Aston Villa v Manchester United Post-Match Thread

[nigel]

Stevens had a very good first half. But like Bennett they dont have much pace. Think we need a pacy LB who can get up to feed balls into Benteke/Bent/Gabby. Westwood will get better but i think KEA wins more balls and is a goal scoring threat. Would still like to see Baker in the middle with Vlaar. We are definitely starting to take shape as the games go by .......

I rate Baker too. I think he's probably a better center half than Clark.
I've mentioned before that Clark reminds me a bit of Gareth Barry.

Throwing this line up into the mix.

 ......................... Guzan
Lowton .......Vlaar.......Baker.........Stevens
.............Westwood........Clark
Gabby(Holman).....KEA(Ireland).....Bannan
.........................Benteke

[PaulWinch again]

Stevens had a very good first half. But like Bennett they dont have much pace. Think we need a pacy LB who can get up to feed balls into Benteke/Bent/Gabby. Westwood will get better but i think KEA wins more balls and is a goal scoring threat. Would still like to see Baker in the middle with Vlaar. We are definitely starting to take shape as the games go by .......

I rate Baker too. I think he's probably a better center half than Clark.
I've mentioned before that Clark reminds me a bit of Gareth Barry.

Throwing this line up into the mix.

 ......................... Guzan
Lowton .......Vlaar.......Baker.........Stevens
.............Westwood........Clark
Gabby(Holman).....KEA(Ireland).....Bannan
.........................Benteke

I certainly wouldn't be dropping Weimann.

[eastie]

Stevens had a very good first half. But like Bennett they dont have much pace. Think we need a pacy LB who can get up to feed balls into Benteke/Bent/Gabby. Westwood will get better but i think KEA wins more balls and is a goal scoring threat. Would still like to see Baker in the middle with Vlaar. We are definitely starting to take shape as the games go by .......

I rate Baker too. I think he's probably a better center half than Clark.
I've mentioned before that Clark reminds me a bit of Gareth Barry.

Throwing this line up into the mix.

 ......................... Guzan
Lowton .......Vlaar.......Baker.........Stevens
.............Westwood........Clark
Gabby(Holman).....KEA(Ireland).....Bannan
.........................Benteke

Not for me, I'm happy to go with midfield and forward line that played yesterday , baker may be of use at left back in Bennett is out a while, Stevens did ok yesterday but still not ready yet.

[PaulWinch again]

Stevens had a very good first half. But like Bennett they dont have much pace. Think we need a pacy LB who can get up to feed balls into Benteke/Bent/Gabby. Westwood will get better but i think KEA wins more balls and is a goal scoring threat. Would still like to see Baker in the middle with Vlaar. We are definitely starting to take shape as the games go by .......

I rate Baker too. I think he's probably a better center half than Clark.
I've mentioned before that Clark reminds me a bit of Gareth Barry.

Throwing this line up into the mix.

 ......................... Guzan
Lowton .......Vlaar.......Baker.........Stevens
.............Westwood........Clark
Gabby(Holman).....KEA(Ireland).....Bannan
.........................Benteke

Not for me, I'm happy to go with midfield and forward line that played yesterday , baker may be of use at left back in Bennett is out a while, Stevens did ok yesterday but still not ready yet.

Agreed as much as possible I'd keep the same team, with Baker replacing Stevens I think if Bennett isn't fit.

[pbavfckuwait]

Maybe for the first time yesterday we can see where we may be going, not where we have been floundering for probably the last 3 years if not 4, players who with a bit more nous can close games out, a Manager who at times will close out rather than go for it, when he has confidence in the players out there, a chairman that may and I say cautiously invest in what he believes is a long term solution not a fast buck turn around, then when the so called big boys come to town we again expect to beat them and when the odd ocassion happens that we don't we then get pissed off and turn on each other, oh for the good old days of 81  WE HAVE BEEN THERE AND IN SOME FORM WE WILL BE BACK

[rutski]

To be ultra critical Clark was at fault for the first and third goals. He didn't react at at all to Hernandez going through and didn't put his leg out to block any attempted shot, he just ran with him. Lack of defending instinct maybe?But he should have done better.

