Ratings & Reactions Wolves 1-2 Villa

[Qwpzxjor1]

I see someone voted for Petrov for MOTM, please explain whoever voted for him what he did for you to vote for him?

I like how you picked out Petrov instead of Luke Young who had a shocker imo yet got a vote.

I don't think Luke Young had a shocker!

Cuellar was superb and got my vote, but Luke Young was not that bad at all.

Warnock also did very well not to get sent off. Lichaj was warming up and I thought it was only a matter of time, but fair play to Warnock he composed himself, stopped diving in for challenges and saw out the game without any more incident.

[Chindie]

A robbery.

Friedel 8. Did what was asked and pulled off a couple of goof saves. Gained an annoying habit of having the ball bounce just away from him before he grabs it which leaves me a tad worried.

L. Young 7. Seemed a little keen to come flying in, once letting Jarvis waltz past him and a couple of other times making a tackle on thin air. Otherwise solid.

Warnock 7. Had 40 mins where he seemed to want the ref to book him and got caught on his heels once or twice, but a great cross for the winner.

Cuellar 9. MOTM. A monster performance, and needed considering how under the cosh we were. Reads the game very well, tackles well, heads it well... love him.

Collins 8. Just slightly outshone by Cuellar, he was also a rock. Slightly less agricultural than his partner but still pretty much faultless. Great celebration too.

Albrighton 7. I'm not sure we should be relying on him yet. He's easily outmuscled and despite his efforts, not so good on the backfoot. Great cross for the opener, but after that slowly drifted out before being substituted a little later than I would have.

NRC 6. Alright. Put himself about and showed some nice passes. We need more than that though imo. His break in the first half showed all the reaosns he's not a box to box man, may have the engine but nothing else. The better of the CMs but it has to be said, thats not saying much.

Petrov 5. Probably the worst performance he's put in recently. We got out battled in midfield and couldn't put a foot on it, and Petrov looked lost.

Downing 7. A scoring habit is a nice thing to have, unless it's heroin.

A. Young 7. He was our outlet but he wasn't able to really shine because how little he was helped. Customary overhit freekick and crosses as per, but he looked keen to do something... I'm still not convinced about him through the middle, but Houllier wants him to be our Owen so I guess we'll have time to be convinced.

Heskey 8. Towering monster header, loads of good work all over the shop. You can tell he knows how to link play, which is unusual for our side. Involved in the first goal as well. Good performance, hope he keeps it up, especially if he can drag more net bursting headers out of his locker.

Subs

Gabby 6. Out on the wing and not doing a whole lot. He's passing very very crisply now though, worked on his skill obviously.

Sidwell. Not really worth rating, had 9mins on the field and managed to break the Wolves man and thats about it.

We can't afford for that to happen to our midfield again. The CM was ragged, Petrov was lost and NRC, whilst the better, really wasn't good enough either. Being fair Wolves sent a lot down the wings early which the CM would always struggle to stamp out but even so, they weren't exactly faultless.

As said, it's a robbery though, Wolves deserved something from that match, but its nice for us to snatch victory now and again.

[villadude]

Chuffed to **** we got the 3 points, not sure how we did it though, it wasn't a game I enjoyed watching to be honest, I was convinced they were going to nick it after they equalised.

Even felt a little sorry for McCarthy after we went ahead, he looked well **** off!

[Maradona10]

Who cares Chindie, we've been robbed a fair few times, finally we get it going our way, yes Wolves had pressure by constantly hooding the ball into our box!

[Dodgyknees]

Chuffed to **** we got the 3 points, not sure how we did it though, it wasn't a game I enjoyed watching to be honest, I was convinced they were going to nick it after they equalised.

Even felt a little sorry for McCarthy after we went ahead, he looked well **** off!

with the amount of crap that comes out of his mouth, I enjoyed that.

[shambles]

Friedel - 8 - Made 4 or 5 good solid saves

Warnock - 7

Collins - 6

Cuellar - 9 - Immense performance from him. He was everywhere.

Young - 7

Albrighton - 8 - Looked lively but tired badly, mainly due to the amount of running he did.

