LambStockmix

How did Heitinga not get a **** yellow there?

...................Given......................

Hutton......Collins...Dunne...Warnock

Albrighton..Clark....Petrov...Gabby

.....................Bent......................

....HuttonCollinsDunneGivenWarnockAlbrightonClarkPetrovGabby....

...........................................Bent................................................

...................Given......................

Hutton......Collins...Dunne...Warnock

Albrighton..Clark....Petrov...Gabby

.....................Bent......................

....HuttonCollinsDunneGivenWarnockAlbrightonClarkPetrovGabby....

...........................................Bent................................................

Everton: Howard, Neville, Heitinga, Duffy, Baines, Donovan, Gibson, Fellaini, Drenthe, Cahill, Saha. Subs: Mucha, Anichebe, Bilyaletdinov, Stracqualursi, McFadden, Gueye, Vellios.

Quite a strong line up

I'm honestly not being a misery guts but I think it'll be 1-0 Everton.

Agree CI.

Gabby was sensational cutting in from the wing earlier in the season so I don't know why everyone is so against it.

he is more devastating up front....

Terry and Luiz shat their pants when he played up front against them and them Mcleish sticks him on the wing in the next match after...go figure....

with his pace and running in the channels he stretches defenders and helps to pin the opposition back...

on the wing he spends 60% of the game in his own half tracking the opponents winger and we pass the ball to him hoping he can kick it past their full back and put in a low cross.....

thats not his game and never will be

he belongs up front and i hope to god its ireland on the wing today

I agree. I like Gabby up front with Bent and Zog on the left. That's how we played against Bolton and it gave Gabby freedom to drift out left higher up the pitch when he wanted and also Zog drifted inside too. Worked great. Sure enough we don't play like that anymore. What a genius AML is.

Ireland is NOT a winger and needs to played as an attacking mid.

Given back in is great news. I think Guzan is pretty average and Given has arguably been our best player this season (along with Gabby).

Cuellar out. What the ****? Guess McShitey doesn't learn. If he's on the bench then I assume he's fit to play. Real real shame that.

I predict the usual snorefest.

Lovel lovely goal.

I hope Ireland cements his place now.

Maybe as well as the match ratings thread after this game we can have the Best Supporter thread, to see who made the most positive posts? Some of you guys look like really great supporters tbh, I can't compete.

The best supporters are at the match.

The worst supporters are on the internet posting lots of hilariously sarcastic posts on an internet forum.

so cause I can't get to the match or afford it, I'm a worse fan?

Depends if you're posting hilariously sarcastic posts over and over again.

I don't think you understand your previous point.

Maybe as well as the match ratings thread after this game we can have the Best Supporter thread, to see who made the most positive posts? Some of you guys look like really great supporters tbh, I can't compete.

The best supporters are at the match.

The worst supporters are on the internet posting lots of hilariously sarcastic posts on an internet forum.

so cause I can't get to the match or afford it, I'm a worse fan?

Great ball Stan. Great finish.

hahaha corner.

Ooh we hoofed it clear.

Obviously. You want us to pass it out?

stupid.

We should definitely win this, but we need to score soon. The longer it goes on, the more nervy the game will get.

blind faith and blind pessimism are two sides of the same coin.

I for one am very tired of the pessimism that is rampant on here. Nobody is delighted and claiming things are great. It's dishonest to pretend that positive support is blind support.

i don't see any blind pessimism? I see honest comments. We are genuinely playing shit. People are saying that cause they can see that.

If there was any optimism then people would comment.

(Good head by Heskey there).....

Villa "supporters" unsure of what "supporter" means I think

Blind faith is just detrimental though. If it is plain to see that we're already playing poorly then fans have every right to say.

A very shit start....

Long way to go though.

I'll boycott with you. I am 37 (my regular attendance goes back to Graham Turner days) and this season has been a total rip off for my money in terms of my season ticket purchase. That free pie I nearly choked on against Liverplop.

Anyhow, I had a 'dizzy spell' on 83 minutes against Swansea such was my anger and rage at what I was watching. No fight, no passion, silly subs, silly starting line up (some say) etc. Going to the Villa has gotten me so wound up, making me miserable and feeling as though I am not getting value for money/entertainment, that it is starting to impact on my health and welfare. That in turn has the potential to impact on my family. One of my friends is concerned about depression...

As such, I am away now for the rest of the season and do not expect to be returning. I know that I need to take a chill pill and not take it so seriously... but football gets you, and grabs hold of you and makes you hold on too tight. I'm at the stage where I can't just sit there and watch that week in week out and seeing zero progress. It takes up too much of my hard earned free time that I should really spend with my lovely family.

This isn't the beautiful game any more - it's all lies, overpaid fancy dans, false dawns, false hope, shit refs etc etc. And then there was MON's debacle... and then Gerard's pointless era... and then Eck... I said last summer that I thought it inhumane to appoint somebody that would not benefit from a honeymoon period (I guess the early fixtures were a tad kind to him) and who would be under so much pressure had they lost to Blackburn as the first home match. And so it is panning out. And I really wanted him to do well and prove me wrong. I don't give a toss about his SHA connections.

