Rob182

No critique Tonight. Not only have we beaten Chelsea 3-1, but he did it with a lot of positives. Bent left hungry on the bench, Ireland putting in his best performance yet, our defending was much, much better (apart from Dunne's foul in the box), Clark playing the whole game and Bannan & Gardner getting appearances. It wasn't the prettiest of 3-1 victories, but a win is a win and the goals were taken excellently.

I've always had faith in Ireland. I knew it'd just take a bit of confidence and he'd pull something out the bag. If some of our other players can get onto his wavelength, we'll have an excellent player on our hands. The amount of little one-touch passes and flair moves he does, really goes unnoticed.

Good team selection by McLeish, good tactics, brave enough to drop Hutton and only give Bent a small slice of the action to help his fitness. Ireland MOTM. Great performance all round. I bet you're just happy he didn't get injured after smoking those crazy shisha pipes that turn your bones to jelly.

Yesssss!!!! I **** knew Ireland would come good eventually. I know it's only one goal, but he's been playing well and he had 2 good shots then (one blocked by Terrys hand) Also... I'm seriously getting sick of Petrov Today. He KEEPS giving the ball to Clark & the defenders when we need a splitting pass. YOU'RE the captain and meant to be the experienced player in the middle Petrov! Trying making a bloody pass for once instead of passing the responsibility to defenders or a young defender playing in midfield!

I'm sure you'd be saying the same thing if Collins was on the bench and Hutton was in the side. I think that squad is a pretty good one.

He's right. Gabby will only leave us when we don't need him or when he's too old to cut it for us, so £5-6m for a 34-year-old Agbonlahor sounds about right. 8)

Another stupid post from you. Where did I say he was an angel? And which reputation is it you speak of? The fact that he likes having pink rims on his car? That he has a pool table with his name on? Or the horrific scandal in the national team about a million years ago? Or is it the fact that someone took a picture of him and a few other Irish footballers on a night out in Newcastle? Or now, his girlfriend taking a picture of him topless with a pipe in his mouth. Who cares? If it was a video of him doing a line of coke or punching a kid, I'd be bothered.

'treating his body like this', like what?? Posing for a photo does not mean he's a regular smoker. Even if he is, it has no relevance to injuries.

Nice to GG is still a 'one to watch'. I really hope he lives up to his reputation. When you look at the youngsters that are getting in the side right now, and performing admirably, it's not crazy to think that in a few years, when Petrov is wheelchair bound, Heskey's relaxing in Leicester and Hutton is in prison, we could have a team of exciting youngsters mixed with a bit of experience: --------------- Given -------------------- Lichaj ---- Dunne --- Clark --- Warnock ------ Gardner ------ Herd -------------- Albrighton --- Bannan ---------- Gabby ----------------- Bent -------------------- Dunne would be on his last legs, and Lichaj hasn't really had many games to prove himself, but I'm just speculating. No-one likes cost-cutting, but I'd be quite excited to see a side built around our youth players, with a bit of experience thrown in (Bent, Gabby, Given, Dunne). I'd actually be interested to see that side right now, if Lichaj wasn't injured. I'm sure the majority of opinions would be that it would get ripped apart, but you never know. All of those players have played well in individual games against top sides (except for Gardner, who is meant to be one of the more promising players) so who knows?

I love how people jump to his defence even though no-one said he was to blame for everything or anything wrong at Villa Touchy? MON-Defensive..? I don't know how to explain it... Man-crush?

I don't dislike Petrov, I see that he offers the team a calm head...... but I hate watching him take freekicks & corners! Except for his two great goals and deflection this season, he drags almost every shot he has and rarely seems to hit it with any exceptional power. Honestly, I'd prefer anyone in the team to take a freekick instead of him, even Guzan.

How is that evidence Lambstock? Surely, the fact that he didnt make any DEFENSIVE substitutuions goes against your point? Also, its unfair to just count shots on target. If ireland/ gabby had got onto any of those crosses (or got to the near post to knock it on) then we would have has 3 or 4 more shots on target. Also, bannan just whipped his freekick past the post. To me, we played well and attacked enough to normally win a Prem game

I would have played this team in a 4-5-1 formation. But now that Heskey and Bent are out, I'd go: ------------------- Guzan ---------------------- Hutton ---- Collins ----- Dunne ----- Warnock ----------- Petrov -------- Bannan ------------ Albrighton ------- Ireland ----------- N'Zogbia -------------------- Gabby --------------------- I really want Ireland to do well, still! So I'd drop him in this game, if he's fit, and say to him 'Prove your worth!!!!!'

6 defenders?

I've been going for 50 years and travelled from far afield as Kent - Wigan - Devon (when I lived there). Why the F**k should I stop now? Sorry I may be a moron by I am a loyal moron who will follow my team no matter what level or type of football. At least I'm a claret and blue blooded moron and proud! Well you shouldnt moan about things then. Your paying to watch dross and whilst people are paying it will carry on. Enjoy the dross. Maybe make matchdays more dross like by getting wet and sitting in the cold? I don't moan - where in any thread have I moaned - but hang on - even though I go and support my team I am not allowed to moan - but those that don't go have a right to do so - I see - there you go then - I'll just follow my team and keep quiet whilst you who (perhaps) doesn't or won't go can moan as much as you want. Fine by me. For your information - when the protests were going on - even though I moaned and organised I NEVER stopped supporting my team. Hey ho each to his own! You see at this point i cant see anyone who is going is helping the situation but each to his own as you say. Enjoy the football it will stay as long as people pay to watch it. You can't see how people going to a game, chanting chants and clapping the players would help? So you think we'd do fine if the players played to a stadium with 0 villa fans and 1000+ away supporters? Bring on the boycott... it sounds terrific!

