Aston Villa v Fulham Post-Match Thread

[WikiVilla]

Agree Peter, Stan does a lot of solid work that goes unnoticed by many on here

Loving some of Makoun's cushioned headers to feet, would like to see him pass the ball forwards a bit more though

[sfx412]

Ashely behind Bent is a waste of time, as is Gabby on the wing.

It seems that every manager has a 'blind spot' and this seems to be GH's,and both players suffer due to this.

Rubbish O'Neill did the same move time and time again,even had Coker out there for a while as punishment.

He knows the three best striker he ahs are Bent, gabby and Young ans is devising a system to suit. It failed miserably but he'll change it.

Mods can we have a knife sharpening emoticon for the likes of tsvet when they go into 'Houllier is no Mon' mode.

[Villafirst]

Petrov has to be dropped end of. The same pattern emerges nearly every home game. Start bright with plenty of energy, take the lead but fail to get a second. 1-0 half-time lead then slowly let the opposition dominate the last 20-25 minutes. A lot of this stems from Petrov being knackered after 50-60 minutes. GH should've put NRC on for Petrov after Walker scored the second. Cuellar should've been brought on as well. Fulham had far too much space in midfield in the second-half. Agree with other posters that Gabby wide left and Ash in the hole is a complete waste - it just doesn't work! The old saying square pegs in round holes comes to mind. Sort it GH! we're still in trouble at the bottom.

[sfx412]

You're trying too hard to be offensive, have you got a Top Gear audition lined up?

Dunne isn't fat and had a decent game today, Freidel had an off day and should have done better for both goals but he deserves a bit more respect than that as he's been mostly very good for us.

expensive off day mind

[Rudy Can't Fail]

For the first 40 minutes we were generally on top and untroubled but despite that we really failed to take advantage. Petrov and Makoun seemed to get in each others way but both had a good half. Makoun is good at what he does, moving the ball on first time, normally always forward. I'm still to be convinced he can tackle but he's a very tidy player although not the box to box player we'd heard about. He faded in the last 15 minutes but overall a decent performance but I can only see him as Petrov's replacement. Stan was out to prove a point yesterday and was certainly better than against Man Utd, it's just a shame he always goes for the safest option with his passing. We desperately need somebody in the middle who can drive forward with the ball and neither Makoun or Stan are that player.

The defence were overall much better today, Dunne and Collins kept were much tighter on the Fulham strikers whilst Clark and Walker put in decent shifts. Both are very talented players but still have a lot to learn.

Downing was much improved after a poor recent spell but his delivery is still his weakness. The same could be said for Ashley, despite all his effort, he produces next to nothing, the same goes for Gabby. I can't really see the point of signing Bent if we're going to continually fail to deliver him any kind of decent service. Ashley just gets lost in that free role and with almost everything going down the right, Gabby rarely gets to see the ball. I get the feeling GH is accomodating players in the team rather than playing to our strengths. After coming out and declaring Ashley's best position is not on the wing, he needs to accept he is wrong and switch him back out wide. Ashley's form dropped when teams started doubling up on him but that's no longer a worry as he's so ineffective playing in the vacuum. Plus we now have the threat down the right, so it's unlikely teams could try to cancel Ashley out the game without leaving them exposed elsewhere.

It will be interesting to see what Bradley brings to the team. Hopefully he can drive forward though the middle as well as providing defensive cover. We certainly need some creativity there and as it stands, Bent is getting no decent service from the wings. You get the impression that give him the ball in the right place and he'll score 9 times out of 10. Until that happens, he wasted up there by himself.

Disappointing score as all three points were there for the taking, despite Fulham being a decent side. It really does feel like a defeat.

[achilles]

I am afraid this team epitomises the manager and assistant, bland and passionless!

I am also not of the opinion that we will easily get out of the position we find ourselves. We should have been looking for 3 points against Fulham at home! In my opinion that didn't happen, because of the manager's insistence on looking at the bigger picture and not focussing on the immediate aims of ensuring our survival.

[sfx412]

The pretty poor opponent looked alot better than us second half. Our midfield faded after, what I thought, was a pretty good start from Stan and Makoun. Petrov always runs out of steam after about 60 mins and taking him off leaving a knackered Makoun and Downing holding the midfield was always asking for trouble. I'm sure there's a good team within our squad, don't think Houllier's found it yet though

A good summing up, particularly the last line.

and the fact the 'pretty poor opponent' are one of the form teams at the moment, as Spurs found in the Cup

[WikiVilla]

Sidwell was arguably MOM, that's the most worrying aspect of yesterday

[PeterWithe]

Sidwell was arguably MOM, that's the most worrying aspect of yesterday

Was he? I thought he was ordinary, nice shot for their first but other than that he played as I expected him to, which isn't a compliment.

[WikiVilla]

Probably Hangelaand in reality but i thought we gave Sidwell a lot of time and space in the middle and he almost scored 1 st half (good save Brad) and obviously got the assist for their 1st, he certainly looked a bargain at 250k

[TimTheVillain]

2 average teams drew.

That sums up yesterday's game for me !

[villa1]

I'd actually forgotten Sidwell was playing for the first 20 / 25 minutes. Typical of his Villa career.

[Matt Collins]

Football is a simple game. I was distracted by the inspired signing of Bent (and Walker - what a goal, then his colleagues let him down), but Houllier will never last as Villa manager. As mentioned above, simple tactics elude him e.g. play Young on the right & Downing on the left and Gabby in the middle. What is the purpose of Gary McAllister & Sid, who must surely see what we all see?

Isn't this just what we did under mon and everyone moaned about that too. 442 with gabby and bent just won't work over the long term. They both play on the last man and don't have the technique to drop off.

[Clampy]

I said on the pre-match thread that it was going to be a tough game, but Fulham were'nt as good as i was expecting and it did feel like a defeat at the end. 

Makoun looks a heck of a player and yes, he will tire towards the end of matches, it's a faster paced game than he's used to, but he'll get used to it in time. I'd rather have seen NRC than Petrov though. I think at this stage, Stan would be better coming off the bench to keep things tidy if we're in the lead, like he did at Wigan.

I think Bent needs someone different alongside him and Heskey would be my choice, especially away from home. Let's put Young back out on the wing and either Downing or Marc on the other side.

 

[Phil from the upper holte]

Downing was much improved after a poor recent spell but his delivery is still his weakness.

Can't agree with that, The goal came from a Downing delivery, We also scored wednesday night from one of his deliveries