switters

Sinclair for Gabby definitely. He's a better finisher and has the pace to get in same sort of positions. Ayew for Gestede before too long, also, 'cause he doesn't look fit enough Grealish looks excellent - if we find the right forward combo in front of him, we'll be flying. Impressed with Sanchez and Westwood too.

Clark is not injury prone. Okore has had a couple of injuries, one really bad one, but not sure he would be classed as injury prone either. Now Baker, he is definitely injury prone. And we have Crespo as back up. I think we are ok at centre back, but one striker short. okay we can quibble on whether they all fit the category 'injury-prone' but it has been a feature of the last few years that our CBs have rotated a lot due to injuries. Vlaar also had lots of problems and he's gone but we've replaced with Richards who has similar history of problems. yes with Crespo as well, I think we have enough depth in numbers at CB but I could see the logic in loaning Baker to see if he can get a proper run of regular football somewhere and bring in Lescott for a year or two for his experience.

Not a huge Lescott fan, but let's face it: Richards, Clark, Baker and Okore are all quite injury-prone. Based on careers so far it's likely that 1 or 2 of them will be in the treatment room at any given time over the season. Lescott in and loan out Baker might be a smart move for a year - should help Richards as he is still somewhat new to CB position. Also there's option of 352 with Richards-Clark-Lescott at the back and Bacuna/Amavi with more freedom to go forward. Plus imagine Richards, Lescott & Gestede all up for corners, would give us real aerial threat that some teams won't be able to cope with.

Pleased for him, shown himself to be well worth a place in squad and makes sense to sign up a good length contract considering age. One of Lambert's better signings for sure.

Disagree. He's already said he sees both Gil and Grealish as 10's. You'd think at least one of them will be starting when fit. Isn't 4321 like the 'two number 10s' formation he was using for FA Cup semi*, with Grealish and N'Zogbia playing off Benteke. Could be Grealish/Gil/Traore/Sinclair competing for two spots playing off Gestede or Ayew *http://www.birminghammail.co.uk/sport/football/football-news/tim-sherwood-aston-villa-game-plan-9087586

yeah Darmian on Richards - clearly had arm around his neck as ball was coming in which prevented Richards getting proper header and no intention whatsoever of competing to win the ball fairly. very cynical, very much a penalty but the kind that few refs give, especially against Man Utd

Disappointing but not a disaster by any stretch. Fought well and worked hard just didn't create in final third and got punished for one bit of sloppiness in defence. Gueye and Amavi impressed, along with Bacuna (who's looking better defensively) and Westwood. Veretout was anonymous 2nd half and should've been subbed earlier. Ayew frustrated and hopefully will learn a lesson from the yellow. Gabby didn't impress and Sinclair got subbed just when he seemed to be getting into it. Need Gil or Grealish added to the mix to hopefully add a bit more spark. Also obviously some players need to get up to speed with the league (and I suspect we'll be saying similar about Traore in a week or two) Could've got a draw if the ref wasn't a coward as Man Utd were not particularly impressive in attack, only Mata really made the difference. The fact they had Schweinsteiger and Herrera to bring on to help see out the game is a rather luxurious state of affairs which demonstrates the gulf in resources.

Should've been Gabby or Ayew off, not Sinclair, who's come alive a bit this half.

Utd had some dodgy passes by and to their keeper. need to exploit that more. positive combo by Sinclair and Amavi there.

Glad he's found a club, obvious he wasn't going to feature here this season and with 3 years on his contract, difficult to sell this summer. Not a bad player but not quite cut out for pace of the league or the style Sherwood wants to play with fullbacks providing the width going forward.

We've got huge squad currently. Could pretty much field three different themed teams: Premier league veterans: Guzan Hutton-Richards-Senderos-Richardson Sinclair-Westwood-Cole-N'Zogbia Agbonlahor-Adebayor(?) The Franco-Spanish crew (+Bacuna & Okore): GK* Bacuna-Crespo-Okore-Amavi Gueye-Sanchez-Vertout Ayew-Gestede-Gil Young/homegrown Brits: Steer Donacien-Baker-Clark-Bennett Gardner-Calder-Mason Sellars-Robinson-Grealish plus I couldn't fit Kozak, Cissokho or Tonev.. *we need to sign De Gea or Lloris

Glad about this one, would've been a shame if we let him go cheap. Centre backs often develop slower so 24 is still young & he's shown signs of maturing, mainly just injuries have held him back. Most people were writing off Clark as lost cause last summer & now he's seen as important member of first XI. Not impossible that Baker has a similar transition..

