable. If he really wanted to be a wanker he'd have disappeared when Wigan needed him most. Instead he almost single handledly kept them up. He is a very good player indeed and prove to be with us in time.
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I'm not comparing him to anyone, i'm just saying ive got a gut feeling he won't settle. Hopefully it won't be the case, as we sure as shit are going to need him at his best.
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I'm not comparing him to anyone, i'm just saying ive got a gut feeling he won't settle. Hopefully it won't be the case, as we sure as shit are going to need him at his best.
yeh, but Curcic was a complete and utter mental case. Bad analogy. You have to give him more than 3 games though.
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I'm not comparing him to anyone, i'm just saying ive got a gut feeling he won't settle. Hopefully it won't be the case, as we sure as shit are going to need him at his best.
yeh, but Curcic was a complete and utter mental case. Bad analogy. You have to give him more than 3 games though.
Like de Gea.
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I'm not comparing him to anyone, i'm just saying ive got a gut feeling he won't settle. Hopefully it won't be the case, as we sure as shit are going to need him at his best.
yeh, but Curcic was a complete and utter mental case. Bad analogy. You have to give him more than 3 games though.
Or four games even. (pedantic wink)
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I'm not comparing him to anyone, i'm just saying ive got a gut feeling he won't settle. Hopefully it won't be the case, as we sure as shit are going to need him at his best.
yeh, but Curcic was a complete and utter mental case. Bad analogy. You have to give him more than 3 games though.
Like de Gea.
correct. He's had a bad start but I wouldn't compare him to Taibi just yet
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I'm not comparing him to anyone, i'm just saying ive got a gut feeling he won't settle. Hopefully it won't be the case, as we sure as shit are going to need him at his best.
yeh, but Curcic was a complete and utter mental case. Bad analogy. You have to give him more than 3 games though.
Or four games even. (pedantic wink)
no, that's called being anal Chris ;)
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NZogbia will be great once he gets going. Needs to be further up the field though for me, far too deep much of the time. Indeed, I would be tempted to get Albrighton right and move NZogbia behind Bent.
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Zog was the only player who got me up off my seat yesterday.Rather see flashes of brilliance than turgid hot potato football.
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Zog was the only player who got me up off my seat yesterday.Rather see flashes of brilliance than turgid hot potato football.
Trouble was that was more in hope than expectation.
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Zog was the only player who got me up off my seat yesterday.Rather see flashes of brilliance than turgid hot potato football.
Trouble was that was more in hope than expectation.
Which is all that is left at b6.....
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NZogbia will be great once he gets going. Needs to be further up the field though for me, far too deep much of the time. Indeed, I would be tempted to get Albrighton right and move NZogbia behind Bent.
I think Gabby looks a real threat on the wing. Both are fine to come central and attack the middle when the ball is on the opposite flank, but we’re not stretching sides enough with our width.
I think McLeish will see that and get them pulling ten yards further out than they are. It would also make us a lot more solid defensively too, by keeping a nice bit of shape to cover the full back.
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Bannan looks promising I agree but to declare him as the clubs most talented player is simply ridiculous.
Ridiculous? so who is more talented? Maybe Ireland and that is it
England's No. 9 has proved to be quite a talent
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Well that was predictable!
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NZogbia will be great once he gets going. Needs to be further up the field though for me, far too deep much of the time. Indeed, I would be tempted to get Albrighton right and move NZogbia behind Bent.
I think Gabby looks a real threat on the wing. Both are fine to come central and attack the middle when the ball is on the opposite flank, but we’re not stretching sides enough with our width.
I think McLeish will see that and get them pulling ten yards further out than they are. It would also make us a lot more solid defensively too, by keeping a nice bit of shape to cover the full back.
It wasnt the width that was the problem, its the fact that they sat deep and we didnt push on to them, when we did that for 25 minutes in the second half , we put them under pressure.
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Haven't read through the whole thread, but the reaction seems to be a bit overly negative.
We got a draw, with a clean sheet, in a derby game we lost last year and drew the previous year. We can't be too despondent about that.
We have only conceded 1 in 3 games, which suggests that McLeish has gone about sorting out the defence and is succeeding.
Ok, going forward, we were no great shakes, but I think/hope that will improve once N'Zogbia settles in and the Heskey experiment is disposed of. Although in fairness I thought he was quite good in the 1st half.
