My thoughts on the Aston Villa game

In my opinion, a draw would have been a fairer result, but it's that big bloke Collins that i feared would do us in the end, and he did. Big CB/CM's frighten the **** out of us.

Lovenkrands probably had his best game in a black and white shirt in the PL today. He deserved a goal and was very unlucky. Ranger wasn't really great on his first PL start, but he did what he could. He was just dominated by Collins really.

I predicted 2-1 and it was 1-0. To be honest, i never expected to get a result, but was suprised about how little Villa really threatened us during the game, i was expected them to be all out attack, yet is was us that did most of the pushing.

Ratings -

Harper - 8 - Some excellent saves to keep us in the game, but he could do nothing to prevent the goal.

Simmo - 6 - Not very impressive but did ok.

Taylor - 5 - Very average performance. Some good headers away but this is the first game where i've seen him make Williamson look like a great defender.

Williamson - 6.5 - He did ok, better in the second half.

Enrique - 7.5 - Some stinking balls, but also some excellent ones. Great going forward.

Barton - 6 - ****in stupid booking which threatens us with another suspension. One more and he's suspended for a game. It just shows he's not ready for that captains armband yet, he thinks it gives him the right to moan for everything. Very suprised at his attitude today, but understably he was frustrated, as he had some extremely poor challenges put on him, and Villa got away with some ridiculous hand balls. He did good, but he needs to learn when to keep his mouth shut. Some good passing, decent deliveries but nothing great.

Guthrie - 5 - Not bad, but not good either. His performance today showed how much we miss Tiote.

Colo - 6 - Not great in CM, but did ok for what he was asked to do.

Jonas - 6 - Some decent runs, **** deliveries, ok passing, threatened a bit. Not one of his best. His link up play with Enrique wasn't up to standard today.

Raylor - 6 - Ok.

Ranger - 6 - Average, but was in Collins back pocket really. Some decent attempts.

Lovenkrands - 8 - Probably one of his best games so far this season if not the best. He deserved a goal.

Kuqi - N/A

Overall, disappointed. We deserved atleast a point yet we couldn't defend a free kick. No one could win a challenge against Collins.

We need another CB.

Williamson was shakey and did what he could, but i want to see Taylor start the next game, despite the fact that he wasn't very good this game.

 

You gave Danny Guthrie a 5 and Barton 7.5? Is this a joke?

EDIT: 7

 

Barton a 7. Generous but i thought he made some good passes.

 

Lovenkrands an 8? Really?

 

Why not? Only real threat on goal really, could have scored 3 times but unlucky.

 

Collo a 6??? He was shocking at CM. Only decent players were Harper and Kuqi.

 

If we actually played well today we may have won, Villa were not that much better

 

Admittedly he had one of his better games, but even that's not saying much. An 8 is far too generous in my opinion.

 

I always feel like Danny Guthries mother on here. But he was excellent today, especially in the first half. He was without doubt one of our 3 best players, and was in fact the best player for us today.

Barton was woeful in my opinion, Coloccini was never in the game.

 

Villa weren't better than us, it was probably split 40/60 in our favour really, but one good freekick seperated us.

 

I think it's relative to everyone else on the pitch...

 

He lost possession so many times i lost count.

 

We deserved nowt, we were shocking, Barton is not a captain and we clearly missed Nolan's influence. Truly shocking performance.

 

Enrique, Jonas, Guthrie and Harper played well

Barton a 7 he was shocking the worst player on the pitch!!! he had alot to say during the week and didn't back any of it up on the pitch, lost the ball so many times, didn't create anything for the strikers, and complained all game instead of getting on with it.

I am so glad Tiote is back!!!

It was like a pre-season game still worried about relegation

I know we were missing many key players but the performance wasn't good enough

 

When? ... which game did you watch?

Unless you scoring his passing as 100% to front row Villa fans!

 

Am I right in thinking the card count gets re-set after today so Barton won't get suspended if he gets booked again? Thought that would've been the case had Nolan not got booked vs Wolves.

 

Just because we played badly on our first game with Barton as captain, doesn't mean he's a bad captain. We weren't bad, and were better than Villa.

Joey just needs to know when to keep his mouth shut, and when Nolan isn't here, he should definitely be given the captains armband.

 

Are you taking the piss? He was the only player in our team seemingly capable of keeping the ball. Even Alan McInally could see that!

 

Lovenkrands is improving but how Barton was a 7 is beyond me. It was his worst game this season IMO

 

Yes, i said that in the article...