False dawn again: Aston Villa 0 Fulham 0

Another step in the right direction.
Last season we'd have lost the game after the big results.
Damian, cheer up.

Clean sheet.

Why does MON even bother to name substitutes when he has no intention of using them. Not one of the team was playing well, so why not bring on fresh legs, especially when Fulham are playing for a draw. This was a game we needed to play 2 strikers in, to show our intent to win the game. I love MON as much as the next guy, but sometimes he gets it very wrong.

Fair play to Fulham though, they've perfected their own brand of anti-football.

Very predictable result. Damian what's your problem? You want to play one up front and suddenly we are keeping clean sheets. You want to have your cake and eat it, 4-3-3 = 4-5-1? Don't think so mate.

We haven't learned anything from this game that we didn't know before. Up the Villa.

To be fair Fulham are improving. That said the 3 points should've been ours. Fulham had one really good chance and that's it.

no surprise - all the idiots on here and mon advocating 451 at home against lesser opposition - well there u go - thats what happens, even harewood would have scored one of the headers barry had today.
Oneil is a pric- carew is off in jan because he has blown evrything over the top with him - thats the story in the club anyway - he isnt even injured!! we have only one striker oneiol is willing to put on the pitch!!! ffs!! he better sort it asap!!

Reply to TrevorMan:

Why does MON even bother to name substitutes when he has no intention of using them. Not one of the team was playing well, so why not bring on fresh legs, especially when Fulham are playing for a draw. This was a game we needed to play 2 strikers in, to show our intent to win the game. I love MON...

he dont think they are good enough! if he did he would bring them on -simple

Reply to AVMark:

Very predictable result. Damian what's your problem? You want to play one up front and suddenly we are keeping clean sheets. You want to have your cake and eat it, 4-3-3 = 4-5-1? Don't think so mate.

We haven't learned anything from this game that we didn't know before. Up the Villa.

Yeah we have known Barry is shit all season. But Sidwell too today. Atleast Sidwells work rate is decent Barry is just gallivanting around the field not really doing anything.

And again,we did not learn today that we need a decent finisher that we can call on to create a goal, or an attacking midfielder who can do the same.We didnt learn today that we have paid about 7 or 8 mil too much for James Milner as we knew that before today too. We knew prior to this match that MON is hopeless with subs also.

Barry is not an attacking midfielder. He plays that position for us but does not supply the style of game required for that role. Maybe he does have a place on our team in the future, but if we want to continue to challenge for top 4, we need to bring in an attacking midfielder. Period....

Im going to be positive, there is a lot of frustration, but we are sitting 4th and as pointed out earlier it was another clean sheet, and simply put it wasnt a loss. We needed Carew today, I am sure he would have made the difference today. Also, looking at other results, borough drew, and so did hull, both good results for us. As for tomorrow, we need chelsea to win and city to hold utd.

damien - i share your frustration. massive missed opportunity.

fulham never looked like they wanted to win this and changes should have been made. o'neill must really not rate harewood because from where i was sitting today, sidwell did nothing and another body in the box for some decent balls coming in would have made a difference.

when you play a team with 10 men ehind the ball, you need your full backs to push on which create more space for the wingers as the defensive side cannot put two players on young/milner and generally stretches play. cuellar, who looks like a good centre back cannot go forward. shorey, who may not be the best defender /(which isnt an issue against a team not looking to attack) can overlap young and can put a ball in (like the ajax game). young is a good right full back back but not a good left back.

final point on today's game, where was the bit and enegy levels from aresnal and utd?!

missed opportunity.

plus heard that villa is after Ajax's Huntelaar! sounds nice!

I think what we are seeing here is a natural progression. Teams just don't go from good teams to championship teams in a matter of 15 games or so... Teams have to learn to win.

Didn't get to see any of the match, one of the few Iv'e missed all season, but when i got home and saw the final score it didn't surprise me at all. It is a typical result for Villa... A good team learning to become a great team.

I don't think we have all overestimated the potential of this squad, this truly looks to be a great team. The youngsters are getting a good dose of top notch pressure to show up with class every week. I believe it is up to Laursen, Friedel, Petrov, and even MON to provide leadership and teach the boys how to win, and win consistently.

Now if it's March and they are still pulling this crap against teams they should beat, then I'll have a problem. Just hope we are still sitting in top third of the table by then...

Reply to Tonebone:

no surprise - all the idiots on here and mon advocating 451 at home against lesser opposition - well there u go - thats what happens, even harewood would have scored one of the headers barry had today.
Oneil is a pric- carew is off in jan because he has blown evrything over the top with him -...

agree 100% 4-5-1 at home to fulham .lack of balls if you ask me! with any team other than man-u & and chelsea we should be going 4-4-2 and trying to win

Let down? Sure. But I wouldn't exactly hit the panic button. We clearly were the better team today. We had several glorious chances (which obviously we could't bury). If we dominate play as we did today, we'll win 80% of the time.

to me it agian proves as i have stated for ages oneil is a great man manager but that is all. tactically he is a shambles and has been for a long timenow!

