jonno_2004 Posted February 5, 2011 Share Posted February 5, 2011 Aston Villa boss Gerard Houllier: "We just have to blame ourselves for not keeping that result [from 1-0 and 2-1 up] but there were more positives from the game for us. I can take pride from the football and effort we put in at times." Sorry GH, I'm one of your biggest supporters on here, but this is nonsense. The football was piss-poor and the effort all came from Fulham. More work needed.Very much agree, there is vast improvement needed in these sort of games across the board. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
zapbranny Posted February 5, 2011 Share Posted February 5, 2011 Petrov Scapegoating is getting tiresome. If in doubt, and you've not been able to find a good enough stream to make an informed opinion, blame Petrov. Are you defending him because he is getting criticised or because you thought he played well today? I watched all game today and I thought he was poor, against Man Utd I thought he was poor. He is not the only one playing poorly, and he hasn't been crap all season but there are too many games where he looks knackered and off the pace. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
YankeeinMadrid Posted February 5, 2011 Share Posted February 5, 2011 Petrov doesn't deserve to start, fact. Not scapegoating him, he was CRAP. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jonno_2004 Posted February 5, 2011 Share Posted February 5, 2011 Petrov doesn't deserve to start, fact. Not scapegoating him, he was CRAP.Careful.. it's ignorant to have an opinion contrary to Petrov being MOTM apparently.. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dudevillaisnice Posted February 5, 2011 Share Posted February 5, 2011 Back from the match (wasn't intending on going but luckily I could still buy a ticket so I decided to go for it) ... Attendances are dropping rapidly but its expected I guess. my observations : Petrov shouldn't start, he did OK today but doesn't merit a start, Gabby should be placed in the hole or upfront or dropped. Friedel's age showed today, he, like the rest of the squad are inconsistent. Makoun should've been subbed second half but he did well. I get the feeling Ash Young is playing for himself not the team aswell, at times he looked an invididual player on the pitch who wants to prove a point the big teams or something.. something is up there for sure, I don't expect him to stay anyway. Heskey didn't really do much besides clear a corner, Albrighton looked lively and imo should've started. Our Midfield is still weak, we cannot rely on Petrov and Makoun, I hope Bradley is ready, I also hope bannan is training with the first team squad. We need someone like Milner.. Oh actually, for the 2nd goal (fulham goal) it was a header which went in the left side of the net... no one was even marking the posts, if someone was there it would've been cleared off the line, defending wise our positioning is woeful at times, especially at set pieces. So all in all it was a poor performance and when we went 2-1 up I did fully expect us to drop the points anyway, it really is predictable now. I just want this season over and done with. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Shillzz Posted February 5, 2011 Share Posted February 5, 2011 I'm not saying Petrov was great, but he was far from the worst player on the pitch. Gabby, Friedel, Young and even Clark were all far more culpable. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
briggaman Posted February 5, 2011 Share Posted February 5, 2011 On my way back from that shit game. First 30ish minutes we looked good and when we scored I thought we would turn the screw. We didn't though and ended up paying the price. Our passing was great at times but we just can't break a defence down well enough. Young isn't good enough to play in the hole. He can't play the killer ball and is too weak. He should be back out on the wing where he belongs. Gabby isn't a winger. Bent isn't getting enough service and it may sound harsh but he should have stayed onside for that early 'goal' he scored. Friedel was poor and cost us the match. MOTM for me would be between Makoun and Downing. Both shone at parts of the match, although nobody was consistant throughout. Walker's goal was a cracker as well. We are still a work in progress and you can tell. We still should have beaten thrm today though and it's simply not good enough... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
