Aston Villa Team Talk/Gossip/Rumours Thread

invincibleirish

http://www.iraqgoals.com/en/ch2.html

Tomthepost

Bounty Hunter wrote: »

just got a FF email that said this
....
The Omen

Fulham visit Villa Park on Saturday without an away win so far this season and having scored only twice away from Craven Cottage. That, and the fact that the Cottagers have not won at Villa Park in the league since 1973, explains why Andrew Johnson, Bobby Zamora and David Healy should all be rotated out of your starting 11 right now.
...

If Carew is out i guess we are sticking with the thus far successful 4-5-1/4-3-3 then

David Healy plays for Funderland

Tomthepost

I am worried about this performance. Really missing Carew IMO.
Where is Reo-Coker not even on bench??

Bounty Hunter

Tomthepost wrote: »

David Healy plays for Funderland

well i didnt write it.

I too am getting worried but still wouldent be surprised if my 2-0 prediction came to fruition either. Both Barry and in particular sidwell and really good chances to score and if we can create such chances in the 2nd haf id expect a goal and then Fulham to have to chase the game leaving gaps at the back for gabby and co to exploit... atleast thats my hope

invincibleirish

Oh Sidders! it was offside anyway, should have done better with header in 1st half also.

Tomthepost

Damn Iraqgoals down anywhere else to view??

invincibleirish

http://the-success.blogspot.com/

2nd stream

Tomthepost

Time for baloo!

invincibleirish

AH FFS!

Tomthepost

we need to be more direct!

Bounty Hunter

Friedel showing his worth with a brilliant save, Villa dominating the game but no goals which is obviously not good

mike65

Fulham doing it away against the big boys this season.

Mike

Tomthepost

mike65 wrote: »

Fulham doing it away against the big boys this season.

Mike

Are we officially 'big boys' now?

invincibleirish

Disappointing.

Bounty Hunter

well that was dissapointing, typical Villa though we get ourself into a great position by getting four points vs Arsenal and Man Utd but then fail to take advantage against Fulham.

However on the bright side if Arsenal get nothing vs Chelsea this result would put us 2points clear of them in 4th

mike65

Tomthepost, I think so (on a good day).

Mike

invincibleirish

1 point from Fulham/Boro/Newcastle, wtf?. Needed a fit Carew today.

Tomthepost

invincibleirish wrote: »

1 point from Fulham/Boro/Newcastle, wtf?. Needed a fit Carew today.

Agree but Harewood should have got a chance

OPENROAD

Bounty Hunter wrote: »

However on the bright side if Arsenal get nothing vs Chelsea this result would put us 2points clear of them in 4th

You need to be opening up more of a gap now if you are to have any chance of 4th spot imo.

JPA

OPENROAD wrote: »

You need to be opening up more of a gap now if you are to have any chance of 4th spot imo.

Arsenal are just holding themselves back ya?

OPENROAD

JPA wrote: »

Arsenal are just holding themselves back ya?

Arsenal have a number of injuries and will start to get some of these players back over the next few weeks, I expect Arsenal to be a lot stronger in the second half of the season. From a Villa point of view having ot into 4th spot, they had a great opportunity to open up a bit of a gap.

Bounty Hunter

OPENROAD wrote: »

You need to be opening up more of a gap now if you are to have any chance of 4th spot imo.

Personally i agree although atm if we are two points ahead of Arsenal after already having played all of the other top 5 teams im happy enough especially seing as i predicted 5th for Villa and a battle vs either Spurs/City or Everton for that spot back at the start of the season.

now i still predict 5th but without much of a battle for that spot and even though i dont expect it if any non big 4 team is to get CL football next season i can only see us competing for it

JPA

OPENROAD wrote: »

Arsenal have a number of injuries and will start to get some of these players back over the next few weeks, I expect Arsenal to be a lot stronger in the second half of the season. From a Villa point of view having ot into 4th spot, they had a great opportunity to open up a bit of a gap.

I'm not an expert on Arsenal but aren't Eduardo and Rosicky the only long term injuries Arsenal have had this season. The others have all been out for 2 to 3 weeks at a time.
And Arsenal have been struggling all season with or without these players.

Bounty Hunter

I dont think anyone can imagine Arsenal having a 2nd half of the season as bad as the first half considering they have already lost 5 games, but Villa are capable of fighting them all the way and right now atleast have a slight advantage.

invincibleirish

OPENROAD wrote: »

You need to be opening up more of a gap now if you are to have any chance of 4th spot imo.

