We ARE a good side.

I have been saying similar things all season. We really aren't that far away. But we have been weak in key positions and Villa are playing to their potential. Obviously part of that is down to the manager but I do think we have been quite unlucky at times and they seem to have had the rub of the green on a few occasions. I think we'll be above them next season.
 
I think everyone is agreed we need more bite in midfield and the back four sorting, as last week proved losing SWP Ireland and Robbie and the wheels fall off. We need more strength in depth. Villa have also been lucky with injuries.
 
Decent post....I've seen Villa's last 3 or 4 games and they haven't looked anything special at all.

They are having a good run without injuries as well (only used 18 players). Their keeper and 2 central defenders are stronger and more reliable though.
 
Fully agree on paper we have a bloody good team, just imagine Parker, Bellamy and RSC for 40 million and 300 grand a week between them and that could make the real difference.
 
Villa have won three times as many games as they've lost ......... 12 won/4 lost.

We , on the other hand , have won four less games than we've lost ........ 6 won/10 lost.

Those figures would suggest that Villa are showing far more consistency than we are , accounting for an extra SIX matches won ........ they are also quite clearly defending much better than us too as they've lost SIX games less than us.

We have also scored more , but conceded more than them .... so that would tally in with those statistics.

We have learnt nothing defensive-wise from our opening day capitulation at their place , where our second half display at the back was absolutely appalling , we now sit eight places from the bottom of the Premiership , which could presumably now lessen even further tonite ......... they , on the other hand , have obviously gone from strength to strength , and sit in third place in the table .

The point you make about them having a more balanced side than us is definetely valid ......... some would also say that they have a more 'knowledgable' manager than we have , a guy who has different methods , and one who gets more out of his players than Hughes.

They are a useful yardstick for us .... they won't win the Premiership , but they are showing the consistency to make a 'splash' where it really matters ..... good luck to them!
 
O'Neill is a fantastic manager and has been given time and money to build his own team and get them playing in a system that the players are comfortable with - that's why they're now reaping the rewards and doing so well at the moment. But if you look back at his first season in charge of Villa in 2006-2007 it was a poor one - they were the last team to remain unbeaten in the Premiership but that record is a little skewed to say the least as it comprised something like only 3 wins and 6 draws from the first 9 games. After that they went to shit for a fair few months - who remembers the night we battered them 3-1 at their place in November 2006? We could've been 5 up after the first half hour and this was with Pearce in charge of us. We were fantastic that night but Villa lacked any kind of organisation and tactical nous. They certainly didn't look like a side managed by Martin O'Neill for sure. And it wasn't an isolated performance either - they went 11 league games without a win between Nov 11th and Jan 20th, and by the turn of April 2007 they were only 5 points off the drop zone, 1 point behind us. A 9 game unbeaten run to the end of the season meant that in the end they stayed up comfortably but for large parts of that campaign they were piss-poor to watch - in truth O'Neill got his team winning games in the nick of time but the 9 game unbeaten runs at the start and the end of the season distorted what was basically 20 games of shite in between. Personally, I think there are a lot of parallels to be drawn between that first season under O'Neill and our season so far under Hughes - O'Neill found it hard to get the best out of the players that were there before he arrived at the club and you can say the same for Hughes. Also, O'Neill appeared to show he was tactically inept in some games that season and the same goes for Hughes in some games this season. But eventually O'Neill got the balance right and I still have faith in Hughes doing the same. Providing the worst doesn't happen to us this season, relegation, and providing there is a significant improvement in our results hereon in then I wouldn't have much of a problem in giving him another crack at it next season.
I'll also add that Villa have been extremely lucky so far this season with injuries and have been able to play a settled side in most games. Not that I'm using our injuries as an excuse for our league position because I don't like doing that, just that I'm pointing out that a lack of injuries has been of some benefit to Villa.
 
