smokingzen

Kind of as i expected really and a familiar performance from us. We played some decent football in patches of the first half and got a goal but didn't really capitalise on the number of corners we got. Yet again an outstanding backs to the wall performance from our defenders, especially Cuellar, but from about 35 minutes on we were just dominated in midfield. Probably the best compliment i can say is we were hard to breakdown and played well off the ball, offensively on the ball however we were poor yet again. We seem to spend so much time chasing the ball that when we get the ball we just dont know what to do with it and so just punt it up field. There is a distinct lack of link up play and cohesive movement as a unit when we get the ball in midfield and a lot of the time today we had some great individual runs etc., that just ended up resulting in nothing but giving the ball away because of the lack of support play and players moving in to space to pass to. It was a lucky, but deserved because of our defensive performance, draw IMO. I just wonder how much longer though our defense can carry on carrying the rest of our team with performances like this. Credit to Spurs as well, they showed that they are a very good team going forward but i always felt as though they were vunerable at the back and there were chances there for the making.

I don't think this game is going to be pretty, i can see us stopping them from playing for the most part though still think they will still dominate possession with their superior passing ability. It will be interesting to see if Downing plays though and if he brings a bit more cohesion to our midfield play, it might make all the difference. I'm sure there are a few people that are hoping he will. I predict a high scoring draw, 3-3.

But this requires people being realistic. But people can realistically believe we have a chance to break in to the top four this season. They can also realistically believe we can see better performances by the team and tactical choices by the manager that sends that team out to play the way they do.

What a frustrating night, had to search around for a semi decent stream for ages, which was in Chinese, then had to watch yet another dismal performance. Positives Learnt some Chinese Listening to the Chinese commentator trying to say Agbonlahor. Ermm... We had a bit of possession in the first half We created a couple of chances We scored a goal from open play We can only get better (can't we?) Negatives Well where do i start; MON's definition of squad rotation seems to be to rotate players out of position on a regular basis MONs definition of a tactical substitution is....yet to be defined Most of our players looked like they had been laced with ketamine All in all it was a performance i have unfortunately come to expect, much like many of the games this season, and many towards the end of last season. Our defense looked fairly solid again, but it's having to soak up a lot of pressure recently and make a lot of last ditch tackles. Probably why we have had so many penalties against us this season. We're bound to conceed a few when attacking teams often seem to cut through our midfield like butter. Brad did ok but would have loved to see Guzan play today though. Warnock played well but i'm not sure why he is taking so many set pieces now, his delivery has generally been very poor. I don't think Beye had a particularly great game but don't think he deserved to be sent off. Two harsh yellows in my opinion. Good to see Luke Young back though. The midfield looked combative in the first half and managed a bit of possession, but still looked disjointed. And in the second half it looked non existent for much of it. Ash looked better than he has for a while but still looked poor with a lot of bad crosses. It wouldn't be too bad if all of his bad crosses went in for a goal. Unfortunately they don't. Sidwell and Petrov laboured for most of the game, and what the hell was Heskey doing on the left? I thought Reo Coker was as good as it got on the night, played with a bit of dynamism that the other players were severly lacking, looked like he had something to prove, either to MON or the West Ham fans. Carew and Gabby didn't have much to work with to be honest, but then again they looked stagnant and devoid of ideas too and never looked like they might create something out of nothing with a bit of individual flare or magic. Steve Bennet - how can one man get so much so wrong? Really the season so far has been a string of fairly poor performances and results interspersed with a couple of hard fought and gritty ground out performances against Liverpool and Chelsea. We hardly looked like world beaters when we won those games either. It's a pitty because we have had a real opportunity this season with other teams stumbling, to take advantage of and get ourselves up near the top of the table. As it is we're 7th, but only a couple of loses or draws away from 11th. It's obviously a tough premiership this season but it's frustrating because i think we have the players to do better. Something isn't right in our team and just isn't clicking, and it hasn't really done so since the beginning of the year, and MON has to find the solution. We look solid in may ways and work hard off the ball but where is the football? We seem to expend all our energy on defending these days and then when we get the ball don't know what to do with it. In a lot of the games i have watched recently our movement off the ball when we have possession has been really poor, not enough players moving into space and offering themselves for the ball. It almost seems that when we get the ball players think that they can take a rest for a bit. I think it's mostly tactical decisions by MON that has us playing this way and i think he really needs to assess the way our midfield and attack are set up. I've not been one always advocating the 4-5-1, it certainly doesn't mask all of our faults, but at least we played some good football when we played that way. Definately a solution for the short term, as for the long term solution, i'm not sure MON has it.

