andym

gardner needs a good game, needs to show he is good enough for us. he was very poor away gainst rapid vienna so has got to improve this time. i think we will start with milner out left and gardner right, but that could easily change to milner playing behind the strikers and craig tucking inside

what a freak play!

haha, the giants D owned Romo there, picking up his audible and changing the coverage. awful throw as well. and now the cowboys fumble the kickoff return!!

another good win and another clean sheet as well, gabby is on fire at the moment! still, id still like us to stop sitting back when we are ahead and letting the opposition have the ball, especially as petrov and sidwell cannot cope with all the running and chasing around after 70 mins. just keep the ball ourselves as it makes it a lot easier- we wont get as tired, the opposition will and we will likely create more chances to score. thats a minor complaint though and i think when we get downing in there our ball retention will improve

can heskey go one game without picking up some sort of knock and having to get treatment?

70 minutes and the midfield are doing there usual disappearing act, sort it out!!

haha, the blues fan on WM just now..... "id rather beat villa twice and go down than lose and stay up". sums them up- a small time club obsessed with us and not caring about improving.

not pretty but its a local derby so thats to be expected. defensively we were sound, i cant think of a clear cut chance SHA had. midfield werent brilliant, a lot of mis control and misplaced passing, milner had a shocker which is very unlike him. going forward the midfield was poor. i assume sidwell is meant to be the one who gets up to support the striker, thats his game but for the most part he was annonymous again. he didnt provide any threat going forward. when downing is fit sidwell would be the one to make way for me. upfront gabby did a great job on his own, set up milner twice who should have buried the cut back to the penalty spot and done better with the other one too. and yet again he gets a derby day winner. he really is a big game player. carew did well to find him with the headed pass and we looked better with 2 upfront, so well done to MON for changing it!

id prefer 2 upfront at home, but weve got to play 451 away definatly. to make the 442 with 2 wingers work though i think you need NRC in there, hes got the pace, energy and tackling to stop us getting overun in midfield. worked ok the season before last when he played there. theres also the 4312 we played when we beat bolton, blues derby etc scoring loads- we had Petrov,NRC and Barry with ash floating infront of them, and carew and gabby upfront. just replace barry with milner. would give more solidarity in the middle, stop ash getting easily marked out the game and gives us the 2 strikers. you probably wouldnt play this against teams with good wingers though.

petrov was fine first 60 minutes, but then he got tired (understandable as he has missed preseason) and his touch started to go. he should have been replaced by NRC or Sidwell

we were fine for 60 odd minutes, looked solid and passing it around decent. but as soon as we got the second rapid upped the tempo knowing they had to score. but by this time petrov and delph were getting tired- stans had no preseason and delph is still a youngster. everybody could see they were struggling, everyone could see rapid walking through the midfield with ease, everyone but MON that is. subs needed to be made- get on NRC or sidwell, even both, get some energy back into the midfield. im convinced that if this had happened we would have been fine. but as usual MON leaves it too late, you think he would have heeded the warning when they missed that absolute sitter. i dont think anyone played badly, and i was very impressed by delph- hes fast, he wants the ball, he can pass it well and hes got some brilliant skill, there was that great run in the first half and the one in the second where the keeper had to make a good save. imo, the players were let down by MONs stubborness and refusal to change things when it was so clear they needed to be. very very disappointed

was not expecting that, but an absolutely brilliant result!! liverpool do not lose many at home at all sounds like all the lads played a great game, and i think it proves that not just 451, but 451 with young, gabby and milner as the front 3 is what makes us good. all three of them seems to work well together. sounds like NRC played a great game in midfield, i think his drive and energy is important. glad to see curtis and cuellar had good games. get some more signings in this week and all looks good again!!

i swear this club is jinxed. as soon as a manager has been here 3 years it starts to go tits up. i want MON to stay and do well, but at the moment he doesnt look like he knows how to fix it

General, as others have said tonights performance was not good enough, and this isnt just a one off. we have only won 2 out of the last 18 competetive games!! however, i wont keep banging on about that and the lack of transfers/small squad etc. what concerns me most is the managers actions and comments off and on the pitch. pre game he sounded depressed, as though the weight of the world was on his shoulders. against wigan and tonight he was stood on the sideline, looking pretty dejected. in terms of transfers it gone from we are looking to bring in 5 quality players, to we are hoping to get a few in after the game he talked about how we would be fitter next week and how we would "wind up" as we played more games. to me that is an unbelievable comment. the season started last saturday, we should have been fully fit and ready to go, all the other teams seem to be. and we werent playing barcalona tonight, they are a championship level team who werent that good. its just we were worse Martin is a smart guy General and done a great job for us, but how he has acted lately is worrying. we show now signs of stopping the rot of last season and we are dithering in the transfer market again. and to top it off martin sounds like he doesnt know how to fix things. this is the first big test for the club under randy, and i really hope we come though it, and come through it quickly

better than wigan but still poor. the opposition werent brilliant but we were worse. a few nice periods in the first half where we actually passed the ball but as soon as we got to the final third clueless. our first shot on target was in the 75th minute by curtis davies! talking of davies it seems hes done his shoulder again. it is clearly a problem that needs sorting as it is affecting his performances drastically. but when the manager hasnt signed any defenders he has to play. MON has got an awful lot to sort out, and hes got to do it quick

shoulder injury. he was great last season until he hurt his shoulder against everton. hasnt been the same since then. for the goal it looked like he hurt it again, jumping with the defender and suddenly hes down on the floor in pain. of course he could have had it all sorted with an operation, but that would mean MON had to sign some defenders as davies would be out a few months

we're a bit like west brom :shock: some nice passing in the middle, but shocking at the back and no creativity upfront. dont think we have had a shot on target. what happened with davies, they just showed him on the floor in pain and the player scoring. no doubt his shoulder popped out again or something. he shouldnt be playing, he should have the operation and get his shoulder sorted. but he cant as MON hasnt bothered to sign a CB, infact he let our only other one go. upfront we have nothing. our tactic is pass it around a bit, run out of ideas, so send it out wide and bang in a cross that heskey has to fight 2 defenders for. i would take gardner off because hes not doing much and get delph on. we need something upfront to, maybe bring on gabby as he is likely to move around better than heskey.

