You know what? I'm getting tired of meltdown.

First of all, Villa led 4-1 at White Hart lane before spectacularly self-destructing. Then England looked in complete command in Moscow, before deciding to push the "auto eject" button. And now Villa spend half an hour scaring United with pace and aggression before turning into the Keystone Cops at the back (again).

If it wasn't so infuriating, it might even have been funny.

United's movement coming forward was the best I have seen at Villa Park for a very long time. Those media pundits who have repeatedly banged on about Tevez and Rooney being "too alike" and not being able to play effectively together had the words well and truly rammed down their throats.

Let's face it - it was both delightful and terrifying to watch - the two players instinctively reading each other's movement and creating space at will. I hope McClaren was watching - this stuff made the whole tactic of "playing off a big target man" look absolutely prehistoric.

But for half an hour there was an enthralling story emerging at the other end, too. Although Rob Stiles didn't seem to pick up the fact that Brown and Ferdinand were really struggling to cope with the pace of Young and Agbonlahor, it was clear to everyone else at Villa Park that Villa's front three - and for the first time in a long time I include Luke Moore in that - were stretching United's defence to its limit. Moore looked strong, sharp and fast; Young right on his game, and Gabby was giving his performance of the season so far.

Villa were well worth a one-nil lead - and if Moore could have added an eye for goal to the other aspects of yesterday's performance, it may well have been two before the break.

Normally the clowns come on in the interval. But our clowns decided to make an early appearance yesterday. Zat Knight went mental walkabout, deciding that it's a good idea to leave Wayne Rooney unmarked in the box, err, twice; Olof Mellberg forgot he was playing right back and Craig Gardner and Freddie Bouma contrived to fall over each other and clear a weak Rio Ferdinand mishit into the roof of our own net.

3-1. Game over. Match over. Spectacle over. And it was all so unnecessary and such a waste of a chance to finally take points off United.

The thing is, if we are going to compete against a team like United, then Villa cannot afford any sloppiness at all. Concentration has to be total for 90 minutes. Passes have to go to feet. The ball needs to be cleared to a Villa player, not back to United.

Communication, organisation and discipline needs to be right on the button. A great side - and this is a great Manchester United side - will punish you for sloppiness and that is precisely what they did.

I've said this before, and to a certain extent been pilloried for it, but I am not seeing much leadership on the field at the moment. Gareth Barry didn't have a good game, and looked jaded after his England exertions.

Even so, a team must look to its captain for composed direction when under pressure, but it was sorely missing yesterday. I remain totally unconvinced by Barry as a captain.

There's not much to write about the second half. Some of you you may moan about Stiles, and he did miss a lot, but both Reo-Coker's challenges were clearly reckless and spiteful, and both were made when the ball had long gone. It was a nailed on red card. Carson's was even more clear cut.

Villa didn't lose this game to Rob Stiles, they lost it because they self-destructed again.

Villa: Carson 5; Mellberg 4; Knight 3; Bouma 4; Gardner 5; Barry 5; Reo-Coker 4; Young 7; Moore 7; AGBONLAHOR 8.

Man-of-the-Match: Wayne Rooney, Manchester United

Comments (25)

Subscribe to this comment's feed

Luke said:

First Marlon, now Zat. Our summer signins showing their true worth. You can't say it was a surprise that Zat was so shocking at times.

October 21, 2007

toner911 said:

ok doc can i ask are you a villa fan a mean like really?? when we win you cant say a bad thing about the team, like how amazing was coker in that performance or how brilliant was zat in that game (i.e. chelsea) every team will get beat in the league even the man u's and the arsenals, considering out of the 9 games we've played so far 5 of them finished in the top 6 last season 3 of them are fighting like us to be in the top 7, im sure alot of fans would'nt of expect us to get points from chelsea or spurs or maybe even everton. To match yesterday right up until utd's first goal we were outstanding i mean the crowd was unbelieveable i could'nt even hear the commentator they were that loud , i feel utd's first three goals were all caple of not happening because zat made errors its football it happens, second half we were playing utd most of it with 9 men an what spirit the team had they still got forward getting shots in corners in free kicks in could of had a pelanty but because gabby was so honest he stayed up an went for a shot an he was brilliant all the way through the game, if we had still 11 men i still feel we could of got something no matter how utd were playing, osbourne was brilliant when he came on an taylor, so to all villa fans that are gonna just tslk about sh*t we are, ask yourself are you a villa fan?