And you joined a few months before...

I know the majority of our fans hate McLeish and his methods, but I'm just sick of the negativity! I try to come up with a few positives, but there's no reasoning with people in there. Apparantly, us having Given, Bent, Herd or Gabby would not have changed the outcome of the game at all... FFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFUUUUUUUUUUUU

That's allowed though, so I will continue. I don't want us to change manager again so soon. I can see us bringing in someone worse and someone who will feel the need to make further changes before he has his squad to work with. If we did sack McLeish, I'd love to see us bring in someone who can try to get us playing football, like Houllier tried. But I still don't think it's going to happen anytime soon. So I will get behind the team, I'll get behind the manager and I'll support the team the best I can.

It doesn't matter what good things Given has done, it doesn't changed the fact that he wouldn't have saved this game since he has not shown any ability to improve our defence vs set pieces nor would he have made the kind of once-in-a-season saves required to keep Liverpool's short range goals out. If you're going to say that Given would have changed the game, you're alleging that Guzan was at fault for the loss somehow. In what way was he? He just wasn't. Herd's marginal superiority over Delph doesn't change the fact that they are both cloggers who regularly give the ball away and don't change games by their own merit. So am I to assume you're one of the people who when things go badly, blame other fans who you don't think have a sufficiently positive attitude? What does it matter if I booed or not, the performance deserved it and we wouldn't have won if the fans had cheered and sung a song at HT either. So... Herd being better than Delph, Given being better than Guzan and Bent & Gabby being unavailable did not have a single impact on how we could play against Liverpool? Give it a rest mate. And to answer your question, no, I'm not one of those people. I just have an opinion, if that's okay with you?

Can I have the lottery numbers please? I don't recall saying that 'AM done well enough to keep it 0-2'. I just don't think that Today's performance was as bad as a lot of people are making out. It's a loss, so it's a bad reaction on VT and all is bad in the world.

You forgot to say 'FACT'. OK - Well it is a FACT. Seems some are still in denial about the level of manager we have. We are in no position to ridicule or mock Big Sam . He's a billion times on every level better than the curmudgeon inept clueless one we currently have. I'm not in denial about anything. FACT I just don't think it's a good idea to change manager again so soon, I don't think that Lerner will sack McLeish unless we get relegated, I don't think that many other managers would have picked a hugely different team Today and I don't think that the result reflects the performance or the tactics. We attacked. I'm not going to cry about sacking out a manager that I'm fairly certain will be here for, at least, a whole season. I'll criticise him when I feel it's necessary. He needs to sort out the defending of set pieces, he needs to get the players to move into space when attacking, he needs to buy a creative midfielder OR hope that Bannan/ Delph/ Petrov will start to consistently thread balls through to the attackers. But more than anything, right now, he needs his first choice strikers & goalkeeper back. I can't blame him for their injuries or suspensions.

There's only one of us who sounds like he hasn't seen this season's games. You're attributing superhuman qualities to Given if you think he would have saved us from defeat today. Bent hasn't demonstrated the ability to create goals out of nothing since last season. Herd is energetic and full of fight, but his passing is at least as wayward as Delph's, whose terrible passing is justifiably criticised. Delph also started over Herd several times this season, so it's not as if someone was in the starting line up who never has been before. This just wasn't down to injury. We accomplished nothing in the game. Superhuman qualities? :? Given is an excellent shot stopper. He's saved us points this season. Are you saying that Given isn't better than Guzan? Delph and Herd have made appearances but Herd has been much better. Herd has been picked ahead of Delph in more of the recent games that they've been made available, so I think it's perfectly fair to say that 4 current starters were unavailable. So am I too assume that you're one of the people who were at the game and booed at half time and at the end?

You forgot to say 'FACT'.

Are you blaming negative fans for houlliers health problems? And it's pure speculation that we'd actually be any better had he stayed and while cabaye may have joined it was equally likely gabby would have left. Not really sure what your point is? I didn't say anything about Houllier's health. But maybe if we'd got more points & not had 'Houllier Out' banners, then the pressure on the team & manager would have been less and Houllier could have lasted longer. We don't know either way. It is pure speculation, hence my use of the word 'maybe'. I don't really know what your point was aiming towards either. Randy Lerner probably does wish that 40,000 Villa fans were as positive as Me. My response was about as self explanatory as your original post. :?

Cheers bruv. I like your use of capital letters I don't recall saying I was happy with anything. I just don't think a 2-0 loss to Liverpool, where we were undone by 2 set-pieces and had 4 first teamers unavailable, is going to lower my opinion of McLeish. It's definatly not going to make Me want us to appoint Big Sam My 'lookout'? I don't know what that means, but okay.