why are we persisting with crosses into the box? we are keeping the ball well until the final third, but then we just get it out wide and bang it in. its not working. all us at the moment but no clear cut chances being created. come on villa!

i really thought he would step up this year. he looked good in the peace cup and i saw how good he was for rangers against some good european opposition, he used to be the dominant "head everything" player like laursen. i mean the guy is 6'3, 13st. hes a big bloke, likes to get stuck in, win headers hes got all the physical attributes to play the laursen role but he doesnt for us. davies seemed to be marking rodellaga yesterday and cuellar covering. but davies isnt a dominant CB, he lacks the physical presence, he is a covering type of player. cuellar was good in his few games with laursen and he seemed to have a knack of making crucial tackles and interceptions. i noticed when he played with davies last year, there was many times he made some great last ditch challenges to cover for davies' mistakes. so do they both need to play alongside a tall heading machine like laursen, are they both strictly "covering" players or is it another tatical blunder by MON and things could improve by swapping their roles. either way something needs to happen.

we had exactly the same problems with barry in a 442 in the last 3rd of the season- teams walking through as neither barry or stan had pace (and barry cant tackle) and nothing attacking in the middle of the park as neither barry or stan had the pace to get up there and then get back. dont think he would have made a difference today to be honest, especially with the shoddy defending of Davies and Cuellar

Your not serious are you?What would you have done i havent got a problem with that tatic, gets as many attackers on as possible and jimmy can handle it, my issue is that 1) we shouldnt be in a position where we have to do it, especially at home to wigan and 2) its the only tatical change he ever tries and is so predictable managers will know what he is gonna do!!

dont think he should go now, i still think he is a good manager and will have us up there at the end of the season however, from reading all 3 main fan sites and listening to WM earlier, the result today seems to have been the thing that has finally made all peoples frustrations boil over. MON really has a tough task on his hands to win the fans back. he has yet again failed in the transfer market (so far) and we still dont seem to be able to pass a ball effectively. the next few weeks is a massive test for MON and i think will decide his fate. because if he doesnt deliver some quality players that will sort out the spine of the team then fans will have had enough. there can be absolutely no excuses of "players werent available/cost too much" and no excuse for a small squad.

agree, laursen was finished in january- thats nearly 8 months ago. hes known that barry would probably leave for over a year. there can be absolutely no excuse for not replacing them adequetly- hes ages **** ages and nobody is going to tell me that out of all the footballers worldwide there isnt anybody suitable. yet so far all weve signed are 2 players from relegated teams and 2 others from lower leagues. now, i think downing is good and delph will be, but it still doesnt read like a team wanting to get top 4. what was the point of beye? surely you want to sign somebody better than your current right back. unfortunatly it just adds to the theory that MON cant/wont bring in the real quality and prefers to polish turds so to speak. hes got 2 weeks to prove it wrong but if he doesnt then he has taken us far as he can and has to step down. i think today has been the final straw for many. just looking at other sites like H&V and Vital Villa MON is getting a slating.

a lot of fans are turning on MON, another frustrating transfer window followed up by being totally outclassed by **** wigan! i really thought he would do the business this summer, finally build on what hes done so far and get some quality players. he hasnt done that so far and that is shocking. some serious questions need answering i havent got a problem with 442, but if you are playing a team who play 5 in midfield you have to have the right players in that midfield. NRC should have played because he has the energy the drive and the tackling. playing petrov who has just dislocated his shoulder was stupid, as was partnering him with a young kid making his premier league debut. it was clear with wigan running right through us that it needed changing, but he didnt and when the change came it was "cant run" sidwell. defence was shocking, but as with last season part of the problem was no protection from midfield. yet again we did not keep the ball, it was just lump it up to heskey or cross into the box. problem is this is wigan who have scharner and bramble, players who love that style. nothing creative came from the middle of the park. to many players running with the ball and not passing ratings: friedal- some good saves kept us in it. beye- average cuellar- after seeing him in pre season i thought this is going to be his year, but it was not the best of starts. i dont think he works with davies and some of his passing out defence was crap davies- shouldnt be playing. it was clear last season that with his shoulder injury his performances dipped dramatically. he has the ability but MON is ruining him by playing him with a bad shoulder. shorey- awful, set up rodellaga perfectly for his goal, and nearly did the same minutes later. petrov- normally would be the first name on the teamsheet, but not after just dislocating a shoulder and missing a lot of preseason. was clearly not up to speed and in a 442 you cant have that. NRC should have started delph- did ok considering how poor his more experienced teammates were. looks comfortable on the ball and can pass well. needs to stop silly tackles though. milner- worked hard as usual, had a good shot saved by kirkland. young- too selfish today, yes he has ability and can beat players, but not all the time. there were so many times when he could have passed into a good position but gave it away by trying to hard to take on 3 men. heskey- tried but was beaten in the air all the time by bramble and scharner gabby- same as heskey, what is the point of hitting it long to him against wigans CBs? yet again we fail to use him effectively. sidwell- no real impact and somehow missed a free header from 10 yards- didnt even get it on target. albrighton- not on long, but didnt look fazed. showed a couple of nice passes and crosses delfouneso- not on long enough.

wigan are playing 451 and the extra man in midfield is killing us- they are keeping the ball easily. get heskey off, bring on NRC and control the game.