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Ratings & Reactions Villa 0-0 Chelsea


limpid

Who was your man of the match?  

160 members have voted

  1. 1. Who was your man of the match?

    • Friedel
      1
    • Warnock
      20
    • Dunne
      0
    • Beye
      2
    • Collins
      11
    • Downing
      65
    • A Young
      4
    • Ireland
      1
    • Petrov
      16
    • Reo-Coker
      28
    • Carew
      0
    • Clark (for Dunne 13)
      10
    • Delfouneso (for Carew 74)
      1
    • Sidwell (for Ireland 84)
      1


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Warnock was my man of the match just pipping collins.

I didn't think Ireland was that convincing in the hole. I'd rather see Ash there. mind you he did have useless Carew in front of him nothing sticking.

If we had a decent striker on the pitch we'd have won.

The two early chances were gilt edged. Oh well it's a good point.

Wish Agbonlahor was fit.

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I thought Warnock was excellent today, it was a really good performance from him. Downing, Reo Coker and Young also looked sharp and Petrov kept the discipline of our shape well.

The ref got a little more Chelsea in the second half as you might expect when you're playing the worlds second richest team in the worlds richest television programme and it says everything about the standard of refereeing nowadays that I was barely surprised at how poor he was.

We look good at the back and lively in the middle and I liked that we seem to be keeping the ball better - up front though we've got a bit of trouble.

Carew was a shadow of himself again today and I don't think we'll see the full version again. With Agbonlahor and Heskey injured, that leaves us with a little problem because it means Houllier might just be forced to trust his season to a teenage striker - that's far from ideal and a big risk, regardless of what people think of Nathan's potential. The club needs two strikers in the summer.

Overall though, I think we're looking pretty decent and I think we can do well in our next three games - there's plenty to look forward to based on todays performance.

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+

Warnock was awesome. Been a bit critical of him in recent weeks but nothing got past him apart from the silly foul he gave away for the yellow. My MOTM.

Petrov was a warrior in the first half, went in several challenges and won most of them.

Clark came in and was totally unphased, I love how composed the guy is and can pick a pass.

Downing continues to perform well and really helped Beye defensively. Put in a few good tackles which shows he has balls ;)

We played some lovely football at times.

-

Carew was statue-esque.

We're still not taking our chances.

Dunne looked like he had a bad injury. His socks were ripped through and had a massive gash on his ankle.

We tired too early as usual but it'll take time for Houllier to improve this.

Beye worries me at right back, he's generally solid but always looks like he has a mistake in him.

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Good performance today, defended well and it was nice to see us passing the ball around albeit mostly backwards and sideways, but I feel against the likes of Blackburn, Wolves etc we will outpass the. Downing was my MOTM because of his brilliant Defensive work keeping Cole Quiet and he wasn't bad going forward either. One thing that annoys me in the stands is the amount of times that Ireland is ignored, he is always in space and pointing to where he wants the ball but he never seems to get it passed to him unless its last resort but when he got the ball today he used it well and put some good through balls into the channels

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and i actually think the ref was ok today, which tells you everything you need to know about the standard of reffing at the moment...
A few badduns but not amongst the worst performances we will see this year.
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Put Clark as motm. Probably wasn't, but I like what I see from him. I think he deserved it. Though, Downing was probably better. One of his best games for us.

:lol: :?

What is the point in having a man of the match poll if you don't pick the best player?

Just that I was impressed by him and felt that I wanted to give it to him. :) For me he certainly was one of the best anyway. It was hard to pick today, IMO.

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Both sides had chances but I'd actually say we had the better ones, with NRC's and Ireland's shots both beating the keeper and only going just wide as opposed to Chelsea's shots that were mostly blocked or saved outright.

Glad to see Downing doing what he can do now, beating players and making nice passes and even making some great defensive tackles.

Ireland I thought was rather invisible but everytime he touched the ball he did well with intelligent passes and flicks. With more time and if he gets his form back and sees more of the ball in games, he could really add something to our attack.

Carew, didn't do much as usual apart from losing the ball everytime. Even if he did win the ball he'd have a foul given against him anyway and the ball still goes back to Chelsea.

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Pretty happy with that.

Not a great game that suddenly came to life in the last 15 minutes. Chelsea were crap yet will still win this league with ease.

