Turamber

Beye has played one game for Villa. Nice to see you giving players a chance there Risso

He is on record as saying that he intends to do that this season. Which is why I was so befuddled why we played like we did today. We managed to have more ball retention and interplay in pre-season but today...? Odd. Not that I really care about that stuff. We could play like Wimbledon if it won us games, that is all that matters to me. Villa have absolutely no history of playing "attractive" (whatever that is) football.

Hello General! I hope you and your family are well. I won't talk about the game today, I've tried to strike it from my memory I've purchased a membership in the Centenary Lounge suite this year, so I am sitting in the North Stand for the first time since the late 80's. Is it possible to do anything to improve the traffic flow in the corridor at the top of the stand? The seating area for the Centenary Lounge is at the furthest end of the corridor, with the access door to the Lounge being at the bottom of a flight of stairs leading to seats and opposite the ladies toilet on one side and a refreshment kiosk on the other. As you might imagine at half time the traffic flow is horrendous. I was stood queing for the ladies for two minutes before I realised what was happening I know this is a long way from being the most important thing on your agenda right now, but thought I should bring it to your attention (before the ladies complain!).

I would imagine MON wanted to keep his match winners on. We were 2-0 down after all, there wasn't much to lose. Besides Milner was fine at right back, I appreciate most people are using todays game as an excuse just to air their longstanding grudges but you don't have to be quite so obvious about it.

Post on poster AGAIN? Crikey you live life on the edge And thanks for putting words in my mouth. There are also many sensible posters who do agree with what I have to say, but they are avoiding the bloodbath that is VillaTalk after a defeat. OMG we lost, at home, to Wigan!!

Post on poster much? I'd have thought you'd be more careful with a yellow card against your name. My posts are, in the main, well put together. The spelling is passable, the prose is readable, the capitalisation in the appropriate places. Holding a different opinion to you doesn't mean the "posts suck" as you so eloquently put it. And, thank you for your interest, but I was at the game today. Sitting in my new seat in the North Stand. I saw both of Wigan's goals in all their technicolour glory. We were poor and Wigan played well, but 6-1? Whatever you say, whatever you say "mate".

You are referring, of course, to the same old people posting the same old stuff they've been dragging through every thread for months. Like I said on another thread to you: for supporters of teams outside the top four there are going to be more days like this than we like. So the doomsayers will be right from time to time. Enjoy your MON out threads and the 30 odd sheep that vote 'out', I predict a good 20 of those people would change their vote the next time we win a game. I agree we need a central midfielder and a central defender. If anything todays display will have gone a long way to ensuring we have them in this window and not in January. We can't wait that long. But I fully expect us to use the available time this window because the type of player MON is talking about/interested in is in great demand. We lost a game, and we played very poorly. I'm as unhappy as the next Villa fan, but I have confidence that the manager will sort it out. Sorry you don't, but those are the breaks.

What an odd post. I go to watch Aston Villa, not the people who happen to be wearing our shirt until we sack them off or they get a better offer and sack us off. What a truly odd statement :?

If the manager went we'd be in the position of having to start all over again. And where is this wonderful new manager? Would you be happy to appoint Moyes and lose 6-1 at home next time out?

It might not be for you, but for most people voting "go" it certainly would be.

I know -- sorry! But there is an awful familiarity about many of the names appearing in this thread and their views which they've posted a few hundred times before One swallow does not a Spring make ... MON will get it sorted, keep the faith brother!

Seriously? We must have pissed in the tea of some gypsies from Oldham and Leicester then. Two teams that we could never ever beat. Thank Christ they got relegated eventually, hopefully Wigan can go join them in another league sooner or later :winkold: Mind you Wigan played very well today, impressive stuff, although the time wasting did piss me off no end.

