Grunthos

This is a pretty damning indictment of the rest of the team.

This I disagree with. There were some good ideas, brighter than what we have been seeing the last few months. But the wings are a bit of a mess right now, defense is still patchwork, and Petrov simply isn't up to top flight pace any more.

Not bad, the squad is beginning to actually make the transition to GH's preferred style. I begin to wonder if most of MON's first team was burnt out by the experience of playing for him, tho.

(Channeling Jose) SHUT UP SIDWELL

Nice try, ginger boy.

Energy levels picking up again... to our advantage.

We have officially reached the lull phase of the half.

He's drawing Fulham in the way he drew us in, showing off his energy. The charm will dissipate in due time.

Nice try, ginger boy.

Y, gol.

Another nice idea from Makoun there.

Who'd a thunk Bent would be our most intelligent possession player?

Thank you, Kolarov. Thank you. Thank you.

Heart attack time. So tense.

OK, Gerard, I know the defensive cohesion is wonderful, but you have *got* to trust your bench players to fit in. We'll fall short on energy soon... indeed, we may be falling short now.

You know, sometimes I wonder about this board. This is hardly a shit performance. The defensive organization is good, the energy level is high, Villa are playing with some spirit. Yes, the passing through midfield is failing badly, but since we *still* don't have our best XI available and we are playing a very talented squad, it's hardly unexpected. We've done a lot worse than this.

City are playing athletically but not very intelligently. If we could defend corners for squat I'd be pretty confident of a result at this moment.

We're surprisingly threatening for such a makeshift lineup. We need to keep it up, though, because the only thing that will get our defense through this one is continually reminding City to be wary of the counter.

Well, that was poor luck... the first Villa game I've had a chance to watch in ~2 months, and it's a disgrace. Not particularly surprising, given the venue and the number of players injured/suspended/out of sorts, but still very dispiriting. Better days are ahead (and worrying about relegation is pretty silly, IMO, this team will be fine in the end), but that statement is only a safe bet because this performance was so wretched. I'd like to take this opportunity to give a big, fat finger (or two, British-style, whichever you prefer) to Martin O'Neill, for petulantly and pointlessly walking out on us when he did and making this situation so much worse than it had to be. May you become the next Newcastle manager, so you can get a right schooling in what unsupportive ownership actually is, you daft bugger.

Well written and well thought-out. I suspect we are in for a summer of incremental change. This may actually help matters, provided MON starts to use the academy graduates as you suggested. That said, I really can't see us breaking into the CL without another quality forward as good, or better than, Gabby/Big John.

Lordy. "Deserve" is going to have nothing to do with this outcome.

I'm sorry. Once Nani went off, the standards changed for this match. Not in outcome... again, getting a draw against ManU is fine in and of itself. But when the bell rang and the players were shown an opportunity to take the game to their opponents... they caved. The second half was not playing decently and failing to grab a winner against an excellent team. It was standing around, ball-watching, passing directly to the opponent, and passively watching the clock wind down. We were, frankly, fortunate that ManU didn't score and take all the points. That attitude, that complete lack of any desire to seize the moment, is what was awful. And as someone who has consistently backed the management and the players, and who believes they'll return and put in perfectly good performances later, I have no compunctions about saying that it was awful. Hopefully, MON had no compunctions about it in the dressing room, either.

As someone who is normally on that side of the fence, and generally tired of the negativity and fickle-ness of the Villa fanbase, I will feel free to respond with this: this comment is completely off base. Certainly, Man U played with energy and skill as always, and they are as difficult with 10 men as most teams are with 11. But that doesn't change the fact that we were at home, up a man, with an opportunity to go for a real achievement, and played like absolute shit. That second half was absolutely pathetic. The team did not try, they did not care, they did not work, they did not think.

I am not one to piss and moan about the squad when they drop points, as a rule. It happens. But that was just embarrassingly poor. I never, never want to see a Villa team play that... that... dead again. Stupid, disorganized, pointless, stiff, uncaring, rote... turgid, as one match thread commenter put it. For once, I'm glad I wasn't at Villa Park. I'd be out of my mind angry with the team if I'd paid the money and sat out in the weather for that.

Pathetic.