barry'sboots

... far far away!

Agree with this, on both. Me too. I would play Carlos over Collins as I don't think Burnley have a big target man?

They were good. Danns and Carle (?) look like real footballer and Derry got stuck in. How MON could pick a 4-5-1 with Heskey in the middle I'll never know. This must have been very frustrating for Nathan who looked much more dangerous than JC or Emile in his brief cameo. CM didn't really look like they knew what they were doing. I thought Stan looked a bit lost and the game passed him by - apart from the great header at the death. This was a game against a hard working Palace side where we could really have done with the drive and effort of Reo Coker. Stars - Back 4 did well, Ash and DJ showed some sparks, Jimmy was tireless, Nathan looked lively Poor - Friedel for the two goals, Emile is not a single striker, JC had a few nice touches but should have had a field day against the Palace CBs and would have a couple of years back Okay - Petrov and Delph played okay but need a bit more direction from the coaching staff (or possibly understanding) make the 4-5-1 really work

I'm with you on the if 1 goes get rid of JC first BUT I really want to see Heskey go as well. Not because he is a bad footballer, but because I do not see him as a link player/third CM'er. He should be the furthest striker forward in a pair and MON won't do that because that's where he plays Gabby. I still think Tuncay would be the ideal partner for Gabby and would love to see: Gabby Nathan Tuncay Vagner Love

Not what I have heard. He is the first one out of the changing room after the match apparently to get down to London for his night out. I think he has lost interest and is not really the sort of player that will perform if he is not first choice or thereabouts. Last season - first name on team sheet. This season - poor and uninterested. I think he should be able to take a bit of stick on a Villa web site if he is getting his £40k+ a week!! Might even be a kick up the backside that he needs!

Should have been clearer. I don't mean timing in the windows, I mean general speed e.g. we went a season without a RB and RM. This was probably because he couldn't get what he wanted but I would have preferred to have bought the second choice (e.g. say Gary O'Neill as a RM'er) with a view to trading up the following year. I think he holds out for the player he wants but that can leave us short.

Agree completely. For buying defenders - A++ - although Martin was a slow developer in this area For buying midfielders - A- - some visionary work but also some poorer decisions and still a bit light in the CM positions For buying strikers - C+ For speed in the transfer market - D For motivating the team - B+ For tactics - No grade as exam paper spoiled, Martin has never been a fan of this subject!! For comments and interviews - B - generally witty and bright but can drop a few faux pas

Very much agree with this but fear you may well be right!!

I thought the ref was woeful. Carew was a penalty, a challenge Sidwell made in the second half was blown up for a foul when he clearly won the ball, seemed to lose his cards completely after sending Nani off, the Dunne getting tripped over and countless amount of corners (linesmen have to take blame as well) got wrong. Happened for both sides. Not to forget the blatant hauling down of Gabby by Wes Brown just outside the box after he had turned him. The ref really bottled this as it was a definite yellow card but I think he was still getting over the fact that he had the balls to send of a Man U player a few minutes earlier. I also thought that Brown was giving Gabby a nudge every time they went up for headers and it was so easy to see that the linesmen couldn't have missed it. Gabby is too honest and doesn't ever exaggerate it to get a free kick.

First 20 mins proved 4-5-1 is the way to go against better quality teams playing that formation. The more we play it, the more comfortable Delph will get and the further advanced Jimmy will get. Did Petrov play?? Sidwell seems to have gone from bad to worse. Why can JC not see that those flicks around the corner do not work against a half decent defence - he ran into a covering defender every time! Shows our thin our squad is now when we have one injury - NRC - and Salifou gets on to the bench. Poor decision to sell Gardner without a replacement IMO.

To be fair to Spurs, at least they were pumping it up to a specific target. We were just hitting it long and hoping. It was a poor game but we got a draw because of the brilliant defence.

This, but I'd switch Delph and Milner. Love to see it BUT we all know the likelihood is that MON will go 4-4-2! I think we can win this. Stop Wazza and you stop Man U, although I appreciate that this is easier said than done!

Great point. We are still well in there after a horrendous run of games and we have played Arsenal, Plop, Spurs and soon Man U twice now. Terrible performance though and MON's lack of tactical awareness was shown up again. - Friedel excellent. - Defence was very good but we need to get Luke back to RB and a LB playing to balance it properly. - Midfield too far apart. Petrov did very little and his lack of athleticism was shown up. Milner has to cover too much ground to compensate. Ash looks scared to take his FB on. DJ was ok. - Gab worked his socks off and looked a constant threat. Heskey is a waste of space as a third midfielder. Carew is a waste of space. - MON was hopeless. No plan B or effort made to get us into the game. Heskey's injury was a chance to get a third CM'er on - Delph or Sidders - and get on the ball a bit more and allow Jimmy to push on. Spurs weren't much better. Palacios and Huddlestone are both playing deep. Defoe has nothing to worry a decent back line. Thought Crouchy looked ok.

Bale is quick but I expect him to have to do a bit more defending today than he did on Wednesday night and can't see Modric dropping back in to support him against Ash or Downing? Defoe is also quick but I was talking about width and midfield pace. Jenas baffles me - neat footballer but not a top 7/8 player and defo not an England player IMO. I watched him on Wednesday night and thought a decent CM'er would have had a really enjoyable night against that Leeds CM but he did very little for me. Whilst I think Huddlestone is a good player I view him as a Barry sort - sits deep and distributes - so him and Palacios won't really exploit our main weakness IMO - an attacking CM'er who can get in behind Petrov and exploit the space in front of the CB's. Looking forward to it now!

Citeh supporting mate says he has no problem with the sale of Dunne and that he needed a fresh challenge and wouldn't have been performing like this for them.

