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Ratings and reactions: Villa 1-1 Newcastle


limpid

Who was your man of the match?  

137 members have voted

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

    • Warnock
      5
    • Hutton
      3
    • Given
      82
    • Dunne
      2
    • Collins
      1
    • N'Zogbia
      1
    • Delph
      2
    • Petrov
      10
    • Bannan
      10
    • Bent
      0
    • Gabby
      20
    • Albrighton (for Bannan 67)
      0
    • Ireland (for Petrov 67)
      0
    • Delfouneso (for Bent 85)
      1


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I do not understand how a player on such lofty wages at the (supposedly) highest level can barely use his weaker foot. If Bent was fit enough to play, he was fit enough to stick away, first the near-post tap-in with his left peg, and then to have guided the half-volley lob if not in, on the full, at least on target. A dismal showing from a professional finisher.

McLeish was undoubtedly content to sit on the lead. Which I don't mind, even at home, even with an early goal, provided there's a win at the end of it. Otherwise it's revealed as a dire submission to the will of the opponent.

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We sit deep to protect a back four that have some serious defensive issues.

- Warnock goes to ground way too much and drops off his man.

- Collins must have taught him, because despite being strong in the tackle and brave in the header he is drawn to the ball and away from his man too often.

- Hutton is still finding his feet, but he seems to zone mark rather than man mark, which provides his man with a lot of time and space to get a cross in.

- Dunne, for mine, is the best of the bad lot but often finds himself having to cover for the other 3.

If you want a classic example of this - look again at Newcastle's goal. It was a decent cross to the back post, nothing more. But Warnock dropped off his man.

So what is the knock on effect? It means that we give the opposition too much time and room in our own half. Even during the first half where many here said "we were the better team" we spent long periods with the vast majority of our team sitting in and around the D.

If we want to create more then we need to push higher up the pitch and attempt to close down man on man. The few occasions when we did so yesterday spawned our best chances. This, however, will leave our overall poor defense (in my opinion) exposed - something we saw under Houllier.

I'm no fan of McLeish but I think he has it right here. We need our defense to be solid, confident and used to each other before we start working more on the attacking side. I would be willing to overlook our overly cautious and defensive approach for a few more games.....

... so long as we see a more attacking approach shortly after that. Fingers crossed.

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Oh - and there is just one other thing that does my head in: Throw ins.

We never move. We just stand around so the thrower hands possession over to the other side. It's been this way for a few years now.

How hard can it be to keep the opposition guessing by having all players moving and providing options? How can that be any worse than our meek "hand it back to them" throw ins?

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Extremely limited manager maning a limited bunch of players is not a good combination

I said we would draw and we did.

I hope we manage to stay out of the bottom three all season but on the basis of the fact that we have had an easier start to the season than games we have coming up I am not confident

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just watched the highlights on MOTD and for me its the same problems as always. the major one for me is closing players down for some reason we like to invite pressure onto the edge of the penalty then we try and make the tackle.WHY?? whats wrong with pressuring and tackling when there halfway in our half and thats why cabaye was having a field day striking from wherever he wanted.

Second thing is we look decent going forward, when bent, gabby, nzog, albie, bannan are making runs but far to many times its up to bent who is by himself, he looks for the pass and everyone just stands there. you look at the best teams its pass and move, pass and move.

Im dissapointed in so many empty seats(cant blame people cuz of bad football or money reasons etc) but i would love to get it buzzing around VP again which brings the question. do the team get the crowd going or do the crowd get the team going cuz at the moment neither is happening.

For me nzog should play the bolton game if nothing happens then he should be benched for the qpr game. bannan, albie and maybe even ireland offer us more than he does. im sure nzog will come good but atm its not happening.

To finish i would like to see the midfield changed because week in week out its the opposition dominating so for me it has to be albie, bannan, petrov and jenas for now until delph and nzog pick up a bit.

i think it will get better but changes do need to be made.

sorry for the long post but that feels better

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Hmmm. Fairly even game.

