Aston Villa Team Talk/Gossip/Rumours Thread

One Cold Hand

Yeah, in that case I think dropping 6 first teamers was a bad decision. QPR are 4th in the Championship. They're probably not a whole lot worse than the likes of Stoke and Hull (and Spurs!!!:p). They're ahead of Reading and just behind Birmingham, who played premiership last year. If we'd been playing Hull, for example, he wouldn't have dropped 6 players.

Esse85

If anyone gets a link to today's game, can you post it up please.

Neil3030

Doesn't seem to be visually streamed anywhere - radio stream here

Neil3030

Spoke too soon:

JustinTV Link

PHB

Lads,
Match stuff in here:

http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showthread.php?p=57395287

JPA

3rd place lads, Chelsea away next sunday. :cool:

Helix

STILL never seen us lose

Time Magazine

Said this over on VillaTalk as well but the thing that pleased me most about the win today was that we fought back with quality more than with sheer heart.

And I found out that the William Shakespeare pub in town does a good burger and chips for £3.20. Nyom.

One Cold Hand

Tumbleweeeeeeeed!


Anyway, aparently O'Neill has started the same 11 players in all 6 Premiership games so far. Interesting stat. I assume there'll be changes tonight but will be interesting to see if it's 7 in a row against Chelsea.

Also Sidwell is back training, good to see.

Helix

could see sidwell getting at least a few minutes tonight

id put out:

gk: guzan
lb: shorey
rb: gardener
cb: knight
cb: cuellar
lm: milner
rm: routledge
cm: sidwell
cm: salifou
fw: carew
fw: delfouneso

but he wont play anything near that team imo

wynters

Helix wrote: »

could see sidwell getting at least a few minutes tonight

id put out:

gk: guzan
lb: shorey
rb: gardener
cb: knight
cb: cuellar
lm: milner
rm: routledge
cm: sidwell
cm: salifou
fw: carew
fw: delfouneso

but he wont play anything near that team imo

hmmmm... would that be enough to keep a 2 goal lead? If we conceded one early would that side hold it together??? Wouldn't like to see us do that at all. I'd even slightly prioritise tonight over Sunday.

Playing the percentages, and without trying to sound defeatest, we're 'unlikely' to get anything away to an in-form Chelsea on Sunday (even though I kinda fancy us to) so I wouldn't be resting too many players in such an important game tonight. Barry, Carew and Laursen if we had to, but the QPR result shouldn't be forgotten about so soon. We've still got a job to do here...

Anyone going down to Fraziers or whatever it's called now for it??? Is it even being screened anywhere?

Helix

we have to lose 3-0 to go out

that side wouldnt lose 3-0, or at least, shouldnt lose 3-0 to a dodgy bulgarian shower. its not a bad team when you look at it. its probably better than most of the teams we put out last season like lol

re chelsea, theyre ravaged with injuries. i think we can beat them tbh. id take losing 2-0 tonight if it meant winning 1-0 with a last minute deflected goal on sunday

shoutman

I think Carew definately needs a rest, he could barely even run ten minutes into the second half against Sunderland.

I'd go with the team posted above if the Hare was there instead of Carew, that team should still destroy the bulgarians, they will come to Villa expecting nothing.

eagle eye

shoutman wrote: »

I think Carew definately needs a rest, he could barely even run ten minutes into the second half against Sunderland.

I'd go with the team posted above if the Hare was there instead of Carew, that team should still destroy the bulgarians, they will come to Villa expecting nothing.

Totally agree with this, you need to rest Carew and you have a lot of players who want the opportunity to show what they can do. You will get 110% from fringe players in this game and they are good enough to secure a win.

tomred1

I hope he rests Carew, Barry, Laursen, Young, NRC. I hope he gives Milner a full game and Celluar.
On another note,If we go through tonight, will any of the games on saturdays be moved ? ie i want to go to the Bolton game on the saturday 13th dec.

Helix

carew for the first half would be ideal imo, hence including him. with him there we should nab at least a goal, then take him off and let the hare run around like a lunatic for the second 45

Time Magazine

tomred1 wrote: »

I hope he rests Carew, Barry, Laursen, Young, NRC. I hope he gives Milner a full game and Celluar.
On another note,If we go through tonight, will any of the games on saturdays be moved ? ie i want to go to the Bolton game on the saturday 13th dec.

