Aston Villa Team Talk/Gossip/Rumours Thread

Helix

cheerio to europe so lol

Doodee

Great news.

Now there is no excuses for the squad apart from performance.
Blessing or Curse?

Raekwon

Pity we are throwing in the towel after trying so hard to get into Europe for so long but I can understand the logic behind MON's decision considering we are on the cusp of qualifying for the Champion League.

This is the team I'd like to see against CSKA:

Brad Guzan

Luke Young - Curtis Davies - Zat Knight - Nicky Shorey

Craig Gardner - Isaiah Osbourne - Steve Sidwell - Moustapha Salifou

John Carew - Nathan Delfouneso

With Marlon Harewood coming on to replace either Osbourne or Salifou and revert to a either a 4-4-2 with Fonz on the wing or go all out with a 4-3-3.

I don't think it's going to matter either way because I can't see us winning this game anyway.

Villain

How many European games have we played to get this far and now throw the towel in?

If we don't get 4th this will look like a bad decision.

L'prof

Villain wrote: »

How many European games have we played to get this far and now throw the towel in?

If we don't get 4th this will look like a bad decision.

It already does to be honest! A win in Moscow for the first team would do wonders for yer confidence and that would carry forward to the league and ye might get over yer blip, but keeping players fit isn't going to guarantee ye get 4th!

Doodee

There is no guarantee of a win in Moscow.
I don't think it is a bad decision. Unfortunate yes, but not bad.

With Cesc almost back at Arsenal and Arshavin about to start playing for them it might be a very good decision by MON. **** 4th tbh, I think with us not playing in the UEFA then we can aim for 3rd.

invincibleirish

Its a good move by MON, we can win the UEFA Cup next season if we don't qualify for 4th this season(or get knocked early on in the CL next season). Squad is depleted and knackered, Stoke and 3 points is the priority. And thats before facing a very tricky group of PL fixtures. Remember its a potential trip to the Eastern Ukraine if we beat Moscow, and thats sandwiched between trips to Anfield and Old Trafford.

Helix

Villain wrote: »

How many European games have we played to get this far and now throw the towel in?

If we don't get 4th this will look like a bad decision.

agreed, as has been said on villa talk today, mon has made his decision here, if it backfires he might well get a bit of guff

im all for what hes doing, provided we get things right in the league for the rest of the season. if we go out on thursday, and then fail to beat stoke, ill be less than impressed

Helix

Raekwon wrote: »

Pity we are throwing in the towel after trying so hard to get into Europe for so long but I can understand the logic behind MON's decision considering we are on the cusp of qualifying for the Champion League.

This is the team I'd like to see against CSKA:

Brad Guzan

Luke Young - Curtis Davies - Zat Knight - Nicky Shorey

Craig Gardner - Isaiah Osbourne - Steve Sidwell - Moustapha Salifou

John Carew - Nathan Delfouneso

With Marlon Harewood coming on to replace either Osbourne or Salifou and revert to a either a 4-4-2 with Fonz on the wing or go all out with a 4-3-3.

I don't think it's going to matter either way because I can't see us winning this game anyway.

osbourne is beyond useless. stick bannan in there and see how it goes imo

invincibleirish

Would have thought he would have included Barry in the squad after his fighting comments yesterday. But everything else seems to be in order, who knows a few new heroes might emerge, hopefully won't be as bad as Hamburg.

And i'd be pissed with MON if i had spent fortunes going to Moscow to see Villa, but that aside its still a good decision.

matrim

Raekwon wrote: »

Pity we are throwing in the towel after trying so hard to get into Europe for so long but I can understand the logic behind MON's decision considering we are on the cusp of qualifying for the Champion League.

This is the team I'd like to see against CSKA:

Brad Guzan

Luke Young - Curtis Davies - Zat Knight - Nicky Shorey

Craig Gardner - Isaiah Osbourne - Steve Sidwell - Moustapha Salifou

John Carew - Nathan Delfouneso

With Marlon Harewood coming on to replace either Osbourne or Salifou and revert to a either a 4-4-2 with Fonz on the wing or go all out with a 4-3-3.

I don't think it's going to matter either way because I can't see us winning this game anyway.

If Milner's in the squad I'd expect him to play

Neil3030

Brad Guzan

Carlos Cuellar - Curtis Davies - Zat Knight - Nicky Shorey

James Milner - Steve Sidwell - Craig Gardner - Moustapha Salifou - Nathan Delfouneso

John Carew

If Cuellar's fit, I'd go with something like that....

shoutman

Cuellar is not in the squad.

invincibleirish

CC aint in the squad either. Out of the young fellas in the team are any of them decent DMs? Salifou/Sidwell marshalling the centre doesn't inspire confidence tbh. Osbourne as Helix mentioned isn't great at all.

