Yesterday was a perfect example of team spirit overcoming a team’s obvious deficiencies. Ashley Young in the post match interview referred to this as to what pulled us through.
If you look at record this season it is brilliant with just 5 competitive defeats and only beaten once since the New Year and that by Man Utd. in the Carling Cup final. In football team spirit in many cases is far more important than sometimes the quality of the team. It can overcome the obstacles between say us and Chelsea as demonstrated in the defeat of them earlier this season.
MON himself has said he is not interested in tactics (as such) but he is renowned to an excellent man manager and the obvious rollocking the team got at half time is testament to that. We have a lot of strong leaders with the squad now, Friedel, Dunne, Petrov (who is turning out to be an excellent captain) and Carew. A weaker team may be offended at some of the things we can only presume that MON said but we are a strong team and the team took fully on board what MON said and acted on it in the best way possible.
Have we got the best team spirit in football, probably not but few others can beat it
Aston Villa News 24/7
While I agree that our team spirit is excellent, I do have slight reservations on the tie against Chelski. In my worry I am hoping that opens up a door for me to get a ticket to the semi finals!! Unfortunately I did not get to the Cup Final, but was there in spirit along with 70 other Villa Fans at the Brown Cow in Northern Ireland
The problem I have is that Chelski are a very different prospect now, galvanized all more by the team getting behind JT(booooo!). As a die hard villan I could counter-argue myself by saying we are a very different team also, as you said having lost only one game this year. The defense has bedded in nicely, Gabby is hitting a good run of form, Carew’s two cup run outs against Palace and Reading have been a show case to how good he really can be, and maybe justifies starting ahead of Heskey? MON stating that on that sort of form he is unplayable, ok granted, the teams mentioned aren’t Chelski, but I think Carew is a mood player, as the crook Redknap said about Modric, there is no nursing him, telling him how good he is, or how he may have underperformed, he just ‘is’. And the villa faithful love him for that, oh and the strip-club incident(get your t**s out for Carew!!!!).
I also agree wholeheartedly about the players you mentioned in Friedal, Dunne, Petrov and now Carew, all performing well, natural leaders. The key point I want to add to your praise of this particular group of players, is that this is the spine of our team, all playing well, and that is the sign of a quality team, a good spine of quality players, supported by, in our case, outstanding wingers, an inform striker and the best defensive backline in the Premiership!
Keep the Faith
UTV
PS oh, if anyone doesn’t plan on going to the semi-final, can I have a ticket!!! Despite my pessimism, its gonna be a great game!!!
I think the team spirit in the squad is pleasingly apparent every time we take the field. With the obvious British core of the squad, the boys have gelled excellently – but more importantly, i think MON has been at his canniest transfer dealings yet in not only acquiring talent, but buying players who could be moulded to his team and professional players who would want to play for both the manager and the team.
Crucially, John Carew has maturely put in his shift when a lesser man (maybe a more wise man) would have huffed at the mere thought of a player of Emile Heskey’s limited calibre taking his place.
With regards to the FA Cup – I say “Believe”.
O’Neill will have us well set up and difficult to beat and having already taken Chelsea at Villa Park, I predict another cup final on the cards for our boys. I think Chelsea would have hoped to avoid us in the draw – lets get at them!
Ps. Heskey Out! – check my blog for the facts why he needs to go … NOW