Ratings and Reactions

[KHV]

pre season is always hard to judge. I dont take into account the walsall game but the thing that worries me is that we have created nothing over the last three games at all. That is worrying its the same problem blues had last year under Mcleish lack of goals but more importantly total lack of creativity

[Shillzz]

What can we realistically take from pre-season? Yes it is all about fitness, but can we read anything into performances?

This preseason has, however, served to strengthen a few of the opinions I had on the squad from the closing stages of last season:

1 - Albrighton should be an impact player, rely on him for an entire season and we'll be in trouble.

2 - Bannan is the best of the youth players, Delph included.

3 - Ireland still doesnt want to put a committed shift in.

4 - Makoun will work well as part of a midfield 3, but is he THAT effective? Keeps us ticking, but is neither particularly good at attacking, nor defending. Yet he probably now claims the mantle of best CM at the club, with a certain amount of ease.

5 - Delfouneso will be a solid 4th choice striker, little more.

6 - We look leaderless without Petrov in the team

7 - Heskey remains one of the few to put a committed performance in every time he steps out onto the field, and should remain part of the squad because of this.

Really difficult to judge how meaningull any of these games will be, but as far as individual performances are concerned, I'm left unconvinced by a number of members of the squad.

[Danwichmann]

so having read through 4 pages, can anyone that was actually AT the game give us a lowdown ?

who played well ?

who didn't ?

My view was that we were incredibly mediocre. No one looked horrendous, but no one stood out either. We didn't look motivated for the most part and Derby certainly wanted it much more.

Guzan made a couple of decent saves. Came for a few crosses, none of which were that testing.

Full backs, don't know which was which. The number 27 tried to make some good runs forward.

Centre backs, didn't dominate but either may have looked better alongside a 'clogger'.

Centre mid, some nice one touch stuff from Makoun but without much result. Delph also played decent passes. No bite in the middle from either of them and really need a tackler in there. Ireland made a few decent runs but also went missing a lot.

Wide players, Bannan was out of position, managed some good balls but also lost possession to easily. Albrighton didn't make a mark.

Bent upfront wasted one great chance one on one when he tried to beat too many players to put it onto his right and ended up attempting a poor pass to Bannan.

Subs: Delf ran about a lot without much produce. Gardner was pretty poor (can only remember him dribbling the wrong way before giving it away). Can't remember who else came on to be honest.

[Rob182]

I was at the game. My view was that it really was a training exercise.

How anyone can read too much into that game I don't know. We lost 1 goal because Lowry gave away a penalty. We lost the 2nd goal when our team was Guzan, Lowry, Beye, Clark, Herd, Bannan, Gardner, Hogg, Albrighton, Ireland & Delfouneso. Apart from Ireland & Albrighton, that's basically our reserves.

[kurtsimonw]

so having read through 4 pages, can anyone that was actually AT the game give us a lowdown ?

who played well ?

who didn't ?

Bannan was decent enough, but I felt like he and Ireland were always in each others way and there was very little width at all on the left as Lowry didn't get forward much. Makoun seemed very slow on the ball and got caught in posession alot. Delph was okay and got better after we went 1-0 down, starting to run with the ball and beat players, but then he got taken off.

One thing I didn't like as far too many bad challenges. Gardner and Hoggs in the 2nd half looked like they would have been reds in a PL game, but got let off as it was a friendly.

[dukes]

Man Utd lost 8-2 last night, I wonder if their fans are overreacting in the same way as we are ?

[Danwichmann]

Man Utd lost 8-2 last night, I wonder if their fans are overreacting in the same way as we are ?

As covered in another thread, that was a Man Utd XI that included Bartez, Ginola and a French pop star.

And Villa fans will always, ALWAYS, over react.

[Villamad08]

habib beye looked very god from where i was sitting last night

[Danwichmann]

habib beye looked very god from where i was sitting last night

I wouldn't say good, but didn't look worse than anyone else. He's not commanding enough to play at CB, especially alongside Clark who isn't commanding either. Hopefully he can be a useful part of the squad at RB this season.

[flatty]

What can we realistically take from pre-season? Yes it is all about fitness, but can we read anything into performances?

This preseason has, however, served to strengthen a few of the opinions I had on the squad from the closing stages of last season:

1 - Albrighton should be an impact player, rely on him for an entire season and we'll be in trouble.

2 - Bannan is the best of the youth players, Delph included.

3 - Ireland still doesnt want to put a committed shift in.

4 - Makoun will work well as part of a midfield 3, but is he THAT effective? Keeps us ticking, but is neither particularly good at attacking, nor defending. Yet he probably now claims the mantle of best CM at the club, with a certain amount of ease.

5 - Delfouneso will be a solid 4th choice striker, little more.

6 - We look leaderless without Petrov in the team

7 - Heskey remains one of the few to put a committed performance in every time he steps out onto the field, and should remain part of the squad because of this.

Really difficult to judge how meaningull any of these games will be, but as far as individual performances are concerned, I'm left unconvinced by a number of members of the squad.

