Heroes & Villains, the Aston Villa fanzine
Heroes & Villains => Heroes Discussion => Topic started by: Rip Van We Go Again on April 30, 2012, 10:19:09 AM
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birminghammail.net
ALEX McLeish is holding out for a hero to score the goal which forces Villa’s improving Premier League survival battle over the finishing line.
Saturday’s hard-earned point at Albion and yesterday’s timely defeats for QPR and Blackburn at Chelsea and Tottenham respectively have boosted Villa’s prospects of staying up.
And McLeish believes there is a mystery scorer lurking in the dressing room, ready to net an all-important goal against Tottenham or at Norwich in the last two matches. “It’s there for the players,” said McLeish after the 0-0 draw at The Hawthorns put Villa on 37 points, with 36 goals from 36 games.
“One of these guys in that dressing room will get the goal that matters for us. I’m confident and positive about that. Every point is crucial in this league and we have dropped some crucial points over the season.
“It’s kind of caught up on us a wee bit, but we certainly don’t think it’s the worst point in the world because it’s still in our hands and we still have two games to go.”
QPR and Blackburn’s setbacks have given Villa a major advantage in the survival race. Because of their superior goal difference of minus-14, one more win would almost certainly secure Villa’s Premier League status.
A draw would also virtually keep them up, while McLeish’s strugglers could even avoid the drop without picking up another point with the situation looking bleak for Blackburn and QPR.
Blackburn are six points behind Villa with a home match against Wigan and a trip to Chelsea remaining, while QPR face the prospect of most probably having to take at least four points from Stoke at home and Manchester City away.
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It's a bit of a strange sentiment on by behalf, but I'd love this to be the way heskey sings off for the club.
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It's a bit of a strange sentiment on by behalf, but I'd love this to be the way heskey sings off for the club.
He'll score a hat-trick and be given the managers job.
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I said to my mate after the game on Saturday, Heskey to hit the winner in the 90th minute v Norwich to keep us up
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I cant believe how bad our finishing is at the moment . Weimann for me against Norwich.
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Lets really enter into the fun side of it ...
A Heskey hatrick, left foot from outside of the box, right foot from inside the box, and just to keep it in perspective one to ricochet in off his arse as he lies on the floor (again) inside the 6 yard box.
Just hope to god they are all in the "other" end.
UTV.
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Caught up on us a wee bit? Well, you have to give him credit that he finally seems to have noticed.
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The only way Heskey will score , is if it comes off his arse while he is looking the other way .
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The only way Heskey will score , is if it comes off his arse while he is looking the other way.
If it keeps us up, I'm happy for it to come off his knob while he's getting excited thinking about our 'fit birds over 40' thread.
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Friedel og versus Tottingham.
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love the bit with "the goal". What about a 2 or 3 goal lead? No?
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You can see why GH brought Bent, were toothless without him
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You can see why GH brought Bent, were toothless without him
McLeish does not know how to play him neither.
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love the bit with "the goal". What about a 2 or 3 goal lead? No?
As soon as i read that it was my thoughts also
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Still reckon Zog will rifle one in.
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It's a bit of a strange sentiment on by behalf, but I'd love this to be the way heskey sings off for the club.
I won't argue with that.
He gets a lot of stick, but he never shirks a shift.
I think he's played really well the last couple of games too and was unlucky not to score on a couple of occasions .
It's saying something when I was wishing it had been him and not Gabby through on goal Saturday.
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We need Man City to still have an interest on the last day. If United win tonight City might not bother with the last game against QPR.
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We really have been let down by our strikers this season, whilst much of this might be down to the way they have been coached and our tactics, they have missed some gilt edged chances and if they had taken some of these, we wouldn't be in the position we are in.
Gabby stands out as a partularly to blame, he didn't seem to like playing with Bent that much, but when the opportunity arose for him when Bent was injured, he hasn't taken it. Just not good enough and he has been one of the the biggest let downs of this season IMO.
As for Heskey, never really expected much from him in terms of scoring, but it would be great if he could sign off his Villa career with a winning goal or two.
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You can see why GH brought Bent, were toothless without him
McLeish does not know how to play him neither.
He would have had his supply line, Young and Downing, not been sold off!!
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We really have been let down by our strikers this season, whilst much of this might be down to the way they have been coached and our tactics, they have missed some gilt edged chances and if they had taken some of these, we wouldn't be in the position we are in.
Gabby stands out as a partularly to blame, he didn't seem to like playing with Bent that much, but when the opportunity arose for him when Bent was injured, he hasn't taken it. Just not good enough and he has been one of the the biggest let downs of this season IMO.
As for Heskey, never really expected much from him in terms of scoring, but it would be great if he could sign off his Villa career with a winning goal or two.
I think him and N'Zogbia should have given us a lot more this season. That may be a tactical as you say, but AM seemed to want to set us up as a 4-3-3 with them wide of Bent. On paper that looks pretty tasty, but simply hasn't worked.
Shit defending is the other reason we are where we are.
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Well he said last week that Heskey was capable of supplying the goals. He must of realised that if a striker is going to pass the ball from 8 yards out (as he did against Albion), then there isn't much hope in that happening.
