brummie

Whenever I've seen Dawson this season, he's looked excellent. Whenever I saw him prior to this season, he looked like he'd suffered some traumatic head injury or been starved of oxygen at birth, he was so shite. Goes to show, players change, especially when given a change of scenery (in the case of Dunne).

Leads the back line, aggressively attacks the ball, weighs in with a few goals. Sounds like someone we lost last year who I thought we'd struggle to replace.

Richard Dunne has been nothing short of brilliant for us this season. I don't care what he did in the past, but this year he has been superb. I've not seen all your games but from what I have seen I agree - you'd like to think that Citeh dropped a bollock when they bought Lescott for £millions and let Dunne go The trouble is that Citeh are so rich it doesn't really matter. I'm not too bothered about City to be honest. Although if they'd had Dunne playing instead of Lescott, they'd be further up the table. I just care about what he has done for us, and he's been superb. So, incidentally, has James Collins. Another CB signing i scoffed and blushed at, but MON was right. Even Cuellar is starting to look superb. We;re alright defensively, we lack a creative MF and a striker, though

Take those two out, and Reina will be off pretty sharpish too. Lose those three and they're barely top ten.

Richard Dunne has been nothing short of brilliant for us this season. I don't care what he did in the past, but this year he has been superb.

A good agent who found the only muppets willing to pay him that much, job done. Man City have acted incredibly short-sighted with this transfer, do they now not need De Jong or Kompany? Oh, I really hope poor Gareth doesn't find himself with splinters in his arse. Especially with this being a WC year and him having - bizarrely - cited "the chance to play in my best position week in week out" as so important when he moved. Thank you Brummie. Certain people on here (Kezman and firetotheworks to name 2) didn't want to believe me when i was desperately trying to inform them what type of midfielder he is. Even went as far as to say i was 100% wrong (firetheworks anyway) and was apparently laughing at my description. Don't read too much into that statement, I was pointing out the bullshit nature of Barry's whining in the press rather than making a statement of where he plays. Just read the thread posted above, though, and you're correct in your assessment of how he plays. He has zero pace and tends to be lazy so you won't find him charging up field much, so his game is always going to be about picking a pass, and he usually does this from just in front of the back four. The issue we had with him last season was that we played him alongside Petrov in the middle, and they're both very similar in many ways - leading to a one-paced midfield, which is exactly how Man City have looked whenever I've seen Barry alongside De Jong this season.

There must be a family sized amount of schadenfreude amongst Everton's support. Good on them.

A good agent who found the only muppets willing to pay him that much, job done. Man City have acted incredibly short-sighted with this transfer, do they now not need De Jong or Kompany? Oh, I really hope poor Gareth doesn't find himself with splinters in his arse. Especially with this being a WC year and him having - bizarrely - cited "the chance to play in my best position week in week out" as so important when he moved.

http://www.skysports.com/story/0,19528,11677_5842645,00.html Hopefully that's the end of that. I'd like Keane but not at the expense of losing Carew.

very surprised by this.. looking at the Villa forum it seems that some of them even prefer Heskey :/ Well, I'm even more suprised, as I've pretty much never come across anyone who rates Heskey above Carew. Carew is loved by the fans here. Heskey is tolerated, at the very best. Carew's problem is that he blows hot and cold, more hot than cold at home, more cold than hot away from home. One thing he pretty much always does is he does very, very well when he first changes club, which is why I can't imagine MON wanting to see him go now and give a boost to a close rival.

Poor fucker.

I like Craig. He gets stuck in, has a mental mad-eyed stare on him, and has a really ferocious shot on him (esp from free kicks and volleys). He's not going to get much of a look-in with us, so I wish him well, but just wish he didn't have to soil himself by going there. As a local lad from a big Villa family, I would imagine he's pondering the badness of it himself. From what i've seen , Gardner looks like he contributes more in a game than Sidwell does tbh. Absolutely definitely. To be honest, I reckon I contribute more to our games than Sidwell does. In 30 years watching Villa - actually, 35 more like - I can barely remember a player who managed to be so totally anonymous for such long periods. The number of times I've only noticed he was on the pitch when he got substituted is scary. He's absolutely useless.