I do fancy Gabby's pace to trouble King (now he is a sporadic performer) and Dawson. Interesting battle - pace and crossing ability against guile and technique? I would say we are much pacier and more direct whilst they are probably more composed footballers.

Good game to watch last night. Spuds played Leeds off the park but Leeds were playing a RM at left back and two defensive minded CM'ers as well as missing their main CB so difficult to draw any conclusions. I think the Spurs back 4 is good but misses an inspitational leader without King or Woodgate - for me Dawson always looks better alongside 1 of these two, a bit like Curtis for us. I think they will change their midfield for our game with Palacios and Modric replacing Jenas (really can't see what makes him a top half premiership player let alone an England international) and Krancjar. Bentley looked good again last night but he was against a right midfielder - I think Luke will sort him out. I think they are short of pace without Lennon but blessed with trickery, invention and passing from Huddlestone. Crouch looked dominant but will not find it as easy against Collins. Defoe had so many chances but scored with a poor mishit and a close range effort that he couldn't miss. Hopefully, we won't give him that amount of space. Really looking forward to this. I think Gabby could do well against Bassong and Dawson and draw some free kicks out of them. Ash and DJ should be able to give Bale a hard time but will also need to track his runs or work with Cuellar to cover that wing. I felt we were the marginally better side at VP in the first half but gave to much ground in the last 30 mins and MON did nothing tactically to prevent this. If the game followed that same pattern I would want to see Sidders replacing Heskey to close down the space in CM. Fingers crossed for a draw at worst.

Nah, it was rather civil. Dunne for me, not much between them in defending but he's more comfortable on the ball. He should be in the premier league XI this season. This for me. I think Laursen was a better player with the right partner BUT I think Dunne can play alongside anybody. The two together would have been fanstastic.

I agree with your analysis. I think MON thinks that he is creating a defensive 4-5-1 by pulling Heskey or Carew back into CM but for me this does not work - neither are mobile enough to do this and takes them too far away from the opposition box to be effective strikers. Many on here seem to think that the 4-5-1 is defensive but, played properly, I think it gives us far more attacking options - the two wingers have more freedom and Jimmy could get in and around the opposition box much more and, IMO, has the potential to be our 20 goal a season merchant like Gerard or Lampard in that role.

Delph for me every time over Sidders. Think the latter adds very little, other than hard work, in a 4-3-3. Delph can play football and allow Jimmy to push on. I don't think this game will be massively physical, particularly without Song and Diaby, so for me it is just about having numbers in there to stop Fabregas, Denilson + 1 passing around the central two in triangles and then playing our football against their weakness of not having a naturally defensive DCM.

We're having one of our best seasons for a long time, our opponents have just lost 3-1 to Stoke in the cup and we've lost 3 of our last 15 league games and we get predictions like this. :shock: Ahh it's Richard so acceptable. :winkold: I thought it was acceptable because it was an opinion expressed honestly? I think it would be acceptable if anyone expressed that opinion actually. Have a go yourself and see if it's accepted. Or are only positive predictions acceptable? When was the last time we lost a home game 3 or 4 nil? I don't think we lost a home game by that score when we were utter shite under O'Leary so dosen't make sense to me given our status in the league. And you're saying we'll lose by that margin to a team who've just lost a cup tie 3-1 at Stoke. Given that we lost 3-0 to them four weeks ago and it could have been 7 or 8 I don't think this is that outrageous! In that game, Fabregas only played 27 mins I think but will probably start tomorrow night. Having said that I think they will miss Diaby and Song. I think we can beat them but will need to match their three in midfield to do so and press them like we did at their place last year. To quote the arsenal view from the Arsenal News Review site: "If Aston Villa win, they'll do it by scoring from set-pieces. If Arsenal win, they'll do it with goals from Vermaelen and Fabregas. Villa's main quality is organisation, Arsenal's main quality is skill. .......... The best way to beat Arsenal is to play like Fulham but Aston Villa can't play that way and won't play that way. They won't play a high back line and press. They'll defend deep and let Arsenal establish a rhythm and let them have the ball in wide areas." I personally agree with this view BUT I think we could play this way but MON doesn't like to.

You can see the goals (2 mins or so) in ITV reel player.

Would rather see Carlos stay at CB and bring Beye in. Lets keep the "out of positions" to a minimum in my view.

This for me.

I agree with your sentiment to some extent in that I find MON massively frustrating and do not think that he has a great deal of tactical ability or flexibility. Unlike many, I am really pleased with the squad he has built, my only slight dissent to this is that I wished he had bought in Tuncay in the summer to give us a proper link man to Gabby. For the relative expenditure, compared to many of our "competitors" (excepting Arsenal) he has done a really good job. I wouldn't mind finishing 6th or even 7th or 8th if I felt we had competed well and played to our optimum BUT i don't feel like we have. Too many games we have gone in blindly with MON's preferred players in a 4-4-2. There are a number of games where I felt 4-5-1/4-3-3 should have been given an opportunity given the shape/form of the opposition (Arsenal away being the obvious example) and the fact that we virtually always seem to pull out a result when we play this way. There have also been a number of games where we have started well but faded and MON has not made the necessary adjustments to retain that early momentum(Citeh and Spurs at home are examples) or started poorly and kept on playing poorly with no alterations (several away games in our poor run). I would guess we are about the 6th or 7th biggest spenders (transfer fees over the last 5 years or so and the current wage bill) so 6th or 7th would seem to be a reasonable expectation. As for the Carling Cup, it will be a great day out but we have not beaten anyone that we would have expected to have lost to so its not yet a fantsastic achievement? I like MON but feel that there is just something missing. If he had it he would be a truly great manager but I am not sure he will ever get it. I am not sure there are many that we could attract that would be that much better though.