Aston Villa v Fulham Post-Match Thread

[Monty]

I do wonder why so many of us see Delph as a magic solution to our problems in midfield. Is it just because he's never available?

I agree with that. For me he is not creative enough to be the third man. He can pass, tackle but he doesn't have the creativity or the 'Sidness' to fill the role. I see him as in the position I expect either Makoun or Bradley to fill.

The magic solution to our midfield problems is Barry Bannan. He has some 'Sidness'!

Agreed whoeheartedly. A bit of Sid/Xavi/Pirloness is required.

[UK Redsox]

was Bent off for the disallowed goal ? couldn't see from where I was sitting ??

Going by the half time highlights, yes he was offside

[WikiVilla]

I thought Petrov was ok today, as good as Makoun. The problem is they're both square ball merchants

Downing had another very good game as did Walker

[JJ-AV]

Where is Delph, shouldn't he be back by now?

[Fin Feds Dad]

Gabby played out of position = waste of time

Once again , why didn't Ged make changes earlier. We could all see it wasn't working - why couldn't he ?

[nick harper]

We didn't work hard enough without the ball in the second half. We made Murphy and Sidwell look better than they are. Fulham closed us down much quicker.

Downing was our best bet to create something but Young is not intelligent enough to play that role. You need to find space for yourself and link the midfield and striker in the 4-4-1-1 we were generally playing. He went through large spells when he wasn't involved at all. Not good enough.

I've always been a fan of Petrov but have to agree he was off the pace throughout. Reo-cooker should consider himself unfortunate not to have started today.

Big game next week. With both defences pretty poor, I think there'll be a few goals.

[WikiVilla]

You'd have thought having gone 2-1 up (against the run of play), GH would have brought on Cuellar for say Gabby and tried to close the game down

[LeeB]

I do wonder why so many of us see Delph as a magic solution to our problems in midfield. Is it just because he's never available?

I agree with that. For me he is not creative enough to be the third man. He can pass, tackle but he doesn't have the creativity or the 'Sidness' to fill the role. I see him as in the position I expect either Makoun or Bradley to fill.

The magic solution to our midfield problems is Barry Bannan. He has some 'Sidness'!

I'd been thinking that myself.

[damon loves JT]

I have a feeling that for GH, possession is the most important thing, more important than scoring. I think he'd be quite pleased if we had 100% possession and the final score was 0-0

[CJ]

Other things that didn't impress - pretty shit officiating, and the  world record long throw attempt at half time (after one decent and two weedy attempts, the chant of 'da da dada, fucking useless' was chant of the day). 

Another aside - Doug Ellis sitting in Lower Holte?  Wonder why

[alanclare]

Gabby didn't want to be there. Makounj impressed. Downing dithers.

Match - ctrap.

[ozzjim]

Gabby did well first half, but was very poor second, and spent much of it trying to play through the middle with no effect at all before people start calling for him down the centre.

[eastie]

With wolves having beat man u it means it's so tight between 8th and 20th- keep the faith!

[Legion]

I don't think Gabby likes playing out wide. Makoun impressed. Thought Downing was good. We lost 2-2.

[ozzjim]

We didn't lose though Lee, we drew, it is another point, and some of the things we did were quite good, especially first half. The season is a write off, we will get to safety, and on the way will learn a few lessons about the squad and the side. Bradley into the midfield, with Delph would be good, Young wide left, Downing right, both supporting Bent up top. GH has talked of control of the game afterwards and that he was disappointed we lost our control over it, and it is clear that through possession you gain control. Work in progress, and should have changed things much earlier after their second, but overall Brad does his job today and we win essentially.