leucopogon

dont fancy us at all in this one. Poor team selection, not enough guile

have to say i'm mystified by this team thats started, delph? why?

i went for 2, I'll say Upson and Campbell

Don't take this the wrong way, but who exactly do you think we can beat playing like we did? We are showing relagation scrap form if you take our last 1/3 of last seaon combined with what we played today. Its a worry.

From where I'm sitting its hard to see where the improvement is going to come from. There's a real lack of onfield leadership evident. Why he started petrov and delph in central midfield beggared belief. I have no idea why Reo Coker wasn't started? Maybe he's off to Fulham? Our defense is really in tatters. Not sure if signings will fix this rot that seems to have set in, unless its a Chelski/ManShitty style splurge (not that I advocate that, but we've lost arguabaly between 15-25 million pounds worth of talent and replaced them with a crocked winger, a tryer from a relegated team and an unproven lad from league 1.) Hope MON is able to pull something out of the hat because the signs are ominous.

a couple of take home points from this game: 1) we desperately lack leadership Petrov ain't a captain (our two main leaders are now gone). The only one who looks even remotely like a captain to me is James Milner but he's not really got the runs on the board to take the armband. 2) the signings we've made haven't strengthened us at all. 3) Nicky Shorey is on borrowed time (looks like another season at LB for luke young) 4) No carew, no villa. Sad day all round

in my heart of hearts I never imagined we'd look this bad without Laursen and Barry. We look pretty bloody ordinary.

Great article! I realise the need for strength in depth for our squad is paramount so signing Harewood is definitely astute for the reasons outlined by Richard. To be honest, though, I won't be all that concerned if depth players are all that we chase from here until the closing of the window. My reason is for the stability of the first XI. Remember the big season where Baros joined the villa? I remember watching that disastrous 4-0 drubbing at the hands of West Ham and thinking "this team (Villa) is a bunch of strangers, to each other!" We had many new faces in the team at the start of that season: Baros, Hughes, Milner, can't remember others but there were others, and the team did not gel at all. I think there's a lot to be said about stability and the results at the end of last term proved our First XI is a pretty competitive unit in the Prem. Sure we're probably not up to the challenge of winning away at Old Trafford yet, but we're not that far off giving them a serious run at Villa Park, and the Villa XI will be getting more acquainted with each other's styles all the time and playing better more solid football as a team. I'd be very happy if we were to sign one or two possible first teamers (a RB and a winger) for big money with the concomitant big expectations on their shoulders, and to fill out the rest of the gaps in the squad with average to good professionals for some of that strength in depth that we lacked last season. Too many big name signings is a dangerous game to play. We don't have as much cash to splash as Chelsea did when Roman took the reigns and even when they spent over 100 million pounds or whatever ludicrous amount it was, they still didn't even win the prem their first season, and haven't won a Champs League yet either. Building a solid team foundation and then adding in the missing links with quality signings should be the way forward. Stability in the team is a great attribute. I'm confident MON will make the right choices in the remaining time for this window, I'm just a little concerned that he's left it late to add important First teamers as there's really not much time before the new season kicks off for them to learn their role in the MON's villa and gel with their new teammates. Would love to see one big name come in this week, but won't be sharpening the razor to slit the wrists if it doesn't happen.

Went for other because I think that the Yakubu rumour has no substance; I'm sceptical about the Baros link; I doubt MVB is even remotely a possibility of playing for us; Hofland's a CB and we just signed one (yes I know D'OL said he wants another); Jagielka and Cahill...these two probably aren't worth the financial risk given our limited kitty; MGP maybe but I doubt it, he'll probably get snapped up by ManUtd. So I reckon it won't be any on that list. I'm going for a loan or Bosman signing of a backup player for our defense. Huth from Chelsea as has been rumoured or someone else that hasn't cropped up yet as back-up for Jlloyd. God knows who, but that's just my gut feeling.

Of course he can!!

Went for 6th-9th. I have to admit when it comes to fickleness I'm right up there. When we lose like we did against ManU the relegation alarm bells start ringing, but when we beat Leicester 5-0 I start thinking Europe. I suppose I should've taken the middle ground and gone for a mid table finish, but what the hey, I'm more optimistic with our new right winger.