poitier

He did well to elbow Suarez in the head. Notice that Liverpool didn't kick the ball out as he was rolling about holdng his head and screaming like a girl.

Great team performance and a lot of very good individual performances too, but Bacuna loses a mark for his terrible play-acting.

Good to have Benteke back moving about the pitch and wanting the ball.

I have never particularly rated Bertrand, but he is an obvious step up in quality compared to what we have. Hope he likes it here.

I'm worried about the influence he might have on Weimann:

"You call that a pie? That's not a pie... this is a pie."

At least we came out of it with some credit, but so much of our supposedly better second half play was just lumping the ball from Guzan to Benteke.

I think we will do ok. Concerned that Vlaar isn't fully fit though, and he won't last the distance.

The bookies will be praying we don't lose tonight or it will cost them millions.

 

 

 

Think we need KEA in for this one.

On what basis ?

 

Someone needs to try and break up their play.

Yes. So why mention KEA ?

 

I know you consider yourself to be a better player than him, but he would seem to be our best bet on that front.

 

Think we need KEA in for this one.

On what basis ?

 

Someone needs to try and break up their play.

Think we need KEA in for this one.

I think we was just trying to earn himself a yellow card, there was no way he could seriously have expected the ref to buy that.

 

I have not been impressed by Holtby thus far.

 

What about when he tore us apart at Villa Park earlier in the season? He's a top quality player and would be a fantastic signing.

 

The list of players that have torn us apart stretches all the way down to the second division this season and last, I don't necessarily take that as an indication of great quality.

I have not been impressed by Holtby thus far.

So don't lay any of the blame on Lerner, the budget, or the players, it is all Lambert's fault?

We are 11th in the league, which is apparently punching above our weight when comparing the relative cost of the squads/wages. Sure, we all like to think that Villa are/should be a bigger club than that, but if it is true then Lambert is doing well IF he can keep us around there this season.

This was a great chance to either rest a lot of players or hammer lower league opposition to maintain some momentum. Lambert has made a right pigs breakfast of this match in so many ways, but those players really need to take a long hard look in the mirror.

Weimann should share his pies with Helenius to bulk him up.

It has come at a bad time in his development I think. He was starting to adapt to the PL, and while he doesn't seem to be a particularly physical player I was impressed with his attitude in the Stoke game, where he certainly didnt allow himself to be bossed or intimidated.

Hopefully this is just a delay to his progress rather than something which prevents him from going on to fulfil his potential here.

I would be hapy with a point from this one.

I think that a lot of the ratings in this thread aren't taking into account how little some of these players cost.

If you buy a player who turns out to be a mediocre to average premier league player for £1m, in my mind that is a good signing. Ideally you wouldn't want them to be playing every week, but that is more to do with the overall squad quality rather than how good a signing that player was. Yes, the quality of the squad is, of course, dependant on the quality of the signings, but that is largely determined by how much you can spend on a player.

Petrov on Tonev when we signed him:

"I think Villa fans have one exciting player on their hands. He doesn't have a dominant foot which is really interesting.

"He is the kind of player who can really make an impact in this young, exciting team. We spoke last night and he is really looking forward to it. He knows that it will be a challenge but he is ready for it."

well lets not forget that petrov was largely shite for his first 16 months here

But Petrov played really well on his debut, so you knew the talent was there. Still waiting for Tonev to show any.

His goals came from forward positions.

I think he represents everything that is wrong with our play. He wasn't good enough to play regularly last year so why play him this season

It wasn't a case of not being good enough, he had a couple of periods out through injury and also went to the African nations cup.