romavillan

makoun, gabby and bannan

they're all sweating buckets BEFORE they get on!!!

hmmm, makoun off and not stan....

samba is a monster! great save given!

i don't think he starts in our strongest 11, but he could be usefull for 30min stints here and there

great cross bannan

What a stupid comment, just enjoy the game it's a friendly ffs. not gonna start calling anyone stupid, but i will say this. i was born and brought up in brum, lived in england till i was 29. since then i've been living in and around rome. now i find anything under 20C to be a bit nippy and am fine at 40C. when i first came over i was in shorts and t-shirt in the autumn and spring when everyone else had there coats on. every time i come back to the uk nowadays i tend to be wrapped up like an eskimo. people acclimatise. makoun has been in brum for a while, before that he's been in europe for 10 years. expecting him to be used to playing in this heat is asking a bit much just coz he comes from cameroon.

all knackered in the heat if you're talking about the last 5 mins or so. makoun had a great half up till the 40min mark

i'd go for bannan on the left, albrighton right, a look at delph would be good, maybe even in front of stan and makoun to play box to box...

both teams look knackered now

bloody hell, defending well at set pieces??? is that even legal?

totally agree with the zog, albrighton and ireland comments, stan and makoun look great. even the hardiest mcleish hater couldn't call this boring anti-football. we're playing possession and getting lots of men forward all the time...

just lacking the final ball

bad touch from gabby more than a foul by olsonn

should have been a comma in there before petrov

**** PETROV!!!! he could soooo do with a goal...

i'd say that's what ireland would offer, gabby being asked to do it and not doing too bad but wouldn't fancy it against better opposition. makoun has an idea in his head of what to do waaaay before he gets the ball, great first touch stuff from him.

you got SOP?

petrov and makoun looks to work quite well

missed the line ups, gabby behind bent, is ireland on the bench or not recovered from his knock yet?

last 14 days fine, the next 28 are key though!

IF that flores story in the mirror is true, then i'd much prefer the board had gone with him... anyone know if it's been reported elsewhere too?

or they play good possession based attacking footy from a really solid base i think prandelli could do a good job for us to be honest too. italian footy isn't always catenaccio. EDIT: dunno how this ended up in here it was for the mde in italy thread!!!!

How many Italian fans do we have? Like 12? people my age and a bit older over here know us, and we get respect for the european champions cup win. younger people who know their footy knwo we've been there or there abouts top 6 for a while and we get respect for giving good games/turning over the top sides every now and again. i've seen quite a few people with villa trackies in and around rome, most popular by far are arsenal, man u and chelsea though. rossi is a good shout, i'd add spalletti to that list though, he's working in russia but he had roma playing some fantastic football a few years back. woudl love to see ranieri too. of the less experienced, zola deserves another crack at it with a better squad...

hoddle is running his project in spain to give a second chance to kids who didn't quite make it first time round, it's going pretty well...