VillaFaninLondon

Penalty to Real

Ah, why did they have to scrap the away goals rule

Hahaha the oil barons go another year without a CL, boohoo.

I think he's worth signing on a short contract (2-year or maybe 3 tops) and on a reasonable wage (£150K per week). He would help attract other top quality players here and on a short-term deal we wouldn't be lumbered with him well into his 30s picking up a big salary. My main concern is he would mainly be here because of Gerrard and so far Gerrard's management has been underwhelming and if that continues into next season and we see another change of manager because results aren't good enough then we are stuck with an unhappy Coutinho who doesn't want to be here. We also need to strengthen other parts of the team to make Coutinho work - notably CM and CB and maybe a ST if we move one of Ings or Watkins on. I think Coutinho and Buendia can both play together but Gerrard needs to change the formation to accommodate this because in a 4-3-2-1 it doesn't work. My personal preference would be to see Buendia, Coutinho and Bailey all shine behind a striker and two midfielders come in this summer which allows us to play all those attacking players at once.

Emotional day for him. Wasn't the manager to take us to the next level but put the club back on the map after it had been in a slump for nearly a decade and you've got to be grateful for that. As for Gerrard, I remain far from convinced that he is the manager to take us to that next level either.

A poor performance despite the win, after each game you do wonder what on Earth Gerrard is trying to implement here and still am far from convinced in his managerial credentials. We were lucky to be playing a side as poor as Norwich today because if we'd gifted those chances to a better team we'd have lost that game. The one positive is we actually won a game of football. Ings MOTM as he changed the game when he came on but Buendia again looked good and you wonder when he's going to get a start. Iroegbunam did well on his first start, a bit sloppy in possession at times but he looks very good off the ball. I just hope we can end the season with at least 3 more wins but the performance today doesn't suggest we will.

Probably our worst performance of the season this and there's been plenty of competition. We make every team look far better than they actually are.

Get Coutinho off.

This is turgid stuff. Another crap performance under Gerrard against the worst team in the league.

Need to massively improve in the 2nd half, Norwich have had too much of the ball and too many chances that a better team would have taken.

Absolute rubbish so far.

Good luck to young Tim who has looked good in his cameos so far, hope his first start goes well. Also good to see Digne back who I thought was out for longer. We're well overdue a win especially at Villa Park, need to do a professional job today.

Don't think he's out for the season but unlikely to make the next game. Put him in more in hope than expectation.

Neither us or Everton have won anything for near on 30 years so was best to go quite far back If it was from say 1980 onwards they'd beat us with 5-3 in major trophies.

Yeah sorry, just in the PL era.

There was a discussion on Sky Sports after the Merseyside derby about whether Everton would be the biggest club to go down and I found it absolutely insulting that we didn't even get a mention, what made it even more insulting was that Newcastle and Leeds were mentioned and we weren't (I don't think). There's a strong argument to say that Everton would be the biggest club to go down if they did, but I really think it's close between us and them. Maybe they could say they are bigger because they haven't been relegated in 70+ years and have only spent four seasons outside the top division, whereas we love getting ourselves in a mess when times are tough and getting relegated (even as low as League 1 in the 70s). But we have 20 major trophies to their 15, and even though we won more of ours in the very early days of football when the competition was less and the top league only had about 12 teams, we have both won 8 major trophies since WW2 so even recent history is pretty even. When we went down no one did seem to give a toss, although I see comments from Wolves fans saying the media love us and are constantly hyping us up so I'm not sure whether it's true or not. What is definitely true is that when we got relegated it had been coming for a while, we had been awful ever since the McLeish season onwards and given Lerner wasn't spending any money and we had a load of rubbish players on our books it wasn't really a surprise that we eventually dropped. Whereas Everton's season has really come out of the blue and I don't think anyone would have predicted them to go down at the start of the season.

Almost certainly won't happen under Gerrard but I'd like to see Bailey, Buendia and Coutinho all start: .............................Martinez................................ Cash..........Chambers..........Mings..........Digne (Young if not fit) ........................Luiz......Nakamba....................... Buendia..................Coutinho...................Bailey ..............................Watkins................................ Won't happen because Gerrard never plays this formation, won't drop McGinn (who's been poor for months) or Ramsey (needs a rest), and Nakamba probably not ready to start yet (although could try Tim Iroegbunam there). I loved Konsa last season but he looked a liability against Leicester, whilst Chambers isn't great we have conceded fewer goals when he's started (4 conceded in 5 games). Really hope Digne returns sooner rather than later. Bailey and Buendia haven't scored nearly enough goals this season and would be nice if they could score in this one. Either way we must win the game.

Our home form has been one of the reasons we are where we are, it's been dire. This is a game we really must win and I'd be hoping for a convincing win too.

Probably because he was allowed to strengthen in January and we've since gone backwards rather than progressed. Everyone wants to improve this team and knows it needs improving, but the fear is we give Gerrard huge funds and he takes us nowhere.

Newcastle are 9th, can you believe it.

Well we didn't lose. Think we probably had the clearer chances but as ever decision making was dire in the final third, but a point is OK. Need to absolutely smash Norwich next Saturday and get to 40 points.

Why are we playing keep ball in the corner, do they not know this game is there to be won.

And to Newcastle of all teams.

What a really intelligent decision to loan out Targett.

Rubbish decision by the ref.