beasley14 Posted January 17, 2010 Share Posted January 17, 2010 Not too much mention of why Cuellar stayed at rb? Surely this would have been a good change as he offered us nothing. Not his fault, he`s not rb. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
carlitobrigante Posted January 17, 2010 Share Posted January 17, 2010 i thought we played pretty well from my seat high up in the trinity... played some nice football at times, our passing / keeping possesion was better than it has been.. Downing and Petrov both played very well for me. Dunne was a rock yet again. Even Carlos looked comfortable at right back and was playing some nice passing on the deck to Ash (with a couple of exceptions). Unfortunately Gabby missed 2 gilt edged chances. To get anywhere in this league we need a striker who can put chances away like that for breakfast. I like Gabby, but needs a clinical poacher next to him I think. Heskey looked ok when he was on. Like Gabby though he never seems to hit anything first time, always wants an extra touch and by then the chance is gone. Ash had a mixed game, some of it he was back to his best, some good deliverys etc etc. Then again still slightly too many errors and poor decision making. The thing thats frustrating at the moment is you know that with another quality midfielder, and a clinical striker we would be one hell of a team. I cant see us getting them anytime soon though, at least not till the summer. Still alot of deadwood to shift out of this squad to help pay for the quality that needs to come in. Gardner, Sidwell, Salifou, Shorey, Osbourne, Harewood, and maybe even Curtis Davies. Thats about 20mill give or take, enough to get what we nearly need, and still leave enough strength in depth (when would any of those players realistically play? We still have Delph, Reo, Albrington, Clarke, Beye, etc not even getting a look in... If Gabby had been clinical, and we had a touch more luck we would have won that game. Except for one 10 min spell we dominated. I think 4th is beyond us this season. Top 6 and a cup final would still be pleasing progress for me. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
paulanddonya Posted January 17, 2010 Share Posted January 17, 2010 GOALSCORER !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! mathematical equation for you New Goalscorer minus Emile Heskey Equals Villa moving forward Simple Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chindie Posted January 17, 2010 VT Supporter Share Posted January 17, 2010 I can;t really rate anyone as I had to make do with the radio, but it was a frustrating match. Not entirely unexpected frustration but all the same. The first 20mins were dire. There was no atmosphere, there was nothing happening on the pitch. We barely seemed to be bothering playing from the commentary. Then as the half came to an end the gears shifted and we started playing, a situation that carried through the entirety of the second half. We had all the play, occasionally punctuated by West Ham encroachments. It just wouldn't sit for us from what I was hearing, and we made matters worse by lacking any semblance of quality in the final third. For every good cross there were 5 naff ones. And there was never anyone on the end of them. Decent chances that I recall seemed msotly to be in the second half, Gabby's fluffed touch, Dunne not uite connecting with a corner - and Collins not following in behind him, Milner hitting the post. I really can't put my finger on it why though. We didn't play particularly awfully, or do anything particularly out of sorts. Hmm... I'd love a new striker and think it could revolutionise this side, but theres not one coming. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
beasley14 Posted January 17, 2010 Share Posted January 17, 2010 Trouble is there a chance top 4 will be even further away next season especially if Man City keep spending the bucks and Liverpool might sort themselves out. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sled Posted January 17, 2010 Share Posted January 17, 2010 Not too much mention of why Cuellar stayed at rb? Surely this would have been a good change as he offered us nothing. Not his fault, he`s not rb.To counter Blackburn's aerial tactics, I'm told. No, hang on... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
beasley14 Posted January 17, 2010 Share Posted January 17, 2010 Hmm... I'd love a new striker and think it could revolutionise this side, but theres not one coming. This would be the single most important change we could make. I usually like Gabby and defend him but today he was poor, he needs two touches for decent strikers 1. If we play him he has to be the hold up stiker not the finisher. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
