spacemanscott

As much as I disgust myself saying this, I think Harry is a superb manager and quite a likeable chap really. I hope to god he gets the England job because it'll be a satisfying double whammy of giving us a proper English manager who knows what he's doing and motivates his players, and making Spurs go a bit shit again.

I predict that the big clubs will start sniffing around him next season. His ability to evaluate a situation in a split second and pick out a pass whilst under pressure is the kind of thing only the best players can do. He just needs to get used to the physical side a bit more, improve his strength and stamina.

I just don't think Downing works hard enough and is too one-footed. His technique (on his left foot) is exquisite, he could trap a ball that has dropped from the clouds, but when he moves the ball on he rarely seems to bust a gut to carry on the move in a more advanced position. He's happy to plod along behind the player he's just passed it to. If he could show more desire to get into forward positions he'd be a very dangerous player.

GK - congratulations on becoming Villa's oldest ever player with a fantastic performance. DEFENCE - just not good enough against 4 quality players. MIDFIELD - only Makoun had anything about him. He is the only player who would get in (or anywhere near) that Man Utd side. BENT - not much service but not bad. MOTM shared by Makoun and Friedel. Young definitely isn't right for the central role, he looks lost, simply no idea what to do with himself. Still, we have the makings of a good, if not brilliant, team. The potential is there and we just need more time.

Come on, it does us no favours when we try and blame the ref. He's let us off with a blatant pen and perhaps evened it up in the second half, but he hasn't been much influence on the game at all! We have just been completely thraped by Nanni, Berb, Rooney and Giggs.

I'll tell you what lads, Makoun looks world class to me. Never looks like giving the ball away, always able to twist and turn away from the opposition under pressure to pick out a positive, incisive pass. All the defence look poor but young Walker is sadly not yet good enough at this level. Petrov offers nothing. Young can't control and is too weak. Get Walker, Petrov and Young off for Cueller, NRC and Heskey.

How did those legs get through a medical? Ha ha! That is the funniest thing I've read for ages! It's true though, they are crazy legs. I hope they work better than they look.

Back, sack and crack him. I'm confident he'll be more successful with player recruitment than O'Neil was, so give him time, I say. Although if he ever mentions Liverpool with misty-eyed affection again, send him back on the first Eurostar.

I hope to God he has a real motor on him and gets up the pitch to support the wide players. I honestly can't remember seeing a central midfield with less desire to get into the final third than ours yesterday. Our only possession was in wide areas - mainly Albrighton's side.

Disagree Shilzz, I don't see why a good result suddenly means every player had a stormer. The defence won that game for us but the central midfield did very little to help out at either end of the park. I had a great seat and ended up watching Downing and Petrov closely. I was frustrated by Petrov but completely wound-up by Downing. Maybe he was just unsure of himself in that position, but he was still poor. I'll concede that maybe Gabby should have been worth a 5.5/6, though.

Firstly, the defence was excellent and won us the game. Dunne's reading of the play, Collins' blocking and heading, Cueller's interceptions and passing, they were all superb! Clark not quite as assured but still very good. DEFENCE: 8/9 GABBY: 5 - wing play isn't really working for him, although he did well to thread Gabby through for the goal. PETROV: 6 - definitely not the MOTM performace that some people are claiming. Did well on the ball at times but just wasn't mobile enough to cut out their attacks (it was often down to the defence to make last-ditch tackles) and happy to sit 2 yards in front of the defence, meaning he was nowhere to be seen when we ventured forward. I sat and watched him let his man go on several occasions. Good player but just not naturally fit enough now. DOWNING: 4 - similar to Petrov but rather than not having the legs he simply looked lazy to me. Missed a couple of opportunties to run with the ball and open up space, instead opting for the easy pass which slowed the game down. Rarely looked for a quick give-and-go, always happy to potter around in the same spot once he's moved the ball on. Really annoyed me yesterday. ALRIGHTON: 7 - good outlet for the team. Always busy and did well considering he often found himself with 2 or 3 (4 at one point) players around him with little support from his central midfield. ASHLEY: 6.5 - not really involved enough and a little wasteful at times, but some good moments and great play for the goal BENT: 8 - did the business when needed and looked good on the ball. His control is much better than I expected. Also gets up really well for headers. Houllier: 6 - set up a fairly attacking team but it didn't really work as well as hoped. If it wasn't for some unbelievably good defending we would have been comfortably beaten. I was shocked he waited until the 88th minute before bringing NRC because we were calling out for someone to close down more in the middle.

He just needs to continue to learn how to lose premiership defenders and read the flow of the game, which I think he is already starting to do really well. To get on the end of that cross to 'score' a well directed header was great. However, it was the real goal that showed what he's about. As Holtender1987 mentioned, the way he peeled off his man to invite the through-ball from young was superb. It still could have gone wrong from there but his touch was perfect; he pushed it into his own path with just the right amount of weight before finishing with precision. Those aren't things that just any kid can come on and do, they are signs of a really good player in the making. That doesn't mean he's going to be world class or even a premiership player, just that he has very good potential.

This is also what I'd point to. In terms of experience, there's a vast difference between Petrov, Ireland & Reo Coker and Bannan, Clark & Young. Yeah, the younger ones can run and pass a ball! Only joking, you are right that experienced pros know how to play in a way that makes it most difficult for the opposition, something the kids don't always get. Although Clark, Bannan and Albrighton all look excellent, they are prone to the odd mistake in dangerous areas, more so than the older players. That's why it's best to bring them in gradually if possible. That said, I'm not bothered because I love watching the young players develop with each game, and I can't wait to see how they get on tomorrow.

