Troglodyte

Stay. I still believe MON is a good manager, and I think that - without a huge injection of cash - managers need a lot of time to excel. There may even be some backwards steps. Hopefully, MON can eventually win things with the team he's building. I think one reason he's 'slow' in the market is because he wants to buy exactly the right player. He takes his time, but not because he's lazy. It's because he's building something. I'm sure he's the man to sort out some players' apparant attitudes (Gabby, Ash) and, if not, I dare say they won't make it at the very highest level anyway. It's not blind faith though. I am wondering whether, if we're to commit a number of years of our development as a club to this man, he's the right person. However, aside from a handful of names I'm sure we couldn't attract to manage our club, I'm not sure who I'd have complete faith in taking his place.

Wigan played very well, but the fact is we have to be beating teams like Wigan - particularly at home - if we want to compete with our rivals. Obviously a very poor start to the season. Hopefully we can turn it around quickly, maybe with a couple of signings. Friedel – 5.5 I wasn't overly impressed with Big Brad today. Despite making one or two decent saves, I don't feel so comfortable with him between the sticks and I'm all for giving Guzan a test. However, Friedel does have experience and such a move could backfire. I'd also like to see how both 'keepers perform behind a more settled defence. Beye – 6 Not an awful performance from the debutant, but I feel he was caught missing defensively once or twice. Cuéllar – 6 I thought Carlos made some good challenges, but once again his partnership with Davies didn't look too firm. Davies – 5 Not a good performance. I don't know if it's because of his shoulder injury, lack of confidence or both, but I'm sure there's a better player in Curtis. Something tells me he needs a break, both mentally and physically. Yes, he's had the summer, but I think we'd fare much better with another player in his position that we could replace him with at times like this. For this reason I really hope we sign a top-class central defender before the end of the month. The sooner, the better, of course. Shorey – 5 Almost a four. Looked back to his poor form from when he first arrived. Not closing down quickly enough, and I was less than impressed with his passing today, too. Milner – 7 Despite sending a couple of free-kicks skywards, I thought Jimmy gave a typical committed performance today. Petrov – 6 He's not an out-and-out defensive midfielder. He's not an out-and-out attacking midfielder. He's a bloody good passer though, and (like it or not) our captain, so maybe we should be accommodating him in a 4-5-1? NRC destroying, Petrov collecting and spreading the play, and a choice of Milner, Young, Downing, Albrighton and Delph supporting the front man. Whether Carew, Heskey or Agbonlahor would be happy with this though, I'm not so sure. Delph – 6 Showed some potential, but didn't take the game by the scruff of the neck – not that I'd expect him to in his PL debut. Young – 5 He is a fantastic player, but wasted so many opportunities today. Was relatively unlucky with his late miss in front of what seemed like an open goal, but so many times he lost the ball for us today and didn't look up. He was more like NRC, with inferior defensive abilities, today. Agbonlahor – 5.5 Not particularly impressed with Gabby today. Didn't really get into the game, but didn't get great service, either. Should have taken a touch when through on goal at one point, but let the ball bounce. Heskey – 6 No great contributions from Emile, either. Could have done a better job holding up the ball against a physical side. Unfortunately, we didn't have the option to bring Carew on. Subs Sidwell – 6 Had a good chance with an unmarked header, but didn't even get it on target. Hassled quite a bit, but nothing to write home about from Steve. Alrbighton – 6 Looked bright, but didn't feature all that much. Delfouneso – 6 No real impact. Still don't think he's fully ready for top-flight football yet anyway, but I'd happily be proven wrong.

I can see why people are annoyed; that was an extremely poor performance. However, some of the over-reactions on here are insane. We'd never get anywhere if some of you guys called the shots! We'd be bankrupt, operating a managerial merry-go round that no-one would want to get on, and probably even further down the league than we were in the not-so-distant (although you wouldn't believe it) past. Not that I expected anything different, though.

Friedel pushing it into danger again.

**** kidding me.

You finished that book yet Trim? I bloody loved it! Girlfriend bought me this the other day, but I want to read 'Moab is my Washpot' first and I'm waiting for it to be delivered.

