Manchester City v Aston Villa Post-Match Thread

[Dave Cooper please]

Still think it is a complete over reaction by most. How many actually thought we had a chance of winning before the game or on the day the draw was made. Deep down - if you are honest - I would bet 90% thought it was an impossible task.

I reckon you're wrong.
Maybe 10% (including Hotlips apparently) may have thought it impossible, the other 90% would have had the "anything can happen on the night" outlook that I had.
We're not a bad side when we put a proper team out and Citeh are not Barcelona, West Brom have beaten them this season for fucks sake!

[Dave Cooper please]

Last night we gave up the chance to progress in a cup competition that we could win, to stay in a league that we can't.

What is the fuckin' point?

Ths cynic in me says "money".
You get more per place in the league than you do for winning THE Cup.

Sad isn't it.

[oldtimernow]

on reflection we learned something about the players who were out last night.Heskey didnt touch the ball in the second half until the last 10 minutes and that was in his own half.Petrov is on his way out, Gabby is either a striker up front, closer to the main striker...he's not a winger.Delfonzo is not upto it yet...he's like a rabbit in the headlights for most of the time.Friedel is approaching his sell by date...but not to be replaced by an error prone Robert Green.Walker will be off back to Spurs.Bannan is good but his size is a limitation unless he's protected by other midfield colleagues . Bradley needs time to get upto speed...could be a useful back up player.Delph could be a real find as an attacking leftback who can support midfield,experience will help.Herd is enthusiastic, Clarke as well is potential class but rash.Dunne is a mistake waiting to happen.

we would still have lost last night if the so called experienced performers had played....so get over it and move on,
at least there was some effort expended.(well by a few)
Perhaps next season we will look back at the 2 defeats against Mancity as the matches where we learned most about the potential of the club ever being able to break into the top 4.

[Meanwood Villa]

The day that the manager of Aston Villa Football Club decided that it wasn't worth trying to win the FA Cup is quite possibly my saddest day as a fan. Still, I look forward to 6th-16th in the league and not being relegated being added to our honours list.

And i'm left feeling, if they can't be bothered any more, why should I?

My thoughts exactly, well said. So I suppose we should all look forward to reminiscing about the great day we beat Bolton or drew with Wolves. If this is the future it's rubbish. Just ask our neighbours how much a cup run means compared to 3 points.
For what it's worth I would rather see Villa win the FA Cup and be relegated, at least I would have the memories and a sense of achievement.

With a wage bill that equates to nearly 90% of turnover, getting relegated would probably see us in administration.

Which pretty much explains last nights motivation.

Yup. It's not nice but it is what it is.

The notion that getting humiliated on national TV and knocked out of a cup ensures our survival is as ridiculous as the notion that making a decent fist of a difficult cup tie immediately leads to relegation. We should try to win every game we play. 2 games in 33 days coming up, hardly bloody fixture congestion

[oldtimernow]

Some of us really need to get a reality check on what he has to play with,especially in comparison to the free spending top clubs whose monies increase from every bit of turmoil the world finds itself in.

RL is a wealthy man with a good feeling for the Villa but a Russian Oligarch or a Shaky Oil man he is not.

[Walmley_Villa]

on reflection we learned something about the players who were out last night.Heskey didnt touch the ball in the second half until the last 10 minutes and that was in his own half.Petrov is on his way out, Gabby is either a striker up front, closer to the main striker...he's not a winger.Delfonzo is not upto it yet...he's like a rabbit in the headlights for most of the time.Friedel is approaching his sell by date...but not to be replaced by an error prone Robert Green.Walker will be off back to Spurs.Bannan is good but his size is a limitation unless he's protected by other midfield colleagues . Bradley needs time to get upto speed...could be a useful back up player.Delph could be a real find as an attacking leftback who can support midfield,experience will help.Herd is enthusiastic, Clarke as well is potential class but rash.Dunne is a mistake waiting to happen.

we would still have lost last night if the so called experienced performers had played....so get over it and move on,
at least there was some effort expended.(well by a few)
Perhaps next season we will look back at the 2 defeats against Mancity as the matches where we learned most about the potential of the club ever being able to break into the top 4.

Have to agree with elements os this - we did have comfirmation of a few things. Petrov was shocking, slow, unaware just awful and his time is surely up. Bannan had a decent first half but looked lost second half. I though Bradley did ok first half and can tackle cleanly and looks a decent ball winner. Gabby isn't a winger but a striker and Heskey is useless up front on his own. Clarke as potential but is inconsistent and picks up a yellow per game. Would have loved to have seen Delph in midlfield last night, he can pass, tackle, move and shoot.
An expensive experiment by Gerard and there is hell of a lot of pressure on Saturday now. 

