Concrete Ron

[john e]

For me it's more to do with his limited options

After a few high profile blunders I'm sure no teams in the champs league will be Queing up for him
Especially with his injury record

He probably expected a few big game suitors to come in for him on a free, but they haven't and he's realised Villa are his best option now

I'm not having a go at him for this, it's his right to look at all the options available at 30 years old,
I would be happy to sign him although I don't think him and Okore works particularly well

[manic-road]

If Ron stays then good but I also think he could easily be replaced. I mean we might even get Tony Adams in on a free.....

[richard moore]

For me it's more to do with his limited options

After a few high profile blunders I'm sure no teams in the champs league will be Queing up for him
Especially with his injury record

He probably expected a few big game suitors to come in for him on a free, but they haven't and he's realised Villa are his best option now

I'm not having a go at him for this, it's his right to look at all the options available at 30 years old,
I would be happy to sign him although I don't think him and Okore works particularly well

I suspect you are spot on John. We won't be the only ones to have noticed that the player we saw for a few games in the World Cup - and it was only a very few - is not the true Ron Vlaar and certainly not recognisable as the player we have seen this season, and that's before we take into account the injuries. As you say, no criticism as it's what anyone would do in the same situation. Hopefully he has now has his head straight for the final and we might see something better from him than has been apparent in a lot of games this season.

[supertom]

I'm not adverse to signing him but we still need to sign another CH. As much as I've grown to like Baker this season, and was impressed with Big Phil earlier on, I would be looking to shift either or both of Senderos and Baker if possible and replacing with a player with a better injury recrod.
I don't mind keeping Vlaar on because on his day he's a good player, but we all know he'll play 20 odd games a season and not too much more.
We still need one CH that could be relied upon to play 30-38 games if needed.

[pauliewalnuts]

I don't mind the concept of having Baker and Senderos as options, but they're both even more fragile physically than Vlaar

That'd be three extremely injury prone centre halves. Too much.

[Toronto Villa]

I was surprised how competent Senderos looked in the brief time we saw him play. That said I don't think we'll see him back at the club next season. I can't believe what seemed a bog standard injury has kept him out for essentially the whole season.

[silhillvilla]

Bit harsh categorising Baker alongside Senderos. The former is a tough brave young centre back who's injuries largely materialise from putting his body on the line, the latter seems to pick up a 6 month spell out through innocuous niggles .

[Toronto Villa]

Ironically Baker doesn't generally pick up his injuries through putting his body on the line.

[silhillvilla]

Ironically Baker doesn't generally pick up his injuries through putting his body on the line.

I've seen him carried / stretchered / limp off a fair few times last 4 seasons

[Toronto Villa]

Ironically Baker doesn't generally pick up his injuries through putting his body on the line.

I've seen him carried / stretchered / limp off a fair few times last 4 seasons

And his injuries haven't been as a result of a crunching challenge. They have been far more innocuous. That's the point and why he can be categorized with Senderos and Vlaar.

[Diablo]

The good thing to come out of the CB injury crisis is that nearly everyone who has come in has at some point played well.

[OCD]

The good thing to come out of the CB injury crisis is that nearly everyone who has come in has at some point played well.

Only QPR and Newcastle have conceded more goals than us so individual performances haven't been backed up by a vital statistic.

[Toronto Villa]

The good thing to come out of the CB injury crisis is that nearly everyone who has come in has at some point played well.

Only QPR and Newcastle have conceded more goals than us so individual performances haven't been backed up by a vital statistic.

Part of that has to be the fact that we have chopped and changed so much at that position. We never have developed any consistency.

[tom jennings III]

Sadly I have to agree that having 3 CB's who are injury prone is just too much for us and history tells us that more often that not the clean sheets will only come with consistency at the back. For me this means Senderos has to go (despite him looking decent when he has played) if we are going to keep Vlaar. Although i'm hopeful Baker, Okore and Clarke will remain largely injury free next season there are absolutely no guarantees of that, especially with the former two. That leads me to the conclusion that we should sign another centre back once the morepressing issues have been addressed (as being discussed in toher threads). So we can start next season with a CB pairing of Clarke + Vlaar and work over the season to replace Vlaar with one of three (Baker/Okore/AN Other) whilst assessing the longer term fragility of the younger trio.

[Diablo]

The good thing to come out of the CB injury crisis is that nearly everyone who has come in has at some point played well.

Only QPR and Newcastle have conceded more goals than us so individual performances haven't been backed up by a vital statistic.

Part of that has to be the fact that we have chopped and changed so much at that position. We never have developed any consistency.

I agree. There have been good individual performances and ocassional pairings. I wonder how many clean sheets we have had and which pairing was the most successful? That'd be interesting. I suppose even that stat over the season would be misleading though due to the contrast in styles and performances from the 2 managers.

What were Spurs like defensively when TS was there? He obviously won more than he lost I just remember that time they got beat by Liverpool and the Spurs defence had a stinker, making individual errors a bit like us last Saturday.