Villa v Sunderland

I just looked again at the team sheet, I'd have started Kozak, Gil and Veretout instead of Gestede, Westwood and Bacuna. I'd have gone for that before watching the game too, and having watched the game I don't think Gestede or Bacuna were up to scratch and Westwood is best played right in front of the defence, distributing the ball.

If we can cut out the mistakes and start putting the ball in the net we are going to have an incredible season ahead of us. Grealish and Adama to come back into that team and everywhere else looks solid and has options. Kozak deserves a chance but we'll be in the market for a new striker hopefully! If not then Tim needs to do a lot of work with them to get them up to speed for Leicester

The pill is certainly made easier to swallow by seeing both Liverpool and Chelsea losing. Chelsea losing to Palace who we were unlucky to not take a point from last week and Liverpool who have "beasts" in front of goal. There may only be one team genuinely in contention for the title this season.

Edit: I don't mean us, sadly

It maybe the enforced changes but we did not gel thru midfield, they didn't find enough space for each other today.

Hutton def edges out Bacuna for me, looks more solid and should play as a defensive RB IMO as we have enough fire power. I'm liking Sanchez and I think Veretout would offer a better dynamic to our mid and complements the other 2, Westy as very solid back up.

Keeper just cant keep it out I'm afraid, hoping for an upgrade, along with Lescott in for Clark.

Richards is doing the job, I was wrong, GOOD LAD!

We've found a goal scorer and Rudy will get there with him, we just need the ammo for them from Jack Gil and Traore.

Personally I think CB RB and GK are paramount, we can score now..........however, to push on............... We need a TOP quality striker, the £10m range strikers wont improve us.............Austin minimum, preferably better.

In all not bad, but TS needs to be more decisive for final 30mins of games, his judgement is lacking, if it seems obvious to us, surely he can see it, Gil on sooner and Kozak gets 15 mins.

Timbo bothers me somewhat. We could all see Gestede failing and needing to be replaced by Kozak - but no.

I honestly think we might have won the game 3-2 if Libor had been put on with 20-25 mins to go.

I concur Thinman

Could have been.....Should have been...... Might have been ( if only).....

Trouble is that there are very few more winnable home games than Sunderland. I hope Tim is learning tactically because his lack of response to opposition changes has cost us points already.

Adebayor please on a season loan with an option along with Lescott to replace Clarke until he learns to cut out the schoolboy errors.

Otherwise I can foresee another struggle against the dreaded drop.

Very rarely in recent years have I left Villa Park thinking we should of won, I think for most part we were excellent today, three points should of been ours, I hope we don't count the cost of these lost points come May.

Was the Gil "dive" a penalty, it looked a defo penalty from where I was in the Upper Holte?

Disappointing result in some ways, but many, many positives to take from the game and remember, we're being patient Villa fans as we can - in the main - see what's trying to be done by Tim compared to the crap of the last 4 seasons.

4Bet Lite always makes great observations and I love your posts mate.

Some of you - and I'm talking about anyone who posted after 4.55 today, who said "Tim should have done this..." or "Tim should have played this way...." tell you what, say those things before the game, be proved right and I'll doff my cap to you. Say it after 4.55 and wow, aren't you just fantastic football pundits, full of wisdom after the game, Jesus, expertise after the event is worth fuck all - second guessing is easy. Recommend the tactics prior to kick off, stand by your recommendations and be proved right, fair enough, otherwise, stop fucking carping.......

Very rarely in recent years have I left Villa Park thinking we should of won, I think for most part we were excellent today, three points should of been ours, I hope we don't count the cost of these lost points come May.

Was the Gil "dive" a penalty, it looked a defo penalty from where I was in the Upper Holte?

Bitterly disappointed in only getting a draw but there's definitely positives to take. 

The negatives are in the final 3rd STILL. I like Gestede but unless we are putting in decent crosses he's a wasted player. Sinclair should be playing through the middle and we do need more teeth up front. 

Once Grealish and Traore are fit though I'd be interested to see them starting either side of Sinclair. Not much muscle there but they would tear defences apart IMO

Doesn't matter if we put in decent crosses either, Gestede looks rubbish in the air. He's been shut down two matches running now.

We simply need a new striker.

Have we put in a decent cross those 2 games??

Yes.

Well I totally disagree. Bacuna et al have either thumped it too long or too floaty to be any good to anyone. He's had the ball at his feet more than to his head.

