romavillan

whilst i'm pissed off we didn't give it a go till too late, we looked pretty solid for a change with the changes he made at the back. if we'd have brought on ireland and zog at 0-0 and gone for it after an hour we might have got something more out of the game. if we'd have been too open right from the start we could have gone down by 5 like newcastle yesterday. we need to build on what was a solid performance for the most part today and find a balance between that and the attacking intent we showed against qpr and newcastle (where in the first half we looked very dangerous) it was good to see gardner get a full game under his belt in what i hope will be the first of many. as has been said here the next 5 games are huge for us and we need to get at least 7 points from them. then we can take stock in the summer and move forward. disappointing we didn't go for it sooner, but getting to half time at 0-0 was a much improved defensive display from us. AM made a mistake in not getting zog and ireland on sooner, but if bent's effort hadn't been miraculously saved by hart we woudl have had a point for our efforts today.

can't beleive i'm agreeing with richard gardner as a box to box midfielder and petrov sitting back to screen the back four would be good. woudl really like to see more of clark as a centre back, he could be our vermaelen. he is comfortable on the ball, good going forward and can score...

whilst i agree that he was looking a bit too often for a killer pass from deep and losing us the ball. he was in no way dreadfull and his linking up with gardner in particular was very good. albrighton isn't dreadfull either. fair do's to AM for being pissed off, ireland's reaction was probably just because he'd run a long way tracking back and did his best. nothing story really. AM is probably looking for those kind of reactions to be honest reather than penalising a player who showed some passion...

This was also said last summer, which was supposed to be key and important for the club. No doubt it will be the same next year as well well, to the extent that the summer and pre-season is fundamental to the next season then it should be said every summer yes, at least until you're defending champions or something this summer in particular though is very important, with the contracts expiring it coudl be seen to be the summer where the MON era finally ends and we can start again. add to that the fact we have a nucleus of very good young talent coming through, the handling of which could well define quite a few years to come for us, and this summer in particular looks to be very key for avfc.

not sure i agree with the idea that we are lacking in belief and fight at the moment!

if we finish 15th or 16th there's a good chance he'll be shown the door. i reckon we'll finsih nearer 10th and he'll stay. summer is very important for us. we won't get relegated though, prob after the city game will be the closest to the bottom we'll be all season. we won'r go down though. saying that might not be such a bad thing, we might get rid of some of the moaners who think we have a divine right to be in the champions league and spend £200m every window! we could play the kids all together in the championship, get promoted with them and then build a team around the kids, rather than trying to squeeze the kids in the first team...

**** GET THE **** IN YOU ****! we can win this

warnock the destroyer! nasty injury it seems this one. again we don't deserve to be behind, we've been the better team and had 3 great chances to be in front...

"Aston Villa forward Gabriel Agbonlahor is again a major fitness doubt with back and hamstring spasms." oddschecker paints a pretty bleak picture for this game! if we play well we can get a good result here though. depends if they come out with confidence or not i spose...

bbc says gabby, albrighton and collins are all out

sunderland spent a lot of money in the summer, a lot of people were tipping bruce to push for a european place after the signings he made. some of which were players touted on here as players we would want. we all know the MON effect, and it's fine till the bubble bursts. he was a great manager for us till he bailed on us and left us in the shit he had made. AM will be given more time, and there are signs of improvement. so all the continuos bitching about AM out and lerner out (WTF) is useless, wasted energy. personally he wouldn't have been my choice, but the football away at chelsea and especially the last game was very good. will you all still be so hostile if we play like that for the next 10 games?

