spacemanscott

Could see him going to Everton if we go down. If we stay up I don't think he'll be going anywhere.

He's been ok this season, looks to play sharp, incisive passes and threads them through the middle quite often, which I really like, though he does give away the odd sloppy one. Definitely looks comfortable on the ball, which is always a sign of a potentially good player (Gabby, for example, never had that but made his name from his pace. Sadly, that's not really enough to take him into the top group of players who regularly push for England caps). The thing Westwood really needs to improve upon is his general drive and movement. He is physically a bit lightweight and sometimes gets caught out by the pace at which players move around the pitch at this level. I know he is told to play the sitting position in centre mid but there are times when the best players, even defensive ones, see big spaces ahead and burst forward to expoit them. Too many times I've seen Westwood step back from breakaway situations where he was one of the most advanced players. It's as though it's drummed into him that his position is around the half way line and that's as far as he goes (something I don't believe Lambert would say). Hopefully, maturity will help him make his own (correct) decisions at key moments. He's definitely got potential to be a good PL player but he is far from proven at this stage.

I'd like him to go to Chelsea, just for a laugh.

Don't you think it was more a case of them having no proper support out wide? If there were players creating space, keeping possession and whipping in quality crosses from out there, I think the whole team performance would have seemed so much better. I think Westwood has it a little easier because he can sit back without the pressure of having to push on. He also gave the ball away a few times tonight but still wasn't bad overall.

Exactly right. It's funny how for some people Westwood is all of a sudden the new darling and his misplaced passes are completely overlooked yet Bannan apparently tries 'Hollywood passes' every single time and loses the ball. In Bannan and Westwood I see two players who can control and pass a ball under pressure (most of the time) and will get better and better.

He was better than Westwood - who wasn't bad, just average.

Despite vociferous criticism of Bannan by some, I thought he was one of our best players. Good distribution, neat touches and some excellent tackling far outweighed a couple of dodgy passes. Benteke also proving yet again that he is top quality. I think our major problem tonight was poor service from wide positions. Holman, Weiman, Lowton and Lichaj all failed to offer any threat from the wings. The defence as a whole was also poor, failing to hold a strong shape and keep posession. I don't think Clark, Baker or Lichaj are good enough to help us challenge the upper echelons of the table, at least not yet (don't think Lichaj ever will be, unfortunately). Lowton is better but still needs has to add a bit more quality all round.

A few people around here need to stop pissing their knickers. Other than a couple of sloppy moments, Bannan has been ok. Weimann, on the other hand, has been poor. Admittedly pretty boring, but I do see promising signs at times. We just need more bite and composure.

I always said that I'd be amazed if Man Utd wanted him because there were/are much better players out there. I saw him as more of a Spurs or Liverpool player and I haven't seen anything that has changed my mind. Yeah he'll produce the goods now and then but the majority of the time it's all running into people and under/over hitting crosses.

Don't think a great deal of him to be honest. As Gettingthereslowly said, Bannan and Westwood did just as much - I'd say far more - defensive work yesterday as KEA would have but they combined it with good touches and the desire to play forward. KEA really annoyed me with his 10 minute show yesterday. He gave it away, committed a foul or two and his first thought was always to turn around and play it back. At one point, space opened up and there was a good opportunity to move it forward. Instead, KEA actually made more effort to turn and lay it back.

Although we played well I think we gave them too much space all game. We needed to concentrate much more on following runners and sticking closer to them. Stevens was really guilty of this, you can see there might be a decent player in there but he just needs to learn to read the game a bit better at this level. Similar for Lowton, too, really. Benteke was a complete beast, easily MOTM. All in all, a good performance which showed signs of a decent young team beginning to gel.

I actually think Gerrard has been quite good, he's picked out a few incisive passes, although he could have closed down the goalscorer a bit better. Cleverly has been below standard but at least he keeps trying to get in to goal scoring positions. Anyone else think Andy Townsend was talking bollocks when he said it was a terrible header from Defoe? It looked to me as though heading it back to Cleverly was exactly what he was trying to do.

