Fulham v Aston Villa Post-Match Thread

[CJ]

Clark looked very good again.  Does anyone know how much football he has played in CM?
Can we consider him a genuine midfielder?

Don't know how much he's played in midfield but he's so composed in possession I can see him making the transition from defence to midfield in the same way Barry did

[berneboy]

I thought we played very well today with some very promising performances.
I am especially impressed with Clark. I'm sure he will become a regular and this could even be in midfield.
Bannan has real potential and Albrighton is nearly there.
It was his inexperience that gave away the free kick which led to the equaliser. He won't do that in a year's time.

Pressure or lack of confidence meant Fonz could have done much better but he did work hard - and Carew doesn't.

Ash disappointed and didn't look like he knew what his role was. He's missing his chum.

We will be building this year and I hope we can get a decent striker in asap. Having Gabby back would have helped enormously today.

[Holtenderinthesky]

Always said that Gérard Houllier was the wrong man for Villa he should resign 30% win percentage just isn't good enough! Should of had Kevin Mac!

That's the kind of logic that will make Sarah Palin president of America.

Agreed.  We may well go down under GH but we were certainly going down under KM.  I hope I'm wrong but I cannot see us getting 40 points to stay up this season.  Delfouneso is fuckin useless and if he is our hope up front then we might as well give up.

The kid is 19 in his first league start of the season. Blame the more experienced players around him if you want. Quite frankly Friedel should have commanded the area better for the goal, but don't blame 19 and 20 year olds especially one playing his first full game.

Nonsense.  The guy gets paid enough and is not exactly new to the game.  He is not good enough and that is that.  Rooney was 16 when he broke through and although he is a special case you cannot say a 20 year old is not to blame for missing a HATFUL of chances.  You can blame the older players all you like (and I do) but it was he who fucked up time and time again.

[Somniloquism]

Isn't it a bit daft to be talking of going down? Or not getting 40 points?

Yes, we have to start scoring goals. Yes, we need to buy a striker in January. No, not getting the points our play deserve isn't good.

Had we hung on 10 more seconds today, we'd have been one of a clutch of teams in joint fifth place.

Somewhat premature to be talking of relegation.

If we don't fix those then it doesn't matter if a win today puts us into fifth or not. Look at the fixtures upto January and tell me where three points will come from with our current problems. The plus point is Gabby should be back very soon but so far this season he has been injury prone and could be turning into a lesser Owen to go with the other two "main" strikers.

[Blackcountry Villa]

I do think we look a poor team. Keeper past it and on his last legs, defence containing an overweight Dunne and Warnock who can't pass a ball ten yards and can't clear a ball in the 94th minute just like at Stoke, midfield who don't score enough and containing Downing who goes missing and shits himself every tackle and Ashley Young who is the most overrated player in the league, then theres our strikers who are all injured and when they're fit they're all shit anyway.
We can't hold on to a lead, theres no creativity, our ball retention is still dreadful, and we haven't got a fit, good striker, it's not looking good.

[Can Gana Be Bettered!?!?]

Slightly calmer now...we played well enough to win that match. Bannan looks good, as does Albrighton (except for stupid, unneccesary fouls) and Clark as well.

We looked fairly comfortable until the last 20 seconds. Only remember Friedel having to be on his toes the once prior to that.

For fucks sake though...(the anger is coming back)

[Monty]

Nonsense.  The guy gets paid enough and is not exactly new to the game.  He is not good enough and that is that.  Rooney was 16 when he broke through and although he is a special case you cannot say a 20 year old is not to blame for missing a HATFUL of chances.  You can blame the older players all you like (and I do) but it was he who fucked up time and time again.

Ok, so your points seem to be that getting paid 'enough' means that he should automatically finish off all known chances (by that logic, why don't you just put me on Messi's salary and see how many Balon d'Ors I win), and that he's not Rooney.

[Breezeblock]

Always said that Gérard Houllier was the wrong man for Villa he should resign 30% win percentage just isn't good enough! Should of had Kevin Mac!

