Junxs

They got a man sent off at Villa Park and it didn't make a difference. It's better to play against 11 men and it made it a better game. It's their day today.

Yes Richard, but the scores were level then, would they have been able to chase the game with 10 men?

its Richard Dunne.

Not David Dunn

Mellberg was here for years but you still see loads of people calling him "Olaf"

Been delighted with Dunne and I was one of the few on here who were actually happy when we signed him.

Having said that, it's going to take more than 4 months of solid performances by Dunne to convince me he's an improvement on Laursen.

Laursen gets my vote, but ask me again in 3 years and I may change my mind.

Tranmere for me, I'm 32

After the red card in the Blackburn game (with the penalty scored) it was pretty much decided, whereas the Tranmere game went to the wire taking Bosnich heroics to save us.

He scored what I consider to be the best goal of all time, If Carew had half his ability I'd be very happy.

World class, every striker goes missing for periods during a game.

doesn't the team normally get announced by now? cant find it anywhere..

But we're not outside the top 4

Sky actually showed a "top 4 and Villa" league table earlier today!

I swtched on just as it disappeared off screen, but we were second, equal on points at the top with Chelsea (9 points)

I was amazed to see sky show something like that, it almost felt like they were taking us seriously

During todays game between Liverpool and Arsenal, Martin Tyler was talking about us and how well we're doing mentioning wins over ManU, Liverpool and Chelsea saying something along the lines of "we need to come up with a new term now other than the big 4"

As for AVTV I really don't see why we can't show live streaming of reserve / youth games, every time I ask the general he just shrugs it.

And why do we restrict ourselves to 5 minute highlights, why cant they show the whole game again. They did one of the preseason games (Fiorentina?) and i enjoyed watching the full 90 minutes.

I'd hapilly pay double the membership if they could do this.

It's ok, gives you what you need. Hasnt actually changed that much from 2 weeks back.

Don't see what the fuss about the MC one is, I've only managed to find one that seems to be for the partially blind.

Heskey played on the wing more than once for Leicester and Liverpool. He can play there.

I still can't believe people just think striker = goalscorer. He's never scored many, no, but he's often helped other strikers score more, particularly at Liverpool with Owen. Thats why people buy him, to anchor attacks and play off him.

Interesting theory, shame Heskey can't do that either (at Villa at least). I'm sure Owen scored just as many if not more when not playing alongside Heskey. Be intereting to see his goals per game ratio at Liverpool with and without Heskey alongside him.

How do you know he had the whole world to choose from? Like it or not, Heskey is an England international, and the current England manager also plays him, despite his poor goalscoring record.

I've already explained all the parts ive deleted from your quote in previous posts in this thread.

As for the world to choose from, are you seriously saying that Emile Heskey was the ONLY striker available around the entire planet for a move in January? Or do you think MON just pounced on a player that he has worked with previously due to relative success in the past?

As for England, If you did a poll for the worst player in the England team I GUARANTEE that he would top that poll too (and by some distance - probably over 90%). I personally don't see how he gets picked for the squad let alone the team, but apparently he plays brilliantly for them (I must be watching different games).

When Heskey came we were one striker away from a real shot at champions league football

I disagree. When Heskey came goal scoring wasn't a major problem, keeping them out at our end was. The number of games where we should not have conceded 2nd half of the season I cannot begin to remember.

To blame Heskey as the reason for that iws scapegoating a player who has never been renowned for his goal scoring. By all means slate him for not holding the ball up etc etc (which to be fair he hasn't done a bad job at - no worse than Carew) but to blame Heskey for our failures is a little harsh.

I'm not blaming Heskey, I'm blaming MON for buying Heskey when he had the whole world to choose from..

Defence was alright, we had the numbers but not the quality. The Laursen injury turned out a lot worse than we thought at the time.

Carew had been missing for a while and our third choice was Harewood who MON didn't want anywhere near the team. We were playing with one striker with no proper backup. In truth a defender or two wouldn't have gone a miss but the manager decided only a striker was required and he bought one that has a worse scoring record than our defender who was out injured.

no Salifou is pure dog shite..

How much did Salifou cost? and how much did Heskey cost?

Also see Agathe, Sutton, Routledge to an extent too. These were just cheap stop gaps.

When Heskey came we were one striker away from a real shot at champions league football.

Theres been other players at big prices who arent doing it either but theyre all relatively young with room for improvement. We bought Heskey in his 30s.

The thought of a NRC and Sidwell combination makes it look like we've not progressed so much since the McCann and Bakke days

I've always had to defend Angel on extreme criticism, it's very refreshing to see him leading in a poll like this.

So who was our best right midfielder from 2000 to now??

:oops:

Speaking of which though, I missed that poll but I see Milner won it.

I would have voted Solano because he was class.

Yes he was only here for a year and a half but Milner has only been here a bit longer and was very poor most of last season.

Anyway, left wing - I vote 'lets move on to the strikers'.

That's mine, it seems to have got confused with something as it doesn't look too much like me.

Has anyone started a VT league yet, or shall I start a new topic for it?

Merson, he was truly magical.

Its all good having downloaded squad updates, but thats only for online play.

When you play offline it goes back to the default squad ie no Dunne at Villa.

unless im doing something wrong?

I only got 3 online games in (all Villa) before I left for work, won 2 lost 1. Beat someone with Real Madrid 6-1

unfortunately at work I cant play online so in manager mode (world class) I seem to be struggling scoring, create chance after chance but the only way I can scoreis by squaring it to a free player (even then if its raining the ball sticks and the keeper collects) or by rebounds. Keeper saves everything! EVen headers, 3 yards out completely free and they put it wide everytime, even Carew ffs!

Cant remember having this problem playing in online mode earlier, maybe its something to do with MM or world class mode.

Im glad you can practice free kicks in training mode now, thats what i struggled with last year.

4-4-2 as I want Angel in the team.

4-5-1 and he may have to miss out.

He has done more for us THIS decade than Ian Taylor, which is one of the reasons I believe this poll is for (to try and fit Tayls in).

Anyone tell us what the online game mode is like this year? hopefully you can set up tournaments and better leagues.