Negative because we're trying to keep hold of the ball and play our way through a very good team? Presumably you'd prefer us to start lumping it long because you see that as attacking football? I think it was a decent half and we were a little unlucky. It winds me up when people discourage attempts to play good football.

I'm really annoyed that it looks like the Kind Edward is going to be flattened, I don't know why they can't incorporate a tiny pub into a huge new development but people who make these decisions often have no foresight. That said, I would love them to reopen the the Aston Tavern, a grand old boozer that's closer to the ground. So long as they stick to the trusty old policy of only employing amply-breasted young bar maids then I will find it the move most pleasing.

That had crossed my mind more than once. If that was the case I would currently be in the Maldives Mods, can we get an IP address check please? I have followed with excitement Richard's snippets of optimistic information but I must say the evidence so far suggests that we are pretty much selling before buying (you can argue over the technicalities but it generally seems to be the case). BUT, I am going to be patient and see how things pan out.

KMac has done a fantastic job over the years and deserves a respected position at the club. There are only ever a handful of British players who could even be considered world class at any one time. At this moment in time, only Rooney could mentioned in that bracket and I'm often a little doubtful. Then you have a group of top players who might certainly compete on a world stage but even then, there are perhaps only a dozen or so. At any one club and at any one time there are perhaps 15 players considered to be at least capable Premier League players (Alan Hutton excepted). Several will have been imported from other countries and each one has a playing career of 10+ years. It therefore takes a huge effort to produce a player good enough to displace one of them. Even Man Utd, the club everyone looks up to for producing talent, has struggled in recent years. Despite all the resources, the global network and the huge pull to attract all the best talent, they haven't produced one really top player in recent years.

Why do you try and personalise things? Its called having a memory and I remembered you were against it. Every time you pick up against CI its because you've remembered his other posts. Fair enough. I commend your memory and willingness to trawl or search back through previous posts in order to make a point of my change of opinion in this case. I should feel special rather than spooked that you are willing to focus so much attention on me. As for CI, as I think I said above, I usually just ignore his posts for the reasons already stated. For the record, if there is an outstanding candidate that fits the clubs criteria, then I still maintain you go and grab him while you can. Why bother with interviews if you know who you want? In this instance, we have three outstanding candidates that fit our criteria. Therefore, rather than grab the first one through the door, it makes sense to interview all three and work out which one wants it the most and has the best vision for the club within Randys constraints. That is my opinion at this time and as circumstances change, it may well do too. Feel free to point that out to me as you see fit! 8) Someone responding to comments on a forum...well I never! Come on mate, he's clearly had you with your pants down here. We all do it; say something without really being sure we believe it, then contradicting ourselves later. Just admit it rather than making out Houlston is some kind of weirdo for having you up on it!

Also, it was mentioned on some sports bulletin yesterday that Paul Faulkner said his phone hadn't stopped ringing. I can imagine Mick's agent called Faulkner to put his client's name forward and Faulkner took his number out of courtesy. I can also imagine that Mick has resorted to calling from a witheld number to get hold of him. Honestly, considering their last mistake, I'd be shocked if Mick McCarthy has even been considered. If he got the job I don't know what I'd do but it would probably be illegal and involve excrement in some way.

It's obvious to my mind that O'Neill was given an over-inflated budget in the hope that he'd achieve Champions League football within 5 years. When that didn't happen Randy decided to pull the plug and start again, asking MON to cut wages and approach things in a different way. MON didn't like it and used it as a claim for some form of constructive dismissal, hence why the two parties settled out of court. To say that Randy and the finance people at Villa Park were responsible for individual player contracts is misleading in my opinion. MON would have told them who he wanted and what he thought they were worth. If MON convinced the board that, say, Beye was worth £2.5m and £40k per week, why would they not allow the deal to go ahead if they thought MON knew what he was doing and was on course to achieving Champions League? After all, there is usually uproar amongst fans, pundits and the press whenever a chairman tries to tell a manager what to do. No, they set themselves a 5 year target and they took a risk. When it became clear that the risk wouldn't pay off, they acted accordingly. OK, it has set us back but we simply to stem the flow of the waste and build again. We just need a really good manager to do it, and this is definitely where Randy has made huge errors.

