flashingqwerty

yeah we're playing quite well but i think we need to explit their right side more as that right back is on a yellow and doesnt seem to be able to cope with nzogs skill

only saw the last 25 mins but we could if not should have scored 3 goals

dont know what happened in the rest of the game but we looked the better side in what i saw

not saying we were good or even mediocre, but we were better than man utd

even a blind sheppard can see that heskey isnt a footballer and collins is a liability

take them two out of the equation and we'd still be level - its like playing with 9 men

encouraging signs if i am honest.

Can see eck bringing in his own defenders in January and shipping out a few.

To me Collins and Dunne are both liabilities, Cuellar and clark should be playing as those two have done nothing this season to suggest they deserve to be starting

Over the moon for gabby - he's awesome!

yeah the red card was unfair and the officials were poor, but that does not excuse that we were 1 up and poor defending cost us 3 points

i'm sorry but the 'team' has gotten worse for me since houlier left both in personel and in performances - i see no reason to pursue any further with this manager as he is a complete muppet.

i guarantee i could do a better job - and I'll do it for free!

quality keeper, glad that the shoulder injury hasnt affected his game which was my only concern over him really.

His injury today looked like a hamstring issue but shouldnt affect him mobility so not overly worried.

Oh dear.

Oh dear. oh dear. oh dear.

Our first choice left winger.

Oh dear.

nail...

head...

you hit it...

We did not play with a left winger, Heskey played left side of a front 3 (or 4 at times).

Semantics I know, but I thought id make the point!

if he was playing left side of a front three then he's even worse than i thought he was as i dont recall him being within 40 yards of bent all day (not that gabby was any better but gabby stuck to the byline and made more of a nuisance of himself until he ran out of steam)

Oh dear.

Oh dear. oh dear. oh dear.

Our first choice left winger.

Oh dear.

nail...

head...

you hit it...

he's big, fat, awkward and lacks any real skill, speed or ability - so perfect for villa at the moment :cry:

toothless considering we had 3 strikers on the pitch in heskey, gabby and bent but looks like only bent was actually playing as a striker...

interesting thing is that if gabby and heskey arent playing as strikers it means one of nzog, gabby or heskey in playing as a CM which is just asking for a disaster

Gabby and Petrov were dead after 60 mins and should have come off

Heskey should never have started.

having said that, a draw away to Fulham is a good result and i'll take it

Petrov is past it, hold onto him to have on the bench to play the last 20-30 mins if we're winning to help run down the clock, dont think he has any uses beyond this as when he plays more than 50 mins he comes to a stand still as he just isnt able for it any more.

bringing in the likes of Parker or barton would be brilliant, exactly the type of players we need despite what peoples opinion of them personally is, we need a fighter and a passer in midfield and either of these would be a huge step up

You now comparing McLeish with Ferguson now? And us to Man U?

Wow - the extremes ppl will go to to play devils advocate to shite - amazing

Dont talk utter bloody rubbish , jesus people here are - oh forget it.

Now children , lets spell this out shall we.

But remember, we are talking Narnia land here because it is July 23rd, and the transfer window shuts on Aug 31st so who knows who we shall buy, what we will spend, and who we will sell until that date - but to clarify the situation on here so everyone with an IQ of 0.1 can get it.

Most the S136 patients with suicidal markers on here seem to think that our manager is a puppet, who will say "Yes Mr Lerner, you sell anybody you want and pocket the money , coz I am just here to say yes, let you sell the squad, pocket the money and I will make do with what I have"

These people then quote "See Liverpool for a board that has ambition"

Yet I point out that this Liverpool board have bought about 60m worth of players this year. however, they have sold Torres for 50m , Babbel for whatever, and many other players - meaning they have actually sold more than they have bought.

I also point out that Man U for the past few seasons have sold more than they have bought.

And for the record, I think (although I am not going to check) that Chelsea, Arsenal, Everton and many others are the same. In fact, without checking I would hazard a guess the only two clubs who have spent more money than they have bought in are Spurs and Man City.

So maybe, just maybe,

a) Even if it is the case, every club is the same as us - it is not Randy fleecing us - it is business - I have had to cut back this year - I had to give up Sky Sports coz I couldn'tafford it (and now I can I have got it back) and maybe football clubs are in the same boat.

or

Why dont we just wait and see until Sept 1st to see how much we actually do spend shall we. I presume if on Aug 30th , we have bought Gary Cahill for 15m, Scott Parker for 7m , NZogbia for 10m , Given for 3m , Der Hammer on a free, resigned NRC for the squad, Vargas for whatever it is.................................... it will have been a poor window coz we only bought Given in for the Walsall game.

oh and just for you people out there who can't work out sarcasm - I am not saying we will sign these - the point is "Lets just wait and see shall we" before making judgement.

