Eric Black

[Clampy]

Thought we looked a lot more solid at the back yesterday and defended quite well.

4 fucking nil!!!!!

I kind of agree with Peter. Normally when we concede early on we fall apart so we dug in defensively and kept it respectable until we made the changes but a second goal was always coming and that's when the confidence went and Arsenal stepped it up a gear.

As for Black, I agree with what Chrisw1 has said. It was an impossible job for him in many ways because the damage was done and the confidence was very very low but he didn't help himself with his team selections. He was negative and after the season we've had, it was the last thing the fans wanted.

[peter w]

Thought we looked a lot more solid at the back yesterday and defended quite well.

We lost 4-0.

We're rubbish and bottom of the table. but up until 75 minutes we did compete quite well and were not porous. That said the second goals led to the usual rout but after conceding so early I thought it would be 4 by half-time. That it was not and that we spent some time on the ball with decent possession shouldn't be overlooked. That we folded after Lescott came off is also worth noting. I think Black had a poor team with little confidence working hard and for each other. We had two very good lines for the majority of the match and with the right set-up, better players, it is something to work with.

It's not going to a popular opinion but I also thought the likes of Bacuna, Westwood, Sanchez, and Lescott did put in a decent shift. In the first half especially we created space for ourselves with some good passing only for time and time again Cissokho to immediately bring a halt to it by checking back as he can't just knock and run.

Yes Arsenal may have been able to gone up a gear or two but sitting where I was I enjoyed watching us compete and a couple of times opening them up. Black will get no credit whatsoever but we weren't playing Norwich yesterday but the side who finished second.

[Hookeysmith]

Are the goal anywhere  - could not watch MOTD

How bad was Bunn's OG?

[Des Little]

I think Peter's comments earlier are an unintentional damning of our current plight.  We ship 4 goals without barely troubling their keeper and he makes a case for it being acceptable.  Just goes to show you the state we are in.

By the way, this is in no way a slight at Peter, more a case of highlighting what we have come to accept as fans, which for Aston Villa is the saddest aspect of all.

[Clampy]

The problem was we had no attacking intent so we didn't really didn't look like scoring and despite having Hepburn-Murphy and Traore on the bench, you knew that he wouldn't have brought them on even if we hadn't been forced to make the earlier subs. That was Black's biggest problem.

[Jimbo]

The game lasts 90 minutes. I know we're so unbelievably shit that anything better than losing 100-nil, while several of our players congregate on the halfway line eating doughnuts and huffing hippy crack is considered an improvement, but losing 4-0 under any circumstances means our defending was shit.

[paul_e]

I see the white knights have arrived to defend him again despite everything in his record backing up the fact that allowing him to see out the season was terrible decision.

Sorry Peter but we didn't defend well at all, you cannot say a defence has performed well when they concede after 4 minutes.  The next 65 minutes we did ok but that was largely because Arsenal were just playing keep ball and 'doing an Arsenal'.  As soon as they put some pace back into the game they started opening us up at will and it ended up 4-0.

Chris I don't see how you can say Garde 'couldn't have been shitter' when he was preceded and succeeded by 2 managers who were measurably shitter with the same squad, one of whom you're trying to defend.  Black had 7 games and in total we spent about 25 minutes trying to win them. Everything else he did was all about not losing when we were in a situation where we'd already lost (both in terms of the matches and the season). Take yesterday, we were 1-0 down after 4 minutes and yet still 1-0 down after 75minutes and he'd made 1 enforced changed at centre half, he showed no intention of trying to get back into the game at any point. You yourself say it's hard to fathom what he was trying to achieve and that's the absolute problem, if guys who are trying to defend him don't know what he was doing then it's fair to suggest that he didn't know either.

To go back to Garde what he was trying to do, in my opinion, was get the team fitter and make them more professional in their outlook.  I firmly believe the squad made it difficult for him but it was starting to work until the January window closed with no changes which made it pretty clear that Garde wasn't going to be around for much longer which meant the discipline he'd been trying to bring completely collapsed and we fell apart.  The results back that up and that's why I say I could see what he was doing.

LeeS I don't know about that, you're absolutely correct with the 2nd and 3rd paragraphs but the first one just begs the question who would tell him to play football so shit and to what end?  On top of that how weak and pathetic would you have to be accept it?  I just don't buy it, I have no idea what was going through his head when he decided to concentrate on defensive stability (and conceded 2.57 goals a game - compared to 1.9 for Garde who couldn't be shitter) and completely abandon any suggestion of attacking threat but it I do believe that's where it came from.

[peter w]

Are the goal anywhere  - could not watch MOTD

How bad was Bunn's OG?

Very unlucky. made a great diving save from Arteta, ball went on to the bar rebounded onto his back and in.

[Chico Hamilton III]

I haven't seen any stats, but if anyone thanks that half a dozen square passes in our own half before giving the ball to an Arsenal player counts as proper possession then we're really clutching at straws. We seemed to do this pretty regularly yesterday and it was shit.

[aj2k77]

Thought we looked a lot more solid at the back yesterday and defended quite well.

I can't tell if you are serious/Eric Black or being sarcastic?

[peter w]

As has been said in another Post paul e just summed it up. Poor old Remi was trying his best and the nasty people at Aston Villa made it hard for him whereas the coach asked to fill in is the devil incarnate.

As for the game. Yes we did defend well. It you don't put in a shift against a top team you will get slaughtered. For the majority of the game we were running with the players, getting little flicks, nicks, and some decent challenges in. No, not on the same level as a better team would, but for our standard we did compete and we did put in an acceptable shift. That the 3 goals went in when they did compounds our misery but  its wrong to say Remi tried to do something so is good without recognising that Black has also tried to do something. Neither have worked particularly well but one wasn't appointed to be the manager neither did he strop around the place when the going got even tougher.

[aj2k77]

Are the goal anywhere  - could not watch MOTD

How bad was Bunn's OG?

Very unlucky. made a great diving save from Arteta, ball went on to the bar rebounded onto his back and in.

Unlucky apart from the bit where the Arsenal player strolls to the edge of our box uncontested, plays the ball out wide  it gets pulled back and Arteta  is waiting unchallenged or marked for a free shot. The defending was abysmal.

[peter w]

I haven't seen any stats, but if anyone thanks that half a dozen square passes in our own half before giving the ball to an Arsenal player counts as proper possession then we're really clutching at straws. We seemed to do this pretty regularly yesterday and it was shit.

In the first half we had a lot of possession int heir half and created space more than once. That's where our shitness then let us down. Second half granted the possession was nearly all Arsenal but it's unfair on them to say it was pointless possession in the first-half because it wasn't.

[Clampy]

I see the white knights have arrived to defend him again despite everything in his record backing up the fact that allowing him to see out the season was terrible decision.

What's all this 'white knights' nonsense just because someone has a different way of looking at it than you? And besides, I don't think they're defending him, they're just saying we were rubbish before he took over and we carried on being rubbish. He wasn't the cause of where we are.

As for allowing him to see out the season, It was obvious Garde didn't want to stay and we were down when he went anyway. Keeping him on would have been a bit pointless if he as planning to leave. Black just didn't help himself being as negative as he was.

[Villa in Denmark]

Absolute dicksplash. If I ever have to see him again anywhere near Villa, i'll cry.

That's not entirely true is it.

I'll be turning cartwheels if I see him turn up in charge of the opposition.