Aston Villa News 24/7Writer: stennyvilla 
Date:Sunday March 15 2009
Time: 8:21PM
UK time is: 10:30:53
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Villa Not Clueless
Following today's loss to Spurs one of our users said it was 'clueless'. The answer from stennyvilla I thought worthy of publication. He said:
It was not clueless. The commitment was there, the play in many aspects was Villa back on form. MON has done so much right and all the credit is his. However, he has lost it in the run-in so far. All his hard work continues to be thrown away by his late substitutions and sticking to a losing team.
Gabby is NEVER a striker and you cannot expect to win games with no penetration up front. It is not fair on Gabby, playing him there when he is not up to it. It is not fair on Ashley having to run round forever with no end product.
It is not fair on Carew. It is not fair on the Fonz. Bringing Carew, Gardner and the Fonz were all good calls, but all good calls too late.
Gabby should never have started and should be one of 3 wide players along with Ash and Milner sharing the match between them.
Leave striking for strikers who have some idea where the goal is. Gabby will come good and will score a few from out wide and on the break, but if we want to salvage our efforts for 4th this season we need the same tweaks to the team we've needed for the last two months. Without them unfortunately it means it is our top man MON throwing all his own good work away.
No one knows, including me whether we would still be 6 or 8 points clear with Carew and the Fonz given more and earlier opportunities. But it might have been so. Almost every Villa fan I speak to or read the comments of thinks the lack of penetration is key.
MON has made only 41 substitutions before today - fewer than any other team by far, and many of those far too late to change things. Villa have also fielded 15 unchanged teams - more than anyone else. That is a strength in many ways, and togetherness is a big plus.
But you don't keep playing the same team when what is wrong is staring you in the face. It is not too late to change things. With the attitude and effort of today and the right couple of tweaks (so much remains right and all credit to Villa for that) we can actually win at Anfield. With no penetration up front we will end up below Everton.
stennyvilla
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Your Comments
Yes I must admit I've always wondered how Nige would fare at left back.
murph
Luck was not with you I guess.Common Villa you can do it against Pools and MANU
Saimon_blues
Not really the time mate !
Villan57
as an impartial neutral can i just ask what the **** carew has to do to get on your team!!!! i rate him above heskey and gabby ag ... evertime he has played since he returned from injury he has impressed .. would a front 2 of heskey/carew not scare centre back pairings all over the country and beyond!!
yid147
good match lads.....if im honest you definately didnt deservr to go in at half time 1 nil down, considering the possesion and chances you had, but thankfully for us you came up against a brick wall in the form of woodgate and king....second half i think spurs played much, much better and without sounding to cocky, think we could of scored 2 or 3...goodluck the rest of the season, its not over by a long shot!
lillywhites101
I have to say that the luck was on our side and in the first half you were very impressive. I was dissapointed with Agbonlahor and think he perhaps needs a break,, reverting back to a 4-3-3 suits you more with the players you currently have in my opinion.
oxfordspur
Hands Up.....I'm guilty! it was I that knee-jerked and left the original one-word 'Clueless' post. I should have been more specific. I was referring to MON's very odd substitution decision to take Zat off, put Jimmy M to right-back and shove NRC in the middle. The logic and late-timing of these substitutions is certainly questionable.
claretandbluestu
heskey has only scored 1 goal since signing says it all while john carew on the bench
123spurs
It seems clear to me that the main problem is scoring. Heskey brinkgs a lot to the team game, but he will never get more than 10 goals a season, which for a team like yourselves isnt acceptable. Agbonlahor is a good player, but simply looks to be lacking in confidence and perhaps tired. I would suggest that playing a 4-3-3 and returning Carew as te main target would get you scoring. As for the substitutions I dod find them verry odd.
oxfordspur
Villa going on the run of play did not deserve to lose. MON will now be determind to show how good he and villa can be so I can see us beating the pool.
Tallaght Villan
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