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You can see why GH brought Bent, were toothless without him
McLeish does not know how to play him neither.
He would have had his supply line, Young and Downing, not been sold off!!
Albrighton & Nzogbia aren't as good as Young & Downing but they still should have got better balls in, also we've rarely played the two together and when we have we've been too narrow
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We really have been let down by our strikers this season, whilst much of this might be down to the way they have been coached and our tactics, they have missed some gilt edged chances and if they had taken some of these, we wouldn't be in the position we are in.
Gabby stands out as a partularly to blame, he didn't seem to like playing with Bent that much, but when the opportunity arose for him when Bent was injured, he hasn't taken it. Just not good enough and he has been one of the the biggest let downs of this season IMO.
As for Heskey, never really expected much from him in terms of scoring, but it would be great if he could sign off his Villa career with a winning goal or two.
I think him and N'Zogbia should have given us a lot more this season. That may be a tactical as you say, but AM seemed to want to set us up as a 4-3-3 with them wide of Bent. On paper that looks pretty tasty, but simply hasn't worked.
Shit defending is the other reason we are where we are.
For this kind of 4-3-3 to work effectively you need the full backs providing width going forward. We don't allow that so we end up becoming very narrow, which forces crosses to be played from the corner of the box, which means you need to be very accurate to not go long, hit the keeper or play it behind the attacker. Better overlapping from the fullbacks would mean crosses coming flat across the box, whereby you can hit them flatter between the GK and defenders and allow more wiggle room in the quality and a lot more chance of an OG. This is albrighton's problem currently, he's very good at whipping them from near the corner flag so they shape away from the keeper but he can't get into the positions to do that at the minute.
On top of that we seem insistent on the idea of becoming a 5 without the ball, with the change simply being to pull the wingers deeper. As all our pace is on the wings (when it's gabby and nzog there) this completely nullifies our ability to counter-attack, it also means we're often still 1-1 defensively. what should happen is that we move the 'spare' man to the ball, so you always have a flat 4 but then you have a free person who closes the ball. so they attack down our left, clark steps across to fill left midfield, herd, ireland and nzog fill the rest of the midfield and gabby harries the ball. They move is central, gabby filters back, as does clark, freeing ireland to close the ball. This means we can use those wide players to close the full backs down quickly and the striker to close down the central defenders, taking away most of their space in behind.
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Dunney to belly bounce the ball in from a corner. "BOING!"
Mind you with Dunney, it'll probably be in our own net.
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Here's a bet for you, punters.
I bet the goal that seals our safety will be from a corner.
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Here's a bet for you, punters.
I bet the goal that seals our safety will be from a corner.
Yeah, I fancy Stoke on set pieces against QPR.
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Just to be clear, I meant a goal actually scored by Villa.
Yes, legends tell of such things.
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You can see why GH brought Bent, were toothless without him
McLeish does not know how to play him neither.
He would have had his supply line, Young and Downing, not been sold off!!
Albrighton & Nzogbia aren't as good as Young & Downing but they still should have got better balls in, also we've rarely played the two together and when we have we've been too narrow
Downing in the Prem . Assists 0 Goals 0 . Nzogbia must be better than him ;)
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Here's a bet for you, punters.
I bet the goal that seals our safety will be from a corner.
Yeah, I fancy Stoke on set pieces against QPR.
like it
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You can see why GH brought Bent, were toothless without him
McLeish does not know how to play him neither.
He would have had his supply line, Young and Downing, not been sold off!!
Albrighton & Nzogbia aren't as good as Young & Downing but they still should have got better balls in, also we've rarely played the two together and when we have we've been too narrow
Downing in the Prem . Assists 0 Goals 0 . Nzogbia must be better than him ;)
Do corners count, because I'm sure he set up a goal for t''The Mighty Reds YNWA' in front of the Holte End this season?
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Still reckon Zog will rifle one in.
That is nailed on I would have thought, but will he score a goal in the remaining two games?
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We really have been let down by our strikers this season, whilst much of this might be down to the way they have been coached and our tactics, they have missed some gilt edged chances and if they had taken some of these, we wouldn't be in the position we are in.
Gabby stands out as a partularly to blame, he didn't seem to like playing with Bent that much, but when the opportunity arose for him when Bent was injured, he hasn't taken it. Just not good enough and he has been one of the the biggest let downs of this season IMO.
As for Heskey, never really expected much from him in terms of scoring, but it would be great if he could sign off his Villa career with a winning goal or two.
I think him and N'Zogbia should have given us a lot more this season. That may be a tactical as you say, but AM seemed to want to set us up as a 4-3-3 with them wide of Bent. On paper that looks pretty tasty, but simply hasn't worked.
Shit defending is the other reason we are where we are.
For this kind of 4-3-3 to work effectively you need the full backs providing width going forward. We don't allow that so we end up becoming very narrow, which forces crosses to be played from the corner of the box, which means you need to be very accurate to not go long, hit the keeper or play it behind the attacker. Better overlapping from the fullbacks would mean crosses coming flat across the box, whereby you can hit them flatter between the GK and defenders and allow more wiggle room in the quality and a lot more chance of an OG. This is albrighton's problem currently, he's very good at whipping them from near the corner flag so they shape away from the keeper but he can't get into the positions to do that at the minute.
