LC: Final vs Man Utd Ratings & Reactions

[claretman]

Why oh why did Luke Young not start? Would have been so much greater threat going forward.

I thought Gabby did well up front and Milner was usual quality.

[Mantis]

What kind of effect will this have on the players? Good, bad? Will they be utterly demoralised or will they want to do even better and make up for it? (not like there's anything to make up for).

[maqroll]

Um....why no Luke Young, and why didn't Carew start?

[The_Steve]

MON really watching his words here.

[maqroll]

6th spot in the league for UEFA Cup now for those who care.

Who cares if we choose to give up midway through the tournament?

[picicata]

What kind of effect will this have on the players? Good, bad? Will they be utterly demoralised or will they want to do even better and make up for it? (not like there's anything to make up for).

I expect a positive reaction

[srsmithusa]

What kind of effect will this have on the players? Good, bad? Will they be utterly demoralised or will they want to do even better and make up for it? (not like there's anything to make up for).

I expect a positive reaction

Me too

[Mantis]

What kind of effect will this have on the players? Good, bad? Will they be utterly demoralised or will they want to do even better and make up for it? (not like there's anything to make up for).

I expect a positive reaction

So do I actually, just wondering what everyone else thought.

[ThunderPower_14]

How was it not even a bloody yellow?

Can't complain too much, their strikers took their chances, ours didn't. **** devastated though.

[brummybloke]

from a villa players perspective rather than getting even more pissed off with corrupt refs

downing was very poor today, wouldnt tackle ( led to their 2nd goal by not even putting in a challenge) and tried to come into the middle of the park all game making the play too narrow and giving their wide players far too much room.

ashley young was also very poor, falling over all the time, bad passing poor decision making, a horrid game from him.

cuellar? well it was him that messed up for their first, bbc keeps saying dunne was at fault but if cuellar hadnt played the ball to a man utd player then it wouldnt have happened, had several chances to bang the ball into the box but failed every time, misplace passes and poor decision making. he should have been in the middle with dunne, the burnely game showed how much better we play with a decent right back.

i thought the rest of the team played well although collins was not at his best either.

i thought gabby was the mom from a villa point of view, he held the ball well and did some vey good work up front, he was let down by the 2 supporting midfielders young and downing.

milner was solid as was petrov and for once, heskey also put it about a bit although i still fell we shouldnt have started with him.

warnock had a decent game but again, was let down by the lack of support from downing and young

dunne was good for most of the game, he played a hand in their first goal by trying to be too clever, the goal was a total defensive **** up bearing in mind we had the ball with time and space on the right and within 5 seconds cuellar passes it in field to a man utd player it falls to dunne who then miscontrols it, gets control of it, miscontrols it and lays it to berb dunne then puts in a great tackle but collins doesnt react and owne scores.

downing and young should have been taken off after 60 minutes, both were having poor games and provided nothing defensively and slightly less going forwards ( until the 85th minute when downing decided to remember how to pass a ball).

for me we played great for the first 5 minutes, then once the 12th utd play phil " i accept back handers, it is the only excuse i can give for being so biase" dowd got stuck in, we lost the momentum.

im disapointed, not really too much in the team, but in lack of changing things around and not starting with cuellar in the middle and luke young at right back, that affected how we played today

[The_Steve]

Aston Villa boss Martin O'Neill: "I think it would be universally accepted they should be down to 10 men. There's no other decision to make. It's not a good decision by an otherwise fine referee, it's poor and obviously at Wembley we score the penalty, they are down to 10 men for virtually the whole game. It's a major point in the game."

[maqroll]

Aston Villa boss Martin O'Neill: "I think it would be universally accepted they should be down to 10 men. There's no other decision to make. It's not a good decision by an otherwise fine referee, it's poor and obviously at Wembley we score the penalty, they are down to 10 men for virtually the whole game. It's a major point in the game."

Eh, we can't beat them when they're down to 10 men anyways, moot point.

[bose]

I'm absolutely devasted but you can't fault the lads, they did us proud.

