Aston Villa v Norwich City Post-Match Thread

[olaftab]

Pleased with the win, Annoyed with square pegs in round holes, Heskey in midfield again? Jenas looked good when he came on, Agbonlahor man of the match, Herd did well, N'zogbia annoys me, He never passes the fucking thing to anyone, should have fed Ireland at the end, greedy c***

N'Zogbia clearly tried to make the pass but was closed down quickly, it was a tough pass to make.

He did eventually, but a few seconds earlier while he was running into the box was the perfect time to release it to the on-rushing Ireland.

N'Zogbia had about a week to make a perfect lay off to his right in the path of Ireland however as usual he found some defenders before attempting a pass. It was too late.

[taylorsworkrate]

Very good game to watch today. 

More importantly 3 vital points.

Gabby really is transforming into the player he's always threatened to be, but has just been unable to make the breakthrough.  He is a nightmare for defenders currently.  Also great to see Bent get some goals.  He hasn't been at his best this season, yet has 5 in 11 league games.

Some poor defending at times, which is becoming somewhat of a trend, and failing to extend our lead are the negatives for today. (Don't think theres much more to be said in the Heskey in midfield situation).

As a side note, I quite like Norwich, and in particular Paul Lambert.

[SoccerHQ]

Really enjoyed today's game apart from the last 10 mins. First time I've thought we've played some decent football throughout the game as we did it against Blackburn and Wigan but both are desperately poor teams, Norwich are a lot better than either.

Positives were the front two, Petrov and I thought N'zgobia built on his decent performance last week although I wish he'd bleeding shoot a bit earlier sometimes rather than try to beat 2-3 men all the time.

The less said about Stephen Ireland's 5 second cameo at right back the better.

[olaftab]

Very positive today except for the final 10 mins that I found difficult based on our recent habits.
Gabby is turning into a very composed player. He was superb today.
N'Zogbia had his best game for us today however still disappointing. Our coaching team need to do some work here  on how not to run into the nearest defender at every chance.
Pleased that Benty got a brace.
Petrov with Herd was  good combination  and from what I saw of Jenas in the period he was on the pitch he added composure  and a touch of class to our midfield.

Good turn out from Norwich. Best away attendance so far this season.

[PeterWithesShin]

Positives, after their goal we played some lovely stuff. Gabby was immense, every Norwich player seemed to shit themselves as soon as he got the ball. Bent missed another great chance but didn't let it get to him and showed what we paid £18m for. Herd looked good again. Zog looked a lot more up for it and showed hints of the player he could be for us. Heskey was an unsung hero. Won nearly every header, held the ball up well and played some nice passes.
We could easily have scored half a dozen or more and at 3-1 started passing the ball around very tidily.

Negatives. The first 15 mins or so when we could have been 3 down. The defence. Thats 10 conceded in 4 games. While Norwich may have shit themselves every time Gabby got the ball, I shit myself every time Norwich did. They could have scored half a dozen as well.

I can see why so many can't be arsed going to VP these days, it was dead boring today! *winky*

[Leicester_Villian]

No praise for AM I notice ....must be his fault that .....

Signed Given - excellent signing
Warnock - playing 100 times better than for past 2 seasons - not perfect
Petrov - seems fitter and scoring more than in past
Gabby - totally different player this season

there are other positives and yes some negatives too but I feel some praise is due

Lets remember any person in any job can only work with the tools available to them - not his fault lost AY or SD etc

I thought that was an entertaining performance than I have seen from Villa at VP for quite some time today

Lets give praise where due and moan when deserved

[barrysleftfoot]

  N'Zog played well today, but he is just too desperate to score.Needs to pick a pass better, on another day with a bit more composure, we could have had 5 or 6 goals today.

 Good signs.For me the playing of Herd has completely changed the character of the team.He has given us a bit more balance.

  Anyone else think Given should have done better for both goals?
  Thought Collins was poor , but Warnock and Hutton was ok.I agree with playing Clark.He plays the ball out of defence well, keeps the ball better, and is not partic defensively inferior to Collins.

[supertom]

We played well. We were still a little sloppy at the back with needless freekicks, and their 2nd was poor play.

