switters

Good that it's O'Shea rather than Rafael - should alternate Downing/Young/Albrighton on him and give him as torrid time as possible, 'cause he's not the fastest and Nani doesn't give much defensive help. Heskey, Fonz and Gabby all on the bench means we have plenty to throw at them later on, if needs be.

BBC lists Makoun as a doubt with thigh injury. I haven't heard anything anywhere else about that, mind

If Makoun and Gabby both out (they are doubts, according to BBC), I'd consider going with: Friedel Walker-Collins-Dunne-Clark Albrighton-Petrov-ReoCoker-Young Heskey-Bent Young on the left to support Clark and help counter Nani/Rafael, while pace of Albrighton and Walker should give Evra plenty of problems (and he's often one of their key attacking outlets). If we can stop them wide they often struggle a bit through the middle (esp if it's Anderson-Carrick/Fletcher as CM). Two up top looks rather optimistic & a bit direct but I think sometimes that's the best way to go at Utd. Birmingham tried flooding midfield and lost 5-0. Heskey-Bent should give Vidic-Ferdinand a torrid time and give us outlets - they're going to dominate possession however we line up, so we need outlets - and they also give Albrighton/Young something to aim at in the box when we can get a cross in. -- However, I'm pretty sure Houllier will start Petrov-Coker/Makoun, Albrighton-Young-Downing as the midfield with Bent on his own, as all bar Coker were rested at weekend. Bearing in mind how many problems Albrighton-Young-Downing gave them in the home game too, that's probably a sensible choice. Anyway, it's cool looking through the thread and seeing the different options we have now and this is before Bradley is added to the mix.

we have 27 players? :shock: I make 28 that have played in league: Friedel Walker, Warnock, Lichaj, L.Young, Beye, Dunne, Collins, Cuellar, Clark [9] ReoCoker, Sidwell, Petrov, Delph, Hogg, Herd, Bannan, Pires, A.Young, Albrighton, Downing, Ireland [12] Bent, Carew, Heskey, Agbonlahor, Delfouneso, Weimann [6] Makoun will be #29 Plus I think Baker, D.Johnson, Guzan, Marshall, Lowry, Salifou, Osbourne, Davies, Parish all been in squad at some point, which would make 38! Of these 13 are academy products. i think your missing the part where it says in their STARTING line-ups Ah fair point. Everyone except Weimann and Herd have started from the first list. Which means I'm missing 1 to make the 27 they mention. And I've just worked out that must be Milner!

we have 27 players? :shock: I make 28 that have played in league: Friedel Walker, Warnock, Lichaj, L.Young, Beye, Dunne, Collins, Cuellar, Clark [9] ReoCoker, Sidwell, Petrov, Delph, Hogg, Herd, Bannan, Pires, A.Young, Albrighton, Downing, Ireland [12] Bent, Carew, Heskey, Agbonlahor, Delfouneso, Weimann [6] Makoun will be #29 Plus I think Baker, D.Johnson, Guzan, Marshall, Lowry, Salifou, Osbourne, Davies, Parish all been in squad at some point, which would make 38! Of these 13 are academy products.

Yep I'd go with roughly that, with Bannan over Petrov (who looked knackered yesterday - probably too much to expect 3 games in a week after being out for 6 weeks). Possibly give Lichaj another game too, either left or right depending if Walker is ready. Ireland should play some part too, probably off the bench, if there's any chance of him staying on beyond this transfer window. Suspect Houllier will go with Pires rather than Fonz, with Ash playing off Gabby.

We did okay first half - should've got the goal. But it needed a tweak at half time as Gabby was not in the game - I was expecting to see Albrighton come out for the 2nd. Maybe that would've come before long, but then there was Heskey's moment of idiocy - and it was the reaction (or lack thereof) to the red that damned us. You need energy and people to hold onto the ball when you're a man down - we had Petrov tiring, Downing + Agbonlahor disappearing and Young + Coker misfiring passes. Changes were needed. What was especially annoying is that when Bannan and Albrighton finally came on, they actually did inject a bit of life, but it was of course far too late. A man down it was always going to be hard, but we just didn't respond to it. Players: Friedel - didn't have alot to do, but there was that dodgy moment when he came out to block and missed, and Bent's shot was cleared off the line. don't think he could've stopped the goal as it came through so many players. Cuellar - mostly okay. supported Downing quite well 1st half. Collins - dodgy, especially the above incident where he had to get back to clear of the line after messing up vs Bent. Dunne - probably best of the defence. Clark - okay but clearances a bit slack sometimes. Reo-Coker - the usual: great workrate + dodgy passing Petrov - okay but faded out of the game. I think he was struggling when we went to 10 and should've been replaced. Downing - good 1st (should've had a very good assist if Heskey could finish), anonymous 2nd Young - not a good match. Was guilty of some wasteful passes and bad decision making Agbonlahor - not a left winger. Heskey - the great enigma. The bulk of his work was great, but then there was his two Big Moments: the miss (poor but forgiveable) and the retaliation (unforgiveably stupid). Hard to pick a Motm. Probably Coker, however frustrating he sometimes is. A thoroughly dispiriting day. Need to get a couple of signings to lift the mood before the derby. Sheff Utd will certainly be thinking this is a perfect opportunity to KO a Premier League side and I rather expect them to do so.

