Blackburn Rovers v Aston Villa Post-Match Thread

[fredm]

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.

 

Whilst I agree that Ireland did not appear to put much into the game there were times when I too was looking at him, in space asking for the ball, and being ignored.  He started off ok with the ball to Downing but gradually dropped off and I am beginning to wonder if the lack of times he receives the ball is part of the reason.  I also am beginning to think that we are getting some "cliques" within the team as regards who we pass to - several times today there was easy balls on but we ignored the person and tried to do something a lot more difficult, ending up giving it away.  Ash is one of the worst for this and I think he is beginning to think that he thinks only he can control the game, not Bannan, and certainly not Ireland.  It would be very interesting to see how many passes Ash made to Ireland today.

With regard to our passing, at times it looked ok but we didn't do it enough and we didn't do it quickly enough nor did we move enough off the ball so that we pulled them around the park.

And, why oh why did Downing only play on the right when he had ripped Man U to shreds down the left last week?

[Legion]

So based on Villa's normal fulsome and extensive use of the January transfer window how many players do you think will be coming in January?

I think we have a problem as supporters psychologically when we lose to the likes of Blackburn or Wigan. Of course we should be better than them, we have had good results against them over recent times and last year showed our true class in relation to Blackburn. But the semi performances came when the focus was on those games- they were our season -  not when they were sandwiched between Man Ure and Arse at home. The players are human - there must have been some come down from last Saturday. If we were knocking out comfy away wins at places like this we would be on course to win 10 away games a year which would put us top two.
Reading through seems the same as since Houllier got here- it hasn't quite gone for us, some players have done alright (although views are mixed on whom), a few breaks of the ball and would have been a different game.
One of two things is going to happen - the results will come, in which case we'll all bask in the light of an inspired managerial choice or the performances will tail badly and the moaning will increase.
On a slight side issue I can't believe all these posters who are talking about major changes in January transfer window. Do you support a different club? We'll be with this lot (with one or at most two) exceptions til May. And it's not that bad. Deal with it.

No, the vast majority of us are Villa fans.

Probably not many, but let's see what Houllier can do.

[N'ZMAV]

We missed Collins

[Bad English]

OK, I know it isn't big, clever, or remotely productive buuuuuuuut: that was a 'bag of wank'.

[N'ZMAV]

And, why oh why did Downing only play on the right when he had ripped Man U to shreds down the left last week?

Why oh why do managers insist on playing wingers on their opposite side? does me fucking head in.

[eastie]

 I think houllier will have a good idea who he wants to keep and who he can ship out and I expect a lot of changes over the summer , we have to be realistic , yes we have finished top 6 in the last 3 years but if you stand still teams will overtake you.

We can still finish 6 th to 8th but it will need a quality finisher to achieve that , o neill failed to sign a top striker in his 4 yrs as manager- I expect houllier will address this quickly-gabby is a decent striker but no way would he get into any of the top 5 sides and in all honesty how many of our players would?

We have the basics of a decent team but we need quality additions and toclear out a lot of players who are not up to it, davies, sidwell, Carew, heskey, Ireland, dunne, and Ashley young may all go and would generate cash to add to the kitty , giving houllier decent money to get quality players in- he is the man for the job , of that I have no doubt!

[Matt Collins]

Hopefully collins and NRC are back for next week? Emile would be good at bullying their centre backs too.

I really hate it that teams can be successful in England playing the kind of anti football rovers played today. It's horrible to watch

[mozza]

I would have thought our management / coaching staff might have highlighted
pre-match that Rovers thrive on set ball situations ?

If so why on earth did we give them so many opportunities, especially first
half ?

There's alot of flak aimed at Ireland in this thread and quite rightly so but
Young7 was no better today, diving again and not very good at it either
and his delivery at set pieces was poor - why doesn't Bannan get an
opportunity to deliver into the box ?

No body has been critical of the younger players today, quite rightly so,
the more senior players need to take more responsibility whilst supposed
first choice guys are sidelined.

I expect Rovers to be struggling this season, they are extremely poor
but on today's performance we could be no better off ourselves     

[carlos the third]

Showed some good passing at times but it was all in front of them and we didn't look too threatening.
Positives - Dunne looked a lot better than in recent weeks, Hogg looked more comfortable on the ball than last week, Clarke looked decent again, Herd outjumped Samba for a header when he came on
Gave away some stupid free kicks though and Ireland didn't seem to try much. I think we just need to remember that we have a load of injuries to key players and Blackburn is a hard enough place to go with a full strength squad, let alone the one we currently have so to expect a win is ridiculous. Lets face it, we're not going to get into the Champions league this season so we may as well use it to give some of the younger players an extended chance, and in doing that we need to accept that along the way we will lose some games as they learn.

[myf]

As soon as I heard Albrighton was out I knew we'd lose.  We can't cope with sides like this, especially away from home.  Recent performances remind me of DOL's reign - OK going forward but totally useless at retaining the ball and regularly overrun in midfield.

The game against the noses couldn't have come at a worse time.  Roll on January...

[Dan England]

Ireland & Pires both made 17 successful passes in the game.

And Pires played for less than half the time Ireland did. Say's it all.

[SoccerHQ]

We're just not ruthless enough.

Look back at all our games this season even Newcastle away when Carew misses the early penalty and we've missed chances at key times that have cost us dearly. Chelsea and Man. United at home, Styoke at 1-0 up and Fulham away, all points that have disappeared.

Downing should have buried that chance at 0-0 no questions asked (played through by a ball from Ireland may I add). We need to get a clincal menality amongst our forward players as we miss too many simple chances.

That and some brain dead play from Stephen Warnock. We've conceded goals at the end of each half regularly in recent weeks, we struggle to defend crosses into the box and Brad had his poorest game for the club today (as bad as Guzan had in the cup game) so what does Warnock decide to do when the clock strikes 46 mins, yep I'll stick a leg out for Diouf to go over. A completely needless free kick we could've done without defending. I'd seriously consider trying to fine players who do these things to try and get the message across as Albrighton was guilty of this at Fulham.

Could've done without this result seeing as we have Arsenal and Liverpool next. As I've said before, I expect us to be bobbling around this sort of position until the new year when hopefully with a few fresh faces and players coming back from injury, we can have a strong second half to the season and get back into the top 8.

[pauliewalnuts]

On a slight side issue I can't believe all these posters who are talking about major changes in January transfer window. Do you support a different club? We'll be with this lot (with one or at most two) exceptions til May. And it's not that bad. Deal with it.

If we don't do much business in January, it has nothing to do with this being Aston Villa, it is to do with the fact that it is difficult for any club to do much business in that window.

We don't need wholesale changes, we need to improve the quality of the squad in one or two areas, and bring in cover in others. The cover would be nice to get in January, but the quality players are far more important.

A midfielder and a striker. That'd be a very good return in January and would make all the difference. It'll be difficult but even O'Neill managed to sign that combination in a January window once, so let's not accept it as impossible.

The difference now is that I would bet you a penny to a pound that Houllier is already looking at players to make a move for in January. I bet MON wouldn't even have given it a second thought yet.

[PaulTheVillan]

Ireland & Pires both made 17 successful passes in the game.

And Pires played for less than half the time Ireland did. Say's it all.

To be fair, I didn't notice much of Pires. But I only noticed Ireland because he was shit at everything he did.

[Phil from the upper holte]

All I can say is it was utter crap.

Forget it now and look to Arsenal next week

UTV