Aston Villa v Norwich City Post-Match Thread

[The Man With A Stick]

Will the "X for England" brigade ever learn?

[Tom Stewart]

Oh, and Jenas looked very good when he came on. Intelligent use of the ball, cool head.

[Legion]

MotD Highlights

[olaftab]

Heskey in midfield I will never get, but I'll admit he wasn't as disastrous as I thought he'd be.

As far as I could see got a good ovation when he came off.  I don't like him playing in midfield, but he definitely had his uses today.

Not his fan but I thought he was part of our solution after the first 15 mins or so specially moving in from wide to receive  Given kicks and setting up our play makers.

[OzVilla]

Will the "X for England" brigade ever learn?

Exactly, it always ends in tears for us.

[Andy_Lochhead_in_the_air]

Most enjoyable game for quite some time.
Credit to Norwich for having a real go and making for a really open game.
N'Zogbia is slowly but surely starting to settle, he showed signs last week and made further progress yesterday. In fact 2nd half he was combining very well with Hutton going forward. However, Hutton has too many `J Lloyd Samuel` moments which need to be eliminated or it will cost us points.   

[Rigadon]

Excellent game, my first trip to VP this season.  Gabby was pure class, and I actually thought Heskey was pretty good today (which I was pleased about because of the constant sarcastic remarks made by people sat around me).  I also thought N'zogbia was pretty good today.  He could have laid the ball on for Ireland late on, but I think his pace and directness caused Norwich a few problems.

Lower North?

[kipeye]

I am still not sure what to make of the game yesterday. For the first 20 minutes It seemed worse than I feared and to be honest I was expecting a two or three goal drubbing. The catalyst seemed to be Norwich's first goal and I am not sure it was a case of Villa stepping up their game or Norwich thinking 'this is going to be easy'.
Fortunately, Gabby began to get into the game and their full back and the centre half Bennet was even dodgier than our back four. Chris Herd was prominent in being the only midfielder to go looking for the ball and looking to fill defensive gaps for others. Zob not only drifts away from his defensive position but only half follows his man when he is in the right place. He seems totally unaware of his defensive role.
After Bent scored our first it was a very good game but ultimately unconvincing.
I would settle for this though to the previous turgid displays, so some improvement. God help us though if we don't get more of the squad playing well.

[Dave]

I'm struggling to get the Warnock stuff.

I thought that after Gabby and Herd he was our best player yesterday.

[caster troy]

I'm struggling to get the Warnock stuff.

I thought that after Gabby and Herd he was our best player yesterday.

I agree, he tried to play the ball out of defence properly rather than just hoofing it which stands out in our defence. I think he made one mistake all match conceding possession on the halfway line which led to a Norwich counter attack but apart from that I thought he was great.

[Dave Cooper please]

The win against Norwich doesn't change my opinion of the manager though even though I'm surprised he managed to actually win us a game.

You must be gutted.

[RunRickyRun]

Really enjoyed yesterday

We played a really attacking lineup and while Norwich were cutting us to shreds in the first 10 minutes, we still created a few golden chances on the counter. It's the quickest I've seen us move the ball on the deck.

As nervous as I was for the last 10 minutes, we defended well. I don't think we gave one free kick away (apart from offsides) in the closing stages which was good to see.

More of the same please.

[Dave]

The win against Norwich doesn't change my opinion of the manager though even though I'm surprised he managed to actually win us a game.

You must be gutted.

Fair's fair - at least he's turned up on a post-match thread after we've won.

Blackcountry villa and greg don't seem be that fussed about turning up this week.

[Dave Summers]

Herd had a bit of the James Milner about him - muscular, bold and committed.

That's exactly what I said to my friend today, that there's s a little bit of James Milner about Herd.

Make that 3 of use because I also said the same to my mates as well.

Well as we are in agreeing mood I said this on the Herd thread:

Yes he did. He covers the pitch and tackles  superbly. This kid could be Milner with class added.

Make that four of us.   Although to be fair, I only said it on the way back to the car !!!.  Obviously he hasn't got Milner's goal threat or possibly his range of passing (yet) but he does tackle a lot better.  For workrate and energy though, he is Milner re-incarnated and something we have badly missed over the last year or so.

Shame JJ can't play v Spurs, so for that game presuming everyone is fit, I would bring in Delph as a midfield three with Herd and Petrov and N'Zogbia, Gabby and Bent up top.   He will pick an unchanged team though.

UTV !!

[Andy_Lochhead_in_the_air]

I'm struggling to get the Warnock stuff.

I thought that after Gabby and Herd he was our best player yesterday.

I agree, he tried to play the ball out of defence properly rather than just hoofing it which stands out in our defence. I think he made one mistake all match conceding possession on the halfway line which led to a Norwich counter attack but apart from that I thought he was great.

Warnock is excellent, I rarely notice him during a game. Defensively speaking, the  full backs who stand out are those making mistakes.