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Rocafella

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  1. All of which we played away from home. End of discussion? Petrov will surely return to the side because MON thinks he is the best defensive midfielder in the world.
  2. An official assist is being the last person on the ball before the goalscorer smacks it into the net. Thus, passing for someone to be fouled for a penalty is not an assist. It is on Fantasy league, but that is only created so people can get more points for their gameday. However, should Sidwell's miserable shot against the post count as an assist for James Milner? I don't think so!
  3. Given the money we obviously have, the option of bringing in a 5M player instead of a free transfer is always open. So comparing a such signings is possible. Bringing in Salifou has been worthless. Never plays, doesn't speak English. Which means he doesn't contribute in the changing room, I mean how could he? He just sits there collecting his money, playing some Reserve games and watches the first team games from the best seats in the house. World-class signings? None - thus we are not making an effort to stop Arsenal and Liverpool. Money talkes, no matter how you twist the truth. Best signings? Ashley Young, Stephen Warnock, Curtis Davies and Fabian Delph. For ability and obvious future potential ability of course... Reliable signings? John Carew, James Collins, Richard Dunne, James Milner (althought I struggle to see his worth attacking-wise), Luke Young, Stiliyan Petrov and Brad Friedel Disappointing signings? Emile Heskey, Carlos Cuellar, Nicky Shorey, Steve Sidwell, Nigel Reo-Coker Remains to be seen? Stewart Downing, Brad Guzan, Habib Beye - although I think all three will be a success somewhat in their role Failures? Moustapha Salifou - incredibly pointless signing. Not young, no promise, no talent, no ability, doesn't speak English, doesn't develop... why not throw him out? Wayne Routledge - at the time, I think it was possible to snatch Aaron Lennon from Spurs given he was desperately off form and didn't play much. We got Routledge.
  4. First half I think we started out nicely and controlled the game well. Like we were the home team in fact, even though I am extremely glad we are not playing on this narrow pitch at this pathetic stadium every week. They do not even have the time and place for people to take decent corners, which **** us bigtime in a way since it's our main goal threat. Anyway, we control the game without creating many real chances. Petrov with a good effort and Carew with a nice turn (and rubbish finish) could have meant 0-1 in our favor. West Ham lacks in midfield and give Sidwell room to control the ball which in itself is a testiment that you are doing something very wrong. Then Hines, obviously offside, gets past Beye and tries to score before being tackled fairly by the ex-Newcastle right back and the ball ends up safely in the hands of Friedel. Surreal as it seems at the time, Bennett orders a penalty and they score. Incredible situation and just sums up this referee. Instead of taking the piss after they score he books two of our players, including Collins for saying one or two words to the linesman. Incredible stuff from the refs, giving us a hard task. All in all, gutted we are down but optimistic given a good attacking drive from the lads, especially the midfield. And; they have just lost two of their best players, we were in for a joyride. Second half I was confident at put 100 quid on us to score first and 20 quid on us to win. Collins is awarded the penalty, which probably was a gift given Bennett's obvious sneak peak at the first half penalty during half-time. It WAS a penalty though, Collins was standing tall when this guy flies over him. It was a strange situation, but non the less one you can defend. I guess not many referees would give it, but the rules are there if you ask men. He comes flying in with his boots in the height of Collins' head and that's justified. Stupid penalty from a man who certainly isn't a good penalty taker. Why not give it to Carew? He is a striker, he has taken them before and we all know goals boost the confidence of a striker! Luckily, we score right afterwards and I expected a show from our guys. Instead, we falter like a house of cards. No passion, no drive, no commitment, no belief, no guts, no chances, no nothing. No subs? Of course no subs, MON doesn't like doing them. Except Reo-Coker, but Heskey was injured right before half-time. Why did you buy Delph if you don't want to play him? Even against relegation fodder... Beats me, I am