Ratings and reactions: Swansea 0-0 Villa

[Mantis]

It's the style of play and negativity that people are moaning about. When we actually have a go at teams we're not that bad at all.

[VILLAFC2000]

Rafa interviewed ?? News to me

He was intersted and said he would need 30-40 million to transfer the team.

We were not interested after he said that.

What do you expect in our performances.

[TRO]

Gabby's ball control has improved considerably. He is one of the few that look like scoring.

Never been a great fan before, but his all round game has improved imo. He has always put in a shift, but he has added guile to his game.

Souness commented today that he rates him too.

[bred]

So..did Heskey pull his hamstring? (please be so)

I do find it unacceptable for Villa fans to wish injuries on their own players.

I agree with Briny Ear but for Heskey I will forget my principles! :winkold:

He was grabbing his hamstring prior to being subbed out!

[Ponky]

Gabby's ball control has improved considerably. He is one of the few that look like scoring.

Never been a great fan before, but his all round game has improved imo. He has always put in a shift, but he has added guile to his game.

Souness commented today that he rates him too.

Gabby's got a real well-founded arrogance about his game now. He rates himself and backs himself to win every contest.

He is the honey badger of the Premier League

[DiegoD]

He is the honey badger of the Premier League

I would love for that to catch on

[Keyblade]

He surprises me every time he plays with how much he improved. From last year where his second touch was usually poor, to this season where every touch he takes is near perfect. With his speed still intact, he's become quite the dangerous player. If only Bent wasn't so lazy yesterday, Gabby put in a carbon copy of his first half assist against Norwich, except this time Bent was caught napping. I remember Gabby being quite annoyed with that.

[Richard]

Awful

[darrenm]

Given - 8 - solid

Hutton - 1 - scares me every time he plays.

Collins - 4 - too many mistakes

Dunne - 6 - our best defender, but that doesn't say much

Warnock - 6 - too rash. Would like to see Clark play there

Herd - 6 - solid but unspectaular. I like his energy.

Delph - 7 - quality on the ball, rash off it.

N'Zogbia - 7 - needs game time but will get better. A must starter.

Heskey - 0 - adds nothing to our game. We play hoof ball, it bounces off him, we lose procession and we're under pressure again. Doesn't hold the ball up, pass, retain procession, shoot, score, tackle or track back. Get out.

Gabby - 8 - i like him because he works hard.

Bent - 6 - not his best game but the service to him is crap. Heskey got in his way a few times too.

Jenas - 7 - energy and skill. More minutes under his belt and he has to be pushing for a start.

Bannan - 8 - our best player. Played 10 minutes. Our best spell. Passing, movement, energy. Bannan at the heart. Has to start in the future. His brush with the law seems to have made him more focused.

My team v Man U

Given

Herd Cueller Dunne Clark

Jenas Delph

N Zog Bannan Gabby

Bent

Absolutely spot on. Apart from the procession bit But I'd have Clark alongside Dunne and keep Warnock at LB. Warnock was overlapping really well yesterday.

[Richard]

Thought Hutton had his best game for us and still score him at 1 out of 10 he is one of the worst players I have seen for us in the last 20 years

Nzogbia what a waste of 10M

Collins should not have been playing anyway and wouldn't play again for me, he is shockingly bad

We have a distinct lack of quality all over the pitch.

God help us in the next 6 games

[walesavfc]

for people moaning about heskeys roll in team this is a quote from swansea forum

" Emile Heskey did a hell of a job man-marking Britton, now that he's off we've come into it more. Villa have been filthy, Herd with another nasty tackle on Dyer, his 4th foul if I'm counting correctly, and no booking. How they've still got 11 men I don't know."

[Shillzz]

^

A good addition to the debate

But regardless of this, I don't think an Aston Villa player should be man marking Britton of Swansea anyway, he's not exactly Christiano Ronaldo.

[The_Steve]

Would have been a different game if the referee had awarded us the penalty from Williams handball in the first half. It was right in front of him.

[KHV]

I thought we played okay.

Nothing new was learnt from the game, McLeish still manges to pick the wrong team.

Hutton is arguably the worst player in the premier league.

Fabian Delph was again awful. His tackling is horrendous, he cant cross a ball to save his life and his inability to make a simple 10 yard pass beggars belief.