How that was not a red card for Vidic I'll never know. Gabby was clean through and so it should be a straight sending off. But not even a yellow!? **** abysmal!

But as I said the lads did good, the first final for many of them and hopefully one of many.

Lets just win the **** FA Cup instead!

And of course the Villa fans were fantastic as you would expect.

[picicata]

Aston Villa boss Martin O'Neill: "I think it would be universally accepted they should be down to 10 men. There's no other decision to make. It's not a good decision by an otherwise fine referee, it's poor and obviously at Wembley we score the penalty, they are down to 10 men for virtually the whole game. It's a major point in the game."

On a seperate note how the hell did that linesman give offside against Dunne near the end? Thats possibly an even worse decision than Dowd's all though not as game changing. Does he not know the offside law?

[The_Rev]

I think the lesson learned from this game is we really do need a striker to play with Gabby. There wasnt much between the teams other than Wayne Rooney. Ash put a couple of delicious balls into the United box and nobody was on the end of them, Valencia put some into ours and Rooney caused havoc. I was very disappointed with Cuellar's distribution, every time he got the ball he gave it away, Luke Young should have played ahead of him at right back.

Still cant get my head around that Vidic decision though. The lad should have walked.

[Chindie]

Aston Villa boss Martin O'Neill: "I think it would be universally accepted they should be down to 10 men. There's no other decision to make. It's not a good decision by an otherwise fine referee, it's poor and obviously at Wembley we score the penalty, they are down to 10 men for virtually the whole game. It's a major point in the game."

Eh, we can't beat them when they're down to 10 men anyways, moot point.

No it isn't. Of course it isn't.

A CB lost for 85mins, particularly the most senior CB in a partnership with a dodgy youngster, is going to have a far greater affect on them than losing a winger.

[andym]

Gutted

didnt play as well as we know we can and some players were below what they have produced, but i dont think we disgraced ourselves at all.

man u were good in possesion but they didnt have loads of chances.it really was an excellent header by rooney, going backwards and putting it right in the spot brad couldnt quite reach. i hope he keeps this form going into the world cup.

our best player was probably gabby. superb running of the channels, hold up play etc. would have impressed capello. he had vidic and rafael shit scared with his pace. vidic should have been sent off, either a straight red for the penalty, or for 2 yellows.

milner was good too, and the other midfielders in patches. i thought ash and downing worked hard but there were some tackles they werent fully committing to and their final ball was poor. cant afford that against man u. petrov looked injured and ill but still gave his all.

defence looked shakey at times to be honest. collins didnt have a great game, kept giving berbatov far too much room and as hansen pointed out got drawn to the ball for the winning goal. if he had stayed with rooney then it would have stayed 1-1 i think. carlos did his best but he isnt a right back!

still, the experience will do us good, and i think man u having so much experience of finals (as well as having rooney) was the difference in the end.

[vreitti]

Overall i think we played ok. Some mistakes in the first half and we again ran out of steam in the second half. Manure was the better team today. Especially tactically they were far superior. We kept running and running while they easily controlled the game. At times they walked past our midfield. We simply lack bite and determination, nor do we have anyone in the team that can lift us up when things go sour. CC is completely worthless, there exists no words to describe how poor a footballer he really is. Saddens me to see he plays week in, week out and in a position where we have one of the finest players in England. Petrov is good player but he is sadly too immobile given our tactics and the fact we hardly ever control the game.

Also i think it showed that we were a bit tired today. And that was to be expected given the amount of games our first 11 has played recently. I just hope this won't ruin the remainder of the season. We still have plenty to play for and plenty to be happy about. UTV!

[AVFC-Prideofbrum]

So hard to take still

[YLN]

Well there you have it boys and girls. A final. We lost. A nice day out in Wembley for the fans. The players put in a strong performance against a good team and could have brought it to extra time. A pity, but we'll continue. Still no silverware under O'Neill is my biggest concern. We held our own against a team which could well have been down to ten men. Who knows how the game would have panned out after that.

Awful weekend for Villa really as far as other results went. FA Cup next week.

Are we still in the league?

Petrov MOTM