obviously not a manager. Well, I expected a few chances going our way but it was actually West Ham that created the stuff. The goal was a result of us going down to ten men, which was a result of a wrong decision in the first half - but tough love guys, three defenders should be able to trample down one lousy, skinny player. We failed, the tactics failed, our attacking line gave up and our defensive unit crapped out. Ratings Friedel - 5 Not saving penalties for fun for Villa, Guzan is though. Not on his best form, giving rebounds on shots and could have done better for their goal. Warnock - 8 Our best player by a longshot. Only player who gives a 100% and wins tackles all the time. Follows Young up the left side and tries to join in, nice to see - not a certainty from left backs in this league is it. His level right now is much higher than Bouma has ever given for us, or any other left back since the PL for that matter. Only thing I have to question is his woeful corners and set-pieces. Does he have a history of being good? Dunne - 6 Shaky and slow. Fails to control the area like he did against Man City and Chelsea. Does not win many challenges and did not create problems although we had over 10 corners I believe. Collins - 5 Obviously stirred from the beginning as he was centimeters from gifting them a goal/or getting red carded for a last-ditch tackle. In the second half he also managed to pass straight into their man almost to create a one-on-one with Friedel. Very poor game, no control at all. Beye - 5 What can I say? Unlucky. Red carded although none of them were yellows. First was offside and also a good and clean tackle from him. Second was late but he actually gets hit by the ball, it hits their player on the rebound and it looks like one motion (before it his Beye) and he downs the player. Like I say, extremely unlucky as his red card gave them the second goal and his yellow card gave them the first goal... sort of. Well, well, unlucky from our reserve player who had a decent game otherwise. Not his fault. Ashley Young - 6 Nice goal and finally starting to fiddle around with his crosses we all like to see. Left, turn right, deliver, score. Sort of. Poor penalty, shouldn't take them as far as I am concerned. Second half after goal was poor. Stiliyan Petrov - 5 First half was good, has a couple of flicks and gets involved on their side of the pitch. Second half is dire. Stops contributing, which means one less guy in attack, zero passes, zero effect. Very easy to lead out of a game, which is sad given his nice effort on goal in the first half as well as many passes. Does he not like scoring goals? Steve Sidwell - 4 Look who gets turned away for their winner so easily. Looses balls on our side in dangerous positions, yet again. He did it twice against Everton as well. Offers nothing going forward, offers little at the back. A complete waste of space at the moment and I am deeply sorry he is our first choice. Not only half the player Gareth Barry was, but two or three levels behind him. Will never reach the England squad under Capello. Not a chance. Gabriel Agbonlahor - 4 First half was decent, makes lots of runs and tries to tangle their defenders (without much success mind). Gets to a header from a nice Young cross but doesn't deliver.. second half is a no-show. No interest at all, barely touches the ball and never gets into positions. Very poor. John Carew - 4 Again a very poor display. First half is ok at times, second half is non-existent and very, very disappointing. Is he finished? Emile Heskey - 4 Offers virtually nothing going forward other than a few passes and a few headers. Not anywhere near a goal tonight and was subbed at half time with an injury. Subs: Reo-Coker - 5 Tries up the right side, even though he is a central midfielder. Not his fault he has to do stuff he hasn't done before coming to the Villa. Non the less, good effort given the abuse he got from the West Ham fans. Luke Young - 5 Nice to see you again mate, you are a good player no doubt and would knock out the poor Cuellar and the reserve Beye any day. MON - 3 Poor tactics and no show for the second half which is strange given our obvious motivation from Steve Bennett.
  5. Given the money we have spent, Tottenham's slump and City's failure to win away from home - reaching 6th isn't anything other than expected. Who else was going to beat us? Sunderland? Newcastle? Portsmouth? Bolton? Wigan? MON has spent money again - and I am not talking about the table now (which is decent in itself) - but the way we play football. The brand we represent now is not worth 1M of the money we have spent, which is a lot.
