cbr600rr Posted December 11, 2010 Share Posted December 11, 2010 full marks to gh,im no gh fan as you know,however gh played cc & made a brave move by dropping dunne & luke young,cc played well,heskeys return is a welcome,much needed 3 points..well done the villa boys & well gone gh Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
o'lbs Posted December 11, 2010 Share Posted December 11, 2010 first half it was all bag head. they hit the underside of the bar and generally caused us problems. targetting the useless stephen warnock. Hogg had a great game. bannan was poor, Cuellar was awesome. Great to have heskey back. looks like they've abandoned frenchmans patient build up at the back and gone direct. common sense prevails. 2nd half it was us asking the questions. But we took the goals well. badly needed 3 points even if it was only west brom. Frenchman gets a stay of execution Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
juanpabloangel18 Posted December 11, 2010 Share Posted December 11, 2010 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 - . ''excellent finish''? you're joking right? Thought Heskey was poor today, could/should have scored more. probs did better than carew would have tho Other than just about every word not being a true reflection of reality that's a great post. He wasn't poor, he made a huge difference to our play, he had a coule of chances to score and converted one showing excellent awareness and reactions to do so and there is no "probably" about him doing better than that useless, lazy word removed Carew would have done. The ball hit him, hence why he was smirking for about 20 mins afterwards Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AVFC-Prideofbrum Posted December 11, 2010 Share Posted December 11, 2010 It didn't hit him, he deflected it in with a cute little header. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
juanpabloangel18 Posted December 11, 2010 Share Posted December 11, 2010 well we'll see on MOTD. Regardless, can't wait for Gabby back, though I fear we may miss Hesk's useful aerial ability in the scrappier matches (such as today) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
saturdaygig Posted December 11, 2010 Share Posted December 11, 2010 Hmm, if we'd have lost with a performance like that it would have been slated on here. There's a long way to go at the moment. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
OutByEaster? Posted December 11, 2010 Moderator Share Posted December 11, 2010 Heskey was smiling because Collins had claimed it and was being mobbed by the team - I don't think he could quite believe that no one had noticed him nod it home! I though Hogg was brilliant today, he really got about them and gave us some fight - he was the engine for us today. It's funny, but with him behind them and Heskey in front of them, our three wingers suddenly looked very dangerous indeed. We were good enough today, not fantastic, but it's a start, and given the circumstances that's as much as we could hope for. Oh and Ashley Young should keep the arm band, he was an excellent Captain today and I thought he had a very good game. Halsey was poor but resisted the temptation to make any major decisions with only his bottling of sending off Jara really having any impact on proceedings. I loved the thirty seconds he spent waving his arms around at a throw in while players from both sides tried to figure out what it was he'd given and what he wanted them to do. Prat. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
paddy Posted December 11, 2010 Share Posted December 11, 2010 `We won, reasonably comfortably against an in form side. Can't complain at that. I went with Lichaj as MOTM, ok so he didn't win us the game but sitting in the front row of the DE down near the Holte I got the chance to have a good look at him up against he impressive Thomas and he did admirably, very promising performance I thought. Honourable mentions for Downing, Ash, Heskey and Albrighton. Mrc was out the game for long periods yet came up with two assists and almost grabbe a goal. Can't argue with that! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
darrenm Posted December 11, 2010 Share Posted December 11, 2010 The only real problems I still see in our play are quite easy to fix and they are: 1. Inviting pressure so easily by taking a long easy ball out. There was an instance right near the end at 2-1 where CC hit a lazy long ball which got intercepted and we were suddenly under pressure and it was almost inevitable that they would score but thankfully they didn't. There's always a better ball than an aimless long one, unless there's someone making a good run, or it's too much of a decent space to run into etc. 2. Going wide when there's no need and handing the ball off too early. Lot's of times when one of our players has a large space to run into, and build up a head of steam to run at a defender, they'll lay it off to someone and any momentum is lost. If there's a space to run into, run into it! Other little things are, take Ashley off dead ball duty and put him on the edge of the box, go back to MON's style of zonal marking at corners, and don't run into blind alleys on the touchline where the ball could go backwards a little and moved across the field into space. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rjw63 Posted December 11, 2010 Share Posted December 11, 2010 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? Dont forget the NRC twins Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Brumstopdogs Posted December 11, 2010 Share Posted December 11, 2010 Great performance from Albrighton - such a talented player! Pleased to see Cuellar play, and Ashley Young and Downing had good games. Good to see Houllier dropped Dunne. After seeing him smiling when we lost to Blackburn and his gutless performance (for a captain) vs Liverpool hopefully he stays on the bench for a while. The most important thing is the 3 points - let's follow this up with another 3 vs Wigan! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Maradona10 Posted December 11, 2010 Share Posted December 11, 2010 The result was all that mattered today and we got it! Fantastic performances from Cuellar, Heskey, Hogg and Lichaj. Credit to Houllier as the pressure was immense! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CitizenBlue Posted December 11, 2010 Share Posted December 11, 2010 Well done today, Villans. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Maradona10 Posted December 11, 2010 Share Posted December 11, 2010 Cheers CB, your team didn't do too bad either! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