A tiny part of me genuinely wonders if Pepe Guardiola fancies a real challenge in the world's biggest league... We have to go for someone who has knowledge of european and world leagues. We can't start all over again with the limited, overly-safe O'Neill approach, we need to be more adventurous. Look at teams like Newcastle and Fulham, and Everton to a degree. All seem able to incorporate very good foreign players into their squads. Even Wigan have unearthed good players in recent years. We need someone who is tapped in to that world, someone who speaks to foreign coaches and scouts and watches their games. I suppose Paul Lambert, with his Dormund connection, might tick boxes but I don't know if it's enough. It might be, I just don't know enough about him. I'm also not sure whether his philosphy is what I'd want. OK, he has had to work on a low budget and has managed to get the best from his players using counter-attacking/direct football, and maybe he could incorporate a different style of play if he was able to spend a bit more money. I'm just not convinced. The man for me is Gus Poyet. He has been working hard, earning his stripes in the lower leagues with some success, which is very admirable. He was an excellent player in both Spain and England and has international experience. He is also a likeable fellow who seems to have the respect of his peers. I know that similar things could also be said of people like Paul Ince (maybe not the likeable bit) but I just get the impression with Poyet that he is more of a deep thinker, someone who reads the intricacies of the game a bit better and who imparts a calming influence on his players rather than just winding them up. I also really like what Rogers has done at Swansea. Some of the football they play is fantastic and I get the feeling it would only take a couple of good-quality players for that team to be up there chasing European places. Martinez, some would say, set the ball rolling at Swansea and I wouldn't be against him either, he just wouldn't be my first choice.

I think the title of the thread is tongue-in-cheek, I don't suppose an actual apology is being demanded. That the General told informed us there were all these experts providing Randy with a flow of input and indepth knowledge, and that by extension we fans were being ignorant and/or emotional, is an issue to be discussed. Who are these 'experts'? Are they still at the club and will they be offering their 'expert' opinions during the current hiring process? If so, don't be surprised to see Steve Bruce walking through those doors with a big cheesy grin on his fat face (no offence intended, Steve).

Bannon is a confusing one for me. I can tell that he is a really good footballer, has great technical ability and an eye for a pass. Thing is, he doesn't quite seem to be able to translate that into top flight football just yet. Too many times he tries the angled, chipped pass that could be great but often end up looking like another long ball straight to the opposition. Needs to be taught how to bide his time a little more and not always try to force things that aren't on. Also needs to work on defensive duties.

For every heroic block there are three flying lunges where he completely misses the ball (and occasionally looks like breaking a man's leg) and a couple of wayward passes that go directly to an opponent for no discernible reason whatsover. This isn't just every now and then either, it is literally every game and it's just not good enough for a Premier League team. I hope to God today was the final nail in the coffin and McLeish finds a way of replacing him (I honestly don't think Lichaj would make any more mistakes than Warnock).

Agree with that. Although his end products were a little disappointing, the way he managed to ghost in and read the play showed a natural attacking ability that is hard to come by. He just needs more game time. I mentioned in the reactions thread that Clark has really disappointed me and I'm afraid I don't rate him very highly. Never passes forward, touch doesn't look great and his positional awareness is questionable, at least in midfield.

Stand-out issues, for me: Given, 5: at least a couple of times he looked reluctant to come off his line. Warnock, 2: this guy is chronically bad. He's either flying in and missing the ball (should have been sent off for that potential leg breaker) or playing passes to the opposition. Dunne, 4: decent at times but more costly mistakes thrown in. Clark, 4: someone needs to tell him he is allowed to pass forward. He looks sideways and back almost EVERY SINGLE F*****G TIME. Also gives it away a lot and his touch doesn't seem good. I'm very disappointed to say I don't really rate him. Played well: Ireland, 7: only had one half (be interesting to find out why) but really controlled the pace well with some pass and move football. Keane, 8 (MOTM): excellent first half, faded a little in the second but that wasn't his fault, he just didn't have players around him who wanted to play football.