I am sick of Mons boring boring football too.
We showed no desire to try & claim 3rd spot today.
Mon chose again to play with one man up front. We cannot rely on just good fortune every game.
Yes Mon may point out that we had some chances, but if our only striker plays most of his game by the corner flag it is no wonder our few chances fell to the wrong player.
We did not look like loosing so what we did not look like wining either.
Mon is not a patch on Big Ron but he is the best manager we have had since Ron but the football we play is a world apart.
I can now see why we cannot attract great players to our club with Mon as our manager. I think it says everything when we spend £20m in defence & £2m on a striker.
I thought GB did at least try to suppport the Attack today. That is more than what can be said for Milner & Sidwell what a waste of £20m

he is playing one up front at home against teams stuggling to stay up last year, playing so many players out of position its absurd, and never making subs when it is claer to everyone else they are needed!

I don't think formation was the issue here. There was nothing negative about our play - had more than enough posession and balls put in the box to have won by a healthy margin. Just severely lacked accuracy with those crosses, shots and headers that we did have. Very frustrating to watch. Martin should make use of people sitting on the bench or find replacements he actually trusts to make a differnce in such situations.

i love this blog.

I can see Villa finishing 5th easily (as opposed to your prediction of 6th). But if you do get to 4, I believe it would be down more to Arsenal failing. People sometimes underestimate the gap between the top 4 and the rest.

i say, TAKE 30 MIL, AND BUY THEO WILCOTT!!!
what a team theo and ashley would make!!!
omg!

We wont finish anywhere near 4th.MON got it wrong he showed he is incapable of making tough decisions.You could see it was going to be 1 of those games after 5 mins we were slow to start and never got going.we really do need to invest in a world class player or two, Man city are going to spend big time although maybe to late for them this season they will be up there next and we'll be left chasing the pack again.Oh forgot MON hasnt got the bottle to spend big has he has no experience of managing that type of player.

We've improved defensively but now we're not scoring goals. No cutting edge passes, it's a shame. I'd rather play good football and finish 6th then playing workman-like football and finishing 4th in a one-off season because one of the top 4 have a bad season (ie when Everton did it).

In the long run you have to establish a style of football that can penetrate teams when crosses don't work.

Even if we had won 3-0 today with the 3 headers we missed, I would've been delighted with the result but not happy with the football we played. As MON says we are in the results business and he doesn't care (like most fans) about the performance - just ask Celtic fans.

Because of this MON will continue to buy unproven talent and play to our strengths, ie constant crossing. It'll get results but probably fall short of consistently getting a CL place.

Personally I would prefer a change in our style, we have a nucleus of players who can definitely pass and move, some of our moves at the Emirates were great. But at home when the pressure is on us to make quality passes we have no idea. That's why we need a players like Diego, Veluso, Aimar, Riquelme etc and obviously a top notch goalscorer so we have the quality to win games against the more average sides.

Fair play to Fulham, except for Swarzcher they were pretty comfortable.

Poor game for both teams pretty much. Fulham got lucky A LOT with our not taking the chances they gave us, but oh well. We need some kind of change during the game. I don't understand how Martin O'Neill could be watching that game and thinking the players on the pitch could still go the mile. We needed a Gardner or Harewood on there to run like a nutter for their duration of the game and scare Fulham so our more 'composed' players could just tap in a ball after the confused defence were all recovering from shitting themselves.

Still, we're top 5 and i am happy. I can't see the point in complaining that we're not a top 4 team, because it's quite a step-up. I am completely overjoyed that Villa are competing in this part of the league (top 6) and looking so dangerous to the big-boys just 2 seasons after mediocrity and the threat of relegation.

So cheer the fuck up!

I agree with Damian 110%

Why are some of you bangin on about formation for

We had load of corners, setplays, possession and attemps at goal to at least get a one in the net? We didn't play rubbish just very frustrating at times!

Now we got everton next and i can only see another draw or loss coming our way because they getting into their stride and we seem to be slipping up just before the new year again HOW MANY TIMES HOW WE LET 3RD SLIP FROM OUR GRASP NOW answer TOO MANY

Stop kidding yourself in thinking we'll make 4th there no chance, when you miss open goals early in a match it says it all

WE BLEW OUR CHANCE end of.....

Your defeatism bores me.

It could be far worse - you could be an England rugby supporter.

oh come on guys, is this result a big suprise...i knew we wouldnt beat Fulham, as we can't beat Boro at home. we lack a goalscorer, a man like in the fold of Kevin Phillips, I think we lack 1 big time player, MON I HOPE YOU PULL YOUR HEAD OUT YOUR ASS AND REALISE LIKE THE REST OF US AT THE END OF AUGUST U FUCKING BALLEDS UP AND NOT SIGNED ANOTHER STRIKER, look, we never should have signed Milner, Wright-Phillips was the man we should have got, and why oh fucking why we didnt try and get D Cisse on loan is another question, i want us to get in January............it may mean breaking the bank, EVANS-BLAKE from Wolves..rant over....we'll rue these missed points

why are we villa fans the most cynical and pessimistic fans of all time?

