Aston Villa v Bournemouth .... FA Cup 4th round .... played 24/25th January.

Well Well 2 very nice goals, pity they went to sleep at the back, but hey ho were in the hat and we keep hold of Delph

Buy more Gils. He can't do it on his own every week.

Why is it when you sign a new contract at Villa you get dropped straight away ? Grealish and now Delph!

How good was the 442 ish though? Hutton and Bacuna linked up well and Gil is a class above. Haven't seen any player that exciting at Villa since Young left.

I'm not saying that Gil is up there with Silva, but he's shown us things that Silva would struggle to replicate.

Two cracking goals , Gil looks the real deal , Okore was really good i thought , unlike Bacuna & Benteke , averag at best !
Delph, WTF ?

Pleasing result, scored in the 2nd half in front of the Holte, then the guy on the radio said "Eddie Howe rested his 8 best players to maintain a promotion challenge."

i will reserve judgement

South London Villan wrote:Pleasing result, scored in the 2nd half in front of the Holte, then the guy on the radio said "Eddie Howe rested his 8 best players to maintain a promotion challenge."

i will reserve judgement

Same best players lost to 10 man Leeds. Howe dropped a bollock, they've now lost 3 in their last 4 and are faltering

Well, that was a hell of a day! I'm off to bed with a cuppa to mull over positive Villa thoughts for a change.

1st half was pretty crap for us but thanks to Gil for getting us on the score sheet in the second and Weimanns goal proved to be crucial. Benteke needs to start working harder and Richardson needs to up his game massively. Happy with the result. UTV.

First half dull, second half a cracker and an excellent curry. Gil and Okore particularly good, Weimann played well and he and Cleverley worked their balls off. I think Grealish coming on for the last minute was Lambert's idea of punishment for the post he made on twitter. Get Gil, Grealish and Delph running riot behind Benteke (which I suspect will give him the motivation he needs) and we could be on to something. Too many times today we had Gil, Weimann, Cleverley, Richardson or Hutton in space, making good runs, and Sanchez made the sideways or backwards pass. Weimann was doing that thing I like of running towards the opposition as soon as Given collected the ball and not once did I see the ball punted in his direction.

I thought Gil was excellent and deserved MOTM but I'd have given it to Okore, who had a cracking game.

It's been too long since I had a balti in Birmingham, I need to come back more often!

Can't argue with that Foxy, I forgot how good of a game Okore had, he was doing it all, so glad to see him looking like he won't be dropped anytime soon.

What was the formation today ? It looked mostly 442 to me but from the highlights it seemed to be closer to the 433 of the rest of the season but with quality in Gil. Great to see Hutton bombing down the wing too

We started out as 4-4-2 then players kept chopping and changing position at times, looked like Gil had a semi free role in the 2nd, Bacuna picked up the assist for the 1st goal and Hutton got the assist for the 2nd goal

and here's a link to the Gil goal https://amp.twimg.com/v/e9497fab-ac07-4656-812a-3c825f53d818

One other thing, I thought Richardson played well at LB. He covered Given to clear from the line and he did an excellent tackle when a Bournemouth player was through on goal and before the offside flag went up. Considering it was his first attempt for us in that position I think he could give Cissokho a little competition.

FoxyAV wrote:First half dull, second half a cracker and an excellent curry. Gil and Okore particularly good, Weimann played well and he and Cleverley worked their balls off. I think Grealish coming on for the last minute was Lambert's idea of punishment for the post he made on twitter. Get Gil, Grealish and Delph running riot behind Benteke (which I suspect will give him the motivation he needs) and we could be on to something. Too many times today we had Gil, Weimann, Cleverley, Richardson or Hutton in space, making good runs, and Sanchez made the sideways or backwards pass. Weimann was doing that thing I like of running towards the opposition as soon as Given collected the ball and not once did I see the ball punted in his direction.

I thought Gil was excellent and deserved MOTM but I'd have given it to Okore, who had a cracking game.

It's been too long since I had a balti in Birmingham, I need to come back more often!

