macandally

Disagree 100%, it was a chance in a generation to sort out the dross and impose a new style at the club. Houllier may well have laid the foundations for our kids to reap the benefits of in 5-7 years. Problem is you appear to be willing to give him 5-7 minutes. Well now you appear to have got what you wanted, a manager with limited ability and a stagnant style that is leading us nowhere fast, but might provide the odd result against the mid table dross so that you can justify his appointment. Makoun is the right player in the wrong squad with the wrong manager. 40 years a Villa fan and yet everytime I think we there is a chance of a phase shift at the club, things go tits up.

I agree with Big Jon, we dont need that tippity tappety football shite at Villa Park, its not what we are about and having nancy boys come in from Champions League clubs with all that technical know how does us no favours at all. What we need to do is knock all that short, precise passing stuff out of him and get him to lump it blindly up towards Big Emile, its the only hope we really have of achieving our target of a cup quarter final or an 9th place finish. Everyone knows that clubs who try to play that gimmicky football stuff dont win anything. UTV ;-)

Not really, I see defensive and holding midfielders as totally differant animals. We currently play Petrov and Delph as holding midfielders. They sit deep and allow that attacking beast that is the Heskey, Agbonlahor and NZogbia to maraude. A defensive midfielder sits in front of the back four and bites attackers ankles (not literally of course) and therefore needs to be a tackler. Like Diarra, Essien, Mascherano and Makelele. They are there to spoil attacks and move the ball to those who pull the strings. I know what a defensive midfielder is and who has played the role thanks. As far as I'm concerned those players could all tackle and being able to do so is while not the only requirement, is a requirement of playing as a defensive midfielder. Well apologies for answering your question, I can only presume given your previous knowledge it was rhetorical! You did ask the question about a holding midfielder though, not a defensive.

Not really, I see defensive and holding midfielders as totally differant animals. We currently play Petrov and Delph as holding midfielders. They sit deep and allow that attacking beast that is the Heskey, Agbonlahor and NZogbia to maraude. A defensive midfielder sits in front of the back four and bites attackers ankles (not literally of course) and therefore needs to be a tackler. Like Diarra, Essien, Mascherano and Makelele. They are there to spoil attacks and move the ball to those who pull the strings.

He probably wont, but then again I have no idea why your comparing an attacking midfielder like Bannan with a holding midfielder like Makoun?? Bannan is competing with Ireland for a starting berth, whereas Makoun is competing with Petrov and Delph. As much as I like Delph, Makoun is technically a country mile better than both. I would go as far as to say that the reason Makoun looks so ordinary in our team is the fact that from a intelligence perspective he is in Mensa whereas the majority of our players are with mothercare.

double post

So did I, for an hour then as usual, he disappeared.

Now I know this post is a joke. :winkold: Have you not watched the Villa for the last couple of seasons? :? Seems he hasn't. Worked hard for the team again today, good game, blocked a shot destined for the net in the 91st minute amongst other things, a period of the game where Petrov's usually stopped working or so I'm led to believe. Big difference between actively looking to have an impact on the game and sticking your foot in when someone comes near you. Petrov ceases to have any active influence on the game beyond being an old head after 60-65 minutes. After that, he just "loiters" and gets his foot in where he can. You will see an occasional effort to chase or harry, but he cannot sustain it. It is testament to Delph that we have managed to maintain some level of competitiveness in there so far at Fulham and Blackburn. He is doing the work of two men.

