Man Utd Away.

In all honestly we have played a lot worse and won matches. Cant fault the effort one bit, played some really good stuff but didnt have enough against a classy, comfortable Man Utd. For the amount of ball we had we never worked their keeper anyway near enough and Utd looked theatening everytime they went forward.

Plus points, another goal for Bent and a nice finish. Even bigger plus point Jean Makoun, immaculate in the middle of the pitch and MOTM for me, looks a fantastic player and hopefully is exactly what we need in there. Brilliant.

Negatives, the defending in the 1st minute, talk about giving yourself a mountain to climb. Stewart Downing, I had him as the most improved player most of the season, but he`s been shite all of January and is not having enough influence in matches either in attack (except assist for Bent) and feckall defensively.

3 points against Fulham a must, Jean Makoun, what a player!

villahagler69 wrote:In all honestly we have played a lot worse and won matches. Cant fault the effort one bit, played some really good stuff but didnt have enough against a classy, comfortable Man Utd. For the amount of ball we had we never worked their keeper anyway near enough and Utd looked theatening everytime they went forward.

Plus points, another goal for Bent and a nice finish. Even bigger plus point Jean Makoun, immaculate in the middle of the pitch and MOTM for me, looks a fantastic player and hopefully is exactly what we need in there. Brilliant.

Negatives, the defending in the 1st minute, talk about giving yourself a mountain to climb. Stewart Downing, I had him as the most improved player most of the season, but he`s been shite all of January and is not having enough influence in matches either in attack (except assist for Bent) and feckall defensively.

3 points against Fulham a must, Jean Makoun, what a player!

Thought Dunne was terrible first 20mins.. WTF was he doing for the first goal

Played fairly well esp considering United are formidable at home..We hit the bar twice too late on.. Kept the ball well at times..

Got agood run of fixtures coming up now.. think if we beat Fulham at the weekend the confidence will be very high and we can go on a good run..

Makoun was incredible tonight - he played 94 passes, 85 of them were 'succesful'. Quality. Composed, can pick a pass, very very good.

Would've played Cuéllar on the right instead of Walker, but he didn't have a bad game either, just think it would've helped more defensively. Rooney took his 2 goals extremely well, nothing we could've done about them.

We played well, just couldn't capitalize on some good build up play. As soon as Young moved to the left, he hit the bar, and put in 4 good crosses. Think GH and Young must realise that's his BEST position, and it much more effective there. I'm still not too sure what to think of Downing.

I think we will be going to 4-4-2 now with this run of games coming up. Dunne was positioned badly for the first goal Jay, shouldnt let Rooney like that. Makoun looks good, as I predicted months ago when I firs tmentioned him before Ades jumped on the bandwagon

all well and good having loads of possession and passing it around but there was never the killer ball, get to the edge of the area and fanny about before eventually passing all the way back to defence and starting again, pretty dire tobh

In all honesty, probably not a popular opinion here, but if we were to offload Downing in the summer, I'd get N'Zogbia in. Like for like, but N'Zogbia is better

Avfc_4eva_Sotc wrote:all well and good having loads of possession and passing it around but there was never the killer ball, get to the edge of the area and fanny about before eventually passing all the way back to defence and starting again, pretty dire tobh

Well said, but what about the all important OPTA stats?

Goals win games and having bundles of tidy possesion in the middle third isnt going to win you a match. But watching us retain possesion (comfortably) and move the ball around looking for an opening (that didnt really come at OT) is far and away better than seeing hoofball from Collins/Dunne/Cuellar straight onto the head of Vidic and Rio.

It didnt materialise last night against the current best team in the country, but that style of football will bear fruit against lesser opposition. Predictable result much better performance.

AVFC, dont you think the formation will be changed now and will be more attacking

Avfc_4eva_Sotc wrote:all well and good having loads of possession and passing it around but there was never the killer ball, get to the edge of the area and fanny about before eventually passing all the way back to defence and starting again, pretty dire tobh

A fair summary of events.

Man U are brilliant at it though, once they go a goal in front, just sitting back and letting the other team have the ball, then counter attack them.

I hope this Bradley is good because it will be good to see a player than can actually try and break from midfield and get into the box, we really miss that kind of player.

Thought that Makoun looked good though, once he gets up to speed with the Premier League he could be very good for us.

