All good teams rely on their defence to succeed, it is no good needing to score 4 every game to win !!
So with 4 successive clean sheets we are well on the way to success as we can create chances. What we saw today was a team very confident to hold onto the lead and not to repeat the mistake of 10 months ago. Despite a good performance from Stoke and a fair amount of pressure Friedel did not have to make a single save in the whole game.
The whole defence goes for every ball, puts their body on the line for the team and all of them are playing at the maximum of their ability. The praise tonight goes all to Carlos Cuellar who was magnificent in defence and his tackling was fantastic, the £7m MON paid looks like a steal.
Today’s game was nothing special a bit of a attritional battle which is the type of game all the top 4 teams win and we look like we can go the distance to success. I have to say when Heskey went off we resorted to old tactics to Carew once again but he scored and that is that counts !
So now we go into the difficult Xmas fixtures with confidence and against teams who are not playing that well and 4 points will set us for a strong 2nd half of the season which we can look forward to with great optimism.
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Have to hold my hands up and admit that Carlos Cuellar has well and truly won me over.
I was far from being considered a fan of his until recently, but his performances of late have forced me to have a change of heart. I doubted that he would ever become a premiership quality central defender, and with the unveiling of the Dunne/Collins partnership, I believed that Cuellar’s Villa Park days were well and truly numbered. How wrong I was.
We now have a defensive set-up that has to be the envy of most premiership outfits. A top quality experienced keeper, and a back four that at times looks impregnable. Individually all are prepared to go above and beyond the call of duty, throwing their bodies into the fray to block goal bound shots when all else has failed, while collectively they offer arguably the ‘tightest’ defensive unit we have witnessed at Villa Park in years.
Get your defence sorted and you are well on the way to fielding a successful team, and when you then throw into the mix, the pace and flair we have available elsewhere, its easy to see why things are looking so good down Brummagem B6 way.
agree GS, just feel we are one quality player away from a possible title challenge
keep saying it, but Robbie Keane ?
Robbie Keane indeed Ian. We’ve been linked to him so often, you almost feel that he’s destined to wear the claret and blue one fine day.
I would certainly welcome him to Villa Park, particularly if Emile suffered a long-term injury against the Stokies. Mind you, I’d welcome him to VP even if Emile’s scan shows no long-term damage.
I believe that we’re still short up front, lacking perhaps that natural predator who can offer us something different to what we currently have available.
We need that alternative option, someone who will allow us options up front, someone who is a proven finisher at the premiership level.
The experienced Keane does I believe, fit the bill perfectly.
he does GS as he can play the link role that Carew can not and therefore can play with either Gabby or Carew, whereas niether of those two can play together