Aston Villa v Manchester City post match thread

[supertom]

Having one fit striker (that we know was effected by the virus 2 weeks ago) probably didn't help today. And before anyone mentions fat Daz, I did say fit!

I'd love to see us turn up in two weeks with a streamlined looking Bent, because actually, he could have a field day playing with Benteke. At least the fit and buzzing Bent of 2-3 years ago could. He looks absolutely done in though and as if he can't even be arsed to try and turn his career around. Its a shame. He's only 30, he should still be banging in 15-20 goals a season.

Agreed. It makes me sad seeing him like this. I would love it if he could turn himself around.

Hutton reacted the right way to being bombed out, Darren has taken the easier path

Bent looks finished.

If the Villa was a documentary about a Zoo we'd be about coming up to a sad episode when the once mighty Bent beast is taken off in a van to a nearby veterinary surgeon, never to return.

If this were animal farm he'd be the horse getting carted off to the glue factory.

If this were secret eaters, we'd also know what happened to Grant Holt and why Bent suddenly looks a lot heavier.

[Comrade Blitz]

When that clearance at the end went into touch off of Zabaleta's (?) arm and it was given to ManCunty, I knew that was the end. Jammy gits get all the breaks.

[Risso]

Cleverley just sat back and watched for their first goal, not good enough from him at all, that.

[Jimbo]

At times it was like watching the Harlem Globetrotters dispatch a plucky, but inferior and ultimately irrelevant opponent. The thing is, you leave the house and pay money to watch the Harlem Globetrotters, and not the feckless, pointless opposition (which is who I paid to see). Altogether, a futile exercise and hugely depressing.

[BoskoDjembaSalifou]

Why didn't we provide Benteke any support? We can't just sit back and gamble on world class players not being able to find a way through us.

We'd probably had our best period of the game just before he came on. It was what bugged me more than anything actually, is that we brought on Benteke and then gave up trying to push forward. When we tried to pass it and push up to gain some forward territory we looked okay, without having any cutting edge or focal point in attack. To then finally bring on the one player we have who could offer us that, and then just fall back onto our own penalty box waiting for the inevitable was utterly pathetic.
We might as well not bother turning up if we do that.

Exactly.

We had them on the ropes at that point, the crowd was up for it, but then we just stopped trying. Frustrating.

[brian green]

Just home from the game.   I think the better team won.    I think we played creditably for 75 minutes.   We seemed to tire and they started to toy with us.

Things to remember about the game for me were Baker's continuing climb from whipping boy to solid central defender, Westwood also cementing his place in the side and continuing to improve.   Cleverley remains too up his own arse and it results in serious losses of concentration.   The substitutions apart from Benteke  were typical Lambert changes for change's sake and did nothing to boost our chances.   Charles N'Zogbia seems to be gripped with panic when a scoring chance falls to him.   Grealish appears to have been massively overhyped and looked completely out of his depth at this level.   We needed a Ron Vlaar or a properly functioning Sanchez to bite them when they started to take the piss in the last ten minutes.

Another home defeat and another long and silent drive home but I do believe that we will play worse than we did today and win games.

Oh yes and another thing I shall not forget is Foy looking at his watch at half time, putting his whistle to his lips but not blowing because City were in a very dangerous attacking position which once we cleared the ball he decided THEN it could be half time.   Cheating bastard.

[olaftab]

The big change came when Fernando came on for them. Immediately both Lampard and Toure moved up and joined Aguerro. With Silva already playing almost upfront we were faced with a deluge of attacking onslaught. We helped by dropping back and Grealish and Bacuna became additional fullbacks leaving Benteke isolated in the centre circle. Totally relying on last ditch interventions and city being wasteful was not going to work so eventually something had to give.
The first crucial goal was shockingly well executed and rest is history.

[villan from luton]

Why didn't we provide Benteke any support? We can't just sit back and gamble on world class players not being able to find a way through us.

We'd probably had our best period of the game just before he came on. It was what bugged me more than anything actually, is that we brought on Benteke and then gave up trying to push forward. When we tried to pass it and push up to gain some forward territory we looked okay, without having any cutting edge or focal point in attack. To then finally bring on the one player we have who could offer us that, and then just fall back onto our own penalty box waiting for the inevitable was utterly pathetic.
We might as well not bother turning up if we do that.

Exactly.

We had them on the ropes at that point, the crowd was up for it, but then we just stopped trying. Frustrating.

The game changed when they took Dzeko off and put Fernando on

[Lky]

Brian - your analysis of the match is fair and I cant argue.

But - 2 home goals in 5 matches is not a cause for optimism. 4 years of shit home form and I'm losing the will to continue the blind faith i've had throughout for many many years. (Yes you could argue O'Neill at home was also shite).

[olaftab]

And Benteke coming on actually didn't help us as we no longer knew what to do!

[b23]

No shame in losing to Man City and recently Chelsea too.

Sounds like we tried to give them both a game. We lost.

Lets see what happens in the next few games. Go Go Go Villa

[SoccerHQ]

Just had a look of the league table, even though we've lost three on the bounce we're still 7th.

O.k I know the league is rubbish apart from 6 or 7 teams but I think we'd have all signed up for that at 2.59pm on the day of the Stoke game so hopefully we can start getting points on the board again at Goodison.

[BoskoDjembaSalifou]

The game changed when they took Dzeko off and put Fernando on

That's true. It was a very good substitution by Pellegrini.

[brian green]

Lky, I share your distress and quite honestly I am amazed that we got 33,000 to a game that was on television.   It has been a shit four years and it is always three steps forward and two and three quarters steps back but there are some glimmers of hope.

I think the myth that we are for sale is on the point of being being binned, I think we do have a better defence, we have more experience and the overpaid divas and young-and-hungry deadwood are slowly but surely being exorcised from the club.

I am a Brummie so I am by nature a pessimist but things are getting a little bit better.

[Jimbo]

Why didn't we provide Benteke any support? We can't just sit back and gamble on world class players not being able to find a way through us.

We'd probably had our best period of the game just before he came on. It was what bugged me more than anything actually, is that we brought on Benteke and then gave up trying to push forward. When we tried to pass it and push up to gain some forward territory we looked okay, without having any cutting edge or focal point in attack. To then finally bring on the one player we have who could offer us that, and then just fall back onto our own penalty box waiting for the inevitable was utterly pathetic.
We might as well not bother turning up if we do that.

Exactly.

We had them on the ropes at that point, the crowd was up for it, but then we just stopped trying. Frustrating.

I think we have to be realistic. We never had them on the ropes at any point, though we were on the ropes for huge periods of the match, and they could conceivably have scored four or five. We had a brief spell where we ventured out of our half for a bit in the second 45 but never troubled their goal significantly. We knew this would be the likely outcome before the match even started. It's highly likely to be the same next time we play them. It's the crushing inevitability of it that sticks in the craw.