villaglint

No were all hoping that the Villa can scrape a point against the Spurs this weekend. However that does seem to ignore the fact that this lump will be marking Gareth Bale for most of the game.

Yey

Lads it's pretty obvious isn't it. Randy agreed a deal with Guardiola last summer. He needed a stooge to take the heat whilst he saved every penny he could before unleashing the master plan this summer.

Making some assumptions on fitness I will go with the following. -----------------------Given---------------------- Cuellar -----Collins ----- Dunne --------Lichaj ----------------Herd------Ireland--------------- N'Zogbia ---------------------------Agbonlahor --------------Heskey ----Weimann------------- I am sure this wont be the team and Hutton and Warnock will feature somewhere. I've gone for Gabby out wide because for me Albrighton has been pretty poor for most of the season. Heskey played great for 60 mins the other night so maybe he could do that again. Ireland coming back is essential. Also I've brought Dunne straight back in - crossing my finger and preying to he can have one of his monster games. Though Baker has done OK I think he has cost us a fair few goals with rookie errors cant really afford that now. So just three "kids" in team for one of our biggest games ever. Kept Lichaj in who for me has been very positive and a lot more consistent than both Hutton and Warnock. Weimann stays in because he looks like the only bastard who can score these days. Herd stays because he seems to be one the only players who has the heart for this battle. Thought he was absolutely outstanding for first hour against Bolton then faded with the rest of them.

You're right, but we were awful defending them with Friedel last season as well. This BOF you are normally a man of sense but we were garbage at corner last season too.

Peno defo

No way that Ireland was dropped for any reason other than injury last night. Now the manager is a useless waste of space but he is not mental - he needed that win last night as much as the rest of us. And no matter what Ireland did he would have started that game being one of our better players in last 2 months.

Taking too long to get his shot away is very much a rookie mistake and he will learn from that for sure. I actually also think its a function of his being absolutley knackered by the end of the games. Both of those games where he cut back rather than shooting came in the last 10 mins or so after he had run himself ragged. Again his fitness levels will improve when he gets used to the pace of the Premier League. On the positive side though is he is getting the chances. His movement really is superb - finally Ireland has someone to find with a through ball. As people have said about Michael Owen for years - he will get his goals because he puts himself in the right places. Very similar to Bent in that respect will be interesting to see whether they can play together. Also for those who haven't seen him much in reserves he is fantastic in the air. If we can get him a good supply line of crosses he will be a threat there too.

I'd like to say a few things which I think are not that controversial He is more comfortable on the ball than most. He does have an eye for a pass. He is not covering himself in glory right now. (Trying too much and suffering from inaccuracy with a number of his passes. Sometimes I feel his vision is better than his football ability.) I don't think this is all down to the system we are playing. He has to take some responsibility and grab his chance when he gets it. He is not however a winger and never will be.

Ecks teamtalk "OK lads we know we've got no chance so I'm putting out a team to minimise the damage and maybe sneek a 0-0. Stop **** laughing Steve Ireland you word removed. In all honesty if we can scrape a 2-0 loss I'll be happy. And I think the fans are getting the picture by now. So I think they'll be happy too. Line up is as follows". --------------Given---------------- Cuellar - Collins - Clark - Warnock ----------------Herd------------------ Huttin - Heskey --- Ireland --- McLeish ---------------N Baker ------------------ If we go 3 down by half time I'll swap Emile for wee Baz after 70 mins and see if we can get back in it. Best of luck

I think Guzan would be well worth keeping. However by all accounts he's on fair bit of cash (25k someone said?) which does seem a lot for someone to sit on bench. Heard Scottish people say good things about this guy so if he can be half decent and come in on threepence ha'penny - give us more wage money to spend on first team players then overall I'm in favour could be a good bit of "trading carefully". Of course he could be shite so who knows...

Has very good recovery pace and really looks a much more solid player than when he had a short run last season. He has the ability to offer us something going forward to which he is not really showing at the moment. He's just bedding into the team and first team squad and is (probably correctly) just keeping things solid. For the ressys though he has shown a few times the ability to take his man on and get good crosses or shots in.

Champions!! A ray of sunshine in a very grey season.