  6. Bwahahahahaha! i'm afraid that's it for you MON. You didn't make an immediate sub with 3 minutes to go, and for that, you can NEVER be forgiven. It's tough being a football manager, ain't it? Dude, I wasn't as serious as it might came out to be. However, I was pissed at the time when MON didn't just whistle on Delph or Reo-Coker just like that. 2 minutes left on the clock, one more guy on the pitch (well, in theory), free-kick in a dangerous position and a jaded Everton-side. We should have made the most of it with the remaining 2+extra time. We didn't, let Petrov feel his way onto the pitch, only for Cuellar to get a red card and Petrov to be subbed, using more time in the injury time. Stupid stuff don't you agree?
  7. Summary It was a game where we never looked like losing, or winning for that matter. We are steady and solid, our back four work well together and our goalkeeper is on good form (unlike last season where I think he was woeful at times). However, watchin our games this season has been tormenting compared to two years ago and last season. Quick, counter-attacking, free-scoring Villa have become solid, dependable, glorified Bolton. The results are coming, we have won against Chelsea and Liverpool, and depsite losing to measly Blackburn and Wigan we have to be happy in terms of points - which is all that matters when you summarize after a season. The game against Everton was all the same. We are an expensive team, we have lots of 10M signings and our squad is purchased for around 120M give or take a few quid. So playing away to Everton and not conceeding many chances can be regarded as luxury for many sides in the Premier League. However, we risk nothing this creating virtually nothing. I can remember one chances other than the goal which was a Warnock volley from the left side after a header by Cuellar after a poor clearance. Against Wigan we created nothing and against Wolves we did less than that except one goal after an exceptional touch by Ashley Young (that created the goal). I notice that when we get a corner I get that warm feeling inside knowing it's our only decent shot at getting a goal as we won't get any in open play. It's very strange indeed, because a few years ago we were able to do so. Ashley Young is not involved the same way he used to be, Milner is never involved in attack, Petrov doesn't cross the half-way line and Sidwell is alway two steps behind. Our backline is solid and we seldom look out of balance, and we didn't let them create much. And their goal was a fluke given that Yakubu's touch was never meant for Biliyatdinov. However; here is how things stand for the top teams after 10-11 games: Chelsea: 28 goals scored (their team has played together lots) Man Utd: 23 goals (without Ronaldo, with new players like Valencia) Arsenal: 32 goals (finally without lots of injuries) Man City: 18 goals (which is little, but their team is virtually new) Tottenham: 21 goals Liverpool: 25 goals Aston Villa: 14 goals Sunderland: 20 goals So what on earth is happening with our team this season? We have made four changes to the team. Warnock, Dunne, Collins and Sidwell. Don't count Cuellar as Young will return and take his place. Our problems are there to see. I expect much from such an expensive team. We are not the unit we were when McCann, Ridgewell and Davis played every week. I didn't know the loss of Gareth Barry would carry such a loss for our side in terms of playing attacking football, given he is not an attacking midfielder. However, we have lost the only source of passing from the middle as Petrov doesn't contribute going forward and Sidwell does not possess the ability. There are numerous questions to be answered but I am a little bit worried. 1) Where will Downing fit in and how good is he really? He has never set the world alight with his attacking drive has he? 2) Will our results stay the same with the dire attacking approach or will the results turn into what happened last season when we didn't win for 15 games or so? Ratings Martin O'Neill - 4 When Biliyaletdinov was red-carded, the clock was ticking and Petrov was out of the pitch, unable to tell if he was seriously hurt or not, unable to tell if he was going to be have to subbed - MON SHOULD have stepped up and just subbed him with an attacking player. I will never forgive him for that huge error. We have the momentum, we have one more player on the pitch and we let 30-60 seconds go before Petrov returns to the pitch. What the **** is Petrov supposed to do there anyway? So instead of tossing on let's say Delph or Reo-Coker, Petrov returns - Cuellar gets red-carded immediately and Petrov is injured and we have to sub him anyway. Every amateur in the world would have understood that the best thing would to sub Petrov regardless of his condition. There was no time to loose, but we lost it, then a player, then Petrov. Friedel - 7 Decent