tommo

Edit - I already fixed your previous post for you. Trent

Disagree, there has been nothing in this game that makes me think we miss NRC. Delph is his 'replacement' and is playing better than NRC does for me. 451 AT Anfield is a great idea at Ewood is unnecessary. I don't agree. 4-5-1 with NRC would have IMO given the likes of Milner and Young a better platform from which to attack and protected our back 4 more. But plays into t'Rovers playing everything 30 foot above a 5 man midfield. i.e Their goal. 451 does allow Stan to blossom though, it's a tough choice but personally I would go 442 at Ewood. Absolutely fine, just not with stan. Delph and coker worked pre season, as did gardner and coker. Petrov has never worked in a 442

Big Ron says Petrov is being bypassed in midfield. Surprise surprise. Milner and Delph impressing apparently

One can only hope. It won't happen though.

Disagree completely. The 451 is set up to counter attack away from home which is what we are fantastic at. Chelsea based two outstanding title winning seasons on a solid 451. 442 with petrov works in reverse for us as however good we are going forward, we get ripped apart by any opposition through the middle.

shut up! maybe we will play brilliantly and deserve to win. that sort of comment is the epitomy of negative villa fans - we only win when the oppostion are bad - just as some said after the liverpool game. occassionally, you know, we do actually deserve the good things that happen to us. Yes you are right, although the situation is this- when we play 4-5-1, we don't lose, the opposition can't break us down. When we play 4-4-2 with petrov, we invariably get outplayed by poor opposition. So in this case my only optism is that Rovers are very poor, otherwise we will be overrun again.

Oh dear, deary deary me. If this goes wrong there'll only be one man to blame...Just what is playing at? It's a case of getting the line up completely wrong in order to accommodate Carew. I'm not looking forward to this. These tactics he employs are fast becoming comical. Blackburn are better than cardiff, and arguably better than Wigan. They'll beat us unless they play crap.

Gardner played right mid and when Albrighton came on it showed what we were missing on the right flank. He was lively, got crosses in at every opportunity, and they were very good. Nice cameo

I would go, ...........Friedel Beye Cuellar Dunne Warnock ........Reo Coker Petrov Milner.......Delph........Young Gabby With Carew for impact if needed, and Gabby switching right and Milner coming inside, rather than removing Coker again. MON however will go ............Friedel Cuellar Dunne Collins Warnock Milner Petrov Sidwell Young Carew Gabby and it'll be 50/50 as to who wins as we'll be good going forward, but leave ourselves agape at the back due to lack of protection

This is odd.You've give Petrov and Delph 8s and then said the midfield looked vulnerable. These two judgements surely cannot sit sensibly together. Haha, I knew someone would pick up on this. What I tried to get across is that they were both actually excellent with the ball at their feet. However, the system, from a defensive point of view was wrong, I felt, as it usually is with Petrov in a 442. Perhaps I was being over generous with 8s but I actually would've felt harsh giving them 7 as their passing range was so good. That's why I marked MON down as opposed to those two. Hard one to explain lol!

I'd think that the reason that O'Neill played Gardner at right midfield is because he wanted to play Delph in the centre with a more experienced player alongside him, which was Petrov. The competition for places is strong at the moment which means that players like Gardner won't always get to play in their prefered positions. I can't see any reason to believe that O'Neill will play 4-4-2 against Man City or Chelsea, he didn't play that way away to Liverpool or Blues so i don't think he'd be naive enough to think that a 4 man midfield of Delph, Petrov, Milner or Young would be strong enough to face Citeh or Chelsea. To be fair i think if we shipped Coker for someone like Jenas at January most Villa fans would take that. In this case why should Gardner play at all?? He needs to be played in his proper position. Right midfield is also Albrighton's position who was good when he came on. I don't want to put a dampener on the result, but when i heard the team I thought excellent, a chance maybe to try: Guzan Beye Cuellar Collins Shorey Petrov Gardner Delph Gabby Milner Carew I might've guessed though that he'd be rigid and play the team he did though. As for Petrov being experienced, well quite, yes, but it has been proven he gets overrun in a 442. So why put the lightweight Delph with him against a midfield 5? Baffling... As for Coker leaving, well I agree with that to an extent, but if things start going wrong we may start to nosedive, because Coker actually cares about things like that. That's probably one for the Reo Coker thread however lol...

Guzan 8- had a few difficult things to deal with and dealt with everyting excellently. Beye 7-solid and dependable Cuellar-8* superb Collins-6 Bothroyd caused him problems in the first half i thought. Generally dependable, but was caught in possession in the second half which could have cost us. Shorey 7-good in possession and going forwards Gardner 6-unfortunately as this was the league cup Gardner got his game as MON is obliged to play him at some stage. He did some good things, but MON seems to think he is a right winger which clearly he is not. Poor management and I felt for him at times. Albrighton should've played in ths position. Petrov-8 made some nice interceptions. This poorer standard of opposition suits petrov though, as he seems to have plenty of time on the ball. Nice passing. Look beyond the excellent technique on the surface and he is still a major issue defensively in a 4 4 2. Delph 8- Lively and an excellent range of passing. Somehow found himself in a midfield with Petrov again which fundamentally failed against Wigan, and again it looked vulnerable with Cardiff in possession. Milner 7- a little wasteful unfortunately but the work rate was there again, and I also think he is equally as effective as Young on the left on current form. Carew 6- didn't do enough, but his run leading up to the goal was excellent. Gabby 7-Played with confidence, good goal, and looks to be shrugging off the 'lazy' tag. Albrighton 8- could make the grade, and should've started ahead of Gardner in that position. MON 5-unconvincing team selection and again failed to make changes. Petrov in a 4 4 2 against a team playing 5 across the middle was again overlooked and we got away with it, and Gardner IS NOT a right midfielder. No sign of NRC which is worrying. Play this system against Man City and Chelsea, and fans will begin to lose faith again.