KiwiVillain Posted December 11, 2010 Share Posted December 11, 2010 We were very poor and on the balance of play lucky to get a win. I thought Heskey was excellent, he worked tirelessly both up front and getting back to help the defence. Our midfield was terrible today. Bannan had one his worst games since making the 1st team and Hogg was average at best. Who the hell has been teaching these guys to tackle??? The number of times they went down on their arses and got beaten was a joke. The first thing your taught when defending is stay on your feet and we were woefully inept at this basic skill, diving in and committing to the tackle when their was bugger all chance of winning the ball. Downing had another great game tonight was my MoM with Heskey close behind. Ashley Young is NOT a central player and he is a major issue for me. Young is at his best when he is playing wide and getting balls into the box or cutting in from wide and having a shot. Since he has moved more central he is far less effective. He is not strong enough to hold the ball up centrally, doesn't run off a big striker effectively, rarely scores these days and can't tackle so why is he there? I would rather see him on the left wing with Downing in the middle alongside Bannan, Reo-Coker and Albrighton in a 4-5-1. Anyway, here are my ratings: Friedel - 5 - Average performance and need to improve Lichaj - 5 - Not a bad game but needs to concentrate for 90 mins Collins - 6 - Much better game today Cuellar - 6 - Did okay for first game back in some time Warnock - 6 - Did a lot better today Downing - 8 MOTM - Excellent, worked hard, used the ball well and was always a danger Bannan - 4 - Bad night tonight, looked tired and was a little slow Hogg - 3 - Awful tackling, crap marking and passing was non-existent Albrighton - 7 - Did well and always looked a threat Young - 4 - Apart from win a bunch of free kicks, pretty much ran around like a chicken without head....and that stupid f...ing snood...what a clearing in the woods! Heskey - 8 - Great game form the big man, worked really hard, had a few bad touches but was really impressed. Reo-Coker - 6 - looked good for the shortv time on Delfouneso - 2 - did nothng and adds nothing Herd - not on long enough to rate Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
heskeygoalmachine Posted December 11, 2010 Share Posted December 11, 2010 young 4? are you serious??? he has a good game today one of the best on the pitch i would give him at least a 7, hogg def wasnt a 3/10. What game was you watching??/ Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
markavfc40 Posted December 11, 2010 Share Posted December 11, 2010 We won which was all that mattered today. A neutral would say West Brom deserved at least a point but **** that we put the ball in the back of the net twice and they only did it once so we deserved to win. Performance was OK I thought. Looked fairly solid at the back, Cuellar did really well and Collins looked back to his old self throwing himself in front of everything. Thought Lichaj struggled against Thomas first half but much better second half. Ash had a very good game as did Albrighton. Bannan was very quite. Heskey held the ball up really well and as gone from 3rd/4th choice to now being our second best forward behind Gabby. Crowd very muted first half. Much better in the second half especially the last half hour. Just nice to win now bring on Wigan and two wins on the bounce for the first time this season. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Maradona10 Posted December 11, 2010 Share Posted December 11, 2010 KV, extremely harsh considering we played a team who were very high on confidence, they've beaten Arsenal and Everton away so it was not guaranteed, it was a game we had to grind out and we did grind it out! I love the lucky bit, considering we've not had any since the season started! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cheltenham_villa Posted December 11, 2010 Share Posted December 11, 2010 thought Hogg has a great game, the bit of bite you need in a final. Would also let Ashley Young keep the captaincy, i think he gives you an extra 10% as captain and raises his game. Petrov i also think is an excellent captain but will give you a solid performance whether captain or not. Glad we hung on, not the best performance but much improved. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
VILLAFC2000 Posted December 11, 2010 Share Posted December 11, 2010 Hey all - Great to get back to winning ways today. I thought it was great to have CC and NRC back into the team he added composure and stability at the back. Its great news that over the next couple of weeks we will begin to get some of our squad back to full fitness! Does any one know if we well get any transfer funds over the January transfer window! I heard we may have 30 million - what do you think? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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