Charles Nzogbia is looking like a £10m flop but thats no real suprise as nobody else was in the queue to take him frm the mighty Wigan.

In the next game Cuellar needs to start at right back and Hutton needs to go in the reserves, Clark needs to replace Collins, Petrov definatly needs to replace Delph, Jenas should be in instead of Heskey and Bannan in instead of Nzogbia.

I doubt McLeish will do that though

[kayarcee]

I don't think Villa played half as dire as a lot of others in this thread. The first half started negative, but I thought that we looked like an O'Neill side during that half- the team sat back, and created a few breaks, but Swansea's attempts to "Arsenal the ball into the net" made it a lot harder for us to get the ball. Fair play to McLeish for showing a quality Martin O'Neill never had-- the ability to go to plan B-- by setting the team out to press high and possess the ball in the second. Villa knocked the ball around quite well in the second half, even before the introductions of Bannan and Jenas, and but for a very nice save from Vorm, a misdirected late header by Herd, and a poor spot by the linesman on Jenas's chipped ball to Bent, we might have walked away 3-0 winners.

[VillaAndLoyal]

Firstly, huge credit to all the Villa fans who orchestrated the minute of applause for Gary Speed and the spine tingling "there's only one Gary Speed" chant which spread across all four sides of the ground. Definitely the most harrowing yet fantastic tribute I have been a part of at a football match. Shay Given deserves a 10/10 purely for stepping out on to that turf, true man who did his mate proud. RIP Gary.

In terms of the match, these are precisely the kind of results we could really regret come the end of the season. Swansea offered very little in the way of chances or coming forward and we won't have many better chances to win an away game. It was definitely two points dropped, particularly with the run of games we have coming up.

A more attacking, positive Villa side would have won that game, and comfortably in my opinion. A side with Jenas and Bannan in would have made that possible. McNegative picked the wrong team yet again, to have Heskey man-marking a Swansea City player says it all really.

As has already been said, McNegative relegated Small Heath because he couldn't win enough games. Results like Spurs shouldn't worry us per se (although the performance and tactics should) but results and performances like Swansea should worry us deeply. If we can't take a game like that by the scruff of the neck, then when can we?

In the second half a group of Villa fans behind the goal started fighting with each other and one bloke got nutted straight in the face. Fans were also arguing with each other and the negativity and frustration on the pitch is clearly translating off it. It is hideous to see.

[Tubby]

A truely terrible game, as much as we like to moan about it I think I'd show the credits before I showed us on motd tonight

pissed me off a treat that the muppets behind me were more interested in fighting anyone who was a welsh villa fan because we are an English club and in a guys own words when you go away with England these welsh villa fans will slit ulyour throat in your sleep

rocket polishers the lot of them

A good friend of mine runs the Gwent Villans and he has done an outstanding job over the last year taking it from three of us in a car to over 80 members. Yesterdays game was a chance for us to unfurl our supporters club flag for the first time, fittingly on home turf and even more so following the loss of Gary Speed. Unfortunately one scumbag decided you have to be English to be a Villa fan and ripped our flag down. The ensuing stand off soured a game that all in our club had been looking forward to for a long time. Shame that can happen amongst your own fans, don't know what the point is sometimes.

On a positive note I'd like to thank our fellow Lions clubs for the support and generosity they have shown to our club following the incident. On behalf of the Gwent Villans I can't express enough how much we appreciate it. UTV

[Mark8691]

So sorry to hear that Tubby. It's shameful. Football has always attracted its fair share of idiots.

Thanks for your support Gwent Villans!

[chrisp65]

Tubby,

Sorry to hear you encountered a pillock. But we all grudgingly know they are universal and not confined to the usual quoted handful of bad clubs. A bit of beer a game of footy and some people regress to a pathetic grunt state. Rise above it and keep on keeping on is all you can do.

To slightly counter it, I'm from South Wales and I got a last minute ticket off this forum from some really great guys. No problem and no side to them at all. Couldn't understand half of what they said mind. A good laugh, a good day out, I even sang a couple of rounds of sheep sheep shaggers for good measure.

I'm hoping Swansea stay up, I could get used to that trip out.