The harsh reality of it all is that we are a feeder club to the top clubs. As much as people paint over it and bitch and moan, this is fact. Technically everyone is, Wig, by this definition. People on here have decided to incorrectly use the term 'feeder club' and distort it's meaning, which is annoying. That's how it is these days. But the more profit we can get on our players the better our economy will be and in the long run we might find it easier to keep our good players. A bit like tottenham. But we'll probably have to wait a few years and just hope to be able to stay just a bit north of the mid table line. If it can turn out good for us I'm prepared to wait. Spurs do not run at a profit they have an owner who pumps plenty of money into them to cover transfers and wages and they run at a loss every season so this isnt really anything for us to aim at. Spurs had a profit of £3m in 2007 , a profit of £33.4m in 2008 and they made a £4.2m profit in the last 6 months of 2010. I think they had a loss in 2009 but generally they do make profits Back on topic, Delph is nothing more than average and Man Utd did not bid for him :shock: Watch him again. Any coach who trys to implement a pass and move philosophy would use Delph as an example. He is always the first option after making a pass to someone else. Its how Barca play, the difference being they have 10 players doing the same and technically are excellent. We only have three or four who do it, Makoun, Delph, Bannen and Ireland. He glides across the ground and with a decent defensive midfielder holding the space in front of the back four, Delph and Makoun could be a superb middle two.

Not that it matters, but I disagree with just about everything you have written there. I presume you thought Petrov motored through the 90 minutes without looking tired? Ireland who hasnt changed one iota on the pitch and is just regurgatating his "new club gonna give it all" mantra? We kept the ball did we? What about when the pressure was on for 20 minutes at the start of the second half? We couldnt get near it and lost it anytime we got it. Makoun is one of the best players technically at the club, which is probably why McLeish doesnt know what to do with him. Madness, it really is.

Expected us to beat a poor Blackburn team and we did not disappoint. Delph will be our playmaker for years, he played like today against Fiorentina two years ago now. Still maintain he needs someone next to him other than Petrov who tired again after 60 minutes. Gabby looked interested again today, NZogbias match fitness is coming back but still felt Bent was a bystander for most of the match. As an aside, pity Hoillet signed a new contract at Blackburn as he was their only threat and looks a player. Maybe we will pick him up at the end of the season when Blackburn go down.

Thought it was a very unambitious performance against a mid table side, it looks like we have decided that Fulham and the like is our level and we dont want to lose to those around us. Given - 8/10 - Exactly as expected, excellent shot stopper but means we HAVE to play Dunne/Collins as he will not come for crosses. Warnock - 7/10 - Had a good game with some good vision and passing. Had to use the long ball to often due to no shorter option Dunne - 7/10 - Good game, did his job. Collins - 6/10 - Too Hollywood, goes diving in where he doesnt need to and puts pressure on rest of defence. Young - 7/10 - Good going forward without compromising his defensive duties. Agbonlahor - 6/10 - Out of position and wasted. Square peg in round hole springs to mind. Petrov - 6/10 - OK when we controlled posession, disappeared when we didnt. Needs replacing ASAP. Delph - 7/10 - Playmaker who could be the complete midfielder, instead he is shackled due to Petrovs inadequacies. NZogbia - 6/10 - Clearly not match fit, some promising crosses but at moment looks like small fish in big pond. Heskey - 6/10 - Arial prescence who tracks back. Needs replacing as not what we need. Bent - 5/10 - His movement is too good for our team. That is a shocking indictment. Needs providers. Gonna be a long season and I have to ask what McLeish has been up to over pre season. Formation is poor, conditioning looked poor, game plan looked poor, team looks poor and most importantly, showed no desire to go the extra yard to win the game.

All I can say is that this game is everything I expected from a McLeish team. Gonna be a long season and even a sneaky goal for us here would only be papering over obvious cracks. Shit formation, Heskey, Petrov, Collins have no place in our team and Gabby as a winger is a liability.

Are we actually watching the same player, he isn't getting forward at all he is the dm if anything, has no creativity and certainly no "pulling strings". That said I think he is doing his job well Does he need to play centre forward to pull strings Any penetrative passing has come from him and you want to take him off even though Petrov will be out on his feet after 60 mins? That will likely leave us a centre mid pairing of Bannen and Ireland at the end of the game. Good luck with that! Where did I say centre forward I mean one midfielder supports the front two every once in a while, we have Clark and makoun on the bench too, Sorry but I honestly can't think of any penetrative pass considering our chances came from a dune long ball, nzogbia cross, long shot I take it back delph is pulling strings alright Funny old thing, 60 minutes have gone, Petrov disappears and all of sudden the midfield gets swamped. Predictable! Delph is not a defensive mid and he shouldnt be doing the work of two men so Petrov can **** swan around wearing the armband. Don't give it that delph never came out after 45, petrov poor too I would watch the game harder mate. Look where Delph tries/tried to pass it and then look where Petrov used to pass it before his legs went. Are you watching this on the playstation? :winkold:

Are we actually watching the same player, he isn't getting forward at all he is the dm if anything, has no creativity and certainly no "pulling strings". That said I think he is doing his job well Does he need to play centre forward to pull strings Any penetrative passing has come from him and you want to take him off even though Petrov will be out on his feet after 60 mins? That will likely leave us a centre mid pairing of Bannen and Ireland at the end of the game. Good luck with that! Where did I say centre forward I mean one midfielder supports the front two every once in a while, we have Clark and makoun on the bench too, Sorry but I honestly can't think of any penetrative pass considering our chances came from a dune long ball, nzogbia cross, long shot I take it back delph is pulling strings alright Funny old thing, 60 minutes have gone, Petrov disappears and all of sudden the midfield gets swamped. Predictable! Delph is not a defensive mid and he shouldnt be doing the work of two men so Petrov can **** swan around wearing the armband.

friggin woeful........

Yep, we could do with one!

Get ball, pass ball, keep ball. Jeez, this back to front crap is like watching Sunday League.

I would be happy if we looked like we wanted to win this!!

Are we actually watching the same player, he isn't getting forward at all he is the dm if anything, has no creativity and certainly no "pulling strings". That said I think he is doing his job well Does he need to play centre forward to pull strings? Any penetrative passing has come from him and you want to take him off even though Petrov will be out on his feet after 60 mins? That will likely leave us a centre mid pairing of Bannen and Ireland at the end of the game. Good luck with that!

Delph is pulling the strings, really needs a defensive mid next to him though. Warnock looking good but considering we have 4 forwards on the pitch, we aint created much. Gonna be a long old season at this rate, no real spark.

I thought there were some positive passages of play today, some mistakes as you would expect in pre season and some interesting cameos. I also thought what was missing entirely was a desire to put the extra effort in and be winners. Winners win things, this team appears to be going through the motions and look where that got us last year.I appreciate this is pre season, but look at what Chelsea and Man Yoo have done over pre season and tell me that results do not matter. I knew McLeish was not going to bring flowing, innovative football but I expected an organised, motivated team. I am not seeing even that at this time. I dont think he knows his starting eleven and in fairness, we do not seem to have a natural starting eleven of players playing in their natural positions. That is a worry.

Having watched the game last night, plus read the last few pages on here I am glad that there are others that can see what the problems is with fitting Ireland into our team. In a nutshell, it comes down to possession to some degree. We generally do not keep the ball well enough and that means our football is still a bit "kick and rush". That does not suit Irelands game. We need to hold the ball better. I would suggest the gap between between midfield and attack is because we do not have ONE player who is energetic and strong enough to be our midfield enforcer. Instead, both Makoun and Petrov have to sit deep which unbalances the whole team. We need to win back possession quicker so that we are in a position to transistion defence into attack further up the pitch, we have Makoun & Petrov sitting too deep to do that. We desperately need a Palacious or McCarthy in there which will really improve the contributions of Makoun, Ireland, Delph and Bannan. IMO of course.

No mate, thats Petrov even playing an away tie in January at Scunnie!! :-) I hope he is great, but it is natural that subs can make an impression on a game if they have fresh legs, particularly if its that hot. Not sure what the excuses are for??

It's not the weather that is what matters. It is the fact that he got the ball, passed the ball and moved with the ball. For someone of his age he shows real promise. It is not the weather that matters?? He came onto a pitch where the majority of players had run themselves ragged in 90% humidity. Have you ever experienced that? Its like sticking your head in a lit oven!! Of course it makes a difference!