[pablopicasso_10]

the fa cup is NOT the europa joke league... there is no reward for failure, and it is a tournament that has to be taken seriously...

houlliers team selection was nothing short of farcical... that was NOT utilising the squad...

herd was out of his depth, as i suspected from the start... time and time again, he was bypassed with simple balls, and looked like a little lost boy... walker was on the bench, who would have done a better job (cuellar and young injured, beye is a disgrace and will never play for us again)...

delph is not a left back.. he struggled badly there... (unfortunately, we didnt have anyone else to play there, as baker was injured, clark was playing central defence due to collins and cuellar being injured, and l young wa also still not fit... warnock is a disgrace and will never play for us again)...

bradley looked outof his depth too..

bannon was lost n midfield because he was trying to do the work of 2...

which brings me onto petrov... useless cnut that he is... utterly pointless footballer, who has the mobility and pace of a tree.. his distribution is backwards, he loses the ball, he doesnt protect the back four or support the attack, he is a completely pointless entitiy...

delfouneso showed some signs of what he can do, and actually tried to put in a shift, but being played on the right wing for a classic number 10 type striker, is just more farcical square pegs in round holes nonsense from the manager... but at least he tried, which made agbonlahor shouting at him and then him being taken off while the two jokes up front stayed on, even more bizarre...

as for heskey and agbonlahor, totally useless the pair of them... lazy, ponderous, just completely disinterested, and both with a volley for a first touch... agbonlahor shouting at a young player was him portaying his own inadequacies onto the poor young sod, and tbh, i would get rid of him in the summer, while his value isnt too damaged... but again, another player out of position when there was no need... 4 wingers against blackburn on the pitch, zero last night...

heskey was just his usual pointless self... how he is a footballer, i will never know... 

downing, walker and young didnt really have much time to influence things when they came on, however, young still tried to turn the match into the ashley young show again, with his greed, and quite frankly, poor free kicks, shots, passes that went to no one, etc... he might be revelling in the hole behind the striker, but as a team, apart from the odd match, aston villa arent...

overall, it was a farce from start to finish... from the team line up, to several square pegs in round holes, to most individual performances, to the attitude of some, the team performance, to the result...

oh, but before i go, just a quick mention about seeing mario balotelli smile for the first time ever... right after he forearm smashed someone in the face... and what does the referee who didnt send off rooney for that do? give him a yellow card and literally tells out players to fcuk off... that referee is a joke and didnt want to add to his own incompetence of not sending rooney off, by sending off balotelli, because he know the what the media reaction would rightfully be... who knew that and was smug enough to laugh about it... clattenburg is a joke, who should never referee again, if he thinks that a forearm smash into someones face is not a red card... (dont get me wrong, it didnt change the game, as we would have lost anyway, but the rules are the rules, and when we have had a player sent off in the past for pretending to headbutt someone due to "intent", it is enfuriating to see the rules not applied to suit the referees own personal agenda)...

disgrace from top to bottom...

[Walmley_Villa]

A telling thing for me last night was when my just turned 10 year old son saw our team and said what a rubbish team, we've lost. A TEN year old!

[oldtimernow]

sorry but I think that Delph could prove to be a really useful find to play at left back, I thought he has reined in the tackling we saw him earn yellow cards for when in midfield.He can join in with the midfield especially against teams that play one up front at Villa Park.

[nick harper]

The other thing that struck me was the physique of the City players.  Take out Silva and is there one below 6 foot and 15 stone?  They just seemed to outmuscle us all over the park.  Add in their total experience at this level (how many international caps do they jointly have?) and it was men against boys in lots of areas.

It really was stark wasn't it. City exemplify modern footballers in terms of physicallity and presence. Our players were just bouncing off them. It looked like a practice match for them for the most part.

[Can Gana Be Bettered!?!?]

Lets not forget the first 45 mins v Blackburn was shockingly poor

Was that the half when we could've easily scored 2 or 3?

[dazzyg]

Houllier has to go regardless on whether we stay in the Premiership or not. The bloke did not move from the dug out last night what type of manager is he?

McAllister is no better isn't he supposed to be Houllier's right hand man? We have no management team.

[Rip Van We Go Again]

A bit sneaky the way Sidwell sneaked back into our midfield after shaving his head.

[WikiVilla]

Lets not forget the first 45 mins v Blackburn was shockingly poor

Was that the half when we could've easily scored 2 or 3?

We had 2 half chances just before HT against a woeful bburn side, it really was not good at all

[Can Gana Be Bettered!?!?]

Houllier has to go regardless on whether we stay in the Premiership or not. The bloke did not move from the dug out last night what type of manager is he?

McAllister is no better isn't he supposed to be Houllier's right hand man? We have no management team.

So he should be sacked because he has a calm personality. That makes sense. Not everyone has to jump around and go mad.