dudevillaisnice Posted October 17, 2010 Share Posted October 17, 2010 just watching the match.. ireland made that run at around 2:20 which could've lead to a shot, great work in getting in that position... really close attempt too, i reckon he'll have a field day against lower teams. Seems a handful to mark. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rjenkins Posted October 17, 2010 Share Posted October 17, 2010 Friedel - 8 Solid throughout, did all that was asked of him Beye - 6 Whilst he undoubtedly had a harder task than Warnock, he was only ok for me. His positioning sometimes looked a little off to me. Warnock - 7 Thought he had his best game for a while, he looked determined and strong. Dunne - N/A Collins - 8 Excellent performance considering he was up against a top-class forward. Hardly put a foot wrong. Downing - 9 My MOTM, all season long he's been looking composed on the ball and more dangerous in possession and today he was very good defensively and offensively. Young - 6 Not one of his better showings, but Ferreira marshalled him well and he still managed to get himself involved in some of our attacks Petrov - 6 I thought he was Jekyll and Hyde yesterday, sometimes getting stuck in and keeping the midfield shape, passing well, but the ball gets stuck under his feet so often and his lack of pace was exploited by the Chelsea midfield at times. Reo-Coker - 8 All of a sudden Reo is one of the first names on the team-sheet. Ireland - 7 I think he's a player who drifts in and out of games, but he's genuinely skillful and creative and, especially in the second half, every pass forward he made could have led to a chance. I think with a run in the side he'll create lots of goals for us, and it's the most impressed with him I've been since we signed him. Carew - 6 Decent first half, couldn't get into the game again in the second. SUBS: Clark - 8 Delfouneso - 5 Sidwell - N/A Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lexicon Posted October 17, 2010 Share Posted October 17, 2010 I agree with Bicks with regards to Ireland and Beye. Beye has never looked good in a villa shirt. He loses the ball so often from the back and his positioning is often very poor. Yesterday, he really didn't do anything to make me think he's worth even having in the squad, let alone being paid 40k a week. If we weren't playing Chelsea, I have a feeling we would have played Lichaj. As for Ireland. Diabolical miss at the start of the match. Trudged around the pitch far too often for me and his lack of work rate is an issue. He looks like he doesn't really want to be here by the way he plays. I think the problem for me is that he is like the representation of Milner going and if I compare the two.. I realise how much we've lost. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dudevillaisnice Posted October 17, 2010 Share Posted October 17, 2010 I agree with Bicks with regards to Ireland and Beye. Beye has never looked good in a villa shirt. He loses the ball so often from the back and his positioning is often very poor. Yesterday, he really didn't do anything to make me think he's worth even having in the squad, let alone being paid 40k a week. If we weren't playing Chelsea, I have a feeling we would have played Lichaj. As for Ireland. Diabolical miss at the start of the match. Trudged around the pitch far too often for me and his lack of work rate is an issue. He looks like he doesn't really want to be here by the way he plays. I think the problem for me is that he is like the representation of Milner going and if I compare the two.. I realise how much we've lost. Hmm, don't agree with your judgement on ireland there; Ireland hasn't played a game properly at city for months, city always kept him on the bench and he never could break in to the first team with mancini, he isnt like milner but once he's on the ball he does make things happen. I've only seen the first 20 minutes of the match but he had one shot (2 minutes) and he also setup a goal for petrov which went wide.. he doesn't have Milner's workrate to run up the pitch and down.. I understand that but to say he doesn't want to be here is a bit harsh imo. Oh and if you saw his face when he missed the target he was really gutted, tried to atleast get a corner from it but it never worked, he knows he messed up on that shot. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Straggler Posted October 17, 2010 Share Posted October 17, 2010 Funny game this one. Our outstanding performances were from the ones that I least expected. Downing was my man of the match, he put a proper shift in today and we were all the better for it. Honorable mention to Warnock who was close to Downing for the MOTM award. I was impressed by the way he pushed our defence up the pitch making several tackles and interceptions whilst stood further up the pitch than Petrov. Collins was really solid again, in this form he would be worth a place in almost any defence in the Prem. NRC impressed me today, I'm not his biggest fan, but if he plays like that week in week out, he will change my opinion of him. A shame about the finishing, but I can forgive him that as in this instance the rest of his game made up for it. It may be that he is now getting enough games to look like a real player again. Petrov was brilliant first half, not so in the second. Admittedly Chelsea came out with a real energy and purpose in the second half and it would be hard for anyone to deal with, however I don't like that Petrov drops back into the defence. Warnock showed that we could continue to press higher up the pitch by consistently making tackles infront of Petrov. Dropping backwards hands the initiative to the opposition and believe that if it was not for the rest of the team stepping up to the plate it would have been a much more backs to the wall second half than we experienced. Carew seemed to be struggling, not the player that he was last year, however he was did better than Fonz when he came on. Young had decent energy today and contributed to the overall defensive performance, although he didn't have quite the impact going forward that I would hope from him. This is not too much of a critisism as he was well worth his place, it is more that he has done so much so well that expectations are higher for him. Ireland looks like he is ready to pick a team apart, we just need to find him a little better. I think we are struggling to make the best of him as he is often making a run that will take a very good / high risk pass to find him, and he seems to be looking for runs that others are not making yet. I fancy that given some time to gell with the team he will get more and more effective, however today he was a bit of a luxury. