Ratings and Reactions: villa 2-1 west brom

[troon_villan]

Soon we'll be able to play:

-----------------------FRIEDEL----------------------------------

---LICHAJ---------CUELLAR------COLLINS------WARNOCK-----

---ALBRIGHTON---PETROV-----DOWNING-----A.YOUNG-----

--------------------AGBONLAHOR---HESKEY--------------------

With a bench of:

GUZAN, YOUNG, DUNNE, NRC, PETROV, NRC, DELPH, CAREW.

Ain't bad to me. And that's without anyone arriving.

no thanks, that central midfield pair would get walked all over

Martin Petrov on the bench?

[shambles]

Not troubled much by Albion and if NRC had done his job on the post, we'd have had a clean sheet. Nice to see Cuellar back and we looked much more solid. Downing and Albrighton joint MOM for me. That 4-2-3-1 with Hogg and NRC mopping up and Abrighton, Downing and Young attacking with Heskey up front works well. Let's see what happens against Wigan tomorrow.

[NowDoINotLikeThat]

Soon we'll be able to play:

-----------------------FRIEDEL----------------------------------

---LICHAJ---------CUELLAR------COLLINS------WARNOCK-----

---ALBRIGHTON---PETROV-----DOWNING-----A.YOUNG-----

--------------------AGBONLAHOR---HESKEY--------------------

With a bench of:

GUZAN, YOUNG, DUNNE, NRC, PETROV, NRC, DELPH, CAREW.

Ain't bad to me. And that's without anyone arriving.

Downing in the middle ?

No - hes best out wide.

And two Petrovs?

[dudevillaisnice]

Not troubled much by Albion and if NRC had done his job on the post, we'd have had a clean sheet. Nice to see Cuellar back and we looked much more solid. Downing and Albrighton joint MOM for me. That 4-2-3-1 with Hogg and NRC mopping up and Abrighton, Downing and Young attacking with Heskey up front works well. Let's see what happens against Wigan tomorrow.

We play Wigan tomorrow?!

[Texas_Mike]

Much better. I am not going to say anybody was bad and that includes Collins. We defended as a team today and didn't look too bad going forward. WBA can play football and we had to work hard to stop them. But you know what... we did, and in the 2nd half were easily the better team.

[Rodders]

player by player*

*caveat that this is based on 2nd half watching.

Friedel 6 - did ok, think he missed a cross or two, goal couldn't be helped from him I think

warnock - 5 - so sad he's a shadow of the player he was when he joined. Will be replaced in January rather than summer i think

Cuellar 7.5 - excellent, slip did lead to goal as mentioned, but again not a direct mess up, and overall was far more composed than Dunne's been.

Collins 7 - seemed decent enough occasionally a bit loose maybe.

Lichaj - 6.6 - not bad at all, as I think was suggested elsewhere, might be worth keeping him there and putting Luke at left back whilst Warnock's off the boil

Downing - 7 - good energy and passing, room for improvement still mind

ashley young 8 - really don't see why people think ashley definitely wants out, tremendous energy, showed real heart out there in a ball busting display

bannan 6 - didn't seem too much of him, quiet game for the lad, a bit of a 'steve davis'

hogg - 6 - likewise didn't see him do anything wrong

Albrighton 8 - such a vital asset to the team with some utterly dangerous balls, a pleasure to watch!

Heskey - 7.5 excellent finish and showed his value by providing a useful outlet up front, lacking some sharpness at times with a couple of typical "crap heskey" moments - but will be sharper at Wigan. Good lad Emile.

subs -

NRC - 6 - good to see him back, I expect he'll start over Hogg next week now. As for the corner - was it a big error? Think I'll need to see it again, was a good header from the west brom chap I think

delfouneso / herd - not on long enough.

Houllier 8 - well done on the 3 points! Was what we needed, in the circumstances, nerves were not surprising, but hopefully we'll be more secure at Wigan. Sensible substitutions too I thought.

Well done all round, let's carry on lifting the doom and gloom and go and try and carry on our good record at Wigan's ground!

heskey, albrighton and nigel reo coker all coming back is really important.

Also I do wonder about Gabby going straight into the line up next week, think I'd start him from the bench.

[Niall]

Not troubled much by Albion and if NRC had done his job on the post, we'd have had a clean sheet. Nice to see Cuellar back and we looked much more solid. Downing and Albrighton joint MOM for me. That 4-2-3-1 with Hogg and NRC mopping up and Abrighton, Downing and Young attacking with Heskey up front works well. Let's see what happens against Wigan tomorrow.

Bit harsh on Nigel!! He almost did his hamstring trying to stop that. Fault was the inability of our defence to jump for that ball allowing Sharnar a free header..

[Sani]

I thought Warnock was bad again, owned every time Tchoyi got the ball which, fortunately for us, wasnt very often.

[Gringo]

Soon we'll be able to play:

-----------------------FRIEDEL----------------------------------

---LICHAJ---------CUELLAR------COLLINS------WARNOCK-----

---ALBRIGHTON---PETROV-----DOWNING-----A.YOUNG-----

--------------------AGBONLAHOR---HESKEY--------------------

With a bench of:

GUZAN, YOUNG, DUNNE, NRC, PETROV, NRC, DELPH, CAREW.