Warnock - 8 Very good display and exactly how I pictured him to be for us. Excellent. Dunne - 7 Very good Collins - 7 Steady and solid Cuellar - 5 I think he always looks like a moose running across the freeway. Clumsy on the ball and clumsy when challenging, struggling with tricky wingers etc. Although solid in his positioning and the fact that he is not a right back, I look forward to Young returning to his best. The red card? Fair enough if you ask me. Swiping the ball briefly does not mean the tackle is legit, and last but not least, it does not hide the stupidity of challenging from the side/behind, in speed, when you are already on a yellow card and we have just gone to 11 vs 10 men. Young - 6 Somewhat better than the last games but does see too little of the ball. Why? Because we lay so much lower as a team, he gets too much responsebility, too much attention from the opposition etc. Sidwell - 5 A game where he offers nothing for the team other than being solid in his running and fighting. As usual, he gets away with it because the team lays low and plays to HIS strengths instead of playing more freely. Again he loses the ball without any pressure in the middle and gift them chances. Never have I been more interested in changing a player from our team. Petrov - 6 Read what I wrote against all of the other teams we play. He is solid and he stays behind when we attack. Thus making us a solid defensive unit, and a very boring attacking unit. Milner - 5 Offers nothing going forward, like every other game this season. Then injured. He is awesome at running and fighting for the team, but in key moments he really struggles to make an impact and he often makes stupid choices and woeful passes. Heskey - 4 Offered nothing and seldom saw the ball Agbonlahor - 6 Less active compared to other games this season. Subs: Carew - 6 Good goal Reo-Coker - 5 Not involved It might be because I am offensively minded in terms of football, but a points tally does not hide the fact for me that we struggle immensely going forward.
  8. Such a stupid thing to say, but I guess that comes with your role at this place. The only four places we can be "thrilled" walking away with a point is Anfield, Old Trafford, Emirates and Stamford Bridge. A point there is always very, very good. Taking a single point from a team placed 14th in the table would never leave me thrilled. Do not get me wrong though, Everton are a good side, but with the injury situation we have all the reasons in the world to attack their defence and get a good result. So, a draw wouldn't be the end of the world but in no circumstance would it be thrilling. We beat their big brother a month ago away with 3-1 for god's sake.
  9. But what does Milner offer going forward? Is he good enough in this role? He is a right midfielder and winger, which means he has attacking repsonsebilities but I just think he doesn't get high enough in the pitch. Too defensive, crossing not even top 50 in the league and smartness with his decisions and passes are just not there.
  10. But you can see why we are better defensively. Because he focus on laying low and Sidwell/Petrov is an extremely defensive duo. As well as Milner who has done virtually nothing going forward this season. We have scored 13 goals in 9 games. Not very good when you look at the amount of points we have taken. Because we have beed solid and unspectacular - with no approach, no system, no design Today's goal was pretty, because of one man. Ashley Young. He received a hopeless ball but he flicked it on rather beautifully, and the rest was also nice although straightforward. Pass, pass, pass, turn, goal. Friedel - 7 - good control on crosses and generally good display although his penalty saving ratio was left behind at Ewood Park! Warnock - 6 - Kept on fighting his own battle with the linesman Dunne - 4 - hopeless passing and clumsy at the back. Should have been given a red card after his fumble and subsequent tumble with Doyle Collins - 6 - Good display and won his headers. Cuellar - 6 - Decent enough even though he looks so nervous, and he loves to hoof them up the right side without any direction. Poor oppostion. Young - 4 - Looks like he couldn't care less and is totally on his own as our chains don't link together. Poor delivery all over. One nice flick for our goal Petrov - 4 - A defensive player, which indicates we have to play a diamond formation or a 5-man midfield to work, over time. Today he was worthless Sidwell - 3 - Seldom does a player warrant a 3 but he was closer to a 2 rather than a 4. Misses every pass, does not do anything going forward, misses tackles all the time, makes stupid decisions and generally lacks that control in the middle you see from other players in the Premier League. Is he our main man? If so, MON has done a brilliant job at executing crappy decisions. When he struck Dunne on that open goal chance, I just