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Ratings and reactions: Newcastle 2-1 Villa


limpid

Who was your man of the match?  

98 members have voted

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

    • Given
      1
    • Hutton
      1
    • Warnock
      3
    • Dunne
      1
    • Clark
      1
    • Cuéllar
      2
    • Ireland
      3
    • N'Zogbia
      1
    • Petrov
      4
    • Bent
      0
    • Keane
      69
    • Bannan (for Ireland 46)
      1
    • Heskey (for N'Zogbia 66)
      3
    • Gardner (for Clark 84)
      8


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Once again we look a lot better when we're forced to raise the tempo and push forward. Why doesnt AM play attacking from the start? We aren't good enough for the patient cautious approach.

exactly this, once were losing(pretty much every game) and are forced to attack we look half decent but then mcleish gets the team to drop so deep its ridiculous.

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Aston Villa were European cup winners in 1982 FFS. A 'one off' that whilst were all proud of no doubt, an achievement we couldnt sustain. Get over it. It was 30 years ago. Most people outside AVFC barely know we won it, let alone 'give a shit'.

Although I can agree with what you are saying on us aiming to be Newcastle Woodytom 82 was not a "one off" we won the league in 81 to get into the EC and we could have sustained it if the new chairman back then was not more concerned with our balance sheet on taking over the chair again than with what we achieved on the pitch. I see a little bit of history repeating itself now because top 6 had looked sustainable until the money dried up in much the same way as did winning things in the early 80s. Back to today, I thought we were worth a point overall and Robbie was clearly our best performer.

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Losing Ireland made a huge difference. We had no outlet that was willing to hold the ball and play it on the ground. For all that we looked half decent in the first half we resorted to hoofing it for the first 20 minutes of the second half. Really dire stuff.

Bannan - Ireland's replacement - did nothing but pump the hollywood balls forward at the earliest opportunity. On one occasion he pumped it forward to Bent who was surrounded by 3 defenders and 2 midfielders with no other Villa shirt in sight. Even Bent gave Bannan the "what the hell are you doing?!" wave.

It got worse once we subbed N'Zog for Heskey. The temptation to lump it to Heskey is just too great.

And why Heskey? Gardner was on the pitch for 5 minutes and had more scoring opportunities! One of these 2 players is the future, but we give more time with our past on the pitch. Go figure.

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We really should have won this. A combination of great saves by Krul (one particularly lucky one off his knee) and poor finishing by Bent cost us dearly. They scored a scrambled goal and an absolute screamer....defending was not the problem in these cases (I would argue we defender poorer on other occasions and did not concede a goal).

Gardner for me must start in attacking CM with ireland, bring Stan back to defensive CM and go with wingers (Zog, Gabby, Alby, Bannon). Clark to CB (reserve).

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Disappointing, given that we were probably the better team in the first half and was outdone in the end by a fantastic out-of-the-blue goal - however we didn't have to be defensive and rely on the long ball in the second half, it isolated our best creative player Keane and invited pressure on us. Why McLeish is always so negative I have no idea, certainly doesn't make sense considering the dreadful form our defenders are in.

Bannan needs to learn to pass short and keep possession sometimes, biggest culprit for our constant loss of possession.

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Once again we look a lot better when we're forced to raise the tempo and push forward. Why doesnt AM play attacking from the start? We aren't good enough for the patient cautious approach.

I'd hardly consider playing aimless long balls and hence inviting the opposition to attack "cautious" tbh.

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i think mcleish doesnt know what his best team is and we have too many people to choose from (not sayiong they are world class by any stretch) but we must have 10+ options for 6 midfield and forward spaces at the moment. keane, bent, gabby, ireland, alby, stan, clark, gardener, bannan, n zog, heskey off top of head and he doesnt know which ones to play where.

the defence should be cueller and clarke in the middle as clark isnt cut out for midfield. i dont mind hutton so much if he could cross a ball more consistently, warnck is all over the place still but at least he tries.

for rest of season i'd play

given

hutton cueller clark ? - stevens / lichaj / herd? or dunne CH and clark LB

ireland gardener petrov n zog

bent gabby (on basis keane is gone after next two weeks)

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