Your sentiments are correct, but we're still in November and Villa & Arsenal have some tricky fixtures before the VP meeting on Dec 26th, Villa are two points ahead, and ye've Chelsea to play, we'll be watching with interest tomorrow, i hope its a draw:).

Savman

Amazing, absolutely amazing we cannot beat Fulham at home but note the lack of suprise amongst Villa fans for what is our achilles heel. Not so sure I'd agree with MON's sentiments that we're a "young side", a little bit ironic considering Friedel set some kind of performance record :rolleyes: not to mention Barry, Petrov, Laursen et al. Hardly kids.

Bah. Opportunity wasted....again.

shoutman

We had the chances to win it, I don't think it was a terrible performance, yes it looked like we could of done with Carew and no one is doubting that but we still SHOULD have scored a few goals, Sidwell and Barry both had chances that they should of scored.

Also Villa are a young side, Davies, Young, Gabby, NRC, Milner etc all have loads of football ahead of them and still have things to learn.

Bounty Hunter

Gillingham or Stockport V Aston Villa in the FA cup

nice to see us not draw man utd for a change

Villain

Everton won and Arsenal winning we'll be back down to reality soon, we really really need to start getting some consistency and we need to buy a goold old fashioned CF to cover for Carew, if teams want a draw against us they just have to defend deep to counter the pace of Gabby and Young.

Helix

5 in the middle against the likes of fulham is ridiculous, refusing to change it is beyond ridiculous

yes we had chances, but the fact that nobody could stick one in the back of the net suggested to me that perhaps a switch would have been a good idea. midfielder off and the hare on

gabby was drifting out to the wings far too much to be effective as a lone front man

invincibleirish

Harewood and the Fonz to be rotated as Gabbys partner until January Window and potential reinforcements? Where have all the goalsgone, does Sidwell really need to start w/ Petrov and Barry against the likes of Fulham at home?

MON sort it out! November had some good results but its still been a disappointing result, Villa had multiple chances to establish a lead over Arsenal throughout the month yet it still ends with Arse in 4th!, need to find those goals again.

shoutman

Do people not see that the tactics used by MON used created some absolutely brilliant chances for us to win the match. Barry and Sidwell SHOUlD have scored, Sidwell's was a shocking miss and Barry's wasn't much better.

I'm not saying the Hare shouldn't of come on but seriously...

Helix

shoutman wrote: »

Do people not see that the tactics used by MON used created some absolutely brilliant chances for us to win the match. Barry and Sidwell SHOUlD have scored, Sidwell's was a shocking miss and Barry's wasn't much better.

I'm not saying the Hare shouldn't of come on but seriously...

the formation and tactics we used created a few chances yes, mostly from set pieces tho that we wouldve created regardless of the formation we used.

then every player on the pitch is misfiring, you bring on someone new in the hope that itll kick start something, or you change things around

theres zero need for barry, petrov and sidwell in the middle of midfield against a team like fulham, especially when your lone front man is prone to wandering out to the wing

the amount of times we got the ball and there was nobody in the box was ridiculous

4-5-1 works really well against teams who dont come to sit back and do nothing, and to an extent it even worked a bit yesterday (tho imo we'd have created much more and not been as frustrated with a 4-4-2), but the lack of substitutions is baffling

that said, its better than the usual "bring the left back off, put the central midfielder to right back, put the right back to left back and bring on a midfielder" swap we're used to seeing

Savman

shoutman wrote: »

Also Villa are a young side, Davies, Young, Gabby, NRC, Milner

All experienced internationals at either U21 or full Senior level. Age may be on their side, but between the lot they have bags of experience behind them at various levels, Gabby maybe being the only exception.

Seeing off Fulham shouldn't be too big an ask in all fairness.

shoutman

I'm not saying we should not be beating Fulham, I'm just saying if Barry or Sidwell had finished the chances that were created no one would be complaining on here, I don't think we played badly, although I think hare should of come on in the second half, I think if that game was played again like it was yesterday we would win playing like that 8/10 times while drawing the other two.

Helix

we didnt play THAT badly youre right, but we were still below average. the lack of spark is apparent against teams who play a closed shop against us. we have nothing there to unlock defences apart from the odd setpiece cross (which dont actually seem to be working all that well this season, i think weve only scored a couple of goals from corners or indirect frees this season)

is 4-5-1 REALLY acceptable for a team chasing 3 points at home to go into the top 3 tho? and once again i agree, we did create good chances, but it was the same good chance repeated a couple of times, there was no variation in our play at all as usual, and thats killing us at times

invincibleirish

Cant fault MON for going 451 after the relative success of the previous 2 matches. But by the time Villa had a run of 5 consecutive corners around the 70th minute it was clear a big man like Harewood was needed who could come on and get into a position where the ball would hit off him into goal. If not Harewood then why not the Fonz?.