I disagree. It was Stevens who lost Hernandez for the third. And it was Stevens who played him onside for the first although perhaps Clark should still have been tighter.

True enough about Stevens, especially on the first. A full back should not be goal side of centre backs in that situation.

However I felt Clark should have done more. With the first goal Hernandez was off balance and still managed to keep possession. An experienced defender would have been in his space bumping and boring him. Hernandez was allowed too much licence to pick his time for a shot.

stevens was ball watching and not up the pitch enough for the first and was totally inept for the third. clark cannot have any blame as he did all he could do to try to get back to help deal with hernandez, one false  kick and clark could have been off.

Well, I thought it was Lowton who lost Hernandez for the third (as he did for the second).

well you are wrong, it was stevens!

[berneboy]

To be ultra critical Clark was at fault for the first and third goals. He didn't react at at all to Hernandez going through and didn't put his leg out to block any attempted shot, he just ran with him. Lack of defending instinct maybe?But he should have done better.

I disagree. It was Stevens who lost Hernandez for the third. And it was Stevens who played him onside for the first although perhaps Clark should still have been tighter.

True enough about Stevens, especially on the first. A full back should not be goal side of centre backs in that situation.

However I felt Clark should have done more. With the first goal Hernandez was off balance and still managed to keep possession. An experienced defender would have been in his space bumping and boring him. Hernandez was allowed too much licence to pick his time for a shot.

stevens was ball watching and not up the pitch enough for the first and was totally inept for the third. clark cannot have any blame as he did all he could do to try to get back to help deal with hernandez, one false  kick and clark could have been off.

Well, I thought it was Lowton who lost Hernandez for the third (as he did for the second).

well you are wrong, it was stevens!

I thought it was Stevens too. But how any of us can be so certain?

[rutski]

To be ultra critical Clark was at fault for the first and third goals. He didn't react at at all to Hernandez going through and didn't put his leg out to block any attempted shot, he just ran with him. Lack of defending instinct maybe?But he should have done better.

I disagree. It was Stevens who lost Hernandez for the third. And it was Stevens who played him onside for the first although perhaps Clark should still have been tighter.

True enough about Stevens, especially on the first. A full back should not be goal side of centre backs in that situation.

However I felt Clark should have done more. With the first goal Hernandez was off balance and still managed to keep possession. An experienced defender would have been in his space bumping and boring him. Hernandez was allowed too much licence to pick his time for a shot.

stevens was ball watching and not up the pitch enough for the first and was totally inept for the third. clark cannot have any blame as he did all he could do to try to get back to help deal with hernandez, one false  kick and clark could have been off.

Well, I thought it was Lowton who lost Hernandez for the third (as he did for the second).

well you are wrong, it was stevens!

I thought it was Stevens too. But how any of us can be so certain?

because he is the one floundering on the floor whilst little penis heads it in!

[rutski]

To be ultra critical Clark was at fault for the first and third goals. He didn't react at at all to Hernandez going through and didn't put his leg out to block any attempted shot, he just ran with him. Lack of defending instinct maybe?But he should have done better.

I disagree. It was Stevens who lost Hernandez for the third. And it was Stevens who played him onside for the first although perhaps Clark should still have been tighter.

True enough about Stevens, especially on the first. A full back should not be goal side of centre backs in that situation.

However I felt Clark should have done more. With the first goal Hernandez was off balance and still managed to keep possession. An experienced defender would have been in his space bumping and boring him. Hernandez was allowed too much licence to pick his time for a shot.

stevens was ball watching and not up the pitch enough for the first and was totally inept for the third. clark cannot have any blame as he did all he could do to try to get back to help deal with hernandez, one false  kick and clark could have been off.

Well, I thought it was Lowton who lost Hernandez for the third (as he did for the second).

well you are wrong, it was stevens!

I thought it was Stevens too. But how any of us can be so certain?

because he is the one floundering on the floor whilst little penis heads it in!