shaked my head in disbelief.. So typical.... and when he needlessly manages to smash down the Wolves player in the box in the 84th minute, when he has NO CHANCE WHATSOEVER to reach the ball, it tells something about his mentality, his smartness and his general approach. He is a mediocre enforcer at best, someone we can keep on the bench and toss on when we are either defending a lead or wanting to get some aggression on the pitch. Above all though, he is our main attacking midfielder and does anyone else wonder why we have scored 13 goals after 9 games? I don't. Gabby - 7 - Extremely bad touch and decision-making at times. That miss after 40 seconds is horrible and he got into the same position later, with defensive cover, and instead of doing something about it he hits a poor shot/pass without any hope. Good goal, nice turn and shot. Carew - 4 - Should have had a penalty and several other free-kicks, but instead of getting on with it he starts to sulk to the ref and his game is lost. Subs: Heskey - 6 - Wins a few headers and gets the assist. Made an impression so I can't complaint. Our brand of football is no longer fun and games with a flowing type of passing and running. It's long balls and compact defending, leaving everything else to a few players who has to play against a ten-man wall. That's why we aren't conceeding, that's why we aren't scoring either. And why MON didn't sub Steve Sidwell when he saw what kind of display he had, the danger he was to our lead, it's amazing.... we got exactly what we deserved, a draw. Against a team which is going to relegate with ease.
  11. I never expect us to win away games with ease and sometimes results like these are decent enough. However, when we do not fight and when we do not play to our strengths something is extremely wrong. And then we have idiots on the pitch like Steve Sidwell who will never be a good Premiership player. How did he warrant 90 minutes on the pitch? Even that chance he had he managed to NOT keep his cool and instead hits his own player. Just illustrates the whole player and game he had. Complete fiasco.
  12. There it goes again.... Sidwell giving the ball away at a dangerous place for the second time and Milner giving a pass that has absolutely no hope.
  13. It has been a very frustrating half from every single point of view! The referee has lost the game already and how hard is this? Two penalties denied, not even looked at. Several free-kicks that shouldn't have been, lack of understanding of the game and why did he let them take a free-kick after injury time? Imagine them swinging in a perfect FK and scoring after injury-time? Nothing happened during the two added minutes so he clearly should have whistled for HT not FK when that tackle happened at 47 minutes. Important details! Gabby: Should have scored after 1 minute and we have to put those away when we are away from Villa Park. Also, he had a great opportunity from the same area later on but again failed to deliver. Carew: Goes around complainting to the referee getting nothing, but he will continue to get nothing with that attituude he is showing. Should have had a penalty as Berra held him for three seconds in the box. Dunne: Extremely lucky to stay on the pitch as he failed the clearance, missed the ball again, held Doyle and got away with it. And that long pass after ten minutes; who the hell was that directed to? Seriously? Worst pass of the season. Sidwell: A big question mark, he just doesn't do it for me. Poor on the ball, nervous when distributing, poor passing, doesn't hold the ball when he should and generally isn't a player with ability. Milner: Crossing since he was 20 years old has been woeful. Great engine, mediocre ability thus far. Just wish he has a little of that smartness Wayne Rooney possess as they are kind of similar players (not positional of course). Young: Not in the game Petrov: At two occasions, against relegation fodder and a team we seriously should create chances, he stops when we reach the midfield point because he does not dare to contribute in the last part of the pitch. Incredibly frustrating. We have scored 12 goals I think, and at least half of them from set-pieces. Ashley Young, our best player, isn't in the game because he is too easy to mark when the rest of the team is not working together. An attacking game of Carew, Gabby, Young, Milner and partly Sidwell isn't enough. We need to develop our attacking game or this season is never going to lead anywhere and teams will figure us out. Second half? Anything could happen and we aren't favourites anymore. They aren't really threatened at the back, but Dunne is having another Mr. Hyde performance it seems to I just hope he keeps his cool sooner rather than later. However, none of their players would even make our squad, we are stronger and generally tend to get something out of these games. Here's to hoping. 0-1. Gabby.
