MrMoseley

Just got back ... oh dear, I've been thinking hard trying to think of a more abject performance but failed. I'm just shocked at how flat the entire team were, it was the same on Saturday and if carries on we are in big trouble this season. Teams are going to see this and come and take the game to us at VP and you know what, we've got nothing to throw back at them, we are devoid of any movement or ideas, players are waving their arms around pointing to areas where another player should be ... no one has a clue what is going on. The blame for that lays firmly at the managers door for me, 1 up front again at home, no goal threat, what's the point, we are playing a Bolton side that's made 9 changes to a team that lost to Norwich on Saturday.

Great signing, fantastic keeper, welcome Shay !

WHOOOHOOOO!!!

I can't believe Houllier was "happy" with that performance, we were fecking clueless. There is no pattern to our play, everyone looks scared stiff of the ball, Gabby would have been more use standing in the queue for my chips at half time than where he was played. I was prepared to give him time due to the injuries, that excuse doesn't stand up now, to persevere with that formation when it was so obvious it wasn't working is just plain stupid. Potatoe head must have thought all his christmas's had come at once. For me there was also something weird about A Young lumping balls into the box towards the end and ignoring Friedel's attempts to take responsibility. Surely he would be better waiting for the knock down in the box rather than hanging around on the half way line. He seems to give a hell of a lot of stick out to those around him, whilst hardly be setting the world alight himself. Maybe as there is a dirth of direction coming from the bench, he's taking on the role of captain/manager himself? Can't blame him for trying but it points to a lack of management for me. players should know their roles but at times we looked a total mess.

We need to get rid, sooner the better, this guy has no passion for AVFC, and to be honest I wonder if he has any passion left for the game. He's been there and done it all before, he's our managerial version of David Ginola. Too old and too French.

The buck stops with RL for me, he gave MON the cash and anyone with half a brain could see what MON was doing was a sh*t or bust strategy, so he must of backed it. MoN's idea IMO was to buy safe, unspectacular, proven premier league performers and add a bit of 'class' in a Milner or 'genius' in A.Young to open teams up. Rather than building a team/squad around footballing principles of any type you care to mention. Problem is with MON's approach is when you start selling your class-act/genuis and replacing him with a mad Irishman who's hardly played for two seasons, the plan starts to backfire. The MON plan was one dimensional, yes, but if you are going to allow someone to build your entire squad around that idea but then decide you want to sell the very 'class-act' that your team revolves around, what you will be left with is a disfunctional mess. A team without direction plodding through games hoping the ball will drop for them kindly rather than making their own chances through their inter play and inventivness that is so obviously missing. RL is to blame for the current malaise, though if this is the first step in a different direction, one that builds a team that plays the game the right way, then I'm all for it. Things may unfortunately get worse before they get better, but in the long term we should have a view of how we want to play and stick to it.

Definite YES, though I think we already have one, it's called the North Stand Lower ... :winkold:

No. His position is untenable now. He was like some 64 year old groupie last night, it was frankly embarrassing.

General, Mr Houllier is an A1, Grade A, PR disaster. This week AVFC seem to have been turned into some kind of vehicle for his dewy eyed "I love Liverpool" crap ... problem is as an ASTON VILLA FAN & STH I'm not interested if you've had a lovely day seeing some old friends who have made you a nice banner Mr Houllier, your team has just delivered one of the most abject performances I've ever had the misfortune to see. After that performance injuries or no injuries I want the team locked in the dressing room for 20 minutes getting the hairdryer treatment and G.Mac having to come out and do the interview you were so dying to do. General, his manner and comments show a seeming lack of passion for AVFC and is an insult to those fans that traveled to Merseyside in sub zero temperatures. My nine year old can see our centre halves are struggling, he couldn't believe Carlos didn't start tonight, the way the team was set up tonight stank of surrender. Against a team struggling for results and without 3 of their best players we were wholly negative, Blackpool have won at Anfield this season, why?, because they had a go, their reserve side gave us a run for our money at VP, why?, because they had a go. The way the team was set up tonight we had no chance before a ball was kicked, and you know what, I somehow get the feeling Mr Houllier wouldn't have minded that at all.

Carlos in Dunne out ... get the ball down and move it quicker, we looked like we were on a slower speed setting to Plop tonight, it was fecking embarrassing. I'm all for the passing game but you don't get champagne for beer money, Dunne and Collins aren't Rio Ferdinand and Bobby Moore. We look ponderous and devoid of ideas going forward, hesitant and scared in defence. Hopefully Bannan will be back on Saturday, plus Heskey and we'll at least give the baggies a game.

