Another thing Circumcised. Can you honestly say that any striker would have scored today with that level of service? I personally dont think that RVP could have bagged a goal today. If Graham was missing a ton of shots you might have a better argument but what was Graham supposed to do out there today? He doesnt provide service he receives it.
Jesus Christ, listening to some of the twats on 'umbersard you would think we should be winning every game... One of them also said Graham was too lazy
NO! I agree with you on that but to me that means other players could have been given a chance, in the same vein as when you're getting hammered and there's no way of winning the game, you bring on players to get some minutes. I'm trying to see it from Prozzy and Sagbo's perspective. They may not do much better than Graham but I'd be sitting on bench thinking, what is graham doing that I couldn't do? Well at this point time the answer is nothing and they'd have a case.
A point against a good counter attacking team who turned over Man City is a good point IMO. Some people need a reality check.
This point was excellent. They didn't threaten us massively either. We should all be chuffed to be honest.
x2. Don't get me wrong, Graham has been infuriating, particularly his first touch which has been poor to say the least. That being said other aspects of his game have been good. I'm not saying we won't need another striker in January, no one is saying that. I'm saying that if we're picking up points anyway then it seems fruitless to drop Graham as he isn't doing any harm, particularly if he is playing well (regardless of goals).
The way we play Aluko has to do a lot of hard work holding the ball up against big defenders with his back to goal. We need others to do that to allow him to get into the box facing goal.
I don't think you should underestimate the psychological aspect of the game. And no, i'm in no way suggesting we don't buy a striker in January, a new striker will only provide competition which is always good. However IMO there's a reason Bruce is persisting with Graham and it's not just Graham's confidence. There's no evidence to suggest that Sagbo or Prozzy would be performing any better than Graham. Bruce sees them day in day out so I'm sure he's in the best position to judge who warrants a place in the team.
Interestingly I only started watching in the 20th minute. I thought "Crikey! The city fans are vocal today." Then I remembered their 19m04seconds thing and thought "ah." Fair play though. Coming through pretty loudly so there must have been plenty singing it. Later on there was a point when I thought I heard the Villa fans chant "You're not city anymore!" (although it could have been either set of fans saying "singing")...
Not sure. Its shocking how disjointed they look. If they continue to play like this I will be upset if we only take 1 point from them.
The 1904 thing didn't really have that much of an impact. The cards were the size of a postcard, so they didn't have an effect. The chanting was sporadic and didn't really create a good noise. It could have been a bit better in all honesty.
Aluko being criticised but he had nobody to play off today. We had nobody on the edge of the box for him to lay it off for and I felt that Graham did very little towards drawing players away, when Aluko was on the ball with 3/4 players around him Graham was stood still. I'm not someone that likes to slag off players but I really didn't see Graham offer anything today. Service to him is being blamed but even if Elmo's horrendous deliveries had beaten the first man Graham was nowhere to be seen. It was a decent point and we deserved nothing more but we offered little going forward and Brady was a huge miss. I did feel that Sagbo did well when he came on, offering more than Graham did all game in that he got on the ball and attacked the line of defense. I would personally play Aluko up with Sagbo as I feel they would form a good partnership, with both of them playing intelligent passes. Other plus points were Huddlestone, who gave an incredible CM performance. His tracking back and tackling from behind was brilliant, especially the one on Delph, and he was so composed when turning with the ball. Davies was once again a rock at the back and you can really see why Villa paid so much for him.
Slightly O/T, but imagine if the season stopped now - all hell would break loose! Man United 14th, Liverpool winning the league with Arsenal just behind them, Spurs and Everton above Chelsea... EDIT: Make that United 9th, they've just taken the lead against Sunderland...
Couldn't agree more Circumcised. Bruce can't drop Graham because "his confidence would be damaged".??? Nonsense...his confidence is already shot and probably getting worse. He's not getting the service??? How many clear cut chances has he already missed in recent games? He works hard and holds the ball up well??? How many layoffs has he made to set up goals? Sagbo made more threatening runs in 15 minutes than Graham did in 90. Bottom line....How many opportunities is he going to be given to come good.???? If Gedo doesn't start in his place against Everton (assuming he hasn't played 90 minutes against Ghana four days before) I'll be very surprised. Also I'm curious who decided at the last minute that Austin wasn't healthy enough to sign for us when he's played every game for QPR (who signed him for half the price we offered) and is scoring goals for fun, including two more today. Just hope we get Shane Long in January.
Danny graham has 0 goals and 0 assists and has fluffed many chances, mostly against newcastle. How is his record any better that Sagbo's or Prozzy? So why is he giving Graham all the minutes? There's ZERO evidence that he's doing a better job than the other two?! SO my point remains. If all three strikers have the same record then why is one being given preferential treatment? Sure, if Bruce think he looks better in training then fair enough but I'm not talking about Bruce's opinion I'm talking about yours and other graham lovers. What are YOU basing it on? because clearly it can't be stats.
