hoaxn

At least watch the match if you are going to commentate, Heskey was never at RB. Baffling. But he came on for Luke Young, so how does that work? MON and his ridiculous, baffling tactics. Luke Young goes off. Milner takes up WING BACK (more attacking than FULL BACK), Warnock pushes up. Then some weird fluid formation ensues in front of the back four. It just seemed everyone up front (bar Petrov who still played defensive mid) was playing everywhere. Don't get it wrong, it was definately an attacking change, probably MONs All-Out Attacking formation. A tactically sound change. Just shouldn't have let it get to that point tbh. Edit: Oh dear, Trog got us both Gonna leave it here so all can see my stupidity. And it's for those that actually think Heskey was at RB

My previous post: Don't get me wrong, I'm happy we're level, even though we don't deserve it at all, but it would serve a fantastic lesson to our prima donna squad that we can't just turn up and get a result. We can't even turn up and play at 70% and get a result. It should be drilled into their heads until they play every game with 100% dedication, intensity and workrate. At least if we lose while we're actually trying, we'll lose with some **** dignity and be able to truthfully say that they're a better team than us. To quote my drum tutor, "Play hard or go home." With some ratings attached; Friedel - Meh 6 L Young - Not outstanding, but no major dramas - 6 Cuellar - Seemed either scared of the ball or forgotten how to deal with it - 5 Dunne - Same as Cuellar. Dropped eachother in it a few times today - 5 Warnock - Not great, not bad - 6 Petrov - Get back NRC - 4 Sidwell - Burnley's Agent Sidwell did his Ninja impression all game, except to expertly clear a great cross and golden opportunity - 4 Milner - Didn't have his best boots on today? - 5 A Young - Same as Milner, great little chip to almost set up Milner near the end though - 6 Carew - Lazy, no service though - 5 Gabby - No service, no real chances except the route one hoof he was unlucky with - 6 Subs: Downing - Didnt see much of him, but had a decent free kick. Wasn't expecting much off the lad anyway to be fair - 6 Heskey - Every donkey has his day, aye? - 7 MON - Easy to criticise him for no changes at half time, but we don't have players morales to to take into account. He has to show faith in his squad. Should have started NRC. And should have gone 4-5-1 from the start. Great calls to bring on Heskey and Downing though - 5

FFS. Don't get me wrong, I'm happy we're level, even though we don't deserve it at all, but it would serve a fantastic lesson to our prima donna squad that we can't just turn up and get a result. We can't even turn up and play at 70% and get a result. It should be drilled into their heads until they play every game with 100% dedication, intensity and workrate. At least if we lose while we're actually trying, we'll lose with some **** dignity and be able to truthfully say that they're a better team than us. To quote my drum tutor, "Play hard or go home."

Which paves the way for Brightside #6. We can take him off, put Downing on, and play with 11 men, instead of 10 and 1 showing the world his ninja impression.

What an incredible clearence by Burnley agent, Sidwell

"Not amazing but certainly a very good window." Got what we needed, job done.

You're. Who put the cross in for England to equalise with the Netherlands? You stupid moron ! For England ? I couldnt give 2 shits about England its what he does for Vill athat matters. Hes done nothing for us at all so far so because hes done it for england i should just be happy ? IDIOT I don't wanna be telling mod's how to do there job at all, but isn't this the sort of thing VT doesn't tolerate anymore?

All that work and Shorey gives it away cos he's never learnt how to control a ball. Pathetic.

Just watched his interview on BBC Sport. I don't like his tone when responding to transfer questions. He's meant to be a good motivator. If he'd come out and said "We WILL be going into the transfer market and spending in all areas of the pitch because quite frankly, what I saw today was shocking and its clear we need heavy reinforcements." then fair play to him. If I was playing for him and he said that you bet your ass it would make me buck my ideas up. Instead, no. He says "We'd like to try to enter the transfer market". I love MoN. Don't want him to go at all (though I'm losing confidence quite quickly). Let him finish what he's started, I say. But please, please, please, for the love of God, super-mega-please, with a giant cherry on top, sort the **** team out. Even if you have to drop Ashley "world-class-one-man-team-thinks-he's-Ronaldo" Young. /vent

Wahey! More fans in VP for a friendly than Birmingham get in for a local derby.

The ref (daft as he is) might just allow the use of crutches.

Some place called Florence in Tuscany I think.

You dont win anything with kids though

Very harsh. Who is this ref? From what I've seen, he looks unbelievably incompetent. Italians spend more time practicing dirty tricks and fouling players when they're losing than penalties though looks like

Might be focussing on a right sided attack. Albrighton is on fire. It would be hard to compete with him for the ball today.

Great run by Marcy Marc then. Had his man turned inside out. Too bad no one was on the front post for the flick.

Heskeys looking fantastic (in the physical way). So much slimmer now. Actually looks like a football player instead of a rugby player now. His skills have improved no ends aswell. Haven't been watching properly, so cant comment on the rest. Looks like it might be a good year for our attack though.

We'll sign someone when this very forum breaks down in angry posts about how MoN is taking the piss, and how he should be sacked for lack of activity. He's watching us. As soon as that happens (I'm giving it about another week), BAM! We'll sign Johnny Noname and Steven Average for a combined total of 500k. Then the VillaTalk summer of destruction will truely begin

I'd be bothered yeah. He's a great player, and should be considered a Villa Legend, despite whats gone on in the past. However, he can and has to be replaced. Probably not straight away, but another player will come along eventually and be just as great, if not more so. Maybe we already have that player and they're just waiting for their chance

Genius answer. Despite the fellas reign of terror, you gotta give it to him for making sure we were well looked after for the future. Kudos for reminding me it was Ellis who signed MoN. Though he wouldn't have come if Lerner wasn't following, but it's quite possible Lerner wouldn't have known of MoN to sign him up if Ellis didn't.

It's all very easy for us to criticise him for his mistakes now. And they were mistakes, but who knows what could've happened if it had panned out differently. Shorey slots right in at right back and we have a solid back 4 all season long. We dont conceed silly or soft goals (especially when a Cuellar given free kick is involved). Heskey could've come in as a perfect backup to Carew, and Gabby reads his flicks perfectly. We go on an immense winning streak, because of that strike partnership. We send the weakened Moscow team (which was the right call IMO) but instead of choking in the League, we're still 6 points ahead come May. If it turned out like that no one will have voted "No" to MoN. I think it's great we have a manager who is willing to gamble smaller prizes for the Holy Grail. It doesn't always pay off, but if it did it wouldn't be a gamble.

What was the money spent before Last Summer though? I'm pretty sure he held off any signings that would've been silly to pass up (Young, Carew and Maloney). I might be very wrong about it, I don't have any notes in front of me, but if true, that would mean he took us from 16th to 6th without spending anything at all (compared to other clubs). £90m from relegation candidates to Sky Four challengers in 3 seasons? I don't think even The Special One could pull that one off. But then as I said..I might be being very selective about how I remember the previous seasons' transfers, so this might be a very invaild post Edit: Just found a site with all our transfers on. No, I was totally wrong. I really need to brush up on AVFC recent history A fair amount of transfers, alot of them quite good, a few gambles (Salifou and Maloney), and a few smart backup player investments (Heskey, Sidwell).

Categorical yes, without hesitation or fear of regret. YES!

Haha amazing work. Well done.

I was thinking that too. He's always involved in play, defensively or offensively, always seems to give 110%. But then Barry does have a proven record with this squad from last season, and players have said they have nothing against Barry a few times. The captain is for the players not the fans. Would like to see Davies (for the future), Petrov (for his work rate), but it will be Barry (for his proven record).