Dchitz

Good tracking from ems, no way yellow

It won't come as any suprise that Richard Dunne should have dealt with that cross.

Piss off I can't see who it was but either delph or petrov was marking the invisible man

Neither the midfielders watching the runner, schoolboy, wake up

Walked past 3 players ffs

What ppl make of goodwillie

Good, solid half from us. Petrov and Delph looking good in the middle. Delph strong in the tackle and precise with his short passing, Petrov with four adventurous forward passes inside the first 20 minutes, 3 of them hitting the target and 1 of them leading up to the 1-0 goal!

Heskey and Gabby also playing well.

Keep it up, Villa, looking very good so far.

Get post

Delph looks class

He's doing well but wouldn't get too carried away based on opposition, he's holding so surely if pet is knackered on 60 well see ban an makoun or ireland

Free out eh?

Grt goal gabby, petrov playing some nice balls to the frontmen

Team will be unchanged from last week I'd imagine, looking forward to seeing delph with another game and weeks training under his belt,

I hope we try play an attacking style of football and not bang it long, I personally see blackburn as one of the weakest teams in the league (defo weakest non newbies) and have worst manager to boot. Kean doesn't have a rashers. Should win this one comfortably

Any clarification on why he was dropped to the bench on the weekend?

Seemed a bit odd, having started all (?) of the pre-season games to all of a sudden be dropped, and then not even brought on when Petrov was taken off.

FWIW, I thought he played fairly well pre-season, so I'm guessing there may have been something else behind this e.g. a niggling injury / illness.

Yes it was because he plays football and likes to pass the ball short which clearly AMC doesn't agree with.

Hoooofffffffffffff

I suppose the amount of touches depends on whether he has anyone to pass to....

Good to see him get a full 90 under his belt and hopefully he'll get more and more game time.

Wouldn't mind seeing him alongside Makoun and Petrov (at the expense of one of our striker 'wingers'!)

This would leave us still with no creativity in midfield. There seems to be a divided opinion on what kind of midfielder delph really is, I'd be interested to hear some ppls views

When I saw the starting 11 I thought we were in for a loss for sure, so I was pleasantly surprised...particularly with the performance in the 1st half. I thought we held the ball very well. Yes, we're lacking service but there was one Bent/Zog linkup which may be a foretelling of a developing partnership...let's hope.

I thought Ian Darke mentioned Makoun being unavailable due to an injury? Has anybody heard anything about that? Certainly needed some spark in the midfield in the 2nd half as Petrov's legs gave out, and as Delph, IMO, lost the thread of the game. I agree Ireland would have been better...anything to get it going. Thought Albrighton brought some energy and just missed on the outside post.

Frankly, I think all this about McLeish going overly defensive and just hoofig is nonsense. He may not have the personnel right yet, but I thought we showed an attacking willingness throughout, and was happy we were still making some attempt to win in the last 10 minutes, when we could have just packed in for the point. I thought our whole team played heroic defense today, and actually finished the damn game. One thing that used to kill me under MoN was that no result ever seemed safe at the end of games...we were constantly giving away points at the end of matches. I saw no flagging effort today and thought the team worked like fiends.

Yes, we need more creativity in the midfield and service for Bent. Hopefully it will come as the team works together.

Completely agree, fact of the matter is delph was non existent in the second half and petrov was knackered after 40 mins, I wonder if delph had been a regular last year would everyone been that impressed with his performance.

That said I would of liked to of seen warnock get forward a bit more and thought gabby really had lost interest in the second half, bent had no support there was one stage when we had a relatively slow build up and even with this there was no one on the pen spot when bent got to the byline, heskey needs to be looking at himself here.

We never really looked like scoring, but we also looked fairly comfortable to me. Not sure we can get away with that 11 at home though, we really need to have a bit more craft and inventivness at Villa Park.

Who exactly are we meant to bring in to the first 11 to create goals?

Ireland or Makoun, or both!

THIS.

Inzogbia on the left marc on the right, a midfield 3 who inteligently support bent and who try play those balls in bent the cb to bent.

WE do not have a number 10 type player stop putting ppl in that role AMC

Bent is a liability if we don't play a player who can pass it too him

Our best striker (by a mile) is a liability if we flog every player who can create chances, and don't replace them?

No **** kidding.

There's one man who comes out of this badly, and his name isn't Darren Bent.

O I completely agree I just think Ireland and makoun should of at least gotten 15mins

Bent is a liability if we don't play a player who can pass it too him

Delph is pulling the strings, really needs a defensive mid next to him though.

Warnock looking good but considering we have 4 forwards on the pitch, we aint created much.