Overall, i'm so pleased that the formation worked. Thought MON hadn't learnt after midweek, and that he might switch Coker back to RB and Petrov would be hopeless again. He didn't, and thankfully we came away with a very easy victory in what was a dire game. Friedel- nothing to do 6.0 Beye- solid but unspectacular going forward 6.5 Cuellar- Looks a class act now he has a midfield in front of him 7.5 Clark- solid on debut, promising 7.0 Shorey- ditto Beye 6.5 Sidwell- worked hard, but did little 6.5 Reo Coker- Best of the midfield 3. Passing much improved, energetic. Yet still he was the one replaced...7.0 Petrov- Looked a decent footballer in the first half, which he is. Although if this is the only system in which he can operate and he is going to play 90mins every game then he could hold us back. Kept things ticking but passed backwards at any opportunity. 6.5 Young- Again had a hand in one of the goals. OK throughout. 6.5 Milner- The effort always shines through if not always the end product.7.0 Agbonlahor- Strangely he becomes a different player in this system. Lively and an excellent strike.7.5* Carew-Did he come on? He's hard to miss. 6.0 Boring as hell, but thoroughly effective, so no complaints. However against a Fulham side ripe for the slaughter, perhaps a little more support for Gabby from the middle 3 wouldn't have gone amiss, as there was more than enough to cover defensively today. Lack of substitutions was again strange. Delph who was lively v vienna may have brightened up a tiring, dull game. Solid if nothing else and a pleasing 3 points at home.

If this is true then this is a very interesting point. I for one followed the O'Neill hype when he came, and for 2 and a half seasons he deserved the hype surrounding him for he has been a godsend for the club. However the form for god knows how long now has made me question what he has actually done, and whether he is to an extent living on reputation. He won league cups with Leicester City and guided them to mid table finishes- excellent stuff, working with a tight budget and a group who all work well together ie. taggart, elliott, heskey, savage, lennon. This is maybe the situation where MON works best. On the back of this, he got the celtic job, where he didn't exactly need to change his ways because the Scottish League will always be won by one of two Glasgow clubs anyway, invariably Celtic. In this case I feel there was no real achievement there. I think MON is a moral man, who enjoys working with a tight budget and a hard working group of players. Whether this way of working is right for Villa remains to be seen. It did seem to be working at least. In the modern premier league where you are competing with the arrogance, immorality, cash rich, and the desire for easy and immediate success of Man Utd, Man City, Chelsea, Liverpool, Arsenal and Tottenham... it would take a great man to take us to the next level. Strangely, for a man surrounded by such hype, he has turned in the last 6 months into the most frustrating manager I have seen in some time at Villa Park. He created something with the Young/Agbonlahor effect which has now been found out, and has done nothing to rectify it or find a plan B. He made Barry captain after Laursen, who has no motivational or team leadership skills. He isolates good, ambitious players ie. Carew, NRC, Sidwell, and fails to give people chances again after a bad game, while some can go through horrendous runs of form and keep their place, ie Gabby, Petrov. He had stumbled upon a 4-5-1 formation which made us very difficult to beat and suited our counter attacking players, turning us into a capable top 4 side, then changed it back to 4-4-2 which has seen us turn into cannon fodder due to playing players who do not fit the system ie. Petrov, and has been stubborn enough to not even to try something different in that time, even though the formation, the system and tactics are utterly inept for everybody to see. His team selections are quite often wrong. He does not make substitutions when they should be made, and when they are, they are always incorrect. So Mr O'Neill...I think all I want to see at the moment is a change back to the 4-5-1 or at least an attempt to change the system. Buy a midfield leader of mentality and possession, or play Reo Coker. And buy a good centre half to cover davies. Otherwise he could soon be on borrowed time.

Agree in some respects, in that we were the dominant team and deserved to win, but I wouldn't be as positive as you. I think we struggle to grasp the concept of urgency and taking the game to the opposition in home games. It was utterly frustrating that villa didn't need to get out of 2nd gear in order to dominate a game, but if we had done we would've won comfortably i'm sure, against a team with a terrible away record who were thumped 4-2 at watford!! The back line were solid, against a poor strikeforce who showed no positive intention throughout. Gardner was promising, barry coasted, petrov doesn't understand that if mellberg passes you the ball, he thinks you should do a better job in getting it forwards, and that he shouldn't pass it sideways or back to mellberg, berger was ineffective and shattered, carew looked tired towards the end, and gabby was ok. Strange that o'neill or robinson didn't realise that stefanovic was terrible at left back and didn't get Young, or at least someone running at him until too late. Frustrating, had a good chance to show a bit of intent today, and we didn't, again looking distinctly average against average opposition at home. No ambition.