Blackburn Rovers v Aston Villa Post-Match Thread

[eastie]

Ireland is not performing- the mistake of signing him when managerless was poor- wm saying he missed man u with a virus and was out clubbing with Ashley young that same night, some virus- the guy and dunne as well need to buck up their ideas of they will be out in my opinion.

Very poor free kicks given away again and poor goalkeeping by brad which is rare, I think cuellar and Collins when fit should be the centre defence, very impressed with bannan today, but overall a poor team performance , if Liverpool are serious about Ashley young at £18m I'd snatch their hands off- albrighton will turn out a better option.

I fully believe houllier will take us onwards as a club and upwards but he will need a year to sort things to his liking!

[dave.woodhall]

I think there was alot more expected of Ireland than what he's shown and his performance today was an utter disgrace. Allardyce's football's fucking boring and as of yet he's won nothing has he? And i disagree with season of transition, we should still have been pushing on..

The League of Ireland in 1992. And there's a reason or 14 why we're not pushing as quickly as we might like.

[kippaxvilla2]

The problem with that loss is that it is all too predictable with us at the moment.  And we are a very soft touch quite honestly.

[garyshawsknee]

That was a typical Villa performance,seem to be in control and playing some good stuff,then poor defending lets us down. A dodgy spell towards the end of the first half cost us. Warnock should know not to give away cheap fouls against Blackburn. Second half was better,passed it around well. When Gab gets a bit sharper I think we'll improve. With a young team out,were gonna have a good few results like this.

[Matt Collins]

I'd still rather play like us and be inconsistent than watch Blackburn every week. Watching too much of that would make me fall out of love with football

[taylorsworkrate]

Dunne really did have a decent game today.  I was a big critic of the way he came back from preseason with his big gut and double Ds but I think people are now looking for mistakes that he isn't making.  It was a tough game for him todayy but he gave a decent performance - nothing colossal but decent all the same.  Collins was sorely missed.

The thing is that with the young players around him, Dunne needs to be colossal in games like this.

Probably easier to say than it is to do, especially when he's the only player we had out there with any sort of aerial prowess and we were playing that lot.

Agreed, but our experienced players have to be at the top of their game whilst the youngsters find their feet.  We need more than decent performances from them.  One thing that was noticeable though was that Clark was up against Roberts for much of the match whilst Dunne had to deal with Diouf.   Dunne should have made sure that was the other way around.

[brontebilly]

Friedel 3 - really really poor. Was it windy in Ewood today a load of his kicks went nowhere.
L Young 7 - did pretty well. At least he attacked unlike our other full back.
Warnock 3- actually started alright, always down injured and went to pieces after incident with Diouf. Hardly pushed forward in second half either.
Clark 5 - got too tight to Roberts on occasions. Still think midfield is his best position
Dunne 7 - probably our best player today
Downing 5 - started on fire but was poor in second half. No real guile to him today. I really hate when he plays on the right.
Hogg 4 - did his best but not up to it at this level. Can't remember him playing a positive pass
Bannan 5 - tried too much in first half, better in second
Young 7 - great effort with header. Took too much out of the ball at times but the movement up front was non existent
Gabby 2 - just shades the worst player in the park award for me

Have you deleted Ireland's performance altogether?

I tried to. He actually started alright but quickly didnt want to know. I have given up on him.  2.5. I thought he would be a great signing too but looks like he has given up football. No heart, desire, strength etc - luka modric is a small guy too but look at his superb performance yesterday and compare it to the gutless wonder today. sickening.

gabby was worse, marginally. He was utterly utterly dreadful today with a diabolical attitude. Maybe his injury badly affected him. Clark got turned by Roberts on a few occasions. Bit naive at times but he will learn from it.

Downing was pants lads in the second half. Took far too much of out the ball, lost it repeatedly and didnt compete in the physical exchanges.

blaming dunne today 

[Rigadon]

First, you can't 'expect' to get anything from anywhere in the Premier League, least of all a place like Blackburn.

Second, I know it's said after every match but you have to take into account the number of injuries we have. To ctriticise because only five of them would have been playing today is ridiculous - take five first teamers out of any side and they'd struggle. This is the one time more than any other in the past decade where we need to get behind the team and stop finding every tiny fault.

Third, and most double-standardly, fuck off Ireland. If he was ever going to do anything for us, today would have been the day. Many things can be excused but not being disinterested in a game where your talent is desperately needed.

