Aston Villa v Fulham Post-Match Thread

[manic-road]

i havent rated Friedel for a very long time, but with what we have as backup, we have to go with him


30 million spent on that team last month?

im fitter than Makoun and i smoke 20 a day


very very annoyed tonight

20 a day and fitter than Makoun? Of course you are........

[Legion]

Brian, the officiating today was bizarre at times to say the least.

[Can Gana Be Bettered!?!?]

Aston Villa boss Gerard Houllier: "We just have to blame ourselves for not keeping that result [from 1-0 and 2-1 up] but there were more positives from the game for us. I can take pride from the football and effort we put in at times."

We were lucky to get a point, not facing reality is a sure way of not avoiding relegation.

As good as our last few performances were this was a monumental tactical mistake.
Oh and if anyone thinks we can have a midfield with Makoun on his own, or with some unknown US starlet in there is nuts, I'm no Petrov fan, far from it but today he held what was left of our midfield together covering for Makoun time and time again.

That is probably the most innacurate summary I have read on here for a very long time. I take it you weren't at the game today? Petrov held the midfield together? Not quite!

A big tactical mistake? Apart from him persisiting with Gabby out left, there's not a big problem. He's trying to get them to pass the ball at every opportunity and for it to eventually happen, the players need time.

Stop moaning and have a little patience.

MON had no tactics, GH has no tactics, DOL had no tactics, does anyone in your world have any tactics? Alex Ferguson maybe? Though probably not because they lost against Wolves, how shit a manager is he!!!

[Can Gana Be Bettered!?!?]

Brian, the officiating today was bizarre at times to say the least.

Couldn't agree more. I often wonder what the opposition fans think, or neutrals, when you have refs that you think are rubbish. Do they notice or is it us just being completely biased towards our own team?

[madirishvillain]

i havent rated Friedel for a very long time, but with what we have as backup, we have to go with him


30 million spent on that team last month?

im fitter than Makoun and i smoke 20 a day


very very annoyed tonight

20 a day and fitter than Makoun? Of course you are........

i could also knock 5 years of my actual age as well if you want

[Chris Smith]

I thought before the game that if we played to the standard of recent games we'd win but unfortunately we only managed to do it for 30 minutes. Not sure why but we just seemed to lose confidence. Even then after getting the second we should have been professional enough to see it out.

[villa `cross the mersey]

The tippy tappy thing is all very pretty, but when your executing it in your own half, there's no end result other than the chance you're going to fuck up and lose possession.

We need to vary it a bit

That sums it up quite well for me - the time to play pretty football is when you are 3 -0 up.
We finally sign a top striker and then give him zero service. Ashley keeps overhitting his passes and can`t cross for ****

Not seen anything from Makoun to suggest he is any better than Bannan to be honest - he treats the ball like a hot potato and gets rid as soon as he gets it.

I felt before the game that now the Utd game is out of the way we could kick on...how wrong I was . I have an awful feeling this is going down to the wire. Getting relegated by Liverpool on the last day of the season is not something that would be easy to swallow living up here.

Oh and Walker is exciting going forward but piss awful at defending - John Gidman Mk2 ? 

[brian green]

The more I see of officiating such as we witnessed today the more I think I can spot the fingerprints of Indian bookmakers.   My good friend Adam who sits two up from me has become my prime suspect.   When the Arse went four up after twenty minutes he said he thought the Humbugs would get back into the game.   Then he said Wolves are going to beat the Red Filth tonight.   Coincidence?   I don't think so.   Indian bookies looking for an alternative to betting on no balls?   Could be.

Talking about no balls I thought Downing had a fair game today.

[barrysleftfoot]

   Good post that JJ, and absolutely right.

   He is tring to play the Barca system.1 holding midfielder, 2 narrow midfielders who play either side, and are basically passers, and then 2 inside fowards who are to create, and score.

  If you like Gabby is Messi, and AYoung is Pedro.Trouble is our players don't score or create.

  I would suspect that the holding midfielder will be Makoun, with Bradley and Bannan/Delph as the passers.

 

[Bottom Right 89]

I think those people looking at relegation need to lay off the crack - we're only 8 points off 6th.

The criticism of Brad Friedel is ridiculous - how many times has this guy saved a point or protected a lead? He makes a mistake, sell him!

I know its difficult given the white knuckle ride that is supporting the Villa sometimes but people need to have more faith we've got favourable fixtures and some decent players - I remember the Billy McNeill days, a draw against Fulham would have been treated like a cup final victory that season we're not that bad!

[Brend'Watkins]

Forgot to mention, Doug was in the row front of me in the Lower Holte today. 

He went ballistic when the ref reverted that decision against Makoon..he really lost it.  Thinking about it, it wasn't Doug that did that it was me.

[Tony]

Disappointing performance, we fanny around too much at the back, fannying around ended with them getting a free kick that led to the corner they scored from, we have to stop fannying around.

Makoun was good until I told the person next to me he looked quality in the first half, then he got caught in possession as the game went on he made more and more mistakes but once he gets upto speed there should be a quality player there.

Gabby on the left wing certainly doesn't work well at home, Gabby scares the life out of centre halves because of his pace, they love seeing him out on the wing where he's less likely to cause problems.

As someone earlier said, Ashley has forgotten how to do the basics.

I thought Kyle Walker was excellent today, it wasn't just his goal, where he showed the determination and drive our midfielders weren't prepared to show, but it was his reading of the game at the back when he'd run from right to left to cover the through ball.

Downing scared them when he ran at them, he didn't do it often enough though.

[Dan England]

Aston Villa boss Gerard Houllier: "We just have to blame ourselves for not keeping that result [from 1-0 and 2-1 up] but there were more positives from the game for us. I can take pride from the football and effort we put in at times."

Bullshit of the lowest quality. Awful tactics, all that effort wasted, Young, Bent and Gabby might as well have been playing on the parks pitch at Aston for all the use his tactics were to them.

We were lucky to get a point, not facing reality is a sure way of not avoiding relegation.

As good as our last few performances were this was a monumental tactical mistake.
Oh and if anyone thinks we can have a midfield with Makoun on his own, or with some unknown US starlet in there is nuts, I'm no Petrov fan, far from it but today he held what was left of our midfield together covering for Makoun time and time again.As Johno said last night we have to stop making silly mistakes when not under pressure. Was he talking about Makoun. We desperately need someone to hold on to the ball or more than Downing as an outlet. why Young was so far up when the ball never reached him, same for Gabby and Bent, I'll never undersatnd. Its a game of 11 players not 8 plus 3 passengers

Absolutely ridiculous post, particularly the bold. You can not have been at the game today and have that opinion. Makoun looked a class above in the first half and we carried Petrov from 25 mins onwards. We were two goalkeeping mistakes away from a very comfortable win. Yes, there is room to improve. Yes, AY should be out wide but we played  some very good football in the first half. We stopped playing attacking football in the second half and it was our lack of posivity combined with Friedel's mistake that meant we didn't win.

[The Moose]

And as soon as Petrov went off, we had no midfield. Fact.

[villajk]

Forgot to mention, Doug was in the row front of me in the Lower Holte today. 

He went ballistic when the ref reverted that decision against Makoon..he really lost it.  Thinking about it, it wasn't Doug that did that it was me.

The chap who sits next to me said he'd been watching Doug walk, escorted, round the pitch to get to the Holte.  We assumed he'd been red carded from the Directors Box.