Saturday 17th November 2012
City of Manchester Stadium
3pm KO live on Radio 5 Live
Referee: J Moss
[/center]If it’s not the despair that gets you it’s certainly the hope…I was stood in the pub on Saturday evening, with a Blackburn supporting mate of mine, suffering through Villa’s defeat to the filth; and as we watched Villa raced into the lead neither I or my Blackburn supporting mate were under any illusion that the result was going to be anything other than a Glazerland victory (If we could have brought ourselves into backing THEM the odds went as high as 16-1 and of course EVERYONE in the pub backed it/called it despite never leaving once to go next door to the bookies). When the equalizer went Villa retreated within themselves so quickly it was if they accepted the 3-2 defeat let alone a point. In fact the worst thing they could have done in that game was take the lead, as until that point they were looking quite capable of a point, but once they’d scored they actually had to try and win the game.
They’re a club that has never offended anyone, they’ve always been generous opposition and they’ve always had the ability for that once City-esque ability to snatch defeat from the jaws of victory but there has always been something very fascinating and a little odd about Villa when I was a kid it was the team sponsored by a yoghurt firm and the footballer with red boots who appeared more on Gladiators than Match of the Day, John Fashanu.
When I was a teen it was the team who’s best players who were sold to Middlesbrough (Ehiogu and Southgate) as they were seen as the more ambitious team, Alpay (who cost Villa £6m) who was released because he’d dared to poke Beckham in an international game and the ultimate panic purchase Juan Pablo Angel £9.5m in 2001 from River Plate in exchange for 44 goals in 173 games (roughly the same goals to game ration as Kevin Horlock for us). Bosko Balaban anyone…
They were a cyclical team and promising players were often allowed to be sold just as the team would be on the brink of achievement and investment would be withheld at key points in evolution. I imagine Villa supporters could weep at the number of players that have been allowed to leave the club to go onto better things thanks to Doug Ellis’s desire to recoup as much form the club as possible.
Villa supoprters must have thought that had changed when Randy (the Ram) Lerner arrived, with Martin O’Neill already in charge and an exciting young counter attacking team (long ball to their detractors) that included Ashley Young, James Milner, Gareth Barry, John Carew, Olof Mellberg, Martin Laursen, Gary Cahill, Craig Gardner, Gabriel Agbonlahor, Stiliyan Petrov, Nigel Reo-Coker, Curtis Davies, Zat Knight, Stewart Downing Luke Young, Nicky Shorey, Brad Frediel, Steve Sidwell, Carlos Cuellar, Fabien Delph, Stephen Warnock, James Collins, Richard Dunne, Stephen Ireland and Stewart Downing.
In most cases signings were made with the aim of signing players that were young and they could improve, to either improve the team or sell for a huge profit. It seemed no-one told Martin O’Neill as first Gareth Barry was sold citing the need to play Champions League Football and then James Milner was sold (£26m plus Stephen Ireland according to Wikipedia). After 3 consecutive 6th place finishes and failure to secure a place in the Champions League Lerner quickly became tired of transfer fee’s, seeing as dead money, and when he questioned O’Neill as to why he’d spent £8m to purchase Habib Beye and Steve Sidwell to seem the sparingly used and informed him he would have to reduce the teams wages to turnover ratio of 80% O’Neill walked a couple of days before the start of the 2010-2011 season.
So who did Randy with his fresh Aston Villa tattoo get to replace O’Neill, some up and coming manager who with an extensive scouting network and the ability to work on a budget? Well,no, Gerard Houllier was selected as the new manager, a choice so inspiring he managed to alienate Stevie Ireland, the clubs highest paid player, and de-motivate the team in a matter of weeks to the point that Randy the Ram had to panic buy Darren Bent and Jean II Makoun in the January transfer window to ensure a mid table finish. Houllier failed to last the season, but the era was practically a dynasty compared to his replacement Alex McLeish. A typical Taggart acolyte, the Villa support was vilified (no pun intended) by the media for daring to speak out against the manager. as they’d already used their supporters black ball to veto the arrival of Steve McClaren. They hung banners “it’s not where you came from; it’s where you are taking us” and handed out leaflets but after just 37 goals in the 38 games Villa fans had already admirably voted with their feet and stayed away.