The guy standing behind me at the game was bellowing as loudly as he could (and spitting in my ear each time): RELEASE THE BALL FASTER FOR **** SAKE!!! to Friedel. Then when he did he'd scream obscenities that he'd given the ball away again. Idiots, don't you love them

Yes, I'd say calling for the manager to go after one game is an overreaction. I also don't think that is the worst we've played ... but people's expectations keep on rising, so it just feels that way. Some people also have axes to grind and points of view they wish to feel vindicated about. I didn't enjoy today at all, well other than my meal in the Centenary Suite, but perspective is needed. We've never beaten Wigan at Villa Park, they are a bogey team for us.

Hmm some overreactions here, but if it helps you feel better post away. I'm going to find some beer Oh and I would bet MON is as angry as many of you about his team strolling around and showing such little desire. Mind you I think we, the fans in the crowd, could have done more to support the team. All that booing wouldn't make me play better, let me tell you. Some ratings: Friedel 6 - some good saves, silly goal given away. Beye 6 - looks promising, tired second half. Shorey 3 - get rid please! Davies 4 - not the same without Laursen next to him. Cuellar 6 - a couple of silly clearances aside he played well. Petrov 5 - not at his best. Delph 6 - tried hard, positional sense needs to improve. Ashley Young 5 - also tried hard, but wasn't on his game today. Milner 6 - worked hard, no end product. Gabby 6 - worked hard, no service though. Heskey 7 - best Villa player on the pitch. I think we were set up for a defensive Wigan, tactics were wrong but undoubtedly the players underperformed.

We've never beaten Wigan at Villa Park, so anybody expecting to stuff them was being a little ambitious. We did the usual Villa thing, though, of dropping our performance level to the oppositions standard. They looked rubbish for 20 minutes, so our performance dropped. Too little drive from our midfield, too little control shown by our players. The back four looked like they had never played together before ... but then they hadn't! Beye looks promising, I think Cuellar played okay apart from a couple of silly clearances but Davies and Shorey were woeful. Shorey should be shipped out pronto. We didn't play like this in pre-season, we interchanged more, showed better ball retention -- so why did we revert to type? MON will get it sorted out, I am sure. We already knew we were weak in the centre of the team (midfield and defence) so this will be a reminder to Mr Lerner of the necessity of spending in those areas, if a reminder was needed. Very few plus points from this game. Cuellar and Beye looked promising. Friedel made some good saves (as well as letting in the softest goal ever). Petrov was average, didn't impose himself on the game at all. Delph and Ashley Young tried to do too much. Gabby had no service other than the flicks from Heskey, who played pretty well given the scraps he had to play with. Milner worked hard but no end product. If I were MON the biggest worry I'd have is that 19 year old rookie Delph was the one exhorting his colleagues to try harder, to do better. Some of our players are too quiet, we need somebody not afraid to say some harsh words to their colleagues.

Fifth. Everton have done nothing in the transfer market, indeed they lost some of their squad players at the start of the Summer. Man City's scattergun approach to signings and Hughes inexperience combined with the huge egos of his squad will see him out of a job by Xmas and another midtable finish for the boys in blue. I think we could push top four again but Arsenal have a sizeable war chest which they'll tap into in January to steal ahead of us in the run-in.

Nice article but I don't see why next season should "make or break" the manager. We are in a highly competitive league, it is just not realistic to expect improvement every season. There will undoubtedly be a blip at sometime or another -- do we really want to go back to the Ellis era of chopping and changing managers everytime there is a blip, or do we give the best manager we've had in over ten years the time he needs to build a hegemony here?

Well done lads, we definitely have the making of a good squad ... just need to add a couple of pieces to the jigsaw. Wish I'd gone to see the match now, typical The only friendlies being covered on Five Live this afternoon were Man City's and Liverpool, sick of hearing of the first mentioned and just sick of the last mentioned. Hopefully we can take our pre-season form into the League and get some points on the board, put the Sky four under pressure from the off.

LMAO Del Pierro.

Shit, going to lose it at the death.

Guzan with sublime save, Sidwell with the shocking, shocking effort.

Great tackle from Cuellar, he's going to be a sensation this season on the evidence of this tournament. Ash Young could do with picking his game up a bit atm.

We need to hold the ball more upfront.

NRC did really well there, then gave the ball straight back to them. Bleh.