Gallowgate Toon

In our current set up, with our deep midfield, we need a link man that can hold the ball. If Sissoko could refine his game a little and make better choices, then he'd be perfect.

Very good. Johnson will be absolutely shitting himself, probably the biggest prima donna over there and this chump's coming in (who's known to fight and slate players he doesn't feel are putting the work in). The lad might actually have to put a shift in.

Incredible If he was that much of a mentalist when he had the best players in the league at his disposal, what the hell's he going to be like with that load of crap? This could be massively disastrous.

Di Canio man I suppose they're trying something different, but I seriously doubt it's the right kind. They'll be in massive trouble if they go down, their finances aren't in great shape, are they?

Sissoko Cabaye Ben Arfa Marveaux Gouffran Cisse I think this works well *on paper*. There's a good balance to that team (offensively and defensively) and they all work hard, but in different ways. For example Marveaux presses high up the pitch very well but isn't good at the more physical aspects. Sissoko's a raw player still, I sympathise with him a lot because he really does lack support but his decision-making can be sketchy. I think he's a pretty decent passer of the ball, he's shown some glimpses of it in open games but he lacks vision when there's less space. I think he'd benefit from having more options around him (ahead especially), he's good at passing and moving.

HBA is far too deep unnecessarily, that is certainly true. I know transition play's been mentioned a bit on here and it's a huge flaw in our game plan, we don't take the right measures to make the chances of us getting the ball as favorable as possible. Often our wingers are positioned too deep when opposition full backs haven't even pushed on, so when we do get the ball back, there's no outlet in the wide areas, which is important for a counter attacking team like us. We're always trying to contain the opposition threat, inviting them on by trying to shut down as much space around the box as possible, we rarely force the issue.

His position will always demand defensive responsibility, that's part of being a right winger in the modern game as full backs bomb on. We should be looking to move forward and back as a unit, currently we only move back, that's where our problem lies.

Agree with Cajun. Teams like Everton work hard at both getting forward and back, we work at the latter, but fail miserably at the former. Villa always had at least 3 in the box today when crosses were coming in, it's usually just Cisse for us, so it's no surprise we're poor on that front.

His position demands some defensive responsibility, I think he's been too deep this year but the work rate's fair enough. It's a fine balance, trying to be enough of a threat to keep the full back from pushing on but not staying so high that they capitalise on the space. We miss him creatively though, really badly, I really rate Marveaux as a creator but his mentality is what separates him from HBA. One will grab the game by the balls, the other waits for it to come to him.

He's a very good footballer but he's yet to prove himself a very good player. So much potential mind, his first touch and control are majestic.

What a goal.

Coutinho did not fancy going for that at all

Villa are wasteful, they play good stuff going forward but don't finish. They created against us but squandered great opportunities. Crap watching 2 progressive teams that pass forward and cross early etc.

Gouffran's seemingly his go-to guy when we need to make a change. No idea why he made that decision yesterday, Gouff was no worse than many others and was working fairly hard still.

It's so depressingly obvious as well, literally no team-wide gameplan, just give it to him and see what happens. I still think he's absolute class but he needs support, he won't work in his current role without more of it. I'd love to see a front 6 of Cabaye, Sissoko, Marveaux, Ben Arfa, Gouffran and Cisse, one day.

Pretty much, it's ridiculous watching him go past a couple of players for him to look up and there's only a heavily marked Papiss ahead of him.

He looks low on confidence and match practice.

He's properly relying on Sissoko at the minute. Never mind Cisse needing a bit of support, Sissoko needs it more, gets on a decent run and there's only one player within 20 yards of him.

Sucks all the fun out of football. I'd love to see us in an entertaining game now and then. Totally agree with that. This. I can take a loss but as long as we've given it a go, football just isn't fun like this and fronted by too many egocentric posers like Pardew.

I've defended performances like Stoke but this has really riled me, completely disrespects the fans. Can't think of the last time I turned a match off. At the end of the day, it's a game of football, go and have a go and stop taking yourself so seriously. The players looked immediately demotivated, probably by the tactics.

'I didn't have all my best players, so it's no surprise we got beat convincingly today. Man City are a top team, the best we've faced all year and are in terrific form'

What a crap substitution, might as well have taken off someone that can actually participate on Thursday.

Simpson looked like a van then.

You would have thought he'd have learned by now. His game plan will have been to get through 70 minutes without conceding and then bring on Marveaux. So gutless.

She went to my school, amazing what a bit of slap can do. Complete and utter wet blanket, not that he'll mind of course.