Certainly today reinforced a lot of our weaknesses, and as I've said all along it's our lack of overall QUALITY depth that keeps killing us. Teams focus on Dyer, Shearer and we have nothing else available. This has got to be a sign that we are in need of QUALITY players to go out there. We can not expect to continue to get over with the type of players we have out there, surely Griffin and Ameobi are still nothing more than apprenticeship status players, Acuna, while a small firecracker is not a ball winner or a maestro of any sort!

We can no longer say if we had Speed or Lee or Cort or Bassedas, that's CRAP!!! Manure find a way, Arse find a way, Pool find a way....we have no F***ING WAY!!!

We are never going to make the turn if we continue to play with players who should not be even out there. Reallistically half this lot should be in the reserves.

-- Anonymous, February 24, 2001

Answers

Spot on, it's not Dyer, Solano, Shola or even Shearer who let us down, it's the makeweights.

-- Anonymous, February 25, 2001

So you don't reckon that quality players should take the lead or show the others how it's done at all? Back to that wonderful situation of 18 months ago when it was apparently okay not to try because the service was poor, are we? Quality counts for nothing without effort and there was precious little of that on display.

-- Anonymous, February 25, 2001

Team needs backbone, as well as flesh. Flesh is there in Shola, Solano and Dyer, the spine is missing totally.

-- Anonymous, February 25, 2001

while effort says a lot o great Soft one, there comes a time when such performances are repeated that it becomes more than effort it becomes simply put we have not the kind of player who deserves to put on the B&W at SJP.

-- Anonymous, February 25, 2001

The point is, we missed Speed and Lee on Saturday. We have nothing in the reserves to replace them and are apparently loathe to buy anyone. Solano and Dyer are just not hard enough to replace them and Acuna and Bassedas are too small.

-- Anonymous, February 26, 2001

Looking at it like that Dougal, we have to question what Robson is hoping to achieve in buying players like Acuna and Bassedas as central midfielders when it is obvious that they are not up to the physical side of things.

Did he foresee a refining of the English game but has gambled and got it horribly wrong, to the tune of about £8.5 million in buying Acuna, Bassedas, Lua-Lua and Gavilan?

-- Anonymous, February 26, 2001

Sparxy: It's unfair to say that we have nothing in reeserve: we've been rebuilding from within all season and it's only now that we are coming seriously unstuck because lack of investment and a drying up of the endless well of average but no better players. DB: I'm not sure. The thing is, they are useful enough squad players but they aren't really preferred first team stuff.

-- Anonymous, February 26, 2001

There is no way we should be spending that sort of money on squad players.

Every player we sign should be better than the person currently in that position in the team. The next centre back should be so blatantly better than Goma or Hughes that one of them is ousted from the side.

Unfortunately with the left wing I can see another squad player coming in who is no better than Glass.

-- Anonymous, February 26, 2001

I agree. The thing is, of course, had we ever had anything approaching a youth policy, we might be able to draw from those reserves but the truth is, Gavilan and Kerr and McClen are all too small and ineffectual to make a blind bit of difference. As I keep saying, though, we should stop worrying about the defenders, we should start worrying about the defence which starts at the front with Shearer and ends with Shay Given, The buck doesn't stop with whichever of Goma or Hughes has, after saving us about 100 times, finally made a mistake.

-- Anonymous, February 26, 2001

Height isn't the only criteria of success in midfield. David Batty won't be playing on any professional basketball teams. We need 1 or 2 players who are hard enough. If they've got a bit of height, fine. I think Acuna has potential. He's shown himself to be fairly aggressive and does quite well, for a shorty, winning things in the air. I'm still willing to give him some time, but we do need another 1 or 2 to do that kind of job. He can't do it all by himself. Should be interesting to see who goes/comes in the summer.

-- Anonymous, February 26, 2001

Ciara, height isn't the only criterion but we are being slaughtered in the air so we need to get some height and fast.

-- Anonymous, February 26, 2001

Looking at Liverpool on telly yesterday I couldn't get over the height of the team throughout the side apart from Fowler.

-- Anonymous, February 26, 2001

I agree. In fairness, they absolutely spanked us in the air at SJP and it was only good luck that gave us the win. We must be the weeniest side in the PL. Ironically, after the Spurs cup game at WHL last season, GG commented that we were the tallest side he'dseen since the old Wimbledon days....How come we've shrunk so much??

-- Anonymous, February 26, 2001

phew, i thought this would be a thread about Screaches 'problem'...

-- Anonymous, February 26, 2001

clearly the issue over the players we have now is that not many have the nuts to get up and get stuck in. I'm tired of excuses being waved around like white flags. The fact of the matter remains we aren't up for it.

-- Anonymous, February 26, 2001

Although we forgive players like Nobby their reticence to get stuck into the tackle when they are scoring spectactular goals from free kicks etc. The thing is, we hvae neglected the hard side of the game in all our purchases. This isn't the fault of any player..

-- Anonymous, February 27, 2001

Could it be that there is a basic difference netween the way we play the game and the way it's played elsewhere ?

I'd hate to think even the scouting staff are as inept as the rest of the setup at SJP seems to be, and are repeatedly taken in by how these guys come across in their own leagues when they're being watched. They don't seem to be aware that there might be something different about the British game that these players can't cope with.

Or maybe the scouting staff are just inept. Can't say I've ever heard any hints of scouting staff taking back handers, so what other explanation could there be ?

And do any other clubs have similar problems with foreign players, or at least S.Americans ? We seem to fall for it more often than the laws of chance should dictate.

-- Anonymous, February 27, 2001

while I will admit there is a sense of thrill in watching stylish players like Nobby, this South American experiment has been tried many times before and not with much success mind you. The fact is that we are buying top South American talent(?) on the cheap (Acuna I do believe is probably worth more than we got him for) but whether or not they should be playing in the PL is another story. The frogs for the most part are used to the style of play and moreso theweather, just that they have the language thing.

This of course leads to the question, where should we be shopping? If we continue to shop for discount players we will never experience the quality that we deserve.

-- Anonymous, February 27, 2001

Many sides go for Scandanavian really because they are the closest thing to English players but half the price. How many Scandanavian players go on to dominate in Championship winning sides though?

The established European players are also very expensive nowadays so given the talent of the South Americans and their price is is prudent to look at them. The key is getting players who settle and adapt to the English game quickly and also offer a bit more from their background.

I'm not sure we've got ir right but thankfully the only sizeable outlay has been on Bassedas.

-- Anonymous, February 27, 2001

Juan Pablo Angel has admitted he has struggled to settle in England, but insists that Villa fans will see the best of him once he is fully fit. "Birmingham is a very British city, situated in the north, but there's not much to do and it is cold. Everything is different to my life in Buenos Aires," he admitted. "But it doesn't worry me that I haven't scored yet because when I came I was practically doing nothing and I didn't have a pre-season, as I was on holiday. All the time, I have been working strongly to put myself on a physical par with the rest of the group."

-- Anonymous, February 27, 2001

Hey if the club want to pay me I'll be a scout for the team. God I do enough for it anyway.

-- Anonymous, February 27, 2001

Tre,
Too true young man. Getting together all these facts and figures on players and stuff, most of which I'd never hear about, is definitely in the labour of love category.

Much appreciated though, cos it means lazy owld scrotes like me can get sort of up to speed on what's going on with little more effort than hitting a few keys.

-- Anonymous, February 28, 2001