Villa 1-2 Bolton

BBC Team of the Week:

DEFENCE - GRETAR STEINSSON (BOLTON)


When your team are fighting for survival you need defenders who are prepared to put themselves on the line for the cause. Steinsson made two tackles in the course of the game with Swansea that saved Owen Coyle two points and kept their Premier League hopes alive. Whatever the Icelandic lacks in ability he certainly makes up for in guts and determination. A man you want on your side in a battle.
Did you know? Steinsson blocked as many shots (four) as he made successful passes against Swansea.


And I agree, Ive said that we did show effort in that Swansea game and thats why we got a point. Without Knight our Defence has been getting us points all 2012 just though its shear work rate.

Its interesting to see an outside view whose opinion hasnt been influenced by frustration.

If Coyle enforces the right tactics against Villa we will win.

He made an error for the opening goal but after that knuckled down and defended well. I like Gretar to be honest, a real commited player and what he lacks in quality makes up in effort.

As you say Lofty, if coyle can get it right tomorrow I think we can win but it's been rare OC has got it right this season so I am unsure he can do it tomorrow.

Some of you clearly haven't watched Wanderers under Coyle.

When a team is struggling like Villa we always give them the points. We really will be missed when we go down.

Natasha Whittam wrote:Some of you clearly haven't watched Wanderers under Coyle.

When a team is struggling like Villa we always give them the points. We really will be missed when we go down.

Damn you, tash, you beat me to it - as I was just about to do the same sort of reply!



But I have to agree, we will give them the 3 points they need to survive, at the expense of our survival!

Thats almost the exact opposite of what we do.

This season we have tended to beat low teams, we have a great record against the bottom five having only lost to Wigan (I think).

If by struggling team you mean like the time we lost to Chelsea when they were having a dip I think you need to revise your opinion on struggling.

We do well against actual struggling teams, i.e. bottom of the table, not good teams how have just lost and drawn a few so for some reason you expect we can easily turn them over.

We usually win against struggling teams, and you can't argue that, because its a fact.

I reckon we will beat Villa 2-0. They are rubbish at the moment and their season has gone downhill.

It's true this season Lofty - although in previous seasons when we've been comfortable our players have been up for the "big" games and then lost to the less fashionable teams - cocky/complacent attitude IMO.
But this game could go either way and Villa have to be slight favourites having home advantage, decent attackers and .....they're playing us. However if we can improve our ball retention and not be afraid to have the occasional shot we could nick it. That's how we did it when we beat them in the cup, but we had Holden for that game and he doesn't turn over the ball that easily. We need a big improvement for the last 5 games and it has to start at Villa as time is running out for us. It might help if Miyaichi is dropped for this one. He was totally lightweight against Swansea and there was no end product. We'd be better off with someone like Riley pumping the ball across - at least that way the ball would actually end up in the middle and we'd have a chance of scoring.

Yeh I did find Ryo a bit dissapointing in the Swansea game as well. But then I kind of think back to before he came and the disasters we had on the wing then and I just can't think of anyone better than Ryo. I think Eagles showed that hes a better attacking mid than winger on Saturday, M.Davies is also very poor on the wing, and Id be a little hesitant to play Riely out of position for such a big game, Ryo has shown he can make an impact, hopefully he will show that again tomorrow.


If only we had this guy

<<<<<

What do we go with on Tuesday, Pratley has little chance of being fit, Mark Davies hasn't trained incase of aggravating his injury so I can see 4-4-2 being back on the cards.

Our only 2 fit centre midfielders are Vela and NRC, not the ideal partnership but I think it's time to see what the young fella can do.

........Bogdan........

Steinsson......Wheats.......Ream......Ricketts

Eagles.......Vela.......NRC.........Petrov

.........Davies.......Klasnic.....

We won't see Vela, well i'd be absolutely STUNNED if did.

Pratley will be fit again after a bought of man flu and will be straight back in (if Mark Davies is unfit) If he's fit Pratley will take Velas place on the bench.

other than that... Ngog will come back in.

It doesn't matter what team changes he makes, you just can't polish a turd.

Has anyone ever tried to actually polish a turd, i do wonder how that phrase came about.

True, You can't polish a turd but you can spray it with air freshener.

You can't polish a turd but you can roll it around in glitter.

Come on the Villa! Bolton have gone, one more defeat should do it.

------------Bogdan---------
Steinsson--Wheater--Ream--Ricketts
Ryo--Vela--Eagles--NRC--Petrov
------------N'gog-----------------

Eagles - attacking CM, worked well against Swansea at times.

Vela - what is he, does anyone know? attacking or defensive? had to include him given the circumstances.

I am surprised even 1 fan thinks we will beat villa, they are our other bogey team with fulham. I know a bloke who swears its the name and the kit thats the bogey not the team.

Lofty I suspect you are Owen Coyle.

For fucks sake, we have been shit all season and still you and your pal Coyle want to pick virtually the same team that has put us in this position.

It's shit or bust time. I don't mind going down trying something different, but if we go down with Ngog upfront on his own I will be angry.

Lofty_Love wrote:------------Bogdan---------
Steinsson--Wheater--Ream--Ricketts
Ryo--Vela--Eagles--NRC--Petrov
------------N'gog-----------------

Eagles - attacking CM, worked well against Swansea at times.

Vela - what is he, does anyone know? attacking or defensive? had to include him given the circumstances.

I've only seen Vela maybe 5-6 times but he's an all rounder IMO, but his main strength was his tackling for me, not afraid to put in very hard tackles. He's more of a NRC than a Mark Davies if you get my meaning.

Natasha Whittam wrote:Lofty I suspect you are Owen Coyle.

For fucks sake, we have been shit all season and still you and your pal Coyle want to pick virtually the same team that has put us in this position.

It's shit or bust time. I don't mind going down trying something different, but if we go down with Ngog upfront on his own I will be angry.

Ryo, Vela, Ream, Wheater, Ricketts and Eagles playing CAM are not the reasons why we are in this position..

I think your getting confused with this team:

---------Jussi-------
Boyata--Knight--Cahill--Robinson
Eagles--M.Davies--NRC--Petrov
----K.Davies--N'gog-------


thats the team that got us in this mess

Points picked up from New Years alone = not in relegation.

Please give me your insight into how we will win? With who exactly are we ment to experiment with? or have you just realised that the only player we haven't experimented with all season is Sordell.