When it gets you so bad that you feel yourself wanting to lash out and you feel as though you are turning into a thug, outbursting profanity, the like of which you never considered yourself previously capable and making yourself look a fool, and then getting so wound up you think you're going to collapse - it's time to walk away. Time to leave it alone and put your money elsewhere. That's what I'm doing.

Sorry - I can spend 400+ quid on something that is guarenteed to bring enjoyment and last many years. I see all those players (not just at Villa) getting paid all that money to prance around the pitch like billy-big-balls on the pretence that they are professionals. Do you really believe that you get value for money from them? Do you really think footballers deserve all that doe? No... they really don't. When you've got firemen and little kids rattling buckets and begging me for a donation outside the ground - that's perspective for you.

Fickle? Half-arsed supporter? I'll take that on the chin... But I tell you this, my health means more to me and my family than it does to Eck and Lerner.

I'm better off health-wise and financially without the misery of VP 2011-12. Why put myself through it? If you don't enjoy it, and it makes you feel ill - it's time to stop.

I don't mind losing... this isn't about losing football matches. I almost enjoyed the Arsenal game. It's the nature of the defeat, the clueless and powerless performances on the pitch. That rankles - and straight back into the debate about whether you think footballers per se in the Premiership are really worth those wages. If I performed as badly in my job, I'd be down the road. Simple as that.

The club won't miss me, I know that... but I see a brighter future for me and my family than I do for the people that are hell bent on watching that clunge week in and week out for the remainder of the season, or however long the tenure lasts.

(tin hat on... retreat from the firework... fists up...)

:notworthy:

I personally don't mind what Villa do with Bent as we actually played some very good football when he was injured...

some good football without Bent? passing it square and backwards in the middle of the pitch a bit more than we had in the few games before doesnt make good football. we still hardly created anything or looked like scoring. games we have played without Bent

QPR 1-1 poor performance could only score with a soft penalty

Liverpool 0-2 rubbish, never looked like scoring

Arsenal 1-2 only scored with a gift from arsenal, only other effort on goal was gabbys header early on.

stoke 0-0 dull, boring game, made their keeper work just once

chelsea, the only game you could call good. 1-1 when he came on, finished 3-1 to us.

Sure Bent is a more prolific scorer but other than that when he's not scoring it's like playing with 10 men.

just like the gabby "has no football brain, is an athlete not a footballer" myth that we had a few seasons back, it seems we now have the Bent just stands there waiting for the ball myth. im not going to claim his hold up play is great, but it is adequate, and he clearly worked on it under houllier. get the ball to his feet and get some support quick and it is fine. smash the ball at his head while he has 2 cbs marking him and no support and hes never going to hold it up. he is not physically big and strong enough.

We play counter attacking football for the most part which means we need attacking players that can run with the ball and create chances. Bent literally needs to get the ball in and around the 6 yard box to do anything with it.. That's not good for us.

i have no idea what style of football we play, and it looks like the players have no idea either. we could do we getting bent the ball in the final third with some regularity, let alone the 6 yard box. the same goes for gabby. we spent most of monday punting aimless balls up to them, or having them watch as deep booming crosses sail over their heads.

mind you, its not a surprise Mcleish is killing our strikers. last season blues scored just 37 league goals. their top scorer was craig gardner with 8. defenders accounted for another 8. phillips, jerome, zigic, o'connor, derbyshire, martins and mcfadden scored just 9 league goals combined. i know most of them are shit, but you should still be able to get more than 9 goals out of all of them. pretty clear mcleishs tactics were to play negative anti football and hope gardner could score a screamer or they could nick 1 from a set piece.

he has no idea how to utilise decent attacking players. blues couldnt score enough due to him and went down because of it. we are having the same troubles in scoring. hopefully its not the same result

This is a brilliant post and contains everything anyone with any doubts can't seem to understand.

Also, why on earth are people starting to argue about who they would keep out of Gabby and Bent?? So unnecessary! Everyone needs to calm down.

Unfortunately the board and current manager have created such paranoia around this club that people are starting to question which limbs we need to cut off when we don't even need to.

Christ.

Today was a new low. No one can argue that he can't do much with the players he has. It is now 99% his incompetence that is **** this team up on the pitch. Look at the game:

A) He took off Ireland........ wow.......just WOW.

He waited until the 85th to make an attacking substitution.

C) He did NOTHING at half time to change things.

He is someone who is VERY VERY bad at this job and now indefensible against criticism.

Andy Marshall anyone?

84 minutes. 0-2. And NOW he brings on Bannan?

Yet again a game with no clear cut chances.

Have we forced a save yet?

I'd have taken Bent off. I know most of us have forgotten he's even on the pitch.

Probably because we don't have a clue how to get the ball to him?

He had plenty of the ball in the first half, in Swansea's third too, but he's allergic to buildup play of course.

We knew that when we bought him. He's a finisher. A fox in the box.

I'd have taken Bent off. I know most of us have forgotten he's even on the pitch.

Probably because we don't have a clue how to get the ball to him?