Aston Villa v Manchester City Pre-Match Thread

[berneboy]

Aston Villa FC - Official
Villa v Man City: Given, Hutton, Cuellar, Dunne, Collins, Petrov, Gardner, Heskey, Albrighton, Keane, Bent. Subs: Guzan, Ireland, Warnock, Bannan, Baker, Weimann, N’Zogbia.

Man City v Villa: Hart, Kompany, Lescott, Zabaleta, Kolarov, De Jong, Barry, Milner, Silva, Johnson, Aguero. Subs: Pantilimon, Richards, Clichy, Savic, Nasri, Pizarro, Dzeko.

[ozzjim]

How the feck is the tumbling bear in that team!?

[pauliewalnuts]

Oh dear.

[Matt Collins]

Really don't see the sense in dropping Ireland and CNZ for two lesser players. With a right footed centre back at left back and heskey on the left wing, I don't think we're going to see much in the way of cohesive passing football, to say the least.

I think this is going to be a familiar tale. By 4.20 I'll be sitting with the laptop on my lap, one earphone in, yelling 'for fuck's sake villa' as the wife turs at me whilst watching come dine with me.

[Boz]

We've just dropped another place in the table, as Baggies have won 5-1 at Wolves.

It may be we are going to really need the 7 points between us and the bottom 5.

[Irish villain]

I hope I have to eat humble pie later this evening.

Come on villa (and Heskey too!)

[KevinGage]

Aston Villa FC - Official
Villa v Man City: Given, Hutton, Cuellar, Dunne, Collins, Petrov, Gardner, Heskey, Albrighton, Keane, Bent. Subs: Guzan, Ireland, Warnock, Bannan, Baker, Weimann, N’Zogbia.

Man City v Villa: Hart, Kompany, Lescott, Zabaleta, Kolarov, De Jong, Barry, Milner, Silva, Johnson, Aguero. Subs: Pantilimon, Richards, Clichy, Savic, Nasri, Pizarro, Dzeko.

Good Lord.

So what do we think is the plan then?

Heskey cutting in from the flanks causing havoc?  Or maybe he's been assigned to double tag on Silva?   Perhaps pulling the strings and making us tick just between the midfield and frontline.

I'd place him in a hole, no question.
Preferably out in Sutton park or some such, come kick off time.

[pauliewalnuts]

I'd place him in a hole, no question.

*chuckle*

[pauliewalnuts]

Aston Villa FC - Official
Villa v Man City: Given, Hutton, Cuellar, Dunne, Collins, Petrov, Gardner, Heskey, Albrighton, Keane, Bent. Subs: Guzan, Ireland, Warnock, Bannan, Baker, Weimann, N’Zogbia.

Man City v Villa: Hart, Kompany, Lescott, Zabaleta, Kolarov, De Jong, Barry, Milner, Silva, Johnson, Aguero. Subs: Pantilimon, Richards, Clichy, Savic, Nasri, Pizarro, Dzeko.

Good Lord.

So what do we think is the plan then?

Heskey cutting in from the flanks causing havoc?  Or maybe he's been assigned to double tag on Silva?   Perhaps pulling the strings and making us tick just between the midfield and frontline.

I'd place him in a hole, no question.
Preferably out in Sutton park or some such, come kick off time.

I reckon he's playing Heskey there because he reckons his physical presence will keep David White quiet.

[Villafirst]

I see, so AM said there were no hard feelings after last week against CNZ and Stevie? So he promptly puts both of them on the bench and brings Emile back! The guy hasn't got a fucking clue....pity Gabby is still out. I hope I'm wrong but were heading for defeat...thanks Randy!

[Rick_avfc]

Was at the game yesterday and what a load of shite that was.  The line up said it all for me when I saw it on the tv screen in the north stand during the Dingles vs WBA game.  I still cant for the life of me, understand why heskey is still playing ahead of other players who are better than him!  Honestly, AM is fast becoming (or has become) a Joke with his selection.  He clearly was playing for the draw and nothing more.  The next 4 games are crucial for us  -
Wigan (A),
Blackburn (A),
Fulham (H)
Bolton (H). 
We need to to win all of those games to get to 40 points.  Even winning 3 out of them would do us the world of good. After that we have
Arsenal (A),
Chelsea (H),
Liverpool (A),
Stoke (H),
Man Utd (A),
Sunderland (H)
WBA (A)
Spurs (H)
Norwich (A)

If we get nothing out of the next few games we are going to struggle big time imo

[Concrete John]

When a gameplan or substitution or signing goes wrong, I always try to look at it objectively, and not with hindsight, to see if there was some common sense used in making the decision.  I wouldn't have played Heskey, but we did need to be careful against a side like Man City.  Sometimes you have to stay in a game before you can think about winning it and they would always have more possession and create more chances whatever team we put out.  Ireland and N'Zogbia don't give a huge amount defensively, so having both on the pitch would have been a mistake, IMO.  We did defend better than we have for a while, but I'd have played one of them ahead of Heskey to try and strike more of a balance.

After that, we just didn't play well enough attacking wise until they scored.  Our poor ball retention meant they had it more, so the midfield was deep, leaving the strikers isolated.  That changed after the goal, not just because of our changes, but they also sat deeper looking to hit on the break.  We still couldn't break them down from open play, but had two good chances from set pieces.

A lot of reaction against Mcleish after that, which I understand is not just based on one game.  However, when results are bad we'll always look to blame someone and when good games like that can be forgiven.  I'd say the next two games have VERY important to us and to Mcleish.