Makoun. Next season.

[Risso]

What's happened to the Guardian Chalkboards as a matter of interest?

[Dave]

Wow it got to the fourth post before spurious "can't tackle" fallacy was wheeled out again.  Bases, once again, no doubt, on one bad challenge that got him red carded at Blackpool.  And nothing else. 

That tackle at Blackpool was his only tackle in a Villa shirt. You do the math.

Hyperbole is a wonderful linguistic tool but it doesn't really help this particular argument.

No hyperbole at all, it's a fact. He made (or attempted to make) one tackle.

Unless you can come up with something pretty conclusive to back that up then I'm going to assume that it's a silly statement like "Heskey always falls over" or "Collins always hoofs it".

For the hard of reading: The Guardian's Chalkboard stats. How silly they are I've no idea.

There's no need for the pissy attitude - I can't help if you're going to edit your posts after I've posted mine.

And as they don't really exist anymore, I'm guessing the rather outlandish claim that a central midfielder only attempted one tackle in 700 or so minutes of football is something that's exaggerated.

I'd expect Darren Bent will have attempted more tackles in that time on a pitch. I'm not saying that Makoun is Roy Keane, but let's be serious.

[Matt C]

Would like to see more of him but doubt we will - I'd put that down to him just not settling though rather than any notions that its because he can pass a ball! I think when the vast majority of the French contingent left VP he never really integrated.

[Aston Manor]

I know things are or have been bad this season but Makoun simply isn't good enough.Rubbish at tackling, passing not as good as our misty memories wish it to be, and can't go forward. Average at best.

[eamonn]

Makoun looked very good against Man Utd away, but United sat back and let us have the ball, knowing we wernt going to do much with it.

When we played Stoke at home Makoun was terrible and went off.

I think he'll be off.

I remember him playing defence-splitting through balls to Ashley against Wolves and he hit the bar (we lost 1-0 and it was the closest Houllier got to feeling the treatment Big'Eck got after Bolton) and again at home to Newcastle when he played Bent through with the same type of pass. I think Bent scored but it was ruled-out for offside. I think he's worth another whirl.

[VILLA MOLE]

Makoun is our player . he has ability,  we have a shortage of players and money so lets utilise him

[Dave]

I know things are or have been bad this season but Makoun simply isn't good enough.

Three years ago I'd have agreed.

But now it's not like we have a plethora of international central midfielders who have played more Champions League games than the rest of our squad put together that we can just throw out instead.

So we might as well play the one that we have got a bit more than the half dozen or so games we've bothered to try him for.

[enigma]

Lucas at Liverpool, Song at Arsenal, Ramires at Chelsea. Just a few midfielders off the top of my head that were derided at first but came good and are now considered hugely important for their respective teams.

Makoun may or may not not be as good as them but it's crazy to write him off totally after less than ten games. It's not like he was abysmal every time he played. He showed some good stuff at times. Worth giving him till January at the very least.

[SoccerHQ]

Shipping Makoun out and bringing Jenas in was an astoundingly stupid move.

It really was.

As was thinking Fabian Delph was going to be a saviour of our season after a couple of half decent games in August.

[Aston Manor]

I know things are or have been bad this season but Makoun simply isn't good enough.

Three years ago I'd have agreed.

But now it's not like we have a plethora of international central midfielders who have played more Champions League games than the rest of our squad put together that we can just throw out instead.

So we might as well play the one that we have got a bit more than the half dozen or so games we've bothered to try him for.

[Percy McCarthy]

Clampy: even when they were all fit, the manager who bought him (and his assistant) prefered Petrov and NRC. Like I said, I like him, I like neat and tidy footballers, but I think that's pretty damning, and I'm willing to accept that maybe he's not as good as I thought he was after that Man U game.

BTW it's clearly bollocks that he only attempted one tackle. What about the penalty at Everton?

[ktvillan]

Wow it got to the fourth post before spurious "can't tackle" fallacy was wheeled out again.  Bases, once again, no doubt, on one bad challenge that got him red carded at Blackpool.  And nothing else. 

That tackle at Blackpool was his only tackle in a Villa shirt. You do the math.

Hyperbole is a wonderful linguistic tool but it doesn't really help this particular argument.

No hyperbole at all, it's a fact. He made (or attempted to make) one tackle.

Unless you can come up with something pretty conclusive to back that up then I'm going to assume that it's a silly statement like "Heskey always falls over" or "Collins always hoofs it".

For the hard of reading: The Guardian's Chalkboard stats. How silly they are I've no idea.

There's no need for the pissy attitude - I can't help if you're going to edit your posts after I've posted mine.

And as they don't really exist anymore, I'm guessing the rather outlandish claim that a central midfielder only attempted one tackle in 700 or so minutes of football is something that's exaggerated.

I'd expect Darren Bent will have attempted more tackles in that time on a pitch. I'm not saying that Makoun is Roy Keane, but let's be serious.

I'm afraid I also find it very hard to believe he only attempted to make 1 tackle in 7 games.  And in any case, if you want to be pedantic about it, it's invalid to draw a conclusion like "he can't tackle" based on a single example.  You might have a case for  "he doesn't tackle" assuming those dubious sounding stats are accurate.

[Martyn Smith]

I'd forgotten all about him, and thought he'd left for good...and I'd forgotten we'd had JJ for a while earlier this season...and about Michael Bradley...

[Villafirst]

If McLeish stays then Makoun will be one of the first ones to go, if we get a manager in that wants to play football then he'll be a good midfielder for us.

Those words ''If McLeish stays'' fill me with horror - Lerner would be mad to keep him on, but anything is possible as he seems to have a talent for picking the wrong man for the job. It still amazes me that Lerner gets a relatively easy ride on these message forums - the bloke is a complete muppet.

[Louzie0]

Please let us keep him.