TonyDaley

Just hand out the team sheet, job done no one in their right mind will go take up a seat!!

I was firmly in the garde to stay camp but we go from worse to worse, today's performance was the worst in a long line. Everyone saying we were on top first half, only because Swansea never got started however they still had the better chance. We don't move the ball with any purpose, our forwards have no movement and can't hold the ball up to bring others in. I firmly believe the players are no where near as bad as they are being made to look, by poor tactics and rubbish selections. For me he has to go and it might as well be now, what's the point in persisting with someone who has shown not one inkling he could get us out of the championship let alone be competitive. Yes he has not been helped with having no half decent forward to pick from, but he just doesn't seem to motivate (just sits glum faced slumped in his chair) and can't see a way to change the game. I'm well and truely done with villa this season, can't believe I have lasted this long.

Didn't mean half hearted by those that put effort and time into trying to get this sorted, but as in people don't embrace it and join in

I hope the walk out is well received by our fans (and evertons) and makes the statement you guys want, I only hope that we don't come across as amature with a half hearted attempt. The best way it can come across to the media is for the 73 minutes and 59 seconds before hand get totally behind the team and gett villa park rocking then walk out with those not taking part cheering/clapping. edit - just seen the team sheet, that can only help the numbers!!!!!

Which part was lucky? The part where he kept himself onside, curved his run, or the vision of veretout to spot it and play it with the right pace, or the bit where he made Rudd look even stupider for dashing out by not trying to knock it round him but seeing what Rudd was doing and just simply knocked it past him. I haven't been gabbys greatest fan of recently, but I don't think it was a lucky goal.

We just don't do anything fast, every ball forward is met with a pass back or a turn back. Gana is the only one doing anything at pace. Norwich are not better just have 2 players who are direct, when they get the ball they run/move/password forwards towards the goal. Gabby, Gill, Bacuna off at h/t for me (would go Westwood as well if could)

I would take off Gill and put on lyden or Richardson, no doubt West Hams team talk will revolve around getting ball out wide to Tomkins quickly in 2nd half, oh and tell Gabby to stay up, he is marking space in middle of pitch (yep he is doing a job) but we are just holding them at bay, at least with him staying up we take out 3 of the back four and then numbers are even. Thanks god West Ham don't look all that.

Today re-affirmed something we have all known for a long time, if you buy any player make sure it's someone who can put the ball in the net, Sunderland were dog toffee today but Defoe didn't do anything but put the ball in the net twice, why o why didn't we buy a decent striker, who ever we get now I believe it's too late but a striker is an absolute must, and one with a proven record.

I don't think it's his engine as such but the way in which he runs, as in he goes from standing still to sprinting then back to walking around, then standing still, then sprinting, then standing still, that will always cause calf problems (which to me looked like it was). It's the explosive part of it that will cause injuries, I doubt he does the same training, stretching a sprinter would.

Not even sure where to start Guzan - Nothing he could do with 1st and 3rd goals, should have done better for 2nd. Generally had nothing else to do, but not commanding enough (should have spent half the game bollicking his back four) - 5 Cissohko - Good to have a left footer at left back, nothing else to say needs to settle back in squad. 6 Hutton - Few forwards runs, generally ok defensively. 6 Richards - Not a Captain, Not a Centre Back, goes wandering and all 3 goals can be in one way or another contributed to him. 3 Lescott - For some one with all that experience he needs to start showing it. Numerous times gets in others way, distrubutiong is not very good, but still slightly better than Richards today. 4 Bacuna - Started off well, had good energy and at least looked like he wanted to make something happen. - 6 Gana - Got everywhere but most of it protecting the back four, look fairly solid. - 6 Veretout - The pick of the bunch for me, covered every blade of grass, unlucky not to score, tried to get the team moving forward but often finds himself the furthest forward. One to keep. - 7 Gill - Great finish, other than that tried hard but lost ball far to often, don't think he suits that formation and the front players offer him no pass half the time. -6 Grealish - Wasted passes, didn't tackle, not much he did do. - 4 Gestede - Came deep to get ball which left us nothing up top, that's not his job he needs to be focal point furthest forward, always looked to laboured. -5 Subs - Traore - Acfually wanted to get ball and make something happened. Problem is now people will say told you so, been calling out for that. All his crosses were too deep, stood around a lot, slowed it down to much and gave himself to much to do, needs to learn to run into space and onto balls, very raw but needs to play (if not injured) - 7 Kozak - Offside more times than touched ball. -5 Sinclair - Prob his best performance. Ref - Weak, didn't have a clue what was going on half the time, didn't make any decisions one way or another just carried on. Needs to have a review and evaluation - 4 Garde - Hard to judge a man who does **** all, Non-emotional football management is not what we need now, that's why sherwood managed to keep us up. Looks like he hasn't a clue what to do, and read a few forums last week and went ok drop Sinclair/Richardson/Clark and pick Kozak/Traore in some way for game and the fans will respond favourably with me. Thats the season over for me, I can't stand being in a bad mood every Saturday evening after watching more of that shit. Will see what it's like in champioship.....

