Stewart Downing amnesty.

[Irish villain]

I always thought people were harsh on Downing. He came through a lot of injury problems and in spite of those he seemed decent last season.

I hope he keeps up the good form. He's a pleasure to watch this year!

[SoccerHQ]

Downing has been very good this season.

5 goals already and his crossing has been much improved in recent weeks.

[gervilla]

There were so many times last season I wondered how the hell could someone fork out 12 million for Downing, just as I had done before that regarding James Milner when he too was a very average winger.
Just keep proving me wrong please.

[Concrete John]

5 goals already and his crossing has been much improved in recent weeks.

For me the 2nd point is more important than the first.

He won't keep up this scoring rate, but his main job is to create, so his all round game being so improved shows greater signs of a big Villa future than the goals he's scored.

[Somniloquism]

5 goals already and his crossing has been much improved in recent weeks.

For me the 2nd point is more important than the first.

He won't keep up this scoring rate, but his main job is to create, so his all round game being so improved shows greater signs of a big Villa future than the goals he's scored.

TBh we need both points whilst we have no strikers. Double figures for him, Ash and Marc will help us alot this season.

Edit: 4 league goals and 2 assists for Downing. That stacks up to Bale with 4 league goals and 1 assist although Crouch has 6 assists and some of those could have been Bale knockdowns to other players. For us Ash has 4 assists and 2 goals and Marc has 3 assists and 3 goals.

[Concrete John]

I'm not knocking it and hope he keeps it up.  But for me it's a bonus to his general game getting back to where it shoud be for a £12m footballer.

[SoccerHQ]

Sorry Stewart. I thought he looked great when initially coming into the side but went off the boil around March. Now he's had a great pre-season he's looking great. Well done stuart, keep  the form up!

Same for me.

What's probably helped Downing who is very much to me a confidence player was getting a couple of goals early on in the season. He has 5 goals already this season so double figures should be a very realistic target as it is for our other wide men as our strikers aren't scoring much due to injuries.

The pleasing thing for me is we're now getting some consistantly accurate crosses from Downing whixch was a big strength of his game at Boro when he was playing well.

He should've had an assist at Sunderland when Heskey missed from 5 yards, similarly at Fulham he hit in some good low crosses and obviously yesterday.

[timeoutbigbar]

Desperately unlucky to be overlooked for the England squad, but from a personal point of view delighted.  Allows him to focus on club form, less risk of injury and will serve as added motivation to him to continue to perform to get into the squad.

[BannedUserIAT]

Get him to knock in a few more goals from spectacular free kicks and we have the 'English Ronaldo' on our hands. Who'd have thunk it?

[PaulTheVillan]

I think he's having a better game because he's not spending half the game swapping wings with Ashley Young.

[jembob]

I think he's having a better game because he's not spending half the game swapping wings with Ashley Young.

Indeed our better players are looking better because we are playing better football. Downing isn't really the sort of player that thrives on hoof ball so it's not surprising that he can use his pace and movement better in the current set up.

[Concrete John]

I think he's having a better game because he's not spending half the game swapping wings with Ashley Young.

That's a big thing for me.  Both he and Ash prefer the left, so when both playing there's a lot of changing over and whoever is on the right we don't  get the best from.  Adding a player like Albrighton who prefers the right gives greater balance to the side. 

[Risso]

I think it's also worth pointing out Ashley Young's contribution.  While he's maybe not been quite as eye catching, his runs from all over the place are sucking in defenders wich then gives more space for the likes of Albrighton and Downing.

[Simon Ward]

I think it's also worth pointing out Ashley Young's contribution.  While he's maybe not been quite as eye catching, his runs from all over the place are sucking in defenders wich then gives more space for the likes of Albrighton and Downing.

I noticed that on Saturday, both Ash and Gabby created a lot of space by their running off the ball.

[pedro25]

When fit that has to be our front four (Stew, Marc, Ash, Gabby), they will cause any team problems.  Hopefully long term Delph and Bannan in the middle picking the passes.