Sunderland v Aston Villa Post-Match Thread

[Lambert and Payne]

Fucking woeful. Set pieces should be sorted with Dunne and Collins, yet you know what's going to happen every single time. Where is Carlos? By far our best defender imo, reads the game better than anyone. Collins fucking pumps that ball up every time.
How many times are we going to blame the owner and manager? Its clearly the players, no pride in the Villa shirt with a few exceptions

[taylorsworkrate]

Can't really comment on the game itself, as I couldn't find a stream that worked for more than 2 seconds without lag.

However, a draw no shock between 2 very average teams.

[oldtimernow]

Houllier was never the problem, the players he clearly wanted rid of were the problem.

Yeah, this is an interesting point and one that I agree with. I went from blaming the players wholly, to thinking Houllier was just not able to work with them (after the players all came out and bitched) to where I am now, which is that actually, I trust my initial feeling about it - I just don't think the defenders are any good, and I don't think they're professional enough to develop (old dogs and new tricks, maybe?).

Reminds me of the lunatics running the assylum  (intended spelling)

[Shrek]

I hate Mcleish, we are going nowhere with him in charge!

I miss Houllier!

[Rigadon]

Houllier was never the problem, the players he clearly wanted rid of were the problem.

Yeah, this is an interesting point and one that I agree with. I went from blaming the players wholly, to thinking Houllier was just not able to work with them (after the players all came out and bitched) to where I am now, which is that actually, I trust my initial feeling about it - I just don't think the defenders are any good, and I don't think they're professional enough to develop (old dogs and new tricks, maybe?).

Reminds me of the lunatics running the assylum   (spelling intended)

Huh?

[brontebilly]

Thought we played pretty well today but we completely bottled it after going ahead late on. Warnock and Dunne committed two stupid fouls within minutes of each other to give Larsson one of the best deadfall takers in the league a chance to ping a couple of crosses in. It was the only way they were going to score and predictably they did.

Some positives, all the defenders played well in general. Hutton was much improved but still each of them made a bad mistake each. Dunne and Warnock with the ridiculous yellows. Hutton for the first and Collins went asleep for the second. Definitely think we should go back to zonal. Those calling for replacements well it was Cuellar last week for losing Scharner so I reckon it's the organisation back there that's wrong rather than the individuals. Of course there is one way to stop conceding goals from set pieces - stop giving away freekicks in dangerous areas.

Much better from Nzogbia today. Couple of good blocks away from his first goal. Petrov was the best midfielder on view I thought. Herd had a decent second half but needs to be braver on the ball. Heskey held it up ok but we aren't going anywhere with him or Gabby on the left. Bent still nowhere near the level of last season. Should have been sharper for the chance in the first half but simply had to bury the one in the second. To be fair to Bent he showed a lot more for the ball today and in general there was less route one from us aswell.

Two points dropped imo. Bruce won't last the season at Sunderland I feel. They were very poor in midfield. Wickham got a fine goal but apart from that I think they will finish below us this season.

[CJ]

The only crumb of comfort I took from that game was that N'Zogbia started to look good in spells

[barrysleftfoot]

  Did'nt see the game butlistened to it on the radio.

  Positives for me were:

  Herd....could have the athletic, quick, aggressive defensive midfielder we have been looking for the last 5 years.
  N'Zog.....only 24, growing into the team according to the radio, he is our mecurial player who we need to open teams up.
  Bannan and Jenas.......will probably be 2 of our 1st choice midfielders in the next few weeks, so can only get better.


  What worries me is the obvious.Why can't Collins, Dunne and Heskey win a header in the last minute.Collins is there for one reason, and in the last 2 weeks he has been responsible for at least 2 goals.He is a liability apart from his defending, so if hes not doing that then he should'nt be picked.


  I might be over optimistic, but i think we have a developing team that will get better and better.Bannan, Herd, N'Zog, Clarke, Gabby, all under 25, all key players.

[oldtimernow]

Houllier was never the problem, the players he clearly wanted rid of were the problem.

Yeah, this is an interesting point and one that I agree with. I went from blaming the players wholly, to thinking Houllier was just not able to work with them (after the players all came out and bitched) to where I am now, which is that actually, I trust my initial feeling about it - I just don't think the defenders are any good, and I don't think they're professional enough to develop (old dogs and new tricks, maybe?).

Reminds me of the lunatics running the assylum   (spelling intended)

Huh?

sorry meant to be mine

[Rigadon]

  Did'nt see the game butlistened to it on the radio.

  Positives for me were:

  Herd....could have the athletic, quick, aggressive defensive midfielder we have been looking for the last 5 years.
  N'Zog.....only 24, growing into the team according to the radio, he is our mecurial player who we need to open teams up.
  Bannan and Jenas.......will probably be 2 of our 1st choice midfielders in the next few weeks, so can only get better.


  What worries me is the obvious.Why can't Collins, Dunne and Heskey win a header in the last minute.Collins is there for one reason, and in the last 2 weeks he has been responsible for at least 2 goals.He is a liability apart from his defending, so if hes not doing that then he should'nt be picked.


  I might be over optimistic, but i think we have a developing team that will get better and better.Bannan, Herd, N'Zog, Clarke, Gabby, all under 25, all key players.

Promise has to turn into something more at some stage though BLF.  Agree we have some promise though.

[Lambert and Payne]

Did albrighton play? I'm seriously worried about that lad tbh

[Rigadon]

Houllier was never the problem, the players he clearly wanted rid of were the problem.

Yeah, this is an interesting point and one that I agree with. I went from blaming the players wholly, to thinking Houllier was just not able to work with them (after the players all came out and bitched) to where I am now, which is that actually, I trust my initial feeling about it - I just don't think the defenders are any good, and I don't think they're professional enough to develop (old dogs and new tricks, maybe?).

Reminds me of the lunatics running the assylum   (spelling intended)

Huh?

sorry meant to be mine

No probs OTN.

[dicedlam]

The defence was woeful.
Hutton is a very, very poor excuse for a right back.

Only positive was Gabby and Herd and Petrov's workrate.

[CJ]

Did albrighton play? I'm seriously worried about that lad tbh

Replaced N'Zogbia for the last 5 minutes. Still failed to impress but to be fair he had hardly any game time

[dave.woodhall]

Just looked at this thread without checking the score. Judging by the comments we must have got battered - how many did we lose by?