brummybloke Posted February 5, 2011 Share Posted February 5, 2011 yet again players played out of position can anyone give a proper reason why gabby is being played as a left winger when we have 2 players who have played that position for england in the team? why is ashley young being played off the front man? how many goals has he scored in his career playing in this position compaired to playing on the wing? how many assists has he got playing this position against on the wing? why is downing playing on the right? what is his strongest foot? where did he play for england? how many crosses did he deliver today? downing crossed the ball in i think 2 times, 1 went to a villa player the other went wide. so he is there to cross the ball in and win free kicks around the box? how many times has this happened in the time he has played on the right? yes he has set up 2 goals from crossing on the right, wooopdeee do, when he plays on the left he can get 6 per game, how many chances and free kicks would he win then? i am pretty sure it would be at least 3 times the amount he is producing at the moment. and when he went into the middle? nothing, they went straight through us like there was no one there. downing is great... on the left of midfield downing is SHIT everywhere else. having 3 of our most dangerous players all in their wrong positions seems **** stupid to say the least, almost like it is the 2 characters from the film trading places, betting on seeing if they can make someone who is no good in a position great and someoe who is great, shit. today i see this as a HUGE 2 points lost, almost like a defeat for me, i feel totally deflated ratings friedel - 5 some super slo mo play today, after his heroics against man utd to keep the score down he then plays like a mong. walker - 6 - he gets a 6 because you could see him thinking " petrov you [unt stop playing it **** backwards you negative ****" and then ran from the half way line before tw@ing the ball from 25 yards into the corner of the net, he would have got a better score had he crossed at least 1 of the 4 or 5 he hit, vaguely near a villa player collins - 6 - some good challenges mixed in with some truelly **** shit passing, cuellar needs to be brought back in, since he was dropped we have conceded 5 in 2 games, coincidence? i dont think so. dunne-5- oh dear, another bad day at the office, one of the **** chuckle brothers wil have to make way for king carlos because they have not got an understanding at all. clarke-6.5- the best out of the 4 for his defensive play today, he kept duff quiet but needed help down the flank and without having a player who knows how to play on the left side of midfield really didnt help him. makoun-7- was our best player in my opinion everything good going forwards, he was involved in, he was the midfielder willing to drop and take the ball from the defence, although collins took it upon himself to tw' the ball 60 yards to the other team mst of the time! he ran out of steam towards the end, got booked again for a fair challenge he won the ball in a 50-50 he deserves a player full of energy to appreciate his work and to supliment his tidy possesion petrov-5- oh dear, t least today he clapped the fans when he came off, another below performance from our captain. im not sure if he is carrying an injury becasue he is not even lasting his normal 60 minutes now and is becoming increasingly " downingified" ( passing the ball back from an attacking position, normally to a defender who is then facing our keeper and has to make a hurried pass under pressure from the opponents) gabby-4- he is not a winger, he is not a winger, he is not a winger, he is not a winger, he is not a winger, he is not a winger. downing-5.5- only gets a 5.5 because his great cross for the first goal apart from that he was total shit again, he is a fantastic player ON THE **** LEFT OF MIDFIELD, he is a **** shit player in the middle in a midfield 2 ( the last 13 minutes of todays game) and is shit on the right, for a winger to make 2 crosses per game is nothing short of **** wank. especially when even when he had the **** on his left foot he point blank refused to cross the ball into the box with heskey, bent, collins, dunne and clarke all **** waiting for the **** ball. i swear this man has put a bet on to get the best succesful passes stats on the opta ratings, this is the only reason i can give for him continually breaking down play ( although to be fare to him today 3 times he made a run, beat his man and then checked back onto his left foot and then........ passed the ball back 20 yards to a defender despite being level with the opponents goal area. he made 2 crosses today a left footed cross which we got the goal from and a right footed cross which was closeish to connecting with a player. 