M18CTID said:
O'Neill is a fantastic manager and has been given time and money to build his own team and get them playing in a system that the players are comfortable with - that's why they're now reaping the rewards and doing so well at the moment. But if you look back at his first season in charge of Villa in 2006-2007 it was a poor one - they were the last team to remain unbeaten in the Premiership but that record is a little skewed to say the least as it comprised something like only 3 wins and 6 draws from the first 9 games. After that they went to shit for a fair few months - who remembers the night we battered them 3-1 at their place in November 2006? We could've been 5 up after the first half hour and this was with Pearce in charge of us. We were fantastic that night but Villa lacked any kind of organisation and tactical nous. They certainly didn't look like a side managed by Martin O'Neill for sure. And it wasn't an isolated performance either - they went 11 league games without a win between Nov 11th and Jan 20th, and by the turn of April 2007 they were only 5 points off the drop zone, 1 point behind us. A 9 game unbeaten run to the end of the season meant that in the end they stayed up comfortably but for large parts of that campaign they were piss-poor to watch - in truth O'Neill got his team winning games in the nick of time but the 9 game unbeaten runs at the start and the end of the season distorted what was basically 20 games of shite in between. Personally, I think there are a lot of parallels to be drawn between that first season under O'Neill and our season so far under Hughes - O'Neill found it hard to get the best out of the players that were there before he arrived at the club and you can say the same for Hughes. Also, O'Neill appeared to show he was tactically inept in some games that season and the same goes for Hughes in some games this season. But eventually O'Neill got the balance right and I still have faith in Hughes doing the same. Providing the worst doesn't happen to us this season, relegation, and providing there is a significant improvement in our results hereon in then I wouldn't have much of a problem in giving him another crack at it next season.
I'll also add that Villa have been extremely lucky so far this season with injuries and have been able to play a settled side in most games. Not that I'm using our injuries as an excuse for our league position because I don't like doing that, just that I'm pointing out that a lack of injuries has been of some benefit to Villa.

good post
 
M18CTID said:
O'Neill is a fantastic manager and has been given time and money to build his own team and get them playing in a system that the players are comfortable with - that's why they're now reaping the rewards and doing so well at the moment. But if you look back at his first season in charge of Villa in 2006-2007 it was a poor one - they were the last team to remain unbeaten in the Premiership but that record is a little skewed to say the least as it comprised something like only 3 wins and 6 draws from the first 9 games. After that they went to shit for a fair few months - who remembers the night we battered them 3-1 at their place in November 2006? We could've been 5 up after the first half hour and this was with Pearce in charge of us. We were fantastic that night but Villa lacked any kind of organisation and tactical nous. They certainly didn't look like a side managed by Martin O'Neill for sure. And it wasn't an isolated performance either - they went 11 league games without a win between Nov 11th and Jan 20th, and by the turn of April 2007 they were only 5 points off the drop zone, 1 point behind us. A 9 game unbeaten run to the end of the season meant that in the end they stayed up comfortably but for large parts of that campaign they were piss-poor to watch - in truth O'Neill got his team winning games in the nick of time but the 9 game unbeaten runs at the start and the end of the season distorted what was basically 20 games of shite in between. Personally, I think there are a lot of parallels to be drawn between that first season under O'Neill and our season so far under Hughes - O'Neill found it hard to get the best out of the players that were there before he arrived at the club and you can say the same for Hughes. Also, O'Neill appeared to show he was tactically inept in some games that season and the same goes for Hughes in some games this season. But eventually O'Neill got the balance right and I still have faith in Hughes doing the same. Providing the worst doesn't happen to us this season, relegation, and providing there is a significant improvement in our results hereon in then I wouldn't have much of a problem in giving him another crack at it next season.
I'll also add that Villa have been extremely lucky so far this season with injuries and have been able to play a settled side in most games. Not that I'm using our injuries as an excuse for our league position because I don't like doing that, just that I'm pointing out that a lack of injuries has been of some benefit to Villa.

Exactly. He needs time to build his own team. The last manager we had who was really able to build his own team was Keegan and that died out really because of his poor signings. Hughes has proven he is better in the market and he has the funds to build his own team pretty quickly. Even by the end of this window he will probably have a side where at least half the first team are his own signings. We will get it right eventually.
 

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