El_Hierro

Hmm. 8) Post on poster. How dare you insinuate that I'm positive! No, no, I'm talking about myself, I know you're a miserable bastard

Well, whad'ya know, that's how I feel! I know being an optimist or pessismist is not always something you can choose, therefore I count myself lucky being born one (an optimist that is). I spend my days as a Villa fan being upbeat and optimistic looking forward to every game, thinking we can win. Then the weekend comes, if we win I'm overjoyed and still happy, if we lose it's a bummer. In a 'losing week' then at least I have spent half the time feeling upbeat and optimistic, rather than being a miserable, negative son of a gun one hundred percent of the time.

One could argue that Vital Villa is the most negative Villa fan site on the web, and that a lot of 'positive' posters have left the site because of 'the atmosphere' and their affection for conspiracy theories. :winkold:

Yes, where on earth would we find another manager with such a sound defensive record as O'Neill? Where, oh where would be the manager willing to come to work for £3m a year, with one of the best owners in the league? How on earth would we replace a man who saw fit to spend £25m on Davies, Cuellar and Shorey. If O'Neill ever left, who else could we get to waste Randy's money? I mean 6th place in the league, it takes a special kind of manager to achieve that..... Looking at the squad we had two years prior to our first 6th place, then yeah, I'd say it takes a special kind of manager to achieve that. Oh, and I see that the sum spent on Davies, Cuellar and Shorey is rising by the minute....

i agree with this... I think it can be done, for me it's a confidence thing at the moment. We've got some good players at this club, they just need to believe in themselves, believe that there's life after Laursen and Barry. A good performance and win (or even a draw) against Liverpool (doesn't like likely atm I know, but hear me out), a good performance and a two-goal (or more) win against Rapid Vienna, 3 or 4 new signings of the quality that most fans seem to be happy with (say Warnock, Distin, Upson, Tuncay or players of that ilk) and the momentum and the mood will be turned. Fans will be upbeat, positive and optimistic again. We're funny that way. It's why they call us fickle

I am sorry, but this sort of post is really getting to me at the moment It is not the fans fault that we are playing rubbish It is not the fans fault that our squad is weaker now than it was 12 months ago it is not the fans fault that it has been six months of going backwards I think people need to get their heads out of the sand and understand that the fans are hacked off and angry for a reason, a bloody good reason, their football team is rubbish, and what is worse, completely predictably rubbish. Something has gone seriously and (imo) terminally wrong behind the scenes, it is the only reason for such a total and dramatic collapse of form and confidence. the players are no longer playing for the manager or even for themselves, they simply Dont believe any more, you can see it in their listless, lifeless, dead performances - and a growing section of fans are joining them in their lack of belief. Martin O'Neill is angry with the boo boys apparently. Tough bloody luck Martin, The Boo boys, you know thsoe people who pay £25-30 +++ to get in to watch the shower you put on the pitch, arent exactly in love with you either. Stop the stupid sound bites, stop the pathetic whining to your media mates, get your bloody head down and start delivering some results before you make yourself look like a total muppet and see your career vanish into the sunset. The managers performance currently is completely unacceptable, he needs to get an immediate grip and stop pointing fingers at the fans who were here before him and will be after he has gone. Way OTT imo. Martin O'Neill angry with the boo boys and whining to his media mates? Nah, sorry, haven't seen that. What I have seen however is MON and the players being sorry for the pathetic display we put on against Wigan and that they're going to do whatever it takes to put it right. And some comments that booing doesn't help. Which is right of course.

In trying times you've got to get behind the team and the manager. Therefore I've ditched my previous beloved avatar, a Villa drawing given to me by my then 9-year-old daughter, and instead taken a picture of my new t-shirt

I really hope not...because it has been painful to enter transfer windows with MON. It has too often been embarrassing signings and also mediocre football with hoofing as the guide of success. I want it to end... MON has made the most of what he can do. He has had two consecutive 6th places in the league and the club seems to decline at the moment. MON has failed to keep our status as a top 6 club and it will show...it has already showed by losing 0-2 at home to Wigan in the league and also a embarrassing loss in Europa Cup to Rapid Vienna. We have two wins in 18 competitive games... Enough is enough. The squad lacks so much that it is unbelievable considering the clubs status in Premier League. Fair enough, you want MON sacked, I don't. You say it's painful to enter transfer windows with MON, but you're not in it for the transfer windows, are you? I thought this was a results business? Besides, frustrating as it is, it's the last week of the transfer window where things really kick off. If the Warnock rumour is true, the squad lacks 3 quality signings imo. 2 central defenders (maybe just one depending on how good Clark is, but then you have the potential shoulder operation for Davies, so therefore I say 2) and 1 creative/goalscoring/attacking midfielder. The squad has never been as close to being in a healthy state than it is now. MON has revamped the entire squad in 3 year's time, he's assembled some damn fine footballers, and is on the verge of having both an excellent first XI and even a good bench with players capable of coming on and changing things. True, we have been playing hoofball on occasions, in our bad spells, but nowhere near as much as you make it sound. Do you think MON's main tactic/wish is to play hoofball? Truth is lots of teams revert to hoof tactics when they're tired and low on confidence. Football is a confidence thing, you need to believe in yourself in order to dare doing the more complicated stuff. There have been times during MON's reign where we have been playing exciting, fast, direct, counter-attack football to an extent that fans of other clubs have commented on it. And guess what, it's that style of football that seems to have stuck to their minds. Lots of my friends say they now like watching Villa after MON took over, that we've got some very exciting players, that we've become their number two team even. The general idea people are left with after these three years is that Villa are exciting and on the up. We had a slump towards the end of last season because of a small squad, tired players, and lots of people seem to have lost the faith on the back of that period. That's sad imo, as with 3 more players our squad is big enough to avoid what we went through last season. All we need now (in addition to some new players) is a couple of good results, some confidence, and we're up and running.

