Manchester City v Aston Villa Post-Match Thread

[DrGonzo]

Houllier is obviously doing what he fels is best for the club, whether we agree with him or not, and if we go out and stuff Bolton at the weekend it will be arguably the right decision.  That doesn't mean I am happy about it, I was fuming yesterday, but I am not a football manager, i don't have the experience that Houllier has, and frankly if he turned up and told me how I should be felling at tree I'd tell him to get fucked.

[philthebar]

I am not going to have a go at individual players some of whom played well - others not so.

What I cannot understand is the team selection - yes, play the youngsters, but not all at the same time and not out of position.  The after match comments that we had three international forwards ignores the fact that they were out of position and had no supply.  The comments also ignored the make up of the rest of the team.  Who was GH trying to fool!

And what was the point of those substitutions - too late to make any difference.

The FA cup draw was opening up nicely, the winners last night must have been/are favourites in a home tie against Reading.  Man Utd and Arsenal drawn against each other.  What more incentive do we need to progress.

Totally defeatist team selection - opportunity missed.  Naive in the extreme.

Honest explanations required.

[Bad English]

he threw in the white flag and we all know it.

I prefer to think he was waving a towel.

[Chris Jameson]

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!

Having patiently explained to my 7 year old why Darren Bent couldn't play and explaining about him being cup tied he wondered who the likes of Young, Downing, Walker, Albrighton etc had played for earlier in the competition. As he said, we'll lose Dad but hopefully i'll get to see them beat Wolves.

[TonyD]

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.

He should be sacked because he picked a side to deliberately lose  an FA Cup tie when the prize would have been our first home FA Cup QF for 51 years against bloody Reading!

Then to top it he insults our intelligence and particularly those who travelled to Manchester last night by  denying that it was a weakened side and declaring that he would do it all again.

Who the hell is this guy answerable to for such a  breathtaking combination of incompetence and arrogance?

Did RL endorse or order last night's farce.  If he did then he can go aswell.

[Simon Ward]

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!

Same sort of thing for my 8 year old who has just committed himself 100% to Villa. He just keeps asking me WHY?
I've posed that question on the Generals thread as I can't answer it!



Having patiently explained to my 7 year old why Darren Bent couldn't play and explaining about him being cup tied he wondered who the likes of Young, Downing, Walker, Albrighton etc had played for earlier in the competition. As he said, we'll lose Dad but hopefully i'll get to see them beat Wolves.

[Simon Ward]

I was too angry to post last night & I haven't exactly calmed down this morning.GH totally confuses me. The last few weeks we've seen better performances, decent results and optimism again and it's been thrown away in one night. It was allways goign to be tough but to give up like that is unforgiveable.

I foolishly thought football was supposed to be about winning.Silly me.

My youngest son believed that as well!

[Monty]

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.

He should be sacked because he picked a side to deliberately lose  an FA Cup tie when the prize would have been our first home FA Cup QF for 51 years against bloody Reading!

Then to top it he insults our intelligence and particularly those who travelled to Manchester last night by  denying that it was a weakened side and declaring that he would do it all again.

Who the hell is this guy answerable to for such a  breathtaking combination of incompetence and arrogance?

Did RL endorse or order last night's farce.  If he did then he can go aswell.

Oookay, now we've gone completely insane.

[damon loves JT]

I was too angry to post last night but I have now run out of things to smash.

I am just sitting in my pants with snot running down my face, surrounded by small pieces of crockery.

I am OK about it now.

[Mazrim]

Yes, but now The Gladstone Pottery museum are furious!

[damon loves JT]

I knew I shouldn't have come in just my pants. They are looking at me funny

[VillaZogmariner]

I don't think it was just the coming in your pants they were angry about.

That poor porcelain doll will never be the same again.

[SoccerHQ]

Horrendous team selection. Heskey was effective as he usually was against top defences, Fonz was lost on the left and Gabby worked hard on the right but shouldn't been through the middle.

Bradley and Bannan were completely out of their depth aswell and the defence was majorly plugging holes particularly at FB.

And what the hell were we doing bringing on Downing and Young at 3-0?! Would've compounded it if they'd both pulled hamstrings when playing.

I wonder what goes through managers heads sometimes, we're going to struggle to finish more than 8th in the league so I just don't understand the selection.

One shot on target all night wasn't it?

[WikiVilla]

isn't it 800k extra each place you finish higher up the league ?

[Walmley_Villa]

And what the hell were we doing bringing on Downing and Young at 3-0?! Would've compounded it if they'd both pulled hamstrings when playing.

More bizarrely they were coming on at  2-0 and then Citeh got their third. Should have sat them down again in case of picking up an injury as you say? Why put them on then?