sting

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. :|

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!

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! Distinctly average, are you having a laugh!? Gabriel Agbonlahor, James Milner, James Collins, Stuart Downing, Stephen Warnock, these sort of players are not just average players. No AP, i'm not 'having a laugh.' The players you mention in my opinion, fall considerably short of being described as 'quality!' In my book they are no better than average with of course, much room to improve!

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. There'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! So, you only rate Young,yet in the thread about selling Young you said : 'I would sell him for less than 24m. He is too limited in his play and too easy to stop!' Surely a contradiction. Do you actually have anything good to say about anyone at the Villa? Not really a contradiction at all. I would sell Young for less than 24m for the very reasons i have stated. I was just referring to Young as being better than the rest of the players in our squad. As far as having anything good to say about anyone at the Villa, well, the ball boys do a good job. :winkold: Concerning our manager and present squad, nope!

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!

Thanks for the feedback. I think it's fair comment. The trouble is this - There wasn't a great deal of incident in the game, there wasn't a great deal of quality play, it wasn't a particularly good game. I struggled to find something to write about. I typed it on the train on the way home on an iPod and nothing really stuck in my memory to write about. I suppose really that it was a from the heart description of the game, but there wasn't much in my heart to describe about it. I'm more than happy for someone else to do these reports from the away games, as I guess they can all get a bit samey coming from the same person all the time. After you've written 50 of them or however many it is (probably more) you just start to run out of ideas, so if the game's not up to much, what can I write that I haven't said before? Please continue to write the away reports 'blandy' as they are always excellent. Totally agree with your summary of the game as there was indeed nothing much to write about. The game, like our performance, was a non event, with both teams struggling to show any quality on the ball. A dreadful, dreadful performance from us with the 'Undertaker' the only player of note who earned his wages! I suppose you could say it was a typical O'Neill team performance, full of effort, with the exception of a disinterested Carew, but totally lacking in any real flair, or creativity and we are indeed, still a long way from being a trophy winning team. Lets hope the eventual introduction of Downing will provide some quality in our midfield?

I guess this was a game which just shows how far away we are from being a team who will compete for trophies. We are shockingly bad at any offensive open play and are totally bereft of ideas on how to break a stubborn defence down. I actually thought that this game would be ideal for Delph to show his wares, but to do that he must be given an opportunity within the proper formation. Our manager saw fit not to give Delph that opportunity, even against a very poor team such as Wolves. So it was left again to the completely out of form and teacher's pet, Ashley Young and the industrious James Milner to provide the creative outlet. We struggled and we struggled badly. When is our manager going to learn that when a player is out of form, or is not trying, such as Carew, then he must drop those players in preference to those players on the bench who are itching to get a game. Young, Carew and Sidwell must make way for Albrighton, Delfonz/Heskey and Delph for our next game and beyond. Young and Carew are a shadow of the players they were last season and O'Neill should take action now, or he will lose respect from fans and players alike! I have continually stated that our type of play is too one dimensional and too predicable due to the players that we have. It is not their fault that they can't create, because, simply, they are not creative players. The fault lies soley with our manager who has spent a fortune on a squad without flare and creativity. Yes Ashley Young can sometimes do the unexpected, but Premiership defenders are now aware of his limited tricks and his threat has been nulified to such an extend that it has affected his confidence and consequently even his delivery is suffering. How many more overhit crosses Ashley? James Milner although always giving 100%, is being asked to do too much work in defence which is also nulifying the limited creativity he possess!! Sorry for the spelling here but Wolves brought on Miljas, a player who we were linked to in the summer and it just shows you the benefit of having a creatve midfielder, because when he came on we actually saw some quality offensive passing for the first time in the game. I'm actually glad Mick didn't play him from the start, or we might have left with nothing from the game! A very, very poor performance from us and although the January transfer window can't come soon enough, will O'Neill bring in the creative midfielder and Quality striker we need? Or, is O'Neill just blinded by the obvious?

Kightly promoting himself to be Ashley Young's replacement when we sell him? Wolves will score against us today, but i still hope we will have too much for them. I would give Delph a game, just to give us another attacking option in a 4-5-1 formation, with Reo-Coker and Petrov in behind him. 3-1 to Villa.

