romavillan

yeah anyone looking for big names is barking up the wrong tree i reckon.

hopefully henke will pull some interesting names out of the hat though,

we're 29/2 some places to win! which is just huge.

we can get something out of the game but we'll need to play amazingly well and have some luck on our side (unlike the manure game)

hopefully henke will have had time to spy some real young quality outisde the prem that we can get in witout breaking the bank. another 3 or 4 new faces that improve us would be a massive leap forward in terms of squad depth...

does the title change mean that the excellent academy wasn't a myth?

superb, coz i always thought we did actually have an excellent academy!

2 Questions:-

1.Is he good enough now ?

2.If not how long would you persist, before you think 'actually he might not ever be good enough - we need a new CB'

1. yes

whilst it's true that the block feature is a fine feature, you still get to see the quoted stuff

anyway. back on topic, benteke was awesome for us on the weekend. no player goes through 90 minutes at that level without once giving a poor pass. no-one. on the other hand he created our first and played a big part in the second with a great dummy for ireland. far more important in the context of the game for me.

how do you block then? just clicked on a profile i want to block but i can't see how to do it?

block feature! you might just have changed my life!

I'm not saying that players don't make mistakes. Of course they do but Benteke should have enough about him by now to know when to shield and hold the ball up and when to pass when your team's under pressure. FFS I was taught that at trials for school boy internationals and even before that by my P.E teacher but i guess we'll just have to agree to disagree.

trials for school boy internationals ay?

benteke held the ball up well amazingly well all game. battering him for one mistake which gave away the ball is harsh to say the least. he was looking for a midfielder and he was on the turn to get up the pitch and try and score.

generally i think he's a very good prospect, on the hernandez goal...

hernandez was a lucker little bugger in the fact that his miscontrol bounced kindly off his other leg and took the ball to the far side of his body with respect to clark, if he'd have gone for the ball he had to go through the player at that point. he could have gone to ground though and blocked the shot maybe, plus if guzan hadn't come he could have probably saved it.

still though, i reckon it was more luck on hernandez's part that it all just turned out perfect when with his first touch it could have gone anywhere. stevens didn't step up in time and when he did he was wrong footed, the pass from scholes was class too. so can't really pin the blame on clark imo.

If anything were inconsistant

I can think of half a dozen games this season where we have played really well but complete and utter crap in the following fixture

We have already beat city in the cup this season i hope we carry on our previous form and try and take at least a point

i think we can take it for granted that we'll give it a good go, thats' the best thing about PL's villa that we know they are going to bust a gut to try and get a result. what has been lacking is composure in the last third of the field, to either get the final ball right or the finish right. that's starting to happen for us and the team plays better as a unit now defensive and attackign phases of the game.

that said etihad is a big ask, just as the united game was. if there was any justice we'd have got a point against the team top of the table, with some luck going our way we could have had all three. a point away to man city isn't impossible, i'm not expecting any to be honest but we could get a point, then play like we did against united against arsenal and we coudl get a real confidence boosting win against them and then our season starts there.

i don't hink we'll be in a relegation fight, i think we'll finish nearer 50 points than 40...

Ironic!

not particularly ironic no. and stop ruiing morph for me, you are so much more like chas.

back on topic anyone seen bowery play yet?

13/2 for us to win at home is surely long right?

that should put it in perspective just how hard this game is going to be for us, we won against the odds away at monderland though. PL will have them well wound up for this one i'd reckon, should be a full house too. as kevin keegan once said "i'd love it..."

ah tony daley, he used to go in the shop near me for his bensons. i was very young, but i do remember being in the holte and being very excited when he got the ball! i think me and him both believed that every time he got it he'd beat 6 players and score...

Why not stick N`Zogbia in at LB.

He played quite a bit there at Newcastle and did ok.Would also give us a bit of an attacking threat down the left

or clark, baker and vlaar as a 3 with zog on the left of 5 across the middle. could even go...

