rjenkins

Having taken the lead twice, that was definitely a case of two points dropped due to two individual errors from Friedel. However, a few others haven't covered themselves in glory. Agbonlahor is wasted on the left, he just cannot play there. The same goes for Ashley Young in the middle. He doesn't create, and can't hold onto the ball. Petrov now shouldn't command a starting place in our side in my opinion. He's just too slow. Apart from that, I thought everyone else was ok at least. Makoun or Downing MOTM for me.

I never thought that Ireland's performances were as bad as Houllier and others made them out to be. I remember him playing against Chelsea and Bolton earlier in the season. He had great chances in both those games, and if he had scored just one of those I think he would be a regular starter in the first team by now. The idea of a Makoun, Bradley and Ireland midfield sounds great to me, with Bannan to understudy Ireland, Delph to understudy Makoun and Hogg to understudy Bradley.

GK: Friedel DR: Walker DC: Collins DC: Dunne DL: Clark CM: Reo-Coker CM: Petrov CM: Delph WR: Albrighton WL: Young CF: Bent (If Makoun's work permit arrives, then obviously switch him with Petrov, who I think has been a little off lately)

I would rather Suarez to be honest, but when he leaves Ajax it'll be for a club playing Champions League football. Bent is probably as good as we can get given our situation I think.

It was a close game tonight and we could just as easily have won or lost. The performance was much better than say at Liverpool or Man City, and for now I'm backing Houllier. I was very annoyed after we lost to Tottenham and thought if he was going to go, it should have been then. The problem with sacking him now is that we'll waste another transfer window, and I'm not convinced in the character of our squad to avoid relegation without reinforcements, particularly up front and in central midfield. If he loses against Birmingham then I may have to re-evaluate that position because we can't risk being cut adrift, but for now I think there's as much of a risk in sacking him as there is in keeping him.

In the first half, I thought we were very good, but we needed to score really. We never quite got going again in the second half, and Heskey getting sent off certainly didn't help matters. I'm not blaming Heskey for the loss however, because Dunne still could have made that stupid tackle if we had eleven men on the pitch. The goal itself was easily avoidable, but our organisation was poor. If you get a chance to watch it again, keep an eye on Petrov. First he's in the wall, then he's not, then he's slow to realise Bardsley is going to get the ball. By the time he even gets close to closing him down, Nigel has nearly overtaken him, and then the ball goes past two defenders on its way in. Our attempts to get one back after the Zenden red card were just pitiful though. Ashley Young was terrible today, and Downing was anonymous all second half. I felt sorry for Gabby on the left. Reo-Coker, Cuellar, Heskey and Clark were the only players for us who stood out to me, and one of those got sent off!

-----------------Friedel----------------- Cuellar---Collins----Dunne--Warnock Agbonlahor--NRC---Petrov--Downing ------------------Young----------------- -----------------Heskey-----------------

Houllier has to take some credit for the point today undoubtedly, but I still think the reason why we have got only one point instead of three today is because he picked a rubbish bench and didn't bring subs on early enough. We're only two points off 18th. Today was better, but we're still in trouble. Let's not get carried away.

Excellent mettle shown by all the lads today, shame we couldn't have won. I think the blame for that lies with Houllier, because we were knackered from the 65th minute onwards and we didn't bring on any fresh legs to counteract Chelsea's subs All the same though, well done lads

---------------------Friedel-------------------- Lichaj-----Cuellar---------Collins--Warnock ---------------Hogg---------NRC-------------- Albrighton---------Ireland------------Young ---------------------Gabby-------------------- I think this game is set-up for Ireland, despite his troubles. I think that he sees himself as this great player, and here's the perfect shop window so he can get his move. May even be worth picking Dunne as well, given that in the last few years we've scored a lot of goals from set pieces against Chelsea.

Lichaj played very well. Everyone else was poor, quite frankly. Downing and Agbonlahor in particular weren't working hard enough. Ironically, I think today would have been exactly the type of game for Stephen Ireland. You know, a midfielder with actual technical skills and passing ability. We'll be in the bottom three by new year.

