steell

Makoun is class, anyone who disagrees is obviously anti Houllier. You can tell he is a lot better than anything else we have in midfield, some of the one touch through balls into space he made yesterday were quality and it's not his fault Petrov is so slow and negative minded that he has to track back just incase. If we had a CDM in midfield who could work next to him, similar to NRC, he would be allowed to play the game he wants, not sit back and protect Petrov.

I'm not anti-Houllier. But neither am I anti-Petrov. Time will tell but I'm yet to be convinced that Makoun is any better than Bannan.

In that case you should watch the last few games. Nothing more to be said.

I've seen them, thanks for the advice. That's how I came to my opinion. Nothing more to be said.

Makoun is class, anyone who disagrees is obviously anti Houllier. You can tell he is a lot better than anything else we have in midfield, some of the one touch through balls into space he made yesterday were quality and it's not his fault Petrov is so slow and negative minded that he has to track back just incase. If we had a CDM in midfield who could work next to him, similar to NRC, he would be allowed to play the game he wants, not sit back and protect Petrov.

I'm not anti-Houllier. But neither am I anti-Petrov. Time will tell but I'm yet to be convinced that Makoun is any better than Bannan.

Johnny boy will have to take the bad with the good. And unfortunately today he only made 3 tackles in the entire game of which none were successful. Compare that to 14 made and 11 successful from Petrov. Zero is, quite obviously, not enough from a central midfielder even if his primary job is passing. He did well passing it, as did Stan. J2M just needs to get himself more involved with the breaking up of opposition play and he'll be grand.

These stats are clearly wrong, Makoun is world class and Petrov is a disabled chimp who was awful today. Sorry, I'm posting for effect, but the facts speak for themselves and show up those who jump on either the 'messiah' or 'scapegoat' bandwagons.

I'm not saying Petrov was great, he wasn't, but the comments that Makoun was 'world class' on today's performance is an absolute joke.

It's all about opinions I know, but I must have been watching a completely different game today. I thought he was poor, sorry. He rarely won a clean tackle, his distribution was awful in the second half, yes he plays everything one touch which is nice on the eye but he just didn't put the ball into dangerous areas. There was no way he was better than Petrov today.

Baker is VERY defensive isn't he, don't think he's crossed the halfway line all match.

We are very poor. Young does not play that 'in the hole' role well at all. Let's get Albrighton on and let DJ play on the left.

We're not going to win this game with this formation.

btw ssn take it as

-------------------Friedel

-----------Collins----------Dunne

Cuellar--------------------------------Baker

------------NRC----------Makoun

Young-----------------------------------Downing

-------------Bent----------Gabby

That's the line up I'd like to see

Anyone else amazed at how the media are reporting this?! You'd have thought that it was West Brom signing him, all the shock and questions about why he would join Villa. Kevin Phillips is now in on the act. I know there's a debate on here about how far away we are from Spurs in terms of size of club, but please don't tell me there's any doubt that we're bigger than Sunderland?! We've had a bad half season, but we'll be back, and Bent knows that. Simple as.

I think Delph definitely would walk into our team atm...

I think he got to that stage a while ago. We really need him to be able to run and kick a ball as well.

Voted yes. I know it isn't going to be popular but some of the histrionics on here are completely laughable. I'm not bothered in the slightest about the Liverpool comments, they mean absolutely nothing, MON talked about Celtic and Leicester incessantly for the first two years, but slowly stopped - when the media are framing every question in the light of 'ex Liverpool manager' Gerard Houllier, it's inevitable that GH answers in that vain, that'll stop after a while.

I'm as frustrated as the next Villa fan but we have crippling injury problems, he hasn't had a transfer window, we sold our best player in the close season, we've been a bit unlucky with stupid scrappy goals against and, in my opinion, GH has been excellent in making brave and sensible team selections, I still think (with the exception of the first half at Liverpool) we have been learning to play a more positive, better to watch, approach to attacking football. I'm convinced that with Petrov, Albrighton, Young and Cuellar coming back in plus a couple of decent signings and we could have a decent second half of the season.

I'd like to at least see him here until the end of the season.

I love it. It's great that Houllier isn't afraid to give this a go, I'd much rather this approach than calling on players who are older and have pretty much proven that they're not going to make it. We may get hammered but I think it could prove more beneficial in the long term to lose playing a team like this than lose playing Sidwell et al knowing that they're good enough.

Can't wait!