Neil3030

shoutman wrote: »

Cuellar is not in the squad.

I'm just seeing that on F365, they're also saying Jimmy is out. That leaves a head scratcher!

Neil3030

invincibleirish wrote: »

CC aint in the squad either. Out of the young fellas in the team are any of them decent DMs? Salifou/Sidwell marshalling the centre doesn't inspire confidence tbh. Osbourne as Helix mentioned isn't great at all.

Well MON's included Elliott Parish, Eric Lichaj, Ciaran Clark, Shane Lowry, Barry Bannan and Mark Albrighton.

Is Albrighton a DM?

invincibleirish

Bannon and Albrighton are midfielders thats all i know really, time i go off to the reserve team thread on VT to scope them out.

Helix

albrighton is a left winger, and a pretty good one at that by all reports

shoutman

Gonna be interesting to see if we have any youngin's that could do a job in the first team. Will be a very interesting match, i'd say the odds of a villa win are huge now.

Helix

bannan will probably get on at some stage if he doesnt start, looking forward to seeing him

Savman

Wagner Love and that blondy fella in Midfield are CSKA's big threats IIRC, if Davies can get the finger out he can keep Love quiet. I worry about Sidders and whoever else doing a job on blondie though, just a difference in class tbh.

L'prof

shoutman wrote: »

i'd say the odds of a villa win are huge now.

9/2 on Betfair!

shoutman

What are CSKA to win?

L'prof

shoutman wrote: »

What are CSKA to win?

5/7, which is a very good price considering the players left behind!

shoutman

Is that to go through or to win on the night do you know? (sorry for all the q's)

redout

So Villa are more or less out then !

http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport2/hi/football/europe/7900035.stm

L'prof

shoutman wrote: »

Is that to go through or to win on the night do you know? (sorry for all the q's)

To win:
CSKA - 5/7
Villa - 5/1

To qualify:
CSKA - 4/11
Villa - 9/4

Doodee

I wonder if the Villa youths are anywhere near as good as the Arsenal ones

Savman

2yrs ago we would have sold our soul to be in UEFA Cup last 32 with a trip to CSKA the only hurdle between us and the quarter finals. My how times change...

DSB

I think its a disgrace that Villa have left those players at home. Having said that at 5/1 I think Villa are excellent value

Guzan
Young
Shorey
Davies
Knight
Gardner
Sidwell
Osbourne
Salifou
Carew
Delfouneso

Do I view that team to be as far out as 5/1 to beat CSKA Moscow? Hell no. Do I fancy CSKA Moscow to win, probably, but at those odds Villa are too good for a bet. Sticking a 100 euro double on them and Bayern.

Helix

cska will stroll it

DSB

Think you're giving CSKA more credit than they're worth to be honest. Good side, but they're still playing against a bunch of Premiership quality players. I'd say the sides are evenly matched and that CSKA might just shade it.

shoutman

DSB wrote: »

I think its a disgrace that Villa have left those players at home. Having said that at 5/1 I think Villa are excellent value

Guzan
Young
Shorey
Davies
Knight
Gardner
Sidwell
Osbourne
Salifou
Carew
Delfouneso

Do I view that team to be as far out as 5/1 to beat CSKA Moscow? Hell no. Do I fancy CSKA Moscow to win, probably, but at those odds Villa are too good for a bet. Sticking a 100 euro double on them and Bayern.

Are you for real? I'd be lumping it on CSKA if anything. 5/7 is ridiculous for them to win imo. Villa don't have a hope.

Helix

our midfield just isnt strong enough

osbourne and salifou are dreadful, and sidwell is in shocking form. that only leaves gardner who i rate, but he'll probably be played on the right again where hes not particularly useful

invincibleirish

As i say i would have thought MON would have kept Barry to bolster that midfield and having missed the home leg.

Bannon-Sidwell-Gardner-Salifou?

DSB

I think you're all massively overrating CSKA.

invincibleirish

I dunno DSB if we're over rating CSKA. The Villa midfield is rather lightweight without the Petrov/Barry axis. Remember Hamburg?

DSB

I'd say Hamburg are a much better side than CSKA. And the Villa side wasn't as strong for that game as it looks like being for this one. We didn't have Carew or Davies who are big players for us. CSKA didn't even win the Russian league last season. I don't think they're a poor side by any means, but 5/1 is ridiculous.