Even the best managers do this at times. Cuellar at RB has contributed to us having the best defensive record in the league at the moment. What an arrogant response, you spoke to petrov then? It's your opinion he was knackered nothing else. We needed a physical prescence upfront, players aren't always available or interested. It hasn't worked out but he isn't the first manager to sign someone that didn't work. No matter what we paid NRC is not a player who commands a first team place all the time. We haven't done too badly without him have we? Can't argue with that one. Losing to vienna was poor and i wish we were still in europe. Still it could be a blessing come the end of the season. 'Big John' value your opinion like i do everyone else's on here. Firstly if you think Cuellar is a RB then i don't wish to debate further on that point. Secondly, i'm certainly not trying to be arrogant about Petrov, just observant and it is what i have seen. Thirdly, purchasing a striker who doesn't score no matter what his presence is, is a bloody joke. Strikers must be able to score, Heskey can't on a regular basis! 8.5m on a midfielder who O'Neill won't play in my book is a total waste of anyone's money! Finally, at least we agree on Europe.

Ah, so, now we have the great MON who is a master tactician. Continually playing players out of position, not knowing when his centre midfield is knackered and refusing to substitute them! Purchasing a striker who is habitually scoreless when Gabby was knackered, Carew was injured when we needed the exact oposite! Paid 8.5m for a midfielder and generally refuses to play him, even when we have injuries, or our other central midfielders are playing shite! Then there's Europe, or should i say, was Europe :x Now thats what i call a manager full of knowledge and wisdom!

Seemed to have stirred a hornet's nest here. I make no apologies for my opinion on O'Neill. If a manager in any other walk of life had taken four years to get the correct staff for one part of his department and spent millions on doing it, he would have been given the sack long ago! I also believe someone said something about building a tipy tappy team on the cheap. Well, i never once suggested that we do that. What i was trying to get at was that we should sign technically gifted players to play in a more technical way, to be able to be less predicable where our threat is coming from. We suffered greatly in the last third of last season because teams just started to double team Ashley Young, thereby nullifying our main creative force. I just think with the money spent we should have better players in our midfield than Sidwell, Reo-Coker, Petrov and Gardner! We should also have better players up front to support and challenge Gabby. I therefore can't see any success coming our way any time soon, particularly in the Cups, as apart from Ashley Young, we do not have any other player who can change a game with an outstanding piece of skill. To win a Cup, you need that extra creativity, or a very lucky draw throughout any Cup competition, which we never seem to get! I think it is generally agreed in this forum, that our team at the moment lacks creativity and has lacked that creativity since O'Neill became manager. Wenger commented in the run in last season that he didn't think we would finish in the top four due to our lack of attacking players and he was proven right. We must change our style to become successful and to change our style of play we must have the right players to do it. O'Neill has struggled to sign such players as he prefers to buy british, rather than also look abroad. His narow mindness will stop success coming to Villa Park until we get a more progressive manager who will make us more creative and less predicable!

Let's get this right, you'd prefer tippy tappy relegation football like west broms, over mons top 6 style football? I personally couldn't care less about how we play, rather than how many points we get. Who would you get in, Mourinho? Who plays the same style. Trust someone to pick West Brom instead of Arsenal, Spurs, Man U, or indeed even Wigan under their new manager. :x What im saying is that with our style of football at the moment, can you see us being successful in Cup competitions, winning the Premiership or even gaining success in Europe? Nope, i didn't think so. I'm sick and tired of watching the likes of Wigan out playing us, yet you seem quite happy to see this. We need a manager who will buy technically gifted players to play in a way which will gain success for our club and fans. We at he moment play hoofball and are just too predicable!

I voted go the last time and i am voting go this time. Just don't think we play the type of football that should grace Villa Park. I don't think we will gain the success we all crave playing the Martin O'Neill way and he has wasted millions on transfers. He has taken 4 years to build a solid defence and we still lack creativity in midfield and that 20 goals a season striker. Even when such a striker becomes available, he refuses to buy him. Bent's success at Sunderland should be giving O'Neill nightmares and that very player might jump up and bite O'Neill in the arse! I want to see the type of football that 'Big Ron's' 90s team played and gained success with it. 'Big Ron' had an eye for the player who could do that something extra and win matches. Martin O'Neill views that type of player with suspicion and although we have gained some very creditable results and league finishes, i do believe with a more forward thinking manager at the helm, we would as far as quality of squad and Cup success is concerned, be much further forward. I hope i have to eat a huge lump of humble pie at some stage inside the next year which will end the 'five year plan.' However, i sincerely doubt it and i believe O'Neill has taken us as far as he can!