Very good clean sheet for the defence especially as I think Warnock pulled up at the end and still battled on. Collins was my MOTM, tremendous performance. I'd have put Carlos on ahead of Clark but young Clark's performance apart from a few sloppy performances showed why Centre half is comfortably the strongest area at our club.

The main thing really is we need Gabby back a.s.a.p (or anyone other than Carew in the lone forward role). That's when you'll see the best of Ireland, who I thought showed some glimpses of his ability but needs a pacy forward to make the most of those good throughballs.

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My thoughts on today:

Solid performance from the boys. Special mention to Beye, who was virtually written off prior to today; Warnock, who has copped some flack recently; and Clark who is a toddler in centre half terms but along with a lion hearted James Collins kept out a team who have scored a whopping 81 goals this year.

Downing looked decent and was whipping around some good balls. When he was on the right he helped Beye keep Ashley Cole quiet, which is no mean feat so pats on the back there.

Reo-Coker: Don't give a toss about his 93rd minute miss. His value to the team is not in his finishing abilty, but his phenominal engine and desire to get up and down the pitch like a demon, harry, harrass and niggle the opposition into making a mistake and helping us win the ball back. His technique and passing has improved immensely in the last few games too and for me he should be one of the first names on the team sheet next match.

Ireland: He was banging his head against a brick wall trying to play with Carew today. He looked at his best when linking with Ashley Young and may look better with a pacy striker who can move like Gabby. Showed touches of class though, and I firmly believe he will come good.

I'm not going to give individual ratings as today they were a real team. Today the team gets 8 out of 10.

And no hoofball again either!!!!!

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Good performance, worked hard and played well especially 1st half. Downing MOTM, Warnock as good also. Need a bit more in the middle still and a striker badly, Carew let the rest of the team down tbh. Fonz was ok but is also a bit lazy imo.

Chindie not exactly sure what you mean mate, Chelsea couldn't have been cantering, they weren't winning the game.

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Not read any of the other posts so I don't get tainted and this is how I saw it from the very corner of the Trinity.

Friedel - 8 - Did everything he had to perfectly and was absolutely rock solid even with an unfamiliar 4 in front of him. Closed down brilliantly when they were through a few times and made one fantastic save. Very confident with kicking etc.

Beye - 7 - An extra point because he hasn't played for a while and was dropped in the deep end. Committed himself too quickly into challenges a few times which left us open but was positionally sound.

Collins - 9 - Covered for everyone else and had to lead the inexperienced Clark beside him. Couple of magnificent blocks as is usually the case.

Clark - 8 - Slightly shaky at times but did very well considering the occasion and having no preparation time. Very confident in possession and uses the ball well. A clean sheet against Chelsea is no mean feat.

Warnock - 9 - Tied with 2 others for MOTM. Committed, dangerous when attacking, solid when defending. You'd pick the wrong England LB from that showing.

Young - 6 - Not especially effective. Tried hard but ultimately came up against a good RB who he couldn't get the better of. Ref accused him of diving early on and he was whinging a lot after that.

Reo-Coker - 7 - Solid, stopped their midfield on the edge of our box which he was there for. Looked nicely comfortable in possession and showed some nice touches. Unfortunately we also saw some of the old NRC with some pretty poor passes and that 1 on 1 near the end was really bad, to force the keeper to make a save is one thing but to just run it straight into him is not good.

Petrov - 9 - Tied for MOTM. Really had a point to prove and put his body on the line on a number of occasions. Tireless, worked hard and didn't waste a pass all night.

Downing - 9 - So, so impressed with Downing tonight. So confident and direct, the only one who would actually take a full back on and got the better of him quite a few times. Went in hard a few times to show people he isn't afraid to get a knock. I actually think he's faster than Gabby.

Ireland - 8 - Nice touches, made some stuff happen and showed promise. Hope he continues to flourish in the hole when he can get a bit more space.

Carew - 5 - It's not that he didn't try, he obviously did but he looks a crock. He looks like he can't run and doesn't have the greatest of touches these days.

Sidwell and Delfouneso both did alright, the game was petering out by the time both came on anyway.

Houllier - 8 - The perfect tactics to nullify the strong Chelsea midfield and subs at the right time. It's like MON taught the players how to be well-organised and solid and now Houllier is bringing the flair out. I'm really impressed with how much more comfortable everyone is on the ball and how we pass and move really well. Pretty soon we're gonna destroy some unlucky team.

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