October 21, 2007

WezAVFC said:

toner we are villa fans but we gotta be honest sometimes and as much as it hurts we went poor yesterday and even though i think 4-1 flattered united they deserved to win

October 21, 2007

linden1983 said:

CARSON WILL BE BANNED FOR THE GAME AT SMALL HEATH. AUTOMATIC 3 GAME BAN FOR A STRAIGHT RED WOUNDED

October 21, 2007

Jamred said:

Maybe not this season but 4 is a number United are very fond of. There will be alot of 4's this year just like last so dont think that they over achieved. It could have been 6 or 7 with all the crossbar hitting and Taylor's heroics. This wast even by a mile the strongest team SAF put out. All credit to Villa though for their spirit and fight. At least they tried.

October 21, 2007

steve villa said:

I think (although stand to be corrected) that you only get a 4 match ban for violent conduct. I think Carson only gets a one match ban even though it was a straight red.

October 21, 2007

M4Baby said:

Doc did say that Villa were excellent in the first half an hour. And nobody could pretend they were goof after that. I though Osbourne looked outstanding when he came on: athletic and composed. He must like playing against United - I remember his doing excellently in the Old Trafford games last year. I felt desperately sorry for Maloney, who I really like - he came on, and before he knows it Villa are down to 10 and then to 9. If he didn't do much, it's more Reo-Coker's fault than his.

October 21, 2007

John "the Lerg" Lerwill said:

Not a bad assessment, Doc - though quite unfair on Re-Coker I thought, both score-wise and on his bookings. First-half he played a good game by himself - Barry was not switched on was he? - and the first of his bookings was a diabolical misjudgment by the ref. A free-kick? Of course. But not a booking - the player mostly just ran into him.

October 21, 2007 | url

Robbie said:

I saw the positives yesterday, and i wasn't bothered about defeat, since we've already got 3 points more than i had expected out of Chelsea and Man U. I don't blame Zat for the first goal, because so many times i see someone stretch to clear a ball that is always going to go into their own net if they do, and it was going to be a goal if he touched it or not. At least if he didn't, then there's the possibility that craig gardner could beat rooney to the ball. He didn't. For the first time i wanted to see Stan on the pitch. Barry was pretty horrendous yesterday, he gave the ball away and was sloppy...i know stan does the same, but at least he gives a bit of running to the team. Isiah Osbourne looked very good indeed, and for that reason i'm not too worried about Reo-Coker being out. We can either go for him, Stan or Gardner in the middle, and that's fine by me. Gaby was great, and he's looking more and more like a striker who's growing a brain every day. So let's look on the upside guys, we're not playing in the same 4-team league as Utd, and so long as we beat the rest, which we will do, i'll be happy.

October 21, 2007

Dizzy Mugs said:

Doc you forgot Martin Laursen in your player ratings

October 21, 2007

alextaylor24 said:

are you sure its a 3 game suspension??

October 21, 2007

ryanvilla3 said:

Time to give Curtis Davies a chance with Laursen, First Spurs now United expose us at the back baqdly. Zat was asleep for the goals. a bit of time on the sidelines is needed. 10 mil for Davies to sit on the bench give him his chance.

October 21, 2007

headdball said:

Barry needs to get his head out of his arse and forget about england. he knows where his priorities lie. reo coker needs to grow up a bit and knight needs an effen early night and a good feckin good nite story.i hope none of our potential signings watched d meltdown yesterday because after that, the only move riise will be making will be to the board to thank liverpool for not securing heinze.

October 21, 2007

headdball said:

by the way, antone rememberthe last time we conceded three in nine mins?? Big Ruud...

October 21, 2007

Oscars Arse said:

Bring back Cahill!!!