villabromsgrove Posted January 17, 2010 Share Posted January 17, 2010 Did I enjoy watching Villa play some good football against Blackburn on thursday night? Yes I did. Did I enjoy watching Villa today play some good football against West Ham? Yes I did. Have I enjoyed reading the ten pages of this thread? No I haven't. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tommo Posted January 17, 2010 Share Posted January 17, 2010 Did I enjoy watching Villa today play some good football against West Ham? Yes I did. hmmm, didn't see any myself Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rjw63 Posted January 17, 2010 Share Posted January 17, 2010 Thought we were miles the better team, just no end result. We need a striker badly, or give Delfouneso a shot. Thought the ref was pretty decent apart from when he stopped play near the end when that rocket polisher Behrami was obviously faking an injury. If Friedel's punch had connected with the peroxide turd burglar his lower jaw would have ended up in Aston Church graveyard Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
b6bloke Posted January 17, 2010 Share Posted January 17, 2010 Who are all the muppetts just dismissing today as rubbish? Remember O'leary's reign in charge? We created today 13 chances of which 3-4 were good ones. On another day we would have won comfortably as had over 15 corners which we nomally have sucess from. Petrov man of the match by a mile. My only criticism is MON possibly did not change things up in the last 20 mins. I was thinking Sidwell for Carlos shifting Milner to RB as Carlos did alright but offers nothing going forward. Fair enough but I don't remember any clear chances apart from Gabby skewing horribly over and cocking up again in the 92nd minute. And if Petrov was man of the match by a mile, then I must have been watching another game. So Gabbys turn and shot that was saved well by Green didnt count? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rjw63 Posted January 17, 2010 Share Posted January 17, 2010 I also had Petrov as MotM Some quality passes and plenty of hard tackling Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tommo Posted January 17, 2010 Share Posted January 17, 2010 So Gabbys turn and shot that was saved well by Green didnt count? It was something created out of nothing. It wasn't a clear chance. And were there any more chances? Not sure there were 2bh Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Ricardomeister Posted January 17, 2010 Share Posted January 17, 2010 For me today's game just re-iterates why we will not get into the top 4. Simply, we are not good enough. Despite what MON was trying to say this was a huge missed opportunity. If others slip up then you have to be good enough to take advantage but we just huffed and puffed and Green had a much easier day than he could have expected. I thought Downing had a decent game but everyone else was average to poor. I do think MON deserves his fair share of criticism today. I think most people recognise that his tactics are too one dimensional to change a good team (what we are) to a very good team (which is what we are supposed to be aiming for). Although none of the 3 "central defenders" deserve to be dropped, neither imo does Luke Young and it totally unbalances the team with Carlos at full back. On Heskey, does MON think he is a midfielder or a striker as he spends far more time in the middle of the park than in the opposition penalty area. We need a striker who will at least threaten to score! On Petrov, I thought he had a very good game on Thursday but today he reverted back to passing backwards and sideways most of the time and he looked exhausted for most of the second half. What dismayed me was listening to MON after the game saying the players were tired. If that is the case then why did he not use 2 more subs? In this sort of game we should have been going all out for the win and throwing on an attack minded midfielder like Sidwell or Delph for an exhausted Petrov would surely have given us more chance. Don't forget we were playing a West Ham team with no senior strikers (their only striker was falling over even more than Heskey does!) and a few others missing too. I said a few months ago that I thought we would end up drawing too many games and I still think that Citeh and Spuds will end up turning more draws into wins than we will and that our lack of goals will cost us. Fair enough Spuds drew yesterday but according to the BBC stats they had 18 shots on target and quite a few off target. They drew because of Myhill's brilliance. We drew today because we were not good enough. I have pretty much given up on the January window but if Randy is still genuinely serious about Villa playing Champions League football (I remain to be convinced that he is as, although he has done a very good job, I just don't think his current conservative approach will push us into the top 4) then we have to buy better quality in the summer. If we play on Wednesday as we did today then we can expect lots of stress and nail-biting and a result that could easily go either way. I would like to see a few changes for Wednesday. Hopefully we will not lose but I will not accept fatigue as a valid reason if we do. UTV SOTC Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Milfner Posted January 17, 2010 Share Posted January 17, 2010 I also had Petrov as MotM I'd agree with that up until about the 60th minute, where once again, he can't keep up with the play as he just doesn't have the fitness for it. In the last 30 minutes he went missing again. He didn't track back on two of West Ham counters meaning that they could effectively jog through the middle of defence leaving us very exposed. MON needs to sub him, just because he is captain doesn't mean he has the divine right to stay on the pitch. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
