Not happy, M. Houllier

[KevinGage]

Reincarnation of Venglos?

That thought has crossed by mind more than once today.  Possibly the right man, but at the wrong time.   Venglos also inherited a team that was built to do the job that his predecessor wanted it to do, but never managed to get it to change to play the way he wanted it to.   It also seemed to lose the battling qualities it had had.     

It's not the worst comparison in the world. Was that side containing Mountfield, Price and er, Gage a bad one? Probably not. But what suited GT and was effective enough to get us to 2nd wasn't flexible enough for someone like Venglos. The players used to laugh and take the piss at all the warm down routines and all the other things he tried to introduce, things that are quite normal now.

I do think this side is a bit more flexible, has more pluses to it than just being able to battle (though it's not even showing that at the moment). The thing that impressed me last year was some of the long accurate passes Collins would hit. Richard Dunne was also surprisingly quick over short distances and and had decent control. None of that is on show at the moment. Confidence/ form can be so elusive and good players can look bad when they lack it.

Troy is also probably right inso far as we're defending differently to last year (by not defending at all you might say). Andy Gray flagged that up last night in between playing with his machines, that we've gone from man marking at set pieces to the more continental zonal marking. I'd be inclined to say if it ain't broke don't fix it. Man for man marking seemed to work for us last year and the players were comfortable with it, so why change. Some of the other modifications may be more beneficial to us long term but anything that weakens the defence obviously isn't.

[Rip Van We Go Again]

You could say we have that with Pires, but he's not a viable option to play anything like 90 minutes.

From what I've seen Paulie, I don't think he could do 10 minutes.
He looks like a fan has wondered on the pitch, staring at all the players in amazement as the game passes him by.

[Eigentor]

Regardless of your views about MON, i don't think that set of players would have put such a lacklustre, spiritless performance as the team did last night

Well this set of players put in a pretty shocking performance on the same ground only a year and a half ago.

Why didn't MON motivate them?

Still, that was against (probably) the best Liverpool team of the last decade. Monday's performance was against the worst.

However, as pointed out earlier in this thread, if Sidwell had been fit on Monday, he would have started the match. That says something about the depth of our injury crisis (particular in central midfield).

[Lee]

But the fact is Houllier can't get us doing it right, Coyle can

But it took Coyle 2 months to win his first league game for Bolton. He'd have been hounded out of Villa park if he'd made a similar start here

The cries would have been, "he ain't big enough for the Villa ..  go get someone like Jol or Houllier"

[Lee]

Dave,  Who would you rather have as Aston Villa manager.  The club you pay money to go and see

Martin Jol ( possibly )

Gerald Houllier

Are you Jol's Agent or something?

[Dave P]

Is Houllier the right man ?  I don't know yet, nobody does.

Should we stick with him and support him ?  Abso- bloody - lutly.

[Chris Harte]

This, in my opinion, makes us all as fans look absolutely small-time.

[Dave P]

This, in my opinion, makes us all as fans look absolutely small-time.

I saw that and thought exactly the same.  However I put it down to about 2 or 3 comments that have been sensationalised by The Sun.  Hard to believe I know.

[Bosco81]

Troy is also probably right inso far as we're defending differently to last year (by not defending at all you might say). Andy Gray flagged that up last night in between playing with his machines, that we've gone from man marking at set pieces to the more continental zonal marking. I'd be inclined to say if it ain't broke don't fix it. Man for man marking seemed to work for us last year and the players were comfortable with it, so why change. Some of the other modifications may be more beneficial to us long term but anything that weakens the defence obviously isn't.

Whatever system we play if you give their centre half a free header at the back post like Ciaran Clark did then we're in trouble, and if Collins stands and watches the 2nd ball we'll concede a lot more.

The trouble with zonal marking is it gives the attacker a run on you, but if I'm honest I've not noticed we've gone zonal, I'll pay close attention on saturday.

We are missing Emile at the front post on corners as well.

[dave.woodhall]

This, in my opinion, makes us all as fans look absolutely small-time.

That's what you get when dickheads decide we're speaking with ONE CLEAR VOICE.

[tricky dicky]

agree with most of what has been posted not happy with his statement or actions but what i take out of all this debacle is that all the kids are gaining lots of experience and next season that will only good for aston villa

[pauliewalnuts]

This, in my opinion, makes us all as fans look absolutely small-time.

Whilst I think we should draw a line under this and move on, I disagree that this makes us look small time.

We're the ones who pay hundreds (thousands in some cases) of pounds a year to watch this stuff. If the club don't like reading this kind of thing, then don't allow situations like this to develop in the first place. Expecting people to keep shtum about it and keep forking out the dosh, when they get so publically affronted as that is not on.

If I'd travelled up to Liverpool on Monday night, I'd have been fucking fuming.

[Lee]

This, in my opinion, makes us all as fans look absolutely small-time.

I saw that and thought exactly the same.  However I put it down to about 2 or 3 comments that have been sensationalised by The Sun.  Hard to believe I know.

.. and copied from sites that are syndicated on Newsnow. This Internet is indeed a dangerous thing

[Blackcountry Villa]

Things are bad if we're hailing Petrov as a saviour when he returns, i'll give it 2 weeks after he's back before people are slagging him off and saying he should be subbed, and rightly so. He's a fuckin crab who does nothing defenively or offensively and he's knackered after an hour. Get NRC back in alongside Bannan is what i want to see, Ireland can do one.

Heskey has had 5 good games in about 50 and is a big lummox, he doesn't like Cuellar, Sidwell is a ginger Ireland. Theres noone to come back to improve the keeper or defence and they're a shambles.

[Nev]

This, in my opinion, makes us all as fans look absolutely small-time.

Whilst I think we should draw a line under this and move on, I disagree that this makes us look small time.

We're the ones who pay hundreds (thousands in some cases) of pounds a year to watch this stuff. If the club don't like reading this kind of thing, then don't allow situations like this to develop in the first place. Expecting people to keep shtum about it and keep forking out the dosh, when they get so publically affronted as that is not on.

If I'd travelled up to Liverpool on Monday night, I'd have been fucking fuming.

Couldn't agree more. Before we tear ourselves up, or indeed The Sun or the internet, there is only one person responsible for this due to his behaviour which is well below that I would expect of any Villa manager.

Following Villa I don't expect to always win but I do expect all the emloyees to maximise their efforts in the cause of the team, on and off the pitch, and that is not happening and thats why my anger remains.

The statement was a step in the right direction but never should've been required in the first place.