sting

For once 'Stevo' we are in total agreement 8). I would definately exchange Sidwell for Delph and put him alongside Reo-Coker. That would give us a dynamic central midfield partnership with the right blend of defensive and creative abilities! I actually would like us to change our midfield formation completely and play with more of a diamond shape, in the same way Chelsea play, when Downing becomes available. Teams would then be less able to play through us and we might play our football more on the deck, than in the air! Don't think O'Neill would do that though, but t least it would be a plan B that we lack at the moment.

Excellent post AP and one which i agree with. Petrov shouldn't be allowed anywhere near the first team again, even if we have injuries. Vastly overated and doesn't do anything particularly well!

Do you not think perhaps his performances have been below par because of his partner. Delph and Petrov not really clicked. Petrov and Barry not really clicked. Petrov and Sidwell not really clicked. Peace cup: Coker and Sidwell - Clicked. League: Coker and Sidwell - Clicked. To me, it's all abit obvious....Sidwell plays better when someone is working alongside him like Harper did at Reading, it puts less pressure defensively on Sidwell. AP you make a valid point, but we need either a goal scoring midfielder, or a playmaker to partner Reo-Coker and Sidwell, for me, can't do either!

A pathetic, useless, disjointed performance. No cohesion between midfield and forwards and the defence was a complete f**k!ing joke! Couldn't even pass to a team mate and the keeper had a holiday. Also devoid of any creativity and indeed fight! A great performance from us though! Sorry, had to be miserable about something. Message to O'Neill. Keep Petrov and Heskey away from Villa Park and sell them to small heath. Even though he was better today, put Sidwell on the same bus.

I could have picked one from Heskey, Routledge, Cuellar, Knight, Shorey, Sidwell, Petrov, Harewood, Beye, Reo-Coker, Davies. But the great Salifou tops the lot for me, just, and only just, ahead of Heskey.

See I actually can't see that. I'm honestly not being biased. I think Bolton are gonna get a hiding. For me it has 'heavy home win' written all over it. That will depend on what team we put out BOF and if O'Neill plays the team i think he will instead of the team i have posted earlier in this thread, then unless we get a multitude of set pieces, we might indeed be heading for a draw? What if we are beaten though? I can see it happening the way we are playing at the moment! Even the most staunch O'Neill supporters will have to start doubting their man! :shock:

Mate if i were you i would keep that Les Paul and not even think of using it to bet on what side O'Neill is going to put out at the moment. I have an 1989 sunburst Les Paul myself and i would rather sell my fiancee than risk losing it! Really glad that Petrov isn't playing, so after O'Neill's team of liquorich allsorts against West Ham, it will be very interesting to see what he comes up with next? My team for the Bolton game..... Guzan Young Dunne Collins Warnock Albrighton Reo-Coker Gardner Young Delph Agbonlahor Creativity, pace and Gardner there to at least test the Bolton keeper with a few long range shots. I also think Gardner has a better all round game than Sidwell! Delph would move back into midfield when Bolton have the ball. Would love to see this team and formation, but MON will play both Sidwell and Heskey and might even give a game to Salifou at RB! :cry:

O'Neill for Man U more like. Then we'll have a chance of beating them! What is O'Neill doing? We really really do have Woody Allen as our manager!

We have just shown that we are a poor team with a manager who has taken us as far as he can. Lets hope the rot doesn't now set in early this season and we can beat Bolton, but unless MON starts to rotate the squad and purchase a quality midfielder and striker in January, then we are all in for a disappointing season.

I'm quite looking forward to this game as we will probably be without Cuellar and Milner. I also hope that Stan Ray Wilkins Petrov is in the stands. Then we should have a midfield of Albrighton, Delph, Reo-Coker, Sidwell and Young. Plenty of pace and stamina and with the hopeful inclusion of Delph, a bit more creativity! With that midfield, we might even be able to string more than two passes together? However, if Petrov is indeed fit and plays, we are then in for a tough game. West Ham's nimble midfield and their front man Cole will give us problems. A good test then for our new defence and i will be delighted to come away with a point, but i fear a defeat, especially if Petrov plays.

So most teams are playing poorly and even one of the best teams in the world yet we should demand that villa play brilliant every single game. I don't see where i have stated that Villa should play well in every game :shock: . I guess it's your way of trying to start another argument 'Big_John_10' so i'll just let you talk on and make even more of a fool of yourself than you normally do! You think you can manage a premiership team and i'm the fool? You want people to debate so i'm asking, you've pointed out that a lot of teams are playing poorly including one of the best teams in the world so why do you expect villa to perform brilliant so much? The premier league is a hard league and there are many competitive teams in the league who on their day can cause any other teams problems, this isn't a league where you can win and play well week in week out. Where have i said that i could manage a Premiership side? Again i state, i do not expect us to play brilliantly every game. Where have i said that we should? I do expect however for us to be able to string a series of passes together once and a while and try to play attractve football. We haven't been able to do either since the second half of last season and beyond! We simply don't have the players to play attractive football because O'Neill has built a squad of grafters and spent millions of Randy's money doing it. However, if you feel that our performances have been full of free flowing attacking football, creating many chances from open play and not over reliant on set pieces for our goals, then i wish you the best of luck with your old movies!