They had a few chances, and we had 2 gilt edged ones that Bent should really have scored from. Should have scored both actually.

Some ratings:

Given: 7. Did what he had to. Some decent stops.

Hutton: 7. Looked alright actually. My first viewing of him for Villa.

Warno: 7. Solid display

RBD: 6. Quiter than Big Jimbo C

Jimbo C: 7. Dominant

Stan: 7. One of his better, more commanding displays. Getting forward more, and threatening more.

Delph: 6. Quieter than Stan, and made a few sloppy mistakes.

Insomnia: 5. Sent me to sleep. Needs to step it up.

Bannan: 6. Involved in fits and starts, but did not impose himself on the game in a way I feel he can.

Gabby: 7. Energetic and threatening all game.

Bent: 4. Lame display. Should have scored 2. Possibly playing injured, but if not it was a weak display.

We are going to face tougher tests than this in the future ....

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The next two games are very important, we need a 4 point return, draw at QPR then Wigan at home is a MUST win game
QPR is a tough game they are a good side, we'll do well to draw there

Wigan has draw all over it

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When you realise we are a selling club these days and have not got the cash of the big boys, Mcleish is doing OK with an average prem squad and wea are still unbeaten, look at wolves today, that's a team that the supporters should worry about, no manager could make a top 8 side out of this squad, someone of you need a good word with yourselfe...jeeesus

I was going to take the time to construct a response, but realistically you are in denial. Look at who we played, lower mid table teams at best. If you remember, that wolves team got a 0-0 at our place.

Get your head out your arse FFS. Unbeaten crap!

What a tosser you are mate, Newcastle are 4th in the prem you idiot and are not a bad side, we have not lost yet and are 7th, WTF do you expect, we have lost our best players and have an average prem side...numpty.

Thanks for pointing out we had lost our best players, that fact had escaped me!! You have the **** cheek to call me a tosser when you think Newcastle are a good side and that bore draws against relegation fodder are satisfactory. **** wake up.

You want to satisfy yourself with scraping draws against mid to bottom of the table teams and justify that as progress then fill you boots. To me, you are delusional. I expect a manager who knows how to coach and can get the best out of the following:

Given (Irish International)

Hutton (Scottish International)

Dunne (Irish International)

Collins (Welsh International)

Warnock (England International)

Delph (U21 International)

Petrov (Bulgarian Captain)

NZogbia (French International)

Gabby (England International)

Bannan (Scottish International)

Bent (England International)

Its not a great team, but there is enough attacking quality there to beat the likes of Newcastle, Wolves, etc etc. They just need proper coaching by someone who knows his arse from his elbow. That sort of rules out McLeish.

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Petrov and Delph can't play together as a 2. Delph is shit, it should have been him subbed instead of Petrov.

Petrov and Ireland in a 2 man CM. :lol::lol::lol::lol:

That would just have very little defensive energy.

Delph is not looking too hot because that muppet McLeish is asking a playmaker to play as a DCM - that's just not his game!

Hallelujah.

Good player, wrong position and acting as Petrovs legs which is allowing Petrov to wonder into areas that usually he would not be fit enough to recover from.

Worked against Everton, doesnt usually.

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Barcodes had lots of possession but didn't do a lot with it. Villa back off and allow them to have the ball. Bent misses two sitters, Gabby tries hard, Given pulls off one world class save. That's about it. Very ordinary game. I thought it got a bit better when Albrighton and Ireland came on.

N'Zogbia was pants, our midfield has all the creativity of wallpaper paste. Get Jenas and Ireland in the side and hope for the best. Time for plan B.

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When you accept that we are indeed a very poor side then we are doing ok, but when we come up against the Manchester teams and even spuds then i fear those on here who still state that we have good players, will be brought back to reality!

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Well my other half took me to Stratford and the RSC for the weekend as a late birthday treat so I missed the game and my 2 ST's went unused. Having said that I would bet I saw more drama, excitement, humour and techical ability on Saturday that the 34,000 at Villa Park did.

Prior to the game I saw it as three fairly easy points. Hmmm...

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