What a disapointing night, low crowd, freezing cold and nothing on the pitch to warm us up. On last nights performance i would put Cahill ahead of Davies. He was awful. I thought Zat had a good game and Maloney looks quality, Why he aint in the team i'll never know! He's injured now so probably no chance of playing against Spurs.
For me, although i agree with Laursen being rested i think we changed the team too much, osbourne not good enough for a derby battle and Petrov is crap full stop. King O'neill in my opinion should of put Gabby up with Moore and just brought Maloney in on the left, Young right. We would of sailed through.
We now have to concentrate on getting that sixth position which i beleive we are more than capable of doing if we play like i know we can!!!!!
Up the Villa!

Crap, full stop. Bottom line is that MON screwed it - he put out a team that wasn't strong enough and he should know better than anyone that these types of games can bite you in the arse and if you want to take it seriously, then you have to put a strong side out. Now if we stand any chance of Europe we have to finish in the top 6, and I can't see that happening because we don't have enough quality players and we don't have a big enough squad. No good cup run to get in to and, if we're lucky, a top 8 finish. Don't expect anything more than that from this season, especially as we're only a little way in and two of our great players (Malony and Carew) are already injured. Get ready to see Marlon Hair-brain hit strikes from 6 yards that go out for a throw in, because that's how good he is (that's why Gaby didn't pass to you the other day Marlon, you're shit).

i was raging last nite when i seen the result.goin by your article damien it seems petrov was his usual self.im not surprised hes so bad because he only ever played in scotland.any1 who thinks thier a big player up there are full of it until they play in the EPL.look at barry feguson he cudnt hack it so ran back to rangers.i hope petrov does the same he has been awful since we signed him. as for the result i just cudnt belive it.shocking

Poor result last night and yet again real inconsistency in performance. I understand the need for changes in the team but there is no strength in depth. Battered Chelsea, lost poorly to Man City, beat Everton, lost to Leicester!!!! This has to change in order to make the top 6.

petrov, davies, knight, reo-coker and harewood

top class signings!

ha ha

they're not top class signings

they're signings to keep us in the league .. mid table signings. defo not european signings

the carling cup was a good competition where villa had a good chance of actually winning somethin, made that road to the european cup abit easier but we blew it with a poor performance against leicester

This is what happens when you only by a few players (mostly average) in the transfer window. Now we've suffered, but when will be the next time?

When we've got 3 injured players and 8 games in a month? We better do some spending in January.

A poor result, but I am not going to over react to it. Curtis Davies has come out and apologized for not being ready, and I can imagine there are a fair few of the younger players taking a long, hard look in the mirror this morning.

The Carling cup, despite being within our grasp (allegedly), means nothing. I want for us to be concentrating on European qualification via the league, and emphasizing too much on a 'back door' entry is silly to me. Either they cut it, or they don't.

I think we are good enough to cut it, with some strengthening needed in January by the clubs own admission. Let's look to the next game.

Your spot on Damian

Villa's starting eleven is probaly good enough to get into the top half (I hope!!) however our squad is flimsy to say the least. God help us if Barry or Laursen join Big John on the injury list, cause with Davies/Knight, Petrov and Harewood as the reserves we are in deep trouble.

I dont want to start slating MON siginings again but apart from Young and Big John the rest are either inconsistent, homesick, injured, a liverpool player or just plain shit.

Too many changes could be an excuse and a few key injuries (Bouma and Carew). Harewood doesn't have the ariel presence that Carew does so the other team doesn't need 2 defenders marking Harewood. I suppose we were looking for a different tactic last night because we lost that skill in the air but it didn't work out. Looks like we are a long-ball team after all.

I wish we had gone through but to look on the positive side there are less potential injuries. I know we all would have rather progressed and im not trying to say that VIlla as a team didnt want to go through because they odviously did.

I think if we can stay in touch upto january (and by this i mean about 7-9 at least) we can get some quality in (a goal scorer at least) then we can really challenge.

As long as the players play well on Saturday and retify it then this will be forgotten pretty soon, if we go on a bad run this will be seen as the turning point in our season.

UTV

Revved up?????? Well Marlon I'd hate to see you have a stinker!!! If this is what we've gotta look forward to with Carew injured then dont expect us to win any headers or even get a shot off!

If I see petrov do one more of his fall over/slide passes I'm gonna run on the pitch and kick the shit out of him!