Didn't think he had the best game yesterday but he admitted as much himself. I was surprised he played to be honest because he really ran himself into the ground against Liverpool - he could barely walk when he left the pitch. For those saying he doesn't work hard watch that game. For me there is a terrific player in there but we aren't seeing it yet - earlier in season I thought he was great for a few games before the driving ban which has set him back. Right now he is trying too much and showing plenty of poor decision making. Needs the premier league experience before we see the best of him (which by the way goes for most of our young players - all of them are making errors which is why we are still not getting results despite showing far better desire). I think our best bet is to have him as a squad player, have him playing with some more experienced players who will hopefully come in during summer. In 2 years we might just see him become a proper first team player and hopefully a successful one.

Not saying i disagree but who on our team is thick as shit? Gabby mainly though the rest are thick in a footballing sense players like Bannan, Bent, Hutton etc.. They are "good" (excluding Hutton) at what they do but just don't have the brain to keep up with him. They are always in the wrong places and never on his wavelength.. Maybe they will improve the more they play with him, but some just don't get what he's trying to do. I actually think Weimann, Gardner and N'Zogbia are on his wavelength much of the time.. The link up play with Weimann yesterday proved it for me, but so many in our side just don't get him. I very much agree with the overall point that the game intelligence of our players is woefully lacking. I think your being harsh on Bannan though. Having seen him play a lot for reserves I can say he is a very clever player. He is trying too much right now and hasn't got the Premier league experience to show it yet. I hope he gets there but jury is out on that one for me. As for rest of them. Hutton - Poor football brain and often poor execution to boot. Warnock - Seems to know what he is supposed to be doing but is limited by his ability and tendency to do something massively stupid at least twice a game. Maybe 4/5 times a game when he is out of form. Herd - Isn't allowing his brain to get out of "make no mistakes" mode so who knows. Albrighton - His game intelligence is his worst trait and he has a lot of learning to do in this area. N'Zogbia - Actually has a pretty poor football brain in my opinion often tries to beat a man at wrong time (i.e. when if he does beat him he is just running into another one). Collins - Again his worst trait - often struggles to find a pass - gives it away more than he keeps us playing. Gabby - Very little thinking in what Gabby does - though it has improved over the years. Not to say these players don't have other attributes but the fact most of our first team is on this post is a large reason why we often struggle to string 5 passes together.

Gabby is not in best form for sure. However to say he is not interested is pure bollocks My view on him is that he is only a real threat when he is 100% fit and match sharp. At start of season after a good pre season we saw the best of him and I would say for the first 10-15 games he was by far and away our best player. I think he has struggled to get it back since his injury in mid season - wouldn't surprise me if he is still playing with some niggles now.

If no one else is going to say it I will. 1st half was the best I have seen him play for us. All our play went through him and though he weren't really able to create much that wasn't for his lack of trying. Faded a bit second half but as always the whole team went into defend only mode. I dream of the day when we will try to score a second after tacking the lead. Showed he has the physicality to play in a 442 as well - made a number of good tackles and interceptions. Quite exciting really cos if we can surround him with some other players with a football brain (ie Keane type players) then with SI in middle we might be able to string 10 passes together next season!

Yep another shocker for Alan - he's been better of late but if I was him I would be very worried about my place with the emergence of Lichaj

Great finish - put everything into the game - as with a few others was so knackered towards the end that he failed to make the most of his other big chance. But that will come with more first team football. Hoping, hoping he could be a great find for us.

Yep agree with all of that - Collins has been outstanding since Dunne has been injured. Not sure why but it seems to be the case

Fingers crossed he can really work on that step over to give him an option of going down the left. As other have said it doesn't matter if you cut back in - just cant do it every single time. Defender needs to be kept guessing at least a bit. I think its partly been symptomatic of his fragile confidence - just wanting to get any kind of cross in rather than work a decent position first.

Was pleased to see Marc do well when he came on. I've not been his biggest fan recently but happy to see him prove me wrong in this game. Ivanovic is exactly the type of defender he usually struggles against and he even brought out a new trick and a left foot cross of all things for his assist. Maybe there is a player in there. Just think its going to take time for us to get best out of him and we would be playing a very dangerous game if we are going to rely on him to supply goals for us in mean time.

This A few times he has looked better coming on as a different option rather than starting.

Because he wasn't - as said before he got involved a lot but his quality let him down every time.

Was pleased to see he was able to bring his form from reserves to big league. He has been playing really well for some time now and just needed his chance. For my money - he came in and did well and so has retention of the shirt. Surely that's how a squad is supposed to work. Otherwise how demotivating is it for the squad players if whatever they do they know they cant keep their place. Not as if Hutton has been pulling up trees for us anyway. If you ask me Lichaj did more in that game than Hutton has done in any this season