Aston Villa Team Talk/Gossip/Rumours Thread

One Cold Hand

Samurai wrote: »

your gf is a villa fan? thats pretty hot

Once she doesn't LOOK like Marlon Harewood!

Samurai

hahaha true that!

shoutman

Thankfully she doesn't and she had no previous affiliations so Aston Villa was a sensible option, also means I can get her presents of a trip for two to a villa match. Wimminz be ez to take advantage of.

matrim

Aston Villa boss Martin O'Neill could hand Wilfred Bouma a shock call-up to his squad for Sunday's Premier League game against Spurs (4pm).

The Dutch international is under consideration after playing a reserve game - his first competitive action since dislocating an ankle in an Intertoto cup tie with Odense BK in late July.

Steve Sidwell has not recovered sufficiently from an ankle problem but Emile Heskey should be fit after a recent Achilles problem.

O'Neill has allowed third-choice keeper Stuart Taylor and midfielder Barry Bannan to join Cardiff and Derby on loan respectively.

Villa (from): Friedel, Guzan, Cuellar, Knight, Davies, L Young, Shorey, Milner, Petrov, Barry, A Young, Carew, Heskey, Agbonlahor, Harewood, Delfouneso, Reo-Coker, Bouma, Salifou, Gardner.

Bouma in the squad for spurs. Good news, although it's probably unlikely that he'll play

invincibleirish

He has been missed. Perhaps he'll get a game with Villa 2-0 up with 5 minutes to go...

Helix

bannan scores on his derby debut with a belter of a volley

Helix

my superstitions are getting the better of me

i think im gonna take one for the team and stay in ireland tomorrow

shoutman

Helix wrote: »

my superstitions are getting the better of me

i think im gonna take one for the team and stay in ireland tomorrow

Haha, don't be ridiculous. If you don't turn up we will probably lose.

Kinetic^

Friedel

Young - Cuellar - Davies - Bouma

Milner - Petrov - Barry - Young

Carew - Agbonlahor

Preferably but reo-coker will probably force young to the left side.

Helix

freddie wont start

shoutman

Freddie wont start and most likely Heskey will start ahead of carew.

Neil3030

I struggle to see how today's results could have been worse for Villa!

- Liverpool pull even further away, seem to find their form
- Arsenal win, thus taking us over (hopefully not for long)
- Everton win, closing the gap
- Man U get stuffed, very close to us playing them in OT

erm... ****?

Bounty Hunter

If anyone has sopcast sop://broker.sopcast.com:3912/6816

cmon Villa, now is when you need to turn up and win straight up

davies dropped odd... Cuellar and knight in CB

Kinetic^

Bye bye CL, bye bye Gareth Barry.

Villain

Well we might as well finish 7th or 8th now, sher we don't want to play in the Uefa cup.....

LuckyLloyd

Standings:

Arsenal: Pld 29 Pts 52 Gd 19
Aston Villa: Pld 29 Pts 52 Gd 12

Remaining Fixtures:

Arsenal:

Newcastle (a)
Man City (h)
Wigan (a)
Liverpool (a)
Middlesbrough (h)
Portsmouth (a)
Chelsea (h)
Man Utd (a)
Stoke City (h)

Aston Villa:

Liverpool (a)
Man Utd (a)
Everton (h)
West Ham (h)
Bolton (a)
Hull City (h)
Fulham (a)
Middlesbrough (a)
Newcastle (h)

Other:

- Arsenal have remaining commitments in CL and FA Cup;
- Aston Villa are solely concentrated on league run in;
- Arsenal expect to welcome back Rosicky, Adebayor and Fabregas from injury within the month;
- Laursen's comeback from injury has been delayed by a couple of weeks;
- Aston Villa have not won since 07 Feb, drawing 2 and losing 5;
- Arsenal have essentially not lost a game since 10 Dec;

GuanYin

7 games without a win

Wow.

They really fell from form at a bad time.

Kinetic^

I think Villa have the easier finish to the season and with 3 less games (potentially more) it's there for us but I don't how the hell we're going to do it. Put the young lad on instead of gabby and put carew on instead of heskey. Defense is a sham. Fuck.

LuckyLloyd

Kinetic^ wrote: »

I think Villa have the easier finish to the season and with 3 less games (potentially more) it's there for us but I don't how the hell we're going to do it. Put the young lad on instead of gabby and put carew on instead of heskey. Defense is a sham. Fuck.