Totally agree with 'daft.' We are not good enough yet to rest key players against one of our main rivals this season. However, against Wolves i would rest Sidwell for Reo-Coker, Dunne for Cuellar and play Luke Young at RB. I would also keep Gabby on the bench and play Carew up front on his own with maybe Delph in an attacking role of a midfield five. Should still be enough to beat Wolves and allow us to rest some players.

We should change the dugout to rather large comfy seats so that Heskey doesn't want to come on anymore!

Jesus wept. We beat Chelsea 2-1 and play extraordinarily well and you can only see negatives. I think you were perhaps listening a bit too hard to statisticians . We clearly offered a significant threat from open play. What about the chance where we were denied a stonewall penalty? How about the fantastic cross from Young, that Milner played across to Carew, who was inches from scoring. We had plenty of chances, and 2 clear cut, well constructed ( 'creative') moves. And this was against what was the best defence in the league, I believe. Unless you've not noticed, we're not Chelsea, nor are we as good as Chelsea, but we beat them today. Of course they've got more creativity, because they've got a better team (and they spent a few quid constructing it too). I think that's a given. It's good to aspire to the standards that they set, but we're miles away from them at the moment, so it's unrealistic to expect to exhibit the same level of creativity as they do. I used to believe that we could do with a little midfield playmaker, but I'm not so sure now. The blend in the midfield seems right at the moment. I felt Petrov was excellent both in defence and attack yesterday and Sidwell seems to be the glue that keeps it all together. Sidwell is not the most eye-catching player, but he works hard and it seems to be working at the moment. Bring in a playmaker and we might become a little powderpuff in central midfield, especially with so much attacking intent down the wings. Althought it is also worth mentioning that Downing will be back by late November (so I read this morning). Who know's where he will slot in? Maybe central midfield? I can't see him sitting patiently on the bench anyway. All fair points but i think you also forget that we too have spent a lot of money and it has still taken our manager four years to get our defence on a sound footing. You say it's unrealistic to expect us to show the same sort of creativity as Chelsea. That is correct, but then, Chelsea have purchased creative players, we have not. Our midfield is too one dimensional and with the exception of Gabby, our forward line is too static! I therefore agree that in general play we are still miles away from Chelsea's standard, but that is my point. Until we purchase midfield creative players who are comfortable on the ball, especially when under pressure, we will continue to be Martin O'Neill's reborn Leicester City, instead of Martin O'Neill's new Arsenal!

A fantastic result born from true British grit and determination. For the first 15 minutes we were the team who were actually playing the better football, but when Chelsea scored through a mistake by Freidal, then we returned to the hoofball fooball that has become common practice with our team. Thank god that Chelsea were as poor at the back against set pieces as we used to be, because we never were going to score from open play. We have no-one to supply the killer pass to open up defences, although Petrov had his best game in a Villa shrt by a country mile, but we still lack the creativity that Chelsea had. They carved our defence open with some sublime passing but thankfully, couldn't put away their one on one's with our keeper. It wasn't actually good goalkeeping that kept Chelsea out, it was more Chelsea's poor finishing, as their shooting was directed soley at Freidal, rather than either side of him. Neverthless, everyone in our team, apart from Carew, who is quickly becoming a waste of space, gave 100% to the cause and although the result flattered us slightly, we have now beaten both Liverpool and Chelsea and we are dealing with the high ball into our box a lot better! I just wish we could show a little more creativity through the middle of our team as not every side in the Premiership will be unable to deal with our set pieces. The signing of a quality playmaker in January along with a quality striker will make us less predicable going forward!

3-1 Chelsea, but would love to see the result going our way. Best we can hope for is a draw!

With the exception of Carew, all our players gave 100% and before the game i think everyone on here would have seen a draw as a welcome result. I was another who thought that we would get hammered and due to the comittment of the players we could all see very quickly, that that was never going to happen! As i have mentioned elsewhere, i do think we are still a little short of being top four material and MON not going in for Bent could jump up and bite us in the ass come the end of the season. We simply must purchase another top quality striker in January, thereby waving goodbye to the inafectual Heskey! We also still have a tenancy to play hoofball when under pressure, so we still need that ball retaining midfielder who can also create. Petrov is simply not good enough for that role and doesn't have the energy! Overal, an impressive performance from the team, full of effort, if not guile, but with the right signings in January, then that will surely come!