i'm a bit confused by some people's interpretations of AM's role in the qpr game, and the game as a whole. qpr WERE NOT the better side even when they were 2-0 up. we weren't as good as the second half it's true, but they scored one great finish that was extremely lucky to fall so nicely for cisse and then warnock's blinder. not much else. the football we played was what people on here have been crying out for, for ages. in the first half it was more measured in the first 30 mins. but at the end of the half we were playing some really good stuff. AM then must have tore them a new hole as they came out playing some of the best high tempo, intelligent passing football i've seen us play for AGES. we MURDERED them in terms of chances and possession, with style. both the formation and how he got them worked up for the second half was AM's doing. i didn't want him here, but if he can get us playing like that consistently then we will be more than fine going forward. the window is closed so all he can do at the back is trust the kids a bit more to create some competition for places. when keane goes i don't see it as a big mystery as to what will happen, ireland will play there and we'll play a winger on the right. not that big a change. give AM some credit where it is due, that performance was fantastic. yes it only brought home a point. had the ref not been such a clearing in the woods though we'd have won, or if bent hadn't scuffed one, or if warnock had been a little less wild, or if the header went in. the list is long as we had 15 shots on goal from 23 chances. also, those saying it's just "45 minutes against a newly promoted side", what about chelsea away? there's plenty of signs that we can do it with this squad and AM is starting to get it right. if we play to 80% of that level consistently we'll finish this season very well.

ok. we all know this season has been terrible so far apart from a few good wins away from home. however i think we have to realise that this process of getting the wages in check that we all find so painfull from the outside, as was MON **** off, must be 10 times worse if you're on the inside of the club and having 4 diff managers in 2 years. the situation is a lot more complex than AM is a GC and that's it. to say that we were only good for 45 mins last night is wrong. it was at least an hour where we were BATTERING them, not by just pumping it aimlessly into the box either. creating great interchanges between the lines of their midfield and back four to craft good chances. maintaining possession of the ball, off the ball movement was great, players showing good vision and composure. pressing high up the pitch, ireland must have run a **** marathon distance last night (stepehen ireland working his balls off?!?!). now, i'm not saying we've been playing like that for half a season. no, we've come close to that level away at chelsea for a shorter period of time. apart from that away we've shown we can play a decent counter attacking game. last night was something we haven't seen a villa side do for i don't know how long. there were loads of positives. the jury is out on if we can repeat that sort of level of performance. if they players play with that level of intensity and commitment to the claret and blue cause from now till the end of the season with any kind of consistency then we'll be fine this season, and with the youngsters coming through we'll have a good base to build on in the summer.

come on. tonight we were class. 70% of the ball, 15 shots on target and 2 stone cold penalties turned down. if AM can reproduce that form and sort the back 4 out in the summer then that' good enough for me. we played some VERY good football tonight. best off the ball movement, passing and vision i've seen us play with in ages.

defensive? are you trolling for effect? we're HAMMERING them and have been for more than half an hour.

nailed on penalty FFS. we're playing very well though now. need to turn this dominance into 2-2 then who knows

nah, we've looked good going forward full stop, cisse great finish but **** lucky it sat so nice for him after a good intervention from ireland. warnock OG was horrible. they've had 2 shots. we've bossed this game and are behind. lots of positives just really unlucky so far. we REALLY need to win this, and we can.

and there it is!!!!!!!!!!!

we've been the better side and we're losing. still time to turn this around. we could do with a goal before the break though.

come on you lions! agree would have rather seen carruthers on the bench rather than hesky. then it would have been 6 home grown on then bench would like to see bannan and gardner in the middle if we're winning in the second half...

seen a lot of cisse this year for lazio, he's still quick but he wasn't all that in serie A. onuoha is a good player, would have liked him with us, taiwo is decent too. still though, 3 new faces with little time to prepare. let's hope they don't gel straight away!

still 5 of the bench are homegrown, how great is that? the team looks good enough to beat the R's lets just hope that the atmosphere isn't as poisonous at VP as it has been. we need some confidence on the ball and a good start, might have been an idea to start with bannan and gardner, maybe lichaj too at least they'd have no fear and everything to prove...

shit, carruthers didn't make the bench. shame. judging from his tweet he was looking forward to it....

bench?

played on sunday? was a doubt for that though.