One of the great things about football (sometimes) is the variety of opinions, some more valid than others. Fans are particularly vociferous in expressing those opinions after a loss. I’ve read them all. Take your pick of the players not playing yesterday; that’s why we lost. We missed Albrighton. We missed Collins. We missed a big man in the middle. Downing should play on the left. Ireland is rubbish.
If only it were that
I joked on Twitter after the game that I just couldn’t be bothered writing this, making me the Stephen Ireland of the blogosphere. Sometimes things are funny because they’re true, sometimes they’re not funny for precisely the same reason. I’m not laughing much right now.
I didn’t get chance to do a preview post yesterday, but I figured having played Blackburn so many times last season we all ought to have a good idea what we’d be in for.
It’s a breaking news type of thing; Robert Pires has passed his medical at Bodymoor and has signed a six month contract which takes him through to the end of the season. Carlos Cuellar tweeted earlier today that he’d met Pires at Bodymoor, he looked fit and they talked in Spanish – Pires was at Villarreal for four years of course.
I’m looking forward to seeing Bobby in action, not sure exactly where he’ll fit in, but as I keep
Little wonder the official site changed the McAllister quotes on Pires’ imminent arrival, someone clearly jumped the gun by some margin. The Guardian have some words from the man himself:-
Robert Pires
Nothing’s done yet, nothing’s been signed, but the talks with Gérard Houllier are going well. Now let’s say I just have to convince the team doctor and hopefully I will sign before the end of the week.
The medical is set for Thursday or Friday, so we’ll see first what
Asked by French newspaper L’Equipe whether he’d be interested in signing out of favour Real Madrid striker Karim Benzema (Benzema was a teeenager trying to break into the first team at Lyon when Houllier was the manager) Houllier responded playfully; “If Karim wants to come and play at Aston Villa, we would sign him tomorrow.”
As he would with any player of that calibre, but it’s not going to happen.
You think that’s impressive, just wait until the British media get a
I’ve taken my sweet time with this one on purpose. I generally have a pretty good idea what the headline numbers look like by the final whistle and I know the more technical statistics almost immediately after the game has finished these days. If taken in isolation, these stats wouldn’t make encouraging reading, but that only serves to prove why we should take time look at these things as a whole and recognise that nothing can be “proven”
It’s long been rumoured that free agent Robert Pires could be coming to Aston Villa and Gary McAllister has just confirmed that the Frenchman will be “joining in the next two or three days“.
We’ll have to see in what capacity he’ll join, although he’s apparently been training with Arsenal, even if he arrives in tip-top shape, he’s still 37. That said, he is, or was, an exceptionally good player and having a World Cup and European Championship winner available
Wow! What can you say about that? I’m still trying to catch my breath.
Honestly, when I saw the teamsheets confirm the early whisper that Ciaran Clark was out, replaced by Jonathon Hogg, and Ireland too would be missing, Chris Herd and Shane Lowry taking their places on the bench, I feared a mauling. Especially when I saw that Utd weren’t as weakened as I hoped.
In fairness, it was a slightly timid start, not unexpectedly, and Utd opened up
Full starting line-ups and benches for Aston Villa vs Man Utd. Clark injured, possibly ill, Hogg starts. Stephen Ireland has flu I believe. The weakest bench we’ve ever assembled for a game like this?
Aston Villa
1
Brad Friedel
29
James Collins
5
Richard Dunne
2
Luke Young
3
Stephen Warnock
28
Jonathan Hogg
25
Barry Bannan
12
Marc Albrighton
6
Stewart Downing
7
Ashley Young
11
Gabriel Agbonlahor
Subs
22
Brad Guzan
14
Nathan Delfouneso
27
Isaiah Osbourne
30
Eric Lichaj
31
Chris Herd
35
Daniel Johnson
34
Shane Lowry
Man Utd
1
Edwin van der Sar
5
Rio Ferdinand
15
Nemanja Vidic
3
Patrice Evra
6
Wes Brown
16
Michael Carrick
24
Darren Fletcher
17
Nani
13
Park Ji-Sung
14
Javier Hernández
9
Dimitar Berbatov
Subs
40
Ben Amos
12
Chris Smalling
20
Fabio
22
John O’Shea
26
Gabriel Obertan
27
Federico Macheda
28
Darron Gibson