2 crosses? walker did more crosses than that and he is a **** defender. young-6- in the middle of the park he gets a 4, put him out wide it goes up to a 6. he can skin 1 player on the inside or outside, he cant dribble past 2 or 3 players in close proximity to each other. he can make dangerous runs at the back post ( as can downing when played on the proper side), he cant when he is in the middle, he can score goals, lose his man, drift inside, get involved, isolate single players and win games ON THE LEFT OF MIDFIELD, put him behing the lone striker and we have an average player on our hands. bent-5- i still think if we go by fifa rules, it was onside for his goal but he then hit a truelly sit shot with his left foot and missed a header although it looked slightly too high for him and slightly behind him. i did watch his movement which is a joy to behold, he reacts like a **** ninja, he needs chances though. play decent players in their proper positions and he will score a **** hat full. i honest think he should score a goal per game from the time we got him until the end of the season, with the service he SHOULD be getting. GH gets a 2out pf 10 for me today, he has had more than enough chance to see that these players either should play in their proper positions or be left on the bench becuase it is costing us points. i think gabby will be dropped for the next game because he likes us to keep posession and downing is seen to keep posession despite being a negative tool. next game MUST be brad walker cuellar dunne clark alby makoun young NRC downing bent IF we have to persist with downing in the team at least play the lad in a position he excells at and put young in the middle so he can ping it out wide rather than trying to beat 3 players and score which isnt going to happen. oh and let alby take the **** right footed freekicks and keep downing and young well away from them and breathe........................................................................................... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kurtsimonw Posted February 5, 2011 Share Posted February 5, 2011 I'm not saying Petrov was great, but he was far from the worst player on the pitch. Gabby, Friedel, Young and even Clark were all far more culpable. Now, now. Petrov not being MotM means he was shit. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Shillzz Posted February 5, 2011 Share Posted February 5, 2011 Motm was Walker for me. Dont agree with the Petrov scapegoating but we do need more energy in the centre of the park. NRC or Bradely will need to come in next game. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
alienvillan Posted February 5, 2011 Share Posted February 5, 2011 Our new striking force Agbonlahor-Bent-A Young was worse than our 3 men midfield. Without Downing's crossballs we had approximately zero activity in front of Fulham's goal. Even Walker's shot was from 30yards. And poor defending. Albrighton should have started. Cuellar should have started. Defence and attack 5. Midfield 7. IMO our midfield trio played well. Just because we struggled at both ends we probably would have needed NRC today, at least defensively. Friedel 5 Walker 7 Collins 5 Dunne 6 Clark 6 Downing 7.5 Petrov 6 Makoun 7 A Young 5 Bent 4 Agbonlahor 4 And this Albrighton---A Young---Downing ----------------Bent works better than any formation with Gabby on the flank. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
markavfc40 Posted February 5, 2011 Share Posted February 5, 2011 Just back for VP. We played OK first half and were piss poor in the second. Only players that can come out with any credit are Makoun, Petrov, Downing and Walker although Walker defensively again looked very suspect. Gabby is not a winger, Ash for me is not a second striker/in the hole player. Houllier really needs to stop **** about with this system and playign players out of position to accommodate it. Bent is what we expected - if he doesn't score he doesn't do a fat lot else which I don't have a problem with so long as he scores. Dunne was piss poor, Friedel made a right **** up for the goal. Apart for the two goals I don't remember many chances. In fact the second gola we scored wasn't really a chance so in terms of creating chances we created next to nothing. We looked clueless for the most and for me looking at Houlliers 21 league games as a whole its how we play more often than not so no surprise I guess Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
juanpabloangel18 Posted February 5, 2011 Share Posted February 5, 2011 Looking at the poll, no-one had a particularly good game. Petrov's done for me. Walker and Clark are poor defensively. Ash has been crap all season - fact. Misplaced many crucial passes. Doesn't have a clue in 'the hole'. Bent - pretty poor tbh. Gabby - poor, but what do you expect when you keep playing him out of position. Downing started well but faded with the rest of the team. CBs were ok. Brad cost us the points, though thats the least of our worries at the moment. I thought we were gonna push on today, I'm very disappointed. What concerns me the most is apparently how GH cannot see that what he is doing is not working. The shape, Gabby left, Ash in the hole, I just really don't like any of it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