Didn't see the game today, but disapointed by a draw and what, yet again, sounds like a very lacklustre performance in the centre of the park and up front. Normally i would be happy with a point away to Everton but considering we had a near full strength side going up against an Everton side in poor form with 4 or 5 of their best players out, i hoped we would have been able to take advantage.

Well pretty hard to give ratings after only listening to the radio commentary but tonight sounded like a familiar old story. Almost as frustrating to listen to as to watch. Great performance by our defensive unit, Milner was industrious as always but without too much end product, Young stuck in a couple of decent balls, Heskey and Carew fairly anonymous, Gabby did a lot of running. None of the midfield really seemed to gell, whatever combination we played, and obviously the highlight of the night being an outstanding performance by Guzan. He was absolutely fabulous. Funny how we were banging in the goals last season but couldn't stop leaking them, this season it's the other way around. Why has our outfield play deteriorated so badly? Can't say i'm looking forward to the next two games, both Everton and West Ham are pretty good on the ball and it's going to be another couple of backs to the wall performances.

Yes that comment stood out for me too.

I don't think anyone is doubting what MON has achieved for the side so far (i might be wrong), but the question for me is can he take us any further and take us that extra step? Since he has been here MON has taken us consistently into the top 7 of the table and made us one of the 'best of the rest'. He's brought in some very talented young English players and built a very solid and hard to beat side that has a good team spirit, works hard, and has a very British feel to it. My concern is the style of football he has us playing, and through his career has had most of his teams playing, it's not exactly pretty to watch most of the time and for me indeed it's very frustrating sometimes. More importantly however is that i just don't think that solely playing this style of football will get us and keep us in to the top four, and from there, progress us further into the European competitions. On that level then, I'm not sure if MON is the man to lead us that last step. I think though that only by the end of next season we will really be able to judge on that question. As many have commented we now have one of the strongest squads ever with some very solid seasoned premiership professionals, some very talented and skillful players that are on the cusp of England places, and some very promising up and coming youngsters. I can't help but think that 2 or 3 real top quality signings in January and the summer could make all the difference. If he's given the financial support over the next year to get these players in, then who knows? I do hope he can take us that extra step, but there are many doubts in my mind that he can. On the subject of negativity, like many of us I expect I am a bit of a perfectionist that will never really be totally satisfied and always want more. Kind of human nature in a way. First and foremost I want us to win, but if we do win then I want us to win well with a side playing good entertaining football. If we finish fourth this season or next, then the next season I will want us to finish in the top three and possibly even win the premiership. If we win it, then I would want us to win it again, and also go on to compete in and win the Champions League, or do a double or a treble. As such then as a Villa supporter I want us to achieve the pinnacle of what can be achieved. The kind of outlook doesn't blind me to the progress we've made, and make me ungrateful to the people that have achieved that progress. It's obviously not an easy task, otherwise everybody would be doing it. I will be happy as long as we are making progress, but I can't help thinking that come the end of this year or the next, it will have to be another manager that takes up that task. I will be very happy to be proven wrong though.