Liverpool players Sold

Mavinga 1,000,000

Bruna 250,000

Bouzanis 0,000,000

Torres 50,000,000

Babel 5,000,000

Macherno 18,000,000

Riera 5,000,000

Benayoun 10,000,000

Simon 0,000,000

Palsson 0,000,000

Itandje 0,000,000

Plessis 0,000,000

Della Valle 0,000,000

Total: 89,250,000

Liverpool players bought

Downing 20,000,000

Doni 0,000,000

Adam 6,000,000

Henderson 20,000,000

Carroll 35,000,000

Suarez 22,800,000

Konchesky 5,000,000

Meireiles 11,500,000

Jones 2,300,000

Wilson 2,000,000

Cole 0,000,000

Shelvey 2,000,000

Poulsen 2,000,000

Total 128,600,000

Total net spend 38,350,000

so how have liverpool not invested in their squad if they have spent the guts of 40 million more than they have received in transfers?

Personally I think he's damaged goods and should be moved on, but I have no doubt he'd rather sit on the bench or at home in Manchester and pick up his wages rather then move elsewhere on lower wages to get more game time because that's the kind of guy he is iykwim.

Yeah, but wiwcutlbofp?

for the life of me i cannot figure out that one...

On topic though - Ireland has talent and can play really good football. Houlier clearly hadnt a clue how to handle him, but big eck has a history of knocking these types of player into shape so maybe he can sort him out? I'll reserve judgement until we see him in preseason.

if i'm honest, i think he'll be on his way before the close of the transfer window

5m is too much for given, but 10m is also too much for foster

if we can get given for 3m then we should, otherwise foster, but not for more than 8.

though i think its already been said, we should pick up a cheaper more experienced GK for now and spend what money is available for the more important areas and use future revenue to pay for the ideal gk further down the line.

was reported on today fm in ireland during the week that villa have agreed personal terms with given and the only block was the clubs agreeing a fee

i'm still dubious though as it wouldnt be the first time they had 'mis-reported' something like this

The manner in which he left the club, and the timing of it, is nothing short of criminal and i dont understand why he is still hailed as a god by many villa fans when in my opinion he is on a level with Gobby Cabbage and Alpay - he's an absolute word removed.

I'd go as far as saying the manner in which he left the club and his general attitude might seriously affect the thoughts of any chairmen considering him for their clubs. Totally unprofessional, also the manner in which he took most of the 1st team coaching staff with him, showed a complete lack of respect for the club and it's fans. He wanted to inflict the most pain he could. He comes over as a very arrogant, self centred man. He will never manage a club on the scale of Villa again.

nice too see that the sensible villa fans have a voice too - well said!

you cant seriously want MON back after the way he bailed out on us?

Personally i never really liked the man and thought he was never going to lead us further than 6th

The manner in which he left the club, and the timing of it, is nothing short of criminal and i dont understand why he is still hailed as a god by many villa fans when in my opinion he is on a level with Gobby Cabbage and Alpay - he's an absolute word removed.

have to say i find this sort of speculation over a new manager very distastful considering our current manager is currently in hospital.

Why do we defend so deep?

I think Houllier didn't do his homework with Arsenal. You need to get at them and be aggresive. Don't give them the time and space to play. We were happy to sit deep and let them play the ball around.

i think the chamckh goal shows why we defend deep, he strolled past dunne because dunne is pathetically slow and goes to ground far too easily.

If he spent half as much time trying to usher his man out wide rather than lunging in and going to ground like a maniac we'd concede half as many goals.

we were exceptional in th second half and if we had a semi decent striker we'd have won the game

Heskey really should have had a hat trick today - PLEASE GABBY GET FIT!!!!!

Ireland was awful, Dunne needs to be dropped, Petrov needs to be replaced

NRC is coming on leaps and bounds , so glad we didnt let him go.

should have taken all 3 points, deserved at least 1, manager has to take some of the blame for getting his tactics wrong and a poor team selection

it depends on the opposition i think...

if we're going to be under pressure for long spells then we need it to be Dunne and Collins as these two will throw themselves at anything and put their bodies on the line to save the team.