I think these ratings from http://www.hitc.com/en-gb/2015/12/28/aston-villa-player-ratings-v-norwich-jordan-veretout-one-of-few/ covers it pretty well.

Looking at the heat maps of players yesterday showed the negativity of the team selection. Westwood and Gana pretty much occupied the same position, Richardson and Bacuna the same, veretout was furthest forward with Hutton the next, Norwich offered very little barring Brady and Redmond, but we just didn't set up to beat them, simple!. As for the Adama V Sinclair the stats show Adama done more in 30 minutes then Sinclair did in 60, not saying he should start or is the saviour but half time was the time to introduce him and possibly Gestede, I can't fathom why we didn't change it early and try and get back in the game. As others have said I don't think the back four/goalie were the problem yesterday, if we had taken an early chance we would have won that comfortably, but to do that you need the players on the pitch to do it and we didn't, regardless of whether Grealish, Gestede, Gill or Adama are decent or half decent they are attacking players and without them we only have Ayew to rely on to pull something out the hat, that is down to the manager, no one else ( and not some contract conspiracy theory). I have no doubt if Garde has his own team then things would be rosy, but he was chosen without the chance of that which is looking like another bad decision, we needed a manager who could work with what we have, more of a motivator than tactical genius, just one without an stupidly enlarged EGO, some with a reputation the players have to look up to.

I can see no footballing reason why we would start the second half without any subs, Richardson/Sinclair off, Gestede up top, Ayew and Adama either side, No reason why we can't get anything out of this game if we actually go for it. Trouble is garde looks totally devoid of emotion, players need an ass kicking at half time they need to know what this result means. Teams at the bottom who actually go for the win get points, those who set up defensively don't, yes you will take a few beatings but 3 points in one game is better than 3 draws in 18 odd.

Agree with most of this, only thing I would say about veretouts fitness is I reckon he ran a good few km's than any other villa player. He was the only one pressing in their half (whilst Gestede gingerly strolled from side to side aimlessly). would have liked to have seen Traore in last 10 mins to just chase everything down. Content with a point, as before and during game I didn't think we would get anything out of it. But it's only a good point if we build on it..

trouble is of those 28 games the next batch are almost unwinnable . 4 points from the initial easier games. That's probably why people think we are down No games are unwinnable( or even almost), not for one minute am I saying we should be beating Spurs, man city et al but the nature of the premiership beast is it throws up crazy results, one win against a team where 9 times out of 10 we would lose can do crazy things., odds say we are due some sort of freak result and that could spark something... we cant constantly be the team everyone beats.......

28 games still to play, yes we only have 4 points from 30 but we are no way down and out. There are 84 points left to play for, looking at previous tables 33 and your down, 37 and you have a fighting chance 43 and your safe. 37 points is 12 more wins or 9 wins 9 draws, which taking into account new manager bounce and having a team set out with a purpose I am confident we can get. Yes so far this season has been dog toffee at best, the fact remains Norwich are on 9 points in 16th place only a couple of wins above us, I truely believe we can drag ourselves out of it, we are in a mini league of Newcastle, Sunderland, Bournemouth, Watford, Norwich. Sunderland although have fat Sam but after a few games I don't think have the players capable keeping them clear, Newcastle are a confidence team and hopefully will keep themselves in battle, norwich, Watford and Bournemouth I feel don't have enough to sustain an average of 1 to 1.5 points per game. I would take 17th place secured after 37 games with the right man in charge, we are not that far away from a mid table team (midfield enforcer and poacher), support and believe UTV

Difference with the team sheet tonight compared to recent weeks is we had a plan, a way to play. Yes the first XI was not our strongest (or want the majority would have liked) but I think all we lacked first half was a decent striker, I would like to see Richards in for Crespo (not that he did much if anything wrong) Gana is for Westwood and Ayew in for Agbonlahor for Monday's game. Back to tonight, we can take positives out of it, we weren't out played (even if it wasn't their strongest team), we looked on the whole solid if not an attacking threat. We tried to get the crosses in for Gestede but the quality wasn't quite there and we had a couple of other opportunities which with a bit of confidence would have seen us take the lead. Out of the cup is not a big deal, let's work on formation and gets some league points on the board.