I don't think you'll finish above Man City, they've got many more gears to go to after January. I don't think there's much between you and Aston Villa. I agree, unfortunately. Was hoping that Hughes would stay. My main hope is that City's defence keeps its vaudeville traditions. There's an awful lot between us and Villa in terms of the style of football we play, but their defensive set-up is very strong. It's a comparison between a counter-attacking style and a possession style and it's difficult to say which will come out on top. The game at Villa Park was indicative - Villa barely had a kick in the last hour, yet Friedel and Cuellar did really well to keep us out and we needed a dodgy goal to equalize. You say counter attacking style, but that's too easy to fall back on. At times this season we've played very good football. At times we've played awful football. The difference is this year we're far less reliant on the counter attack, despite what you read in the lazy media. Maybe you have more of the ball than we do, but what would worry me if i were a Spurs fan would be the familiar thing (of Spurs sides for every one of the 30 years I've been watching football) of seeing them have lots of possession but not really doing very much with it. The game against us was like that, in the second half you had all the ball, but Friedel didn't really have a great deal to do. A draw was about right, three points for you never really looked likely. I watched your game at Old Trafford in the league cup, and you had almost all the possession - it was quite embarassing to watch at times for Man United - but you did nothing with it and ended up losing 2-0. We went to Old Trafford, took the game to them, and won, as we did at Liverpool and at home to Chelsea. Bar Liverpool on the opening day and Man City, I can't really remember Spurs beating any of the stronger sides - you've done well against the weaker teams where they let you pass around them, but the results don't look that good against decent sides with a bit of resilience. That's where I think you'll struggle. Our problem is the converse, we do well against decent sides, but struggle against dross (Wigan, Stoke, West Ham).

I like Craig. He gets stuck in, has a mental mad-eyed stare on him, and has a really ferocious shot on him (esp from free kicks and volleys). He's not going to get much of a look-in with us, so I wish him well, but just wish he didn't have to soil himself by going there. As a local lad from a big Villa family, I would imagine he's pondering the badness of it himself.

There's a pretty shocking lack of quality and consistency in the league this year. If i were a gambling man, my money would be on the usual four taking the CL places yet again.

The reason it won't work is simple. Because you won't be able to go to work on Monday and claim "bragging rights" over the office Ajax supporter. Because 9999 times out of 10000 there isn't an office Ajax supporter. Take that away and you might as well stare at share prices all day for your excitement.

This. Never been to the Hawthorns. If I do I'll have been 3 times in the last 12 months, seen 1 win, 1 draw and probably a loss. Good atmosphere? Albion is a good place to watch football. I know our games against them at their place probably aren't like other teams (other than Wolves) playing there, so it is probably not a good sample, but I always used to like going to the Hawthorns. Even when it involved getting chased halfway down Soho Road back into Brum after the match / dodging bricks / getting assaulted by coppers.

Ha ha, good stuff, thanks Skinner, you stripey cunt.

I see the FA Cup draw is being made my Paul Elliot and Frank Skinner. And they wonder why the Cup is losing its lustre. Here's a fucking clue, don't get light entertainers making the fucking draw.

So, for most of the games you see the goals - or in your case, a shot on goal - whereas they opt to show FULL HIGHLIGHTS of a match they showed live in its entirety just five hours before? I fucking hate ITV.

It was a horrific, pointless challenge. Almost as horrific as ITV's football coverage.

Diouf sent off for a horror challenge on Beye, apparently.

Villa 2-0, Cuellar.

Brad Guzan has just saved a penalty. he's fucking amazing when it comes to penalties.

Beye starts for us today. As do Delfouneso and Delph. Guzan, Beye, Cuellar, Collins, Warnock, Downing, Delph, Reo-Coker, A Young, Delfouneso, Heskey