barry'sboots Posted January 17, 2010 Share Posted January 17, 2010 Petrov MOTM - I must have been watching a different game. Started well but tired badly again midway through second half hence West Ham coming more in to the game. We needed NRC's drive at that point to push us forward. Downing was the clear MOTM for me. Ran the show for us. Carew was a complete waste of space for his 35 mins, with the exception of his flick on to Gabby. I would have much rather have seen Delph come on to run the show in the centre and free up Jimmy to get in an around Gabby. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Don_Simon Posted January 17, 2010 Share Posted January 17, 2010 If I was Randy, I wouldnt let MON buy anymore players. We should just pay 11 players, sell all the squad players we have and be done with it. I have never heard of a manager being so afraid to use subs / lack confidence in squad players / be so adamant in his own tactics to make substitutions. What Delph must think not coming on in this game I will never know. The same happened last year, he finally made a sub in taking Gabby off, the fans cheered at the notion of a substitution, and we got slated in the press. The same may well happen again. All this rubbish about him understanding this is a long season, and we will have to rotate is a load of balls. Just wish he had the balls to make a change. Rant over. Sorry boys and girls. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
villabromsgrove Posted January 17, 2010 Share Posted January 17, 2010 Did I enjoy watching Villa today play some good football against West Ham? Yes I did. hmmm, didn't see any myself After the match Zola said that Villa played very well (he's a better judge of football than me), he was delighted with his players in being up for the fight. Sometimes I think that we let our natural disappointment with not getting three points spoil the enjoyment of supporting our team. I really am enjoying supporting Villa at the moment probably because winning isn't the only important thing to me. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PompeyVillan Posted January 17, 2010 Share Posted January 17, 2010 It was a frustrating game, but I can't understand all the negativity personally. If Gabby's finishing was on form we would have won comfortably. As it was, he missed a few glorious chances and West Ham had something to hold onto. We created enough chances to win that game, but we didn't. We lacked invention, but West Ham did 'park the bus', even the 'big' teams struggle against such tactics sometimes. I read all this 'We've no chance of the top 4 because of this result' as an overreaction. Plenty of teams have dropped points this weekend and will do as the season continues. I felt the overall performance was decent, I must be in the minority on here. Richard Dunne for president. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Houlston Posted January 17, 2010 Share Posted January 17, 2010 Not the greatest game and not the greatest display but on another day we would of won it and Gabby would of put that chance away at the end. Yes it would be nice to have better strikers so those sort of misses are rarer but really that would only slightly mask the bigger problem. The biggest problem we have is Martins lack of bottle to do anything that constitutes a change from the norm. This is what many of us have been saying for some time and why he is not the man to take us into the top four. Like others have pointed out Petrov and especially Milner were shattered Delph or Delf would of been something to give us change and perhaps a bit more energy and if it hadnt worked and we'd lost I imagine people would be more accepting of that as at least he did something. To do nothing is so frustrating and negative it doesnt inspire and to get into that top four you need that bit extra but to be honest its not rocket science, most of us on here and at the ground were crying out for a sub so why couldnt O'neill see or do it. O'neill might as well lobby Fifa to do away with the bench so that space can be used for more seats for supporters. Queue how many premiership teams have you managed questions - zzzzzz Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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