romavillan

don't suppose anyone fancies swapping skype names, calling me with the radio up so i can hear too? so hope we get through to the semis

very much so, he has the makings of a very good player, he had a massive blow when his knee got crocked and hopefully now he can come back to some form at leeds. eiter for the end of the season with us or to get back here for a full pre-season to kick on start of next season.

by the looks of it he played 90 mins in their 3-1 win, guardian gave him a 6.5/10 for his performance. hopefully he can improve while he's there and come back raring to go...

to be fair he's young and could have just been trying to say he'd love to play week in week out up at leeds to get his head right and get back into the form he had before he knackered his knee. surely it's understandable to be chuffed to be back home? i'm in italy now and i love going back to brum every now and again doesn't mean that once his head is sorted and he has his confidence back he can't come back and be a model professional for us.

mental! instead of being encouraged by the fact he has the nouse to get there from midfield to be in the position to score on his debut. he shoudl be dropped as he missed a sitter? he's not a striker ffs, he is paid to play in midfield. where he had a cracking game covering 2 positions through the 90 minutes. he looks composed, he can pass and has vision and good movement off the ball. all qualities that should keep him in the side as a MIDFIELDER. if he was a striker and missed a couple like that in 90 minutes you might have a point. he's not though, and he's a kid who needs his confidence building, not destroying by giving him flak for missing a header a few mins into a good debut.

tough ask playing him at full back, specialist position and one where you need bags of pace these days. he'd deffo be better as a centre back for me

depends on the price to stand though ay, if it's half price coz they get in twice the people i bet the standing areas would be full!

nasri through the middle is twice the player he is out wide and mancini only plays him wide at the mo. ireland on his best form at city might come close, he's gonna have to be on top form for the rest of the season before anyone starts comparing him to nasri! here's hoping though, he's been looking better and better...

based on first touch, control, one touch passing and vision. all stuff which delph seems to forget once he crosses the white line at the moment, and all stuff he has in spades. very frustrating player delph, needs to get his head right so he can play to his full potential. that's true of the squad as a whole at the moment though.

anyone know how he got on in the first half against wolves in the 7-1 win? lloks like he got taken off at half time...

No it not. So do you actually think Barry Bannan is a better player than Lee Hendrie was for us? when lee had only played a handful of games for the club at first team level you mean? i remember him coming through and loved the fact he was a local lad in a league where it seemed like a fairytale that a local lad would come through. but i reckon bannan looks to be technically a better player. whether he has the character to turn that greater technical skill into greater success in a claret and blue shirt than hendrie is impossible to say right now. i think he looks a better player at this stage in his career though. you can't compare lee hendries full career with bannan's few games. that would be bonkers.

is he really all that? yes. (close thread)

3 points for us today, they won't score, we will. line up isn't too bad to be honest! if they all give 7/10 performances we'll win no worries...

4-2-3-1 should be great for us... --------------------Given(when fit)/Guzan-------------------- Hutton/Cuellar-----Dunne---------Clark------------Warnock ------------------Petrov------------Herd----------------------- Albrighton/Zog----------Ireland------------------Gabby/Zog -----------------------------Bent-------------------------------- the 3 should ne fluid and swap flanks, pop up in the middle with ireland adjusting to either flank. that team ahould do alright. giving gardner, bannan, stevens, weiman, fonz, marshall, lichaj et al a run from the bench to build up playing time... not convinced it's mcleish's fault that formation doesn't work, but it DOES take time to get things right. he's had 20 games, and we've produced very good football against arsenal and chelsea playing that way. that should be reason enough to stick with it. mcleish shouldn't have heskey in the 3 though, and collins going could force him to put clark/cuellar in the back 4. personally i prefer clark as he is a more complete footballer. as i said on the last page, sacking mcleish now would be a mistake, a mistake that woudl increase our chances of going down i'd say. if it's clear he's not the man to build a new team around our youth coming from the academy then end of may is when we shoudl part company with him. until then he should be backed 100% so we can finish as high up the table as possible

don't worry sam, check my post at teh end of the last page we aren't ALL completely negative.

i'm not in the mcleish out camp, i'm not a massive fan on the basis of how we've played the majority of this season but we're a few points better off than last year at least. we've had too many managers in the last couple of years because of the gamble on houllier's health that didn't come off. i would have liked to have seen an effort to keep him involved in a less visible and high pressure role but again that didn't happen and we are where we are. there ARE positives, 3 great goals from 3 players who have come through our academy is fantastic stuff. the downside to all the pressure on mcleish is that it will make him scared to trust unproven youth at a time when we need to be bringing through clark, herd, bannan, albrighton and gardner etc. if these players can make it then we will have half the team who have come through the academy and are villa 100% like gabby. i'm hoping mcleish can slowly bring them through this season so that when the summer comes round and a few of the big contracts run out we will have some spare funds/wages to compliment them with some class players around 27/28 years old who can have a long contract played out at villa park in their prime. villa is a tough job right now as we have to rebuild a squad hopefully around our great youth prospects. personally sacking mcleish right now would be a mistake, who knows who we'd get, if they didn't click we could go down from the position we are in. if at the end of the season it's obvious that mcleish isn't the man to take us forward then end of may/june would be the time to part company and get someone in who can build us a team around our young talent. it's the only way we are going to be able to have a crack at the top 6 again based on our revenues. i think the 4-2-3-1 he's starting to play (when heskey isn't in the side ) has potential. they need to play some more games together in that system and start scoring some more goals and creating more for bent. if that happens we'll finish top 10 and be in a position to push on.

have we at least got the youngsters on the bench? if we do go a couple up and are cruising it would be good to give a few a go, gardner, stevens and bannan especially but maybe a couple of kids at full back to see if they can put some pressure on hutton/warnock would be good....

ignore me, just checked the fixtures, thought we had sunderland fter everton!

everton is a big game for us, if we go into the sunderland game having lost that and get spanked on the return to villa park for MON it's going to look desperate. it'll be a BIG blow in the confidence stakes for the squad and i'm not sure AM is the man to turn that kind of situation around. we all knew MONs limitations, but just look at what he has done at sunderland straight away with an injury hit squad. puts the last 18 months or so in perspective really.

in what way does he seem to be losing the confidence of the players?

in what way does he seem to be losing the confidence of the players?

in what way does he seem to be losing the confidence of the players?

crazy, we win away at chelsea and then get humbled at home 48 hours later. still, we're 8 points of 7th and 8 points off 18th. personally i don't think we'll finish 7th, but i don't think we'll go down either. was a big shame not to follow up the chelsea win with a good result at home but it's not the end of the world. i think they need a bit of a rest and then pick themselves up and go again. ireland coming into form will be like a new signing if he can perform well consistently.

**** YES **** off all of you who wanted ireland out.

YEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEESSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSS GET THE **** IN