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Straggler Posted October 17, 2010 Share Posted October 17, 2010 I forgot to mention Beye. I thought he did very well, not our outstanding performer, but against a very tough team and having to deal with Cole, Malouda and Zhirkov over the 90 mins he held up very well. He did get beaten a couple of times, but this is not bad as we did not really look vunerable down either flank. This is also a bit down to Downing which is why I had him as MOTM. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MYSTERYMAN Posted October 17, 2010 Share Posted October 17, 2010 Downing very good and Warnocks best game of 2011 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Shillzz Posted October 17, 2010 Share Posted October 17, 2010 Can someone tell me why albrighton, young and heskey were omitted? I got back to Wales last last night so I've been out of touch. Also Clark/Cuellar... What's the consensus here? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
theunderstudy Posted October 17, 2010 Share Posted October 17, 2010 Shillzz - Lung, Heskey, Alby and Gabby were all injured, Dunney went off after 13 minutes. Clark and Cuellar are different-footed to each other, and Clark is left-footed (I think) so Ged played him as it was important we had a good balance. Cuellar should have started ahead of Dunney IMO. Mysteryman, that is impressive, considering we haven't started 2011 yet... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Shillzz Posted October 17, 2010 Share Posted October 17, 2010 Cheers US. Theres nothing quite like walking out onto the holte and thinking 'WTF, where's x, y & z... And why is Beye warming up with the first team? Personally was bemused when Clark came on, but the lad did well. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
theunderstudy Posted October 17, 2010 Share Posted October 17, 2010 No problem. I like Clark, he's a cracking young lad, would rather see him and Cuellar play together in all honesty. Would have liked to have seen Bannan, with the right tutelage, this guy could be massive. (Figuratively of course.) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
theunderstudy Posted October 17, 2010 Share Posted October 17, 2010 Also Shillzz are you on 606? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rob182 Posted October 17, 2010 Share Posted October 17, 2010 My ratings: Friedel - 7 Beye - 7 Collins - 9 Clark - 8 Warnock - 8 Petrov - 8.5 NRC - 8 Downing - 9 - MOTM Ash - 7 Ireland - 7 Carew - 6 I thought we played really well. Petrov and NRC put pressure on Chelsea for the whole game and the Blues rarely settled into their usual full-flowing style. Carew played well in parts of the game but he loses a few marks because he wasn't on his toes enough! If Gabby, or even Heskey, had been in his place then we would have had one or two extra scoring opportunities from when NRC and Petrov put pressure on Chelsea's midfield. Ireland played okay. He came up with some good, one-touch passes and created a few chances for the team but, in my opinion, he's still not fully match fit and a 100% fit Ireland would have pressured Chelsea's defence a lot more. Downing was my MOTM. I've been a Downing fan from the start because of the way he controls the ball and is positionally excellent. Today he did his usual stuff but also showed that he has pace when he needs it! I was glad to hear the guys around me saying "This is the Downing that we want to see!" instead of the usual "Downing is a pansy". Houllier picked the right tactics (though I hope that he wouldn't have swapped Ireland for Albrighton if Marc has been fit) and even though I was a little shocked when I saw Clark come on instead of Cuellar, it was a great move and I'm sure Clark has gained a great deal of confidence in keeping a clean sheet against the League Champions. Houllier - 9 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bully Posted October 17, 2010 Share Posted October 17, 2010 Supporters 0. Our support IS **** shit, absolutely no atmosphere yesterday whatsoever. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
theunderstudy Posted October 17, 2010 Share Posted October 17, 2010 So were you singing all the way through and making noise Bully? I don't understand people at the game criticising atmosphere. You make your own. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
markavfc40 Posted October 17, 2010 Share Posted October 17, 2010 Supporters 0. Our support IS **** shit, absolutely no atmosphere yesterday whatsoever. I'm with Bully on this. Worst atmosphere I can remember for a big game that we were in with a shout of winning all the way through. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mtb_wm Posted October 17, 2010 Share Posted October 17, 2010 So were you singing all the way through and making noise Bully? I don't understand people at the game criticising atmosphere. You make your own. 1 person isn't really going to make much of a difference. The atmosphere was shit, fact. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
theunderstudy Posted October 17, 2010 Share Posted October 17, 2010 Yeah but if so many people AT THE GAME thinks its shit.... then stop whinging and start singing. How does complaining help the atmosphere? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Shillzz Posted October 17, 2010 Share Posted October 17, 2010 No problem. I like Clark, he's a cracking young lad, would rather see him and Cuellar play together in all honesty. Would have liked to have seen Bannan, with the right tutelage, this guy could be massive. (Figuratively of course.) Watched Bannan playing around at half time, the kid has some skills! I think Houllier was pretty close to bringing him on but decide to go for Sidwell as a more defensive approach. I wouldn't be against bringing him in inplace of Ireland at some point in the future. Not on 606, should I be? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Milfner Posted October 17, 2010 Share Posted October 17, 2010 I thought it was the best it's been for a while in the Upper Holte, says it all really. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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