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PB

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Posts posted by PB

  1. You all know we're going to get Chelski though don't you? They will batter Leeds tonight and we will inevitably get them and over 2 legs they will beat us.

    (I'm taking the same approach to the Liverpool match thread where I predicted a 3-0 stuffing so fingers crossed)

    Why worry about Chelsea? Even in the deep dark depths of last season we scored 5 against them in the league. Villa Park is about as close to a bogey ground as Chelsea have. Would rather play them over 2 legs than at Wembley, thats for sure

  2. Hence my references to Benteke in his first set of games for us and I did not make that assumption on just one misplaced pass or header. It was his overal performance in those games I was commenting on which was poor. He has since then shoved those comments down throats of the doubters including myself.

    I dont know what you were watching then, because quite alot of people could see in those early games that the lad had massive talent. Im not only saying that because I was one of them and said so repeatedly and loudly in the face of the frankly bizarre criticism he was getting.

    To be so over the top dismissive of a player who quite clearly had a hell of alot about him hints at a pretty deep and dark cynicism that does you no favours

    People need to relax, be patient, and you know what? Be bloody optimistic. We are supposed to be fanatical supporters of our football team. Im not saying to blindly follow, me of all people could not preach that without massive hypocrisy, but when things are clearly on an upcurve, enjoy it, accept it will take time. Dont be so hasty to paint yourself into a stupid corner you then feel the need to defend.to such ridiculous extents

    • Like 1
  3. "As for Benteke' date=' if you are one of those currently giving the lad a hard time, you WILL eat your words. I hope you eat them with the lad still at Villa and not being driven out by the boo boys, but one day you will see that the lad is quality. Look what he does at the front of a serious Belgium team (who play 4-2-3-1). if he can hold his own in that company and score against the likes of Serbia and Holland, then he is easily good enough for us. He will score goals, as long as the fans dont crush him as they have done others before.

    What about Bent? What about him. We spent 75 minutes on Saturday playing with ten men. His time has gone, Let him go to QPR, Benteke is the better bet by far.."

    22 Oct 2012

    http://www.villatalk...ot-good-enough/

  4. Interesting words from Townsend..

    Basically said defenders aren't sure how to handle Benteke he said they will obviously watch videos etc but don't know how to deal with him.

    It'll be interesting to see how he does near the end of season and next season and if he is still making the same impact.. imo he will because most teams struggle with physical players like him.

    He has such massive strength, so you cant stick close or he will brush you off (see Smalling, Skrtel). You cant give him space either because of his technical ability. He will win more than share in the air, and is equally adept on the floor. He has this great ability to ghost into space, he is unselfish, hard working a proper team player.

    How do you defend that?

  5. I think West Ham will end up in the relegation battle. Seeing their bench now before the crucial christmas period, it will be tougher and tougher for them.

    I see the same as Hull a few years ago, starting extremely well, but finishing terrible (they barely made it, and they were 6th after 15 matches).

    West ham are all about Diame. If he is fit and playing they are a really decent team, without him they are pretty weak

    I just hope people realise that there will be down days again this season, piss poor performances and losses along with us still being down there.

    Just try and have to faith and control the knee jerk reactions.

    of course there will be, we are a ridiculously young team. Did they say on MOTD that bannan was our most experienced player yesterday? Thats silly. What you look for, as I said a few weeks ago, is improvement over groups of games. I think i said (after the Norwich game) that we needed to be turning the new year with 20 points or more.. Doing so would show a really big step up from the start of our season. It is a measure of how much we have improved that it seems unlikely we will turn the new year with less than 20 points, whereas when I wrote that it looked a tall order I think this shows that we should very much be looking upwards in the table. I am EXTREMELY confident that we wont finish lower than where we are.now.

    I am starting to think top half might be possible, and if we achieve that it would be a truly remarkable achievement for lambert

  6. We spent most of the match defending and broke out for three devastatingly fast and accurate goals. So arguably we didn't pose much of a "threat" at all. I don't think anyone claims football is played with statistics. Nor is it played with empty concepts like "goal threat".

    Ok,so just to clarify in a non withering put down way.

    What I meant to say, is that despite our apparent lack of shots, I have felt in all four games now of 3-5-2 that we look far more likely to score goals, I have been much more confident that we could and would score goals than at any time for about five years

    Now i understand thats my subjective opinion, but its an opinion now being borne out. I had no doubt at all watching yesterday's game that we would win . Liverpool may have had more shots and possession, but never really looked threatening, never really looked likely to break us down. We, however, looked every time that we broke like we could score. We carried the greater threat.

    Thats all I meant by shots having no real correlation to goal threat, that the two arent related. I think thats pretty clear, and Im not sure why you feel so upset by me pointing it out, but as I appear to have somehow offended you,I'm sorry, no offence meant,.