So most teams are playing poorly and even one of the best teams in the world yet we should demand that villa play brilliant every single game. I don't see where i have stated that Villa should play well in every game :shock: . I guess it's your way of trying to start another argument 'Big_John_10' so i'll just let you talk on and make even more of a fool of yourself than you normally do!

Well that says a lot for the quality in the Prem then as we have only lost 1 match since Wigan, are in touching distance of the top 4 with a game in hand, in the quarter finals of the Carling Cup, and 4 of our 'worst offensive side' players could all be in the England World Cup squad !! The overal quality of the Premiership is poor at the moment with the probable exception of Arsenal, who are playing some great football. Even Man U are playing poorly, but still winning and if you ask any Man U fans, they will tell you that. The Carling Cup is notable for the top teams resting many of their better players and thankfully, this year, we have been lucky with the draw and in our game against Sunderland, no one can say we were the better team? We had Brad to thank for getting us through and our standard of open play in the Sunderland game was again poor! As for our offensive players being in the England World Cup squad, that at the moment is a very big if! In fact are any of our offensive players guaranteed World Cup squad members on present form? We are offensively, a very poor team with little, or no creativity, but Downing might improve us? We will have to wait and see on that one, as he will probably not be up to full speed until January, by which time, i hope O'Neill will have signed the creative central midfielder we need, with Downing on the left and Ash through the middle and indeed, the quality striker, we must sign, if we are to be successful this season!

Everton were there for the taking today with an under strength side, yet we still couldn't capitalize. We are so poor going forward and our ball retention is nothing short of being pathetic! We lack quality in midfield and it is without doubt one of the worst offensive Villa sides in recent memory! I had forcast a draw before the game and had stated that a point would be the best we could hope for depending upon who, and what formation our manager played. He alas, didn't disappoint!

We will again struggle to create anything from open play and Everton, even without their best central defensive partnership, will probably handle our set pieces fairly well, so i can't see us scoring too many. It depends really on what formation O'Neill plays and what players he uses within that formation. I would play Delph just in behind Agbonlahor, to give us more creativity, but can't see O'Neill doing that! An Everton win on the cards then, but i would gladly take a point!

I don't think you can describe young, downing, delph, milner and petrov as just grafters. You mention that we don't play football the right way, surely football is all about results and you play to get the right result. The fact we have finished 6th the last 2 seasons and are looking to challenge the top 4 again would suggest we do play football the right way. Not an ounce of technical ability between them, all of them are water carriers. Sting knows his football. Thanks for that. :winkold:

I don't think you can describe young, downing, delph, milner and petrov as just grafters. You mention that we don't play football the right way, surely football is all about results and you play to get the right result. The fact we have finished 6th the last 2 seasons and are looking to challenge the top 4 again would suggest we do play football the right way. Young has been playing poorly for some time now, actually coinciding with him being doubled teamed. At the moment, he has no answers. Milner and Petrov haven't shown me one piece of play yet which has got me off my seat, asking how did they do that? Downing hasn't played for Villa yet, so lets see how he does. Delph however, was one of my transfer window picks and will be a excellent player for us, when he is put into the right formation to suit him. I actually think Delph in time will become our new midfield enforcer when Reo-Coker leaves!

We are not in bad form. Our style of play at the moment is as good as it gets with the average players we have. If you want to see quality football, then go and watch Man U, Arsenal, Spurs and even Wigan who are all playing the game the right way. We are a team of grafters without flair. I'm afraid we will all just have to get used to it! We were very lucky last night! So what about the the 07/08 season when we produced brilliant football and scored 71 goals, our midfield and attack then was: Carew Gabby Young Coker Barry Petrov. So stop thinking this is the best we got because you know players like Young and Carew can give so much more than they are giving right now, I've never come across such opinions that piss me off than yours, constantly putting down the team when clearly isn't the case and the thing is aswell is that you slate O'Neill, yet you call his team average, so which one is it, because if he's managing an average team, being 3 points of 3rd is a hell of an effort. I don't really care AP if my opinions do piss you off. I am stating what i see. We are playing poor, poor football and it has continued from last season. We find it difficult to string two passess together and resort to hoofball when under pressure. We are too reliant on set pieces for our goals and we were found out in Europe for it. Our manager has in large, bought midfielders who are grafters, rather than technically gifted midfielders that we need to be successful. We are too one dimensional in our play and just too predicable. Thats why we struggle to score from open play! If you disagree with my posts then that is fine. If my posts however piss you off, then simply don't read, or reply to them!

Yea, thought so. Is it safe to conclude that you've never had anything good to say about any Villa squad and manager you've watched? No, is the answer to your question. Wouldn't be a Villa fan for some 40 years and counting if i thought that. Rather than spending the next 20 minutes telling you which Villa squad and managers i did admire, please refer to AlienVillan's post! True martyrs, the two of you. I've always enjoyed being a Villa fan, there's more to it than winning every weekend. The need to slag off everyone from your supposedly favorite team is alien to me, but fair enough. Sounds very like it to me mate that you are at present, going through the menopause? Go and see your GP and learn to chill out a little.

