Barclays Asia Trophy (27th-30th July 2011)

[Simba]

Personally I like the look at the end with Makoun, Bannan, Gardner ok they were all fresh but they actually looked like they understood each other!

Same. First half we looked like strangers and they played us so high we couldn't get a grip.

[Brend'Watkins]

Personally I like the look at the end with Makoun, Bannan, Gardner ok they were all fresh but they actually looked like they understood each other!

Same. First half we looked like strangers and they played us so high we couldn't get a grip.

Same here too. 

Delph in his part was way off the game, a bit of a liability actually.

[Percy McCarthy]

Personally I like the look at the end with Makoun, Bannan, Gardner ok they were all fresh but they actually looked like they understood each other!

Agreed. Able to find each other with simple passes, unlike the three in the first-half. Promising.

Given, very good. Heskey will play more than Gabby judging from that game. The rest was disappointing but Bent and Charles should link well.

I'm optimistic.

[mrfuse]

Gardener and Bannan have both done well since coming on.

Dissapointed with Ireland again, Bannan and Gardener did far more in 5 minutes

[Simba]

No question, and all credit, Ireland was determined to make something of his chance on the pitch. Yelling and cojoling but SO frustrated and eventually petulant. Sort of " I am too good for this lot".

Their midfield simply out muscled, outplayed and out thought us. Until the last ten. Pity Benty missed the shot after fantastic control. Might have lifted heads.

[Sarunyu]

We are far away from what Chelsea has.
No cutting edge.
Passing still not accurate.
Slow of defend still exist.

Anyway Good Goal Keeper.
Good Gardner.

Hope we can find our heart of the game and more accuracy from preseason practice.

[VillaAlways]

Makoun is going to be great for us.Love him. GG looks promising.Bannan looked sharp again.Worried about Albie

Couldn't give a toss about the result but we need Parker

Given is f*cking ace

I hope Randy was watching

Did Villasboas crouch in that position for a full 90 mins?

[TheSandman]

I really do think we need to bring in a midfielder and a pair of defenders in. We looked poor in those areas today.

If we get Parker in to play with Bannan and Makoun our midfield would be ace. However, I don't see it happening.

[D.boy]

We lost then, oh well it's only a friendly and against moneybags Chelski. Not the end of the world.

[olaftab]

WellSWell predictable result but positives for me were:
Given class above any gk we have seen in Villa colours since Rimmer.
Bannan he could be the one.
Clark he could be another one!

[knowsleyvillain]

Given great kept the score down,bannan & gardner looked decent heskey ok,delph, warnock, ireland & albrighton  not with it.

[Percy McCarthy]

No question, and all credit, Ireland was determined to make something of his chance on the pitch. Yelling and cojoling but SO frustrated and eventually petulant. Sort of " I am too good for this lot".

Ireland needs to find space, demand the ball, have plenty of touches and grow into his role. He just couldn't get involved today, peripheral.

[richard moore]

A positive spin:

- Chelsea are one of the best teams in Europe
- They have been playing out in Asia for longer than we have
- This was like a home game for them with all that support
- They were better than us without actually ever really dominating the game
- Given is going to save us so many points this season
- Bannan looks a player and so does Gardner
- We immediately looked ten times more dangerous with them and Bent on the field
- It was only a friendly

A negative spin:

- We barely put one creative move together all game
- Delph does not look like the all singing and all dancing midfielder we are looking for
- Gabby brings nothing to the team at all these days
- Ireland is not going to find it easy to re-integrate into things
- We are in trouble if we are relying on Marc for our wing play this season
- Delfouneso is running out of chances to show he has what it takes
- The midfield cannot move up and down the pitch as a unit
- We appear to have lost the pace we had in the team with the departure of Young and Downing

In the final analysis, it was what I expected, 2-0 to Chelsea and they were the better team. Our inability to create almost anything to the last ten minutes is extremely worrying however

[Holtenderinthesky]

Perhaps a good kick up the arse is what the players needed before the season starts, feet on the ground and all that.  Some promising signs but some all too familiar errors, Warnock, Ireland etc....

Still, we've helped to boost Chelsea's popularity in Asia and that's the main thing.   

[PaulMcGrathsNo5Shirt]

Given - excellent
Young - solid
Warnock - ok
Dunne - at fault for the first goal
Collins - ball watching instead of marking Torres for his goal
Albrighton - Poor
Delph - See Albrighton
Petrov - See Delph
Ireland - See Petrov
Gabby - dreadful touch, too isolated
Delfouneso - I just don't think he is good enough.

Bent - lively when come on
Heskey - oh dear
Gardner - Really like the look of him
Bannan - done well I thought
Makoun - I like the look of him too
Clark - didn't really have much time

Overall - lets face it, Chelsea are miles better than us, and they could have gone up a gear or two if they wanted too. We couldn't cope with their ball retention and movement. I fear this will be pretty much how our season will go, we'll get beat comfortably by the top 5/6, struggle to breaks teams down who play 5 across the middle and we'll beat the dross.