What teams play brilliant every single game? In my opinion you could add the Liverpool, Fulham, Birmingham, Man City and Chelsea games to this list. In all of these games we have been fairly solid defensively but not exactly great in the centre of the park or going forward. Obvously we got points in all of those games and good results against Liverpool, Man City and Chelsea. In the latter mentioned games i think the lack of quality going forward can be explained away because of the quality of the opposition. Others might seek to say the Birmingham and Wolves games were poor because they were derbies. But i just don't think things are really clicking offensively for us, off the ball we are great, on the ball we have generally been pants. We've become good at disrupting other teams play, but have forgotten how to play ourselves and to really get the ball down and dominate teams. Our lack of possession and creativity in the last two thirds of the pitch is really quite worrying. Apart fom the fact we now look like we have a really solid defense, all of the same worrying signs are still there from the end of last season. Thats because we failed to really strenghten in the middle of the park and up front during the summer. Downing might make a difference when he is fit Delph is far from being what we need at the moment and is one for the future. I think a top quality midfielder and striker would have made all of the difference. Hopefully we can maintain this type of points form until January and get those two players in.

Yes, i see what you mean.

A very very poor performance and in my opinion indicative of the season so far. We are an excellent team off the ball, we are organised, work hard and pressurise opposition teams in to also not playing well, but our play (or lack of) with the ball has been pretty atrocious. We can hardly string 2 or 3 passes together between midfield and attack and our delivery into the box has been very poor indeed for the most part. Essentially it's our defense that's keeping us in games, and yet again today, while we very rarely look threatened at the back, though too often i would say, we looked even more toothless up front and fairly vacuous in midfield. Essentially i think it's the midfield that is letting us down, i think some of that being players out of form, but much of it being the tactical decisions of MON. Overall a fair result today, though once we got the goal we should of held on for a win. Friedel - 7 Not too much to do but did what he had to well. Cuellar - 6 Fairly solid but distribution wasn't too good. Dunne - 6 Fairly solid again but a few lapses such as the Doyle one where we were lucky not to give away a penalty. Collins - 7 Crunchingly solid, makes some great tackles and really got stuck in to them. Warnock - 6 Again pretty solid at the back, but his set piece delivery sucked. Milner - 5 Hard working as always but delivery substandard yet again. Petrov - 5 Some good play and a few good touches but found himself overun in the centre with only sidwell to support him. Sidwell - 5 Industrious and hardworking but dived in to the tackle far too often, the last time of course giving away the penalty. Young - 5 Another poor match, worked hard but just didn't deliver whet we expect of him. Carew - 5 Pretty poor but then again didn't exactly have much to work with and didn't get much support from the ref either. I always wonder why MON starts with him and not Heskey, as Carew always more dangerous as a substitute and seems to have a habit of scoring when he comes on late, but not scoring when he starts. Gabby - 7 Worked hard and took the goal well, but had a fair few times when he had the ball on the edge of the box and made some poor decisions. Heskey - 7 Came on and made the goal, but other than that didn't really change things too much. MON - 6 Unimaginative, after a poor first half where it obviously wasn't working for us, failed to change it around until lat e on, though in fairness his uninspired substitution of Heskey did bring the goal. Ref - 7 A fairly consistent performance, for the most part let the game flow (if you could call it that) and got the key decisons right.

Yes he can, but as said elsewhere, not in a 4-4-2 with 2 wingers, i think he would be more effective with 1 winger and 3 in the centre.

Well the all important thing is we won, and to add to that out defense looked pretty solid, Colins and Dunne especially looked towering in defense. That said however i think our overall performance was pretty poor. Yet again we were completley dominated in midfield and our midfield unit was only effective defensively, offering little to nothing going forward bar mispalced hoofs upfield. This is something we really need to address. Gabby did what he could considering the poor service and got us the goal, though should have had another. Carew made a difference when he came on too.

Would be a great signing for anything under £10 million in my opinion. A 5 man midfield of: Young - Petrov - Bentley - Milner ------------Reo Coker--------------- or Young - Petrov - Milner - Bentley -----------Reo Coker--------------- Would give us good width, pace, and passing and crossing ability, and if Milner were to move into the centre, it would shore up the tackling and defensive abilites of the midfeld too. With Sidwell and Gardner pushing for places and possibly 1 other signing, would be a good midfield for next season and a few seasons to come.