Good post Foxy, I'm glad you had a great day out.

villabromsgrove wrote:

FoxyAV wrote:First half dull, second half a cracker and an excellent curry. Gil and Okore particularly good, Weimann played well and he and Cleverley worked their balls off. I think Grealish coming on for the last minute was Lambert's idea of punishment for the post he made on twitter. Get Gil, Grealish and Delph running riot behind Benteke (which I suspect will give him the motivation he needs) and we could be on to something. Too many times today we had Gil, Weimann, Cleverley, Richardson or Hutton in space, making good runs, and Sanchez made the sideways or backwards pass. Weimann was doing that thing I like of running towards the opposition as soon as Given collected the ball and not once did I see the ball punted in his direction.

I thought Gil was excellent and deserved MOTM but I'd have given it to Okore, who had a cracking game.

It's been too long since I had a balti in Birmingham, I need to come back more often!

Good post Foxy, I'm glad you had a great day out.

Thank you! Shababs rocks. As did the two goals. It's great seeing Gil start so well and Weimann getting back on the score sheet. We need one of our strikers scoring, even when he's being played out of position.

That was the one negative .... Benteke's lack of good movement or apparent desire to get into dangerous positions. Weimann who is a much less gifted striker was busting a gut to get into the box, and CB was generally yards behind him. Even Cleverly was quicker into the box than CB (I never thought I'd say that). I don't think I saw Benteke at full pace more than a couple of times yesterday.

villabromsgrove wrote:That was the one negative .... Benteke's lack of good movement or apparent desire to get into dangerous positions. Weimann who is a much less gifted striker was busting a gut to get into the box, and CB was generally yards behind him. Even Cleverly was quicker into the box than CB (I never thought I'd say that). I don't think I saw Benteke at full pace more than a couple of times yesterday.

At one point Weimann was going at two defenders straight down the middle and Benteke was asking for it to the left. When Weimann did pass it a second or two after Benteke ideally wanted it he let it run past him, controlled it between the box and corner flag and instead of attacking the goal himself, passed it back into the melee and made no attempt to get himself into a position to score a goal. He was waiting behind Weimann when he scored, Benteke I'm sure would have put it away had Weimann not, and he didn't look that happy about it.

As someone pointed out here before, Benteke ideally needs Benteke supplying him with tasty crosses and balls in. He needs to score some goals to get his confidence back up and everyone singing his name again and it should be Lambert's priority to stop messing around getting upset with players and to certainly not sit back now Gil is here and Delph has signed a new contract. Sanchez is bossing the midfield but seems to have been told not to pass it further forward than the halfway line. The defence is sorted now, get Gil and/or Grealish coming back to help Sanchez bring the ball through midfield and give Benteke what he wants and he'll cheer up again. If not, get Weimann in the middle and not running round everywhere and I think he'll regain his form. That or put Bent there... oh...

FoxyAV wrote:One other thing, I thought Richardson played well at LB. He covered Given to clear from the line and he did an excellent tackle when a Bournemouth player was through on goal and before the offside flag went up. Considering it was his first attempt for us in that position I think he could give Cissokho a little competition.

I'm talking BS. I just watched the highlights and while Richardson did clear from the line it was Okore who made the excellent tackle. Richardson completely failed to spot the man he was marking lose him and almost score and later on slipped, letting the opposition have a shot. He was in the right place for their goal but didn't do anything about it. Get Cissokho back ASAP!

Richardson is ok as back up at LB but certainly shouldn't be starting if Cissokho is fit. Okore was a total beast yesterday

Only 20 minutes before the FA Cup draw begins.

Would love Bradford for some revenge and if we lost again then surely that would be enough. Win win situation ? I can't remember the last time we were still in the cup in February!

Just watched the goals again and I loved how Gil told Bacuna to pass to Hutton instead of him. Watch it again. Bacuna plays a short pass to Gil and Hutton starts his run. Gil immediately passes it back to Bacuna, as he himself was under pressure, and shouted/pointed to a charging Hutton as Bacuna received the ball back. Luckily, the Dutchman played a sublime ball into the Scot, who picked out Weimann for the finish. Great teamwork. I have a feeling the with Gil just being on the pitch, it'll encourage other players to take a chance or two.

Leicester at Villa Park .... Yes!

villabromsgrove wrote:Leicester at Villa Park .... Yes!

And the wife has just told me she's going walking with some friends so I can smell another curry coming on!