Whole game had sense of inevitability about it. Stoke having made awful start to season, I kind of always felt they'd scrap their way to a win, particularly with us still rather unstable in terms of management. The way they won was particularly disgusting (the scummiest player on the pitch cheating to win a free kick and the worst player on the pitch deflecting it in), but we still should've cleared better - from both goals, in fact, as they had too many opportunities to get the second cross in. Good performance first half but we faded and have to agree with people questioning the lack of subs in the second half, as we were being forced to defend more and more hoofs and they were always going to score as long as we continued to let them win set pieces and get crosses in. They brought on Fuller and Pennant who between them won the match (in rather different ways), we just did nothing until a striker-for-striker late on. So frustrating to piss away points like that after all our rivals dropped points at the weekend. But then supporting Villa is just an accumulation of frustrations.

Went back to Palmeiras less than 2 months ago. Very unlikely.

Silva: world cup winner?! the only game he played was the only game they lost! Milner made more of a contribution to the world cup than Silva.

We were strongly linked with him last summer and the story really seemed to have legs. IF it was true and we were in for him id say MoN has dropped another major bollock in the transfer market Nearly all top German players play in Germany. As English players tend to play in England. It's like saying Leverkusen have dropped a bollock for failing to sign a talented young English player ahead of Spurs or Everton. i.e. nonsense.

Babel's brainless. His pace does him okay, but I don't think he'd be much good as a winger in 442. And I have serious doubts that Petrov-Ireland would work against many teams. Would just get outrun & overcrowded by anyone playing 451/433. From the links, something like: Petrov-Ireland-Parker would give a strong basis in the centre. Then I'd be looking at Young and Gabby playing either side of a new striker/Carew. This assuming we cash in on Milner.

All our England hopefuls should be well up for this one, as it's their last chance to impress and get into the provisional 30. Expect O'Neill will give Heskey a start to help his case.

A lot of people saying Reo-Coker should play, but the guy hasn't played since Xmas - do you really want to throw him straight into a game like this when he's unlikely to be match-fit? It'd surely be Sidwell if we did add an extra midfielder. I'd rather we just went with the 4-4-2 that's been winning - we need to win, so it's not really the time to go negative. Almost certain MON will go with the same team anyway, so it's rather pointless speculating about changes! One thing to note is that City have a midweek game to follow - I wonder if they'll have half a mind on that when it comes to their team-selection. They know they need to win both, but perhaps see Spurs as the bigger game, given their position. This might work in our favour.

Guzan Beye-Davies-Dunne-Young Young-Sidwell-Delph-Downing Carew-Fonz That should be enough to win, with Milner on the bench to come on if necessary (but hopefully able to rest Young/Downing for likes of Salifou 2nd half, if its going well)..

Really happy to see 4 different attackers on the scoresheet, should hopefully be a big boost in confidence at a crucial time. Also showing we can win after going behind is very positive. We were poor first half, but really stepped it up after a couple of pretty lucky goals! Confidence is the key and it's important that we're going to stay in touch while others play next week.

Lovely stuff. 2 goals just before half time should really hammer Fulham confidence. I'd like to think we can see this one out easily (give Delph half hour perhaps?) but this being Villa, I'd not be surprised if it ends up a nervy last 10 mins!

Good performance, 'specially first half. The midfield in particular impressed and MOTM could be any from Milner, Young, Downing. Another clean sheet - good for the defence. Shame we didn't get the second, but would've definitely taken this result beforehand. We'll have big psychological advantage going into the 2nd leg and have shown we can score goals against Blackburn, so we should be able to see it out comfortably enough.

Thought we played okay, given the conditions and how little time we had to recover from Arsenal...there certainly didn't seem to be big difference in fitness between the sides in 2nd half, even though they had an extra day and a far easier fixture. Also felt the ref didn't help matters by giving nothing to Agbonlahor or Carew all game. The ball wouldn't stick enough up front, but when fouls aren't given it helps shape momentum. As for individuals, thought Agbonlahor did well trying to lead the line, and almost fashioned a goal. Milner looks a bit tired, and things aren't coming off for him that were a week or so ago. Defence was solid all through until that messy fluke of a breakthrough which led to the goal. The ending was obviously crushing, and could be a big moment in the season for both clubs. Need some joy in the cups now to lift mood. Been a horrible Christmas results-wise.

Got a bit of luck here and there, and never looked wholly convincing (the last 20 mins were painful), but ground out the result which is crucial. Defence is excellent at the minute. Cuellar is showing why he cost £9m and I thought L.Young was MOTM. Three games in a week - three wins and nothing conceded. Could not have had a better set-up for the big Xmas fixtures.

Delightful result. Backs up the win at Man Utd and gives us a chance to make it 4 (well, 5 inc cup) wins on the trot at the weekend. Not a bad performer amongst them. Milner was obviously great, but I'll give MOTM to Heskey who's really starting to prove his worth. Especially nice to have points in the bag with Spurs and Man City playing each other tomorrow, and Arsenal with a potentially tough fixture at Burnley

I love James Milner

Great result - well done Guzan! Starting to think we have the best #2 in the league. Only slight downer is probably could have done without Milner, Gabby, Young, Petrov all playing 120 mins. But Everton are quite depleted at the minute so should be going into that game with confidence. Here's hoping for Blackburn/Portsmouth at home in the quarters

Guzan Beye/Young-Cuellar-Clark-Shorey Milner-ReoCoker-Gardner-Delph Agbonlahor-Heskey and hopefully rest Gabby and Milner for Fonz and Albrighton in the 2nd half. I think Clark earned himself another start with his performance when called on in the league. We gotta show some faith in fringe players in games like this. Need to give people like Petrov, Young a rest. People aren't going to want to see us resting key players in league games, so if not now, when exactly do they get rested/rotated?

For SWP we've got Milner. Barry is no more high energy than Sidwell, and De Jong will be occupied helping out their iffy defence against Gabby, Carew and Young. Think positive