I pray Mr H, changes it and starts Carlos on Saturday, our defence is shot to bits at the moment, confidence rock bottom and worse of all for me, they look scared. :cry:

40 minutes and we've done absolutely nothing.

Good luck Gerard !! Solid appointment, under the circumstances possibly inspired, hopefully he's still got the desire and the connections to make it a success. I for one will be backing him and hopefully the rest of Lower North nutters will too !!

Easy isn't it this football lark.....just replace him with one of the many world class creative playmaker style midfielders that are on the market right now and are interested in a move to the Villa.......I hear Sneijder's had a half decent World Cup....might as well bring him in now..... :oops: D'oh, sorry I spoke ! Of course the above would probably mean looking beyond our shores which I accept isn't probably going to happen. But don't be fooled into thinking there aren't any of these type of players out there that would jump at a chance to join Villa, there are ...

Number 5 for me, a good player, but £30m??, he's had one outstanding season. Replace him with a world class creative playmaker style midfielder for £20m and a couple of young up and coming talents and I'd be more than happy ...

Haven't seen the replay yet but how does what happened today differ from Samba getting sent off in the Semi - I'm sure Big Sam would have been delighted to have seen a pen awarded and no cards being given that night, being 2-1 up at the time ... It's not the first time Vidic has got away scott free against us, I seem to remember him pulling Gabby down in front of the Holte last season when he was last man, we didn't get anything that day so maybe we should be grateful we got the penalty. :notsure:

Tranmere for me, I'm 35. For me, even when we went 2 down last night I felt we would do it, against Tranmere we were 3-1 down from the first leg and didn't get our noses in front in the tie at all (apart from the away goals rule had it stayed 2-0). I don't think we equalised until the 89th minute to take it to extra time and penalties. Plus standing on the Holte meant when Dalian scored the third I was about three quarters of the way up the terrace, by the time the celebrations had finished I was nearly on the pitch ! Crazy match, last night was a corker though ! Lets have more of them ...

Go Guzan !

Chelsea win unfortunately, last season we gave Lumpard the freedom of Villa Park at times, I can't see much changing this season ... alas 2-0 Chelski.

My team for tonight: Guzan Beye - Davies - Cuellar - Shorey Reo-Coker Young - Petrov - Sidwell - Milner Carew Alot of onus on Sidwell to get up and support Big John, but hell, he's hardly kicked a ball in two years so he should be nice and fresh ! Bring Gabby on later when they're tired to run them ragged ...

General, Thank you for your reply. I'm sorry I'm slightly at a loss, whatever we as supporters felt about GB, he was and has been a major part of AV for 11 years or so. I have a 7 year old son who thinks he's a God ! I think to under-estimate the chasm he has left behind is very dangerous. The performance after the first 15 minutes on Saturday was rudderless, we lacked any direction in our play from the middle of the park. Bottom line is GB needs replacing with a player of his ilk in my opinion, of which we do not have at the club at this moment. As so often happens in life I feel this may be a case of "you don't what you've got till it's gone." On a more positive note I'd like to say how impressed with the revamped Holte Suite I was, the board have got it spot-on from the Holte Pub, to the corporate hospitality of which I was lucky enough to sample last season, I'm proud of the facilities at VP these days. (North Stand excepted, but that's another story!) I just hope we are not all talk and no trousers.

I understand the logic of "the plan was always to spend less in year four than year three" if we had kept the nucleus of our team together, but having lost Gareth Barry and the unfortunate Martin Laursen, two guaranteed first 11 players, surely this "plan" has been blown out of the water? Are we sticking to a pre-arranged budget set in steadier times and paying the price now?

What the hell are you going on about ?. Cuellars just turning 28. His age is irrelevant, it's only his second Premeirship season and last season he spent most of his time at right back ... the season before that he was in Scotland. :shock: Top level career to date: 2003–2007 Osasuna 70 (2) 2007–2008 Rangers 36 (4) 2008– Aston Villa 29 (0) That amounts to 135 top level games, around 30 per cent of which have been played in the SPL. Oh and he admits he struggles to understand what the manager is saying to him. As I said I think he can be a good player, as shown when playing alongside Laursen last year, but he needs a strong player alongside him, not CD.

With an experienced head at the back he could be solid, at the moment he needs guidance which he isn't going to get from CD, still though, for 7-8 Million IMO he's just not good enough.

Shockingly bad performance, after the first 15 minutes of nervous energy we were clueless in most areas. Their first goal had been on the cards for about 10 minutes previously and we just couldn't get control of the game in the middle of the park. Tactically we were set up wrong, but the worst part for me was the lack of fight shown, we seemed to accept defeat too easily for my liking ...