villafan306 Posted March 20, 2007 Posted March 20, 2007 Don't worry I'm not going to start singing Take That songs, but I have noticed a few fans getting restless about our current situation so I thought I'd throw my two cents into the mix. OK, so we are currently only 7 points ahead of the drop zone, we have only won 2 in 18 and seem once again to be the Premiership draw specialists. But what did everyone expect? We started the season well with a great unbeaten run. 10 games into the season and fans were talking about Europe. WE got carried away (myself included) and with a new owner and a seemingly unbeatable team things were looking good. So what went wrong? Well personally I think that Luke Moore's injury forced us to change our tactics and after losing our first game with these new tactics the heads dropped. We turned into a battling team rather than a team playing good football. We capitalised on mistakes to beat Blackburn and got lucky to beat Everton, but then we were exposed. Some hard fought draws and an embarrassing but predictable defeat at the hands of Man City seemed to really knock the wind out of our sails. And with the same squad as last year (plus Petrov and Sutton...and Agathe) we had the same troubles as last year. Dodgy defending, inability to finish and not enough possession still haunt us. The thing is, no matter who is in charge, players will not perform miracles. If players are low on confidence then their performance will drop. MON is a great motivator but even he seems to be struggling with the stale aftertaste left here in recent times. Optimism may be on the up but when players have been low on confidence for the last two years it won't be built back up in months. Building a squad is a similar thing. Sure we have Young, we have Carew, we have Maloney and we have Petrov but before this season none of these players had any Premiership experience. They have been thrown n at the deep end and have coped with varying levels of success. Carew seems to demolish anything in front of him whilst Petrov and Young have taken a little longer to adapt. Moving to a new league is not easy, but then again neither is moving to a new country. Three of those 4 new guys have come from different cultures and are learning to adapt to a new lifestyle. As for Young, well think about this. He is a young lad (no pun intended....ah hell it was a good one though) and has spent his entire career to date at Watford. Now Watford is a small club where he was put on something of a pedestal - big fish in a small pond springs to mind. Now he has come to a much bigger club with a much bigger ground and fan base. Now he is a small fish in a big pond and must learn to adapt. The truth is though none of us know why it went wrong. We can all speculate and that's what we are doing, but it's all academic really. I hate to say we are too good to go down and I won't say it. But what I will say is that we will pick up the remaining 6 points to survive which was the target for this season. And I will go on to also say that there are teams below us not good enough to stay up. So I wouldn't be too concerned about relegation. What I'm getting at here is that the current slump is nobodies fault. Sure maybe Young should be played on the wing and Agbonlahor up front. Maybe improvement on the field is very slow and the new guys haven't settled in as quickly as we would all have hoped, but things are looking up. We have a whole summer to build. We will have a new training facility which will help our team, new players obviously which will boost the quality. Our 4 new boys will have had more time to settle into life here and dare I use the old DOL adage but our new look Villa will have had a full pre-season together which will bring them that much closer to "gelling". So let's not be too hasty to judge, this time next year will be a good time to sit back and take stock.
Lorenzo Posted March 20, 2007 Posted March 20, 2007 I agree, but I'd also like to add something: At the start of novemeber or so we were flying high and yet we'd only really played fairly average football. I'm not saying we were bad, but our league standing was better than the way we were playing. We're now playing, with the last game excepted, a similar standard of football. Results are different obviously, but for the most part the level of football from our boys is the same. The only difference is that some times we've had a bad bit of luck (petrovs disallowed pentalty) and sometimes we've not been able to finish with quite as much success. We're still fairly difficult to score against, we still get a good bit of the ball, and a decent amount of it is meaningful possesion too. The one thing a team is judged upon in the long term is results, we all know that, but in the mean time we still have cause to be optimistic in comparison to previous seasons, irrespective of the manager and owner, because the football's still of a decent standard.
tonyh29 Posted March 20, 2007 Posted March 20, 2007 I just think as we won't go down that now is the ideal time to find out who is going to fit the bill next season ..and where so lets have another look at Osbourne in CM , lets try Gabby up front instead of wasting him at RM , lets try Petrov on one flank and Young on the other , dare i say it lets have a look at Ridgwell & Cahill together as we already know what Ollie can do and lets try passing the ball on the floor instead of a hoof everytime
John_Lerwill Posted March 20, 2007 Posted March 20, 2007 A good article - I think that Laursen's injury at Chelsea was also a big setback as he was really beginning to show his real form. But the main issue is that this side will take time to settle. Almost certainly, 2 or 3 more new players will come in in the summer and the pundits seem to be feeling that Villa will show good next season. HOW good remains to be seen (!), but I'm optimistic.
BOF Posted March 20, 2007 Moderator Posted March 20, 2007 Don't worry I'm not going to start singing Take That songs No, but you still put it in my bloody head :evil:
villa89 Posted March 20, 2007 Posted March 20, 2007 and lets try passing the ball on the floor instead of a hoof everytime Amen!
kingrollo Posted March 20, 2007 Posted March 20, 2007 But we are looking to the transfer market for salvation ....................this is where O Neil has failed so spectaclurly so far ?
bickster Posted March 20, 2007 Moderator Posted March 20, 2007 But we are looking to the transfer market for salvation ....................this is where O Neil has failed so spectaclurly so far ? Point out MON's actual failures in the transfer market so far. Where's our squad that so full of his spectacular failures? Either you can justify the spectacular failure line or you are guilty of PFE
OldFart Posted March 20, 2007 Posted March 20, 2007 Either you can justify the spectacular failure line or you are guilty of PFE :shock: Isn't that a bit heavy?
avsteve Posted March 21, 2007 Posted March 21, 2007 Great post, we all need to be patient and pull together.