Quite possibly. I've only booked flights to the Portsmouth game (in a couple of weeks) and West Brom (in early January) on account of this.

Not going to get the watch the match tonight. Hopefully we'll rest as many players as possible, including giving Big JC the night off, because they were knackered last Saturday and need to be on fire if they want anything on Sunday.

Helix

i worked through it there a while ago, the pompey game is the only one likely to be moved iirc, BUT it might survive. theres 5 weeks of fixtures in the uefa, with 1 team not playing each week. if we arrange our free week to be the week of the pompey game, and their free week is the same week, the match will stay on the saturday

highly unlikely, but not an impossibility

Time Magazine

Helix wrote: »

the pompey game is the only one likely to be moved iirc

How'd you work that out?

Pompey: 18 Sep
UEFA Group stage: 23 Oct - 18 Dec 2008

Helix

ah

i may have miscalculated so ahahaha

hang on and ill go through it all again

Time Magazine

Helix wrote: »

ah

i may have miscalculated so ahahaha

hang on and ill go through it all again

Phew. Ya bastard, had me worried there for a sec

Also, reckon I could nab two West Brom tickets via you?

Helix

ok, uefa cup group stages run for 9 weeks, so the gameweeks are

gw 1 = 23rd oct
gw 2 = 6th nov
gw 3 = 20th nov
gw 4 = 4th dec
gw 5 = 18th dec

our fixtures the weekend following each of those dates are:

gw 1 = wigan (away)
gw 2 = middlesbrough (home) likely to be moved if we're not off that week
gw 3 = man utd (home) 5.15pm saturday kick-off, wont be moved
gw 4 = everton (away) definitely be moved as at least 1 team will be playing that thurs
gw 5 = west ham (away) might be moved, but might not due to its proximity to chrimbo

so theres only 1 home game that might be moved, if we're not playing in gameweek 2, we wont have any home matches moved

Helix

David McWilliams wrote: »

Phew. Ya bastard, had me worried there for a sec

Also, reckon I could nab two West Brom tickets via you?

yeh shouldnt be a bother, match is an early kick-off on jan 10th, so id expect tickets to go on sale at the end of november most likely

Neil3030

Linkies to streams of the game:

here

here

and AVFCBlog also promised to host a high quality link here.

That's all from me, just wanted to give you the guys the links.

Still on my one man boycott,

Enjoy the game, UTV!

Helix

what are you boycotting?

Helix

villa team according to the official site

Friedel; Young, Shorey, Cuellar, Knight; Milner, Young, Routledge, Petrov; Young, Harewood

amazingly it seems we've managed to clone ashley young, we're ****ing certs for the title now lads

matrim

according to bbc the other young is salifau (sp?)

JPA

Boycott?

Helix

matrim wrote: »

according to bbc the other young is salifau (sp?)

aye tis

tomred1

Helix wrote: »

ok, uefa cup group stages run for 9 weeks, so the gameweeks are

gw 1 = 23rd oct
gw 2 = 6th nov
gw 3 = 20th nov
gw 4 = 4th dec
gw 5 = 18th dec

our fixtures the weekend following each of those dates are:

gw 1 = wigan (away)
gw 2 = middlesbrough (home) likely to be moved if we're not off that week
gw 3 = man utd (home) 5.15pm saturday kick-off, wont be moved
gw 4 = everton (away) definitely be moved as at least 1 team will be playing that thurs
gw 5 = west ham (away) might be moved, but might not due to its proximity to chrimbo

so theres only 1 home game that might be moved, if we're not playing in gameweek 2, we wont have any home matches moved

this is great thanks

shoutman

So 1-1 didn't get to see the game unfortunately. Happy with the team line up named and happy with the result. Roll on the group stages.

One Cold Hand

Helix wrote: »

gw 4 = everton (away) definitely be moved as at least 1 team will be playing that thurs

Not any more! Lol!

