Manchester City v Aston Villa Post-Match Thread

[TonyD]

Ah nothing like a H&V over reaction. Give the bloke some time and lets judge him next season. Strictly he is right, the players were all either full (most of them) or U21 international footballers, so rotation is something we have to get used to, and GH openly knew they are a better team with a much stronger squad. Think the over reaction is madness. Just agame of football, 50 odd years and we have not won it, calm down.

Sorry but he picked that team tonight - no excuses.

[Mister E]

Ah nothing like a H&V over reaction. Give the bloke some time and lets judge him next season. Strictly he is right, the players were all either full (most of them) or U21 international footballers, so rotation is something we have to get used to, and GH openly knew they are a better team with a much stronger squad. Think the over reaction is madness. Just agame of football, 50 odd years and we have not won it, calm down.

The irony, though, is that this was a winable game, and I do not think he has really done Herd, Bannan and Delfouneso a favour tonight. These three players played okay but were asked to do an unreasonable job. With Walker, NRC, Young and Downing on the bench - but available - I think Hou may have done these three a disservice.
Winning tonight would have been a massive boost to the club and fans.

[villa `cross the mersey]

Ah nothing like a H&V over reaction. Give the bloke some time and lets judge him next season. Strictly he is right, the players were all either full (most of them) or U21 international footballers, so rotation is something we have to get used to, and GH openly knew they are a better team with a much stronger squad. Think the over reaction is madness. Just agame of football, 50 odd years and we have not won it, calm down.

  Come off it OZZ- after a  credible result and performance at the weekend its not too much to ask for a similar line up and performance tonight. He just surrendered our opportunity of winning something or is 16th the new 4th ?

[5ft811st2 Durham]

Fuck you Houllier and fuck your fucked up stupid team selection.
You really know how to piss fans off who have put up with so much hurt in the FA Cup dont you?

Lets me think, off the top of my head.
1967,we played Liverpool off the park at Anfield for 20 minutes then just gave up. An abject home defeat to fellow relegation strugglers Rotherham in 68, 3-0 down at h/t at Torquay in R1,losing at 4th div Southend with that joker Tommy Hughes in goal.3-0 at Oldham,losing at home to Fulham when they were in the 3rd tier,the semi defeat at old Trafford to the scousers and that twat fowler,the q/f defeat at Anfield,and the one at west ham,losing at Bramall lane,pig faces crap at Man c,the 2000 cup final god wasnt that shite,last seasons let down at wembley.....and many many more

well im getting more and more pissed off with this Houllier, its another nail in the coffin,and its a 54 year old coffin and the wood is starting to rot,but not just that,,,, now you come along and and before the fuckin game even starts you had to also take off the nice looking brass handles and plaque off our sorry looking coffin so that all we are left with is a rotting piece of wood which has some scrawled notes inside written by elderly supporters and others looking down telling us about Johnny Dixon,Peter McParland
etc and their memories of..................1957.

FUCK OFF HOULLIER. THAT WAS MERDE MERDE MERDE.

Brilliant post. Sums up exactly how I feel - totally and utterly betrayed by the club i loved.

[Stu]

Ah nothing like a H&V over reaction. Give the bloke some time and lets judge him next season. Strictly he is right, the players were all either full (most of them) or U21 international footballers, so rotation is something we have to get used to, and GH openly knew they are a better team with a much stronger squad. Think the over reaction is madness. Just agame of football, 50 odd years and we have not won it, calm down.

Spot on.

I'm pretty sure Ozzjim is being sarcastic with this bit.

[ktvillan]

With our PL future not yet secure I can see why GH picked that side but I think he was wrong.  He says it's a project and I think it will take time to work, but i don't see why we couldn't have given this a good go tonight.  I'm all for giving the kids a chance and rotating but not all at once and it amounted to surrender.  The FA Cup is very important to Villa fans especially us older ones because it's the only one we haven't seen us win.  54 years and counting.  It was crying out for a change on 60 minutes and 0-2, and it was a waste of time once the third went in. Have to say Ballotelli's finish was superb, but once again the defending was woeful for the goals.  Simple stuff like not picking up players. 

I still think GH will be a success for us but I think he is just focussed on survival and consolidation this season.  I'm willing to give him that leeway in his first season as I did with O'Neill.  But he owes us big time next season.