Well first of all I was at the game last night and understand that friendlies are used to try out a few things and also gain fitness, this said it was the same for Derby and I think we all would expect to beat them even with the team we put out.

We didnt have Dunne and Collins in the side which removed the long balls from the back in the most part. Clarke I thought was tidy at the back last night.

first half Ireland Delph and Makoun played some nice one touch football and one twos etc. The problem was there wasnt really any outlet for it. we passed it nicely in the middle of the park but then it went no where.

Albrighton did okay in bursts but agree that he needs another season of being used as an impact player/being eased into the first team. Id like to see another winger come in.

Bannan is not in the same league as Delph for me, I think both have potential but Bannan really tends to at best drift in and out of games and last night I hardly knew he was on the pitch.

Ireland I thought did alright first half but in the second he looked like he was playing wide left and didnt appear interested in making too many runs.

Even taking into account these have been pre season games Im slightly concerned.

I think we need another winger, a CM, striker and a right back.

Im worried where our goals are going to come from. Bent we know is quality but where else are we going to get goals from? Losing Young and Downing will depleat us on that front. I think we need either a striker who can come in and contribute more than gabby/heskey or a midfielder whos capable of scoring and assisting his fair share.

Pre season is for working out where your at as a squad IMO. Can any of us really say we're happy with where we'er at? I think we need improvement.

[Hev]

Changing direction for a minute - did anyone else wait in the horrendous queue for food and drink - 35 mins to get served and missed the kick off!

[flatty]

so having read through 4 pages, can anyone that was actually AT the game give us a lowdown ?

who played well ?

who didn't ?

I was there and I would say the players that I had a decent game were:

Guzan: In all honesty I dont like him and when he plays i sh*t myself. This said last night he pulled off a couple of decent saves. A one on one in particular, he flap at a couple of crosses though.

Clarke: Looked tidy at the back, played the ball out rather than just clearing the ball to wherever.

Beye: Had a solid game actaully. Didnt do anything I could complain about that I recall.

Makoun: Nice short passing and hardly gave the ball away

Delph: Looked full of energy whilst he was on the pitch, linked well with Ireland and Makoun and the three of them were playing in triangles well.

Ireland: Im afraid :-) he had what I would call a decent game. First half he did well as per my last post but when put out of position he may as well not have been playing.

Thats it for who played "well".

Derbys first goal was completely against the run of play. The second it seemed as though we'd either ran out of steam or just werent trying as hard.

We had the lion share of the ball all game but we created so few chances and im not sure on stats but i bet we only had less than 10 shots! We didnt create anything really meaningful which is worrying.

Alrighton had a few moments where he looked dangerous but not enough to justify him playing for 90 minutes. Bannan was hardly in the game, he tried a few through balls first half which didnt come off that i remember but other than that didnt do a lot. Gardner came on and played pretty bad. got caught with the ball at his feet and ended up runnign with it towards out goal and put in a hefty foul on one of there players with a few minutes to go. probably just trying to make an impact.

Overall the result aside we played some okay football from the back to middle of the park but then generating goal scoring opportunities from that seemed almost impossible.

[Milfner]

My Dad's just told me that some 'fans' were smashing the toilets up again.

Brilliant.

[CI]

I actually think Beye could be a good Full Back for us this year

[SeanO]

My Dad's just told me that some 'fans' were smashing the toilets up again.

Brilliant.

WTF!

If this is true then they should be ashamed. I hate the noses as much anyone but I still couldn't understand the mindless vandalism in what happened at the Sty last season so this against Derby is beyond me.

Just who are the Aston Villa toilet boys?

What a great reputation we are going to have if this continues. :oops:

[Morpheus]

Another poor performance and result.

I have noted a few posters stating that wearing the Villa jersey gives us no right to expect victories. Well if we can't beat Derby who were one of the worst teams last season in the Championship then who can we expect to beat?

Pre-season games are all about fitness and learning about where you need to improve your squad and so AM should now know how poor the squad he has inherited really is. Been saying it for quite some time now. OUR KIDS AREN'T GOOD ENOUGH!! IRELAND SHOULD NOT PLAY AGAIN FOR US IN EITHER THE RESERVES OR THE FIRST TEAM!

We need a minuim of six new players. A RB, LB, CB, CM, left winger and a forward to play alongside Bent.

We simply cannot rely on a squad which is not good enough to sustain us in the Premiership this season.

[ChrisNichollsToe]

My Dad's just told me that some 'fans' were smashing the toilets up again.

Brilliant.

WTF!

If this is true then they should be ashamed. I hate the noses as much anyone but I still couldn't understand the mindless vandalism in what happened at the Sty last season so this against Derby is beyond me.

Just who are the Aston Villa toilet boys?

What a great reputation we are going to have if this continues. :oops:

I went, and the bogs i visited after the game were fine. Only trouble i noticed was a couple of noses being smacked up by some of our own, then thrown out by the stewards at half time.

Steward told me that they threatened the stewards saying they would be back on Saturday, so watch out lol.

Think they may recognise the one, cos his face popped out like a beach Ball.

I quite liked Derby, the stewards and Derby fans were ok, and other than the above, i witnessed no trouble.