Gabby was brilliant. He had pace, power and lots of quality end product too. He looks a class act right now. Bent played well too and looked more confident after his first. He'd just been a little jaded in recent games until then.
Petrov solid.
Herd excellent.
N'Zogbia had his best game, but at the moment he's having no luck and just doesn't have any confidence with his final delivery. Right now if he fell into a barrel of boobs, he'd come out sucking his thumb!
Also, aside from giving away that freekick for their first, I thought Hutton had his best game for us. He made some good runs down the right and linked well with Charles.

Much better, but we're still too sloppy. Better teams will punish us, and also, not offer us so much time on the ball.

Next game I'd go Herd, Petrov and Jenas in midfield. That'll work quite well I think.

[Can Gana Be Bettered!?!?]

First and foremost - I thoroughly enjoyed the game today. Credit to both teams for trying to win the game (though we should be anyway as we're at home to Norwich.

After about 15-20 minutes, I thought we were going to get hammered.

Gabby has the player of the year award nailed down already. Great game for him.

Herd played well, as did Petrov and Bent did what Bent always does.

I'm looking forward to Jenas starting instead of  Heskey next match. Jenas came on a looked like a player who has just come from a team high on confidence and that pass the ball. In his little time on the pitch, he looked very interested. Much the same way that Kyle Walker did actually.

Mention to N'Zogbia as well, who showed some of the signs of why we bought him AND he put lots of effort in today as well. When he finally scores or gets a great assist, then I think we'll see him really fly.

One moan (there always is)...why can't our fans just let the team try and pass the ball without the fear of being moaned and whinged at. I think that's half the problem, a lack of confidence when trying to pass the ball or try something different. The guy next to me is always shouting "DON'T TIPPY-TAP ABOUT WITH IT - GET IT FORWARD", then he'll moan when it does go forward that it hasn't gone to anyone and we lose the ball. I really would like us to support the team and give them the confidence to try things.

Still, very happy today because I enjoyed the game and we won (it doesn't happen often!).

[Can Gana Be Bettered!?!?]

Oh, I almost forgot, it's no coincidence that Ireland came on and they scored shortly after. The lazy git could've done a lot more to prevent the cross that lead to their 2nd goal. Why do we bother with him?

[SashasGrandad]

Gabby changed the game - when we went 1 down it looked ominous.

Gabby started to create chances for Bent and eventually he put one in.

N'Zog started to look like he could do something to make a difference - just didn't get the breaks.

Herd sat in front of defence and was so commanding it let Petrov have time to encourage others to go forward.

Gabby was a constant threat and made the Norwich defence panic every time he got the ball. Thankfully the sponsors got the MOM decision right.

Not sure they will do as well when we play teams who know how to defend but at least we can enjoy Saturday night for once. It will still be a long hard winter I'm afraid.

[Leicester_Villian]

Jenas cant play next game - loan deal and against parent club

[brian green]

Just got home.   Gabby was a joy to watch.  Zog has the infuriating habit of shooting when he should pass and passing when he should shoot.   I think Heskey did well within the parameters of being our anywhere any place any time man.   He looked genuinely pissed off that he had not bundled the whole of the Norwich defence and the ball over the goal line in the later stages.   Stylian stayed the pace a lot better and Herd had a bit of the James Milner about him - muscular, bold and committed.

Alex McLeish has not got the hang of substitutions yet.

Met up with some Norwich fans at a filling station of the A14 on the way home.   Good lot.   All agreed it was a good game of football

[Lizz]

Just home after a post-match meal and a few drinks. If Norwich had equalised, which I was expecting, would be feeling gutted right now. As it was, they didn't, and consequently today's game with the nail biting tension of the expectation of the non-existent equaliser equalled entertainment.

Some lively calls on 6-0-6 tonight as well.

[Jockey Randall]

Oh, I almost forgot, it's no coincidence that Ireland came on and they scored shortly after. The lazy git could've done a lot more to prevent the cross that lead to their 2nd goal. Why do we bother with him?

To be fair to the guy, defending is not his strong point. I thought he deserved praise for attempting to fill in for Hutton who was still recovering from the earlier challenge. Could have easily scored today had N'Zog got his head up earlier as well.