Whites vs Newcastle

[jaffka]

on grass they've been shite this season...

[officer_dibble]

robbo has no right foot so kept trying to sweep tackle with his left

Think that's just how he does it... we'd hate him if he weren't ours, and as I recall, we did. Still, kudos to him for operating in an unusual environment, and I don't (just) mean SJP.

No i think that was a new tactic he invented for tackling with his left at right back! IF he'd been tackling like it all season I'd be worried!

[elfil76]

Decent point in the grand scheme of things. I was surprised at the conservative nature of the subs, particularly given Coyle usually 'goes for it'. Save it for the cup I'm behind that approach. Need to keep klasnic fresh and interested against villa though I reckon.

good to see Steiner on the bench, have to say that at both full back we were weak-robbo has no right foot so kept trying to sweep tackle with his left. Alonso looked a bit crap not quite ready yet I feel.

Sturridge was good first Half - great skill to beat Enrique and good finish. Disappeared second half though. Thought muamba was good when it was 11 v11 but wasted it a bit in the second. Centre halves excellent.

Sort of glad Nolan got the goal out of his system, thought he wouldn't celebrate though? Disappointing comments re the sending off though Taylor wants locking up for that!

agree with this statement and really hope we get through to the semis in the cup.

on the flip side, since we are tentatively save from relegation, should we be less conservative in our approach. Would be nice to see in the last few games if we have a gung-ho attitude and commit to go forward.

[BWFC_Insane]

Do they?

Miles better? Than Sturridge, Cahill, Wheater, Lee, Holden?

They've got some good players, but this is like the Everton argument. Ie, its bollox.

Point being that if you offered our squad up for sale and theirs I'd imagine theirs would fetch more than ours. They have a mix of younger players and some experienced heads, alongside the likes of Bent and Young up front. I'm not saying theirs is "actually" better but in theory it should be. Delph, Petrov, Heskey and Agbonlahor on the bench for their last game (that they won 4-1) doesn't seem to shabby to me!

The likes of Albrighton look really decent as do some of their other younger players, and the reason they've struggled this season is mainly because their more senior players have had a lot of injuries leaving an inexperienced team. Now the likes of Young and Downing are back and they've got Pires anchoring things they are a decent side IMO at least, especially with the addition of Bent.

[Lord Kangana]

Our bench at Newcastle was none too shabby either. I'll bet Cahill and Wheater by the end of this season will be valued at above any of their back four (after all you introduced sale price) by the simple expedient they are young and English. One is an international.

So Davies is their Heskey, Sturridge their Bent, Klasnic comparable to Agbonlahor? Collymore keeps saying Villa should get him, though the two are different players, their impact on games is the same. We laso have Elmander.

In midfield. I'd have Stuart Holden in just about any team after this season.

Jussi/Al Habsi/Bogdan vs The Yank and whoever else they've got. I'm sure they're happy sticking with what they've got and so are we.

So in short, they might have a decent team, but better than ours? No.

And please don't ask me to respond to a comment about not actually being better but should be. F*ck off and support West Ham.

[BWFC_Insane]

Our bench at Newcastle was none too shabby either. I'll bet Cahill and Wheater by the end of this season will be valued at above any of their back four (after all you introduced sale price) by the simple expedient they are young and English. One is an international.

So Davies is their Heskey, Sturridge their Bent, Klasnic comparable to Agbonlahor? Collymore keeps saying Villa should get him, though the two are different players, their impact on games is the same. We laso have Elmander.

In midfield. I'd have Stuart Holden in just about any team after this season.

Jussi/Al Habsi/Bogdan vs The Yank and whoever else they've got. I'm sure they're happy sticking with what they've got and so are we.

So in short, they might have a decent team, but better than ours? No.

And please don't ask me to respond to a comment about not actually being better but should be. F*ck off and support West Ham.

Ok so try an honest response.....

We offer every premiership manager our squad or Villa's, which would they choose?

I agree with your points, what I'm saying is that given the young players Villa have and how good they're supposed to be, plus the likes of Bent, Young (players who would fetch 20M or thereabouts each to buy now), I'm not saying that they necessarily ARE better but thats the "on paper" thing.

And I'll remind you that during the summer you were on record as saying "you'd be happy for Coyle to consider offers for ANY of our players because we're not very good and need to rebuild".

Put it this way Villa keep their squad together with their younger players a year further on and we keep ours together, (neither of which will happen) but I'd be surprised if we finished above them next season in that scenario.

[Lofthouse Lower]

We're higher than Villa

Our squad is performing better

=

Ours is better

[BWFC_Insane]

We're higher than Villa

Our squad is performing better

=

Ours is better

And I hope it continues that way this Saturday!