Shit happens, we should have won but we didn't.

We've picked up a point and we look forward to, perhaps, adding to the squad in January.

I go with Nan_Was_a_Fan, bored with the whining at any given opportunity.

UTV

Remember we are only where we are because other teams have been slipping up, teams like spurs, portsmouth, city and everton are turning into switches (on and off) Villa to are too inconsistent which really isnt champs league material

Really we should be holding down 5th and uefa for a couple years before we even think of getting 3rd or 4th

Its called steps you can't just jump to the top

I'm not really bothered about top 4 because we're not good enough. If we were then I'd be bothered, like Arsenal fans, they know they're good enough for top 4 but are making hard work of it. However I know we're good enough to get 3 points at home against Fulham and that's why I'm bothered.

We've spent £50m, that kind of measures our aspirations. But Spurs, Man City and Sunderland have spent big and we're ahead of them so really can't complain.

Goldie7: if that's your reasoning, then the same argument could have been used by Everton fans when they managed to stay close to the top.

"We're only here because Villa and other clubs keep dropping points".

I'm keeping an open mind, too many people on here hit highs and lows with the frequency of a Crystal Meth user. Let's support the club and see where we are in May, the foundations are as good as we've had in God knows how many years.

We had 4 corners ia a row if any of the top4 had that against fulham they would have scored but not villa and its not because fulham were great in defence its because we wasted chance after chance

I'm starting to think theres a cup up for grabs 'The team that uses the less substitutions all season, We would win it hands down

im ashamed to be a villa supporter when i read some of the bullshit some people write on here....

Give MON a fucking break, last week and week before, sum of u were up his arse. this week,we drew...get over it. we are still moving forwards, the league table and uefa cup progress shows this.

rome was never built in a day..... teams take time. i admit some things need to be tinkered with etc players brought in, but to question MON is a joke. He is the right man. we just lacking a few players, he will get it right.

Have faith and stop over reacting like a bunch of fucking kids.
jesus christ....

Monkeywrench' what the truth hurts

We've won 1 match all month and im supposed to be on here being all cheery and hopeful well i'm not

Goldie7: The truth doesn't hurt, I'm just keeping a balanced view and avoid swinging a bloody tampon in menstrual abandon at any given opportunity.

We've spent a fair amount - and so have many others: we're still in a decent position and hardly falling apart.

Your "we've had 4 corners in a row and any of the top4 would have taken adavantage of it" theory leaks more than Paris Hilton in that night-vision video I trust you remember: it's moaning for the sake of it.

Up the Villa.

I can't believe some of the comments on here
We battered them today and were unlucky in that we didn't win, IMO.
Fulham are no mugs, don't forget they frustrated the bin dippers too.
We played the right way and my only criticism was not bringing the Hare on. But then I wouldn't have known who to take off

Tonebone, I seriously think you know nothing about the game mate. You simply can't win 'em all, even though I understand your frustration.
We should have beat Fulham, but didn't. Shit happens.
And no I'm not happy, before you ask.

completely agree with MONKEYWRENCH AND BADGER

villa til i die......

i also thought we needed harewood just to 'shake it up' a little maybe 70th min, taken sidwell/milner off and put the hare on. He could of well been the match winner but we will never know.

Heres to the future.......which is clearly claret and blue ;-)

Fantastic game and we were awesome all you knockers go away we are definitely top4 and MON is a tactical genius, we will win at least 2 cups this season so stop being pessimistic, it's a 5 year plan so I don't want to win anything until after 5 years anyway, so a draw a home to fulham is a wonderful bonus IN MON WE TRUST IN MON WE TRUST IN MON WE TRUST

We need to play 4-4-2 at home!4-5-1 just doesnt work when we are trying to break teams down at home!gabby spent all day running the channels when he should have been having shots on goal or at least he should have been in the box cause thats what strikers are suppose to do!all the chances were from headers today but that was just playing into fulhams hands!we needed to get it down and play football but we just resorted to lumping balls into the box even without carew!we needed carew today!our last 3 games at home without carew have given us one goal and no wins!things weve learnt today are that sidwell and barry need some heading practice and we wont make top four!top five will do me,but im sure barry wont look back on the chances he wasted today when he buggers off in the summer!

I dont believe we are mate, it is the frustration of rarely playing well at home to crap teams, and when we do its only in the second half, I am sick of visitors coming here and always playing us off the park in the first half. Jimmy Bullard completely ran the park today, it aint pessimism its just that you go to the game freezing your ass and you want to see the home team (Villa) play like the bloody home team and not get overran by mostly very average opposition every game.

Welcome back Taglor, please feel free to vulture and feed off the situation and join the rest of the Emos in that corner over there.

"If anyone dares say below that 'Fulham got a point at Anfield, so we should be happy', they might as well just piss off now."