If Bent had been playing, then i would have forcast a defeat, so we might just scrape home. If Heskey plays we'll need plenty of inflatible balls in their box, to redirect his goal attempts!

Yea, thought so. Is it safe to conclude that you've never had anything good to say about any Villa squad and manager you've watched? No, is the answer to your question. Wouldn't be a Villa fan for some 40 years and counting if i thought that. Rather than spending the next 20 minutes telling you which Villa squad and managers i did admire, please refer to AlienVillan's post!

I see you again starting to twist a debate to suit your own argument 'Stevo.' You mention the four games that Liverpool have lost recently, yet forget to mention their most recent victory against Man U, without Gerrard, i hasten to add! Something we have failed to do in a very long time. You also mentioned Liverpool's squad without Torres and Gerrard, yet didn't once mention that you were only referring to this season's performances. I think thats being rather selective, don't you think? Also, Collins for Carragher? I said Dunne for Carragher and i see you have now dropped the YoungvJohnston comparision! For me, i think Kuyt and Benayoun are far more effective going forward than anything we have. Ok, since you have moved the goalposts a little, now just referring to this season, yes Liverpool's performances have been generally poor, but i still think that by the end of the season, if we finish above Liverpool, then we will have breached the top four, with, or without, Torres and Gerrard! Going for some breakfast, so good luck and thanks for your opinion.

What a load of bollocks 'Stevo.' We would be in the same predicament as Liverpool, in the top four, but no chance of winning the league, as our present squad is just as bad as Liverpool's. Their's, is maybe, slightly better as they have Benayoun, Mascherano, Johnson, Carragher and Kuyt. We have, well, imm, Young and thats it. The rest of our players come under the headline, Distinctly Average! Liverpool challenged for the league title last season, and if Torres and Gerrard stay fit then they may well do it thisyear, but will ultimately fall short. If we had both of those then yes we'd be in the same predicament, in the top 4, challenging for the title but probably not winning it. Which is why I didn't vote that we'd win the league, I voted we'd be challenging. So I'm not sure what point you're trying to make. The point i was trying to make was that you said our squad was better than Liverpool's when Liverpool were without Gerrard and Torres! I was disagreeing with your statement! I think it would be a very close call. From the liverpool players you mention Kuyt: Plays up front or right wing, Gabby or Milner are comfortably better than him. Benayoun: great player. But an on form Ashley Young is still better (granted Young isn't on form at the moment) Mascherano: No argument there, he's better than anyone we have in that position Johnson: better than Luke Young? Attacking yes. Defensively, definitely not. Johnson is better overall but not by a million miles. Carragher: past it. Both Collins and Dunne are better these days. Gerrad and Torres are the only players they have that would get in, say, the United team week in week out. Possibly Reina as well. Without Torres and Gerrard their squad really isn't great. Gabby and Milner better than Kuyt? Not in my opinion. Benayoun is far more effective than Young and also can play the defence spilting pass! Would far rather have Johnson than Luke Young. Much more complete player with a dash of flair. Carragher past it? I don't think so. Did you see his performance against United? Would prefer to have him in our defence instead of Dunne. Collins has the potential to be better than Carragher, but not just yet! Sorry mate do respect your opinion. Maybe we will finally agree on something. :| That's your opinion. I don't expect it to agreewith me because I don't think we have an average team with a shit manager like you do. You really think Kuyt is better than Milner and Gabby? You think Carragher has been anything more than average this season? Would you swap Young for benayoun? If your answers are yes then I for one am very thankful you're not our manager because, in my opinion, we'd be in freefall. I guess when you put forward an opinion on anything, it is there to be judged on. I welcome your opinion, but alas, strongly disagree with it, as you do mine. Our team and manager will be judged on their style of play, their results and of course, what trophies they win, if any. I believe Liverpool's performance's over the past few seasons although not matching their previous glory days, still far outway that of our own. You say that without Torres and Gerrard our squad is better than Liverpool's, well there have been times when Torres and Gerrard have been out of the Liverpool team due to injury, or other personal problems, yet they still manage to finish in the top four, while we haven't. How do you explain that? Is it because they have better players and a better manager? Or is it that they have been just lucky to constantly finish in the top four and indeed win the European Cup in recent times? I really don't think your point of debate justifys sensible reasoning, something which you have accused me of previously. Liverpool have a better squad than us and they have constantly proved it in their results, where they have finished and what they have won. You say we would be in freefall if those Liverpool players mentioned replaced ours. Previous seasonal results suggests otherwise. I have also noted your jibe about me being manager. Whilst i would love to be in that position, any Villa fan would, especially with the financial backing Randy has presented to our present manager, i am not arrogant enough to say that i would qualified to become manager of our great club, but i do feel, being a Villa fan for the past 40 odd years indeed leaves me qualified to voice my opinion on our most recent signings, tactics, style of play and performances, which for the majority of the time, i have found disappointing and i will continue to state as such, until that changes!

He should have been sent off! Yeah, besides that!