skarroki

This thread is bordering surreal. It can only be in a dream world that Bannan is being lauded in such a way. He's a very average footballer who on very few occasions plays quite well but never has a stormer and who on more occasions plays poorly.

this has tickled me, can't stop laughing now

i cannot believe the Con is still spouting facts about Bannan. I rate Bannan personally and want him to stick around, he just looks like a better footballer when on the ball, like N'Zogbia, but also like N'Zogbia, i wish he would occasionally make a run and create space for someone who he can then pass to. He seems to use some of his best attributes and then supress others. I don't think he's a top 10 regular starter, but he could definitely fit into a top 10 squad and for that reason i want him to stay, his negative attributes aren't bad enough to cancel out what he can offer. He's also an academy player who i want to stick around on that Basis - at least our squad is then finished off with the best of a bad bunch of academy graduates, not the best of a bad lot of expensive 30-something year old high wage transfers

I still fail to see the reason why he was dropped, played better than all but 1 of our centre midfielders(Westwood) and even then its a toss up between the 2. We look a lot better on the ball with Bannan on the pitch. People on here criticise Bannan for the most insignificant things like the riskyish back pass to Given in the air against Bradford or when he lifted a pass to Baker instead of passing it on the ground. Both times we retained possession and started attacks but yet Bannan gets slated forit. The other times, people see isolated incidents where Bannan over hits a corner or a long pass and they seem to generalise that and come to the conclusion he hits too many long balls or he is a poor set piece taker.

 

Bannan brings us something that we don't have, a good ball player who can keep the ball under pressure. When we were drawing 1-1 against Arsenal with 20 mins remaining Bannan would've been ideal as instead of hoofing the ball aimlessly up field, he at least has the ability to keep the ball on the deck and pass it around. Something that no one else really has. For the goals and assists argument, Bannan isn't there to score goals, he's a deep-lying playmaker and he does that reasonably well. We haven't given Bannan the opportunity to play in an advanced role, for example where N'Zogbia plays at the moment, which would give him more opportunities to create. Bannan does create chances, its just a shame that most of which the chances he created have been wasted by strikers. Also Bannan gets a lot of 'second assists' i.e. he makes the pass before the pass that leads to the goal. 

 

Its not rocket science Bannan needs a big dominant midfielder next to him if we want him to be effective. He needs a Diame or a N'Zonzi to marshal the midfield and allow Bannan to play the passes. If not that, you need a system(like Swansea have) to maximise Bannan's ability, you need players who are also willing to pass and play nice attractive football. Bannan is at worst a very good asset to bring on at the 70 minute mark to keep possession(if winning) or to add some creativity(if losing).          

it's from a while back but couldn't agree more with this

 

we're 11th in the attendance league with an average of 36k, just below West Ham by 100-200. The attendance table and league position are fairly similar in fact, i'd say our attendances are the only stand-outs, our backing considering our league position is quite good, although of course newcastle and sunderland as always have massive attendance figures. west brom and swansea right down the bottom of the table too is purely down to stadium size i would imagine

 

They're doing well then considering their capacity is just over 35k

 

was going to use the link from ESPN to back me up, then realised it was a typo, sorry, meant 34k

http://espnfc.com/stats/attendance/_/league/eng.1/barclays-premier-league?cc=5739#

thats football. If was only "big" teams in premier league it would be boring. Swansea, Stoke, Wigan etc have earned the right to be in the Premier League compared to big teams like Leeds, Wolves and potentially us.

 i agree with that, my point is that if i supported a small team i would want to earn the right to play in the prem to play big teams, not other small teams punching above their weight.

it's nice to have a few in their and some success stories but i don't want the place completely littered with them, especially ones playing anti-football to stay their, spending money they simply don't have or clinging on in by a point or 2 year after year after year

we're 11th in the attendance league with an average of 36k, just below West Ham by 100-200. The attendance table and league position are fairly similar in fact, i'd say our attendances are the only stand-outs, our backing considering our league position is quite good, although of course newcastle and sunderland as always have massive attendance figures. west brom and swansea right down the bottom of the table too is purely down to stadium size i would imagine