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Last season I think there were a lot of supporters who wanted to see Villa relegated, not out of genuine malice or dislike of Villa (unless they were Brum, Wolves or Baggies) but because it would have shaken them out of this lethargic existence they’ve had since Martin O’Neill walked out on them. On the final day of the season at Norwich, Villa supporters hardly endeared themselves to the locals by singing “Paul Lamberts Claret Army!” for the majority of the game; their public endorsement of the European Cup Winner. Randy the Ram acted quick and removed ‘Big Eck’ the following week and after a quick negotiation over compensation Lambert arrived.
The arrival of Lambert was an astute signing from Lerner (for once listening to the support?), his time at Norwich was well documented, he stuffed them 7-1 at Carrow Road with his Colchester side on the opening day of their first season in the third tier, a week later Delia sobered up from the shock, brought him in and he led them to the League 1 title including thrashing rivals Colchester 5-1 away in the process. The following season they were Championship runners up and became the first side to gain back-to-back promotions to the Premier League since ourselves in 2000. Lambert then cemented his credentials as manager by securing a 12th place finish, with £3m for Steve Morison his single biggest transfer, and best of all shipping 11 goals to us and kick starting our title challenge at Carrow Road in April.
Aston Villa and Lambert spent the summer apparently looking through Football Manager 12 Scout looking for players with high potential and low reputation as Bret Holman arrived from AZ on a Bosman (actually a McLeish signing), midfielder Karim El Ahmadi from Feyenoord for £2m, highly rated Matthew Lowton from Sheffield United for £3m, the hapless against Hernandez Ron Vlaar for £3m also from Feyenoord, full back Joe Bennett from Middlesbrough for £4m, Ashley Westwood (Crewe, £2m), and Christian Benteke, the marquee signing, from Genk for £7m on deadline day.
[center]The Team[/center]
Their defence has seen wholesale changes to the defence over the summer as Brad Guzan has replaced Shay Given in goal and has overtaken him for the no.1 spot. Lowton has been ever present at right back and Alan Hutton is yet to feature. Joe Bennett has been the preferred left back so far (he has a red card to his name and is injured according to physioroom.com) as Stephen Warnock has been loaned to Bolton Wanderers. The centre half partnership has been Ron Vlaar and Richard Dunne’s own goal/red card protégé Cieran Clark. The Dunniemonster is unfortunately still injured and won’t get his hero’s return this weekend.
In midfield Stevie Ireland may get his hero’s welcome as he’s started 7 games so far this season; he will be most likely partnered in midfield with Holman, Delph and/or El Ahmadi as Gardner, N’Zogbia and Bannan are all injured. (Petrov continues to recover from Leukaemia…we wish him the best of luck)
Up front Darren Bent is out with an ankle injury, Gabby Agbonlahor will probably start on the wing leaving Andreas Weimann and, fresh off scoring against international duty Benteke up front.
Villa are currently 17th from 11 games, with 2 victories, 3 draws and 6 defeats. They’ve scored 10, conceded 17 and have 9 points leaving them 3 points clear of the relegation zone having played a game more than Reading. Away from home they have 1 victory, 1-0 at Sunderland two weeks ago, 1 draw 1-1 at Newcastle in September and 4 defeats; West Ham 0-1, Southampton 1-4, Tottenham 0-2 and Fulham 0-1.
They do however have a League Cup Victory away at the Champions…
[center]We’ve met before…
Paul Lambert’s petty feud with Mancini overshadowed his teams performance.[/center]
I was so angry when we lost at home to Villa back in September, it was a miserably wet night and I left in the 113th minute, the first time I’ve left a City game early, after Villa went 4-2 up so I could allow my mate attending as a neutral to recover to Fringe bar. It wasn’t so much losing but losing to a side that would most likely capitulate to lower league opposition in the next round whilst at the same time deny the chance to visit a new ground did (Turns out they scraped past Swindon 3-2 and will exit at Carrow Road in QF instead).
We didn’t so much as field a team that night as a collection of players as Mancini picked selected players with no thought as to how he might fit them into a system. I swear the starting line up changed 3 times as the original line up only featured 2 defenders as City laboured against Villa’s strongest line up and became only the second City side to lose to Villa at the City of Manchester Stadium.
In the league we’ve only lost at home to them once since 2001 and that was back in 2007 when Stuart Pearce, who inspired us not to score at home for 8 months, and were so poor even Villa were adventurous enough to score twice against us and secure victory.