Looking at the next three games for both teams and their current form, I think it is quite possible that you go into the game against West Ham 6 points behind Arsenal and with only 6 games left to play...

therecklessone

Didn't realise Gabby has only scored 1 in his last 12, that has to be a hindrance.

Carew should be starting.

I think Villa need to try avoid defeat in the next 3 then focus on 6 wins from 6 in the end. Arsenal will drop points in their run in.

Helix

therecklessone wrote: »

Didn't realise Gabby has only scored 1 in his last 12, that has to be a hindrance.

Carew should be starting.

I think Villa need to try avoid defeat in the next 3 then focus on 6 wins from 6 in the end. Arsenal will drop points in their run in.

gabby being **** is a hindrance

it has always been a hindrance, even during his little purple patch he almost neurtalised his contribution in terms of goals by his inability to pass, beat a player, run in a non straight line, look up, get in good positions and break his balls for the team

he is however an expert of standing around with his hands on his hips

carew has a goals to minute ratio of one goal every 120 minutes playing time, and he still cant dislodge the 2 mules up front

its no coincidence that when he comes on we start to look dangerous down the right hand side. milner is a fantastic crosser, and carew knows where hes going to stick the ball, but this insistence on gabby and heskey up front means that everything goes through young instead, and teams know that they just have to stick a couple of players on him and thats that

its frustrating, but its one of those bizarre things mon does, and will continue to do

Mr Alan

weren't people on here trying to say he was as good as Torres in the not so distant past?

Helix

Mr Alan wrote: »

weren't people on here trying to say he was as good as Torres in the not so distant past?

yes, he was actually compared to torres quite recently. it was as ludicrous then as it is now

Mr Alan

still think Villa may get fourth. they were quite unfortunate today from what i saw. if o'neill can address a few mistakes he is making, they can get back on course.

Helix

Mr Alan wrote: »

still think Villa may get fourth. they were quite unfortunate today from what i saw. if o'neill can address a few mistakes he is making, they can get back on course.

absolutely, we're still in the running assuming the manager gets his act together and starts carew

starting carew has a filterdown effect, it means we have genuine width rather than everything going out the left exclusively. it means we cross the ball instead of hitting long balls over the top, and it means the midfield push up that little bit more when we're in possession

but he wont do it

he'll start with gabby on his own or gabby and heskey in the next game, just like he always does

Mr Alan

personally i hope that the Carew exclusion continues & we can pick him up in the summer-that is if MON still takes Rafas calls

Bounty Hunter

Dear Martin O'Neil,

If you dont want to get into the Champions league here is a list of suggestions you should ignore.

1) Start our best Goalscorer... thats John Carew btw not Heskey or Gabby

2) Drop Gabby, the way he is playing atm both he and the team need this

3) play a RB at RB, if this means playing Shorey at LB and Young at RB then so be it

4) if Fit play Bouma, he had that reserve game what 2 weeks ago and has been training for ages the second he is 100% start him

5) Turn Martin Laursen into the six million dollar man, rebuild him and get him back asap

6) if we are making no headway in a match make a sub early, thats why you bought Heskey so wed have options, gabby as an impact sub vs tired legs would be nice

7) if must for some games go back to 4-5-1, you know.. the formation we were getting results with

8) Stop being so bloody nice for a while, you remember cloughie, give em a clip round the ear if they deserve it or at least a good bollocking

Bounty Hunter

as weird as it might sound i actually think the Dubai trip was a bit of a negative things needed altering after the last match but MON could stick to his plan A and hope the Villa players just needed the break so as to be rejuvinatede in the next game. Yes we needed the break but we still needed a change

eagle eye

This is a bit of a strange one, Heskey has played well in his games for Villa but I have to say that Carew offers goals and Gabby looks great when playing with Carew.

Just my thoughts.

Bounty Hunter

I miss Martin Laursen

Helix

eagle eye wrote: »

This is a bit of a strange one, Heskey has played well in his games for Villa but I have to say that Carew offers goals and Gabby looks great when playing with Carew.

Just my thoughts.

tbh its agbonlahor who needs to be dropped if its a straight choice between gabby and heskey

LuckyLloyd

Carew and Heskey with Milner and Young on the wings. Get it wide a whole lot and rain crosses into the box. Will win a couple of games between now and the end of the season. Will it win enough though...?

x in the city

Heskey is shoite, cant believe anyone rates him.

If Villa are depending on him to get them into the CL, then amen to that

kinaldo

I honestly never thought Villa to be good enough for 4th. I like the Villa as a club, and hope the Toon can do you lot a favour next week, but I still think and hope that the Arsenal will be playing CL football again next season.