Petrov looked pissed off when he was subbed

Avfc_4eva_Sotc wrote:Petrov looked pissed off when he was subbed

I missed that because my internet connection went down. If Bradley is any good then I think Petrov will have to get used to sitting on the bench, in fact you can be sure he will on the bench for the next game after that.

We have got a great run of fixtures from now until May. I wasn't expecting a result last night but I'm really glad Bent got another goal. He's settling well and I'm fairly sure if the back 4 can sharpen up we will be in the mix for Europe.

Think it's time to stop fcuking about with Young through the middle and get him back out on the wing.Pick one out of Petrov or Makoun alongside Downing and get Gabby up front with Bent.

QBVILLA wrote:Think it's time to stop fcuking about with Young through the middle and get him back out on the wing.Pick one out of Petrov or Makoun alongside Downing and get Gabby up front with Bent.

I thought Downing looked completely lost when he played in the middle against Man City, adding onto the fact that he is scared of tackling an opponent, I don't think central midfield in a midfield 2 is the position for him.

Agree with you there ROT, need either NRC or this Bradley lad in there with Makoun and the three wingers can fight it out for the two places. Gabby back up front with Bent and FFS give Carlos a run of games in the centre of defence

villanfromluton wrote:Agree with you there ROT, need either NRC or this Bradley lad in there with Makoun and the three wingers can fight it out for the two places. Gabby back up front with Bent and FFS give Carlos a run of games in the centre of defence

Problem with Carlos, he came in at the back, looked very good in his first game back in the centre against the Baggies, then he had a shocker when we played Spurs and was as bad as I have seen him at centre back, until we played Man City away and he was even worse. To be fair to Dunne, I thought he was brilliant in the Man City at home game, and Wigan away so cant complain about him to much.

QBVILLA wrote:Think it's time to stop fcuking about with Young through the middle and get him back out on the wing.Pick one out of Petrov or Makoun alongside Downing and get Gabby up front with Bent.

Is that a trick question

personally I think my team would look like this

Friedel

Walker Collins Dunne Clark

Albrighton Makoun Bradley Young

Gabby Bent


I've only seen bradley play for the USA a few times but he looks like the box to box midfielder we need to try and break down defenses and with makoun being more of a playmaker I imagine they could work well together, and i'm sure that is the reason GH has bought them.

Downing has been shit for a while now, he is no RM either and I agree that Young needs to be played in his best position of LM so thats why downing is dropped.

Gabby can be swapped with Heskey if we need more of a target man upfront with bent, which I think is what we was missing in the first half last night.

Agree with that team on the whole.. doubt Houllier will drop Downing thou..

ADRIAN_1976 wrote:Agree with that team on the whole.. doubt Houllier will drop Downing thou..

He needs to be benched for a match or two and see if he steps up after that. He has got the qualities, but has been awful past 5 /6 weeks. If he was playing outstanding in attack you can just about forgive the lack of defensive effort but as that creativity has slackened off its pretty poor all round at the minute.

Downing's been fecking shite for a while now. 1 or 2 assists here and there but does nothing during the game, pulls out of tackles, and losses the ball a bit too often, as of late anyway. Just put him on the bench for the next game, and bring him on in the latter stages where he could do some damage. Young does the same but he needs to play on the left where, on some occasions, he is a match winner.

Makoun and Bradley should to start in the middle? might be a bit too soon. Probably stick with Petrov and Makoun, then bring on Bradley with 30 mins to go and see how he settles.

Jay.P.A wrote:Downing's been fecking shite for a while now. 1 or 2 assists here and there but does nothing during the game, pulls out of tackles, and losses the ball a bit too often, as of late anyway. Just put him on the bench for the next game, and bring him on in the latter stages where he could do some damage. Young does the same but he needs to play on the left where, on some occasions, he is a match winner.

Makoun and Bradley should to start in the middle? might be a bit too soon. Probably stick with Petrov and Makoun, then bring on Bradley with 30 mins to go and see how he settles.

What about Reo Coker? Also think it's wrong to be writing off Downing.This is typical Villa.Downing is one of the many players down the years who can't have a bad game without the fans writing him off.In contrast there's been Holte heroes who were shit more than they were good ie Angel and Collymore