Aston Villa v Blackburn Rovers Pre-Match Thread

[fordbeck]

£15 ticket, cheap(ish) pre match beer and 3 points
Does it get any better

Bent 1-0

[Big Dick Edwards]

I fancy Blackburn to struggle this season. This has got to be three points for us. Hopefully Samba and Nelsen will still be out injured. 3-0 Villa.

[Des Little]

It's ALWAYS 3-1 to us in these games.

[greta]

3-1 villa. Bent x2 and Ireland. Let the good times roll.

[brice jovial]

Hei there. Wel i wrote about  how Alex Mac has adopted the 4-2-3-1 formation.

Its how he decides to use the players in this sytem and we can question if we have the palyers for this system.

the key is not leave Bent isolated up front

A reliance or tendancy for long balls by passing central midfield is not on but can be easily resorted to by this villa team

or balls just to nzogbia to go and 'do his stuff ' can be rewarding but is not the way to play and other teams can find us out.

The way to play is to the strength of the players/team/formation so i suspect @home the wingers of albrighton and n'zogbia be introudced. They willbe switching flanks.

The make up of midfield and support attack  is the tricky option Delph,Petrov and Bent are the certainites and expected untouchables .

The back four itself -Given to always be our no1
Collins and Dunne and Warnock and Young are curremtly the settled back four.
Alex Mac seemingly favouring the exprience/realiability/lack of options for these 4 defensive places.

Looking @ how we perfomed against Blackburn in the last season form home taking a 4-1 win was great. However it was Ash and Downing that caused the problems and scored the goals. Simialr perfomances from n'zogbia and albrighton can help the villa to a 2 to 3 goals scored 1 againstwin 

[cheltenhamlion]

2-1 Villa

[brice jovial]

What bookies say is the  Vila are faves 8/11 by most.

Looking @ score lines then people.

I see some favour and are of the belief that its a 3-1
well 12/1.
gud luck

2-1 is 7/1 and is the most common scorelines in epl along with 1-1

Darren bent score anytime is real value @11/10

Could also see a few booking as 4 yellows for both teams so far !

[Villanation]

The problem is when you have a player like Darren Bent your between a rock and a hard place, it's not good to have him as a solitary player up front on his own, he's not exactly blessed with massive pace or ball skills and gets caught offside very often, which he takes the risk of doing in order to get that extra yard on his defender, or you play someone in support which then you have someone forcing him out of his instinctive skills of being in the box in the right place at the right time, hence the goal follow, which is what he's best at, so what to do.

You can play someone of him and behind him, personally I don't think Gabby is the right man for that, he's to fast which means he's pushing Bent that much further forward all the time or you go for someone like Ireland as a natural distributor of the ball in an advanced position, or indeed as it was Ashley Young being ideal. This is the problem Chelsea had with Drogba, as brilliant as Drogba is, Chelsea elected for a more modern creative package, spent 50ML on Torres and resigning Drogba to the bench, but that allows Chelsea to play more creative football.

If Ireland is still chocolate teapot stuff then we have to go into the transfer market again and get that kind of creative player otherwise to believe we are going to continue to milk Bent for a hopeful endless supply of goals and not imagine that Premiership defences have not now worked out there strategy to negate Bent this season is a risky business IMO.

The Blackburn game could be a good indicator of this due to there physical presence at the back, the other thing that would concern me as a blouse fan was telling a few days ago, he played Jerome exactly the same way, and Jerome became useless, pointing out of course that Jerome is not in the same cat as Bent, all the same though!!!!!.

[brice jovial]

The Blackburn game could be a good indicator of this due to there physical presence at the back, the other thing that would concern me as a blouse fan was telling a few days ago, he played Jerome exactly the same way, and Jerome became useless, pointing out of course that Jerome is not in the same cat as Bent, all the same though!!!!!.

Cameron jerome is alot like Gabby in potential rather than Darren Bent the goal scorer

The problem is when you have a player like Darren Bent your between a rock and a hard place, it's not good to have him as a solitary player up front on his own


You can play someone of him and behind him, personally I don't think Gabby is the right man for that

If Ireland is still chocolate teapot stuff then we have to go into the transfer market again and get that kind of creative player

I disagree Bent is the threat and play to his strengths you only play him in a 4-5-1 with support from wing and midfield 
I agree gabby wuld not be effective behind bent but could play as a lone striker too so be used as his understudy

The KEY here is thow the other players and TEAM are around Bent

great points in making about creativity if ireland fails
however we all are aware no one is being brought in without us trading out due to heavy wage bill.

Joe Cole could be ideal as a palyer maker/dribbler 
but you could say same about Ireland

i look forward to saturdays match

[Villanation]

brice: Can't agree Jerome is a lot like Gabby, I don't think Jerome can even stand in Gabby's shadow in terms of the threat Gabby carries, I've always thought Jerome to one of the easiest players to take out of a game in the Premiership, you could never say that of Gabby, we should play Gabby the way Udinese play Armero the other night, that's the best way to use a player blessed with that kind of pace, but then your in the problem area of having the other type of players around him, Udinese didn't have the classic old style target man, as we do.

I agree Bent is ideal for being played as the predator in the box to get on the end of a cross or long ball, that's as well trodden a ground in football as it could be and when you have a good old fashioned centre forward like Bent it still works even today, but will it work enough, and for me i think defences will have adjusted to the way Villa play Bent and he will have a much tougher time this season then the later part of last season.

Obviously Ireland remains to be seen, but he must have his chance.

Blackburn will be a benchmark game, we win, all well and good we lose or draw and we are clearly are on the wrong road. Should be a good game.

[brice jovial]

Ahh what i mean in regards to the gab and jermoe comparison is taht tehse two palyers are more suited to be compared :

Both were up and coming at  the england under 21 level and having not taken on to senoir level - okie actually gab played for england a little.

They both have unfulfilled potential of scoring goals and being top stikers

That said there is no doubt Gabby is a better player yes by far and he is premiership standard

Jerome scored a cracking goal against liverpool and has been a handful with his own pace

agian this is where they are similar as pace is there best asset.

In relation to bent both dont compare in goal scoring terms

[brice jovial]

AVFC team news GIVEN : Groin Injury was  sustained against Fulham on 13/8. Alex McLeish is confident that Given will be available for the visit of Blackburn

Cuéllar had undergone an operation and would remain sidelined for three months. Reported on 17/8 that he was on course to return to training by the end of August.
BACK 27 th AUGUST


Blackburn team news -
Emerton Hamstring injury - grade one Withdrawn at half-time on 13/8 match against Wolves with problem. Steve Kean admitted on 15/8 player is likely to be absent for 9 to 10 days.
OUT OF MATCH
Givet  Illness Missed the 2-1 defeat to Wolves on 13/8.
LIKELY TO COME BACK
Nelsen  Knee injury Confirmed on 14/4 that he had undergone surgery ruling him out of for the rest of the season. Ruled out of squad for 13/8 season opener by Steve Kean on 12/8.
MATCH FITNESS BUT LIKELY TO START
Samba  Groin Strain Is carrying a strain which ruled him out of the pre-season friendlies from 30/7 onwards.Included in squad for 13/8 game with Wolves and is EXPECTED TO FIGURE
(could be moving )

[The Left Side]

I don't care how we win but we need a win, hopefully with a clean sheet and playing good football but we need a win!

[TonyD]

0.0

[PaulMc]

Think it will be 1-1 with us struggling to create chances.