Aston Villa vs. Man City Post-Match Thread

[SamTheMouse]

Delph worked hard and always wanted the ball, which made him look good. But according to his stats, he scored three league goals for us and made seven assists in a hundred or so appearances.

If that sort of contribution is absolutely vital to you, then you must be a shit team indeed.

[Monty]

Delph was very good, but I think both Gana and Veretout can be better. They seem a lot less haphazard and chaotic, and much smoother on the ball.

I don't particularly feel the desire to get all pro-Delph, but I think he was somewhat better than merely a moderately-sized man in Lilliput!

I do think we miss him to be honest.

Could Gana / Veretout become better? Possibly (although Gana is older than Delph). Are they better today? Not by a long way, in my view at least.

I just don't see it. I see a player who's excellent at those slithering (!) runs through midfield but whose passing could let him down, who's a bit too rash to be all that good defensively, and who never contributed as many goals as he should have. He was and is way too good to play in a relegation team and his form was a huge factor in our staying up, but I really don't think he's better than Gana - just more adjusted to the pace of the league. City only signed him to fill up their quota of English players, remember - it wasn't because he was suddenly the must-have top level midfielder.

[PeterWithesShin]

As I said, he became a good player for us us, but who has been his competition as our best midfielder for years? KEA, Westwood, Bannan, Cleverely, Holmann, Ireland etc. That's why he was the tallest man in Lilliput, there was no competition.

[Chris Jameson]

From what I saw of our corners there was a bit of variety there and they seemed to go to Villa players. How odd.

[frankmosswasmyuncle]

From what I saw of our corners there was a bit of variety there and they seemed to go to Villa players. How odd.

Threw me completely!
Garde out!

[Dave Cooper please]

Thought Clark was very good, one tackle in the box on (I think) Navas was particularly brutally superb.

[Phil from the upper holte]

We got about as much out of that game as we could have. A good team selection, good formation, an excellent game plan, a point and even NZogbia broke into a trot when he came on.

We are a lot closer to safety than just one point on comparison to the absolute dross that featured last Monday night. City played better than any other visiting team so far this season and went away with a lot less.

I think Alan Smith would rather lose a testicle than say something positive about Villa.

He's a villa fan

Supposedly, he's never said anything nice..makes sense I guess

[Walmley_Villa]

Main objectives were to stop the rot and to give the club and fans a lift - all achieved.

Shock horror - a proper coach comes in and picks the best side we have with the players available. Thought we held our shape well and played some decent possession football in the first half. The defence played very well and that includes Brad especially stopping Delph getting a winner at the end. The midfield was solid and it showed that Gana didn't have to run his bollocks off compensating for anyone else as has happened in the past. If Sherwood had picked that side v Swansea we would have won 3 pts imo.

Building from the back first and now two weeks to work on the offensive side of things. A good start but a long way to go.

[PeterWithe]

I didn't see Delph getting close to scoring, I don't think I would have been able to handle that.

[john e]

there's very little a new manager can do in 3 days, all this better organized stuff is probably not done on the training field in such a short time

what Garde did was pick the best line up, if Sherwood or even Mcdonald had picked that line up they would have got a better performance out of the team it was that simple really

why any manager in their right mind would pick Richardson over Amavi, Gabby over Gill, Lescott over Clark or Westwood over well anyone of the 3 midfielders yesterday and expect that team to perform well is the reason they aint here or picking any more

the only mistake he made yesterday was choosing Nzogbia over Grealish, i accept the physical thing but the footballing thing is that Grealish is a million times better footballer than Zog, the same as Amavi is better than Richardson
and on any given day Grealish is the one to do more damage and make things happen, not one decent cross per game Nzog

I hope we don't have to go through another 3 months of 'I think there's a player in there somewhere' before he realises there isn't and is best gone from the club
and for those who will say 'I thought nzog played well when he came on' Grealish would probably have done better and maybe won us the game

[Monty]

Following on from your point John, it's worth remembering that French footballers are more tactically educated than British players tend to be, and from a young age. The same goes for Spanish players (and, actually, pretty much everyone apart from us). Therefore Garde would have saved himself a lot of work by picking the team, as they'd probably have been very used to the kind of tactics he asked of them, and wouldn't have needed much training to accustom themselves to them.

[LukeJames]

From what I saw of our corners there was a bit of variety there and they seemed to go to Villa players. How odd.

Veretout has a good delivery on him, although I'm not quite sure what the little shuffle before he takes them is all about.

[PeterWithe]

I thought CNZ offered none of the much needed protection to Amavi, however, as the only alternative was Richardson, I cant blame Garde for not picking him after Monday when he was abject.

[CJ]

I didn't see Delph getting close to scoring, I don't think I would have been able to handle that.

I was waiting for the sickener when that shot he had in extra time went just wide of the post. I was right in line with it and thought it was going in - fortunately it slithered wide

[Boz]

there's very little a new manager can do in 3 days, all this better organized stuff is probably not done on the training field in such a short time

what Garde did was pick the best line up, if Sherwood or even Mcdonald had picked that line up they would have got a better performance out of the team it was that simple really

why any manager in their right mind would pick Richardson over Amavi, Gabby over Gill, Lescott over Clark or Westwood over well anyone of the 3 midfielders yesterday and expect that team to perform well is the reason they aint here or picking any more

the only mistake he made yesterday was choosing Nzogbia over Grealish, i accept the physical thing but the footballing thing is that Grealish is a million times better footballer than Zog, the same as Amavi is better than Richardson
and on any given day Grealish is the one to do more damage and make things happen, not one decent cross per game Nzog

I hope we don't have to go through another 3 months of 'I think there's a player in there somewhere' before he realises there isn't and is best gone from the club
and for those who will say 'I thought nzog played well when he came on' Grealish would probably have done better and maybe won us the game

The performance I'm sure would have been better than the one from the team they selected, but I doubt the organisation would have been as good as what Garde delivered or that the substitutions would have been as effective as Garde's, given what we have seen previously particularly by Sherwood.