kayarcee

Feel Eck wants to get Bent and N'Zogbia (and possibly Marc) all working together to get better used to each other in match conditions. Also, Bent up front could give him a chance to see how Ireland will play with one of the more senior strikers. Think the injuries to Gabs and Big Em might have thrown a spanner into his plans to rest DB.

Blimey, that's a really good question? Ireland will have to play for both!! The keepers will have to play out on the pitch too. Jeez, I hope this board knows what it's doing. Absolutely: Given, Young, Dunne, Collins, Warnock, N'Zogbia, Petrov, Makoun, Albrighton, Ireland and Bent vs. Guzan, Beye, Clark, Lowry, Baker, Bannan, Delph, Hogg, Agbonlahor, Delfouneso and Heskey And there's still room for Cuellar (not fit yet), Gardner and Wee Man

I dont like MON at all but KMAC was manager then oh right my bad.. still a stupid idea. O'Neill still "consulted" KMac on whom to use for the first couple of weeks as part of his resignation. Do with that information what you will, but I'm sure he went over what his intentions for squad "rotation" would have been if he were staying, and Kev took those intentions under heavy consideration.

The positives are that against the lower half teams, we're showing that we can play some good, on the ground football. However, we get put against a quality side, and certain players (COLLINS) lose their self-belief and go right back to hoofing it long. McLeish's big task for the next couple of weeks is to drill that self-belief into the team so that we don't panic under pressure.

wedge- since I couldn't get an answer from Paul and Dan on the OS Matchcenter- how was the intent of Villa's play in the first half? Was it a direct style, more of a roll-it-around possession game, or kind of a mix? Was play directed through the center of the pitch or the wings? Finally, without the ball, was McLeish getting the team pressing, or was he happy to let the players hang back, soak pressure and spring the counter?

me. i would rather we play hardball and save £1,000,000, which could be used on other players. I'd like to know what sort of player is available at £1 million that could improve even our matchday squad of 18. Wasn't 1 mill the transfer fee for Shaun Maloney? I know he lasted all of a year, but was a capable player when he got on the pitch, and a player of his ilk would certainly be welcome around Villa Park.

The OS has the text match center up.

Get in Lionel you beauty!

A set piece goal! Wahey!

Ireland off for the Fonz; might have felt a little tightness?

Sounds more like a 4-2-3-1 with Heskey and Ireland chopping and changing between left and center.

Get in Daz!

There are two problems in dealing with them: 1) Garry Cook is a cock of the highest order. 2) They don't have to operate on the same "scale" or timeframe as everyone else in the premier league. Look at what happened when Manchester United purchased Phil Jones and Ashley Young- Ferguson immediately went to finance those buys- both on the wage bill and in his transfer pool- by selling Wes Brown, John O'Shea and (soon) Darron Gibson. Manchester City don't have to worry about any sort of balancing for right now. They can hold onto Given, Wright-Phillips, Bellamy, Milner, Barry, Lescott, Kolarov, and anyone else that will be surplus to their requirements until August 31 if they want- and if they have to loan those players to make their 25-man senior squad, so be it; they don't "need" transfer fees coming in to finance their high-ticket purchases.

I'd disagree even further; Salifou didn't get a single start in the Prem, but proved himself to be a quite handy player in the handful of games he started in Europe. If he did get a run of games, either in the Prem or Championship, I have no doubt he'd prove himself a solid, if unspectacular, player.

Dave Whelan - Wigan Athletic owner Anyone think that because of how impressed Whelan was with our behaviour when we wanted Martinez, that it could help us to land N'Zogbia? i.e. Wigan would prefer to sell to us over other clubs? If you wanted to sell your bike, and you had an offer of 100 pounds and one for 105 pounds. Which one would you choose if you really needed the money? well, if the five pounds wouldn't make that big a difference, I'd sell it to my friend that I know could really use the bike, and not some prat over in Merseyside who's already got a bike collection and is just looking to show off how much money he has :shock:

You could say the same thing for Tim Howard before he left for Everton, or Friedel while he was at Liverpool. Both have gone on to become exceptional premier league keepers. I think he'd be worth a shout.

More perceptive answer: Because the manager they appointed was their first choice last year! There's virtually nothing lost by taking the time-- what has it been, two weeks?-- to sound out well-qualified candidates in hopes of appointing the right manager, other than apparently the patience of a message board poster named "YorkshireVilla"-- a quantity which, last I checked, was required to win f*ck all in football.

this. Assuming, of course, we buy 3 proper defenders first Cuellar. Clark. Young. Sorted.

Except that he's a student of the Arrigo Sacchi school of football management- which is based on some measure of patience, but is also much more attacking than the catenaccio we're more familiar with from Italian sides. In fact, Ancelotti's breed of football is more attacking than his former coach's- Ancelotti's most comfortable playing a 4-3-2-1, whereas Sacchi used a 4-4-2 (though often with one winger pulled inward). And he's arguably already got the personnel to pull it off- Makoun to be his Pirlo, pulling strings from deep, and Young and Downing to play the roles of Kaka and Rui Costa, lying behind and pinging throughballs to Darren Bent. The only places he would need to bring in "ancient Italians (which, btw, he didn't do at Chelsea)" would be in defense, which is where you'd arguably want ancient Italians.

Alas, you've already hit a wee snag there. So change it to Hey Marcy, Hey Charles Done and dusted.

Apologies that this is coming from a "keyboard," and not the Holte as I live in the states, but think this could become a real good song for the team. All names in the first verse changeable to suit the makeup of the squad. EDIT: changed all references to Jesus from the lyrics of the original song to McGrath- Hey Stewart, hey Ashley We love it when you play together hey Darren, hey Gabby We come to you to see the net bulge We see Villa in the hard eyes of the boys who sing in the Holte End We feel McGrath in the skillfulness of young and hopeful Villans hey Holte End hey North Stand We find hope in all the souls you gather hey Villa, hey Villa We love it when we come together We feel McGrath in the skillfulness of young and hopeful Villans We feel Villa in the long balls to the strikers on the corners We feel McGrath in the simple play of honest, nervous Villans We feel Villa in the build-up and the hard work that comes with all the trophies lost in football, love and faith, aware We've been Villa through and through and we're prepared

We've got an even simpler answer for Downing- adapt the old Martin Laursen chant: Do-do do-doooo! Stewart Downing!

Perhaps we could bring Adapted, of course, as follows: Bury me in Villa claret, oh-woah oh Bury me in Villa blue, ah-ah ah Bury me in Villa claret, oh-woah oh Bury me in Villa blue, ah-ah ah And when I'm through (clap clap clap clap) And when I'm through (clap clap clap clap) And when I'm through make sure I'm in claret and blue Would be brilliant to hear for the first 10-15 minutes of the match.

I have absolutely no doubt thats true. Jimmy was a football lover, you could tell just by watching him. He just wants to play and win. He'll be hurting with his current situation at City. Expect a transfer request soon. To keep it off topic, you could tell from his reaction to scoring that one last time at Villa Park how much the club meant to him, and how sad he was to be leaving. I'd welcome him back for sure.

NRC can play right-back as well, and Gabby was playing deep enough to be considered a left back in the Citeh match.