Ain't bad to me. And that's without anyone arriving.

Where did the Petrov twins come from?

[bose]

I thought Warnock was bad again, owned every time Tchoyi got the ball which, fortunately for us, wasnt very often.

Yeah he was poor yet again. We need a new left back fast.

[Delphouneso]

i've never rated Collins, but at the moment he and Dunne are as bad as eachother, the one deciding factor for me is that Collins seems to care more, and currently that's enough to warrant his place over Dunne, there's nothing like watching him celebrate a Villa goal, it's like having a fan on the pitch. as stated above Cuellar reads the game much better than both of them, and next game with Clark back from suspension I'd like to see a CB pairing of him & Cuellar.

[Ponky]

Back 4 looked pretty solid for me. Lichaj had a good debut but still let Thomas get away from him a few too many times. The big difference having Carlos there is that, apart from that one occasion, he meets every ball and times his clearances perfectly. No fresh-air shots and hacked clearances from Carlos.

I gave Downing as MOTM, but could have easily given it to Albrighton. Hesky looked well off the pace in front of goal but his aerial and defensive work were a god-send.

Halsey was his usual incompetent self. Jara could have easily been sent off twice over and I thought Scharner's hack at Young's ankle deserved more than a laugh and a stern talking to.

And what was with the time-keeping - I swear they initially showed 3 minutes time added and then changed it to 4 - sneaky buggers!

[Brumerican]

Not troubled much by Albion and if NRC had done his job on the post, we'd have had a clean sheet. Nice to see Cuellar back and we looked much more solid. Downing and Albrighton joint MOM for me. That 4-2-3-1 with Hogg and NRC mopping up and Abrighton, Downing and Young attacking with Heskey up front works well. Let's see what happens against Wigan tomorrow.

Bit harsh on Nigel!! He almost did his hamstring trying to stop that. Fault was the inability of our defence to jump for that ball allowing Sharnar a free header..

If he had stayed on the post he wouldn't have had to attempt the splits

[mtb_wm]

Not troubled much by Albion and if NRC had done his job on the post, we'd have had a clean sheet.

Bit harsh on Nigel!! He almost did his hamstring trying to stop that. Fault was the inability of our defence to jump for that ball allowing Sharnar a free header..

No, not at all. If Nigel had been on his post in the correct position he wouldn't have had to move to clear the ball. Sure, he tried stretching but that was because he left his post.

[snowychap]

Where did the Petrov twins come from?

Bulgaria. 8)

[HJ]

Not troubled much by Albion and if NRC had done his job on the post, we'd have had a clean sheet. Nice to see Cuellar back and we looked much more solid. Downing and Albrighton joint MOM for me. That 4-2-3-1 with Hogg and NRC mopping up and Abrighton, Downing and Young attacking with Heskey up front works well. Let's see what happens against Wigan tomorrow.

Bit harsh on Nigel!! He almost did his hamstring trying to stop that. Fault was the inability of our defence to jump for that ball allowing Sharnar a free header..

NRC stepped away from the post when the corner came in, it was moronic from him and he would have prevented the goal if he had just stood there like he was supposed to.

[ED]

Soon we'll be able to play:

-----------------------FRIEDEL----------------------------------

---LICHAJ---------CUELLAR------COLLINS------WARNOCK-----

---ALBRIGHTON---PETROV-----DOWNING-----A.YOUNG-----

--------------------AGBONLAHOR---HESKEY--------------------

With a bench of:

GUZAN, YOUNG, DUNNE, NRC, PETROV, NRC, DELPH, CAREW.

Ain't bad to me. And that's without anyone arriving.

Where did the Petrov twins come from?

Not to mention the NRC twins

[Gringo]

Could you imagine the stick the manager would get for not playing either NRC?

[jonno_2004]

Soon we'll be able to play:

-----------------------FRIEDEL----------------------------------

---LICHAJ---------CUELLAR------COLLINS------WARNOCK-----

---ALBRIGHTON---PETROV-----DOWNING-----A.YOUNG-----

--------------------AGBONLAHOR---HESKEY--------------------

With a bench of:

GUZAN, YOUNG, DUNNE, NRC, PETROV, NRC, DELPH, CAREW.

Ain't bad to me. And that's without anyone arriving.

Where did the Petrov twins come from?

I didn't realise Reo-Coker had cloned himself either.

[tommo]

Soon we'll be able to play:

-----------------------FRIEDEL----------------------------------

---LICHAJ---------CUELLAR------COLLINS------WARNOCK-----

---ALBRIGHTON---PETROV-----DOWNING-----A.YOUNG-----

--------------------AGBONLAHOR---HESKEY--------------------

With a bench of:

GUZAN, YOUNG, DUNNE, NRC, PETROV, NRC, DELPH, CAREW.

Ain't bad to me. And that's without anyone arriving.

Where did the Petrov twins come from?

Nathan Reo Coker's a good prospect, although I'd have Nigel in the side. Wouldn't have both on the bench. Not sure where the Fonz is here, and have we signed Martin Petrov??