Aston Villa v Wolves post-match thread

[KRS]

Arent you supposed to be valeting my car this afternoon?

[Big Dick Edwards]

I must have watched a different game to most on here. I saw a Villa team that defended well and passed the ball accurately, and with a bit more luck in front of goal would have won the game and would now be top of the league with 7 points out of 9 and 2 clean sheets out of 3.

[john e]

Arent you supposed to be valeting my car this afternoon?

Can't get out, had my toes cut off for no apparent reason

[usav]

I have seen far worse home performances under GH last season and certainly under MON,
It wasn't brilliant by a long way, but not any where near as bad as some suggest. I don't think Heskey should be starting but to say AM's being negative when he starts with three strikers is a bit much

As always if you can grab a goal it puts a whole different gloss on things

This sums it up for me.

[KRS]

I must have watched a different game to most on here. I saw a Villa team that defended well and passed the ball accurately, and with a bit more luck in front of goal would have won the game and would now be top of the league with 7 points out of 9 and 2 clean sheets out of 3.

...but we didnt score and didnt win. We lacked creativity, imagination, unable to break a midtable team down at home and created very few decent goal scoring chances with 4 forwards on the pitch. Its always nice to hear a bit of positive spin though.

[UsualSuspect]

Nzogbia wide right when his natural position is wide left

The bring BB on and play him wide right when we are crying out for creativity

Heskey - Lost for words

Albrighton on with 5 mins left far too late

Tactital supidity


We were at home against Wolves not barcelona

[eamonn]

More than anything today showed the importance of momentum and capitalising on it. For the first 15-20 mins of the second half we battered Wolves but needed to take one of the many half-chances we created. It was one of those days where the ball landed at Heskey or someone else's feet when we needed Bent on the end of it. Wolves weathered the storm and towards the end of the game frustrated us to fine effect, winning corners and keeping possession in our third of the game.

Gabby looked bright though I'm not sure if he can flourish on the left wing. N'Zogbia slalomed across the pitch to impressive effect a few times (like A Young) but was wasteful with his clear shots on goal. Petrov frustrates me. He has a cultured touch but his lack of pace and poor shooting make me tear my hair out. He and Delph are marshalling the midfield but if there's an opportunity for one to go forward the instruction seems to be for Stan to go forward and Fabian to sit. I'd rather we tried the reverse. Actually I'd like to see Makoun get a run alongside Delph.

I was mildly annoyed with McLeish during the post-match interview when he said that McCarthy had made good tactical substitutions when we were on top and that took the sting out of us. Well it's up to you to make sure that doesn't happen Alec. The game was too physical for Bannan to make much of an impact and Albrighton should have come on for Heskey (not Delph with five minutes left. I don't think Marc got a touch).

It's funny, this time last year we managed a hard-fought win over Everton and had six points from three games despite being destroyed at Newcastle and with no manager. I fear the draws will mount this season. From being a posh Leicester City under O'Neill are we now being diulted further to MON-Lite?

[KRS]

Two 0-0 draws out of 3 league games against midtable opposition speaks volumes I'm afraid. Lets hope we see an improvement in the next 4 games before we play Citeh against Everton, Newcastle, QPR and Wigan.

[CJ]

30,000-odd for a local derby is a disgrace - 8,000 less than for the same game last season. For me the game summed up why people are apparently turning away - solid defence against a team who came for a point, and having sold our flair players unlikely to score or entertain. Other than a spell of 20 minutes in the second half we were ordinary and no better than Wolves. They could even have nicked it at the end with what looked a decent penalty shout for them.

Herd did well especially as he was left very exposed by lack of cover/tracking back by N'Zogbia (something else we'll miss from AY); Dunne was MOTM for me; Gabby was threatening at times; other than that - meh.

Hope Randy can see that slashing the wage bill is one thing, but if the product left on the pitch is not worth watching gates will slump and it will be a false economy. Losing 8000 tickets at say £25 each on average is around £200,000 for every home game which could go towards the wages of a couple of decent players.  We are now firmly a mid-table side lacking ambition.

Nice to see Ian Bell though - of course the Dingles didn't applaud one of the best cricketers this country has ever produced purely because he's a Villa fan. It would be like stopping listening to Led Zep because Robert Plant is a Dingle.  Bit pathetic really

Edit: mind scrambled for Hereford attendance

[UsualSuspect]

Nice to see Ian Bell though - of course the Dingles didn't applaud one of the best cricketers this country has ever produced purely because he's a Villa fan. It would be like stopping listening to Led Zep because Robert Plant is a Dingle.  Bit pathetic really
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They did applaud

[olaftab]

Think its worth giving Ireland a start against Everton. Having Heskey, Gabby and Bent on the pitch just wont work.

Do you mean the 3 who all scored against Blackburn?

[olaftab]

Us     - 17 shots with 3 on target
Them - 3 shots with 2 on target

What do we make of thise stats?

we cant shoot

Stats are rubbish. Their two  on target were pathetic efforts. In our 14 off target there were 3 very close calls that on another day would have found the net.
However I agree hawkeye  N'Zogbia can't shoot.

[CJ]

Nice to see Ian Bell though - of course the Dingles didn't applaud one of the best cricketers this country has ever produced purely because he's a Villa fan. It would be like stopping listening to Led Zep because Robert Plant is a Dingle.  Bit pathetic really
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They did applaud

I saw a few applauding in the lower but didn't appear to applaud in the upper - could be my eyesight fading with age though. Apologies to them if that's the case

[KRS]

N'Zogbia is one of the few players in the Villa team that can actually hit a decent clean shot. He's clearly not fully fit yet and settled in yet, so lets hope he gets upto speed over the next 4 games.

[olaftab]

I thought  young Chris Herd was  excellent. Despite N'Z  not giving him much help.