Jon Posted March 21, 2007 Posted March 21, 2007 But we are looking to the transfer market for salvation ....................this is where O Neil has failed so spectaclurly so far ? Point out MON's actual failures in the transfer market so far. Where's our squad that so full of his spectacular failures? Either you can justify the spectacular failure line or you are guilty of PFE don't think it's a PFE but it is guitly of massive over exaggeration. Currently all of MON's signings are either 1st team regulars of pushing for a first team place. One has excelled (JC) and the others have done well at times and not so well at others. None have failed spectacularly IMO.
LancsVillan Posted March 21, 2007 Moderator Posted March 21, 2007 But we are looking to the transfer market for salvation ....................this is where O Neil has failed so spectaclurly so far ? Point out MON's actual failures in the transfer market so far. Where's our squad that so full of his spectacular failures? Either you can justify the spectacular failure line or you are guilty of PFE don't think it's a PFE but it is guitly of massive over exaggeration. Currently all of MON's signings are either 1st team regulars of pushing for a first team place. One has excelled (JC) and the others have done well at times and not so well at others. None have failed spectacularly IMO. and none will be dropped regardless of how they are performing it seems...
blandy Posted March 21, 2007 Moderator Posted March 21, 2007 Hard to say Al - I mean (in my perception) none are performing consistently badly. people may or may not have expected more from some or all of them, I don't know, but Petrov was taken out of the side when injured/struggling, and since coming back in he's been decent. Maloney isn't an automatic selection, Carew justifies his place easily, and Ashley Young has been mixed good and bad. Dropping him after what 4 or 5 games is it? some good some bad seems harsh. I can't really see how people conclude that he won't drop "his" signings, other than guesswork. I feel that MO'N is more inclined to give a player a run of games to show what he can do, rather than just one game, but that's not the same thing. Earlier in the season I'd have liked to see Steven Davis play in his proper position, when Petrov was playing with an injury. Currently I'd like to see Luke get a bit more time on the pitch, and Gabby a bit less, but having different views on who to play/not play in the team still doesn't constitute evidence of MO'N not dropping "his" players. Does it?
LancsVillan Posted March 21, 2007 Moderator Posted March 21, 2007 maybe not but it was the same at Celtic from what I've heard. Indeed Maloney's own performances were limited by his insistence on playing a very out of sorts Alan Thompson at times... I have two instincts about MO'N: 1- he is a stubborn man that will not necessarily admit he is wrong and will play players he has bought regardless. 2 - I'm not convinced he knows how to buy the right players given the amount of money at his disposal; at Leicester he traded players in and out on a limited budget and at Celtic he based his side on some pretty average Prem players, knowing that that 'averageness' was more than good enough for that standard. The first of these is fine and is actually something you want from a manager 'It's my decision, my future, it's up to me'. The second one is a concern that until the end of this summer he has no chance to address for me yet I am prepared to be wrong and also prepared to wait
TRL Posted March 21, 2007 Posted March 21, 2007 Buying Petrov and Young for a combined, what £ 15 - 17 Mill? And not showing anything special we couldnt already expect from our youngsters or mediocre players. Wouldnt you call that failing so far Bicks?
bickster Posted March 21, 2007 Moderator Posted March 21, 2007 Buying Petrov and Young for a combined, what £ 15 - 17 Mill? And not showing anything special we couldnt already expect from our youngsters or mediocre players. Wouldnt you call that failing so far Bicks? I don't really think price paid for players is that relevant under Mr Lerner, under Doug it was obviously but those were the days of stupidly small transfer budgets Petrov is definately improving and Young has played a handful of games, don't see how you can make a valued judgement on either player being as both are in their first season I'll let you know if they've been failures or not at the end of NEXT season
TRL Posted March 21, 2007 Posted March 21, 2007 I admit Young should be given more time, and even played out of position ( :?: ), but my patience is running low on Petrov.
Trinity-Tom Posted March 21, 2007 Posted March 21, 2007 Petrov is improving. I genuinely believe that he will be an excellent player for us. With a full pre season and the 1st seasons experience behind him, I think he will be top drawer next season. If by this time next season we are still seeing such inconsistency from him though then yes he can be deemed a failure. As for Young, I have seen enough to believe that he will be awesome for us.
TRL Posted March 21, 2007 Posted March 21, 2007 I dont get how Petrov is improving. Last few times ive seen him, he has made a couple of decent tackles, but thats it. What does he contribute with?
BOF Posted March 21, 2007 Moderator Posted March 21, 2007 I think there's a danger that people have made their minds up on Petrov and they now watch him already convinced that he wont do well, and then convince themselves of it. He is improving and has played well last 2 times out.
Recommended Posts