Manchester City v Aston Villa Match Thread

[peter w]

I disagree I don't think we've been shite. They've won 86 out of 90 at home. Our tactics against the league champions was sound and we had chances in the first half. A scrappy goal conceded but we were showing that we could defend andbreak with purpose. Yes,our passing was poor at times but that was not the reason that we went from 1-0 to3-0. Ashocking penalty decision and the youngsters head went down.

We were all saying that this is going to be an up and down season and today the kids lack of experience mixed with atrocious officiating means that this is very much a down.

[Ron Manager]

We need in January:

a proper experienced defensive midfielder

an experienced fullback

an experienced central defender

a goal scoring attacking midfielder

a couple of wide midfielders

And by experienced I mean international class for a decent national side and / or Premier League experience.  Preferably both.

No Hilts  What we need is a miracle and like Colin Blunstone I dont believe in miracles!

[ez]

Gut feeling tells me we're screwed.

[PeterWithesShin]

It's very worrying the way we completely capitulate when we concede a goal. The only games we have won the other team hasn't scored.

If that's true it is indeed very worrying.

Both league games were clean sheets. The three cup wins were 1 clean sheet and goals conceded in the other 2.

[hilts_coolerking]

Do you really think he'll be given the chance if we go down?

He probably will, mainly because we couldn't afford more severance pay.  But Lerner has painted himself into a corner by sacking the man who nearly took us down.

[ozzjim]

Lerner has made a couple of poor managerial decisions, but we still came 9th under Ged/ Gmac. McLeish spent 20m badly, and Lambert spent 23 rebuilding a shattered squad. Losing Petrov has been as detrimental as anything, but Lerner has backed the managers with money. You speak about him like an asset stripping monster, when the reality is not even close.

[Malandro]

if i remortgaged my house and stuck it on us for relegation we would win the league

[Rip Van We Go Again]

Utterly shit decisions aside we are getting what we deserve. I said this last week versus Man U that if you give the better teams the ball they'll more often than not punish you.

Spot on TV.

[The Situation]

Bottom 3? Who have reading beaten?

[oldtimernow]

Still time for linesman to get his hat-trick

[PeterWithesShin]

Bottom 3? Who have reading beaten?

2-1 up v Everton

[paulcomben]

Mark Hughes will be available to replace Lambo very soon. LOL.

[TopDeck113]

Left with 15 mins to go and now back in the car. However bad it ends, at least most of you don't live and work in the north west.  Two weeks in the row I'm going to have mancs taking the piss. Thanks, Villa.

[Apyadg]

Bottom 3? Who have reading beaten?

Everton

[hilts_coolerking]

I disagree I don't think we've been shite. They've won 86 out of 90 at home. Our tactics against the league champions was sound and we had chances in the first half. A scrappy goal conceded but we were showing that we could defend andbreak with purpose. Yes,our passing was poor at times but that was not the reason that we went from 1-0 to3-0. Ashocking penalty decision and the youngsters head went down.

We were all saying that this is going to be an up and down season and today the kids lack of experience mixed with atrocious officiating means that this is very much a down.

You're right we were still in it at 1-0 but even then I couldn't see how we were going to win it from there.  We would have done bloody well to get a draw from there.

So a win isn't the end of the world.  A bloody hiding could be dangerous for morale however.  And let's face it, we're going to be in a relegation scrap this season and fighting that out with kids will be very very difficult.