[center][youtube]MzuFljt2XVY[/youtube]
City hadn’t won for 42 away games[/center]
Villa have historically been generous at our place, back in 2003 they were so poor that they convinced us that McManaman was a super signing after a terrific debut in an Anelka hat-trick inspired 4-1 win. There was also a superb goal scored by Michael Johnson in 2008, then there was Fulop’s ‘controversial’ debut in a 3-1 win in 2009 in the first attempt at Champions League qualification, a Mario hat trick 4-0 in 2011 and my favourite in 2012 when Mario attempted to jump into the Villa end after scoring to kick off a 4-1. There was also a bizarre moment in the game just after Villa scored when they launched the ball deep into City’s have and whilst City took their time in getting the ball under control instead of Villa pressing the play every Villa play raced back into their own half and stood in an almost perfect 4-4-2 formation as if they were settling for a 3-1 defeat! Fortunately justice was dispensed as we scored again to make it 4-1.
[center][youtube]PB17ES2h3Gc[/youtube]
David White gets 4!!!
So what about us?
[/center]Well I thought we were awful first half last week against Spurs but a million miles better in the second half. In the first half the game just felt too crowded and the movement off the ball was just non-existent. In the second half Maicon replaced Nastasic just before the hour and could arguably be the turning point in the game as Mancini added more width to the proceedings and Spurs had no answer to the duel threat of Maicon and Kolarov attacking down both sides as well as Silva’s movement. I was surprised when Tevez was substituted but once again Dzeko did the business and Aguero came to life after the sub was made. Javi Garcia had his best game in a City shirt…
Special mention to Clichy who was rightly awarded man of the match in the ground, he had a smashing game up and down the wing, he did well against the height of Adebayor at centre half, one great clearance, put in a shift and has clearly been working on the delivery of his final ball as its much improved since his arrival.
[center][youtube]rUGXgGowtoE[/youtube]
There most be more City wins against Villa on youtube than against any other team combined[/center]
There is always a worry during an international week about getting the players back injury and jet-lag free. In the new era of selling prestige friendlies to the highest bidder some of the world’s biggest sides trek further and further afield. Sergio & Zabba turned out for Argentina against Saudi Arabia, played in Buenos Aries where Aguero was on the end of a bad kick; Mario started for Italy in Parma and fortunately the Cote D’Ivoire only went as far as Austria where Yaya was an unused substitute, Vincent captained Belgium; Kolarov and Nasti played Chile in Switzerland and Dzeko turned out for Bosnia in Algeria; Spain defeated Panama 6-1 without our man Dave.
So taking into consideration our mass of international appearances, the injuries of Micah, Milner, Nasri, apparently Clichy, Joleon and Rodwell the team is as good a guess as anyone’s. (Source: physioroom.com)
The one thing I’d really like to see is Maicon start a game; at home he should play like Micah does and start on the half way line as per last week where he moved the ball forward quickly, exploited the space, put the centre back playing at full back under a lot of pressure and was only denied a goal by the ref blowing for full time. It would be harsh to drop Zabaleta though.
I think Nastasic has done enough to keep his place in the team even discounting Joleon being injured and Vincent the captain is showing signs of returning to form even if he’s still a long way from his own high standards.
The midfield practically picks itself with so many injuries (again physioroom.com); Silva should be the lock, as is Yaya. Barry and Kolarov will potentially complete the midfield.
Up front again is anyone’s guess I thought Aguero did very little last week until he scored but once Tevez went off though Aguero stepped up a gear. He needs to sort out his studs though. Tevez worked like crazy again and was unlucky in front of goal. Mario was left out fuelling speculation that he is leaving in January and being replaced with Luis Suarez with the media conveniently forgetting other stories that Falcao is replacing Balotelli. I bet the heat from Mario’s agents phone can be seen from space. Dzeko will be on the bench.
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[/center][center]Prediction?[/center]
I think were slowly playing our way back to our best, Silva being the obvious contributing factor, and someone is going to be on the end of a thrashing sooner rather than later. I was sat behind the Villa dugout that night in the League Cup when Lambert was acting like a Grade A Celtic player so I’d love for it to be this week. So Stevie will start get a great reception and be one the end of a 4-0 tonking…a pasting….a trouncing…a beating.
[center]Dear MCFC, Please fix the programme…[/center]
