Keener window-cleaner

I'd like to know and hear from the owners what their ambitions are at the moment. I'm fairly happy with the net spend considering we have probably increased our wage bill significantly, but it's not really a going for Europe-places spending, more like keeping us mid table and not regressing kind of spending. As the owners are spending their own money, I guess they are a bit more careful than for example City or Newcastle or Chelsea, where the owners are spendning other peoples money, money from oil-state investment funds or private equity funds.

I think it's funny that he constantly says that he fronts up and wont hide from the responsibility, still he over and over again throws the players under the bus (not s much today though), blames injuries or bad luck or whatever, and doesn't thank the fans after the games but just goes down the tunnel. He does exactly the opposite of what he says. One positive note today was that he defended Mings, perhaps he is learning something at least.

We were good for 30 mins, had many corners and cause some real havoc on a couple of occations with good chances. But that changes nothing for me, the same faults are still there. This formations does not work, McGinn and Ramsey can not play in a three man midfield. Good that Coutinho was dropped, meant it wasn't like we played with one man less this game. Whereas Potters substitutions changed the game in their favour, our fully predictable changes just made us worse.

Fingers will be pointed at Mings, and yes a bad mistake, but look at how Ramsey let the Chelsea player run through and then didn't follow hin. For me as much a mistake by Ramsey. Ramsey is a great player but should be playing further up the pitch.

Stupid not playing 2 central midfielders, Dendonker and Luiz (or Nakamba). So very stubborn and daft, McGinn and Ramsey in a three man midfield doesn't work and will not work. They are not good enough defensively and does not contribute enough in build up play or offensivesly.

The lack of rumours of him being on the brink is worrying.

So he is burning his bridges to the local journalists and opposition managers now as well, bridges to the fans and to many of the players already been burnt. Not many more bridges left to burn now Steve, come on you can do it! (and get out please)

He will be great in a proper set up with a proper manager playing good football. Now we are just hoofing, but we don't have a target player, of course he doesn't get anything to work on, Ramsey hides in the build up play and doesn't feed him, he just doesn't have much at all to work on at the moment. Wide forward in a 4-2-3-1 where we play decent football and he will excell.

I think we have a good squad and that it would only need a few adjustments, I think it's quite simple actually, and I'm baffled that Gerrard & co dont see it. McGinn and Ramsey are not suited to play in a three man midfield. Defensively they over and over again fail to do the basic work, which makes us vulerable, we loose the midfield. In the build up play, they don't contribute enough. Ramsey is easy on the eye and a huge talent, but he doesn't impose himself enough in that position, is a bit of a luxury player who shines in the opponents half. McGinn isn't a good enough passer and is a liability in the build up play. Played further forward, each one of them could contribute. BUT IT DOES NOT WORK TO PLAY BOTH OF THEM AS OUR TWO No6! Switch to 4-2-3-1 or 4-4-2 and pick two out of Luiz/Dendonker/Nakamba/Kamara as the two holding midfielders and see what will happen.

Do you and your friend get many party invitations?

Can you play holding midfielder?

It seems to happen more often with players from abroad that they get an injury short time after making their debut in the PL. Perhaps they need more time to bed in, to get used to the intensity and fysicallity?

Exactly, some of the comments saying wolves fans or others thinks he is gash etc is just childish. He has represented Belgium at every level and has almost 30 caps during the years when they even were ranked no 1 in the world. He has played 30+ games every season for the last three seasons in a good premier league team playing good football. The interesting questions are what his form is now and in what position he is best suited. I would have thought that he would be at his best as a holding midfielder rather than the dynamic box to box no 6 role. Will be interesting to see where he plays for us and what he will bring, much needed muscles and presence in any case! edit: and most of all I like calling him big Donk.

Haha I enjoy the sarcasm! Worth noting though was that Saints had almost nothing on his part of the pitch, although big Donk didn't have many touches and looked a bit off the pace, he put in a shift without the ball, covered good areas and blocked much space. He gives us much needed presence in the middle of the pitch.

He runs in a funny way

Very good and vital three points for us. But must admit that Saints were truly awful, so many times did their keeper and center backs just kick the ball away to no one even whn not under pressure, and had nothing going forward. What I liked about our performance was the grit and the determination, we were really switched on the full game and were agressive. Also good to see that Coutinho still had something to bring to the team, looked hungry and agressive. It was a performance Steve Bruce and McLeish would have been proud of.