Hehe - love the comment.

Seriously though, it was a real disappointment. If we really want to be considered a top four team then we should be disappointed at not beating them at home - any of the real top four would. We were clearly the better team and should have nicked it, but it's two dropped points and that could cost us.

Reply to lucky4:

We need to play 4-4-2 at home!4-5-1 just doesnt work when we are trying to break teams down at home!gabby spent all day running the channels when he should have been having shots on goal or at least he should have been in the box cause thats what strikers are suppose to do!all the chances were from...

Now this is fair comment.

I don't believe it was playing into Fulhams hands at all though,
We had at least 4 clear cut chances for goals, all from headers.
At least 3 should have been buried, simple as.
We created plenty of chances, Ash was excellent today.
I don't think you can criticise the manager when you fail to put away those chances.
Yes, I'd like to see us keep it on the ground more too.
And I agree, Barry is gone.

Taglor, it's good to see you're still talking the same shit as usual

I think this underlines how badly we need another striker. If Carew is injured than we have no other option. Clearly MON has shown he agrees with the consensus that Harewood is shit. I think that also underlines that we can't rest our hopes on another 4-6m striker. We need to buy a world class someone who will actually give our strikers competition.

Bad day at the office today.. a bit of a cliche but we could have played on all night and there wouldn't be any goals!
We had around 12 shots at goal and only one on target. We need another striker ASAP because playing 4-5-1 at home against Fulham invites them to come for a draw.
All this nonsense about 'we should have beat them and it should 3 points in the bag' is a load of bollocks! These results are going to happen from time to time. Half way through the second half, most people had figured out that this was destined to be a drab 0-0 draw.
We outplayed Fulham, no question, but there was no cutting edge.
3 clean sheets in a row, can't remember the last time that happened! And why did they even bother picking a man of the man, because they're weren't any candidates!

Whoops, I meant 'man of the match'

I love that stuff about us only being here becomes others are messing. Isn't that what a league table is all about?

Why are the others messing up?

Singing players with no commitment to their club?
Dropping managers after a bad run?
Over ambitious chairmen?
Short sightedness?

Ok keyboard playing up.

1. In sentence 1 it should be 'messing UP'.

2. Obviously others are signing players not singing.

I agree with maindog - this blog is great!

After we lost to Boro everyone was saying how shit we were and how we'd struggle to finish top 10. Then we beat Arsenal and drew with United and everyone was saying we'd finish top 4, easy. Now we draw with Fulham at home and the 'we're shit' brigade are back again!

Frankly ridiculous if you ask me! As I've said before, we're a team in progress and we won't become world beaters overnight. This knee-jerk reacting and moaning for the sake of it does nothing for anyone. Can anyone deny that we're a much better team than last season? We are definitely going in the right direction and, to be honest, after the horror of being a Villa fan in the years preceding the Lerner era, consolidating our position in 6th and a couple of good cup runs will do me.

Another point- I think Barry was much better than Sidwell today- his chest, turn and flick to Young on one of our breaks was a touch of class. Plus, and more importantly, I think he played with more passion than he has done recently- his reaction when he missed his chances was anything but apathetic. Let's hope he keeps it up.

Villa are forth but 11 teams are within 8 points of us and after tomorrow we will be 12 points from the top.

There is an assumption by most on here that we must beat teams like Boro, Fulham, Newcastle - are we really that much better than them?? We like to think so but maybe reality needs to kick in.

As somebody else stated - 4-5-1 is exactly what it says on the tin, there are no 3's involved. This formation is perfect setting up to stop a better side but not playing poorer teams at home....

Bottom line - Villa do not have the quality of players to make the top 4. Arsenal are in disarray - and they are within 2 points of us.....

Most people did say ''if we carry on paying like this'' ie after the arse/man match we could go top 4! We blatinly can't

But we should be beating fulham at HOME 'shouldn't we and maybe excepting a draw at the cottage you know

But i do respect what someone said above today we could have been playing all night and it still would have been 0-0

I dont like barry that much these days but today he was better than all the midfield, Young was good but kept driving the ball to deep and wasting good setplays!

Sidwell had his head in the clouds petrov went missing all match milner looked bright but also had no spark, gabbby was on the wings to much instead of being in the box or near it.

To me it feels like a loss because they came only for the draw and got it

We could do with bullard in our squad to keep sidwell and petrov on their toes

The fact that we feel so let down shows how much our expectations have risen over the past 3 seasons. We have to take some blame ourselves too though. The ground was so quiet at times you could hear everything the ref was saying.

Some days it just does not happen. Every team has those days. A lot of teams have many more of those days, so stop your bloody moaning.

My only observation is that we should have gone 4-4-2 ten minutes into the second half, as we needed that bit of extra movement in the last few yards. 4-5-1 I feel does work, but today we needed one of the 5 midfield to keep coming forward to poach/support a bit more in the box.

