Aston Villa v Bolton Wanderers Post-Match Thread

[Somniloquism]

Ireland has to be played in an advanced position. Petrov needs to be dropped, he is  just a passenger now.

Who would you put in for him though? Delph is injured. Reo? but then we lose the passing aspect and Petrov does more then most give him credit for. Just that without adequate help he gets overrun/ knackered out. First choice should be Reo / Petrov in partnership unless you want to play Osbourne or Salifou in there.

Petrov does nothing. Watch the game, then you will see he does nothing. Except go towards a player to tackle them, then decide against it and let them go past him. Oh, he can also pass the ball backwards. He's quite good at that.

Funny, my stream kept on packing in but I at least saw a good deep cross that led to a knockdown that Gabby mis-controlled and some good play with him involved that lead to the Luke Young chance. Its amazing how my stream either only worked when Petrov was doing something good or you only concentrate on the bad stuff and forget the positives.

Go and watch the game. Fuck the stream on your little screen.

Give me the money for tickets and I will go. Unfortunately I can't afford Villa and the my rent at the same time.

[PaulTheVillan]

The midfield we need to play, hopefully sooner rather than later is...


Albrighton NRC Ireland Delph Young

[olaftab]

Till we get a better  midfield enforcer NRC must start every game specially if we have Albrighton, Ash, Downing and Ireland all in there.
I think  also Collins would  do a good job in  holding the midfield toagether.

[Nastylee]

The most galling thing ,once again, was the body language of the players after Bolton equalised.

Not one of them looked like they give a toss - they just trudged back to the centre. Petrov is no captain - he might be a thoroughly nice guy - but definitely not captain material. Now MON has gone I expect to see this rectified. #

It's funny you say that. I took my nephew today and sat near the pitch. I remember thinking to myself how quiet the Villa team was and there appeared to be very little talking. I could hear the Bolton players throughout but our team seemed to have no one leading the troops.

[ktvillan]

Midfield of A.Young Downing NRC Albrighton

Easy. Petrov can fuck off.

And congratulations, we have now been overrun and lost our passing as well.

Suggesting Petrov is the only midfielder we have who can pass is ridiculous.   NRC may not be a good passer but he would at least stop teams slicing though our midfield at will.

[TheSandman]

Midfield of A.Young Downing NRC Albrighton

Easy. Petrov can fuck off.

And congratulations, we have now been overrun and lost our passing as well.

Suggesting Petrov is the only midfielder we have who can pass is ridiculous.   NRC may not be a good passer but he would at least stop teams slicing though our midfield at will.

He must be ace to stop people slicing and over-running a one man midfield like that. Hell the Price of Wales second XI could overrun that midfield. The only thing that would be worse was Petrov instead of Coker in there. If the last few games has taught us anything it is that a 4 man midfield (even one tougher than that) is utterly hopeless. Downing as a central player in a 2 man midfield...

I'd go

Petrov--Reo Coker--Ireland. Flanked by two from Albrighton, A. Young and Downing.

[olaftab]

I'll be shitting myself when we come across some quality opposition.

Why play Stephen Ireland so deep? On the couple of occassions that he did get forward, he looked like he could create something.
Why leave Albrighton on the left for so long? Both he and Downing simply disappeared from the game.
Why try to hoof the ball up to Gabby when Knight is at least 2 foot taller than him?
Why to to play football at break-neck speed all the time rather than having a little bit of patience? It's Bolton FFS! They're shit. Utter shit. We could have, and should have, been parked outside their penalty box for 80 minutes.

How K-Mac has done so well in the reserves I'll never know. I'll just have to conclude that other teams really don't give a flying fuck about reserve football. If he can't engineer a result - and I mean a very convincing result - against poor opposition like that, then he's no right to be anywhere near our first team.

I thought some of the pre-match predictions ( 5-0, 8-2) were a little bit optimistic but we should be able to completely bury teams like Bolton at home....without getting out of 2nd gear.

I'm fuming!  And Houllier must be wondering what he's got himself into. If he's not yet signed his contract, I'm sure he'll be having doubts.

It looks as though you got the same impression  watching  on TV as I did  from my seat  in the top Witton end.
I fail to understand how  NRC  and Ireland were like for like swap?  I really thought we were lucky to come away with a point ...and that is frightening when you think we were playing Bolton...yes BOLTON at HOME!

[Can Gana Be Bettered!?!?]

Stringing Petrov and bursting forward in the same sentence takes some doing.  It is official, he is undroppable.  If Houllier doesn't make that his first major decision I will be amazed.

I've said it before, and I think I will be saying it again, this is going to be a long, hard season.

And I asked earlier to someone else. Who should play in his place? Sidwell? Osbourne?

Midfield of A.Young Downing NRC Albrighton

Easy. Petrov can fuck off.

And congratulations, we have now been overrun and lost our passing as well.

Sidwell, NRC and even Osbourne can pass the ball backwards to a defender. It's not hard.

[Legion]

Good God, that was shit. I'm dreading next Sunday.

[PaulTheVillan]

Good God, that was shit. I'm dreading next Sunday.

Yep! Me n'all.

I'm sitting right next to the segregtion

[Somniloquism]

Sidwell, NRC and even Osbourne can pass the ball backwards to a defender. It's not hard.

Because that is all you see Petrov doing isn't it. Ignore what he does positively and only see the pass backs and missed tackles.

[villa `cross the mersey]

Sell your best player, not replace him and you struggle... as the Meerkat says- seeeeemples !!!!

[john e]

Houllier will still have the same problem, a bunch of mainly average players to work with,
up front Gabby, Heskey, Carew, all average at best

Midfield Downing, Petrov, NRC,Ireland all average with the eception of Ireland who at the moment is producing average stuff.
read the same for the defence,

for you guys that think Houllier will make a big difference, i dont think he can untill he changes the players.

for you guys that think its all down to the formation, thats the biggest myth, you can play average players in whatever system you want you get the same result

its not all doom and gloom, most premier teams are the same,

 but the standard of play and the 'brighter future' of a more attractive, expansive more controlled possesion football is a million miles away,
 we just dont have the right  quality players for that

[supertom]

Until January when we can rectify the matter, stick Sidwell and NRC in CM to look after the defence.

To be fair to them too, pre-season of last season they played a few times as a pair and seemed to do well together. I think they compliment each other well (some might say equally inept, but I don't). We need some more bite and energy, and we need to stop putting pressure on the backline.

Petrov has gone, the legs just aint there.

We also need to stop this 3 wingers in a team bollocks. And then adding Ireland to that mix as well is midfield suicide.

[Somniloquism]

Until January when we can rectify the matter, stick Sidwell and NRC in CM to look after the defence.

To be fair to them too, pre-season of last season they played a few times as a pair and seemed to do well together. I think they compliment each other well (some might say equally inept, but I don't). We need some more bite and energy, and we need to stop putting pressure on the backline.

Petrov has gone, the legs just aint there.

We also need to stop this 3 wingers in a team bollocks. And then adding Ireland to that mix as well is midfield suicide.

What has happened to Sidders? He hasn't made the bench in the last few games.