I know many people were more than a little concerned about Gérard Houllier’s age when he was appointed and that may well have caused feelings that his appointment wasn’t a long term solution. Initial reports of a two year contract seemed to compound that feeling, despite his predecessor operating on a 12 month rolling contract that proved to be entirely worthless in the final analysis anyway.
Maybe the fact that his contract, once it was eventually signed, was actually three
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We’re struggling for goals at Villa right now. In fact, we have been for a while. What we need, then, is a striker who can bang in 20 goals a season, right?
Well, it would be a good start to have a player capable of that feat, but a lack of goals is just a symptom of our problems, it’s not necessarily the cause. With the right opportunities, we may even already have that striker.
I half joked that
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We’re 10 games into the 2010/11 Premiership season, so it’s time to compare this season with last season both chronologically and using an apples-to-apples comparison, or as close as is practically possible. This is the 2nd in the series this year, you can see the first post, which was a snapshot after five games, here and you can also check the 2009/10 vs 2008/09 comparison after 10 games here.
Since the form over the last five games is WLDLD, you
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When I saw the teamsheet for today’s derby game I leapt to the assumption that Gérard Houllier was going to use a 5-4-1 system with Collins, Dune and Clark as a three man central defensive team. As it turned out, Ciaran Clark would play just in front of the back line in a holding midfield role that raised just as many eyebrows.
Perhaps not at Clark playing such a role, he’s surely an assured and skillful player with the ball
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Howard Webb didn’t bother playing the minimum five minutes the fourth official had indicated should be added and he won’t get many complaints for bringing this laborious goalless derby to a premature end. Preventing the winning streak being extended to seven games will feel like a big victory for City, but we’ll be left looking at the performances of Ciaran Clark and passion shown by Nigel Reo-Coker for positives.
The teamsheet suggested that Houllier was going to set the home
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Aston Villa
1
Brad Friedel
2
Luke Young
3
Stephen Warnock
29
James Collins
5
Richard Dunne
21
Ciaran Clark
7
Ashley Young
6
Stewart Downing
20
Nigel Reo-Coker
4
Steve Sidwell
18
Emile Heskey
Subs
22
Brad Guzan
10
John Carew
14
Nathan Delfouneso
9
Stephen Ireland
24
Carlos Cuellar
25
Barry Bannan
30
Eric Lichaj
Birmingham
26
Ben Foster
2
Stephen Carr
5
Roger Johnson
6
Liam Ridgewell
15
Scott Dann
7
Sebastian Larsson
8
Craig Gardner
12
Barry Ferguson
18
Keith Fahey
22
Alexander Hleb
19
Nikola Zigic
Subs
1
Maik Taylor
4
Lee Bowyer
9
Kevin Phillips
10
Cameron Jerome
17
Michel
21
Stuart Parnaby
23
Jean Beausejour
Actually, I’ve already read what feels like a thousand previews, you may have read a similar number yourself, there’s little I can add. All the tactics and stratagems go out the window for these ones. All bets are off.
As it happens, I’m going to be out all day Saturday anyway, so instead I’ll leave a couple of windows to the chatter happening on Twitter right now below. You never know, there might be a nugget or two.
I’ll
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I’ve been waiting for this interview to be published all day! Ashley Young sat down with The Sun today as part of promotional activity for VMF and has assured fans that he is committed to Aston Villa, despite putting contract negotiations on ice.
Ashley Young
All I’m doing is concentrating on my football. I don’t want to be distracted by anything else. I’ve not said I’m leaving and I’m not taking my focus off football.
The fans have been brilliant
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We really haven’t had chance to see that much of him, but Ciaran Clark has already won himself an army of fans among the Villa faithful and beyond. I’m sure all fans will be as delighted as I am to hear that Ciaran has just signed a new contract at Villa, extending his stay until 2014.
He was inside the last 12 months of his contact and was starting to gain the attention of other clubs besides also being snapped
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