October 22, 2007

Teddy said:

I am amazed that people are slagging off Barry. He's had one bad half of a game this season, that's it, possibly due to being tired after Russia, possibly due to being up against a world-class team, or possibly due to just having a bad half - it happens. The 2nd half doesn't count as we had 10 then 9 men. His form has been superb since he got in the England squad, so to say "he should get his priorities right" is a load of crap. He always gives 100% for Villa - he can't play brilliant all the time. O'Leary was right - Villa fans are fickle.

October 22, 2007 | url

Teddy said:

Before anyone goes on at me, quite rightly pointing out that it's only one person on here, check out a few of the other forums - quite a few people are slagging Barry and coming out with bull like "he thinks he's too good for us now" and so on. I heard the same at the ground by a few people on Saturday. Unbelievable. Headdball - are you sure it's not headdconcreteblock?!

October 22, 2007 | url

brett said:

all i can say is that with a set of new players at the back im surprised its taken this long to have some howlers (face it mellberg and sorensen have been playing alongside each other for 3 years and still dont seem to undertsnad each other) hopefully the players and coaches will put it to bed work on it and training and realise that even without the mistakes utd would have eventually overhauled us, they always do if we did that against derby or the blues then id start to worry

October 22, 2007

Damian said:

teddy i dont think people are going to have a go at you. i for one have, for the most part, been a bit baffled by what everyone sees in barry. sure when he has a very good game it's a very good game but it's not that often ... i actually dont see him as a great left sided player mostly because he's too slow and while he's got a good left foot and he does add a balance to the england central midfield playing alongside gerrard look at the teams we played .. play him against anyone in the top 10 and he'd struggle - as seen by his performance against united ... i've given up asking what people see in him though ..

October 22, 2007 | url

Teddy said:

Cheers Damian. Everyone is entitled to their opinion and at least you stick to yours however he plays. Personally I think he is consistently very good though and often excellent. I think his excellent games perhaps make you forget his usual high standard as it begs the question why he can't always be so effective. Not sure if it's him or the players around him causing him to not play well against the top teams, which may explain why he plays so well for England? I was just getting the point across that Barry has been one of our best three players this year and our star man for the past 3 or 4 years, yet he has a poor game and people are suddenly coming out with loads of tosh about him prioritising England, etc. Next week if he plays well they'll be saying he's the best midfielder in England again and that playing for England is great as it boosts his confidence, etc. Yeah, I think his lack of pace is his biggest downfall. If he had pace he'd be a world-beater. Same way that if Gabby didn't have pace he'd not be up to much - it's a key part of the modern game and if you've got it you are a much brighter prospect. BUT... Barry has been quality for a number of seasons now and playing him in centre-mid means his lack of pace isn't such an issue. Out wide I think it was highlighted, albeit he did a good job, but in the middle I think he can cope without the pace as he's so good on the ball. Hopefully he'll be back to normal next week!

October 22, 2007 | url

alwaysvilla said:

Sendings off For second bookable offence or for serious professional foul relating to a goalscoring opportunity, 1 match ban. For foul and abusive language, 2 match ban. For violent conduct or serious foul play, 3 match ban. Players sent off for second time in season, extra 1 match ban. Players sent off for third time in season, extra 2 match ban. http://arseweb.com/users/arseweb/other/discipline.html

October 22, 2007

Dizzy Mugs said:

Carson only misses one game. Not sure about Reo-Coker. Seems they appealed successfully about Carson.

October 23, 2007

komkidsw said:

poor Sad night, two mistakes in one game suck!!! pls give Curtis Davis change i think he can be partnership with Laursen and RB LB GB, when market open pls bring Osingwa Risie Mcarty(porto') Nicolae Dica gravacent and twin striker (top player too)

October 26, 2007 | url

wendy said:

Villa vs Manchester United www.auto-accessory-manufacturers.com

April 02, 2008 | url

grace wei said:

I think Carson only gets a one match ban even though it was a straight red.

April 25, 2008 | url

Name

Email

Website

Title

Comment

smaller | bigger

Subscribe via email (Registered users only)

Add Comment