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Ratings and reactions: Villa 0-2 Bolton


limpid

Who was your man of the match?  

53 members have voted

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

    • Given
      5
    • Hutton
      1
    • Warnock
      1
    • Dunne
      4
    • Collins
      5
    • Ireland
      5
    • Albrighton
      1
    • Petrov
      6
    • Bannan
      9
    • Agbonlahor
      12
    • Delfouneso
      1
    • N'Zogbia (for Albrighton 73)
      3


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iirc he did it on all 3 kick offs before anyone even had a chance to move

I was always under the impression that kick off routines were somewhat planned.

and me, but seeing as that routine is seemingly play it back to collins so he can launch a 50 yard ball to bannan or albrighton, i find it mind blowing

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havent seen it but i predict we had 9 behind the ball at all times and hoofed it top the lone striker time after time

if only, at least we know it worked to an extent under MON, and it suits players like gabby. the tactics (up until the goal where we fell apart) actually seemed to be to try and pass it. given was playing it short, the defence were bringing it up and looking to find a midfielder or forward. and that is the problem-they could never find anyone because the movement is appalling. everyone just stands there so we have to go long. midfield in particular is dire. ireland just floated around doing **** all, and petrov stands next to opposition players too much. bannan at least tried, but he kept trying to do too much and gave it away easily

of course this doesnt mean mcleish isnt to blame. hes trying to play a system of pass and move with players who are substandard in these areas. a sensible coach would either abandon that idea or work in training to improve the players. its possible, i see plenty of teams with less big name players manage to get them passing and moving better than us.

i dont know what we do in training but it cant be much. aside from the lack of movement our players dont seem to be able to make even the simplest passes. in the rare event that a player moved into space tonight, then the pass was invariably overhit, underhit or miles wide of the player. and if it actually got near the player, it was probably bobbling and not directly to feet- forcing the receiver to stretch for it. all this meant it was easy for bolton to get the ball back. and this isnt even with adventurous passes - these are simple 5 yard balls that half our team cant execute. i cant think of a period in the game where we kept the ball for over 15 seconds.

crossing and shooting were both as poor as the passing, do we do any work at all on technique in training?

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Absolutely dire from start to finish. Tactically poor, players out of position, no creativity, no leadership - on or off the pitch. There were boos at the end but, to be honest, McLeish and the players were let off lightly after such an abject, pitiful display.

I've defended McLeish since his arrival, mainly because of the lack of backing he's received from the board, but he has to shoulder a good portion of the blame for a performance like that. There seemed to be no game plan, no one to pull the team together when they went a goal down, no movement, no urgency.

Truly one of the worst home performances I've seen by Villa in over twenty years of going. Unacceptable.

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Three Cm, all comfortable on the ball, yet they seemed totally incapable of passing to each other. Every time they got the ball they ended up passing back to the defence or wasting it. Where was the possession, the movement. They never got in positions to receive the ball and conceded so much space.

Dire/

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Just got back to Donny, and here is my honest assesment of what is without doubt, the worst experience of 20 years of being a Villa Fan.

Given - Poor Kicking throughout, a point for not giving up - 1

Hutton - A point for not giving up - 1

Warnock - A point for not giving up - 1

Dunne - A point for not giving up and our joint best player - 1.5

Collins - A point for not giving up - 1

Albrighton - A point for not giving up - 1

Ireland - 0

Petrov - A point for not giving up - 1

Bannan - A point for not giving up and our joint best player - 1.5

Delfouneso - A point for not giving up - 1

Agbonlahor - 0

Nzogbia - A point for not giving up - 1.

An utterly atrocious performance that I didnt think was possible.

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Very poor, very few players looked like they could be bothered. Dunne was good in the air, Collins at the end showed a bit of interest. Bannan and Gabby were the only one's that looked interested. Not good enough for the team we had out.

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Villa fans in overreaction shocker! Roll-Eyes-smiley12.gif

Sounds like a poor performance.

Teams have them.

Let hope we improve and win a game or two soon.

Move on.

Overeaction is usually the case Makouns Grin. Not today mate!! I cannot put into words how appalling it was.

If I said Bolton were utterly abysmal it would go some way to indicating how bad we were. Never witnessed anything like it

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Did not bother to go tonight. Based on the radio commentary it sounded grim and I pity those who paid their hard earned cash for that pile of crap.

I may be in the minority but I'm not against McLeish (yet at least). Tonight there were lots of poor performances which are down to the players. We have sold our two most creative players and replaced only one of them with an unfit player who has not gelled with the team yet (he said optimistically).