Amavi has supplied plenty. Gestede is just soft as shit. Backup striker is fine for him. But he isn't close to be first team quality. He had four hold ups that was useful, other than that he was fucking useless.

had time to calm down now and yes there are positives and yes we were missing Adama and Grealish but the bottom line is - if we can't win against Sunderland at home, who do we expect to beat.

Thinman wrote:bottom line is - if we can't win against Sunderland at home, who do we expect to beat.

Chelsea

It was incredibly frustrating that we didn't take 3 points from that game, but it's not time to panic yet.

First people were complaining we don't score goals - we've just scored 7 in 2 games!!!

As for the attack, how that chance in the second half from Micah Richards didn't go in is anybody's guess, that isn't bad play from us, it's THE WORST kind of bad luck, and you can never, EVER plan for that. The goals will come, quite simply.

The defence let us down - we were 2-1 up, and Clark was soft as shit against Lens (who, despite what Ruud Gullitt thought on MOTD, is NOT a great player, he wasn't exactly dribbling like Messi, Clark just didn't challenge him properly!)

There is plenty of attacking supply. In answer to your question Dan, yes we did make a decent cross in this game, let alone the last 2. Sinclair scored from a brilliant Amavi cross today in the 41st minute!

Gestede is a strange one for me (so far) - if we play him, we need to use his aerial ability to get him goals, but if we rely on aerial ability, what's the point of having Sinclair, Grealish, Gil and Traore as part of the attack, as all of them have next to no aerial ability?

I think we were unlucky today. Nobody in the league, from top to bottom, can plan for Lady Luck. We WILL surprise teams this season with how well we attack, we just need to sort our defence out.

Just watched the game. The change of Gil for Bacuna was the right one but at least 15 minutes too late. Gestede is nowhere near premiership level. Yet. Quite why Sherwood didn't see this is, frankly, worrying. I sincerely hope the galaxy is being scoured for a solution to this problem.

Sanchez, Sinclair and Gana were excellent. I thought Westwood was good. Richardson is superb but Clark is a fucking fanny!

Oh, the referee....knob!

When 4 minutes was put on the board to be added on and he actually indicated to the Sunderland goalkeeper he was adding more time on because of his continued time-wasting, why did he blow on 94 mins?

Yeah that was ridiculous. What I don't get is when refereres give out yellows to goalkeeper for time wasting and they don't follow it up with a red card. Pantishitname clearly didn't give a fuck after the yellow cause he knew the referee didn't have the bollocks to give a red. When they aren't even bothered by the rules of the game something is wrong.

I see the Sun gave Gestede MotM. What a fucking joke paper.

I can't believe so many fans when over the top about the result, it was a shame we didn't win but I could take lots of positives from that game, I thought our movement was excellent and it was just the finishing that let us down. We have players that will change the game that still need to come in and I think Gill has to start now, my only gripe is Bacuna should now be dropped down the pecking order, he either plays RB or stays on bench, the likes of Traore, Grealish and Gill will improve us. I also thought at home out of Gana, Westwood and Sanchez one has to go and for me it has to be Westwood as I thought Sanchez and Gana were excellent. I think Richards looks better game by game, Amavi is starting to make silly mistakes but going forward is brilliant, I think Lescott will push Clark if he keeps giving away silly mistakes and even Okore to come back.

Looking round the whole internet there have been some ridiculous postings by some Villa fans. I really don't know what some people expect? Today at this time we sit 12th in the table, above Chelsea, Spurs and Southampton people need to get real. Last year we were a dire, turgid and boring team for three quarters of the season under Lamberk, Sherwood got us playing proper football and safety was gained. Now over the summer it was evident that this team needed a massive overhaul and this has been funded by selling our two best players from recent years. We have a rubbish owner so he was never going to help out financially so Sherwood has had to rebuild using young talented players from the continent mostly.

They need time to gel and get used to the rigors of the Premier League and four games in we are looking better with every game IMO. Yesterday we looked comfortable against Sunderland for most of the game. People are saying how bad Sunderland are but they have played a lot better in their last two matches against Swansea and us. We now need our esteemed owner to stick his hand in his pocket and buy a striker and I am worried that won't happen.

The only criticism I would have of Sherwood on Saturday was didn't try to change things enough and bring on Kozak for the last 10 minutes?