Manchester City v Aston Villa Post-Match Thread

[ROBBO]

We could have played our best team and most likely still got done, sorry unlike most of you i want to be in the premiership next season and with all the quircky results we are not out of the woods. Remember this is still mainly MONs squad give the bloke a fair go.

[ozzjim]

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.

Mark, this is the only drawback or angle at which I would say he was wrong with tonight. I think Young and Downing are the only two that could think that way though after being excellent at the weekend. Unless of course the team for tonights game was long pre determined and being worked on. It is disappointing to lose any game, but some of the vitriol for essentially only leaving out those two from the strongest side he could pick - Walker has an argument but looking at the great bandage on his arm his fitness may be in question over 90 mins at the weekend if he took a knock on it tonight. We are down to the bones again at the back, Heskey was the only option at the top of the pitch, Gabby has played most games recently and Petrov is club captain so was always likely to come in. They will get over it I am sure, away at City is about as a lost cause as you will get for a Villa team. Was never going to be anything but a defeat, whatever the team, and had the first team gone down 3-4 nil it would have been more damaging I think, and would likely to have done so too. Herd, Bannan etc did ok. Bradley, Petrov and Gabby were the big let downs on the night.

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.

[Fin Feds Dad]

Evening gents, have just joined after feeling compelled to after watching that utter shower. Feel like I'm in a living nightmare, especially after those over the road winning on Sunday. I keep getting texts about lack of ambition, never thought I'd see the day that after spending 18-24 million on a player I'd be saying I feel like the Blose have more ambition than us, squad and manager.

Hubbie's a blues fan and I've been having to put up with the replays of every round so far. Particularly galling to watch Gardner and Ridgewell running round in there bloody winners medals. Really thought we could get through tonight with the incentive of Reading in the next round and City drawing at the weekend and with all due respect to the Royals we'd have had another trip to Wembley on our hands and a bloody good chance of silverware. Now I'm going to have to put up with him lording the bloody cup over me for another year, he wont stop singing 'While we're in Europe, the city is yours'. This is by far the shittest few days of this season. Thank you GH for making my home life close to unbearable.

Absolutely gutted tonight.

Divorce the bastard.

Too good for him - BOLT CUTTERS PLEASE !!!!!

[Morten]

This was a disgrace. Birmingham have just won a cup by beating Arsenal and we surrender to Manchester City before kick off. Why rest Young, Downing and Reo-Coker ? Because of the Bolton game being more important? He can not be serious. If we played some of the reserves against Bolton and lost, we would still have 9 games to save us. In the cup, you only have one chance. Furthermore, the players, especially the subs, must question this as well. And loosing like this will be very bad for confidence.

I am really really disappointed, looking forward to hearing the Generals  comments or from Randy, if possible. Houlliers comments after the game does not help...

[Stu]

Evening gents, have just joined after feeling compelled to after watching that utter shower. Feel like I'm in a living nightmare, especially after those over the road winning on Sunday. I keep getting texts about lack of ambition, never thought I'd see the day that after spending 18-24 million on a player I'd be saying I feel like the Blose have more ambition than us, squad and manager.

Hubbie's a blues fan and I've been having to put up with the replays of every round so far. Particularly galling to watch Gardner and Ridgewell running round in there bloody winners medals. Really thought we could get through tonight with the incentive of Reading in the next round and City drawing at the weekend and with all due respect to the Royals we'd have had another trip to Wembley on our hands and a bloody good chance of silverware. Now I'm going to have to put up with him lording the bloody cup over me for another year, he wont stop singing 'While we're in Europe, the city is yours'. This is by far the shittest few days of this season. Thank you GH for making my home life close to unbearable.

Absolutely gutted tonight.

Meh, don't worry about it. Been there before with Blues fans. They'll fuck everything up as they usually do and it'll be a laugh. Remember; even a stopped clock tells the right time twice a day.

They won't even get past the qualifiers in Europe anyway, you watch.

[avfc_1874]

At least Habib Beye got £40,000 for another outstanding performance.

[Dave Cooper please]

I think saturdays a bit more important, i know the cups important but i want to be in the prem next year..

We could have been in the Premiership and be FA Cup holders, do you not think our players are capable of three games in eight days followed by a fortnight's rest?