[fredm]

Well will someone please serve me a large helping of humble pie.  As I said I believed that they would come at us and with their speed of thought and action take us to the cleaners.  How wrong I was.

The game started and I thought we looked nervous of them but as I was counting the minutes gone, 4; 6; 8 and we got to 10 I could see that belief was starting to grow within the players.  We were closing them down, forcing the odd error and when in possession were making inroads into their defence.  The crowd also appeared to sense this belief and got behind them, no more so than when Stevens shepherded Valencia back from the edge of our penalty area up to the half way line and caused him to pass it back into their half of the field.  The applause that greeted that , in effect a minor achievement, was loud and seemed to galvanise both the team and the crowd.  I believe we grew in stature as the half progressed and it was not an unfair scoreline at half time.

You just knew that SAF, who again picked his strongest possible side to face us - none of this resting players against the Villa - would make changes and with the aces that he had on the bench it would be definite that we would be under more pressure in the second half.  Again it would appear that luck went their way, but don't you make your own luck to a degree?  Putting an out and out strike on instead of a wide player meant that they would have more bodies in our box.  Unfortunately as our legs and presumably minds tired so they got the better of us.  However, PL got his tactics spot on and the players all played their part in executing them.  If I have a couple of small criticisms it is with the substitution when the free kick was to be taken - were we completely settled and knew our roles with the change of personnel? and in the added time we didn't get the ball into their penalty area often enough.  They had shown how dodgy they were all afternoon and maybe, just maybe, we might have got a bit of luck if we had gung-ho'd them a bit more.

[steffo]

Ever since we beat the old Scrote at home (you can't win anything with kids). It would seem that he took it personally. Many a fixture in years gone by they would travel down the M6 with half the team injured only to see them trot out the full monty.

The only thing is Sir Scrote is getting on, I reckon they will go for Mourinio - I can only hope Man City get wind of it and he signs for them. Let them suffer with TSM.

[JUAN PABLO]

I really don't get all this Bent bashing. What we need is a strong squad with competition for places, not writing off players because other give encouraging performances. If Lambert needs to sell him to raise funds to strengthen in other areas, then so be it. But, if he gets the funds anyway, I wouldn't let a proven goalscorer leave the club unless a more than adequate replacement is brought in.

Agree Pete and If he is going to go , I would prefer more money for him for scoring goals for us.

[Caiphus]

KEA will be better as we get more movement off the ball.  At the moment most players are still only making single runs instead of making another if their first isn't used.  In Holland with the slower pace, most players are constantly making 2-3 runs for each possession and it opens up more space.  He isn't used to the tempo enough to pass on a first run, and he isn't being given something to pass to with extra movement after he holds for another option.  Westwood is passing first time to the runs he is given which was working a lot better.  I think there will be a place for both in the side, KEA's technical quality is evident and I am still confident he has a lot of improvement in him once he settles.

I think Man City and Arsenal's defences are well exposed at the moment and I look forward to a couple of shootouts in the next couple of weeks.  Arsenal don't have enough of a scoring threat at the moment to peg us back if we play like that again.  I'm not confident of points, but I'm confident we can get our scoring rythm going over the next two weeks to have a pleasant Christmas period.

[nigel]

Stevens had a very good first half. But like Bennett they dont have much pace. Think we need a pacy LB who can get up to feed balls into Benteke/Bent/Gabby. Westwood will get better but i think KEA wins more balls and is a goal scoring threat. Would still like to see Baker in the middle with Vlaar. We are definitely starting to take shape as the games go by .......

I rate Baker too. I think he's probably a better center half than Clark.
I've mentioned before that Clark reminds me a bit of Gareth Barry.

Throwing this line up into the mix.

 ......................... Guzan
Lowton .......Vlaar.......Baker.........Stevens
.............Westwood........Clark
Gabby(Holman).....KEA(Ireland).....Bannan
.........................Benteke

I certainly wouldn't be dropping Weimann.

Flippin heck, just realised that.
Feel free to throw abuse at me