briny_ear

Has anyone noticed Harry's facial twich that comes on when he's under pressure (losing a match, on trial for alleged tax evasion, etc.)? I imagine we will get to know that very well a few months into his reign as England manager.

Like what? Players being tired due to lack of rotation is quite popular there.. Ah... That wasn't ever a criticism I had of him so your use of "we" in your first post was perhaps a bit too inclusive. You can only rotate if you have a decent squad and I doubt if even the Mackem fans are deluded enough to think they have that. That said, MON has played 24 players out of a squad of 34 in his 25 matches at the club so lack of rotation doesn't leap up and bite you as their main problem..

I just think Gabby really needed to have a big season for Villa this season, and sadly it hasn't happened. It's time for him to move on, in his interest and ours, to give him a chance of a new start and to give us some cash to buy a new forward or attacking midfielder.

It does look as if Collins is relishing being the senior centre back - and, come to that, our main hope of scoring from corners (I'm still hoping for at least one before the season ends...)

I certainly didn't enjoy the fact that by this time last season we had lost 13 games and conceded 53 goals. That was really painful to watch. It was more frustrating because we had a better squad and perhaps hadn't quite cottoned on to how much Lerner was scaling down his ambitions for the club, so I guess we expected more. I think you are probably just forgetting how shit the defending was last season and how terrible it was to watch.

Or is it that he is always in the wrong place and not on their wavelength? It is a team game after all and to say that a large section of the team is out of step with just one player is a bit bizarre really.

We were nowhere near this bad last season. When we had Bent, Young and Downing together we actually weren't bad. "Eck"'s negative tactics are strangling the life out of the club.I'd say we are as bad as we were last year. Well, technically, Mantis is just about right. This season we are 15th with a record of W7 D16 L11 F35 A44 GD-9 Pts 35 At the same point last season, the extra forces of Downing and Young had helped us to 14th place with a record of W9 D10 L13 F40 A53 GD-13 Pts 37. So one place better and two points more. And if you look at the team we were able to field for game 32 last season, it was B Friedel, R Dunne, L Young, K Walker (C Cuellar, 78 ), J Collins, S Downing, J Makoun (N Reo-Coker, 67), A Young, S Petrov, D Bent, G Agbonlahor (R Pires, 86) Subs not used: E Heskey, A Marshall, C Clark, M Albrighton Yesterday, of course, our team was S Given, S Warnock (G Gardner, 59), A Hutton, E Lichaj, N Baker, J Collins, S Ireland, C Herd (E Heskey, 88 ), B Bannan (C N'Zogbia, 74), G Agbonlahor, A Weimann Subs not used: C Cuellar, B Guzan, D Johnson, S Carruthers Also worth noting that two matches later on last season, we drew 1-1 at home to Stoke with a side of B Friedel, R Dunne, L Young, K Walker, J Collins, S Downing (M Albrighton, 67), N Reo-Coker, A Young, S Petrov, D Bent, E Heskey (G Agbonlahor, 79) Subs not used: A Marshall, R Pires, C Cuellar, C Clark, J Makoun So you could argue McLeish is doing marginally worse with a much inferior squad.

Changed my miind.

Like what?

Thinking back to the boycott of of the late 60s, it took crowds shrinking to 13-15,000 to get any reaction.

:shock: It is well known that all people from Solihull are insane. (BTW that is where I come from...)

Another point on our slow painful crawl to safety. I thought the kids did well again today and people shouldn't be so negative about them. In the past we have seen far more expensive, experienced players in Villa shirts crumble to teams like Stoke in similar circumstances. Not sure why Eck was so happy at the end.

And that doesn't seem to be going so well...

Curbishley? Saw DOL is back in the country doing TV work at present...

Good job Newcastle. Another of our relegation rivals laid low.

Wow... That's what I call venom.

Funny. if you look back through this thread, every time MON loses, someone says the "honeymoon period" is over. He must be having a lot of honeymoons.

Possession eans nothing tbf. Look at Swansea vs Newcastle. 68-32 possession yet Newcastle got 2 goals and all 3 points. Would be interesting to see what a premier league table based solely on amount of possession would look like (although I'm not going to do it).

And through playing better football than anyone else they keep winning matches. That's just not on. :winkold:

Barry did a lot more for thsi football club than Milner and though he put in a transfer request and did a crap interview he deserves a lot moer respect than he gets Spot on, although he will never shake off the shame of that interview in my eyes. Barry was a key part of the side for a long time and gave us a lot of value. Milner just saw us as a leg-up it seems.

Probably worth glancing at how Mark Hughes has done with QPR as well... (That would be pl 12 w3 d2 l7 gd-5 pts 11)

Dont remember him starting a game last season and couldnt get ahead of Hogg. He started two - although I expect he tries to forget about them. He was part of the infamous "weakened" team that lost 0-3 to Man C in the FA Cup (and IIRC was directly responsible for goal no. 3) and then played in the 0-1 "Had enough, Houllier out" defeat to Wolves.

Pretty good goal, though, wouldn't you say?

Yeh, Moyes has established Everton as top 6 regulars and no mistake. :confused:

Thought their title hopes were dead and buried at Christmas time but you can't underestimate the old fox S'rAlex. Mancini's and Vieira's attempts at playing mind games over the past couple of weeks have been laughable and it is really looking now like skilled craftsmen v novices. Don't envy the manager who finally has to step into his shoes.