Humanoid

I'd like to see us line up with

..............Given

Young.Dunne.Collins.Warnock

............Makoun

.....Petrov.Bannan

............................N'Zogbia

Agbonlahor

................Bent

With Gabby and N'Zogbia pushing out wide

Certainly seems the strongest for a 433, Would like to see albrighton coming on about 60mins, depending on gaby's form.

I would prefer to see a 442 with bannan left out and the addition of heskey upfront with bent to see how they get on together.

Looking at both games:

Given, Warnock, Makoun, Bannan are looking good

Collins and Dunne still look iffy. Selling Carlos could be an error. I'd have prefered to ship out Dunne and Collins and get someone like Scott Dann to partner Carlos.

Delph, Fonz, Ireland, Albrighton, Gaby have a lot of work to do to even look like they're close to form.

The rest just need the players around them to improve to help them out.

If the midfield doesn't get sorted, there's not much chance of doing much better than last season.

As it stands at the moment, this is how I'd have the team to start the season:

Young------Cuellar----Collins------Warnock

Albrighton----Petrov---Makoun----N'zogbia

---------------Bent------Heskey-------------

Delph and Fonz dont look confident, and Ireland hasn't changed, so the midfield is quite disjointed which doesnt help Alby or Gaby. I'd say get Heskey, Makoun and Bannan on, and get Delph, Fonz and Ireland off.

On the plus side Warnock and Given are playing well

i think it may be wise to keep carlos

McClaren can drive us forward.

there's no shame in retracting that statement

Paul AVFC:

The big news from Goodison Park is that Gabby Agbonlahor looks set to partner Darren Bent up front, with Ashley Young back on the wing.

Yes! Lets hope it works.

Brilliant idea, lets get at them.

Radio WM are saying that gabby will be on the wing.

The problem with Rafa are not his achievements, which may or may not be partially due to previous managers. This is at the end of the day irrelevant. The problem however is that his football is not that much different from Houllier's. Add to that his cold and distant way of handling players etc. we are most likely faced with the same problems as now.

I totally agree with that. I'd also add that Rafa, Like Ged, is very prone to questionable team formation, playing players out of position etc.

Some nice shots of Villa Park on "Duran Duran - One Night Only" that was on ITV last night. Roger Taylor who's a Villa fan, was being interviewed there by Christine Bleakley. You can watch it on ITVplayer here

Players do not seem to want him as the manager

We will go down under him

they haven't wanted him all season

The poll should have included the option to vote for him to go at the end of the season

Ash directed the ball in the same place as he always does. poor

Let's see how Houllier responds to this. Will villa come out fighting, inspired by Ged?

First class lesson in marking by DUNNE.... friggin beer monster

The dreaded claret shorts and claret socks...

I think someone's sprinkled some holy water on them now

Thought I'd share this with you guys although not too sure where to put it: On the topic of not knowing where to put it I was sat in the players lounge at DW this evening first two players from either side to come in where Dunne and

Collins. 3-4 pints later they left the lounge for the bus but James decided he wanted a takeaway of two Magners. Most comical villa moment of 2011 was James trying to sneak two magners onto the bus in his socks and down his pants

If thats true, it certainly not surprising....

3 points, but a very dull performance. Center midfielders obviously told not to push too far forward. Too many players playing out of position. Could do a lot **** better.

Is there anyone who understands why Houlier plays Gabby on the left and Downing in the hole? Its bizzare

fancy that! collins! lol

The only way empty head will go is if the fans stay away or demonstrate.

Only 32k there last night and that was with £12.50 tickets...

Randy needs to remove this charlatan asap before the fans turn on him and the board but it maybe to late.

If it comes to it, I'd prefer the fans to boycott games rather than demonstrate.

Demonstrating is like adult way of being mardy and would make us look like barcode fans.

Lerner's motivation for being where he is is ultimately money. Don't turn up and he'll be forced to change his mind. It's simple with no media hullabaloo.

Backing him shows balls, the easy option would be to sack him. I think it's a shame they are showing balls and sticking with him despite the league position.

Backing him with money shows balls. Backing him with words and jumping on each other when a last minute goal is scored IS balls.

Well, Houlier is here to stay now. Randy is backing him.

So, come on then Randy show us the colour of your money. You either back him with the money Houlier needs to improve this squad or lose your credibility. Dont be a Doug Ellis Mk 2

Its make or break time. If Villa go down or even continue in a relegation fight to the end of the season, there'll only be one man to blame.

a shite ex-villa player scoring from 25 yards. How many more omens do we need????

I think when GH said "Adapt or die" he meant adapt to playing in the championship

Now have the same goal difference as west ham and wolves, and it could be worse in another 50 mins

He was asked to do too much, too soon, again. I hope his confidence doesn't take a battering, again.

Yes, spot on.

I just wonder though, would this be something that was patently obvious to manager who knew what they were doing? Maybe it's GH idea of getting players to "adapt" to his way