Arsenal

villanfromluton wrote:Ades, have never seen him play so bad, WTF was he doing for that first goal, Collins had everything covered. Ashley Young looked a tosser with that thing round his neck. Carew has to go, I think we need a new keeper. Warnock has been useless at left back, maybe when everyone is back Clark could do a job there. I thought Ireland looked a bit better today. Downing had worst game I have seen from him this season, but why not switch wings. Pires probably needs to get match fit, but looks a shadow of his former self. Need some players back. Cuellar has to play, NRC is needed in the middle, Albrighton on the right and Gabby up front.

Bit of a rant there Lutes..

But agree with you on most of it.. i think the wingers swapped in the second half (!?).. Pires only will work whenwe have the ball but that wasnt going to be the case against Arsenal.. WTF was Warnock doing when he played Chamakh onside cus he was sorting his boots out in his own box.. what a twat..

Luke Young did look poor today.. and your right Cuellar should def start.. i would go with Cuellar and Collins.. but i think Dunne has a lot of influene in training etc so wont be dropped.. Def need Reo Coker back in the middle and Gabby back too..

When is Reo due back...

I thought Ireland looked like the Ayatollah Khomeini

For me there is a separate issue here starting to raise its head.

Irrespective of today's performance this is basically the same squad that got us to 6th last season, a League Cup final and FA cup semi final and European qualification.

Minus 1, Milner, + 1 Ireland.

Every Premiership side and every Premiership manager needs luck, massive amounts of it and with the lesser sides, even more luck, without question MON had shit loads, Houllier has had more injuries in 2 months than MON had in 5 years, what does that tell you, MON had the craft to eek out results in games and winning games we should have lost, MON signed average players at best and spent huge amounts doing it, and yet, still got the results, still kept it all together, ticking over and getting results, its what all good side have to do and have to have.

Houllier for me is unfortunate, plagued with injuries, doesn't seem to have the understanding of the players, already chalking up some very poor results and poor performances, and players heads drop in a way that hasn't been seen since O'Leary.

Problem we have here, when thing get like this sometimes you have to break the mold, but, has Houllier got the money to spend, IMO i doubt it, and of course the problem is its like winning, once your in the groove its gets easier, once your down there, doesn't matter who you buy, what tactic you adopt, losing becomes very addictive, ask Moyes and Everton, West Ham.

Whats the answer, well, we can't phuk about for to long and make the 10th to 17th birth a rightful place, otherwise you end up like West Ham, perpetual struggle, for me the League Cup game v Birmingham is crucial, that is a must win, full stop, no question, this must be followed by another result for the next Premiership game, we must maintain our status, otherwise side we come up against will no longer have any fear factor that without doubt MON installed, lose that and we will be fighting relegation every season, and as we scrape along bottom we will attract the kind of managers that you wouldn't look twice at normally.

Pointless talking about today's game really, its where we go from here, Birmingham City is a must win.

Listening to 606 on the way home last night, a Villa fan phoned in to say he'd been told that the club are paying for Pires to be ferried from London every day. Is that right?

P&O ?

jak wrote:P&O ?

You know what I mean.....

He is living in London, that is for sure.

i got to the pub with 35 mins gone and handed over £1.60 for my lager as that was the price until there was a goal scored, so it wasn't all bad .So feck knows what the opening 35 was like though the 10 mins i did see of the first half we looked an absolute shambles and Arsenal looked top class.Didn't even know Pires had been on the pitch until Fonz was introduced in the second half.Carew is a waste of space,and the defence a shower of shit.nasri's goal was a great strike but we didn't have a player withing 5 yards of him.Well done to Clark who scored a smashing goal that should have been disallowed for Carew being offside and right in the 'keepers eyeline.Bannan needs to remember how to do the simple things and despite Ireland clearly not being the Froggy twat's favourite player did enough to get a starting role next game.Arsenal are a class act but we allowed them to play and they duly wiped the floor with us.

Pires looks to old and slow for the game, perhaps he will make a good coach, but I'd rather see us play two upfront like we did in the 2nd half then play him in a 5 man midfield, and effectively be playing with 10 men.

Pires may be ok in a game where we are likely to have lots of possession, but that was never going to be the case against Arsenal

villanfromluton wrote:Pires may be ok in a game where we are likely to have lots of possession, but that was never going to be the case against Arsenal

He's at the wrong club then

QBVILLA wrote:

villanfromluton wrote:Pires may be ok in a game where we are likely to have lots of possession, but that was never going to be the case against Arsenal

He's at the wrong club then

Your in a good mood, has the missus not let you out to the pub

villanfromluton wrote:He is living in London, that is for sure.

The caller was implying that the club were arranging for his transport, and paying for it too. If true, it's a bit much, don't yu think?

Bedshammer wrote:

villanfromluton wrote:He is living in London, that is for sure.

