Davies4England

People need to give him time, barely played last year and come in late this season. Needs proper training and match fitness, he also plays in a position where it is critical you are on the same wavelength as your teammates. He's shown signs but it will take time for us to see the real Stephen Ireland. See Downing, Milner, Petrov etc...

Ahhh yes but we hit the post how many times v Chelsea? We also had several clear cut chances today, Heskey's chance, Sidwell off the line and Downing hitting the post. Utter pointless moan at our new manager too, of course our heads would go down, but we responded in the second half by dominating Sunderland for most of it. The problem isn't creating the chances its that no-one is finishing them and I'm sure we will address that.

We played well but didn't get the result is a recurring theme. Quite the opposite of last season. A 20 minute spell cost us which is really disappointing. We need a goalscorer and it's up to Houllier to address that, I can't complain too much today about his decisions. People may mention about starting Dunne but he didn't do too badly apart from the own goal, but he **** up so deserves criticism for that. It was promising to see him make the change early on in the second half. Should we have made another? I don't know.

It was Heskey OBE, NRC made the pass. EDIT: Or so I thought, OS says NRC but SSN says Heskey which I thought. Confusing. That would be extremely harsh Yeah but it's the rules, if a player goes down looking for a pen and the referee believes there is no contact it is a booking. Ref bottled giving the pen imo.

If he's not gonna give a pen he has to book Heskey for diving...

Argh so close, great flick on by Heskey and a lovely ball by Young.

Sunderland: Mignolet, Onuoha, Bardsley, Turner, Bramble, Cattermole ©, Henderson, Malbranque, Welbeck, Elmohamady, Bent. Subs: Gordon, Gyan, Riveros, Mensah, Da Silva, Ferdinand, Zenden.

Aston Villa: Friedel, Warnock, Dunne, Downing, Young, Ireland, Heskey, Petrov ©, Reo-Coker, Beye, Collins. Subs: Guzan, Sidwell, Carew, Albrighton, Clark, Cuellar, Bannan.

http://tinyurl.com/2vu76ar Pini Zahavi has done well there. He wasn't even that highly rated, slipped way down the pecking order in youth side apparently. He's won;t complain with the wages he's getting though.

Ah I see, no problem. Can be easily changed in the editor anyway. I'm guessing it will be sorted for next patch though?

Andy will Clark be eligible for Ireland in the full game, or is it to late to implement that change?

Nothing. Booing will just give us a bad reputation, and I don't think he deserves an applause with the way he left us. I thank him for what he did for the club though.

Was a legit goal to me, Schwarzer saw the ball early, Gallas didn't look like he touched it and if he did it was minimal. If he wasn't there I think the shot still would have went in.

Delfouneso gets two in a matter of minutes 8)

STOP SHOUTING

Cuellar, Sidwell, Guzan, Lichaj, Bannan and Delfouneso all start. Very strong!

Anastosios Skalidis and Alexandros Papadopoulos. Absolutley immense, both Greek strikers and averaged a goal a game each. Skalidis was almost free too 8)

Serious? I can't tell if thats sarcasm EDIT: damn you I told a few people aswell.

+ Warnock was awesome. Been a bit critical of him in recent weeks but nothing got past him apart from the silly foul he gave away for the yellow. My MOTM. Petrov was a warrior in the first half, went in several challenges and won most of them. Clark came in and was totally unphased, I love how composed the guy is and can pick a pass. Downing continues to perform well and really helped Beye defensively. Put in a few good tackles which shows he has balls We played some lovely football at times. - Carew was statue-esque. We're still not taking our chances. Dunne looked like he had a bad injury. His socks were ripped through and had a massive gash on his ankle. We tired too early as usual but it'll take time for Houllier to improve this. Beye worries me at right back, he's generally solid but always looks like he has a mistake in him.

Heskey is fit and has been training all week apparently.

"Robbie Keane wasn’t the only Irish player to miss a penalty. Byrne was once again denied by the woodwork, as his spot kick rattled off the crossbar."

Agreed, under Mancini they played very similar to City right now. When they needed a goal they told Ibra to get one, and he did whether it was a tap in or a 35 yarder. The guy was unstoppable. He probably won't be as effective at Milan but he has a big chance of being the Serie A top scorer again. Agree about Barca too, gave them a different option, but somewhat didn't suit their style. Needed time to integrate.

Just been called up to replace Lennon in England squad.

I love Barrios, the perfect striker right now.

I don't understand this tbh. I'm also baffled by his omission from the Dutch squad on the back of it. He made a good tackle and got the ball. The fact there were unfortunate consequences does not alter whether the tackle was a good one or not. That kind of tackle happens hundreds of times over a weekend. Are they all wrong, or just the ones with unfortunate consequences? There was nothing wrong with that tackle. It was a good tackle but with excessive force, you could hear the impact. As the article mentions he had words after the Holden tackle, and he also had the high boot v Alonso. They had a poll in Holland and 90% wanted him removed from the team. They got their wish. He's no Van Bommel but unlike him he's not the son in law of the national coach.