SHA v Aston Villa LCQF Post-Match Thread

[VillaAlways]

I was impressed with our 2nd half performance and felt we were in control, but our football declined once Bannan (who I thought was excellent) was replaced by Ireland.

I could see no reason for that substitution unless Bannan was injured. Was he?
[/quote

He was

[N'ZMAV]

?

[pablopicasso_10]

fair play to small heath, they took their chances (and one that was incorrectly chalked off), and thats how you win football games...

we were the better side comfortably, however, when you defend like we did, and dont take the chances you create, you cant expect to take anything from a game...

all four of the back four, along with friedel, and remember, this is our alleged first choice, have been rubbish all season.... dont know what has happened to them, but they all need replacing...

cant blame the midfield in front of them not offering protection, as these are basic errors they keep making, and they are costing us goals, especially late in each half...

warnock is the worst of the lot though... he is an absolute disgrace and how he cost 7 million or whatever it was he cost us, i will never know... 3 months of looking decent, and the rest of the time, looks worse than a one legged homeless pissed up tramp... dunne isnt far behind.. looks like he at all the pies in the summer and his 'one error every so often' has become one error every 20 minutes... collins thinks he has turned into franz beckenbauer, and has lost the ability to win headers, and friedel looks like the 357 years on the earth have really caught up with him...

how curtis davies has been sent out on loan when we have this garbage at the back is beyond me...

as for the positives, bannon looked lively again, shame he went off with an injury, as although being well out of position (right wing? really?), he looked most likely to open things up... clark did reasonably well in that unfamiliar holding midfield role that he has had to play lately with our injuries... hogg looked ok.. did the simple things, but his touch looked poor at times...

ashley young and downing caused problems right up until they had to put the ball in the box and then their final ball was awful... ireland looked disinterested again when he came on... i would sell that bald wnaker...

gabby did ok with the crap service he got... decent finish, but looked offside marginally... although the ball was passed sideways and it took a deflection off a small heath player to go forward, so not sure if that was taken into account...

overall, we were the much better footballing side, this despite missing several key players, but as i said, we didnt take our chances, and gifted them theirs, so no complaints from me about the result, other than about my own team...

as for the idiots after the match, they should all be ashamed of themselves... morons...

[Merv]

Comapre that to the Noses where that is the best they can play; I wouldn't swap places for anything.

I don't think any of us would, Chris but it's well worth spelling it out again!

As for the Bannan sub, it was probably because wee Barry had run his legs off, and Ireland is a player who can win a game. And he almost did, to be fair.

[LeeB]

I'm getting bored very quickly of our "Stylish Soft Touch" routine.

And I'm equally bored of our experienced players being the culprits.

[Holtenderinthesky]

From football365.


How would you celebrate beating your local rivals to reach the semi-finals of the Carling Cup? Laughing? A few drinks? How about chucking flares at your rival fans? Alas, that's what some Birmingham fans did after the 2-1 win over Aston Villa, gained by a flukey strike by the otherwise terrible Nikola Zigic.

[Small Rodent]

all four of the back four, along with friedel, and remember, this is our alleged first choice, have been rubbish all season.... dont know what has happened to them, but they all need replacing...

cant blame the midfield in front of them not offering protection, as these are basic errors they keep making, and they are costing us goals, especially late in each half...

They are basic errors, but could these errors come from a lack of confidence in the defensive midfield cover in front?

[pablopicasso_10]

i dont think so...

they are the simple food and drink for even the most basic defender, that they cant manage to deal with recently...

[WALTERS WARRIORS]

I am seriously pissed off with the result. But proud of the performance of the majority of the team. Bannan, Hogg, Clarke and Gabby were excellent and with 2 or 3 signings along with Albrighton think we really have a bright future. I would seriously love them scummy bastards to get thrown out the competition ....................

[Rip Van We Go Again]

Losing to that lot is never pleasant but if you put aside the result (I know) there is a lot to be optimistic about. We outplayed them for long periods of the game with 3 kids in midfield one of who is a centre half. We're getting there; we play clever, inventive football but aren't quite making the most of it although I think that will come when Heskey and Albrighton are available again to give us more options. Reo Coker, Petrov and Delph will also all offer something additional in the middle. Also, whisper it quitely but Ireland is starting to show signs of what he can do.

It's defensively that we're struggling but then again we have Cuellar coming back now and Davies to return from loan. I'm not sure than itself will be enough but with a bit more experience in front of them it might tighten things up a little. It's definitely the area that needs most attention.

On top of that we have the chance to add to the squad in January.

Comapre that to the Noses where that is the best they can play; I wouldn't swap places for anything.

Read and digest.
This is spot on.

[Risso]

Losing to that lot is never pleasant but if you put aside the result (I know) there is a lot to be optimistic about. We outplayed them for long periods of the game with 3 kids in midfield one of who is a centre half. We're getting there; we play clever, inventive football but aren't quite making the most of it although I think that will come when Heskey and Albrighton are available again to give us more options. Reo Coker, Petrov and Delph will also all offer something additional in the middle. Also, whisper it quitely but Ireland is starting to show signs of what he can do.

It's defensively that we're struggling but then again we have Cuellar coming back now and Davies to return from loan. I'm not sure than itself will be enough but with a bit more experience in front of them it might tighten things up a little. It's definitely the area that needs most attention.

On top of that we have the chance to add to the squad in January.

Comapre that to the Noses where that is the best they can play; I wouldn't swap places for anything.

Read and digest.
This is spot on.

Agreed.  It's probably Chris's best ever post!

[Pete3206]

Roll on January. We'll win that one.

[oxoneil]

http://www.expressandstar.com/sport/aston-villa-fc/2010/12/02/richard-dunne-this-is-the-lowest-point/?utm_source=twitterfeed&utm_medium=twitter

Yes Richard and a lot of it is your fault with your new defensive tactic of just running into people.

[UsualSuspect]

its all very very playing well with no end product/not getting results

Our experienced players are letting us down

Our manager is letting us down tactically

This is a results business the history books for last night will read:

Blues 2
Villa 1

Not

Blues 2
Villa 1 - but villa played really well with a lot of players out and would have got a result if they could have created chances

If the Queen had balls she would be king

[Monty]

Blues only play one way: rely on their admittedly good defence, and hope the opposition make errors or they get a set-piece. We made errors yesterday defensively and gave them two goals. The penalty was a penalty, no doubt, but why on earth Collins is letting that ball bounce in the penalty area is just beyond me. For the second goal, I'm sorry, Dunne is unforgiveably slow in closing down Jerome before he crosses, just jogging casually as if nothing can go wrong, giving Jerome all the time in the world to play the ball across (through, I might add, Dunne's legs). It wasn't good.

Going forward, I don't think playing Ash in the middle and moving Bannan wide was a good thing to do. Ash goes way too far forward to much of the time, ends up with his back to goal and isn't as effective. Another problem is that Ash is very much a 'final phase' sort of player - when he gets the ball, he expects it to be the last stagee of the attack, so it's up to him to deliver the final ball or shot - which means that, in the centre, he gets overexcited too quickly and is constantly looking for the highlights reel ball. When Bannan plays centrally, he uses his superior patience and reading of the game to control our attacks and shape our possession. Young, too excited and too far forward anyway, doesn't do this, and yesterday I thought we really lacked creativity and imagination in the middle third of the pitch. It was also noticeable that the few minutes in the second half where wee Barry started to get involved in the centre were our best of the match. Move him central, put Young back on the wing where he can face the full back in the final phase and be good at it.