Agree 100% on Ireland.  It's about as obvious as it gets that he has absolutely no desire to play for Aston Villa.  As talented as he is, I wouldn't care a fuck if he never played for us again.

As for getting behind the team, I've no doubt most will.  We play some really nice stuff.  We just have to get some point son teh board before a season of transition becomes a season of nervously looking below. 

Houllier will sort it I'm sure.

[Lambert and Payne]

I think there was alot more expected of Ireland than what he's shown and his performance today was an utter disgrace. Allardyce's football's fucking boring and as of yet he's won nothing has he? And i disagree with season of transition, we should still have been pushing on..

The League of Ireland in 1992. And there's a reason or 14 why we're not pushing as quickly as we might like.

I know theres reasons, but it sounds more like excuses. We lost today cus we werent at our best, simple as that

[Matt Collins]

There Areca few things to criticize today, but I don't see how dunne, downing and being long ball are amongst them

[Gazza1982]

Re: Injuries. The worst players were Friedel, Dunne, Warnock, Agbonlahor, A.Young, Ireland, all first teamers. Granted Collins would have strengthened the defence and Albrighton would have been better than Ireland but Carew doesn't want to be here, Sidwell is shit, Cuellar doesn't play, Heskey has had 5 good games in about 50, Petrov is a snail who slows everything down and offers zero going forward or in defence, NRC would have battled well.

It's all very well saying we've got lots of injuries but the fact is a lot of those out injured are shit and wouldn't have done any better, don't forget we had almost everyone fit at the start of the season and we still couldn't win away and got dicked 6-0 by an average Newcastle side.

Absolutely spot on. Agree with everything you said.  Im GLAD most of those players are injured.....giving Albrighton,Bannon,Clark and now others extended runs in preference to those tired looking injuries on the bench.....bring it on!

Thought there were positives today too,Downing has proved myself and others wrong, looks like a natural leader. Pires looked class and full of ideas when he came on, Bannon looked great. Blackburn away is no easy fixture for anyone, we dominated most of the game and virtually all the second half.

Houlier is no fool, he will look at the performances of Warnock,Ireland and Ash today and start making major decisions. A defender and centre forward have got to be priorities. Sell the deadwood...Sidwell, Petrov, Ireland, Davies and Ash if neccesary. We have the nucleus of a great, young, exciting team here. Give Houlier a year and we will start contesting for major honours, possibly Champions league spot.

[gti2win]

i thought we passed the ball nicely today at times, and our ball retention was improving.  Ireland did better, but still not good enough, although watching with a mate, the amount of times he was bypassed when showing for the ball in space, and asking for the ball, was getting stupid.

Warnock giving away needless free kicks, was a major irritation, when he gave the free kick away for the goal said to my mate, this will be a goal, villa can never see out halfs or game always last minute fuck ups, thought friedel could of done a lot better with it tho.

So many simple passes today were ignored, along with a cuttind edge cost us AGAIN today, thought gabby was poor, downing not one of his better games, thought ash worked hard all game although a little frustrating with some of his choice of passing.

 

[TopDeck113]

Just back.

Dire.

If the team were praised for their inability to hold on to a two-goal lead this week, then they should be rightly castigated for this afternoon's display.

Blackburn are not great, but you know with a Big Sam team they are going to be big and strong and hold the line.  Tippy-tappy football is not going to break that down once they're back in position.

To give away the free kick from which they scored the first goal on the stroke of half time was naive.  Oh, and Stephen Ireland is a complete waste of a place.  You may as well have given it to me. I'd be just as shit, but at least I wouldn't ask for £70K for being so.

Pluses?  Downing was positive, albeit without much end product, I thought Clark had a reasonable game and Pires showed some good intent, although we'd just gone two down when he came on.

[villasjf]

I am very disappointed i thought we would get something from this game, i think we need at least three players in january and what is going on with Ireland?.

Nothing going on with ireland absolutelty nothing he didnt want to come to us and he was forced on us as part of the deal. Dross

[Blackcountry Villa]

I just find it amazing that some people think everything will be rosy when the injured players are back. The fact is Warnock and Dunne will still be playing and they're liabilities, Young will still be playing who is massively overrated and predictable and a whingeing little shit, Friedel will still be playing who looks suspect under any pressure, and we still won't have a striker who is any good. We've got Arsenal and Liverpool coming up with Spurs, Man City and Chelsea over christmas, injuries or not we're going to be in trouble come january.