McLeish has to make the best of what he has got which clearly lacks a touch of steel and class in midfield. Lets not forget we have sold four fully fledged England internationals in the past three seasons and not properly replaced any of them. I believe his strength as a manager is to get the players playing and that was sadly lacking tonight. Tactics are difficult to judge when players are not playing well but one up front at home is worrying to say the least

I'm not anti Lerner but clearly the ground rules have changed and I think the club should be a little more honest about its objectives and the backing the manager has or has not got. Clearly its the latter. At the end of the day Villa is a business owned by Lerner and he can run it any way he wants.

I love the club but I'm sad to admit I have lost interest. I've still got two season tickets and I have no intention of giving those up any time soon. What gets to me is the way the club papers over the cracks with the crap it spouts on the OS and AVTV and I for one am glad that clown the General has given up posting on this site. What's abundantly clear to me is the feel good factor around the club is long long gone.

The club seems to expect the fans to remain equally as fervent as previous seasons. Mind you its difficult to judge how much of the lower gates is us or football in general or the economy. My guess is its a bit of all three. Interestingly NU on Saturday brought far fewer fans than usual which points towards the latter two reasons.

Feel much the same, except i have given up my season ticket 3 seasons ago.....could see this coming sadly.....and can't see a change in the near future.

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I've tried to avoid this board since McLeish was appointed because I was so totally appalled at our chairman's decision, and the PR spin which was given as a "reason" for appointing our manager. Since then, I've accepted that I cannot change the decision and have continued supporting the team. But tonight, unfortunately, didn't surprise me. Despite it being one of the worst home performances I've ever seen.

Lerner is to blame for this potential situation we find ourselves in. There was not one logical reason why appointing McLeish was the right thing to do. But McLeish, having found himself here, is to blame for this result most definitely. Outplayed by a second string Bolton team with no away support.

Whatever Lerner is planning for the club (that remains to be seen) he has drastically cut back and Villa will suffer for that on the pitch as a result, we are a vastly weakened team without Young, Downing, Reo-Coker & Co. But McLeish should still be getting more out of the players he does have at his disposal. We now play far too narrow, with no creativity on the wings or down the middle, we play a negative formation with only one up front at home, and we can't string more than 4 passes together. This has been the case in all of our games so far this season, without exception.

I used to get really angry at performances like tonight, but it was so predictable when McLeish was hired that it's impossible to get wound up by it. He should never have been appointed, never in a million years. I also note that football fans in general this season, myself included, are getting more and more disallusioned with football. Money has ruined the game, modern players have ruined the game and the attendances at grounds across the UK reflect that. I'm a season ticket holder but I honestly dread home games now, they bore the hell out of me, but I still go because I feel it's my duty as a Villan. Away games are far more pleasant because drink and a good sing-song is usually involved. But as far as games go now, football is becoming increasingly predictable and unless you have an oil tycoon you can kiss goodbye to winning the league, the FA Cup or finishing fourth... in short, competing.

Totally depressed with football in general. But roll on QPR eh... :suspect:

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Any credit Alex McLeish had built up with Aston Villa supporters during an unbeaten start to the season – and it was not much, considering most of their games had been drawn – will have been severely depleted on Tuesday night, not so much by the result as by a performance of dismayingly cautious ineptitude. The single effort they managed on target came in the 87th minute, and by the close his team looked as dispirited as they did incompetent.
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Oh and the boos at the final whistle were a disgrace.

Not as disgraceful as that shit served up on the pitch.

McLeish's smoke and mirrors have started ealy:

"We know we're not Manchester United but we're blooding young players and trying to fast-track them to do well in the league and cups.”

I could have sworn every player out there was an established member of the first team squad, but never mind, blooding the youths, not our experienced team getting rolled over by a weak Bolton side.

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I'm usually Mr Positive, but 1 win in 6 is appalling...especially when you look at our games played...not one against a said that we couldn't comfortably beat at home.

Our defence has improved but our attack has dried up, even though we purchased one of the best goalscorers in the league last year.

We sold our 2 best wingers and didn't replace them (Zog is not a wingers) so we have no width in the team, especially with Albrighton seemingly getting worse rather than better.

With Houllier, we didn't win games we should, although some of our football looked decent and we did score goals...at the moment though, we have only looked like scoring against a very poor Blackburn side.

Unless I'm wrong and this is all because we miss Heskey.

Sorry, I'm changing from 'give him time' to 'McLeish Out!'...I've paid £520 to watch this drivel!

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Oh and the boos at the final whistle were a disgrace.

I disagree completely.

The team were dire from start to finish, the attitude, workrate, tactics and skill levels were all well below par. There wasn't even a 5 minute spell within the whole match that we controlled.

If fans can't voice their disgust at the final whistle in these situations then I don't know when they can.

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