Its not the end of the world, but despite our good results against the Arse/MU, we've had poor results against non top 4 opposition. Are we the new Spurs?.

Bounty Hunter

Personally i agree 100% with the formation that started the game although I woulda brought the Hare on for Sidwell when it became evident he didnt have his shooting boots on today (atleast he was still getting in the right positions though).

Without Carew 4-5-1/4-3-3 is our best option against any opposition as Marlon IMO is simply not good enough and it seems MON agrees as he didnt even get a couple of minutes yesterday.

There can be no doubt that a striker will be signed in January my real hope is that it is very ealry in the window so that we get the most out of whoever it might be.

Helix

invincibleirish wrote: »

Cant fault MON for going 451 after the relative success of the previous 2 matches

you pick your team, formation and tactics based on the team youre playing, and 451 is grand for footballing teams wholl try to play a bit, giving us the chance to get in behind them on the counter

fulham are a team who have proven to be one of the toughest in the league this season to break down. they dont concede many, and they dont score many. the need for 5 midfielders against that sort of team escapes me

Bounty Hunter

Helix wrote: »

the need for 5 midfielders against that sort of team escapes me

we didnt need 5 midfielders but they are our best 11 available atm and the Hare and The Fonz are not good enough IMO and seemingly in MON's oppinion atm.

Helix

the hare, terrible and all as he is, is just the type of player whod have put the ****s up fulham back line. hed also have made haagalands job a little tricker imo

someone at the airport made a decent suggestion too, perhaps we should give laursen a shot up front in these kind of games where the opposition arent getting into our half, but we cant score. hes got the physical presence, he'll chase everything, and hes a superb header of the ball

couldve taken sidwell off and brought knight on, then dropped knight back to defence and given laursen 10 minutes up top

invincibleirish

Helix wrote: »

you pick your team, formation and tactics based on the team youre playing, and 451 is grand for footballing teams wholl try to play a bit, giving us the chance to get in behind them on the counter

fulham are a team who have proven to be one of the toughest in the league this season to break down. they dont concede many, and they dont score many. the need for 5 midfielders against that sort of team escapes me

Yep in agreement, it wasnt a surprise MON went with 451, seeing as he doesnt like to change a winning formula. But its the refusal to bring on Harewood or Fonz, that sticks in the craw. Harewood may be useless, but he can still jam a goal or 2, we as Villa fans are all too well aware of that. Equally give 10 minutes to the fonz make himself a hero?.

Need some strikers, Hunteelaar and Owen anyone?

invincibleirish

Salifou, Shorey and Harewood to start on Thursday:

http://www.avfc.premiumtv.co.uk/page/NewsDetail/0,,10265~1474812,00.html

Expect Knight and maybe Gardner as well to be prominent?.

One Cold Hand

And Guzan, by the looks of things.

invincibleirish

Indeed, perhaps a few minutes for the Fonz perhaps? nothing says Happy Christmas like the birth of a new striking prodigy. Or Salifou to be the new Ian Taylor?

I'm trying to accentuate the positive, with a team of reserves hopefully getting a result and putting pressure on the first team. A Harewood hat trick against MSK Zilina would give plenty food for thought, Villa fans know he has it in him.

Villain

Salifou and Ian Taylor in the same sentence? Thats brave

Talk of Larrson going to Everton for a while, wonder will MON have a word, Everton have had a massive loss in loosing Yakubu for the rest of the season

JPA

Villain wrote: »

Salifou and Ian Taylor in the same sentence? Thats brave

Talk of Larrson going to Everton for a while, wonder will MON have a word, Everton have had a massive loss in loosing Yakubu for the rest of the season

I hope not.

shoutman

Where did you hear that Villain? I'd be shocked and disgusted if that were the case.

JPA

shoutman wrote: »

Where did you hear that Villain? I'd be shocked and disgusted if that were the case.

http://www.goal.com/en/news/734/everton/2008/12/01/991523/moyes-eyes-up-henrik-larsson

Villa won't want him, I'm sure of that.

One Cold Hand

Villain wrote: »

Salifou and Ian Taylor in the same sentence? Thats brave

Talk of Larrson going to Everton for a while, wonder will MON have a word, Everton have had a massive loss in loosing Yakubu for the rest of the season

I read Laursen when I read this first! Phew!

Larrson seems to be linked to someone every transfer window since he went to United. I'd be surprised if it happens.