I don't really agree with this. The only time I can think of him doing it is against Everton with that great goal. He's hardly Ronaldo. As it stands, he seems to run into players when he has the ball or shoots like a 12 year old. I'd like to see him on the bench.

We mugged them and the win shouldn't mask another uninspiring performance. Most of us can see that we need more dominace in the centre of the park. We need a CM who is strong in the air and can get about the pitch to pick up loose players around the edge of the box. The number of times we leave opponents hanging around, un-marked, near the 18 yard line is frightening. Friedel, 7: pulled off some good saves but also a couple of dodgy punches Warnock 5: I don't know what's happened to him, he looses his man far too often and then lunges in with crazy tackles. Lucky to stay on the pitch. Collins, 8: strong Cueller, 8.5: said it before, he is McGrath-esque in his reading of the game. Passing a big gash, though. L Young, 6.5: good and bad, but showed plenty of eagerness getting forward. Downing, 6.5: his touch is superb but he doesn't seem to offer much creativity, which is not ideal for a winger. Petrov, 5: just didn't cover enough ground to be effective. RC, 6: worked hard 1st half, drifted the 2nd. Didn't seem to be near the ball often enough. Albrighton, 6.5: best crosser of a ball at the club, up there with the best in the league. Pity he faded in the 2nd. A Young, 7.5: plenty of running and made sure he found lots of space. Needs to work on crossing the ball. Also needs to stop moaning. Heskey, 7: worked hard. Far from perfect but helped out in defence as well as holding the ball up front. Absolutely stunning headed goal, one of the best you'll see. Overall, I'm just glad we have a new manager who might just spot our shortcomings. If MON was still here, you just know he wouldn't see anything wrong with that 'battling performance.'

Kenwyn Jones their MOTM? Strange. No idea why Fuller isn't the first name on their teamsheet, he's a really dangerous player.

Bloody hell.

Great play from Downing and Gabby there, NRC could have made amends

Completely Coker's fault that one, let his man just jog away from him.

Hello General Firstly, I'd like to confirm my support for the board. Yourself, Randy et al are all doing a fantastic job of rebuilding the club organically and in a way that is sensitive to our tradition and history. I'd much rather this approach than to throwing obsene amounts of money at everything and building a new plastic ground in an out-of-town retail park. It seems Martin wasn't the man for us. As for the new-look website, it generally looks much better but I'm disappointed they haven't changed the ticketing system. I hate that Ticketmaster system, it's just so basic and ugly. I'd like to be able to choose individual seats, as you can on nufc.co.uk - it's a fantastic system which allows you to buy the actual seats you want. For example, I hate sitting near the pitch in the Holte because you can't see anything up the other end, but if you buy lower tier tickets there's no way of knowing if you'll get pitch-side or right at the back. For the same reason, I also think ticket prices should be different in different blocks, rather than just upper or lower tier (I know corner seats are cheaper but I think the whole tier should be split again into 2 or 3 levels). Are there any plans to upgrade the system and/or adapt a more flexible pricing policy, which I believe would encourage floating fans to buy tickets (I will never buy lower tier Holte End tickets at £33 because I don't think it's value for money if you can't see what's going on)?

They need to realise that they are trying to buy a rival's best player - who is also English. That aint coming cheap; £25m has to be the minimum. I really, really hope he doesn't go, but if he did I think we'd need a player included rather than straight cash. It's so difficult getting good players that we may as well take advantage of the situation, otherwise Martin will spend all summer dilly dallying and not getting what we need. The obvious one would be Ireland, at least that way we'd have an attacking midfielder as a replacement. We'd obviously also need a good wedge of cash so we can put it towards a really good striker.

I'd like to see Muamba, rated him since I saw him in the England U21 tournament (Norway? Sweden? Can't remember). I reckon £10m for him would give us an athletic, defensive unit who also poses some attacking threat. A better version of NRC and great competition for Petrov. I'd also take Fletcher for a few million and Eagles while we're at it, so long as they didn't cost more than £10m between them.

I'm surprised people are talking up Etuhu after last night's game. He did a decent job of sitting back and intercepting play but his touch looked heavy and he just looked laboured on the ball. I mentioned this earlier in the thread and I'll say it again: Muamba. He clears everything up like Etuhu, but seems a lot more composed.

I don't know, I'm thinking Owen, Santa Cruz, Gabby, Fonz and possibly Heskey/Carew would give us pretty impressive options, allowing us to accomodate Owen's inevitable injuries. Only if Owen if free though. Out of all those Owen, Santa Cruz and either Heskey or Carew (possibly both) would be injured at the same time. Leaving Gabby & Delfounso! Plus...Owen is injury prone and not value for money. Santa Cruz is just shite and more lazy than Berbatov! You might have a point there but I'm not sure if RSC has been injured a lot or just not in the team? I think he would be excellent if he got a good run of games, a mixture of strength and finesse. Anyway, Owen and RSC would only be replacing, possibly even adding to, 2 other injury prone players in Carew and Heskey, so I don't think it'd be bad at all.

I don't know, I'm thinking Owen, Santa Cruz, Gabby, Fonz and possibly Heskey/Carew would give us pretty impressive options, allowing us to accomodate Owen's inevitable injuries. Only if Owen if free though.