Another thing (and although I think he will come good) Davies looked like he was at his level against Leicester last night, his touch was bad, passing crap, all round defensive display terrible, typical Championship defender! I've gotta stick up for Cahill coz the guy [u]has[/u] got good prem experience and has not looked out of place, now we bring this dufus in and it shakes it all up again!

Right thats the last I'm gonna say on it... we just best buck our ideas up for Monday.

Do I detect little cracks in the blind faith reserves? What turned out to be the theme of the summer on this website - blind optimists vs negative realists - is bound to come back again at some point given the hit & miss quality of this beginning of the season at Villa Park. I was one of the negative brigade - clearly delighted to be proven wrong throughout the season if that meant the Villa would do well. The flaws I spotted in the club transfer policy and in the lack of inactivity on the transfer market (very poor scouting network abroad, overall lack of ambition when it comes to go for a player) are resurfacing to haunt me and we are barely in October. How can it be possible not to find a quality right back in 4 months of activity? Or to identify a slightly better target man than Harewood - again in 4 months? What truly worries me is that there's the feeling that Harewood arrived more due to lack of better options/knowledge than due to an assessed, targeted choice. We have 2 big, muscular and goofy (yeah, goofy) full backs in Mellberg & Bouma, both big players and solid at the back but both a big, heavy tank of a man. They are central defenders playing as full backs. Both of them. Slow, big, f*** off mountain of a man but hardly the flying full-backs we need. Last night was a massive disappointment and despite what "The Doc" wrote on one of his articles about how negative moaners on here would have to suffer even more due to the outstanding season Villa were going to have (and can still have, of course) - I'd like to point out that people like me are not here to knock the club but if the flaws are so obviously apparent it is difficult not to notice them. Anyone could see Villa have not done enough on the transfer market, anyone. Even the rose tinted glasses brigade. The season can still be success, we can get in the top 6/7 or maybe have a good run in the FA Cup. I doubt it, given the quality of so many teams out there, but I badly hope so.

there were little cracks for a few minutes mick but they are healed now ..

i'm a firm believer in the long term when it comes to o'neill but some money has to be spent on real quality

Agreed Damian, we all hope things are gonna get better and have to believe so. Davies will come good, I believe he's quality - allow the lad to settle at the club and he will be an asset. I was one of the few still hoping Petrov would also come good but I'm beginning to give up on him, it really looks like a hopeless situation right now. We will have to do in January (i.e. in a month when the best players rarely move on and there are only 31 days to rush things through) what we should have done in the summer, i.e. sign some REAL quality. It's gonna be difficult because the damage was done in the summer, when the club didn't spend enough on what was obviously lacking. Let's see what happens at White Hart Lane and let's hope Barry stays fit - if we lose the captain we are in serious trouble.

Taylor had nothing to do apart from pick the ball out of the net and put a clearance into row Z Mellberg useless Knight couldnt out jump dj cambple ,Davies poor distribution and defending Barry inefective at left back Reo ,Pertrov ,Maloney Osbourne Harewood and Gabby were all crap.If we have a few mor injuries we are in deep shit,if you look at the teams left in the cup we really did have a good chance of atleast making the final

I hate blues should change his name to "I love blues"!

Agreed, too many changes. Terrible result, but if you're going to go out, better early than later. MON's got a good starting 11 obviously, but it's easier to bring in one or two players. He took a risk, was forced to make a couple changes, and it bit him in the ass, as he acknowledged. If Villa follow form, though, they'll produce a good performance in response against Spurs.

I think this result shows that getting into Europe is one thing, but having a squad big enough and deep enough to be cohesive and rotate takes a bit of time. Yes the summer signings might have been more expansive, but I think the idea for MON is to build that starting 11, and then be building the depth behind. And he's more interested in doing that systematically, through development and targeted purchases, than by just spending, because using the development pipeline is more conducive to long-term success and a more stable bottom line.

As we've seen many clubs have been spending for a while, and none of them have cracked the top.

Total shambells last night was i really wanted us to do well in the leauge cup thought martin would have wanted that aswell :( :( :( :( :( still keep the heads held high its not like we was relegated nor is it the end of the world.

