Manchester City v Aston Villa Post-Match Thread

[Rudy Can't Fail]

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.

My worry is not that he's tonight lost the respect of the fans but of the players. There's so much that can be achieved with that respect, look at McCleish at the Rags, they all work so hard for him. MON, tactically clueless but all the players on the pitch always gave everything. Ashley, Downing, even young Walker must be thinking WTF is he doing. Lunacy.

[richard moore]

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...

Come on Richard is that tongue in cheek?

Not sure Clive! I can't think straight anymore. Totally baffled. However, football is a funny old game innit and if we do win on Saturday with Wolves next at home, things might strangely start to look rather upbeat again...

[lovejoy]

Yes but if we lose.....?

[Diablo]

Mark the date in your diary folks, Wed 02 March 2011. The date Aston Villa FC officially gave up any pretensions of being a big club.

We're officially happy to finish anywhere between 6th-16th, doesn't really matter - trophies don't really matter. So long as we stay in the league. We've turned into Bolton.

How fucking depressing!

[Holtenderinthesky]

Yes but if we lose.....?

If we lose.  I'll tell you what will happen......NOTHING.  Fuck all.  Zip.  Nada.  Cos Houllier is here to stay unfortunately.

[Chris Smith]

He clearly had Saturday on his mind with that selection. If the full team played 90 minutes (and most likely lost) then have them go to Bolton and lose and we get dragged back down and confidence starts ebbing away. However, go there and win we're suddenly looking up and thinking of the top 6.

Before any of the hysterics have a go at me let me make it clear that, as a fan, it's not what I want to see  but he's a manager and his priority HAS to be staying in the league. I said I would wait and see what happened before judging and the team just wasn't good enough but all that romantic guff about accepting relegation if we win the cup will be the opposite of what Randy expects of him.

On the pre match thread a few people reckoned we had absolutely no chance before they knew what the side was, given that surely you can have no objection to him resting a few of them.

That said, I don't think we were that bad (other than Petrov who had a nightmare), we were just out powered by a team of fucking giants and by conceding the type of goal we've been letting in all season after 4 minutes. We played some reasonable football but without ever looking like we might get back into it and Herd got punished for 2 mistakes.

[kippaxvilla2]

Seems patently obvious to me that the year end results bought home the need to stay in the league.  The accounts were posted on the very last day of the 9th month after year end - the deadline Companies House give for posting to avoid fines.  And no fuckin wonder.

Tonight is officially when football as a Villa fan died.  Revenue at the expense of winning a trophy.  A spinless, motionless goon of a manager and an equally motionless, goon of an Assistant and Sid 'Bradley Walsh' Cowans.  Total fucking disgrace.  It's as if the club has no clue of the mood music of fans and have no idea that the bastards from up the road winning a cup 3 days earlier only serves to ramp up this cups importance and they took no fuckin notice. 

This guy is a totally obstinate, spineless bafoon and the sooner he goes the better.

[barrysleftfoot]

     

    Tbh even if we would have had our 1st team out, we are not good enough to beat Citeeeh at the moment.


    The ironic thing is that our more experienced players were the worst culprits.Inthe 1st half, Heskey and Gabby constantly gfailed to hold the ball up, and when they did keptgiving it away.Petrov was useless throughout the game.

  Positives.Bannan, always looking for the ball, always lookinto be positive.

   Herd, out of position, but totally committed, looks like he could be another useful player coming through.

  Delf, and Delph.....both good on the ball, both for me can hold their heads high.


  Badley, good in patches, does'nt look to bad in tight situations.
 
  The lack of movement off te bll by the senior players was quite disturbing tbh, and he only positives tonight were the youngsters.....the ones we are all moaning about.

   

[TonyD]

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

Post of the night -  made me laugh.

[peter w]

So so disappointing. Picked a poor team that lacked shape and balance. I don't blame the players too much as some hadn't played for a while whilst others were out of position.

Why on earth does Houllier watch our neighbours win a trophy, then say we'll win trophies, and then pick a team designed to make it clear that he wasn't talking about this season?

What reason is there for rotating the squad this much ahead of a 5th round tie, with a home tie waiting for us in the 6th round against a Championship side? None. Concentrating on the league? Behave.

[achilles]

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.

Ah, thats okay then, I thought we entered the FA Cup to try and win it but obviously that is not the intention!

[mikeb1982]

It's just so deflating, again.  I'm sure GH will come good, there has been improvement, and I understand what why he picked the team he did, but with Reading in the next round this was a great chance for a day out at wembley and a light in what has been a thoroughly shit season.  Another embarrassing result.  We won't go down, no-ones injured, so this was a slap in the face of an old competition that everyone on here would love to see us win and GH pissed it away

[Irreverent ad]

He clearly had Saturday on his mind with that selection. If the full team played 90 minutes (and most likely lost) then have them go to Bolton and lose and we get dragged back down and confidence starts ebbing away. However, go there and win we're suddenly looking up and thinking of the top 6.

Before any of the hysterics have a go at me let me make it clear that, as a fan, it's not what I want to see  but he's a manager and his priority HAS to be staying in the league. I said I would wait and see what happened before judging and the team just wasn't good enough but all that romantic guff about accepting relegation if we win the cup will be the opposite of what Randy expects of him.

On the pre match thread a few people reckoned we had absolutely no chance before they knew what the side was, given that surely you can have no objection to him resting a few of them.

That said, I don't think we were that bad (other than Petrov who had a nightmare), we were just out powered by a team of fucking giants and by conceding the type of goal we've been letting in all season after 4 minutes. We played some reasonable football but without ever looking like we might get back into it and Herd got punished for 2 mistakes.

Sums up exactly how I feel.

[sideways_sidwell_sucks]

Houllier Out

[sideways_sidwell_sucks]

Mine was the text sent at 20:56

http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/football/9411262.stm