Pre-match thread: Rapid Vienna v Aston Villa

[Hookeysmith]

Hang on before we all run off on a " Its a fucking disgrace" theme

Moscow - clearly a contrived, deliberate plan to not send senior pro's - hindsight is maybe a wonderful thing but now realising just how petty MON could be maybe after being questioned why he did not rotate the squad did just that, lost the game (i am not suggesting on purpose mind) and then said to Randy - "see i told you the squad is not good enough"

THis is see as

Dunne - has been injured for a while now and was a doubt for Sat
Carlos - we know he is injured
Collins - as above
Davies - as above
Gabby - as above

Ashley - he was taken off on sat maybe he genuinely has a knock?

Luke Young - dont know
Carew - who can tell

lets not get all defeatist just yet until we hear from the club that we are saving players for ther league game - until then we have to assume they are not fit

Petrov - hardly ever misses a game so i would assume a genuine knock

[Monty]

Full squad:

Brad Friedel, Brad Guzan, Elliott Parish, Eric Lichaj, Stephen Warnock, Ciaran Clark, Curtis Davies, Nathan Baker, Isaiah Osbourne, Habib Beye, Nigel Reo-Coker, Barry Bannan, Stewart Downing, Marc Albrighton, James Collins Jnr, Nathan Delfouneso, Shane Lowry, Emile Heskey, Jonathan Hogg, Andreas Weimann.

[toplad4u]

Source?

Full squad:

Brad Friedel, Brad Guzan, Elliott Parish, Eric Lichaj, Stephen Warnock, Ciaran Clark, Curtis Davies, Nathan Baker, Isaiah Osbourne, Habib Beye, Nigel Reo-Coker, Barry Bannan, Stewart Downing, Marc Albrighton, James Collins Jnr, Nathan Delfouneso, Shane Lowry, Emile Heskey, Jonathan Hogg, Andreas Weimann.

[eamonn]

Hmm, a bit too many coincidences that five of our main first teamers are crocked at the same time Hookey - I do agree that it's not a direct comparison with Moscow though. If you're going to experiment in a European tie make sure it's in the first leg against a team who you are favourites to beat anyway.

[Monty]

The OS. They also say that: "Richard Dunne is suspended for tomorrow's clash and has stayed behind at Bodymoor Heath, while MacDonald has rested Stiliyan Petrov, Ashley Young, Luke Young and John Carew."

Didn't know Dunne was suspended, that one escaped my notice. The "rested" is a little risky though.

[toplad4u]

I have my worry Rapid are really taking it seriously as they're blocking Nikica Jelavic move to Rangers in order for a better chance of progression.

[eamonn]

Still no room for Salifou in a depleted squad

Bannan and NRC in the middle? Hmm..Sidwell must still be injured.


---------------------Guzan-----------------------


Beye---------------Davies----------------Clarke---------Warnock

Albrighton------------NRC-------------Bannan-------Downing

--------------Heskey---------Fonz/Weimann

[Concrete John]

Full squad:

Brad Friedel, Brad Guzan, Elliott Parish, Eric Lichaj, Stephen Warnock, Ciaran Clark, Curtis Davies, Nathan Baker, Isaiah Osbourne, Habib Beye, Nigel Reo-Coker, Barry Bannan, Stewart Downing, Marc Albrighton, James Collins Jnr, Nathan Delfouneso, Shane Lowry, Emile Heskey, Jonathan Hogg, Andreas Weimann.

Do we take Sidwell's exclusion as a sign of another imminent departure?

[toplad4u]

Hopefully probably gone to join Shorey at WB! Gutted Habib Beye in the squad wish he was going too, there's still time.

[Monty]

Agree on those players, but I don't think it'll be a 4-4-2. I think Downing will play in the deep midfield two with NRC and Bannan, Weimman/Fonz (probably Weimann) and Albrighton behind Heskey.

Sidwell is still injured, I'd guess. There's absolutely no mention of the reasons for his absence, though, so we can but hope.

[pmk1981]

Full squad:

Brad Friedel, Brad Guzan, Elliott Parish, Eric Lichaj, Stephen Warnock, Ciaran Clark, Curtis Davies, Nathan Baker, Isaiah Osbourne, Habib Beye, Nigel Reo-Coker, Barry Bannan, Stewart Downing, Marc Albrighton, James Collins Jnr, Nathan Delfouneso, Shane Lowry, Emile Heskey, Jonathan Hogg, Andreas Weimann.

Do we take Sidwell's exclusion as a sign of another imminent departure?

nah, just kev thinks the same as we do.... he is shit !!!

[pmk1981]

yes it is a low key squad,  but kev wouldnt of picked it if he thought they couldnt do a job.  we dont NEED to win out there,  just need to get a result and an away goal

[D.boy]

MacDonald has probably got a far better knowledge of the reserves etc than MON ever had and will pick his teams on merit. I have more trust in him when it comes to squad rotation than I ever had in MON.

[Toronto Villa]

Given the way some of our existing senior players played in the new environment post MON, and the fact that our emerging kids are very good, shouldn't we be a little more confident? I think with the right formation (4-5-1 or 4-4-1-1) we can get a result out there tomorrow.

[Archie]

I'm going to leave to Wien (1400 Km by car in 48 hours) and I'd be very, very disappointed if we underrated the game with Rapid, as I like the Europa League and I think that it wouldn't be impossible to win it, if Fulham reached the final in the last edition.