The caller was implying that the club were arranging for his transport, and paying for it too. If true, it's a bit much, don't yu think?

fairly normal i think, ive read plenty of contracts and its normal to pay for hotel in the region for a player until they move which can sometimes be a good year, that would cost just as much as travel.

villanfromluton wrote:Pires may be ok in a game where we are likely to have lots of possession, but that was never going to be the case against Arsenal

Give the man a feckin chance.

Said it before, Pires!!!!what for? and Ireland, could never see why, that's what i was saying about Houllier, he has at this time an unfortunate feel about him.

Result against the noses in the League Cup is vital, followed by a further result at the weekend in order to stop any further slide, the only thing we have going for us is both Everton and Fulham have tough fixtures, so should keep them in place, but should any such result go against us we are even toying around with the likes of Wigan, if they win....etc. It is distinctly possible that Villa could slip into the bottom 3 within a couple of games, this has to be taken seriously from a side that last season was competing on all fronts.

Agree with most of what you say there Mal, but think Ireland didnt do bad when he came on yesterday. I would play him on Wednesday

Luton:

Don't think there is a huge amount of choice, the only thing that IMO is important, is the win, this is going to sound very extreme, if we got out to Birmingham City on Wednesday night Houlliers time at Villa will be on a downward slope IMO, despite thats just after a few months.

No Premiership club can sit on there laurels risking so much waiting for things to come good for and from a manager, aka Grant.


Must win.

Must admit I reckon the Blues must be favourites to beat us and if we lose there and at Liverpool, there will be a lot of pressure on Houllier and rightly so. I know he has had awful luck with injuries, but the tactics in the first half yesterday were totally wrong IMHO. We let Arsenal do whatever they wanted and they enjoyed that luxury

Couldn't agree more, we all know how fast it can turn at Villa, according to a few mates of mine there are already rumblings at the games.

Houllier will be walking a tightrope if we lose to Blues, if we then go and lose to Liverpool and then in a real (can't believe i'm saying this) a relegation battle, he would be best advised to walk. As soon as, really.

villanfromluton wrote:Must admit I reckon the Blues must be favourites to beat us and if we lose there and at Liverpool, there will be a lot of pressure on Houllier and rightly so. I know he has had awful luck with injuries, but the tactics in the first half yesterday were totally wrong IMHO. We let Arsenal do whatever they wanted and they enjoyed that luxury

I agree with that.. he will be under severe pressure.. but i hope we stick with him.. still beleive once everyone is fit and we let Houllier add to the squad we will be very strong.. the likes of Delph Bannan Clark will be premiership players.. we already have Downing Young and Gabby. so if we can add a midfielder and a good striker we will be back to our best..

BUT losing to the Blues is unthinkable!!!

There have been some encouraging signs, but we cant kid ourselves that we are too good to be drawn into a relegation struggle because we are not. Some of the football has been good, but it is a results business in the end. Hopefully the injuries are starting to clear a bit. Im really looking forward to seeing this Gary Gardner lad as he is supposed to be something special, maybe AVFC can give us his views on the lad. NRC and Cuellar are due back shortly I believe.

ADRIAN_1976 wrote:

villanfromluton wrote:Must admit I reckon the Blues must be favourites to beat us and if we lose there and at Liverpool, there will be a lot of pressure on Houllier and rightly so. I know he has had awful luck with injuries, but the tactics in the first half yesterday were totally wrong IMHO. We let Arsenal do whatever they wanted and they enjoyed that luxury

I agree with that.. he will be under severe pressure.. but i hope we stick with him.. still beleive once everyone is fit and we let Houllier add to the squad we will be very strong.. the likes of Delph Bannan Clark will be premiership players.. we already have Downing Young and Gabby. so if we can add a midfielder and a good striker we will be back to our best..

BUT losing to the Blues is unthinkable!!!

Losing to the Blues is absolutely unthinkable, i would rather we get hammered by the scouse and struggle for points than lose any game to the Blouses, he's plagued with problems Adrian, once a team goes down this road you will get the obligatory heads drop and players want to leave, so Houllier would have to spend a vast amount, not just in new players but in replacing players like Ashley Young and other that will want to go, that's when you start playing catch up and trying to grind out results IMO, new man at the helm, I've always maintained, even with MON, a manager is as good as his last result, you go from there.

I dont really see this "got the tactics wrong", the main problem in the first half was that nearly every one of our players lost the ability to pass the ball 5 yards, I lost count of the amount of times we gave the ball away, do that with Arsenal and it will take some time to get it back.

As for presure on him if we lose to Liverpool away, disagree with that as well, our injuries have been horrific. David Moyes and Mark Hughes up for the boot as well?

Besides, think we will beat Blues but lose to Liverpool.

Lutes and Mal.. Young Downing Gabby are top six players.. add to that Delph Bannan Clark.. Reo Petrov.. if we can get in another striker and a guy who can dominate the midfield we would be very strong.. obv we need some luck to get a couple of quality players in who settle well..

Lets hope we get a few results and then Houlier gets a chance to sort things out rater then be under pressure whilst doing it..