  14. Top teams rest players when they can and when they need to. We didn't play in midweek so we do not have to rest any players do we? Besides, when Liverpool (who have a fairly poor squad compared to the other top 3 teams) rest stars and wiggle around you have seen the results. Rest Torres and Gerrard and usually the results are crap. Rest Warnock? Why? Is he tired? Has he played too much? Certainly not. Play Heskey? Has he warranted a place in the first team lately? Of course he hasn't - he has been rubbish. Playing Beye for Cuellar is fine by me, as Cuellar is a mediocre right back and I always find him quite nervous handling the ball. My line up would be: Friedel Cuellar - Dunne - Collins - Warnock Milner - Petrov - Reo-Coker - Young Gabby and Carew As Sidwell is poor going forward and weaker at the defensive duties compared to NRC, I see no reason to play him, ever. And I am fairly confident we will win this match, they are the exact prototype of team we like to beat away from VP. Thinking that they are offensive but in the end we will counter-attack and smash three goals.
  15. I think it is very strange that some people are forking around 7's for Steve Sidwell when he did jack shit going forward as well as missing key passes at key moments. For me, he was the missing link last night. If someone better and more creative had played, we could have won the game as their team certainly isn't fine-tuned yet. He works well, yes he has to otherwise he would be a non-league player, but we have Milner and Petrov to do that job as well as Young who has to do some defensive duties. I am very sad to see Sidwell play an important part in our team and now I am actually looking forward to seeing Downing in that role even though he has never been anything else than a left winger. MON thinks so, as he has said it, but ask any Boro fan and he'll tell you that Downing is a left midfielder/winger and has only played in the middle because their team was shite and they had injuries. Much like Reo-Coker at right back. Either way, Downing will do a much better job in the attacking department even though I am not expecting miracles as he is hardly a world beater. Saying that, he will give something to this team that Sidwell obviously cannot.
  16. It was a good game all in all, not sure the objective viewer would say the same thing but it was competitive and the ball turned from one side to the other all the time. We laid defensively and thus created next to nothing in open play, which laid the ground for them to create little as well. We had a close one after two minutes from Gabby, then the goal on the corner. Other than that we had nothing except a Dunne header on another corner and a Milner shot (which was never going in from that angle). I think we pussied a little bit out in this game, too afraid to lose, too much respect for a team which is NOT in any way Man Utd or Chelsea. They aren't gelled together properly and their defensive unit was not working well with their midfield, however, we didn't force enough on them and they carried out for the point quite easily. They had a poor game, yet they wandered off with a point without too much hassle. Guess that's how it is with a team that has more potential, they need fewer chances. Friedel - 8 I think he was very good and composed today. All in all, his start to the season has been much better compared to the last one! Warnock - 7 Some silly passes but otherwise a very tidy display. Gets up and about the field, some good sliding tackles and smart play in general. Dunne - 8 Scores a good goal, shows Adebayor how to not celebrate like a **** monkey and otherwise kept it shut, well, except the goal where he was slacking a bit with his marking. Collins - 8 Gets behind Dunne in the limelight of course, but today he wasn't any worse than his partner and they are very good in the air both of them. Makes our defence look different! Cuellar - 6 I think his positioning is a little bit off, his passing is bad and his overall contribution on the right back is mediocre at best. Young - 7 I think he was better today, given his somewhat slow start to the season. Dears to go one-on-one, shame he had to be tackled out of the game by de Jong. Petrov - 6 A decent defensive display, and that it what he does. Decent tackling and hold-up play, but other than that is mediocre. Passing going forward is non-existent. Sidwell - 4 Easily the worst player on the pitch and I am terribly happy they did not field a three-man midfield as they would have raped Sidders to hell and back. Just not good enough for this team. Milner - 6 Good work ethics, but offensively he just does not prosper enough for me. He stagnates as his attacking ability, and dear I say potential, isn't anywhere near the real hot shots in the league. Carew - 6 Doesn't really get into the game as he drifts down to midfield trying to cover a 4-5-1 defensive unit and we are much on the breakaway leaving Gabby alone on top etc. A bit wasted in that role. Agbonlahor - 7 A very nice display in terms of running and tackling, getting stuck in showing that he has not only bulked up but also gotten that extra bit of smartness. Doesn't pave way for anyone. Loved it when he ran up Toure and pushed him off the ball, the Ivorian didn't understand what was happening to him before Gabby was fifteeen yards ahead! Needs to work on the final ball and attempt though, as he kind of ends his run just waiting for the next thing to happen but then it's too late. Subs: Heskey - 6 Not bad, which is lightyears ahead of what he has usually displayed for us. Sorry Emile, I am usually not this harsh but you make several million pounds a season so I do not care about the criticism. Reo-Coker - 5 Failed to get into the game even though it was only for a short while.