  7. Claiming that "statistics don't mean a thing" is quite an astounding statement but specifically saying that a lack of shots on goal has nothing to do with "goal threat" has floored me. How else does "goal threat" translate into goals and how come we are the lowest scoring side in the premier league despite our goal threat?

    How many shots did we have today? How much threat did we pose?

    Football isnt played with statistics

  8. Mantis, do you think Norwich will field a stronger side today ?

    Considering that they brought back two players from injury who had been first picks before, and otherwise fielded eight of the nine who started the game at Swansea, how do you think they could strengthen? They may well make some changes, but thats because they just got tanked at home by a team they thought they'd beat

    Why is it that the team and managers biggest critics, the hardest to please, the last to be convinced, are the clubs own fans? Isnt it supposed to be the other way around?

  9. I don't really count the League Cup as we all know PL teams don't really take it seriously.

    It's the PL games that matter.

    \you dont think Norwich and Villa took the game seriously on Tuesday? Really? Wow, I thought that both teams and both sets of fans gave it everything.

    Mmmm...

    Last 3 games:

    vs QPR 3 - shots on goal

    vs Stoke - 5 shots on goal

    vs Norwich - 13 shots on goal

    So, last 3 games? - No!

    Last game? Yes.

    Statistics dont mean a thing. In all three games we looked like we could score, we had decent pressure, we had decent possession. Yeah we struggled second half v QPR but otherwise. We didnt always turn that into shots, but thats just not the same thing as goal threat in any sense..

  10. Once Vllar is back we should switch back to 4-4-2.

    Playing with 3CB , week in - week out - especially for home games won'y yeild us enough goals IMO.

    The reason we need 3cbs currently is that Clark isn't good enough to play in a 2CB partnership. If we stick with 3cb's long term - thats will serverley limit out attacking options

    And yet we seem to have posed a greater goal threat in our last three games than any others?

    3-5-2 can be a very attacking formation, depends on your full backs and the attacking one of the three midfield players

    When we last won the League cup in 96 we played a VERY attacking 3-5-2

  11. Reading are going down. QPR are too far behind too, if they were going to stay up they would have won one of their last two games which they must have viewed as must wins. Because they didnt win either of those (against us and Wigan), I dont think they'll invest in january as they wont want to go down with a massive wage liability- if anything they might even cut some existing players loose. So that leaves one spot. There is just no way that we are the worst team of those left. Wigan, Sunderland, Southampton and even Norwich imho are all going to finish below us.

    Relax and enjoy our improvement.

    • Like 2
  12. Just like the thousands who held up the £ signs and wanted rid of Doug.

    The people organizing the pound sign protest were very careful to give the manager and players their full and unconditional support. As I wrote the press releases for the organisation behind the protests I can tell you that this was explicit throughout

    • Like 1
  13. I actually think we are massively over rating bentekke as a goal scorer - good + promising player that he is - if we rely almost totally on him for goals it ain't going to be enough.

    In the system we play we need goals from midfield, especially those who play behind the striker - Gabby, Holmann, Ireland. Thats whats missing so far. Benteke is doing an awesoime job. but youre right, we shouldnt rely on him to carry all thej goal threat

  14. Don't remember draws being viewed as such a success last year. Wasn't it a big part of us having such a low points total?

    One could argue that we drew jsust enough games to stay up...... however, we arent drawing as much this year are we? Can you not see a draw as being a good result sometimes?

  15. A point away from home when youre at this end of the table is almost always a good result. Under the circumstances, first home game for their new manager and the crowd really being up for it, the second half battering we took, I think a draw is a really good result under those circumstances. Many people on here were predicting we'd get mullahed so presumably those people are very happy with the draw? I also dont think the performance was *that* bad, first half it was pretty decent - its the first half of football we've had more than 50^ possession away form home all season I'd imagine.Second half, yeah we were outplayed, but, and its a MASSIVE but, we didnt concede, and even as recently as a couple of weeks ago we'd have crumbled under that kind of pressure. We have needed all season to start getting better at holding onto things, and the last 3 games we have shown real progress in that department. So there are positives to be found. We are getting there. The kids are adjusting to the League, we are getting harder to beat, our second halfs are improving. Yes, we need to get better, of course we do, but we are showing signs that we are doing exactly that

  16. I think we are showing signs of it coming together. We are playing more as a team, we look less fragile, more resilient. There is still clearly massive room for improvement but we are getting there.in stages. I think this is also the general view of most people who have seen villa recently from what I read and hear

    You know what I'd love? I'd love these kids to get a shot at Wembley in the League Cup Final

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