Aston Villa v Manchester City Post-Match Thread

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This second gear stuff is total bollocks. No side is ever comfortable at 1-0. There is a reason they had 11 men behind the ball at times yesterday.

[Chris Smith]

This second gear stuff is total bollocks. No side is ever comfortable at 1-0. There is a reason they had 11 men behind the ball at times yesterday.

Agreed, they worked very hard because they had to.

[placeforparks]

which clown took that corner in injury time?

[CJ]

which clown took that corner in injury time?

Lowton. Complete waste of our last potential chance. Not that we score from corners, mind.

[Monty]

This second gear stuff is total bollocks. No side is ever comfortable at 1-0. There is a reason they had 11 men behind the ball at times yesterday.

Agreed, they worked very hard because they had to.

Totally agree. Often people confuse a team being solid at 1-0 with one being comfortable. City defended really well as a team yesterday, and had to work hard to do so.

[onje_villa]

A respectable loss but one in which we never looked like scoring and we could have quite easily conceded more.

I agree with others that Delph has somehow turned into our best player (fair play to the lad) and missing him is a blow but there's no escaping the fact, on paper how many of our players would get into any other team in the league?

Apart from Guzan and the strikers?

How is a team made up of Championship quality players (they will hopefully improve in time) supposed to compete against a team made up of quality internationals?

Answer me that please Randy.

[Chris Harte]

which clown took that corner in injury time?

Lowton. Complete waste of our last potential chance. Not that we score from corners, mind.

He didn't want to take that, did he? He turned to his team-mates and none of them wanted to know.

I'll accept a professional footballer should be able to take a corner, but I got the impression something was up - either he'd just taken a knock or was exhausted or something.

Damned annoying to lose that game to such an error, BTW.

[Steve R]

...

Gutted with Delph getting a yellow card, he once again showed he's finally turning into the player we all hoped he'd be. Is there any way we can appeal the decision?

There is no appeal against yellows.

I didn't realise until this morning that the booking count was us 2 ManCity 0. We were the serial foulers in the match?

Two innocuous bookings have put key players out for what is for us two big games.

Would the same have happened to Rooney or Terry? Would Read's feet have touched the ground if he'd put Yaya Toure out for two games on the strength of a nothing handball 30 seconds from the end of a game?

[Chris Jameson]

Two innocuous bookings have put key players out for what is for us two big games.

Who else is suspended?

[PaulWinch again]

I have sympathy for Lowton, he started the season well but he should never been expected to play the entire year. His form has dropped off really badly now and he looks physically outmatched all the time. Problem is we have no viable alternative at right back and that's the ownership and manager's fault.

[mrfuse]

I have sympathy for Lowton, he started the season well but he should never been expected to play the entire year. His form has dropped off really badly now and he looks physically outmatched all the time. Problem is we have no viable alternative at right back and that's the ownership and manager's fault.

This is the problem for the whole team its about bringing them through gradually and resting them at times not shoving them into must win relegation battles.

[Clampy]

There's too many players in that team who need a rest. Lowton, Clark, Bennett, Westwood, Weimann and it shows.

[PaulWinch again]

There's too many players in that team who need a rest. Lowton, Clark, Bennett, Westwood, Weimann and it shows.

Completely agree, it's utter ridiculous how we've approached this season.

[Walmley_Villa]

How is a team made up of Championship quality players (they will hopefully improve in time) supposed to compete against a team made up of quality internationals?

Answer me that please Randy.

Spot on - like most of our games they reflect a cup tie where we are the minnow hoping to get a result and cause a shock.

On our set pieces we are awful and just give the ball away (in the case of throw-ins) or 'float' a corner in. I'm old school and would rather have a corner whipped in at pace and ask a few more questions - we lack imagination.

The big issue for me is that this team has still not learnt how to win a game - we usually score and then retreat like the Alamo to hold on. They have been drilled to keep possession of the ball which often means that the ball ends up going from the middle of the opposition half back to Guzan. All well and good if your winning but not so great when chasing the game.

[Mortimer's Bear]

I hate slagging off ref's and blaming them for our own shortcomings, but that ref last night was totally in awe on Man City.
At one point he appeared to apologise to one of their players for giving US a free kick.

Definitely, one of those who favours the big boys !     

I can't agree with that I thought the ref did okay. I haven't seen any replays but from my seat in the holte I didn't think it was a foul on Clark for the goal, I didn't think it was a penalty at the end and I thought he was pretty fair throughout.