Better performance next game i hope think it will be anyway as we seem to win one game lose the next just keeps happening lol

that team that we put out should have won that game hands down. MON thinks like all of us that that should have been in the bag. To much of a small squad thinking they can play like that then keep there place and you know what they will as we have no cover. Lets sign some world class players whatever the cost and even if they are our favorite home grown boys, drop them. I want villa to be the team that they should be winning silver wear is our aim. A team full of internationals and we cant beat lowly leicester. its a joke, i feel for all you boys who paid to watch the game

A complacent selection and a complacent performance. After showboating for 20 minutes we realised that Leicester had a decent and muscular game plan.Fair do's-they stuck to it and we couldn't break them down.The sucker-punch was entirely predicatble [for the historians, shades of Alf Ramsey's Ipswich].
We had too many players who hadn't the stomach or couldn't be bothered to work hard enough [Maloney an honourable exception]. Perhaps they considered 25,000 paying customers as beneath their dignity? In fairness it was a strange atmosphere from the beginning; amazing how a half-full stadium can resemble a gnost town.
Player verdicts on this performance?
Taylor-3 [At fault with the goal; uncertain on crosses throughout.Doesn't boss his area]
Mellburg-2[never troubled in defense but absolutely woeful as an attacking force. Even the John Gidman who is soaking it up on the Costas could have done better].
Knight-4 [OK but nothing more. No set-piece impact]
Davies-2 [Out of his depth against the sort of opposition he is used to.Never mind, remember Ugo's debut against Norwich?]
Barry-4 [Just what position was he playing? Reduced to the common level]
Osbourne-3 [Lots of possession but indecisive. Will probably end up in a mid-table Championship team]
Re-Coker 3 [Anonymous. Big game Charlie]
Petrov-3 [Some nice touches, esp that silky link with Maloney but falls over too often and hasn't the stomach for the fight. Feigning of injury was a disgrace]
Maloney-6 [Nice touches as always and worked hard but tethered to the left wing. Also wearing the wrong boots]
Gabby -1 [a non-appearance, totally out-muscled and gave up]
Harewood -3 [As a striker he looked a passable right winger. Can't jump, can't hit a ball but showed some pace]
Young-3[came on too late; not as effective on the right]
Berger-4 [some good touches and wants to attack-should have been on at half-time]
Moore 1 [read as for Gabby].
MON-2 [a poor selection and an unmotivated team]
On reflection I feel I may have been a little generous with the marks-please subtract 1 mark per player.

this will be a long winded blog so if ur a true football fan please read on.

why are villa fans bitching about us not progressing to the last 16 on the carling cup when only 25,000 of us turned up last night. where were the other 18,000. there are alot of villa fans who only go to watch the chelsea, man u, arsenal and liverpool games only to watch the away team. the fans didnt care so why should the team. personally id much rather focus on the league and play as few games as possible due to our lack of depth and quality.

i am a big fan of petrov and he is a quality player BUT he has been absolutely shit for us. i dont no why and MOSIEWALSH dont say its because he came from a tin pot league and he cant cope because maloney came from the same team and he is quality. maybe petrov needs a quality striker to play with. hes played with di canio, van hooijdonk, viduka, cadete, maloney and the mighty larsson. he needs a top class striker to play off.

STUART TAYLOR - Nothing to do apart from pick the ball out of the net.

OLOF MELLBERG - Shakey, poor crossing, not a RB

GARETH BARRY - Cant play him anywhere else but CM. His quality is redundant.

ZAT KNIGHT - Strong performance, new partner so can understand communication problems.

CURTIS DAVIES - Championship player, like him for being honest about performance.

STYLIAN PETROV - Didnt play as deep as usual and good move with maloney down left, last chance saloon for him.

SHAUN MALONEY - CLASS

NIGEL REO COKER - N0 different from petrov. does nothing in midfield.

ISIAH OSBOURNE - Good promise, needs games and get head up for passing. too negative.

MARLON HAREWOOD - Stop gap until january then sell him.

GABRIEL AGBONLAHOR - Most overrated player ever.

SUBS
ASHLEY YOUNG - Tried doing what we expect too much. ok

LUKE MOORE - Unsure

PATRICK BERGER - looked sharp, couldnt do much.

if ur reading this, happy new year.

why is everyone so angry. fair play we should of beat leicster and i know the league cup is the best chance of us winnin summit, but did you realy expect us to actually get ot the final and win it. for 1) we started an average side nothing like wed start in the premeirship 2) id rather us put all are effort into the league rather than a nothink cup an 3)i think mon picked the right side and stayed clear of any major injurie to are most important players. get off the players backs and actually support them. we cant always win and i dont see the point in when we loose everyones head drops and u start slatin the team. and finally if any one says itis a major cup then look at the team unites start shows there real enthusiasm for it

just on the back of reading wat villarevolution said, i tink hes talking true, but when he wrote that reo coker doesnt do anything in midfield, then he is talking shite, i think that he is quality. btw richie p i slept wiv your sister!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!