Straygoat

I want someone who doesn't seem to have been mentioned - Glenn Hoddle. He might have his unconventional views, but the fact is that he gets teams playing good football and is more adventurous tactically than many managers out there. He's been there, done it - just what we need.

He might even have a few youngsters from his academy that we could have for nothing - that would please the board no doubt.

It's something we've not really had in the side since Paul Merson - he used to play some lovely little through-balls. Trouble is, there's not that many players around with the vision to do it, certainly not in the British market anyway.

Stephen Ireland could be just what we need.

It is not all about the headline Lex whether it may appear negative or positive and I think most of us would agree that we do not convert enough of the chances that we make into goals. Sure Valencia are solid but we have failed to break down less effective defences in the past at Villa Park and risk doing so again without a regular goal scorer.

I'd argue that a lot of our chances are half-chances at best. I don't think we miss many gilt-edged chances, apart from the odd one where Gabby takes it too wide and kills the angle for himself. A proven goal scorer would help, but I reckon our main problem is the way we attack rather than anything else. We need to create a greater variety of chances. If we could turn defences around, there's not many that will cope with Gabby going at them, but last season he had to play as much as a target man as anything else, holding the ball up. He's improved that part of his game a lot, but I'd rather he was always on the shoulder of the last man looking to go forward, not back.

If we had a creative player with a bit of guile and craftiness in the centre of the park, we might find that we don't need/already have a 20 goal a season striker at the club.

I'd agree with most of the ratings there, apart from Downing. His crossing was very poor, especially in the second half.

Reo Coker deserves a shot. His passing can be dodgy, but he makes up for that with his work rate. Petrov again looked pedestrian despite some good touches.

What worries me is that if we are not getting much joy out of the wings, we don't look like creating anything. We could do with a central midfielder who can play a good pass through the middle that will turn the defence around - that sort of service would bring the best out of Gabby with his pace. Maybe Ireland can bring that sort of vision to the middle of the park.

Can we afford to let Luke Young go? I like him a lot, but Beye won't let us down if needed and I think Lichaj could do a job too. So maybe we don't need to be paying Young's wages, really. Having said that, I'm not sure how well we would cope if Warnock was out for a while.

unfortunatly being a box to box midfielder means being able to pass the ball if he thinks he is one of those he's mistaken more of a bollox to bollox midfielder his best position is DM/Ballwinner breaking up play he's a natural athlete.

Spot on. He doesn't have the technical ability to play as he wants to play, and doesn't have the discipline to do what is best for the team (him as a sitting deep def mid). I'm no fan of Petrov, but he is disciplined in his position, I will give him that.

I hope to God we get Ireland as part of the deal - that would really soften the blow, even though he seems a bit of a top hat. He is exactly the sort of player we need in midfield (alongside a more mobile defensive mid).

If Michael Johnson's back/hips are okay now, he'd be a decent signing from Citeh too.

Our team isn't good enough to finish 4th, but I agree that MON is being found out. We only have 1 tactic and we don't even have the players to use that effectively.

We are desperately calling out for more energy and quality on the ball in central midfield - Petrov is too slow and breaks our momentum down. He just seems to cut back and get fouled. Okay, we get free kicks, but they are in and around the centre circle and we just lob them up into the box.

We also need a forward to support Gabby...someone with a bit of creativity and guile. Someone like Keane in his pomp (he's past it now).

I have a horrible feeling we could finish bottom half this year - can see a lot of the players becoming disillusioned and any new signings not cutting the mustard. If we lose Milner and don't get Ireland and/or Michael Johnson, mid table might be the best we can hope for.

The BBC is always more professional than ITV.

That is except when the illiterate moron that is Ian "I'm gutted" Wright is on board.

Just how the hell does he get on the telly?

Really? So Alan Hansen, Gary Lineker and Alan Shearer constantly talking over one another is professional is it? And the blatant Liverpool bias from Hansen and Lawrenson? I much prefer the pundits on ITV but don't like their commentators.

The woman from the first championship show on BBC1 was diabolical - she seemed to think she was presenting on CBeebies.