Petrov - 7 - Quiet game

Reo-Coker - 9 - His passing and reading of the game seems to have improved vastly.

Downing - 8 - I'll give him credit for some of his attacking play, but I hate the way he bottles 50/50's and gives up when he loses the ball.

Young - 9 - Always dangerous, carried our attack single handed for parts of the second half.

Heskey -10 - When everyone tells you you're crap (deservedly, too), you can't score in a brothel and you have become somewhat of a footballing joke, to turn in performances like he has recently takes some serious heart. Well done Emile.

Subs - Both 6's

Gerard - Got Lichaj ready when it looked like Warncock was going to get himself sent off but didn't panic. Spotted we needed to stretch them a bit more and put Gabby out wide to give them something to think about. Also did something I haven't seen in a while which is get Petrov off late in the game when he runs out of steam. A most impressive week and very pleasing to have a manager who can make decisions with his head rather than his heart.

[CVByrne]

Luke Young wasn’t shocking, but he was definitely poor in the second half.

Cuellar was immense seemed to be in the right place at the right time. Glad for once we rode our luck and took our chances. Really happy.

He was poor, and would probably be the worst of our players today along with possibly Warnock.

I agree with the riding of luck, a draw is only 1 point. We can lose two games and win one and we get the same points as 3 draws. We need to go for the win always.

[AstonMartin82]

Heskeys goal was absolutely world class. I can't remember the last time a striker, let alone Heskey, scored such a beautiful header. Leaning back, no power on the cross, by the penalty spot and BANG right in the bottom corner. Absolutely unstoppable.

However, that said, to give him 10 based on that one moment of wonder is madness. The guy was average to good the rest of the time and would normally have scored a 6 or 7 with me. But strikers are judged on goals and for this reason I would grade him an 8. Ashley was the best player in the Villa shirt today IMO.

[KJT123]

Friedel 8

Young 7

Warnock 6

Cueller 9

Collins 8

Albrighton 7.5

NRC 6

Petrov 4

Downing 7

Young 8.5

Heskey 9

[AstonMartin82]

Luke Young wasn’t shocking, but he was definitely poor in the second half.

Cuellar was immense seemed to be in the right place at the right time. Glad for once we rode our luck and took our chances. Really happy.

He was poor, and would probably be the worst of our players today along with possibly Warnock.

Luke Young was not good today, but Warnock wasn't that bad. And he put in the cross for the last goal. To single him out is probably a little bit unfair.

[Brumerican]

Luke Young wasn’t shocking, but he was definitely poor in the second half.

Cuellar was immense seemed to be in the right place at the right time. Glad for once we rode our luck and took our chances. Really happy.

He was poor, and would probably be the worst of our players today along with possibly Warnock.

I agree with the riding of luck, a draw is only 1 point. We can lose two games and win one and we get the same points as 3 draws. We need to go for the win always.

He wasn't poor at all. Not even close.

[AVFC-Prideofbrum]

Two good subs by the way. Albrighton again, good first half, poor second. Petrov looking tired later on, both came off.

[villadude]

Heskey for England!

[Tomaszk]

Robbed them blind. Deserved nothing from that.

Fried - 8

Young - 5

Cuellar - 8

Collins - 8

Warnock - 4

Albrighton - 7

NRC - 6

Petrov - 4

Downing - 6

Heskey - 8

Young - 8

[Cracker1234]

Luke Young wasn’t shocking, but he was definitely poor in the second half.

Cuellar was immense seemed to be in the right place at the right time. Glad for once we rode our luck and took our chances. Really happy.

He was poor, and would probably be the worst of our players today along with possibly Warnock.

I agree with the riding of luck, a draw is only 1 point. We can lose two games and win one and we get the same points as 3 draws. We need to go for the win always.

Luke Young wasn't that bad today, sure he wasn't fantastic, but Petrov didn't even jump for the ball in his own box because of how tired his legs were in the first half.

I just don't think Petrov has the legs to play a full game....I seen it in the last few games of last season and in the cup final...He hasn't changed the start of this season.

