Aston Villa vs. Man City Post-Match Thread

[Ormy Droid]

On N'Zogbia, you never know, we might get a decent season out of him now. His contract's up at the end of the season, and so if he's to have any hope of getting another one of Premier League standard somewhere (and to be able to maintain the current standards of his wardrobe), he's going to have to pull his finger out and actually do something. If he helps keeps us up, we'll at least get some of the money we've wasted on him back.

On Remi, it was heartening to see the team was organised, fought for each other, and on occasion played some bright football - just the basics, but something that has been beyond our capabilities for quite some time. I just hope he can keep it up, remember even Billy MacNeill got a point in his first game...

[mr underhill]

getting the side to do the basics is something that has eluded the last three managers

[ChicagoLion]

Great performance all round, the elephant in the room is no shots on goal.

[Fasth56]

Great performance all round, the elephant in the room is no shots on goal.

Gana had the first shot on 14 mins. Went high and wide to the right of the North Stand goal, no shots on target though I agree with

[Ormy Droid]

Great performance all round, the elephant in the room is no shots on goal.

That's not fair, for most of the game Rudy was on the bench

[Monty]

Great performance all round, the elephant in the room is no shots on goal.

Against a really good defence. Let's wait until we play a slightly worse team and when he's had more than three sessions with the team before judging.

[remy]

We have a our mojo back.

Ive been looking forward and nervous in the same degree all week for this game. Sadly I couldnt be there because I couldnt afford the £100 for myself and the two Remy Juniors. Still we watched it in hostile Olton territory and I'm all smiles.

I'm pleased that Remi Garde has come in, I had a feeling that we just needed that right acquisition after the previous failed attempts and frankly nobody had a clue how he would turn out first game.

Guzan - I've been cheesed off with this fellow all season and I am convinced we need a 2nd keeper to keep him on his toes or replace his ass. Sterling managed to do in one moment what encapsulates how Ive been feeling towards him - getting smacked on his bonce for his previous mistakes and preventing a certain goal at the same time.

Hutton - limited in ability but he's got some fire in his belly. Tackles, runs, shoves, gets caught out a few times, long term squad player and will certainly have to fight for his place come Jan.

Richards - One of the Men of the Match, Captain's performance, was where we needed him to be and kept them at bay.

Clark - The rage I felt at the concession of the first goal vs Spuds on Monday was indescribable. I'm quoting somebody else here but it was like watching a Year 7 kid trying to take on a Sixth former. Im not convinced long term simply because of the crap he's played the last 9 games. He reminds me a lot of Agent Ridgewell, plays well in patches and gets a block in but inevitably will concede. Will be far happier when he's replaced. He played well today and if he carries on this performance, I will happily apologise and eat my words.

Amavi - You can see his obvious quality and really stands out on his movement and passing. His defending isn't the strongest and gets bypassed a bit for my liking but I feel Remi will add the defending to his game and we'll sell him for £25million.

Veretout\Sanchez\Gana - The midfield 3 that I've been crying out for. This is now I feel the mainstay of this Villa team. All 3 tracked back, showed neat little touches, no panic on the ball, solid midfield base inwhich the team was able to knock around and probe for an opening. Sherwood you utter plank.

Sinclair - Showed some skill to get around their fullbacks but feel he needed to step up a gear, pleased to see he was on the team sheet.

Gil - Tricky little spaniard and great to see him start FINALLY. As expected showed his skillset and can be our little magician in the pockets of space.

Ayew - Not one of his better games, but then was alone upfront and an outlet to take the pressure off the team and keep the Man City back line wondering what he will do next.

Zog - So all he needed was some french whispered in his ear and he almost made a goal.

Rudy - Its all Hart's fault buddy, dont sweat it. Its not your problem if he cant even chest a ball. Almost clipped a winner in.  Did what we all expected, won in the air and gave their back line something to think about.

Bacuna - Wish he had taken that Gil free kick instead.

Considering we played one of the most expensively assemebled teams in history I feel we made a really good account of ourselves being also a new manager's first ever match in charge and we're on the back of 7 straight defeats. 

I honestly hope that this is a turning point in our history and a 0-0 draw to start us off in the right direction of accumulating points by playing the right players, in the right formation with the minimum of fuss.

We now have a 2 week break where we can re-group, work on our team and go out against Everton and get a good result.

Its especially more pleasing to see Westwood, Gabby, Lescott and Richardson all dropped which frankly was well overdue. Im certain Remi saw them on Monday and thought WTF.

Let the good times roll.

[Legion]

Buzzing.

[Villafirst]

Really need a top striker in January. I'm sure Remi has players in mind. Lerner needs to spend £15M minimum on a striker or risk losing £100m with relegation - no brained isn't it Randy??

[Matt Collins]

That game plan is presumably the format for the next match.

[Marton]

Its such a relief to have manager that actually coach. Such a change after Sherwoods poses for the Media and Lamberts mad scribbling.
There is intent and purpose both in how he picked the team, the coaching and the changes. A divine spark of intelligence if you will, that we havn't seen in a Villa Manager since Houllier (who had failing health and was depraved of all financial support). Its very encouraging to see  how the players respond to that (at least those on the pitch today). Everyone improved vastly on their last performances (Clark, Richards, Hutton, Amavi and Sanchez most of all).

I know everyone wants a striker more then anything, although I agree we could use that but even more I think  we need a new keeper. Guzan was lucky today, two fumbles that Villa defence could clear. Steerlings header hitting him right in the face. The one that hit the bar... He sure fought as bravely as anyone else ... he just declined and cant see him getting the grove back. He looks heavy, grip is poor and his skill with his feet has never been good.

Happy for Richards that shut out the club that rejected him. As good as anyone of their defenders today.

[PeterWithesShin]

Only Manure have a conceded less than Man City, so although far from ideal, it's not the end of the world not to have a shot on target. With the shambles we've been, getting the defence and midfield right was a lot more important and we did that today. I thought our MF were on top first half. Against the likes of De Bruyne and Yaya that is some going from where we have been the last couple of months.

[purpletrousers]

Quite amusing listening to Richards and CLark in the post-match interview - they're really trying to be polite on questions about how Garde has changed things already at the club. The most telling comment came from Clark - he said "I think you could see it on the pitch, we were much more organised" (or words very similar to that).

I think Richards is a spiky chap. I felt he was just holding off saying he wanted Sherwood to have stayed. And he should shut up about having feelings for Man City. Villa only Micah, just Villa. Villa.

To be fair he dodged the 'playing against man city' question initially, and only when pressed on what it meant to him personally did he answer that honestly.

It has an affect on me going back to a hospital I was a patient at and started my career at, he was playing against the team he joined age 14 and grew up at for 12years (not including the Italian loan period), first time he'll have ever faced that shirt as opposition; he didn't go on about it, but did reply. More interesting was the diplomatic understatement around what had changed, the general theme from the centre backs being organisation.

[PeterWithesShin]

Oh and Manure are the only other side to keep a clean sheet against them this season. Way more positives than negatives today.

[Bestmate]

A striker is the problem,
Gestede came on for the final few minutes to try and cause some problems in the air bit if you play him from the start it limits the way you can play
And every time you thought 'get the ball over' it was probably pointless because we had little threat there

So we need a forward who is good in the air, great with his feet, strong, athletically fit, powering bullying personality, a bit of pace with a twist of flair
I think that should do it

Isn't that what the 32.5 million quid was supposed to fund?