[Lord Kangana]

Our bench at Newcastle was none too shabby either. I'll bet Cahill and Wheater by the end of this season will be valued at above any of their back four (after all you introduced sale price) by the simple expedient they are young and English. One is an international.

So Davies is their Heskey, Sturridge their Bent, Klasnic comparable to Agbonlahor? Collymore keeps saying Villa should get him, though the two are different players, their impact on games is the same. We laso have Elmander.

In midfield. I'd have Stuart Holden in just about any team after this season.

Jussi/Al Habsi/Bogdan vs The Yank and whoever else they've got. I'm sure they're happy sticking with what they've got and so are we.

So in short, they might have a decent team, but better than ours? No.

And please don't ask me to respond to a comment about not actually being better but should be. F*ck off and support West Ham.

Ok so try an honest response.....

We offer every premiership manager our squad or Villa's, which would they choose?

I agree with your points, what I'm saying is that given the young players Villa have and how good they're supposed to be, plus the likes of Bent, Young (players who would fetch 20M or thereabouts each to buy now), I'm not saying that they necessarily ARE better but thats the "on paper" thing.

And I'll remind you that during the summer you were on record as saying "you'd be happy for Coyle to consider offers for ANY of our players because we're not very good and need to rebuild".

Put it this way Villa keep their squad together with their younger players a year further on and we keep ours together, (neither of which will happen) but I'd be surprised if we finished above them next season in that scenario.

Is that a direct quote? Or was it in reference to Matt Taylor, or more probably the need for Coyle to bring his own players in, and the wealth of the club dictated selling before buying?

[BWFC_Insane]

Our bench at Newcastle was none too shabby either. I'll bet Cahill and Wheater by the end of this season will be valued at above any of their back four (after all you introduced sale price) by the simple expedient they are young and English. One is an international.

So Davies is their Heskey, Sturridge their Bent, Klasnic comparable to Agbonlahor? Collymore keeps saying Villa should get him, though the two are different players, their impact on games is the same. We laso have Elmander.

In midfield. I'd have Stuart Holden in just about any team after this season.

Jussi/Al Habsi/Bogdan vs The Yank and whoever else they've got. I'm sure they're happy sticking with what they've got and so are we.

So in short, they might have a decent team, but better than ours? No.

And please don't ask me to respond to a comment about not actually being better but should be. F*ck off and support West Ham.

Ok so try an honest response.....

We offer every premiership manager our squad or Villa's, which would they choose?

I agree with your points, what I'm saying is that given the young players Villa have and how good they're supposed to be, plus the likes of Bent, Young (players who would fetch 20M or thereabouts each to buy now), I'm not saying that they necessarily ARE better but thats the "on paper" thing.

And I'll remind you that during the summer you were on record as saying "you'd be happy for Coyle to consider offers for ANY of our players because we're not very good and need to rebuild".

Put it this way Villa keep their squad together with their younger players a year further on and we keep ours together, (neither of which will happen) but I'd be surprised if we finished above them next season in that scenario.

Is that a direct quote? Or was it in reference to Matt Taylor, or more probably the need for Coyle to bring his own players in, and the wealth of the club dictated selling before buying?

I think at the time it was in reference to Cahill. But the gist was that you didn't think we had anyone that good and that we should consider bids for anyone as we needed a total rebuild.

You weren't alone in that thinking and probably I agreed with some of what you said at the time.

My point is that we have done very well this year but PART of that has been teams like Villa going through transition. It may be that our team is better than theirs. In reality Villa players will usually be "more fancied" than ours whether that is deserved or not.

Should be a good game this weekend and we have a decent chance at home against them especially as their younger players are still finding their feet to an extent. But in Downing, Albrighton, Bent and Young they have some attack, and looked very very sharp on the break against Blackburn so we'll have to play well. Whether we'd swap Davies, Sturridge, Elmander(or Taylor whoever plays left) and Lee for their 4 comes down to opinion I guess, but I certainly would in a heartbeat.

[truewhite15]

Villa's team is NOT better. Form and league positions do not lie. What they are is more overvalued, or ours is undervalued, whichever you prefer. It appears that ours is even undervalued by our own fans.

[Tombwfc]

I don't know, a month ago people would've happily swapped our squad for Villa's, not so much the month before that.

So if our team is currently better than theirs, does this change again if they finish above us? Surely form does lie?

[Lord Kangana]

Who are these people though?

I mean,to support an argument I could say "a month ago people were willing to insert pink grapefruits in their rectum". I'm not sure exactly what it would qualify or quantify.

Lets be clear, Houlliers job was on the line about 6 weeks ago because of how shite they were, so I can't see how anyone would have been suggesting we wholesale change for their squad.

[thebish]

Who are these people though?

I mean,to support an argument I could say "a month ago people were willing to insert pink grapefruits in their rectum".

that was just you and william on the gastro thread IIRC...