SHA v Aston Villa LCQF Post-Match Thread

[garyshawsknee]

McInally made me laugh last night,praising Ferguson for 'keeping the ball in the 2nd half',they're midfield hardly touched it,we completly bossed the midfield second half. They should've been down to ten men as well.

[john2710]

I thought we dominated 80% of the game & the only quality on show came from us (Zigic must be the worst centre forward to ever grace the premiership). But its results that count and the pattern is there for all to see; play well and lose. GH will need to make us far more solid over the next few weeks. The experienced players are letting us down at the moment, particularly Dunne and Collins.

We don't look like scoring either, we must play with 2 up front as we are not going to score many from midfield.

Blose did the only thing that they are good at, defend & hope to snatch a goal. If they get past West Ham & play Arsenal are they guaranteed a Europa Cup place? If so what a prospect it is to have those morons travelling around Europe.

[Rudy Can't Fail]

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!

Absolutely agreed.

Well said, Chris.

Another vote here. Welcome back, Chris.

[peter w]

The defence really is a worry. Sides that get relegated are totally useless defensively. We really are that bad at the moment as we always look like we will concede. I'd drop only Dunne for now for Cuellar, but possibly move Luke Young to left-back and play Lichaj. Something needs to be done. Friedel is lucky that to be still in the team also, but I don't think he has done badly enough to be dropped.

[usav]

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!

Absolutely agreed.

Well said, Chris.

Another vote here. Welcome back, Chris.

Snap.   Why couldn't you have been this sensible about MON? *winky thing*

[Bad English]

You do all realise that flare was thrown by our fans first? Don't believe the press, it definitely came from our end. Yes they goaded us but it was ours throwing flares and seats and smashing everything up in sight.

<peers down nose> at certain posters...</peers down nose>

[PeterWithe]

I feel surprisingly less bothered about it this morning than I thought I would.

We battered them throughout the second half, we played all the football. They were really all about keeping it level and trying to hit us on the break.

Zigic is one of the worst strikers I've ever seen play in the PL, and last night he was absolutely piss poor by even his own, shockingly low standards.

The fact they got a lucky break with it cannoning off him and one of our defenders and past Friedel is probably a price worth paying, given all the fortunate, last few minutes of game situations we've had. What goes around comes around.

As Chris said, for us, there were plenty of positives to take from the game, and we can see what we're moving towards.

For them, it really doesn't get much better than that - in football entertainment terms, they're the equivalent of a night out in 1970s East Germany, and that's all they're likely to be.

Sums it up very well, I cant really explain why I'm not as bothered about this result as I should be.

[peter w]

Agreed with the not as bothered remark. Positives are showing through but a word of caution. West ham were relegated with an arguably better team a few years back. Seemingly because they didn't take the seriousness of their situation until too late. When they started to win games so did others and they went down with something like 43 points.

[Rip Van We Go Again]

I'm not overly bothered, I thought I would be.
I'm looking at the bigger picture, young vibrant players, experience to come back from injury and a couple of shrewd signings from Gerard.
The future still looks good.

[barrysleftfoot]

    On reflection:

     Friedel is becoming a bit of a liability.2 goals on Sat down to him, and you could argue 2 last night.

     An unbending defence under MON, now looks unbelievably fragile, and all of a sudden old.

     Dunne all of a sudden looks like a player coming to the end of his career.Slow and cumbersome, gets caught out with the inside ball.
     Collins, positionally all over the place, his distribution poor, and his insistence on trying a 50 yd pass at every opportunity, and failing in most attempts, giving the ball away like that led to their 2nd goal.

    LYoung.....absolutely useless last night, constantly failed to keep the ball in play, too slow,skinned too easily, and one good challenge on Donkey in the 1st half failed to hide the fact that hes a liability.

    Warnock....not the player he was at the start of last year, but probably our best defender last night.

    AYoung......not sure about him in this new role.Think he is more effective in a wide role, with either Bannan, or Ireland off Gabby.Does;nt seem to know how to play this free role, and does'nt score enough.


   Positives....Bannan yet again, keeps the ball very well, and always looks for a positive pass.Should be in a more important position.
   Hogg, and Clark.......Hogg was our best player yday, and Clark will be a good player, but probably as a C/H.Both moved the ball well, and tried to bring the ball down and play.
   Gabby....took his goal well, but never got the service.Not enough support from midfield.



  Trouble is like BBurn, we struggle against a deep lying defence, and a team who play on the counter.The defence looked fragile all game, and 2nd best in too many challenges.I mean we lost to a team that has Jerome and Zigic as a foward line, unbelievable.

[sfx412]

You win games by scoring goals and not conceding them. In between you can play like Brazil at their best and it matters not a jot.
You can have the best kids in the world passing like football magicians but if no one sticks it in the net, you get relegated.

You can sit in your seat and extol how good the kids are, how great the passing was, but goals count, for or against and at the moment, stating the obvious, we are not finishing the chances we create and giving away too many soft goals, usually late on in the half.
That alone is a sign of lack of concentration brought on by a lack of experience.
Blues won because we gave away 2 dumb goals and scored 1, and I'm sure those who can be bothered can show similar examples from the season of similar endings.
Plus whilst I fully appreciate Houllier bought into a hornets nest, and has not had any time to make huge changes, he must now start sharing in the blame.

[Rip Van We Go Again]

The Times cracked me up, their reporter claimed that Gardner came on 'and made a big difference.'
Clearly he never even watched the game.

[Surrey Villain]

You win games by scoring goals and not conceding them. In between you can play like Brazil at their best and it matters not a jot.
You can have the best kids in the world passing like football magicians but if no one sticks it in the net, you get relegated.

You can sit in your seat and extol how good the kids are, how great the passing was, but goals count, for or against and at the moment, stating the obvious, we are not finishing the chances we create and giving away too many soft goals, usually late on in the half.
That alone is a sign of lack of concentration brought on by a lack of experience.
Blues won because we gave away 2 dumb goals and scored 1, and I'm sure those who can be bothered can show similar examples from the season of similar endings.
Plus whilst I fully appreciate Houllier bought into a hornets nest, and has not had any time to make huge changes, he must now start sharing in the blame.

Absolutely, a goal down in any game let alone a cup-tie of such importance you need to go for it, big men needed against a defence like Blues.  What did GH do?  Brought on two powder puffs in the form of Delfouneso and Pires.  As bad as Carew played on Saturday surely he would have made more difference than those two.

[Bosco81]

Absolutely, a goal down in any game let alone a cup-tie of such importance you need to go for it, big men needed against a defence like Blues.  What did GH do?  Brought on two powder puffs in the form of Delfouneso and Pires.  As bad as Carew played on Saturday surely he would have made more difference than those two.

I would say the exact opposite, Dann and Johnson just love heading the ball away, the best tactic is to keep the ball on the deck, what we did was to just lump it forward hoping something would drop after Blues scored.

Keep playing football would have been a better tactic.

[Ads]

They barely touched the ball, had four shots, three off target and won the game. That Zigic is an abortion of a player, the ball was heading for row Z before the two deflections.

We need to be more clinical up top and Dunne and Collins need to have ther partnership broken up. Woeful defending when they were called upon.