VillanousOne Posted February 5, 2011 Share Posted February 5, 2011 Friedel (because we have no-one else) Cuellar, Collins, Dunne, Clark Downing, Makoun, Bannan, Young Heskey, Bent How that team does pick itself i'm not sure??? Albrighton, Delph and Gabby to come off the bench to change things up. I would happily see Delph start though and we have to wait and see what Bradley brings. We don't need two holding midfielders, let Makoun control midfield whilst Delph or Bannan provide a supply line to the fwds. People have seem to forgotten how much better we look when Heskey plays?? Also I like Walker but if Cuellar plays we concede less goals! Petrov wasn't that bad today but i prefer NRC anyday. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gringo Posted February 5, 2011 Share Posted February 5, 2011 Two games running where the team played quite awful, on tuesday Brad saved us from a beating, today he helped let slip two points. In the first half we were average and fulham were very poor - we should have capitalised then. Second half we were chasing shadows and there was a collective inability to string a few passes together. In the first half petrov was winning the ball and preventing sidwell and murphy take complete command, allowing J2M to run a few passes through. Bent, Gabby and Young were off the pace. In the second half Downing joined them and Stan struggled meaning J2M struggled. I'm not sure our back 5 really deserve that much criticism as it was the 6 in front of them that failed to nail the match. I'm quite happy with Clark at LB, learning to counter threats from different positions will serve him well in the future. Some may say that it was mistakes that cost us, but it was mistakes that gifted us two goals - apart from that they penetrated little with Schwarzer rarely troubled. A poor result, at home, against a poor team. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Svenne Posted February 5, 2011 Share Posted February 5, 2011 Petrov is good for 60 minutes approx, then he tires off. Sure he's very important to our team in the first place, but when he can't do himself justice why still leave him on? Exactly the same with Gabby on the wing. Useless!! He's not very tricky is he?? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
zapbranny Posted February 5, 2011 Share Posted February 5, 2011 I'm not saying Petrov was great, but he was far from the worst player on the pitch. Gabby, Friedel, Young and even Clark were all far more culpable. Now, now. Petrov not being MotM means he was shit. Gabby (played out of position) Friedel (too old) Young (played out of position) Clark (played out of position) Petrov ............. That's the difference, I can see why the others aren't playing well (that's Houlliers fault) I want to know what Petrov's excuse is? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jonno_2004 Posted February 5, 2011 Share Posted February 5, 2011 Interesting to see the opinions of those who went to the game. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
thunderball Posted February 5, 2011 Share Posted February 5, 2011 next game MUST be brad walker cuellar dunne clark alby makoun young NRC downing bent The next game must be: Brad (do we have anyone else?) Walker Collins Cuellar Clark Alby Makoun NRC Bradley Young Bent Subs: Heskey, Delfoneso, Bannan, Downing........ Looking forward to Young and Delph coming back. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kurtsimonw Posted February 5, 2011 Share Posted February 5, 2011 I'm not saying Petrov was great, but he was far from the worst player on the pitch. Gabby, Friedel, Young and even Clark were all far more culpable. Now, now. Petrov not being MotM means he was shit. Gabby (played out of position) Friedel (too old) Young (played out of position) Clark (played out of position) Petrov ............. That's the difference, I can see why the others aren't playing well (that's Houlliers fault) I want to know what Petrov's excuse is? The fact he has players playing out of position all around him? :? I think, and this goes for most, the movement off the ball is shocking. Downing and Walker will play a ball and move, but most of the others just play a pass and stand there. I know we aren't Arsenal, but what makes them so effective isn't their passing, it's the movement. They do play some great balls, but it's the quick movement of the players that makes an easy, simple, pass look superb. We need to do more of this all over the pitch. You can see the likes of Dunne, Petrov and Collins with tonnes of time on the ball, but with no movement what can they do? Watch them after they play a 'pointless' simple pass and they're holding their hands out as if to say 'what the hell can I do?'? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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