I think those voices calling for Houllier to go are going to get much louder after today. This is awful, by anyone's standards.

I was so delighted after just getting a win yesterday that had I rated the players straight after the match I would have given everyone a 10. Having given myself some time to calm down though and watch the highlights of the game again to see if I missed anything the first time around this is my reaction: Friedel - 6 Didn't have an awful lot to do really, but after some of his performances this season I don't feel as confident about him as I used to. Lichaj - 6 Could ask for more on a first league start to be honest. Thomas did get the better of him occasionally though and I fear a better winger would have made him pay for those mistakes. I wouldn't feel too uncomfortable playing him ahead of Luke Young more often on today's showing. Cuellar - 7 Straight after the match yesterday I probably thought he had played better than he actually did. Made the odd slip and misjudged the header for the corner they scored from, but I do think he's our best centre-back going on form and I hope he gets a run in the side. He made some important challenges. Collins - 6 Better than he has been recently, although it was his poor marking that let Scharner in for their goal. For a big lad he isn't that good aerially from set pieces. If he could play like he did against Chelsea more often I'd be a lot happier about starting him. Warnock - 6 Got well beaten in the first half by Tchoyi, but was reasonably solid as usual in the second half and he did have a tough job on his hands with Fortune wanting to drift out wide too. Albrighton - 8 Not the finished article by any stretch of the imagination, but he was the source for both of our goals and you can't ask for much more than that Hogg - 7 Probably not quite as good as he was against Birtmingham and Liverpool, but he is impressing me just through his energy and tackling. Bannan - 6 Not the sort of game where he could really stamp his authority on midfield. Anonymous really, but he didn't do anything really wrong. He was the right player to be taken off for Reo-Coker. Downing - 8 Much better than in the last few weeks. Composed and dangerous, although I think he needs good players around him for us to get the best out of him. I'm not sure he likes being the main outlet for attacks in the way that Ashley Young does. Ashley Young - 8 Being captain suits his ego I think, and he played really very well yesterday. Has a good understanding with Heskey Heskey - 7 Not his best performance by any stretch of the imagination. There were a few wayward headers and dodgy touches, but he certainly put a shift in and scored a goal at the end of the day

Unless Ireland is injured I think he's been really unlucky today. I thought he was starting to look quite good in spells against Liverpool, and Albrighton didn't look right on Monday night. I would have had Marc on the bench, with Young and Downing on the wings and Ireland supporting Heskey. Oh well though, glad to see Cuellar in the side. UTV!

The club was here a long time before GH, and will remain so a long time after he has left. If we lose to West Brom AND Wigan, then we can start to ask questions, but can anyone honestly say they thought the side we were forced to put our against Liverpool was anywhere near capable of beating them?

If we sack Houllier now we would have to: Replace his coaching team and revise his scouting arrangements Find a new manager Agree terms with that new manager and his team The new manager would have to fully assess the squad Find out what areas need strengthening Find available players Scout those players to see if they are suitable for us/are willing to join There are just over three weeks until the transfer window, it would be madness to replace Houllier now. What we need is stability. We're not in the relegation zone yet, and there are some very bad teams below us. Let's save the hysterics until there is an actual crisis, and until then we should just get behind the team and hope that Houllier has got some kind of vision for the club.