There were about 5 times that the ball nearly went in and if the ball was a foot the other way it would be another story on here. Like I said it's just did not happen, but it was not for lack of trying

The stats on the Scoreboad clearly displayed No Shots on Target for Aston Villa.
Yet Some on here say We Battered Fulham or We played Well
Were they at the Game
We are playing the same rubbish we played under JG.
Get Real the only reason some of you are happy is our league position.
The performance must count
Did our loan striker enter the penalty box with the Ball I really cannot remeber a single instance. I did see him out on the wings we neve had anyone in the box.
Perhaps we should move ML up front, he would at least make an impact

3 home games and 6 shots on target... I think we can see where our problem lies.

Why have a bench of players if you're not going to use any of them? we went 80 minutes today with one shot on target and still MON wouldnt change it up front..what did he see that the 36,000 in Villa Park didnt??

I really dont understand why he wouldnt change things. I just read on the villa website that MOn thinks one goal would have won it... no shit sherlock, but you have to get more than 2 shots on target in the game to stand a chance of winning really

I agree with Damien, we are a top 6 team flirting with the top 4. We don't have the ability to break down teams who come to Villa Park and put every player behind the ball in order to win a point. We don't have a player who can turn a game and MON had better buy someone in Jan or we will be a top 10 team flirting with the top 6 by the end of the season.

Once again, we had the chance to kick on but failed to do so... this is what separates the top 4 from us.

I was at the game. It wasn't our greatest ever performance but we were by far the better side. Their time wasting showed that they thought so too. We shouldn't forget that Fulham are 8th in the table with a game in hand, drew with Liverpool last week and keep grinding out results.....it was never going to be an easy win and those that expect us to win games like this easily are childishly deluded.

we need a top class striker!

•Gabby could be top class in the future.
•Carew is a big goof who can't control ball if life depended on him.

I feel we missed NRC big time. He's the spark in midfield we need to pump the lads up. Sidwell and milner for me had a really poor game.

MON, please buy a top class striker!

And yet some of you fucking moaners forget we are in the top 4!!!! and arsenal will probabaly lose to chelsea so we will still be there tomorrow. You forget where we were 3 seasons ago. Some of you fans r so ungrateful. Before MON and RL came we were wank, and they have turned us into a club in the top four and some of u r still moaning - seriously, support the team and stop behaving like kids

Reply to Nan_was_a_fan:

Another step in the right direction.
Last season we'd have lost the game after the big results.
Damian, cheer up.

Clean sheet.

a step in d right direction drawing at home to fulham r u having a fucking laugh last year we beat them.shit result cant break teams dwn all we can do is play counter attack nd dat is not goin to beat shit fucking teams like fulham.sidwell is so shit waste of space.why didnt he bring on harewood or ny sub at all at least harewood wud hav won a few headers up front.we proved again we r not consistent enough for d top 4

Reply to alex:

And yet some of you fucking moaners forget we are in the top 4!!!! and arsenal will probabaly lose to chelsea so we will still be there tomorrow. You forget where we were 3 seasons ago. Some of you fans r so ungrateful. Before MON and RL came we were wank, and they have turned us into a club in the...

Its funny when we lose all the "true fans" come out. I have been living and breathing claret and blue forever.....so now is the only time i should really get up and have a say....we have the biggest chance of any club to really crack the top 4....why do we settle for it? Do you see Gunners fans saying "its all just part of the movement"...we are moving on up? What about if Chelsea finish 3rd? What will they say? We have to have the attitude of a top 4 club to break in.... Please....we all love Villa....our attitude is still average, we need to get the killer attitude so we can finish thses games off.......Barry is a puss...fuck him off and get someone in who cares....

Reply to Goldie7:

We had 4 corners ia a row if any of the top4 had that against fulham they would have scored but not villa and its not because fulham were great in defence its because we wasted chance after chance

I'm starting to think theres a cup up for grabs 'The team that uses the less...

Amen mate.....i agree 100%....could not have said it any better

Nil Nil is a disappointment, third place missed for the third time. However, no premiership game is ever going to be easy. We could have won it three nil, Barry was outstanding - man of the match by a country mile. At the moment, we're getting results amongst the top four teams because they are raising our game. Now we need to learn how to raise our game against the middle table teams. Martin O'neil is aspiring to the top four competition, at the moment we're a convincing top six team. Come on the Villa!

Predictably, the same old bigots are spouting the same old garbage about Barry. It's not worth responding to.

Unfortunately, the problem is O'Neill, and more specifically, his failiures in the transfer market, whether it be signing the wrong players, getting rid of players prematurely, signing the right players at the wrong time, or not signing anyone at all.

Since taking charge, O'Neill has made one excellent signing, the odd good signing, some average signings, and some inexplicable signings. Ashley Young is the obvious highlight. Credit to O'Neill for him. Davies, Reo-Coker and Milner were three good signings, though between them they cost £30m, so they were neither bargains, nor were they signings that no-one else could have made. I also understand that there will be plenty of Villa fans who would question whether the last two are in fact good signings, so presumably they would be even more down on O'Neill than I am.