 

if we go down and wigan stay up i will be enormously pissed off as a general football fan that a great football club with a big, local backing has once again fallen at the expense of an utter shite B-team to the Rugby club. Don't want sunderland down either because of the fanbase and stadium numbers they bring in every year. Got a soft spot for Norwich too but Stoke can go **** off if Wigan stay up

 

I cant agree. You stay up on merit and it is good for Premier LEague to have small teams like wigan stay in league every year instead of "bigger" teams

 

In spite of Whelan. if the situation was different Id be cheering Wigan to stay up

But why? they'll be over hundreds of thousands of people who will be absolutely gutted if we go down, wigan can't even sell tickets when they get to wembley! the only place small teams should be in the prem is on FIFA. If a small club makes it up and stays up and their fanbase grows, they want to be playing the biggest famous clubs in the country, surely? not getting the chance to play swansea, stoke, west brom, hull and wigan

if we go down and wigan stay up i will be enormously pissed off as a general football fan that a great football club with a big, local backing has once again fallen at the expense of an utter shite B-team to the Rugby club. Don't want sunderland down either because of the fanbase and stadium numbers they bring in every year. Got a soft spot for Norwich too but Stoke can go **** off if Wigan stay up

i would be very nervous right now but for some reason i have decided to completely right-off wigan. they need to pick up 3 more points than us before the end of the seaon and unfortunately for them i can't see it happening. They are relying on other teams, primarily us, to keep slipping up every week whilst they try to grab a few more points. then you've got sunderland who i am still not convinced by. I rate Di Canio and some of their players but it's too little too late for me. Stoke are still shit despite beating the worst team in the league and Norwich aren't much better either still. I'm not saying we're better than them, but i think we're on par, and with a better run-in than some of them.

We have to stay up

fact is i would rather have 25-30 players at the club who the manager wants, on fair wages. Having 20 or so and then a bunch of overpaid players who aren't featuring is pointless, even if they do have talent/ability/potential. Ireland fits into that category along with the likes of bent, makoun, hutton, etc so may as well leave and try to kick-start his career again

if we were to stay up and Wigan, QPR and Reading went down, my ideal transfer list would be:

OUT:

1 Given - out of favour

2 Hutton - out of favour

5 Dunne - end of contract

7 Ireland - out of favour

9 Bent - out of favour

17 Makoun - previous agreement

19 Petrov - end of contract

24 Dawkins - end of loan

33 Marshall - end of contract

I would also consider selling/loaning out Delfouneso, Herd and Lichaj but those 9 players are definite priority for leaving and 9 first-team players leaving is a lot as it is

IN - some of this list maybe not all

M'Bia - QPR

McCarthy - Wigan

Murphy - Crewe

Cavanda - Lazio

Hooper - Celtic

Sinclair - Man City

Douglas - Twente

Dier - Lisbon

Think all of those transfers are fairly realistic, some obviously harder than others to pull off but i think that lot would be a great bit of business and would start to push us higher up the table on a better wage budget

great stuff..great choice.. keeping players like holman is the reason were in the brown..ffs wba hit 40points 6-8weeks ago.. if you think holman or any player in not a mercenary think again..they are all the same pal.

oh yes of course they are lets write off and generalise about every person who's taken up a career in football. All the evidence is there of course.

don't really care what the football shirt ever looks like really, my only wish is that it changes significantly enough to make it worth paying for. I think we get that most years so i'm happy. If i was a Chelsea fan i would be fuming they've had the exact same shirt with slight changes in detail since 1971, bar changes to the badge

going to be going to this one a lot lot less confident than the QPR game but i am confident of winning this one. we have the quality its just the experience, but lambert knows how to play against a Di Canio side, we have the massive advantage of playing one of his sides earlier in the year, they will have done their homework then and they can combine it with what they are seeing now

would love it to be this season, potentially during half time right before the players come out to get the whole crowd bouncing and make the atmosphere incredible ready to push the villa players for one final 45 minutes

if i can't get a ticket in the away end i would be very tempted to get a ticket in the home stand, but got to admit i would be very panicky in the home end as i am prone to screaming out and jumping up. I am also worried that if the worse happened and wigan sent us down, that they would all jump around celebrating all teary eyed and pissed, and i would be stuck in the stand with them. Also the shit situation where i have to watch on at all the villa fans jumping about whilst i'm sat there pretending to be gutted.