3-1 to Man City 38,645

Can't argue with any of that excellent report. We were very poor and i have been saying for some time that we lack creativity, especially in midfield. O'Neill has spent a lot of money to make, what we are now, a mediocre team who won't win any siverware for some time to come!

Another win while not having to be at our best is always excellent in my book. We now seem to have a central defensive partnership which can be watched without hiding behind our hand's. Collins in particular, was impressive again, while Dunne was solid. Will wait to see how our new defence performs against the better teams before going overboard, but our defensive abilities now look more than promising. However, less impressive, was the midfield partnership of Petrov and Sidwell who were overun at times and this is worrying against teams like Portsmouth. Although i'm not the greatest fan of Reo-Coker, we did however miss him today as we looked less solid in midfield! Still think we should stick to 4-5-1 with the players available and i do wish O'Neill would give either Gardner, or Delph a game instead of the inaffectual Sidwell. Petrov again struggled in the last 15 minutes and this will tell when we play against the better teams who will pick us off! Our ball retention still needs to improve, especially when under pressure! Up to fifth and with Gabby on fire at the moment, our form should continue. However, just wish we had bought Bent, who is knocking in the goals for Sunderland already and with Bent in our squad, we could have rested Gabby more throughout the season. We can't expect Gabby to continue in the same vain of form without eventual burnout, indeed like last season. Maybe O'Neill will have learned from his mistake last January, when he did not buy someone of the same ilk as gabby to give him a well earned rest? After the Wigan game, we have turned things around and lets hope we can keep it going when we play against the better teams?

Poor, very poor, what are we playing at?????????? No Hangeland :cry: , no Upson, no Naughton, no Van Der Vaart, no Defour, No Vagner Love, no Tuncay, no-one rang me on my mobile to offer me a 100,000 a week contract. :cry: Better stick to the music. 8)

'Davies4England,' you have made various excellent points why we shouldn't buy Hangeland and your post has certainly made me think. I guess it really depends on what system we are eventually going to play, when Downing is fit? As far as Hangeland's size is concerned in relation to being able to head high balls away, was this not one of our weaknesses in the last third of last season when Laursen got his unfortunate injury? We still lack a commanding centreback, who can take responsibilty. The imminent signing of Dunne will probably solve this but i am very concerned about the amount of bookings and red cards Dunne receives and of course he is also prone to the odd calamitous mistake, especially in important games. Totally respect your point of view though about Hangeland and you may indeed be right about him not being able to fit into our present system. However, if i had a choice between Dunne, Hangeland and Upson, Dunne would still be a distant third on my list due to the aforementioned reasons i have mentioned.

Fulham had key players missing and that contributed to how easy it was for us other than the excellence of our play. It probably was the worst Fulham performance i have seen for a season or two and thankfully, we took advantage. Great to have won the game and maybe the penny has finally dropped, with O'Neill keeping the 4-5-1 system which suits the players we have at our disposal better. However, it is abundantly clear that we still need a more creative presence in midfield to stop our play being too one dimensional and against better teams, we will need this. Both Cuellar and Clark impressed me, but they were up against a toothless Fulham and therefore, it was the ideal time for Clark to make his Premiership debut. Would have liked to have seen Delph replace Petrov for the last third of the game, just to see if he would have given us that extra creativity going forward through the middle, instead of us crossing the ball for Hangeland to clear all the time. That leads me to my favourite centreback at the moment. Hangeland is an absolute monster at the back and according to Sky, Fulham have yet to receive a phone call about him yet. I hope O'Neill has had a quiet word in Roy Hodgson's ear about Hangeland coming to Villa Park. Would love to see Hangeland being paired with Cuellar, instead of Dunne, but that, unfortunately, doesn't seem like happening, although it is not a Dunne deal yet (sorry). Overal, it was an average performance by us, devoid of any flair and this is why i think the attendances are starting to fall. Our football at the moment is very mechanical and we cannot provide that unexpected piece of skill to make all supporters come to our games. Is this the beginning of a worrying trend? Martin, we love to watch our team winning games, but we also need a certain entertainment value that a few more creative players would bring. I hope you can provide that before the transfer window closes and a certain Mr Hangeland playing in a Villa shirt would also be nice!