Petrov, Friedel, Guzan and Cuellar I would say are average signings. Petrov has come good, eventually, although on balance, £6m is possibly a bit steep, but we'll give O'neill the benefit of the doubt on this one. Friedel has done okay for us. He's had a few shaky moments, but mostly looked good. He's past his best at 37, but his experience and character should stand Guzan in good stead. Guzan may prove to be an excellent signing. His debut was promising, but we can hardly judge him yet. Cuellar looks like he could be a very good centre back, and may well justify his price tag, but he's currently playing out of position, perhaps simply to be accommodated, as Laursen and Davies are probably the first choice pairing.

And this leads me to the inexpicable/bad signings. First is Luke Young. I think he's been very good for us, but this simply compounds O'Neill's error. Last summer, he chose to spend £4m on Zat Knight, but not £2.5m on Young. as a result, we had Knight instead of Mellberg at centre back, and Mellberg instead of Young at right back.

And we paid £1.5m for the privilege! So we had a far inferior back line last season, and we paid £3.5m over the odds to sign Young this summer. It hardly needs saying, but I will anyway; This is idiocy. How many points did this error cost us last season? And who knows, maybe if Olof had been playing centre back instead of right back, he'd have stayed on with us. By my reckoning, we could have had a better season last year had we signed Young and not Knight last summer, and would be £7.5m better off (albeit minus Knight, our 4th choice centre back) this season. £7.5m!

O'Neill also signed Harewood, who again failed to come on today. He paid £4m for a player he doesn't rate, and whom he will only use in the direst of emergencies. Marlon hasn't moaned, which is to his great credit, and he's clearly a thoroughly nice chap, but this doesn't change the fact that he's been a terrible signing.

Shorey looks like a panic buy, which is understandable to an extent, but not to a great extent. Why didn't O'Neill line someone up as cover for Bouma, or to fight for his spot, before he got injured? Bouma was our only left back for a whole season. O'Neill had a year to find someone, and he came up with Shorey, who has lost his place to our right back, meaning we now have two guys playing out of position at left and right back.

Then there is Sidwell. I have nothing against him as a bloke. From the interviews I've read he seems like a good guy. But why sign him when we already had Craig Gardner, who was a fantastic servant last season, has potential, and is a Villan through and through? It doesn't help that Sidwell has had a poor start to his Villa career. Many say that he'll come good. In an admittedly short space of time, I have seen NO evidence.

Routledge and Salifou are completely insignificant.

Finally, there's Carew. Swapped for Baros, we'd all agree this was a good move. Inspired or opportunistic? Given Salifou is the only other overseas signing, I'd suggest the latter.

That covers the signings, but what about the player's who have left? I would say that Sorensen and Berger, and Ridgewell and McCann leaving was good. Angel and Mellberg left amicably, and inevitably, and that's fair enough. Angel was past it, and Mellberg left for Juve.

O'Neill clearly didn't rate Cahill, and so he had to leave to get first team football. Did Cahill have enough potential? Maybe, maybe not. Is he better than Zat Knight? Almost certainly. Would he have been happy to have stuck around with Mellberg and Laursen ahead of him in the pecking order? (assuming we'd signed Luke Young so that Mellberg could partner Laursen. Obviously if we hadn't, and not signed Knight either, Cahill would have started anyway) I think he might.

Then there's Samuel and Hughes. I don't think any fan would lose much sleep over either of these two leaving, but to net get in replacements? To leave us with no right back and just one left back? Surely having either, or even both, around last season would at least have been reassuring. And consider this: Is a back four of Hughes/Mellberg/Laursen/Bouma worse than a back four of Mellberg/Knight/Laursen/Bouma? For my money, the first is better, and £3m cheaper too! So keeping Hughes, and not signing Knight, seems to make sense. If Samuel's attitude wasn't right, then we were right to let him go. But Hughes has never been anything other than a good pro, so him leaving was a judgement call on O'Neill's behalf.

Any manager can make a mistake, but O'Neill has made alot on the player recruitment side of the business. And we haven't even considered players he hasn't signed. Personally, I think he was right not to sign the likes of Diarra and Defoe, and anyone else who was more interested in money. I think that's a great policy, and I applaud him for it. But as I mentioned earlier, he has signed just one player from overseas. This is only relevant because he hasn't signed enough players, or the right players, from these shores.

The evidence surely suggests that he is unwilling, or unable, (it matters not which) to sign foreign players. A manager who limits himself (or is limited) in this way, I don't think is going to get us to where we should be.

O'Neill has, in all sorts of ways, done a fantastic job for us. He has laid some good foundations. Now, if I believed that getting in a new manager, whoever that might be, would sweep away those foundations, then I wouldn't suggest it, and I would simply be hoping that O'Neill can learn from his mistakes and change the way he does things in the transfer market. But I don't think that O'Neill leaving would necessarily undo the the good work he's done, provided we got a good manager in. I also don't think that there's too much chance in O'Neill changing the way he does things. In fact, there's as much chance of O'Neill changing his ways as there is of Lerner changing his manager.