Mr Alan

x in the city wrote: »

Heskey is shoite, cant believe anyone rates him.

If Villa are depending on him to get them into the CL, then amen to that

nonsense.

heskey is an excellent player.

Doodee

that was a terrible performance.

It seems that going down a goal early just unnerves the team. We had some decent plays in the first half, but by god were we none existant in the second half.
I can only hope that MON has finally had the wake up call. Thats twice Carew has come on as a sub and scored.

I dread going into work tomorrow and having to listen to the Arsenal faithful.
It really is tough being a Villa fan.

L'prof

Doodee wrote: »

I dread going into work tomorrow and having to listen to the Arsenal faithful.
It really is tough being a Villa fan.

As an Arsenal fan, I wouldn't be getting ahead of myself anyway, still plenty of points to be dropped by both teams!

shoutman

Helix did you stay at home today?
Must say it was a great atmosphere there today, confidence beforehand and even after the first goal the general feeling was one of optimism. Unfortunately we didn't really create anything for the rest of the half, had all the possession but nothing to show for it. Milner had a shocker, the worst display i've ever seen from him, he gave away countless balls and pretty much couldn't do anything right. Petrov had moments of greatness but seemed to fade away into obscurity during the second half.
Heskey and Gaby produced absolutely nothing upfront whatsoever. The lack of movement from the front two was astonishing, it just seemed like a lack of effort tbh. We are really missing an attacking midfielder ala Arteta, too many times the ball is knocked to the edge of the box in attacking plays and there is no one there to follow it up and have a go. Very frustrating.

I'm normally the first one to defend mon but today I think he made mistakes. If I were him I would of taken off Milner and Heskey ten minutes into the second half. Put Gaby on the right, bring reo-coker (who I felt played well for his first game back) into midfield and revert to the 4-5-1 formation that served us so well at the start of the season.

I think we are big underdogs to finish in fourth now, and I fear that fifth place or worse will spell an end to this current revival at villa park. Uefa cup football again next year will probably see some names leaving, I don't think Barry will be the only one looking to play Champions League football. And if its Uefa cup again what happens next season if we find ourselves in the same position as this? Do we rest players again?!?

Hopefully we can pull the finger out, find some form, jam a fourth place spot and have some heavy reinforcements coming in during the summer.

Helix

i was on the piss last night and in no state to be driving to the airport this morning

nearly slept through the match too, only woke up just in time to see the first spurs goal lol

id like to see a rebuild in the summer if we dont get 4th. instead of this longball nonsense we've started playing i want to see us build back up again as a footballing team who can actually create chances from the middle. barry and gabby out would bring in a few quid, then the tv money plus a few million from randy to bring in some actual first teamers this time around, especially a forward and a creative mid and id gladly write off the cl for next season.

i really dunno how much longer i could hack this mindless hoofball rubbish

PHB

If Villa dont make 4th this season, I think it will be a forced rebuild. Barry will definately go, but Young I'd say will consider moving on too, especially if Barry leaves.

Neil3030

PHB wrote: »

If Villa dont make 4th this season, I think it will be a forced rebuild. Barry will definately go, but Young I'd say will consider moving on too, especially if Barry leaves.

Correction:

Barry will definately go, but Young I'd say hope will consider moving on too.....[to Man U]

One Cold Hand

Man I love over-reactions. Two weeks ago the discussion was about who we were going to buy when we qualified for the CL. Now it's about who we're going to lose and the imminent mass exodus when we don't finish 4th.

spockety

One Cold Hand wrote: »

Man I love over-reactions. Two weeks ago the discussion was about who we were going to buy when we qualified for the CL. Now it's about who we're going to lose and the imminent mass exodus when we don't finish 4th.

It's called Liverpool-itis. Fans of teams that hover around Champions League qualifying positions seem to get it.

matrim

Helix wrote: »

id like to see a rebuild in the summer if we dont get 4th. instead of this longball nonsense we've started playing i want to see us build back up again as a footballing team who can actually create chances from the middle. barry and gabby out would bring in a few quid, then the tv money plus a few million from randy to bring in some actual first teamers this time around, especially a forward and a creative mid and id gladly write off the cl for next season.

I disagree with this (well not about the long ball style). We don't need a complete rebuild. We have a great core of a team and need to try and keep who we have and build on that.

It will be hard to keep Barry if we don't make the CL. But we should be able to keep everybody else as I don't see young leaving yet.

What we need is more strength in depth in the back, backup on the wings, a more creative center midfielder and try and get a 20 goal a season striker.