  17. It was a clear penalty, nothing to argue here at all. Not even at that hour, as it seems to be harder to get a penalty after 80 minutes etc. To be honest, the ones questioning the pen are obviously doing it because it happened against Villa. Poor result, not unexpected after such a good run even though we have played against very poor opposition bar Liverpool. It's been well so far, we are around where we are going to finish. Our aim is to compete with Everton and Tottenham as we have absolutely no chance of competing with the other top teams. Our first place is to finish 6th, and we are 7th now which is reasonable after two very silly losses.
  18. What a stupid thing to say! Think about it! They make what, 15-30K a week being fringe players. That is what regular workers make in a year. They can't help what they make of course, but I am pretty sure every one of them appreciate it some way or another. When you make 20K a week and you play 20-25 matches for Villa during a season you should be pretty happy. And professional.
  19. Well finally a test aginst a lower division side and let's just say MON does not have the best record. Europe is gone, there is no excuse if we go out this time. I have bet on us to win, so let's hope we go on and put a few past them.
  20. I think we are struggling bigtime to get a grip of this match at home, again. As a passing team we are not amongst the best, not even close.
  21. We failed to create chances and we failed to create a passing game, it was a dire affair between two teams who didn't dare. Fair enough, we were away from home but I would have wished for us to switch to a 4-2-2 earlier as they were poor today. B'ham lay low and try to get that fluke goal from somewhere, but it didn't happen for them. James Milner was extremely poor and had it not been for some involvement in the latter part of the game he would have been given a 4. You saw Aaron Lennon having a crap game last night as well, so I guess the impact of being in the England squad are making them a little bit tired mentally as well as physically. Big John on to create a goal immediately, he should play more and especially against a tough defensive unit who are good in the air. Him not starting today was a big mystery for me. And Steve Sidwell, I struggle to see why he plays for us. He is very anonymous.
  22. Letting three defenders start together for the first time is a strange decision. However; would I want Shorey ahead of Warnock? Never. I would perhaps go with Cuellar and Dunne in the middle and perhaps NRC on the right back or something. Not sure about Collins at all.
  23. It's like comparing Man Utd and Everton if you ask me - or Ronaldo or Park for that matter. Young's current ability is higher and his potential is extremely high given his willingness to attack players and his lethal in-swingers. Milner is more of a workhorse and has a consistent good level, but I do not see him getting insanely good in the future. All in all, in terms of assets to their game Young clinches it easily and the ones who have voted for Milner doesn't know much about football
  24. A hugely uninspiring transfer window which makes us a certain top 10 finisher but never in a million years will we finish in the top 5.
  25. Stopped reading there really as it has to be the most stupid comment ever on this forum. After beating Liverpool 3-1 at Anfield, we crash out of Europe after a sub-par performance and you claim it's the best this year. Impressive.
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