Will still do it probably

We simply need to keep hold of Lambert if we are relegated. The man will come good for sure. Hopefully he can strengthen us this summer in the premier league.

he can only strengthen us in the summer if he gets some money to spend.

 

Do you really think he will?

he got a lot more than most managers in the UK last year and with a few high earners off the wage bill i would imagine he will get enough

Lambert needs to stay. He is building and should be allowed to continue to build to get us where we belong. Whether that means a season outside of the top flight then so be it. I have come to accept it anyway after the past 3 years.

If he can't keep us up what makes you think he'll build a team that will get us back to where we belong?

Where do we belong exactly? Who would you bring in to replace him if we went down? What exactly is your problem with him?

thats what i reckon it will finish like, and other than villa/wigan, their are 2 other massive games in the final week, southampton/sunderland and west ham/wigan. i've got us down to lose to wigan so if we beat them we'll end up finishing healthily and they will be relegated

will Baker be back for this? because i am actually starting to have a little confidence in Bennett now, even though i still believe he is essentially an out-of-position left mid player. 

Guzan

Lowton Vlaar Clark Bennett

Bannan Sylla Delph

Weimann Agbonlahor

Benteke

Is the formation i would play. I do not understand the people who are still against Delph, he was head and shoulders above everyone in the Man City game for our team and in passing it sideways and backwards he does exactly what Westwood does, with slightly less composure but lots more natural ability and a willingness to push forwards. Bannan looked good last game imo along with sylla, westwood i think should be left to have a rest and see how we do without him

i still really want him to do well here but i just cannot see it. one thing i have noticed a lot actually, leading on from the noone celebrating with him point, is that he is never talked to or mentioned by any of the academy guys on twitter, when they continue to mention the likes of craig gardner, liam ridgewell, jonathan hogg and even adam mcgurk. they've all been long gone now and yet the players still keep talking to them and wishing them well

i'm thinking we'll win this one. I think the positive vibes going round now and the lift that would have given the dressing room will be massive. I think QPR are going to be nervous for this, and the atmosphere is probably going to be more tense than it has been for years and years in the stadium.

Just bring back the points lads. 

would be great to have a good crowd in, there are lots of good deals going for this, like 1 ticket = 1 home/away villa shirt for £10, stuff to do with Acorns and family things. I think we'll drag a lot of fans down for this one, especially after the last result

GET IN!! bring on QPR

I thought the QPR game would be big and have been looking forward to going to see it for a while, but now it is finally coming up, and seeing just how close we are and how important it could be, i am very very nervous and will be a nervous wreck for most of the game. Hope against hope that we can push ourselves up the league with a win there and a surprise result against Liverpool. that will stick us on 33 which would stick us right in amongst a lot of teams who i thought were just too far ahead of us a few weeks back. teams like southampton, sunderland, norwich, fulham, newcastle, these are teams i think we should aim to be catching up with, if we keep looking over our shoulders for the rest of the season then we've got no room for error, we need at least 1 team to cushion us from relegation for me to feel just a bit more comfortable

still rate him as a manager, but no where near as highly as I did when he was at Norwich. I think a lot of managers would be in the same position he is in as it stands, but he was the right appointment at the time in my opinion and i don't think we should sack managers mid-season, so on that basis right man for the job for me right now, just time to watch these next 2 games and hope against hope that the players are determined and talented enough to soldier through them