Tonight was massively frustrating for me, because it was Small Heath, because of the way we played, and because of the manner of the goals we conceded. Houllier must be gutted. It seems to me that, for the really big occasions, he's got us playing some good football and we seem to come out up for it at the start of a game. Both of the goals they scored tonight were the result of Richard Dunne and James Collins combining horribly against the run of play. This was certainly not the same as the games against Blackburn or Arsenal, where we were just poor full stop. Dunne has been poor all season, and if Cuellar had not gotten injured, I'd hope Houllier would have enough sense to make sure that by now he'd have been dropped. Collins was poor against Arsenal and poor again tonight, and he seems to have a habit of being easy to lose if you're a striker running into the box. Lastly, Friedel is showing his age. This has to be his last season for us. On the plus side though, I thought Luke Young was better tonight than he has been recently, although he's still performing worse than Warnock in my opinion, (although I've rarely agreed with the criticism of Warnock from a section of Villa fans generally) and Hogg, Bannan and Gabby can all be proud of their performances tonight. My ratings: Friedel - 5 L Young - 7 Collins - 5 Dunne - 4 Warnock - 7 Bannan - 7 Hogg - 8 Clark - 6 Downing - 6 A Young - 6 Agbonlahor - 8

Friedel - 6 L. Young - 3 Dunne - 5 Collins - 4 Warnock - 4 Downing - 2 Clark - 5 Bannan - 5 Pires - 4 A. Young - 3 Carew - 2 Subs: Delfouneso - 7 Ireland - 6 Herd - N/A For me, we were poor all game. From the first minute we looked lethargic and disjointed. I think this is predominantly down the number of first-team midfielders we are missing but Houllier also got his tactics wrong in the first half. Pires supporting Carew wouldn't have been an inspired move even if Carew could trap or pass a football. We needed a leader today to organise the team and we didn't have one, and I think a few players (Downing in particular) just didn't look bothered today. 4-2 makes the game sound better than it was for us. Ireland

I have two spare Holte End Upper tickets for the match against Arsenal. I had booked four, as my mates and I are going to see Interpol on the Friday night and I thought it would make a perfect end to the trip to see the mighty Villa against one of the biggest clubs in the country. What I had forgotten is that the game clashes with the Wales vs. All Blacks rugby game in Cardiff, and so since two of the lads had seats for the eggchasing, I'm left with spares. The tickets are in a good central position (K3 Row 23) and whilst I paid £38 a ticket for the seats, I'll accept £60 (or nearest offer) from anyone willing to take the pair. Let me know if you're interested. I'll be at the game so I can arrange to meet you somewhere around the ground before kick off to hand over tickets and payment. Cheers guys, Rhys

I think a vote for any Villa player after today is redundant tbh.

Friedel - 5 At fault for the first goal and didn't really do a lot else. Luke Young - 0 Atrocious all game. He kept losing his man in open play, wasn't marking properly at any set pieces and couldn't control the ball or pass well enough to help Downing get forward. I don't think I've ever seen him play worse for Villa Stephen Warnock - 3 He was actually playing really well for about 40 minutes, and then the silly challenges started again Richard Dunne - 6 Better than I've seen him play in a while, probably because the rest of the defence was so bad... Ciaran Clark - 4 He's still learning, but he got taught a lesson by Roberts in the second half. Stewart Downing - 5 Very average. He hasn't played that poorly for us for a while, and just shouldn't be on the right-wing Ashley Young - 0 All of a sudden he seems to think that if he doesn't want to play where the manager tells him to he can just ignore instruction. In the end he just got in Agbonlahor's way, making Ireland's life difficult and effectively ruined most of our first half chances in particular by spoiling our shape. Jonathan Hogg - 6 Can't compete in the air, but made very few mistakes compared to our other midfielders and got stuck in. I think he's underrated by our fans. Barry Bannan - 5 Started very well, and when the team is going forward he looks dangerous. Inexperience started to creep into his game in the second half however, and he started to make bad decisions Stephen Ireland - 5 Needs to take more responsibility to win back possession, but he actually looks like he could create good opportunities in front of goal for us. Not helped by Ashley being a prima donna or Gabby's shocking performance Gabby Agbonlahor - 2 Probably wasn't fit, but really shouldn't have bothered if that was all he had to offer.

Can't believe it

I feel really bad for Cuellar at the moment. I think he's our best centre-back overall

Was it harsh on Clark? Anyone know

I think he was already falling, at least according to Jack and Andy on the official site