[SteveD]

It would have been a disgrace even if we had not known we had Reading at home waiting for us in the the quarter final, but that just adds insult to injury. We threw in the towel at 7.30 or whenever Houllier announced the team. Added to that, the performance and his inability to change anything until it was beyond hope. An insult to intelligence, the competition and the fans who paid their hard earned to go there. And we didn't even have the possession tonight, the yardstick apparently for judging this apparent great revolution in playing style some are kidding us Houllier is bringing. We are a lame, toothless team - Bradley looks no better than the alleged "dead wood" we already have. Feeble.

[BBNCCW]

We could have played our best team and most likely still got done, sorry unlike most of you i want to be in the premiership next season and with all the quircky results we are not out of the woods. Remember this is still mainly MONs squad give the bloke a fair go.

If Fulham can outplay them for periods and get a draw, we could have beaten them. Fucking sickening to see that kind of mentality from anyone associated with the club. I am so so fucked off and depressed. Can't bear the thought of going to work with the fucking noses tomorrow. Or the Albion fans for that matter. Everyone knows we'll almost definitely stay up, we should have gone for it. What a piss poor effort from him to come out and say beforehand how important it is after being knocked out of the carling cup by them lot, why bring it up if he was going to piss all over the competition by fielding a weakened team. I'm disgusted tonight.

[Irreverent ad]

Having to suffer that was bad, but seeing people on here actually supporting this act of cowardice is even more depressing. They must have a totally different view of what Aston Villa means as a football club.

"Supporting this cowardice"....I support the club, I support the manager and I can see logic in the team he selected tonight.

I am fully aware what Aston Villa means as a football club. Houllier is building something at the moment and I am prepared to give him time to do it. I was fed up of MON's short term plan and the accounts show the problems with it. Some fans want everything right now....I am prepared to wait to make sure our success is on solid foundations.

If our 1st choice 11 had lost badly tonight we would have taken a lack of confidence into the game v bolton and could have been 2 points off the relegation zone. We have now maximised our chances of winning this game.

[martyn ellis]

What is the point?
Two weeks without a game before last Saturday. Two weeks or thereabouts before the next game. What happened to continuity, to morale, to building on the last result, to giving it a go? These are professional athletes, after all.
What is the point?
of playing Delph for his first full game at left back?
of playing Herd for his first full game at right back?
of playing Delfonouso on the right wing?
of playing Heskey and Agbonlahor at all?
of changing virtually the entire personnel and shape of the team for a visit o Eastlands?
of bringing Ash and Downing on to risk injury when the match is already lost?
of duping our proud and cash-strapped fans to go all the way up there to witness a fait accompli (at least they got some heading practice)?
of demoralising the entire squad - those that had the misfortune to play and those left on the bench?
of pissing off the entire football world who seemed genuinely interested in a potentially explosive match? (the reaction of the ITV lot, Southgate, Strachan, Beglin et al, when the team was announced, was of complete disbelief).
of destroying the morale, the togetherness, the belief and the good will that Houllier and his players has built up over recent weeks, all for the sake of beating Bolton on Saturday?

Now watch us get thumped at the Reebok. After all, there'll be no pressure.

As many other reasoned commentators on this site have said over the last few pages, I hate modern-day football, where fans and football-lovers in general are the very last people to be considered.
Just when the season was beginning to look as though it may be bearing just a bit of positivity and the football was worth watching again, and when I started to believe that maybe players like Ashley would see the wisdom of staying, it's all come tumbling down. Thank you Gerard.

[villa1]

We could have played our best team and most likely still got done, sorry unlike most of you i want to be in the premiership next season and with all the quircky results we are not out of the woods. Remember this is still mainly MONs squad give the bloke a fair go.

Alternatively, we could have played our strongest team and won. And maybe even stayed in the Premier League too! Not beyond the realms of possibility really is it?

[LeeB]

Having to suffer that was bad, but seeing people on here actually supporting this act of cowardice is even more depressing. They must have a totally different view of what Aston Villa means as a football club.

Fuck off with that.

[Jockey Randall]

We are a lame, toothless team - Bradley looks no better than the alleged "dead wood" we already have. Feeble.

Give the guy a chance, it was his first game in this country and it was hardly the easiest place to start.

[TonyD]

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.

That's right.

I don't think it's right at all. With the squad that we've got if Houllier can't manage to keep us in the top flight as well as having a bit of a cup run then really he's in the wrong job, and I'm certain he is.

Sorry Durham - I was being sarcastic with "That's right"