He'll stay, he'll turn it around, and threads like these will be long forgotten.

Hope Luke is back. Has to play on the left for now until we get a better left back than Shorey. Beye will improve on the right, he's a good player. Cuellar and Clark in the middle. If you're good enough you're old enough. NRC, Petrov and Milner in the middle. Albrighton and Young on the wings. Carew if fit. ---------------Friedel/Guzan-------------- Beye------Cuellar------Clark------Young -------------NRC--------Petrov------------ Albrighton--------Milner------------Young -------------------Carew------------------- In the words of Alphaville: Hoping for the best but expecting the worst...

So, Petrov and Gabby 'dropped' after poor performances OR just 'rested'/'rotated out'? Don't get me wrong, I've seen MON's comments on the choice of wording when it comes to this, i.e dropping vs rotating players, but I still didn't think he'd drop Petrov and Gabby. Guess we'll find out on Monday. Especially if things work out today, and then if Gabby is back in the team vs Liverpool.

So 4-5-1 then with Gabby on the bench. Excellent. Hoping for a blinder. Also NRC Captain. Again excellent.

40 mins to KO and no team? C'mon OS :!:

That doesnt sound too good. Hope its legit. I'm sure it is. Otherwise they'd just blame it on the toe.

Ah, feck it. I have money on Villa. Heskey to score a hattrick then.

...is the team I'd play. All of a sudden (Shorey out, Young in) it doesn't look too bad at all. Get Distin in place of Davies and we're talking.

Skrtel out for 2 weeks. Possibly replaced by 18 year old Ayala, or Sotiris Kyrgiakos if they get him signed in time.

Another one for NRC. Bring him into a 5-man midfield and let him do all the dirty work and leave the ball to a teammate. Would work a treat.

Stay of course. There's a two-step recipe for success as far as I'm concerned: 1) You find the right man for the job 2) You give him time The second point in that list should not be underestimated. It goes without saying I think MON is the right man for us. Sack him and we're back to square one. Imagine where Man.Utd would be today had their board succumbed to fan (and media) pressure and sacked Alex Ferguson after 3 years in charge in 1989/1990.

Well, we need to get back to winning ways, so I'm looking forward to this match hoping it will kick-start our season. I'd like to see Clark in place of Davies. I'd like us to try 4-2-3-1, call it "practice" against a lesser team. I'd like to see NRC in the middle of the park. Ideally I'd like to see Beye given another run in the right back position, but as I've pretty much given up on Shorey (even though he'd do a decent job in a match like this I just don't see the point), I'd shift Beye to the left to make room for Lichaj. Assuming Carew is out, Delfouneso too lightweight, I'm going to have to go for Heskey up front, at least he was one of a few players that gave it an effort vs Wigan. Therefore I'd like to see this team: -------------------------Guzan---------------------------- Lichaj---------Cuellar------------Clark-------------Beye -----------------NRC--------------Delph------------------ Albrighton--------Sidwell or Milner--------------Young (get his confidence back) ------------------------Heskey-----------------------------

Agreed, we need to go 4-5-1 / 4-2-3-1, and do it now. When Gabby isn't interested/capable we might as well pack the midfield with an extra man, preferably NRC. Win the midfield battle and win the game they say, doesn't always happen, but 'surprisingly' often it does. Also Davies needs a kick up his arse and a long rest, like the one he had after his pub performance. I need to see some developments in this lad's game soon, or even I will join the 'overpriced' choir. Hate to say it and I usually don't spout crap like this (Lord, have mercy on my soul), but we could do with minor injuries to Davies and Gabby right now, to force some changes to the team/formation. We need a quick, strong, quality centre back (e.g Distin) coming in this week to form a partnership with Cuellar, and we need 5 across the middle of the park. Having said that, it's only one game, we still have lots of talented players, we've never beaten Wigan at home, so I won't dig a hole just yet. Besides I'm a fairly optimistic (albeit naive) guy so I've decided that MON will fix this for us in the next two weeks. If we have money that is. We'll buy Distin, we'll buy Warnock and if we can get a top quality creative midfielder on top of that (Tuncay will be mostly appreciated if we can't get VDV) then I'll be a happy camper. UTV.

Well, that was a real letdown, kind of an anticlimatic start to the season putting it mildly. Worried about Davies I must say. Not comfortable at all, looks........clumsy. Needs a period on the bench like the one after his "pub performance" where he came roaring back and produced several excellent performances. Young's performance was diabolical, constantly making the wrong decision, Gabby Aggybaggy was awful too. Need Distin and Warnock NOW. And Tuncay (scored today) if we can't get VDV. Ratings on a scale from 1 to 10. 6 - Friedel, Heskey 5 - Sidwell, Milner 4 - Cuellar, Beye, Petrov, Delph, Albrighton 3 - Shorey (reason he is above the 3 at the bottom is because he was decent until his first mistake, unlike the other 3 who were just awful all game through) 2 - Davies, Young, Gabby

4-4-2 with Delph and Petrov in the middle. Man, that's a gamble, but a damn exciting one. I like it. It took a brave man to eat the first oyster :winkold: .

Optimistic that we'll get at least 2 more players in, maybe even 3 if we're lucky, meaning we'll be up 4 or 5 from last season. (Yes, I count Clark and Albrighton.)

Feeling optimistic today, so I'm gonna go with 4-0. 2 goals by the big guy up front (the one who starts) 1 goal by the other big guy up front (the one who comes on after about 70-80 mins) 1 goal by Milner