We should also bear in mind that Wolves are an improved outfit this year, not the relegation battlers of the last couple of years. Players like O'Hara, Hunt and Jarvis will cause most teams problems, yet they didnt cause us much on Saturday.
McLeish is beginning to make us back into a solid, hard to beat outfit like we were under MON. That is his first job. Hopefully, then he can kick on and get us playing better football. Then, maybe we can dream of finishing 7th....
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Playing better football?
no chance
AM showed on Saturday 100% that he hasn't got a clue tactically
Nzog wide left - Again
bannan as a straight swap rather than getting the uselesss big lump off
We look tighter at the back but look at the quality of the forward lines that we have been up against
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I was disappointed with the result we should have won I thought we needed Bannan on in place of Heskey because Bent didn't really have any chances created for him apart that header in the second half which just went over I'm also disappointed with the attendance although I can understand people not wanting to go because of money reasons.
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I can understand why AM has chosen the team he has for the opening games and do not have a problem with it. We did not get stuck into them and play with a high enough tempo in the first half but this was rectified at half time and for the first 20 - 25 minutes of the second half we had then on the ropes, so much so the that they took both wingers off and brought on more defensive minded players. Unfortunately we did not get a goal and the tempo dropped as players became tired.
That is when I feel AM made his mistakes. His use of the bench was poor. Yes, I would have taken N'zog off and bring Bannan on, but he is only of use if played centrally, not wide with instructions to track back. Heskey should have moved further upfield and Bannan should have played central from coming on.
Then it was obvious to everyone that Heskey's legs had gone and some fresh impetus was needed but this did not happen. Instead he brought Marc on instead of Delph, which was fair enough, but he should also have replaced Heskey with fresh legs and gone for it in the last 10 minutes. To not use his 3rd substitute to my mind was criminal.
With regard to Delph he really has to learn to stay on his feet and not dive into tackles. Getting a yellow after just 5 minutes meant he was playing scared for the rest of the match.
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Watching the highlights again this morning I think we did relatively well and were unlucky not to win.
If a couple of the keeper's clearances had fallen kindly and with little more accuracy we could have won comfortably.
For all their hustle and bustle Wolves made very little impression.
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It's a reasonable point; they beat us at VP last season - since then they've got a better team with Johnson coming into the defence, and our team has weakened, so let's take the positives out of that and take the result.
Steady from us and AM so far. We've looked okay against modest opposition. Defence has conceded one goal in three league games, so we've tightened up there. I do feel that the players we have who could lift us out of the ordinary and push us on are either not being used regularly (Albrighton, Bannan, Ireland, Makoun) or not effectively (N'Zogbia - should be one of the front three, not the midfield three, which leaves him too deep). Maybe that will change, maybe it won't.
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Managed to catch the game in an Inverness pub, no sound so I didn't have any commentators to sway my opinions. Must say I didn't think we played badly at all, we had something like 17 shots on goal and that's not counting the (at least) three times Hennesey cut out cut-backs from the by-line. On another day something would have fallen to Bent or Gabby, Wolves had a lot of luck in their area.
Another thing, why are so many people slagging McLeish off for being negative? He played three strikers didn't he? Okay so they aren't gelling as a strike force as yet and Zoggy looks off the pace and isn't creating much for them but I don't see this as a negative formation at all.
We'll be okay this season, and I think that's all we can hope for given the players we have lost.
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Started reading this thread last night and was surprised how negative it was. Good performances from Chris Herd and Gabby. Shame we couldn't make our second half dominance pay, and we did lose some momentum when N'Zogbia was taken off. Having said that it was Bannan's cross that gave Bent his nearest effort to scoring.
One criticism I would have is that you've got to make sure you hit the target. For all our shots I'm not sure whether we got a single one going where it needs to go to score.
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Gabby was comfortably our best player on saturday.
Can't believe the press seemed to think Heskey was MOTM, he screwed one shot wide in the first half then hardly did anything for the rest of the game.
Disappointed aswell McLeish reacted too late to McCarthy closing down the flanks. I'd have played three centrally and tried to outnumber them there.
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Heskey was MOTM.......................how?
Overall I had this one down for a defeat by a margin of a goal, so 1pt is good IMO, the overall performance is now starting to show a pattern in the way McLiesh sets the side up, we looked the sameish v Fulham, Wolves not a million miles different, I think overall there is more to be concerned about than the breath a sigh of relief about after this, are we the blouses in a different strip.
Carry on like this and the pattern IMO will be that we will be hard to beat, but little achieved, question is did we really expect any difference.