[richard moore]

Friedel - not at fault for any of the goals but we do need a fresh face for next season. Nothing to do with tonight
Herd - woefully out of position on occasions in the first half but there is a player in there and showed some nice touches
Dunne - played very well, held things together for much of the game
Clark- impetuous at times but need to stick with him as you sense it will all come right
Delph - tidy but unfair to judge playing out of position
Petrov - awful, took any pace we had right out of the game
Bradley - unfair to judge him on his first full game but worrying shades of Petrov
Bannan - good first half, faded badly in the second
Gabby - might as well go if we are going to play him there
Delfouneso - out of position but I just don't see any hunger
Heskey - left already

[Rigadon]

Ah nothing like a H&V over reaction. Give the bloke some time and lets judge him next season. Strictly he is right, the players were all either full (most of them) or U21 international footballers, so rotation is something we have to get used to, and GH openly knew they are a better team with a much stronger squad. Think the over reaction is madness. Just agame of football, 50 odd years and we have not won it, calm down.

Nope.  People criticising the manger for putting out a weakened  team in the only competition we're still in after the ribbing any body living in brum would've been subject to this week is not an over reaction.  It's a reaction to him taking the piss with team selections.  Thankfully I didn't book a half day at work and spend the best part of £50 on watching us capitulate to City for the second time in a few months up there.

We were, a few flashes of neat link up play aside, shite tonight. The fist half was like a training game.  Unacceptable.

[Fin Feds Dad]

Ah nothing like a H&V over reaction. Give the bloke some time and lets judge him next season. Strictly he is right, the players were all either full (most of them) or U21 international footballers, so rotation is something we have to get used to, and GH openly knew they are a better team with a much stronger squad. Think the over reaction is madness. Just agame of football, 50 odd years and we have not won it, calm down.

Its not an over reaction - that wasnt good enough on any level - any criticism is totally justified

[Mister E]

With our PL future not yet secure I can see why GH picked that side but I think he was wrong.  He says it's a project and I think it will take time to work, but i don't see why we couldn't have given this a good go tonight.  I'm all for giving the kids a chance and rotating but not all at once and it amounted to surrender.  The FA Cup is very important to Villa fans especially us older ones because it's the only one we haven't seen us win.  54 years and counting.  It was crying out for a change on 60 minutes and 0-2, and it was a waste of time once the third went in. Have to say Ballotelli's finish was superb, but once again the defending was woeful for the goals.  Simple stuff like not picking up players. 

I still think GH will be a success for us but I think he is just focussed on survival and consolidation this season.  I'm willing to give him that leeway in his first season as I did with O'Neill.  But he owes us big time next season.

Fair and rational analysis.

[paulcomben]

Team Selection: Abysmal
Team Performance: Abysmal
Result: Abysmal
This season: Abysmal

I'd think of something clever about mastercard but i'm too pissed off.

Managed by a French OAP: Pointless

[Irreverent ad]

After Blackburn there we lots of people backing him. Now after an FA cup game at Man City (top 4 side) he is the worst manager ever?!!

The defence was decimated by injury and personal reasons. Our main striker could not play. We had no chance tonight IMO. I would rather Young & Downing be fresh for Saturday.

On the flip side for next season he needs to see who he can count on. We now know Petrov is not good enough now, Bradley big question mark, Herd is not good enough, Gabby doesn;t care.

This was an important game for next season in GH finding out what he has got and how much the old players have taken on board of Houllier style of play. We will see the benefits of this game next season.

Lets give the guy a chance and at least give him a full pre season...

[hawkeye]

He has to go after this, we are 2 wins away from safety with 11 games left, we have 2 weeks off after the next game. We want a manager that can not handle an FA cup game and win a couple of games?
Sorry he has shown utter contempt for our club, its traditions and values.

[Dave Cooper please]

Of course, if we beat Bolton away and are suddenly not that many points off top six, we may all politely draw a veil over tonight...

No, not that easy. MON managed another sixth place and was still getting stick about Moscow, this is, to many of us, a much bigger competition and we were closer to winning it too.

[andyh]

Ah nothing like a H&V over reaction. Give the bloke some time and lets judge him next season. Strictly he is right, the players were all either full (most of them) or U21 international footballers, so rotation is something we have to get used to, and GH openly knew they are a better team with a much stronger squad. Think the over reaction is madness. Just agame of football, 50 odd years and we have not won it, calm down.

sorry mate...but thats a load of shit
A one off game to get to the quarters finals of THE domestic trophy.
A quarter final, at home against lower league opposition.
A cup competition where a large majority of the big teams have already or by the next round, gone out.
And what does our manager do ?
He puts out a weakened team that we would have been disappointed with had he put it out in the 1st round of the league cup against a 3rd dvision team.

No, I'm sorry, but what he has done tonight is totally and utterly disrespectful.

His remit is obviously protect our prem league status.
But he could have taken a bit of a gamble tonight...................surely ?