We had a lot of players missing and we were poor but we weren't a million miles away from a full strength Villa side. We were missing around 10 players and they were missing none! These are my ratings... Harper - 8 Simpson - 5 Williamson - 6 Taylor - 5 Enrique - 7 Barton - 5 Coloccini - 6 Guthrie - 6 Jonas - 6 Ranger - 5 Lovenkrands - 6 I think Barton was the worst player on the pitch today and Enrique was superb, especially defensively! We play Man Utd in just over a week and we have Tiote, Ireland and possibly Ameobi available! Lets look forward to that and not dwell on this game! Also to people slagging off Ranger, he was poor, but lets not be too harsh. We were just pumping the ball up to him and he has no chance against someone of Collins abilities in the air!
So out of the players missing how many would get in the first team. That is most of our best XI, the cover players just aren't good enough, Guthrie, Ranger, Lovenkrands and Ryan Taylor. Oh and Coloccini's not a CM.
Four, including are best player, Tiote, our captain and top goalscorer, Nolan, and our best two strikers!
I thought Enrique was very sloppy, misplacing loads of passes, including a 5 yarder to Jonas towards the end. Looks unfit or maybe has his head in the clouds, but I think he was very hit and miss today. I just want to move on as well, we had a lot of players missing and Villa away still isnt an easy fixture. We'll have Tiote and Ireland available to take on Man U, and have a right good go at them IMO.
I expected a loss. Wasn't suprised but i thought we could have had a draw. We probably deserved to leave with a point. Aston Villa certainly didn't deserve a win today.
Harper - 8 Simpson - 4 Williamson - 5 Taylor - 4 Enrique - 5 Barton - 3 Coloccini - 4 Guthrie - 3 Jonas - 6 Ranger - 0 Lovenkrands - 6 Raylor - 4 Kuqi - 5
Not forgetting Ben Arfa, so 4 or 5, depending what formation we are playing and yes they are key players, hopefully it will show that we need more strength in depth. Cos they are a **** team especially at home and it was a brilliant time to go there today, and we blew it.