I will therefore conclude by saying that, if we fail to finish in the top 4, I will blame O'Neill, and resent him for his failiure. If we do finish in the top 4, I will wonder how much better we could have done had O'Neill not made all those elementary mistakes. Having said that, I will forgive him, but hope that he can learn from his mistakes.

The time is now for us to move into the top 4, and the opportunity is there for us to make the big 4 or big 5 (assuming that each of the present big 4 can maintain their respective standings). There is no talk of Liverpool strengthening in January. There would be question marks over Arsenal, even without the turmoil they seem to be in at the moment, because they're lacking in depth and experience. Even Man Utd are looking dodgy (a central midfield of Carrick and Giggs? What a joke! And we still didn't beat them by the way. We drew, at home. Two dropped points, which looks even worse after today's result, not to mention Newcastle and Middlesboro. For anyone that's counting, that's just one win in five games).

16th to 6th two seasons his signings cant be that bad

It will be a failiure if we don't finish in the top 4 this season. Yes, O'Neill has got us into a position where we can take advantage of a weakness in the top 4, but what's the point if we don't strike the knockout blow?

Arsenal are only bigger than us at the present time because of the Champions League money they've had, which in turn is because of their appointment of Wenger. We should be looking not only to compete with Arsenal, but come out on top.

Liverpool have been massively successful in the past, but haven't won the league for 20 years. They haven't even been close. They don't have the financial clout we have. The one thing they have over us is that they're a Champions League outfit. But even that advantage could be gone should we finish where we ought to this season.

Man Utd are a soulless corporate monster, but they're not so far ahead that we can't compete with them. I refer you to the team they fielded against us.

Chelsea, this season at least, are out of reach, and as long as Abramovich's backing lasts, will always be formidable. But they went two years without winning the title, and they're yet to win the Champions League.

There is no reason why, with the right managment, Villa can't become the best team in the world. At the moment, Man Utd can claim to be that team (forget the Italians and the Spanish. not even Inter or Real Madrid can compete with the financial muscle of the Premiership), yet we can overtake them. This is what is at stake. I would love to see Martin O'Neill take us to the pinnacle - and keep us there - but I just don't think he can do it. And if he can't do it, then somebody else should be given the opportunity. Any Villa fan who isn't ambitious for this club to be the best in the world has failed to appreciate both the tradition and the potential of this club.

Over and Out.

UTV

i love this blog...its like clockwork.....i actually always know what is going t be said..... and taglors, you actually make me feel happy...i love you taglor, i really really do...

Lower down your expectation guys.
We are fighting for top5 not top 4 this season.
MON has done a great job, don't question him about the substitution, he knows much better than all of us here.

3-5-2 Anyone?
Gabby can't do it on his own...
Barry had more chances

Reply to craig pyatt:

I dont believe we are mate, it is the frustration of rarely playing well at home to crap teams, and when we do its only in the second half, I am sick of visitors coming here and always playing us off the park in the first half. Jimmy Bullard completely ran the park today, it aint pessimism its just...

Craig This is the best post on the page
True & to the point

For the record and just so we mare clear. 4-5-1 was the formation picked, bu tif the TV people had put it as 4-3-3, it would have been generally accepted also.

4-5-1 is the static - 4-3-3 is the attacking formation and the best one for Villa. 4-4-2 just means we've got a striker doing nothing when we are attacking - you only need one to score!

Reply to Simeon:

Predictably, the same old bigots are spouting the same old garbage about Barry. It's not worth responding to.

Unfortunately, the problem is O'Neill, and more specifically, his failiures in the transfer market, whether it be signing the wrong players, getting rid of players prematurely,...

Actually i say more or less the same if we win lose or draw. We are a bunch of effort guys on the pitch, with a couple of young stars in the making...the quality is not there. Its amazing what MON has achieved with what seems to be limited talent in the squad. Now we have two gaping holes, attacking mid and striker, which happen to be the two most influential and difficult positions to fill on a team. Bring in the right guys and were in europe....bring in cheap english shite and we will be in the same position as we are now this time next year but with increasing unrest amongst fans.

One more thing. Anyone is allowed to come on here and criticize or praise, vent or agree whenever they want. Just like you come on here with your spam come flooding the blog posts. This is the function of a blog. I can be as negative as i want, i can be as positive as i want. Simple. Everyone on here shares one thing, we love this team Aston Villa. We have a new hope now and our ambition has been raised. So when we lose to Fulham that is now considered a failure. So i and others will comment about that. Barry was invisible last night so i will comment about it. You felt it neccessary to comment on MONs transfer history by the looks of it, so you did. Who cares. If you dont like my bigot posts dont read them, cos i dont have enough time in the day to read yours mate.

UTV

argy, I know where you're coming from. At the start of this season I would have been really happy with 6th and delighted with 5th. Now, a lot of us are allowing ourselves to believe that top 4 is possible this season. We may not get there, but we should still allow ourselves to hope for it. The raised expectation means that there'll be more let downs than there would have been and some people are going to get on the back of the players and manager far mroe than they really have any right to.