However, neither of these are particularly good with the ball, so against 'lesser' teams where are defenders will get time on the ball Dunne and Cuellar should play as Cuellar is better on the ball and running forward (though i think Clark will be better at this role in a few years)

big fan of NRC - just think we dont use his to his strengths...

he's a good defensive midfield player; he should hassle, tackle then play the simple pass to ireland or petrov so they can push us forward

that would make us a much harder unit to break down

end of the road for me

in many of his ecent interviews he appears to have lost his passion and desire and confidence that he can improve us.

i find this very starnge as there are a great many players out there who could add and improve to our squad that could be picked up for less then 4 million or even on frees (Joe Cole) but it appears we're not making moves.

As a team we are making the same errors time and time again, no right back, playing people out of position, paying over the odds for useless players, signing people that will never play, over using/not rotating players who are playing badly, playing players through injury, not signing people before the start of the season so they have no time to gel, freezing players who have a lot to offer out of the team... he list goes on

its time for a change as MON's ego has grown larger than the club as far as team selection goes and he's given up the ghost on achieveing top 4.

i really dont think martin has it in him to take us beyond where he already has. Not saying he's done a bad job, just think that to take us further he needs to change himself more than the team as its his flaws that are holding us back.

Example? Sure...

Every year MON has been in charge we have stopped playing well from march til the end of the season pretty much.

In year one this was a transition year and we had a very small squad, i can forgive that.

In year two we were still very much in transition and still had a very small squad.

In year three we had a settled core and a team and a fairly decent sized squad - tiredness was caused by a lack of rotation as MON either felt the players didnt need a rest (though i think a blind man could see they did) or he no faith in the players in the squad to do the job (despite having signed these players for substanial sums)

In year four - see year three and its confounded by his refusal to use substitutions when players are clearly not able to continue due to fatigue and his seeming inability to make changes to our shape when things arent going well other than to move a few players around so that most players are playing out of position.

we also need to look at his signings:

Stiliyan Petrov Celtic £6.5m - average player, often goes missing in games and lacks stamina

Didier Agathe Celtic Free - did he ever play?

Chris Sutton Celtic Free - did a job but was only ever a stop gap

John Carew Lyon Swap - good signing, but i do wonder if it was MON's idea or houlier's

Ashley Young Watford £9.65m - very inconsistent, but a good player

Shaun Maloney Celtic £1.1m - might have been a ecent player but was allowed to leave before we found out

Wayne Routledge Tottenham £1.5m - oh deary dear...

Moustapha Salifou FC Wil Undisc. - oh dear again

Zat Knight Fulham £3.5m - wasnt good enough and was sold off again we let better defenders go to make a space for them

Scott Carson Liverpool Loan - oh dear once again

Harry Forrester Watford £250 000 initial fee rising on appearances - watch this space

Eric Lichaj Unattached Free - watch this space

Marlon Harewood West Ham Undisc (region of £3.5m?) - MON's worst signing?

Nigel Reo-Coker West Ham £8.5m - looked a good signing initially but mon lost control of this one

Curtis Davies (WBA undisclosed but around £7.5million?) - jury is still out on him too, has a ot of bad days

Steve Sidwell (Chelsea £5.5million) - honestly? awful footballer and adds nothing to the team

Brad Friedel (Blackburn, undisclosed but in the region of £2 - £2.5million) - good stop gap solution

Brad Guzan (Chivas US, undisclosed, starts at around £800k up to £2m on appearances etc?) - promising

Nicky Shorey (Reading, around £4m?) - very poor player

Luke Young (Middlesbrough, around £5m?) - good player but MON prefers to play a CB at RB - bizzare

Carlos Cuellar (Rangers £7.8million) - looked good when got a good run at CB but has been moved to rb - bizzare

James Milner (Newcastle, around £12million?) - accomplished player and turned out to be a decent price for the performances hes put in since moving infield

Arsenio Halfhuid from Excelsior (undisclosed - watch this space)

Emile Heskey from Wigan Athletic (£3.5m) - ooops MON did it again - amazingly poor

so the vast majority of MON's signings have even turned out to be bad ones or he's fallen out with them, played them out of position, or just frozen them out for some reason. Best Man Manager in football? i dont think so...

personally i think Mark Hughes would do a better job. He'd at least get us playing some decent football and isnt afraid to changes things and admit when hes made a mistake

OBE - he was high and late - had that been a tackle on our player you'd be calling for a card