Helix

hahaha yeh looks that way alrite, poor feckers

will prob still be moved if we're playing tho

JPA

Pot 1
AC Milan (ITA)
Sevilla FC (ESP)
Valencia CF (ESP)
SL Benfica (POR)
FC Schalke 04 (GER)
PFC CSKA Moskva (RUS)
Tottenham Hotspur FC (ENG)
Hamburger SV (GER)

Pot 2
VfB Stuttgart (GER)
AFC Ajax (NED)
Olympiacos CFP (GRE)
RC Deportivo La Coruña (ESP)
Club Brugge KV (BEL)
FC Spartak Moskva (RUS)
Paris Saint-Germain FC (FRA)
SC Heerenveen (NED)

Pot 3
Rosenborg BK (NOR)
Udinese Calcio (ITA)
Feyenoord (NED)
SC Braga (POR)
SK Slavia Praha (CZE)
Manchester City FC (ENG)
Galatasaray AŞ (TUR)
UC Sampdoria (ITA)

Pot 4
Hertha BSC Berlin (GER)
FK Partizan (SRB)
AS Nancy-Lorraine (FRA)
Portsmouth FC (ENG)
Aston Villa FC (ENG)
Real Racing Club Santander (ENG)
FC København (DEN)
NK Dinamo Zagreb (CRO)

Pot 5
AS Saint-Etienne (FRA)
VfL Wolfsburg (GER)
R. Standard de Liège (BEL)
FC Twente (NED)
NEC Nijmegen (NED)
FC Metalist Kharkiv (UKR)
KKS Lech Poznań (POL)
MŠK Žilina (SVK)

The pots for the draw on Tuesday. We could get a very very hard draw, or an ok draw but it seems impossible to get an easy draw. There's good teams in every pot.

Imagine this:

Valencia CF (ESP)
Olympiacos CFP (GRE)
Galatasaray AŞ (TUR)
Aston Villa FC (ENG)
R. Standard de Liège (BEL)

But then I suppose that's the whole point of being in Europe.

ROCKMAN

Any room for a 24 hour fan

Best of luck tomorrow.

Helix

its as good a chance as anyone will have of ending their record, so i dont see why we cant

either way these are the games we need to get something from if we're really going to push on for a top 4 spot

One Cold Hand

JPA wrote: »

The pots for the draw on Tuesday. We could get a very very hard draw, or an ok draw but it seems impossible to get an easy draw. There's good teams in every pot.

Imagine this:

Valencia CF (ESP)
Olympiacos CFP (GRE)
Galatasaray AŞ (TUR)
Aston Villa FC (ENG)
R. Standard de Liège (BEL)

But then I suppose that's the whole point of being in Europe.

Any idea how many teams go through out of each group? If it's only 2 then it could be very tough (depending on draw, obviously).

One Cold Hand

Nevermind....found it...

Group stage
The format was changed in 2004/05, however, when for the first time a group stage was introduced. Two qualifying rounds produce a first round of 80 teams who play over two legs to find the 40 clubs that make up the group stage. This phase comprises eight groups of five, with each side playing four games, two at home and two away. The winners, runners-up and third-placed teams from each section advance to the last 32 where they are joined by the eight third-placed clubs from the UEFA Champions League. Here, the traditional two-match knockout format resumes, until the final.

So top 3 go through. Could still be tough.

Villain

Group F Draw: Hamburg, Ajax, Slavia, Aston Villa, MSK Zilina

JPA

Villain wrote: »

Group F Draw: Hamburg, Ajax, Slavia, Aston Villa, MSK Zilina

Not too bad, could be worse, could be better.

Villain

Well its 3 from 5 so should have a great chance of getting through

Helix

home to ajax on the 23rd

****ing booya

Mr Alan

Villa should waltz through that group with 3 teams qualifying.

Helix

home v ajax 23rd oct
away v slavia 6th nov
not playing 20th nov
home v zilina 4th dec
away v hamburg 18th dec

for the reference of anyone interested

JPA

Helix wrote: »

home v ajax 23rd oct
away v slavia 6th nov
not playing 20th nov
home v zilina 4th dec
away v hamburg 18th dec

for the reference of anyone interested

Interesting, we might have the points we need before we play the hardest game.

Helix

fingers crossed

if we beat slavia and zilina we should be through anyway

Helix

flights booked and time taken off work for ajax

looking into hamburg too, anyone from here be interested in trying to get a few heads to go?

shoutman

I get updates sent to my phone and when I first saw the group I though "bollox this will be tough" didn't realise its top three go through, but at the same time ajax, prague and hamburg will all prove to be good tests.

I'm looking into one of the away games, probably the hamburg one but not sure.

Helix

hamburg is wednesday 17th december, flights are €160 at the minute out the wed back the thurs

matrim

We should be able to make it out of that group with 3 teams going through