Though something was fishy about that, he was supposed to be injured, then played in every game in the AFCON, then when he came back he was said to be injured again. Wild speculation, but I wonder if it could have anything to do with appearence clauses in the contract with Lyon, perhaps he was apporaching a number of appearences where we had to fork out more to them.

I think I read one of the reasons why he moved was because he wanted to play as striker, when he joined us I remember an interview in French media where he said he came to his best playing centrally. For Burkina Faso he played on the right hand side though if I remember correctly, and always thought it looked like he liked playing wide forward when he played for us.

Would give us some kudos!

I think all the criticism of him is a bit unfair, as I see it he is the same player as before and gives 100% for the team. The problem is that he is asked to play in a position that for most of us is clear that he is not suited to on PL level. He can not be a midfielder asked to receive the ball in our own half, pass and distribute. It's simple, his first touch and passing is not good enough, he will either make mistakes or go for the Hollywood pass or burst forward by himself. For that position you need to be a slick and safe passer, not take two or three touches, look up and then decide what to do. He is also not good enough defensively to play that position. In the role I think he plays for Scotland, in front of the holding midfielders, he comes to his best imo. There he can make his bursting runs, harrass and press. For me I'd rather have Buendia or Coutinho in that position though. Nevertheless, I think we shouldn't give him a hard time for being asked to play in a position he is not suited for. He is still a great character and gives 100%, we can't demand more from our players imo.

I actually enjoyed the O'Neill style, even if it wasn't very elaborate, seeing Young and Downing bombing down the wings and Petrov/Milner running the show (am even among the ones who liked Heskey!). I thought the O'Neill style was quite attacking and adventurous if i remember correctly. Regarding West Ham and Wolves, it wasn't so much their style of play my comparision was aimed at, more that we should be competing with them and me thinking that parking the bus and trying to nick a point wont lift us above midtable. But regarding playing style I think West Ham despite the reputation of Moyes playes quite good, a settled 4-2-3-1 where the 3 behind the striker are purely attacking players. Wolves I haven't seen so much of this season, but I read an interview with Lage where he said he had to play a certain way last year because of the personell and now are trying to evolve after having brought in the kind of players he wanted, going from 3 at the back to 4 at the back for example. The times i've seen Wolves the last years I havenät got the impression of them being a turgid defensive team. I agree with you about the compact, counter attacking football, and I can enjoy that as well, it depends a bit on how it is set up. My preference of a 4-2-3-1 with speedy wide forwards does include the possibility to play that counter attacking kind of football. But in my view, the effective counter attacking style can be carried out in different ways. The park the bus style that we saw at the beginning, and this week end, I think is not the way forward. I wouldn't for example want Mourinho to come in and play that way, even if it meant that we took more points. I think that style, as in the case of Bruce and McLeish, in the long run squeezes the joy out of the players and the supporters. If we are set up not to lose, not to make a mistake, it after a while makes the players less creative, there will mostly be room in the team for the grafters and it leads to turgid uninspired football that in the long run will lead to disappointment and regression. I want a Villa that plays on the front foot, a team that storms the Holt in the second half no matter what opposition and with players who make you wanna pay to watch the game. My main point though was that I don't agree with sacking Dean Smith to revert to this. The communicated vision was us taking steps forward and Gerrard talked about us becoming a possession based team. Only for us one year later after much investment have reverted to the parking the bus style. It was not what was anticipated and I would much rather have Dean Smith still here than this, in my view, regression.

At least it will be in line with our new style of play then

Definitely not, we need to have a head coach who is at the center of our ideas and how we play, and who will take responsibility for that. No way is it a good idea to have a puppet in charge and then have changes depending on who at the minute is the assistant. Moreover, the point in having a head coach instead of a manager was to exacly that, focusing on the playing matters. If that is left to the assistant and other coaches he may as well step up in another role as director of football or something.

Exactly, while I'm very pleased with the point and feel that it's galvanising and refreshing with all the positivity from the game, my sober analysis is that this isn't progress at all. Neither is it a tactical masterstroke to park the bus and go for the counter. Managing to set up and pick the right players for that is basic stuff. As I've said in other posts, had we got the point playing like Newcastle did against City I would have been thrilled.

Haha yes what Potter wants is of course part of the equation but that we don't know much about. Him coming from Birmingham, the possibility to manage a team with the history of Villa, that we are a much bigger club and has higher potential could be enough to persuade him. Or we could let Gerrard have to the World Cup, see where Brighton is then and try to get Potter in during the WC break, if not Gerrard suddenly creates some miracles.