Helix

DSB wrote: »

I think you're all massively overrating CSKA.

i think youre massively overrating our travelling squad, half of which wouldnt get into a bottom half team in the prem

DSB

I look forward to feeling very smug when we go through. But I definitely disagree with Martin O'Neill making this choice anyway

Bounty Hunter

............................Guzan

Young.........Davies...........Knight.....Shorey

Gardner......Sidwell..........Osbourne...Salifou

..................Carew......Delfouneso


if the above team plays the below team id expect a 2 goal win for CSKA at home on the pitch they are used to tbh


................................Akinfeev

Berezutsky.....Berezutsky........Shchennikov....Ignashevich

Krasic...........Rahimic...............Aldonin..........Zhirkov

.......Dzagoev/Daniel Carvalho...Vagner Love


I dont think I am underating either side (though some might disagree), CSKA will also be full of confidence given the Villa omitions and fitter as the 1st leg was their first competitive game in a long time.

Id love if our B team pulled off a shock victory and we progressed in this competition while keeping our stars fit for the Premiership but im not expecting anything from the Uefa cup now even though I still believe we are one of the best clubs left in it.

Vagner Love, Akinfeev, Zhirkov, Carvalho are not the type of players our reserves are good enough to face imo, but we have prioritised.

Savman

Chillax for jaysis sake, we won't be trashed over there, in fact I'd almost fancy us if not for a suspect looking midfield. Looking strong at the back, O'Neill seems to have brought the best of what he has in that department and I think any combo of Carew/Delf/Hare would be enough to cause CSKA problems. They are no great shakes at the back, it has to be said.

But our midfield looks, er, fragile.

I still think we can nick it.

Helix

well, according to the latest opta stats, only stoke and hull have had less successful passes in the league than us this season

http://www.skysports.com/story/0,19528,11096_2705370,00.html

quite a worrying stat in my opinion, and i have to say i think its more down to a lack of movement than passing ability or tactics

its a frustratingly common appearance that our players simply seem to bloody well stand around waiting for a ball to them, regardless of the opposition taking up positions to mark them. there doesnt really seem to be anything about us in terms of off the ball offensive work for the most part.

opinions?

im not having a go at the team or anything at all, we're in 4th place a point behind chelsea, but i think its something that if we addressed, we'd be twice the team for it

Savman

Helix wrote: »

its a frustratingly common appearance that our players simply seem to bloody well stand around waiting for a ball to them, regardless of the opposition taking up positions to mark them. there doesnt really seem to be anything about us in terms of off the ball offensive work for the most part.

opinions?

Youth + inexperience. Off the ball movement is a craft tbh.

Helix

its something that really needs to be addressed tho

only 5 more successful passes than hull tells its own story

invincibleirish

Thats cause we hoof it up all the time and let Ash/Gabby make a last second darting run off their marker, until then they are not interested.

Will have to learn how to keep posession if Villa are thinking CL, but surely that'll come in time and/or with newly purchased summer signings?.

Anyone think Ash is better off in a 451/433? think when he is playing conventional winger in 442 he isn't in game as much.

Helix

when we hoof its too easy to park the bus against us tho, thats why we've dropped so many points at home

we played some super football last season, so we know the lads who were in the team then are able for it

invincibleirish

Yep, CC in particular when he's at RB is prone to hoof. Think NRC was decent enough as a RB, fair enough he got caught out against Arsenal, but at least he plays it when he has the ball.

Suppose the word has got out about Villa, Young & Gabby are no longer an unknown quantity and teams adjust tactically, Boswinga had Young in his pocket on Sat for instance. But playing 451 against Sunderland Young had 2 markers and ran riot against them.

Will have to start winning at home, 442 was supposed to bring Villa this but so far i'm not sure. 442 leaves us overexposed in midfield when going forward.

DSB

Savman wrote: »

Chillax for jaysis sake, we won't be trashed over there, in fact I'd almost fancy us if not for a suspect looking midfield. Looking strong at the back, O'Neill seems to have brought the best of what he has in that department and I think any combo of Carew/Delf/Hare would be enough to cause CSKA problems. They are no great shakes at the back, it has to be said.

But our midfield looks, er, fragile.

I still think we can nick it.

Good man, glad to see someone else doesn't believe the rest of the squad (and some of the first 11) is THAT weak.

invincibleirish

DSB & Savman dismissing Moscow at their peril.