Before the window started, I'd never heard of Amavi, Gueye or Veretout and only vaguely knew Ayew and Gestede. Still, leaps into the unknown are exciting I was kinda expecting an underwhelming summer of signing likes of Ricky Lambert and Andros Townsend..

What game was that in? Because I thought N'Zogbia did a decent job of recycling the ball during our run in, he seems to be the one player who gets absolutely no credit for how we survived. Take Man City away for example. Yes I am aware we lost, I was there unfortunately, but when he came on it turned the game. They couldn't handle his darting runs and if it were not for an idiot linesman he set Benteke up to win a penalty at 2-2 which likely wins us the game. But no, he was hopeless according to Villa Talk. A lazy waste of a shirt. I'd not lose any sleep if he were moved on but I cannot for the life of me figure out why he receives the abuse he does. I think it's because more is expected - based on his price tag, experience & reputation, N'Zogbia should be one of our star players & most consistent performers but he's too often anonymous. If you're signed as a £10m winger, people expect goals & assists and will cut you less slack. A decent job of recycling the ball is not really enough. to give a comparison: Leandro Bacuna cost one tenth the price, has played RB half the time & still scored more goals in a Villa shirt than Zog

I think it's a good move all round - could do well for Derby, it's a fair price and I think he needed a change of scene, had stagnated in the last year or two since becoming regular. If he'd stayed he'd struggle to nail down a spot in the team and he's getting to the kind of age where you're in danger of becoming permanent squad-filler if you haven't proved yourself capable of being consistent performer - and in particular for a forward, being a consistent goalscorer. think Luke Moore (although I think he also went to Derby at one point and didn't become a consistent goalscorer)..

Welcome Micah. Could be a good signing, really depends on how much toll injuries & the lack of gametime in the last few years have had

Hard to know what we're getting 'cause he's hardly played for past three years. Could be a coup if he lives up to early potential, could be a huge waste of wages if he's injured half the time & hasn't got the pace he used to have.

I think he'll head back to Spain as he doesn't seem particularly suited to this league. Sometimes players take a year to adjust, so I wouldn't write him off completely but I think it'd take a proper run of games for him to adapt and then it's the question of whether we can afford to give him that run of games when he seems to always have a mistake in him. Copa can put him in shop window & I think Sherwood will be looking to make spaces in the squad where he can and Sanchez will be one who is seen as very expendable.

We're in quite a weird position with CBs - essentially got 5 players who have all shown capable of being very good at times, but all also had spells of being mistake-prone. Additionally they have all had a fair amount of injury problems, either regularly out for short-medium periods (Vlaar, Clark, Baker) or had one significant lay-off (Senderos & Okore). Generally you have to think that it's better to be picking the same CB partnership regularly throughout the season and this mix of inconsistent form & injuries are going to make that highly unlikely to happen for us. At the same time though, keep Vlaar and we've probably got better depth in this position than most clubs in the league as not many clubs will have 5 CBs of equivalent experience. Reliable options are not that easy to come by, either. Players who look good in other leagues can look weak here (think of Fazio and Chiriches, two expensive Spurs purchases with good reputation who've not exactly shone in this league). Vlaar may be one of our highest paid players but we do know what we are getting if we keep him & you could easily spend those wages on a transfer fee that turns out to be a total waste.

Safety! strange day. as bad as it could possibly have been in our match, but the other results have gone swimmingly.

awful stuff first half. defence didn't heed two very clear early warnings about them getting behind the defensive line & once one went in, everything fell to pieces. Players just hit a wall maybe, lot of high pressure & high intensity performances last few weeks and nothing left in tank today. there was maybe some complacency too, players perhaps showed up thinking that Southampton were already on the beach this season, so weren't prepared for a side who were pressing quickly & had a lot of pace to get behind: if that's the case it's on the manager as well for not preparing them properly. No excuses, whatever the reason for that collapse, we had enough experience out there to at least be able to shut things down and show some semblance of composure after conceding. we just kept giving the ball back and letting them do the same thing over and over again. One slight positive - and it's a pretty desperate reach to find one - I'd rather this performance came here than at Wembley. surely cannot play so bad again this season (or hopefully ever!).

what in the holy **** is this defensive line? suicide.

oh for the love of God. are we deliberately trying to get back into relegation trouble? wtf is Vlaar doing today?

awful defending. absolutely woeful.

I think I'd start Gabby for Zog, even though he was poor off the bench. Think he needs time on pitch to get up to speed again. Reckon Delph will finally get his first league goal of the season today. Score draw is my prediction