Gonna be a long old season at this rate, no real spark.

Are we actually watching the same player, he isn't getting forward at all he is the dm if anything, has no creativity and certainly no "pulling strings".

That said I think he is doing his job well

Does he need to play centre forward to pull strings

Any penetrative passing has come from him and you want to take him off even though Petrov will be out on his feet after 60 mins?

That will likely leave us a centre mid pairing of Bannen and Ireland at the end of the game. Good luck with that!

Where did I say centre forward I mean one midfielder supports the front

two every once in a while, we have Clark and makoun on the bench too,

Sorry but I honestly can't think of any penetrative pass considering our chances came from a dune long ball, nzogbia cross, long shot

I take it back delph is pulling strings alright

Funny old thing, 60 minutes have gone, Petrov disappears and all of sudden the midfield gets swamped.

Predictable! Delph is not a defensive mid and he shouldnt be doing the work of two men so Petrov can **** swan around wearing the armband.

Don't give it that delph never came out after 45, petrov poor too

I would watch the game harder mate. Look where Delph tries/tried to pass it and then look where Petrov used to pass it before his legs went.

Are you watching this on the playstation? :winkold:

Are u for real I'm saying there both out of game, why u keep bringing up petrov, every second post sayin midfield ain't supporting attack

Delph is pulling the strings, really needs a defensive mid next to him though.

Warnock looking good but considering we have 4 forwards on the pitch, we aint created much.

Gonna be a long old season at this rate, no real spark.

Are we actually watching the same player, he isn't getting forward at all he is the dm if anything, has no creativity and certainly no "pulling strings".

That said I think he is doing his job well

Does he need to play centre forward to pull strings

Any penetrative passing has come from him and you want to take him off even though Petrov will be out on his feet after 60 mins?

That will likely leave us a centre mid pairing of Bannen and Ireland at the end of the game. Good luck with that!

Where did I say centre forward I mean one midfielder supports the front two every once in a while, we have Clark and makoun on the bench too,

Sorry but I honestly can't think of any penetrative pass considering our chances came from a dune long ball, nzogbia cross, long shot

I take it back delph is pulling strings alright

Funny old thing, 60 minutes have gone, Petrov disappears and all of sudden the midfield gets swamped.

Predictable! Delph is not a defensive mid and he shouldnt be doing the work of two men so Petrov can **** swan around wearing the armband.

Don't give it that delph never came out after 45, petrov poor too

Get Ireland on for deplh ffs

Get tackle marc

Delph is pulling the strings, really needs a defensive mid next to him though.

Warnock looking good but considering we have 4 forwards on the pitch, we aint created much.

Gonna be a long old season at this rate, no real spark.

Are we actually watching the same player, he isn't getting forward at all he is the dm if anything, has no creativity and certainly no "pulling strings".

That said I think he is doing his job well

Does he need to play centre forward to pull strings

Any penetrative passing has come from him and you want to take him off even though Petrov will be out on his feet after 60 mins?

That will likely leave us a centre mid pairing of Bannen and Ireland at the end of the game. Good luck with that!

Where did I say centre forward I mean one midfielder supports the front two every once in a while, we have Clark and makoun on the bench too,

Sorry but I honestly can't think of any penetrative pass considering our chances came from a dune long ball, nzogbia cross, long shot

I take it back delph is pulling strings alright

Inzog getting dispossessed to often

Delph is pulling the strings, really needs a defensive mid next to him though.

Warnock looking good but considering we have 4 forwards on the pitch, we aint created much.

Gonna be a long old season at this rate, no real spark.

Are we actually watching the same player, he isn't getting forward at all he is the dm if anything, has no creativity and certainly no "pulling strings".

That said I think he is doing his job well

Does he need to play centre forward to pull strings

Any penetrative passing has come from him and you want to take him off even though Petrov will be out on his feet after 60 mins?

That will likely leave us a centre mid pairing of Bannen and Ireland at the end of the game. Good luck with that!

Where did I say centre forward I mean one midfielder supports the front two every once in a while, we have Clark and makoun on the bench too,

Sorry but I honestly can't think of any penetrative pass considering our chances came from a dune long ball, nzogbia cross, long shot

How can ppl say heskey offers nothing, he's positional sense is quite good and done well to make those chances just lacked the finish cut him some slack, bent just runs into offside positions all first half

I think it's a disgrace Petrov and Heskey are still with us. Any reasonable club would have had those 2 players sold by now without these ridiculous contracts and wages.

Gabby should never start. At best on the bench.

And Collins, **** hell....

The team is looking too static. We won't see many goals by this season. There's no way Bent will get 20 goals.

Fu*kin hell, thank god were not losing