Ladies and Gentlemen Aston Villas number 1 supporter........Ghosthunter

To Ghosthunter,
Nice one chap. It's severely annoying to lose out on a great opportunity, and you have to say MON got it wrong. My realistic expectation was for us to finish top 4, and I still believe we will.

I think we are now being treated like a top 4 side, which is why teams like Fulham, who last year, would probably have fancied their chances against us, have now gone completely in to defence mode. Man.U, Chelski and Arse have developed ways of breaking down mediocre garrisons, but still occasionally get caught out.

We are still in the advanced learning phase of this and have a way to go. It makes me quite chuffed that other teams are recognising us as one of the BIG teams now.This however, does not detract away from the fact it was a sub standard performance

I must say that if most members on this site went to the head shrink he would diagnose delusions og grandier on most of you

Nan is correct last season fulham would have scored and that would have been it
one point on thursday and we have automatic qualification to knockout stages
the games coming up are challenging but i think 10-12 points from those december fixtures will hold us in top 4/5

as fans its easy to run before we can walk our ambitions seem to be reachable quickly but the real world says stick in there until january and see the signings we will have coming in
Looking forward to next week and a visit to culture capital liverpool and the arkles pub hope its notr pissing down like last season
I would like to think we can come away with the spoils this year and kick off dec the way we want to continue
as for comments about the midfield
sidwell ? well how many midfielders last season would have been on the end of crosses from open play as he was yesterday
gareth barry is able to pus on to get in the box also
start of a great partnership
as for gardner milner does far more attacking and tackling back than gardner
keep with this side and it will be good you will see
we will be there come jan and then push on for top four with quality signings

up the villa

rob

I didn't watch the game but Fulham had 0-0 written all over it. Have you seen how many they have conceded this season? 11! Only the top 3 have conceded less. 12 goals for, and 11 goals against tells you a lot about the nature of their football. They have a very experienced manager who is obviously going to play to their strengths and IMO they won't be in the relegation scrap this season. I admit I was disappointed when I seen the score and it sounded like a frustrating game to watch but it didn't surprise me.

As for all the doom & gloom, it's getting quite ridiculous. I can't say I'm all for MON's brand of football as I love Football played along the ground and I think we did that well against Arsenal and even against Man U at times but it is rarely seen from us. We are in a good position though and as long as we keep on making progress then we can have no complaints, MON has done a GREAT job up until now.

As for us breaking the top 4, I have believed for a while now that it might take a different manager to break us into the top 4. Somebody who knows the transfer market better and somebody who is generally a better tactician. We'll have to wait and see though. MON deserves the chance at the very least and I think if we can keep this squad next season and add in a few players with that extra quality then it will be a realistic target.

we are nearly half way through the season and in 4th position thats still better than last season.

When did it become expected that we'd break into the Top 4 this season?

I thought a regular 5th place for a few years was the target. Bit of Euro experience, maybe the odd cup. Few Top 4 scalps along the way.

All going to plan surely.


Oh no sorry. Let's get in a proper Euro manager like Ramos. Sign some proper players like Robinho and we'll win every game every week and finish top of the table.
I don't really like swearing in public but you really are a bunch of dull fuckwits.

nice one nan
someone with a sane mind
progress is happening lets all be patient for a few days at least

Reply to Nan_was_a_fan:

When did it become expected that we'd break into the Top 4 this season?

I thought a regular 5th place for a few years was the target. Bit of Euro experience, maybe the odd cup. Few Top 4 scalps along the way.

All going to plan surely.


Oh no sorry....

Thanks Nan. You made it worthwhile reading to the bottom of the blog. Did anyone in their hearts really believe we would break into the Top 4 this season? I can't remember how many people said we lost to Fulham....Damian included...we drew. We should have won based on unconverted chances but thats football. I don't think its time to sack the manager yet.
Although I still don't understand his theories on substitutes (or lack of....)

UTV

I wonder if Premiership football is actually evolving at a rate we're not keeping pace with.

A few years ago, top teams losing to bottom teams would be a real shock as there was such a gulf in class. This season has shown that no game can be considered a 'banker'.

Football tactics are analysed scientifically which allows teams to prepare better for their opposition. Often, this results in one team playing 'not to lose or concede', rather than the old approach of all managers looking to score goals and win, everybody playing the same system with the same personnel.

Chelsea and Man.U are able to alter tactics and systems to combat negative teams fairly effectively; even during games. I think MON got his tactics wrong against Fulham, as if he didn't have a plan B. He's a clever man and I'm convinced he will learn and get things right through the course of the season.

The big teams change their tactics to beat the negative sides?

Anyone can beat anyone else?

Is your argument well formed?

Man U seemed to struggle to change their tactics to beat us last week.
Liverpool seemed to struggle to change their tactics to beat us earlier in the season.
Our tactics looked pretty good at Arse.