Great post, find it difficult to disagree with anything you have written here, so i wont.

The absence of a recognised RB makes this a poor transfer window, whether or not this comes back to haunt us later this season we will see. The players we have got in all look purposeful, NRC looks quality and a good strong character being a former captain, Knight looks handy with good experience, and again a previous captain with character. Davies has great potential and again has character. Harewood is a battler and will press Carew to peform for his place in the team. Salifou, looks strong and creative, though looks like a big gamble and will need to train hard to develop into a premiership quality player. The overwhelming trait then in the signings this summer seems to be character and attitude, something MON values very highly and sees as a requirement in building the kind of team he wants. One good thing is that we have had a total spend of £8 miilion this summer, to me that signals that MON didn't want to spend big money unless he was sure he was going to get the right players, and that he didn't want to spend all the money this season and have none left to spend for the next souple of seasons. Hopefully then if we get european qualification this season, next summer we will be able to attract bigger names to the club and still have money to spend on those players.

Mmm, one thing i will have to add to this debate is that though we may not have an 'official' cap on wages, i'm sure the wages of one of our top players is going to act as a guideline for what we will pay other players who are playing for us, or potentially going to play for us. This indeed would seem entirely rational, indeed to go against it, i.e., to pay players that we don't rate as highly, more, would seem to be totally irrational. The General then can in all truthfulness come out and say there is no official cap, while in all reality the wages of our top player, is going to be the guiding rule in what we pay other players. I think we should always be aware of such semantics when statements are made such as this. Something i posted in the previous thread on this, but seemed to be completely ignored, but i think is important, so i will say again, was that MON came out last season and said he wanted to change the wage structure of the team. Indeed part of what he said is that he wanted to move away from the basic flat wage structure to a more performance related pay scheme. Such a scheme rewards for success and means players have to really put their all in to training, and playing and winning matches. I am in totall agreement with this idea, though how much certain players would be is another question. I think in our history, and also the history of many other clubs, there have been too many players that are content to just turn up to training and pick up a fat wage cheque every week. With the kind of wage structure that has been suggested, such players would seriously miss out financially, and either wouldn't want to come to the club, which is good, or if they are alreay here, would want to leave, which is also good. We only want people at this club that are prepared to put their all in to the club.

What people seem to have neglected in this thread is that there was also a statement made last year (by MoN i think, the General might wish to correct me) about how we wanted to redevelop the wage structure of the club and take the emphasis away from the basic wage and put more emphasis on performance based bonuses. In my opinion i think this is the way forward and a very real and powerful way to motivate players to really put in 100% effort, day in day out, week in week out. We have had too many highly paid players who have seemed content to sit on the bench or play in the reserves and pick up their big fat cheque every week. Lets make the players earn their money.

Tightening up of refereeing standards? I must admit i didn't think the standard of Mike Riley's refereeing on saturday was of a good standard at all, in fact it was an absolute joke and cost us the game. I think this could be said of many refereeing performances last season, and also this season so far. Referees need to be more accountable than they currently are and made to pay for their mistakes. At the moment the FA does not hold it's referees to account and there needs to be some seperate body that clubs can go to that will be more objective in dealing with legitimate complaints from clubs and players.

At the end of the day we have had 5 players go out and only 1 come in and we are already several days into pre-season training. I'm sure that if you asked MoN or any of the other coaching staff if this was an ideal situation they would tell you no, they would rather have the players tied up by now so that they could come in and work together with the rest of the squad so that they can gel before the start of the season. As such i'm sure they would say they are disapointed so far in our progress in signing players, that it would obviously be better to get them sooner rather than later, yet nobody is panicking. I think all those that are slating people who express this disapointment are really mising the point then, it is obviously better that we get players early than late, ideally we don't want to be blooding people in to the team in the days before the season, we want to hit the season rolling.