Villarocker

Really poor today.

He needs to be abducted by aliens now!

Dead man walking right now. That's the worst half of football from a Villa team that I've seen in a long time. BUT, nobody can deny that individual errors from players have caused this today. Jedinak played the perfect through ball for their first. Westwood lost control and fell over for their second. Numerous other chances came because of errors at the back. Only Cissokho of the back five could take any credit from the first half.

Port Vale, Plymouth, Brentford and Sutton Utd look a good fourfold tomorrow. It pays 11/1 on Bet365

My Nemesis by Five Finger Death Punch

It would be a white suit, that looks a little bit like oversized pyjamas, a black belt around his waste, a bandana around is head and some nunchuks

Quite funny to read Eric Black's former coaching jobs. I alluded to a dodgy dealing manager earlier today in the next Villa manager thread and it might just be that our ex coach and this "manager" may have worked together previously. Think about how Villa, for the last few seasons prior to this, were left well alone by Lerner - our club was probably free reign for any dodgy dealing that people behind the scenes wanted to get into. I just hope nothing comes back to tarnish the club and make this season any more difficult than it's proving to be.

I don't think Bruce would be right for Villa. We've given him far too much shite with his song for years that he probably wouldn't give a toss about us or the club.

In addition to my previous post, did anyone see Soccer Special on Sky last night, around half time? The guys were talking about how England should go in for their next manager. Niall Quinn said they need someone with a clean image and be basically flawless. The rest of the panel - Allan McInally, Phil Thompson and Charlie Nicholas all just cracked up laughing in a way that suggested there's no such person existing in football today. I know an ex player's dad and worked with him for years. He told me a story about how his son's former manager used to make money that is probably common in the game. Made me question (realise?) why manager's rip up players' transfer requests!

Trouble with Allardyce is that he will not be scrutinised to the max and maybe part of him being so good in the past has been down to the dodgy dealings he MAY HAVE done. I mean, remember the players he got in at Bolton? The likes of Okocha, Helguera etc. Just saying. Having said all of the above, maybe a dodgy manager is exactly what we need. If we can't beat them we might as well join them?

Going up with my dad and brother, our first away game together for a few years due to dad having to take card of Mum when she was still with us. Staying at my best mate's place as he lives there. Should be a good piss up and a win would be nice to complete the weekend. But, can't help but feel another 1-1 is on the cards.

Someone, somewhere must be making a fortune off all these draws? A draw pays 2.25 to 1 on average. After seven draws that's a big return on your money. I thought McLeish was the draw specialist but Di Matteo seems to be better.

This is 433 with Kodjia up front, Ayew behind, Grealish left and Adomah right. I am confident and fancy a 2-1 Villa victory tonight with Kodjia and Ayew the scorers.

Probably because Newcastle were the only team playing for the first 70 minutes of the game!

I don't understand why people keep saying that RDM bought too many strikers this summer. He bought two in: Kodjia and McCormack. We already had the following: Gabby = Overweight and not interested Kozak = Not looking fit and seems like he runs in treacle. Gestede = Out of sorts last season and didn't look too clever at the start of this season, bar a double in one game. Ayew = Is he a striker? Nobody seems to know his best position. Certainly doesn't look prolific enough to be a striker. Hepburn-Murphy = Still young, lightweight and raw. I think that you can rule Gabby and Kozak out so that left us with a player who was out of sorts, another who didn't seem prolific enough to be a striker and a youngster who is lightweight and inexperienced. I think that RDM was spot on in bringing in two new strikers and what players they are too!

What the club needs more than anything is some positivity. As soon as we string back to back wins together we will have a more positive look about us all and then we will start to see us climb the league. The play offs are definitely not out of the question and if we took 9 or 10 points from the next 12 it could look a whole lot brighter for automatic promotion.

To be fair Mark, I have a feeling that De Laet's injury has led to this change of formation at the back. It seems like he has no faith in Bacuna or Hutton to keep it tight down the right side of defence and has therefore gone to three centre backs in order to make us a bit more solid at the back. It's now a case of whether he gives the players time to get used to it or whether he just gambles on a back four being able to keep the door shut. I think we will see more of the back five thing against more dangerous sides and a 433 formation against teams he thinks we can get at.

He's the most skillful centre forward we've had in years. Should be playing up front with McCormack behind him. Ayew wide left and Adomah wide right. Tshibola and Jedinak as the middle two. Back four of Cissokho/Amavi, Chester, Elphick, Bacuna/Hutton. Gollini between the sticks. That'll be a good side at this level.

I would look to offload him, Gardner, Bacuna and Gabby in January.

How can you say it takes 75-80 minutes before we look interested when we've conceded so many late goals?

Is it pure coincidence that him and Westwood, survivors of our recent poor seasons, we're rubbish today? It's a big impact on the team that De Laet is out for the season.

Far too early to worry.

My son to be 3 year old son seems to have more build to him than RHM but fair play to the young lad for running and attacking players when he came on. That seemed to spur the rest of the team into going forward and pressing.

He's been out injured for a few games. RDM probably thought he couldn't last a full game so gave him half hour, like a lot of other managers would. I don't think the manager has done anything wrong where this lad is concerned.

He was poor overall but definitely improved for having Tshibola next to him instead of Westwood.