-------------------- guzan --------------------

----------clark-----vlaar-----baker----------

lowton-------KEA-----bannan-----zog----

-------------------ireland----------------------

-----------gabby---------benteke-----------

in a 3-4-1-2 if you really want to fit zog in to a team though it'd prob have stevens at LB and him on the right of a 5 in a 4-5-1.

i think we shoudl give stevens a go as he is the only natural left back we have though.

true they must be after someone much better than PL, ferguson and moyes....

can only be redknapp right?

well actually that PL wasn't good enough so that would be the only reason he'd stay.

obviously.

Oh come on, I'm clearly just replying to the quoted poster's remark about the age difference at which their respective clubs brought them in. Nothing more.

i'm just baffled the comparison in the first place!!!

Barca brought Messi over when he was 12-13, we actually got Weimann when he was 15, almost 16. Not too far apart, really.

this is a joking right? or was the point that anybody who comes through our academy for more than 2 years is like messi?

messi was scouted, not poached, he had growth problems and no-one in argentina wanted to take a punt on paying for hormone treatment and his family couldn't afford it. barcelona's scouting system beleived he was worth the investment and chance that he might never grow enough to be a proffessional sportsman. he got brought over at 11 i think? then played for 6 or 7 years in currently one of the best academies in the world.

so just like andi weimann?!?

i've gone back in some threads to 2009, i recommend it, there's some complete comedy gold.

of course easy with hindsight but people do get really wound up and fixed on a point of view. much more negative than i was expecting in the main though!! christ, we were beating top teams, going on long unbeaten runs, amazing away records, getting in to the late stages of cups, finishing in the european places...

just great stuff really! i certainly enjoyed those years, criticism is one thing, being upset by a result or a performance is completely normal. but to take the time to actual come to a forum and type something involves a bit more premeditation than being in the stadium and thinking "you clearing in the woods, how did you miss". plus some of the stuff that gets said in here isn't just an off the cuff reaction, it's a systematic daily repetition of sometimes bizarre points of view. anyway, the point was i spose that i was surprised just how negative some people were during that time looking back in the forum. far more understandable after the last 2 seasons to be a bit down i spose, i don't think you'll find a villa fan that has enjoyed the last coupel of years!

haha, that graph is awesome. i kind've thought there woudl still have been some crazies being negative even when we were 3rd!

i'm off to view some history in teh MON thread then! nice one

oooh. i'm sure you are "exactly right" about everything morph (http://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/shift-mind/201103/why-is-it-so-important-be-right)

back on topic, we'll be fine, the more time goes by the more the PL method will be instelled in teh squad and we'll be moving in the right direction. PL has said that he wants competition for places all across the squad and that the squad is thin. which woudl definitely suggest some more investment in january now that he has been able to asses the players in proper competitive games.

even if we lose the next 3 games it won't be the end of the world as long as we had a proper go at winning all 3.

I was referring to our current position but since you are unable to comprehend that then please study this... I WAS REFERRING TO OUR CURRENT POSITION. Maybe you need it in Braille, or maybe ill send you a book and some crayons. Maybe you might even need a speech therapist to utter the words... morph was referring to our current position. Hope i've been of some help.

to be fair you re the chief spouter of PL out etc. around here at the moment so it would be easy to "misunderstand" where you are coming from.

the big post from norway was a ood read and sums it up quite nicely really, the big spend and fun times under MON make it a hard bump down to earth, especially after 2 seasons of mis-management (even if i do think GH could have done somethign decent had illl health not hampered, still long term appointment he wasn't).

PL on the other hand should not be judged on a handfull of games, just as westwood should not have been thrown on the shat heap for a bad 45 against s'ton where the team as a whole (after a good 45) were gash.

as it stands, in terms of optimism, i reckon we'll do better than a point or two from the 3 toughest games we'll face for a good while. i'd back us fora shock win against one of the three big guns and maybe a draw along the way too. anything more than a point though will be good enough as long as we look united and bust a gut for each other on the pitch for 90 mins a game.

Depends where you play KEA though, Westwood seemed to do his role pretty good at Sunderland.

i'd have them both sitting to be honest in a 5 man midfield.

I wouldn't play the same team against united, we'll need another body in midfield. KEA with westwood and bannan would be good centrally ad utd are playing narrow at the mo.