For what it's worth.... Guzan - 6 - Didn't mess around with playing ball out from back, Good Save from Ayew. Bad for free-kick, you give some one that much to aim for you need to able to cover it as the free kick was going no where else. Richardson - 4 - Poor, gave ball away. Walking back for 2nd goal. Terrible free kick early on when we were on top, needed to go in box not straight at keeper. Tired after break and should have been subbed. Hutton - 6 - Energetic, didn't give their left wing much. Good forward runs but dog toffee end product. Lescott - 4 - No comment necessary Richards - 5 - Showed inexperience as centre back by giving away foul, always wears heart on sleeve but as captain you need more in last 20 minutes when seeing out games. Bacuna - 6 - Didn't do much wrong, needed help last 30 minutes. Set pieces not great. Gana - 6 - Tried to push on but tired in second half, no lack of effort. Grealish - 5 - Wasn't helped with formation, hardly got in game but summed up in 2 periods for me - 1 set up move for goal and 2nd hands up in air when was trying to press high up pitch but noone else was, next thing getting subbed, in my mind he was right to pressure high up. Ayew - 7 - Good game, but often run into areas with no support although the lack of movement in front of him was shocking. Goal taken well. Gabby - 5 - Good assist, not much else, he either needed to run channels more or sit on last defender, movement was not good. Gestede - 5 - No movement, only had 1 half chance, can only remember 1 cross finding his head - if your not gonna put crosses in for him no point playing him. Subs Gil - 5 - Wrong choice of sub to shore up game, not played in right position to make a difference. Traore - Not enough time, should have just stuck him right up top to make them sit deeper no open pitch up. Sherwood - 2 - Poor team selection, poor pre-match comments, poor post match interview. Looked like he had given up sitting on bench.

Don't feel sorry for him, clearly not up to it. Don't dislike him, don't particularly like him - and to be honest I don't care who is in charge as long as they have a game plan. Every good manager has a style of play yes they adapt it depending on opposition but they have a style, we don't. I couldn't tell you what the game plan was today, it's a cop out saying we had attacking players on the pitch, that means nothing if we don't have a plan. Swansea although not playing well had a game plan, and like it or not they got what they set out to by playing in a manner they were set out to. At not point during the game did I feel we were going to be a result. If if he gets sacked is yet to be seen, but if he does then we have to pick a manager who has a style that suits our current players, we don't have the luxury of changing them and I truly believe the current crop set up in a formation and style with a determined purpose we have enough to get out of the huge pile of manure we are in, just hope it's not to late.

Yes Jack is not in the game, but we aren't set up for him to be. In my view that's are problem first half going forward, we have a big target man but are not set up to play for a target man, we have Jack sort of in the hole (but more left) but not set up in front of him to make use of him. Just a little tactical change and we can get the win.

Pretty much this, I hope I am proved to be wrong but that starting 11 will not win this game. It smacks of a desperate manager, pick a team to win a game and you might actually do it, Stoke will come here without the pressure of there home fans after a bad start and just sit back and lap up our inability to make a decent attack knowing they have at least 2 players who have the skill and potential to Nick a 1-0. only chance we have is to hold out till 60/70 bring on some subs and hope for the best. At least I expected would have been for Lescott, Westwood and Sinclair to be benched, give our flair players a chance and actually go out to win a game. I don't dislike Tim and wanted him to do well, prob because we have been so bad for so long. But the majority of people on here could see how that formation/team was gonna pan out. I don't buy this players need to settle and there only young, it's down to the team he picks and his instructions. He won't get sacked, don't even think he will if we go down, am pretty sure we have planned for just that in some way. It's gonna be a long hard season I really don't see is getting out of the bottom 3, 4 points adrift all ready will be 10 by Christmas. Wilkins needs to stand up and be counted and Tim needs to set the team up to win, it's really not rocket science, go out to win and you might just do it, go out to try and hold out and maybe Nick it will work once in every 10-15 or so.

Pretty much this, I hope I am proved to be wrong but that starting 11 will not win this game. It smacks of a desperate manager, pick a team to win a game and you might actually do it, Stoke will come here without the pressure of there home fans after a bad start and just sit back and lap up our inability to make a decent attack knowing they have at least 2 players who have the skill and potential to Nick a 1-0. only chance we have is to hold out till 60/70 bring on some subs and hope for the best. At least I expected would have been for Lescott, Westwood and Sinclair to be benched, give our flair players a chance and actually go out to win a game.

Agree, he is a very limited footballer but he WILL get us goals (I reckon will beat Tekkers tally in last seasons), he is not what is letting the team down. Put it in the right areas and he will put it away, not gonna be a game winner on his own, but we have others who have been brought in for that.

A perfect line up wouldn't of had Lescott in it as he has shown he is dog shit and well past it, can't run, can't read the game, he is terrible and proved it to Sherwood with his performances for us so far but Sherwood persists with dog shit and expects a different out come...... line up I can maybe go with, but tactics, when you see skrtel/Sakho advance into our half unchallenged a be able to pass the ball around, whilst you can see our midfield backtracking into our defence time and time again is not good tactics, if we had pressed them (like you mentioned) and pushed midfield up to defend our half we would have had a chance of getting ball and building play. That has to have come from the manager

Don't think he will get sack, but he has some serious questions to answer in my eyes. Watching the game am pretty sure everyone questions what Sinclair offered us out there I can't see any reason why he wasn't subbed off. Not just this game, things like replacing Clark with lescott, anyone can see we were organised better with Clark/Richards, yes bring lescott into squad but can't see how he walks straight into team. Continues to play Westwood, nothing against him but I don't see what he offers either, doesn't tackle great, doesn't split open defences, doesn't bust a gut to join attack, all I see is him get in sanchezs/gana's way stopping them doing what they are good at. Yes we can all sit here and pretend to be football managers, but the above really is not rocket science, I would love an audience with Tim to ask a few questions....