I don’t know whether it’s appropriate to keep referring to them as “kids”, I know I wouldn’t have appreciated it when I was their age, but regardless of the moniker, there’s a good deal to be optimistic when we see the batch of academy graduates long tipped for greatness finally becoming first team fixtures and also gaining recognition further afield.
Barry Bannan is reportedly about to be called up to the senior Scottish side and is receiving rave reviews from just
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And the hits just keep on coming. The breaking news is that John Carew is the latest name on the casualty list with a torn calf that will keep him out for three weeks.
Curiously, the Birmingham Mail, in an exclusive, say that the injury occurred “during a challenge with Brad Friedel during a training ground practice match yesterday afternoon”. What’s odd about that is the official site published an article this morning entitled “Houllier looking for Carew to
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You’ve probably already seen that Emile Heskey tore the medial meniscus in his right knee in training and will require an operation, keeping him out for three to four weeks.
With Gabby still on the come back trail after his own operation, John Carew always susceptible to a sudden injury, if this is not Nathan Delfouneso’s chance to get some time on the pitch, I don’t know when is.
With so many of the youngsters getting a look in so
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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