Moscow or Manchester?

[atomicjam]

I am puzzled by the team selection too. I just feel that the bigger picture is that alot needs to change player wise, scouting wise and so on. I have no idea what GH was thinking when he picked the team tonight. I wish he had picked a better started 11, but I fear they would have lost tonight aswell. We need alot of changes and many are hopefully being implemented. Is GH is the man to take us forward? I think he might be. As I said, tonight, I am in the minority.

[olaftab]

There is no such thing as bigger picture in sport. You have to compete in every event if you don't you die. Aston Villa FC died a little tonight.

[villajk]

Manchester's colder.

Oh no it's not.  Manchester was damn cold tonight, but it was at least +12 degrees warmer than Moscow.

[atomicjam]

There is no such thing as bigger picture in sport. You have to compete in every event if you don't you die. Aston Villa FC died a little tonight.

Yes there is, I do not agree.

[astonvillan]

i'm not a mon fan and i've very much stuck behind gh since his arrival, but tonight was far worse. imagine the disappointment as i heard the lineup standing outside manchester piccadilly waiting for the dad and brother to arrive, knowing that we'd put our reserve side out against a team that included the likes of balotelli, silva, zabaleta and kolarov. 'game over', we may as well go home.

had we have won this, our name was on the cup. beat reading at the same stage as last year, get blues in the semi final and avenge the defeat; putting them back in their place in the process and then man united in the final to avenge last year's cup final defeat and repeat the '57 triumph. it was all setting itself up perfectly. and what did we have to lose? these little primadonnas had just been on holiday and now get a two week break after saturday to rest up. three games in a week a little too taxing for them, was it? funny, man city's players have managed the same in six days..

nothing else to play for this season, we'll stay up, but will have to watch those grubby little part timers at wembley again whilst we wait another year to see if we can get our hands on something tangible. we've just had two years of pretty good runs in the cup and have been fortunate in seeing those around us go out early. this was our time to win something. man city can now be added to the elite group and spurs aren't far off. i get the feeling we've had our chance and fear we may have missed out now for a good while. we don't seem capable of receiving the kind of good fortune afforded to sha during their cup run so certainly can't expect to go to citeh with a reserve side and win. but then clearly, that wasn't the intention.

on o'neill, he had the CL places to think about at a time when we were flying high in the league and in fact in his defence, he'd played a lot of the kids since the start of the competition. in my eyes, that was always something that was way overplayed by the media and their willingness to shout 'disrespect' as soon as they saw the team rather than having a look to see who we'd put out previously. i couldn't stand o'neill for two years and could (and have..) write an essay on all of his faults but i wouldn't use that as a stick to beat him with, personally.

as i say, houllier's very much had my backing because i think he deserves a chance and that's despite constantly getting the formation wrong and doing a mon with his team selection and substitutes; the latter being something he seemed to have a grip on when he first came in with tactical astuteness shining through against blackburn (lc) and wolves. now though, all i can see him being good for is signing very good players for relatively little money and helping input his excellent knowledge into our scouting network. do we give him time and see if he can make it work or do we part company and say he's too limited a manager post heart op for where we want to be? certainly don't envy lerner..

[eamonn]

Hmm, one thing that hasn't been mentioned is that in Moscow it really was a youth/reserve side (Albrighton and Bannon's full debuts I think? Fonz and Salifou had barely played before aswell). Tonight, Herd aside, the young lads have all played a fair few games in the Premier League (not Bradley obviously but he comes with a decent international pedigree). So when GHou went on about the quality of these players in the interview afterwards I do believe him. It's just he did overdo it, and I wonder did he really think that side could get a result tonight.

I think MON was more blatant about Moscow. Both sting though.

[Pat McMahon]

I only found out the result when I woke up due to the time difference with the UK. You have probably all had a shite night’s sleep and I have had a shit morning at work mulling on this – not sure which is worse. On balance I would probably say your situation, since I am not surrounded by it – TV here are thankfully only showing the goals from the Arsenal game on repeat.

I think Manchester was probably worse for the reasons outlined by several posters above – we were one game from a home draw in the quarters against Reading for God’s sake. As Astonvillan points out, we did actually put out a proper team in the home game v CSKA and that failure to secure a result meant MON thought the freezing plastic pitch in Moscow would be too risky for us in the light of our league position. If you went to Moscow you would definitely disagree with me and I completely accept that.

These instances have made me think that it would be great if clubs had to announce their team selections in advance like rugby teams do several days before internationals. You can then make up your mind how seriously the club are taking the match and buy your tickets and plan your travel accordingly. I'm dreaming of course…

I still support GH but that was a tactical and PR disaster last night. Hope you are all looking forward to the meal for fans at the end of the season to explain this decision…….

[Dave P]

Last night was worse by a country mile.  To not even give it a go is baffling.

[TonyD]

The morning after the night before and it's still a disgrace.

His post match interviews were comical.

This man will never win us anything.

[Concrete John]

I defended MON's decision to play that weakened team in Moscow.  We were up against it following the 1st leg and were facing a game in near artic conditions on a plastic pitch half the world away.  My argument was and is that had he played Gabby and/or Ash and they had got injured, effectively ending what were at the time genuine CL aspirations, he'd have got as much stick for that as he did for fielding the kids.

In order to be consistent I will also defend Gezza's right to pick the team he chooses, but I have a harder time agreeing with it.  I think the following were the differences between the two:-
1.  I think our best available 11 WOULD have got a good result.
2.  Less likeliness for fatigue/injuries.
3.  We were looking likely to get in the CL, but we're not looking likely to get relegated.

I personally think Moscow is where some fans started falling out of love with MON, who up to that point had hardly put a foot wrong.  Now with Gezza we've had more reason to doubt him than back him thus far, so with this around his neck we now need a VERY strong end to the season if he wants to keep the fans of his back.     

[JUAN PABLO]

Well I only put Moscow for fans who actually travelled there .       Manchester because we wasnt far away from a semi-final and we are not going down.

[sfx412]

Both decision were poor as were the other games we played weak teams deliberately and didn't do enough.
Moscow we had a 'full' squad to work from tonight, with Warnock and others disaffected, Bent cup tied, several injuries we didn't and have not all season, its been a time of one disruption after another.
Plainly the squad is not good enough, the kids that seem to be the future plan are not yet or maybe never will be. I see time and again fans calling for Bannan, for Bailey to be playing, for Herd, Fonz and Delph, well they played last night and didn't meet up. Only Clarke who now seems an ever present contributed well.
But then he side was a mishmash, with players out of position a completely new defence including two 'kids' out of position against the quality City have, totally daft and its hard to blame players in that situation.
The squad depth is obviously still very poor as it was against Moscow, its been obvious for some time the first 13 are ok, the rest are not so all Houllier is doing is treading water papering over the cracks.
He sacrificed the FA Cup last night just as Mon sacrificed all those months of work to gain a European place and I still say both were acting to orders, to the clubs priority and plans nothing more.
He like Mon will take the blame and regret it and hopefully unlike Mon he won't suffer. Moscow was a good decision if the subsequent results gained the right end, same goes for Ged, if we don't walk away with a top 10 finish, his decision could be catastrophic.
We need 4 good results, 4 convincing performances nothing less will do.

[pauliewalnuts]

NeillOMartin

How should Gerard appease the fans? Buy them a slap up meal and stick it on the wage bill. Oh and tell them NEVER TO QUESTION HIM AGAIN

From Twitter.

[WikiVilla]

Considering how few games we have over the next month, last night is a real hard slap in the face to all fans and the traditions and pride of the club.

We should not be surrendering

[Simon Ward]

We have made ourselves look "small time".