Helix

i didnt say a complete rebuild tho. we have plenty of decent players at the club and id definitely want to see a first team based around friedel, luke young, laursen, cuellar, bouma, petrov, ash, milner and carew

its the other bits that need filling in. the rebuild is needed in the center and up top, because theyre the places where the longball crap is stemming from. the center because we seem to know theres nobody there who can unlock defences so we just bypass them, and gabby just inspires the team to hoof for him to chase. unfortunately 9 times out of 10 if he catches the ball he just kicks it off a defender and loses it, or falls over

the big thing is changing the mentality, and i dont think that can happen with 2 central mids who are playing similar positions and gabby up front. a complete tactical restructure is needed

rgiller

One Cold Hand wrote: »

Man I love over-reactions. Two weeks ago the discussion was about who we were going to buy when we qualified for the CL. Now it's about who we're going to lose and the imminent mass exodus when we don't finish 4th.

Well said: way too much fickle fan syndrome going on here. It wasn't that bad a performance yesterday at all. Spurs scored their two chances, but apart from that we were almost always on top. Ashley was top class first half, Barry and Petrov were linking up well and NRC had a very good game floating around the defensive positions.

Sure, we looked much more dangerous when Carew came on, as he gets into the box a lot more than Heskey does, but I don't think we've played that much better earlier on this season. Difference is earlier on we have been winning these kind of games through an equal measure of luck and better finishing.

Now the luck's going against us and the lads are all a bit more tired. But bottom line is we're still in joint fourth place with enough games left that we can do something with the rest of the season. Sure it would have looked better if we were 8 points clear of Arsenal, having beaten Stoke but come on: it's time to get behind the team, not call for mass clearouts.

As someone has already said, it is Liverpoolitis. How long ago was it that the scousers were calling for Benitez's head? How do you think they feel now? Get some perspective people

LuckyLloyd

One Cold Hand wrote: »

Man I love over-reactions. Two weeks ago the discussion was about who we were going to buy when we qualified for the CL. Now it's about who we're going to lose and the imminent mass exodus when we don't finish 4th.

Which one was the over - reaction?

wynters

Arsenal were always gonna catch us over this current run of fixtures... quicker than we thought perhaps but they've had a handy run of games, and we've been unlucky in some. But we haven't turned into a sh/t team overnight. With a few strong defensive players back fit - Laursen, NRC and Bouma - and some obvious changes up-front, there's no reason why we can't find the form we had earlier in the season. If we can stop conceding, we'll get back to nicking wins...

The next 3 games of the remaining 9 are crucial. It's gonna be a tall-order, but if we can stay in touching distance of Arsenal going into the last 6 games, that CL spot really is there for the taking...

... Arsenal's run-in is tough. 3 of their last 6 are against Liverpool, Chelsea and United, but the OTHER 3 teams they'll play are Boro, Portsmouth and Stoke, who currently occupy 3 of the bottom 4 PL positions. It's the closest PL season there's been, so the 'relegation dogfight' this year is gonna be more intense than ever - not the type of teams Arsenal like to play against.

Our chances of taking points away to Liverpool and United don't look great, but we're a better team away from home, and we're not expected to take anything from those 2 games so a good performance/result in either would restore some confidence. Fingers crossed we'll be going into the Everton game with a fully fit squad. Need a result in that game to see them off too...

To keep pace with Arsenal in the short-term though, we're also relying on favours from Newcastle, City and Wigan. 2 of Arsenal's next 3 are away - Up Norffff! Wigan is a tough place to go and Steve Bruce has an excellent record against Wenger. There's also the small matter of CL quarter finals in between those games so who knows...

There's a sh/tload of variables, so there WILL be twists and turns. It's far from over.

Arsenal:

Newcastle (a)
Man City (h)
*CL QF 1st leg
Wigan (a)
*CL QF 2nd leg
Liverpool (a)
Middlesbrough (h)
Portsmouth (a)
Chelsea (h)
Man Utd (a)
Stoke City (h)

Aston Villa:

Liverpool (a)
Man Utd (a)
Everton (h)
West Ham (h)
Bolton (a)
Hull City (h)
Fulham (a)
Middlesbrough (a)
Newcastle (h)

slingerz

The fact that Villa fans would even consider selling Aghbonlahor is beyond belief to me.

I'd love for Liverpool to give Villa £50 million for Barry, Aghbonlahor and Young. That would be good shopping for me.

Helix

slingerz wrote: »

The fact that Villa fans would even consider selling Aghbonlahor is beyond belief to me.

why? hes rubbish