Do fuck off old lad.

[Can Gana Be Bettered!?!?]

I do think we look a poor team. Keeper past it and on his last legs, defence containing an overweight Dunne and Warnock who can't pass a ball ten yards and can't clear a ball in the 94th minute just like at Stoke, midfield who don't score enough and containing Downing who goes missing and shits himself every tackle and Ashley Young who is the most overrated player in the league, then theres our strikers who are all injured and when they're fit they're all shit anyway.
We can't hold on to a lead, theres no creativity, our ball retention is still dreadful, and we haven't got a fit, good striker, it's not looking good.

What a fucking ridiculous over-reaction. Are people really allowed to post this sort of stuff?

I'm going before I say something that results in me being removed from the site.

[The Situation]

And can people stop being fickle and dramatic talking about stupid things like relegation. We played Clark and Bannan in midfield today with Delfouneso playing as a lone striker... if we'd won today everyone would be happy and I can assure you that there no silly posts talking about relegation. We've been on the end of some bad luck recently, but despite that we've playing well. Just give the managers and players some time. Just watch if we beat Blackpool how there will be complete opposite reactions on here.

Are we going to finish below teams like Wolves, Wigan, Blackpool, Newcastle, West Ham, Stoke, Fulham, West Brom etc...? That's 8 teams who are going to finish above us? Sure...

[Dribbler]

A frustrating end to the game, i really thought we were going to hang on and get the three points then. All Duff seemed to do when he was on is fall over and push Young over, by the looks of him he must fall on his face a lot.

All in all though considering all of our injuries we played well today, in fact at times we played  better football than we do with some of the senior players on the pitch. If only we'd had Gabby up front, i'm sure we would have converted one of our opportunities.

Friedel - 8 - two or three great stops that kept us in the game.
Warnock - 7 - Played pretty well today, always looks slightly industrial though.
Dunne - 7 - Has had a harsh time of it this season but thought he was pretty solid and made some great blocks again.
Colins - 7 - Solid, solid as a rock.
Young - 7 - Played ok but we did seem to be a bit exposed down that flank.
Albrighton - 7 - Great goal, worked hard for the team, shame about the end but Duff would have dived whether he had touched him or not
Clark - 8 - Very assured performance again and some great crunching tackles. Could he be the answer to an assured defensive midfielder that has good passing ability as well.
Bannan - 8 - Some brilliant creative play and really controlled the game at times.
Young - 6 - Looked like a spare part today, just didn't seem to fit in and link up well with the younger players, but he did put a good shift in effort wise.
Downing - 7 - A typical performance from him this season, some great play but also some very annoying errors.
Delfouneso - 7 - Had two or three chances he could have perhaps done better with, certainly the last one when he was set free on the edge of the box. He's definately a prospect though, but needs another year or so of experience.

Ireland - Showed some real touches of class in the few minutes he was on and think perhaps his style of play would fit in better with some of the younger players.   

Ref: Thought he did ok today, kept the game flowing and was fairly consistent to both sides.

[Dan England]

Always said that Gérard Houllier was the wrong man for Villa he should resign 30% win percentage just isn't good enough! Should of had Kevin Mac!

I know last minute goals are hard to take but this is the most ridiculous comment I've read in a long while.

[Karl Bridges]

Nonsense.  The guy gets paid enough and is not exactly new to the game.  He is not good enough and that is that.  Rooney was 16 when he broke through and although he is a special case you cannot say a 20 year old is not to blame for missing a HATFUL of chances.  You can blame the older players all you like (and I do) but it was he who fucked up time and time again.

I think the first word of that sums up the rest of it quite nicely. 

[Reality]

We are a laughing stock once again - 6th, 6th, 6th work it lads. And now fucking look at is.

[Toronto Villa]

some of the posts on here defy belief. We are all gutted, but literally 10 more seconds of resistance and we're discussing a different world. We'd be lying 8th and heralding the new kids that are making their name for us. 10 bloody seconds...