On top of that we seem insistent on the idea of becoming a 5 without the ball, with the change simply being to pull the wingers deeper. As all our pace is on the wings (when it's gabby and nzog there) this completely nullifies our ability to counter-attack, it also means we're often still 1-1 defensively. what should happen is that we move the 'spare' man to the ball, so you always have a flat 4 but then you have a free person who closes the ball. so they attack down our left, clark steps across to fill left midfield, herd, ireland and nzog fill the rest of the midfield and gabby harries the ball. They move is central, gabby filters back, as does clark, freeing ireland to close the ball. This means we can use those wide players to close the full backs down quickly and the striker to close down the central defenders, taking away most of their space in behind.
Nice coaching. Any chance you can email this to Peter Grant?
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Lets really enter into the fun side of it ...
A Heskey hatrick, left foot from outside of the box, right foot from inside the box, and just to keep it in perspective one to ricochet in off his arse as he lies on the floor (again) inside the 6 yard box.
Just hope to god they are all in the "other" end.
UTV.
I love this!
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This proves what a master tactician AM is.
He's already planning on us scoring just the ONE goal!
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This proves what a master tactician AM is.
He's already planning on us scoring just the ONE goal!
Well, that's an improvement on most of the season, maybe he's coming round to our way of thinking? <slowly>
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I also think our most important game could come from stoke. Huth or crouch v qpr hopefully
I think we will score 1 more this season, and I fancy it tone heskey, gabby or CNZ, the much derided trio (rightfully)
Would love Gardner to get the crucial goal.
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Anyone to score please, just one more before the end of the season.
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We cannot score for toffee!Just shows how much we miss D.Bent!
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Any chance of Bent coming back in time for Norwich?
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Where have all the Angels gone and where are all the Bents?
Where's the streetwise goalpoacher to find the back of the net?
Isn't there a striker with power and skill and speed?
Late at night I toss and turn and I dream of what I need...
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Another zero
I’m holding out for a draw because a point is alright
I've gotta be strong
Cos I'm gonna be sacked
And I'm not coming back in July
Another zero
I’m holding on for a nil-nil cos a point is alright
We've gotta be sure
If we cross the halfway
That theres still 7 men on our line.
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did McLeish have Bonnie Tyler playing in the background when he said this?
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Wonder if Gabby will ever score again....
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We really have been let down by our strikers this season, whilst much of this might be down to the way they have been coached and our tactics, they have missed some gilt edged chances and if they had taken some of these, we wouldn't be in the position we are in.
Gabby stands out as a partularly to blame, he didn't seem to like playing with Bent that much, but when the opportunity arose for him when Bent was injured, he hasn't taken it. Just not good enough and he has been one of the the biggest let downs of this season IMO.
As for Heskey, never really expected much from him in terms of scoring, but it would be great if he could sign off his Villa career with a winning goal or two.
I think him and N'Zogbia should have given us a lot more this season. That may be a tactical as you say, but AM seemed to want to set us up as a 4-3-3 with them wide of Bent. On paper that looks pretty tasty, but simply hasn't worked.
Shit defending is the other reason we are where we are.
For this kind of 4-3-3 to work effectively you need the full backs providing width going forward. We don't allow that so we end up becoming very narrow, which forces crosses to be played from the corner of the box, which means you need to be very accurate to not go long, hit the keeper or play it behind the attacker. Better overlapping from the fullbacks would mean crosses coming flat across the box, whereby you can hit them flatter between the GK and defenders and allow more wiggle room in the quality and a lot more chance of an OG. This is albrighton's problem currently, he's very good at whipping them from near the corner flag so they shape away from the keeper but he can't get into the positions to do that at the minute.
On top of that we seem insistent on the idea of becoming a 5 without the ball, with the change simply being to pull the wingers deeper. As all our pace is on the wings (when it's gabby and nzog there) this completely nullifies our ability to counter-attack, it also means we're often still 1-1 defensively. what should happen is that we move the 'spare' man to the ball, so you always have a flat 4 but then you have a free person who closes the ball. so they attack down our left, clark steps across to fill left midfield, herd, ireland and nzog fill the rest of the midfield and gabby harries the ball. They move is central, gabby filters back, as does clark, freeing ireland to close the ball. This means we can use those wide players to close the full backs down quickly and the striker to close down the central defenders, taking away most of their space in behind.
You're right in some respects, Paul, but to say Hutton is not an overlapping FB is contentious; that's the bit he actually does quite well, IMO.
Your overall point about the wingers is right, though, and was a problem with the way MON set up as well: we conceded late and often when the wingers (along with the other players who'd played at least 89 games during the season) were knackered.
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It will be King Carlos Cuellar who will score that goal to enable to win a game.
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I think we'll beat Spurs 1-0, with Hutton scoring the winner.
Which reminds me, why hasn't Legion started the pre-match thread yet?