Would love to go to Vienna - I've considered going before - but just can't afford to pay that much for flights really. Ah well.

**** YEAH!!!

Carew should have done better there. Much better ball in from Ash.

Young's delivery has been poor.

I've done what I did for the Porto match (and would only ever do in friendlies) and put a bet on our opponents winning. So, I'll definitely be supporting Villa, but the only result completely lacking in positives would be a Juventus win on penalties.

He played well all match, making quite a few top saves. The American commentators were getting pretty hyped in general and were talking as if Guzan was a brick wall in goal (which he practically was!) and, when he pulled off a good save in the second half, the commentator shouted "NO GOAL FOR YOU!" Made me chuckle.

Business Time - Flight of the Conchords

I'm indifferent, is that allowed?

Clark nearly scored as well - hit the bar with a scorching header! I'm only teasing but tx goodness some on VT get it totally wrong with their predictions..... I'm not going to be able to forget that, am I? I shall keep my horrendously incorrect predictions to myself in future!

Like I said win the ball give it to the best midfield player, trouble is Villa don't have him yet. At Chelsea Makalel won it gave it to Lampard simple. Nige is doing his bit but when he wins the ball he don't have many options along side him. Oh I agree, if we can get him to immediately offload the ball to Petrov or a creative midfielder, then it's brilliant. But sometimes he doesn't look up, or misplaces even the shortest of passes. But whilst he might give up possession, he's often 30 or 40 yards further up the pitch when he does so. It's an important distinction. Sometimes, yes. And his charging runs are good, but there's almost always no end product. Yes it's good that we're further up the pitch, but we've still lost possession. That's why he's frustrating. I'd rather we had passing midfielders who could advance 30 or 40 yards up the pitch quickly and then still keep the ball and mount an attack rather than inviting more pressure. We're poor at holding possession. Although as I said, NRC is very good at breaking up possession and it'll be difficult to find a midfielder with his destroying abilities and energy who also has a fantastic creative side to their play.

That's the frustrating thing about NRC, he runs and runs and breaks up play then immediately returns possession to the oppositon.

Enjoyed reading your article in the Birmingham Mail, Gen. And a while ago, you were kind enough to phone my little brother after he decided to switch allegiances from Liverpool to Villa. He was really chuffed with this and I always thought he thanked you personally, but I recently found he never managed to sign up for the site and so I wish to send a belated but huge thank you from both of us. He's certainly not switching back and attended several games with me last season. He plays football at the weekend himself but if it doesn't clash with Villa he's there with me. Thanks to you, Randy and the rest of the staff at VP for everything you've done for this great club over recent years. The small things count as much as the bigger things - but you guys seem to be practically getting it all right. I honestly wouldn't change our board for anything.

Very pleased! Guzan was absolutely immense. Very commanding too. Also highly impressed with Cuéllar and Clark. Davies hasn't been playing well for a while now and we looked steady with those two at the back. Obviously Clark isn't ready to fill Laursen's boots just yet though, in case anyone thinks that's what I'm suggesting! I'm really not a fan of Heskey, but I thought he played well until his sending off. Should have remained calm - whatever was said to him, he's a professional and should have been able to ignore it. That said, I'm sure it wasn't something particularly nice judging by the attitudes of the Porto players. Disgusting. Sidwell and NRC were quietly effective in the middle again, but NRC still lacks in passing ability and we need to retain the ball better as a team, which NRC certainly doesn't help with. Lichaj still looked fairly out of his depth at times but was never majorly caught out and had a decent game. Shorey played quite well, too. Albrighton looked very impressive but faded as I expected, and Young was his influential self whilst on the pitch. Carew was quiet, in general. Well done Villa!

Woohoo, a win, qualification into the final and - best of all - we actually got referred to as the CLARET and blues in the end

WHAT BONE IS THIS?! Hehe.

Typical late nervousness now. These commentators also need to learn to be unbiased and neutral, without looking for an 'exciting game' by actively rooting for the losing team.

WTF?

Guzan booked! Yeah! Wooo go Guzan!

I still think we're particularly poor at holding the ball at times. Almost everything else has been impressive tonight.