Great win, very happy but still a bit frustrated that we've got wingers in the middle and central players on the wing! I'm sure GH knows what he's doing, and GMc will certainly know the difference, but I do hope they sort it out soon. With Young and Downing playing so well, it sounds crazy, but I honestly think we'd have a more balanced team if we dropped one of them. If it was my shout I'd go Young-Ireland-Petrov-NRC-Albrighton, I think we'd dominate teams and free up Ireland to join Gabby or Super Emile going forward. And as for Sidwell, he's dropped behind Bannan, Gardner, Delph, Osbourne and now Gary McAllister.

Well to be fair, if he wins one trophy at Villa that is more prestigous than the league cup then he will be our most successful manager for 27 years.

Ouch!

Very true but still, keep it to yourself mate, you might put Gerard off.

I've completely come round on this appointment. I was seriously underwhelmed but now it looks like a done deal I'm not sure why I ever felt that way.

I disagree that he's the best of a bad bunch, the more I read about him I think he could have a deep and lasting impact on the whole club, bringing about a more realistic and dynamic approach to bringing in new players and I'm now convinced that we can't get anybody better.

Good work Randy.

I see Zola's just plummeted to 2/1

Okay,

While we are touching on DOFs and hype, does anybody think that Mr Lerner would consider approaching Beckham for a player manager's role?

I have been convinced that something will come out of the left field, and that is well left!

Love it, completely ridiculous but love it anyway! I can see Posh tottering down Sparkbrook as we speak.

I have to say after largely reading this thread that I'm coming around to the idea of keeping things as is and just integrating Albrighton, Delfouneso and eventually Delph when fit. Risky I know but with all due respect to McGeady, would rather blood Albrighton than pay £8-10mil on someone who could just as easily flop at the level.

Ideally I think we all wanted O'Neill to spend a fair few million on a top striker, but if that isn't going to happen lets try Delfouneso, who is fairly universally rated amongst Villa people, as talented.

I think the thing we have going for us is that we look nailed on for top 8, the gulf between us and say Blues, Blackburn et al, is quite large.

I sort of agree but I think we're just a couple of players away from stepping up to the next level, I really do, and to this is the best chance we've got of doing that, or be confined for being 'top 8' for decades to come.

I know he's well loved on here but Albrighton is not the messiah people are making him out to be, he's a good little player undoubtedly but I'm yet to see him play against real opposition and play well. Delfouneso will only score goals for us if he get's the service and that's really where the problem lies. If we begin this season with Sidwell anywhere near the first 11 then we will have a very tricky season. However if we can lose him, NRC and Heskey, replacing them with a central midfielder like Ireland and a confident, pacey winger like Bellamy or possibly McGeady then we have a chance of actually changing how we play a bit and this will make all the difference. We have a very good defence, if it has a decent midfield breaking up play in front of it and in Carew and Gabby we have two forwards who are capable of scoring against any team but only if they don't have to come to deep.

It sounds simple but I'm convinced that we're very close to being an excellent team and this is not the time to consolidate and start playing the youngsters, if they truly are good enough then they'll force their way in but at the moment we're in the tragic position that MON turns to Sidwell and Heskey to turn a match around and that is the difference. I'd like to see a significantly improved first 11, with midfield being the absolute priority, and then Albrighton, Delfounseo and Delph being regularly used from the bench.

gotta say lichaj is understated and very solid, of all the youngsters he could be the one that saves us buying another player

Hope you're watching Fulham, he's all yours!!

Sidwell is so poor!!!!

really wish we'd just let downing play on the left and albrighton on the right, this switching thing just doesn't work!

I like them both.

It's funny some of the reactions on here though, I get that people don't like it but it's a bit sad that some seem to be angry at the club that they weren't personally consulted. It's a football kit for goodness sake, there's no chance that everybody's going to be happy with it, and to imply that Villa have messed up because you don't like it is a bit weird.

I trust Randy on this but they look exactly like the sort of company that is one stock market crash away from being EX-FxPro. I don't care but with all the companies out there, I'm a bit surprised that our supposedly philanthropic owner has opted for one that is part of the seedier end of the banking/finance industry.

Just imagining Barca giving up 'Unicef' for 'BAE'

You can't compare us to Barca at all. Barca make bucketloads of cash and can afford to do the things they do and still compete. I'm sure if we could continue to do so we would have.

I agree, that wasn't the point I was making. I just wondered if there was a more appropriate sponsor out there - I guess it's not easy to go from dying children to anything but a currency trading company just fells a bit, I don't know, desperate?