I just don't think he is good for this team anymore, he don't offer much at all.

Luke Young today won the ball...Petrov was pointing to pass it back to Collins, but Luke ignored him and went forward and passed it to Ashley Young and they built an attack...Petrov hardly looks forward anymore when he has the ball it's always backwards or sideways.

I'm so glad he got subbed.

[rjw63]

*Wolves fans*

Boo hoo...Warnock shudda bin sent off...boo hoo...not fair..boo hoo

Bahahahahahahaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa :-)

[MrWeedMcGrass]

Fantastic result but trying to be objective , it was a terrible performance to be honest. Great to see luck swing our way for a change though.

However , I am sorry but we need to do better than Petrov as our playmaker in midfield , especially under Houllier who likes to build from the back. The game completely passed him by except for a few nice passes early in the first half. Reo Coker and Petrov as our CM pairing is just not good enough imo.

Luke young is an absolute nightmare defensively , he was bailed out so many times by Cuellar i lost count. He chose the wrong pass on many occasions putting us under pressure by losing possession. I am beginning to see why MON , a defensively solid manager did not like him as much.

More composure is needed from the players who are quickly having to adapt to this drastic change in style.This nervousness on the ball and panic under any kind of pressure from the opposition players needs to go.

Warnock was poor again , as he has been for a while now.

Heskey , Cuellar , Young , Downing , Albrighton(first half) all had good games , especially Cuellar , my choice for mom. He was immense defensively.

[KevMur]

Heskey's header reminded me of David Platt's for England in the 3rd play play-off in Italia 90.

Classic stuff.

[Ponky]

A fortunate win, perhaps, but Wolves had plenty of opprtunities to put us away and the best they could come up with was a misjudged cross that somehow eluded everyone, whereas we crafted two absolutely superb goals. Got to be some credit in that, in my view.

NRC was man of the match for me, covered a phenomenal amount of ground and contrary to his reputation played some really nice passes. Heskey was superb also, lost the plot from about the 60th to 80th minutes, but chose the best time to get back into it!

Albrighton was very good in the 1st half but got monstered by Elokobi when he came on. Subbing Gabby on for Marc actually turned the match in our favour a bit, because Gabby presented them with a bit more strength and pace and managed to hold on to the ball pretty well.

My main overall impression of the 2nd half was the players were struggling a bit for ideas with playing a passing game rather than long balls over the top. They looked to be thinking too hard about their passes rather than instinctively knowing where their teammates would be, which I think is something that we will just have to be patient with until they start to feel a bit more natural about it.

[spacemanscott]

We mugged them and the win shouldn't mask another uninspiring performance.

Most of us can see that we need more dominace in the centre of the park. We need a CM who is strong in the air and can get about the pitch to pick up loose players around the edge of the box. The number of times we leave opponents hanging around, un-marked, near the 18 yard line is frightening.

Friedel, 7: pulled off some good saves but also a couple of dodgy punches

Warnock 5: I don't know what's happened to him, he looses his man far too often and then lunges in with crazy tackles. Lucky to stay on the pitch.

Collins, 8: strong

Cueller, 8.5: said it before, he is McGrath-esque in his reading of the game. Passing a big gash, though.

L Young, 6.5: good and bad, but showed plenty of eagerness getting forward.

Downing, 6.5: his touch is superb but he doesn't seem to offer much creativity, which is not ideal for a winger.

Petrov, 5: just didn't cover enough ground to be effective.

RC, 6: worked hard 1st half, drifted the 2nd. Didn't seem to be near the ball often enough.

Albrighton, 6.5: best crosser of a ball at the club, up there with the best in the league. Pity he faded in the 2nd.

A Young, 7.5: plenty of running and made sure he found lots of space. Needs to work on crossing the ball. Also needs to stop moaning.

Heskey, 7: worked hard. Far from perfect but helped out in defence as well as holding the ball up front. Absolutely stunning headed goal, one of the best you'll see.

Overall, I'm just glad we have a new manager who might just spot our shortcomings. If MON was still here, you just know he wouldn't see anything wrong with that 'battling performance.'