Who cares what a bunch of disinterested hacks have to say when you can get the skinny direct from those to whom it matters most? Well, good news – Football Burp’s very own Jonny Forumer, lurker extraordinaire, is here to collate choice message board analysis so you can get the lowdown from the people who really know what they’re on about. Take it away, Jonny…
Wolverhampton Wanderers
“If there was EVER a Jekyll & Hyde performance, that was it,” said Smokey GB over on Molineux Mix. “Villa manager did a sub because he knew something was not working, and it paid off. Robbie Keane was just ooozing quality. But when Frimpong went off and Milijas come on, we seemed to slow down.”
Hebburn Wolves opined that Villa effectively nullified their attacking threat by cutting off the supply line to finally returned hero Michael Kightly, to which Metal Wolf89 quipped: “Told you guys Jarvis was having a quiet game.”
“Come on,” spoke up sillytune, appealing for calm and good sense. “We sat back from kick off in the second half. The injury [to Emmanuel Frimpong] is unfortunate but not an excuse. The goals we concede are the same every week. Either yet another stupid mistake or hit from the middle of the edge of the area. Every week.
“We almost always concede early goals, and when we do score we sit back. This is tactics and this is Mick’s legacy. 2.5 years of the same thing. We are not progressing; this season we have very obviously gone backwards even from last year, where we got incredibly lucky.”
“The league is all about money and there is nothing to suggest that they have the money to get anyone of a better calibre than MM. People who think Rafa’ll be rocking up are off there nut,” said DeWolf. Anyone else got “Search for the Hero” stuck in their head? How strange.
Meanwhile, rumours that Mick McCarthy had been sacked swept the internet. “Who would you replace Mick [McCarthy] with?” was the open question posited by administrator Kenny over at Wolves Forum, citing the recent employments of the two most obvious candidates – namely Martin O’Neill and Mark Hughes – as a possible cause for caution. “That’s the worrying thing,” offered one Boozad; “off the top of my head I can’t think of anybody.”
Solskjaer and Poyet were two unconvinced early suggestions, with sellypark wolf hilariously quipping: “Gianfranco Zola and Ray Wilkins”. Several then came out in favour of Huddersfield Town boss – and former Newcastler United and Sunderland midfielder – Lee Clark. He did have his side unbeaten for about five years, so he could be worth a punt.
Nero Wolf then stood up and said, pacing the room all the while: “It is not down to the average fan to name the next manager. As we all know, there are able crafts out there,but since the board and chairman just sit on their arses and watch our season blow up in our faces, they aren´t even sought after. Hughes, Hodgson, O´Neill and others have passed us by just because of the total lack of action from the people that needed to act. There is no wonder that we are second to last. It is fekkin mismanagement of the club, that is what it is.”
Football Burp ain’t too convinced that O’Neill would have gone to Wolves, but there you go.
What did you think of the game, Wolves fans? Have your say in the comments section below…
Aston Villa
Over at the famous old VillaTalk venue, folk were pleasantly surprised by Robbie Keane’s contribution to say the least. The Irishman’s slick brace against his former club moved Mr_Dogg to describe his performance as “great”, while some chose to draw attention to the spate of online doom-mongering that emanated from Keane’s arrival.
The three points was not enough to convince NowDoINotLikeThat that Alex McLeish deserves to stay on as manager. The Graham Taylor reference opined: “Good second goal by Keane. Anything that could go wrong did go wrong for Wolves in 2nd half. Good result against a 10 man Wolves side espeicially given other results today.
“6 wins in 22 games is still remarkably dire and sooner McLeish goes the better.” Others refrained from demanding McLeish’s head but at the same time acknowledged that this had been another dire performance.
wacandallly went as far as to say: “As I welcome the win, I can’t help thinking it’s despite McLeish rather than because of. We are playing like a team in mid to low table, the way we are set up, our attitude to games, mentally we have lost the desire and confidence to win games and buying one or two players does not bring that back.”
On the bright side, Deepdish was pleased to see their former England left-back return to form: “Been critical of Warnock’s last matches, but he changed the match today,” he said, presumably not referring to the man recently dismissed as QPR manager. “The two crunching tackles he made in his first minutes made Collins and the other players tackle harder and win the balls. Then we were back in the driving seat. Really think Gardner played well too. And great goals from Keane. I’ll ear (sic) some humble pie, as I thought he was finished.”
Over at AVFC Forums, a more upbeat mood was expressed by AvonVillain (shouldn’t that be AvonVillan, or is he a villain too?): “Well done Alex McLeish for both his team selection and decisive actions today. It’s been a long time since I haven’t even reacted to the opposition scoring against us, but after that there are now definitely signs that we are capable of shifting up more gears than most teams.” He went on to single Stiliyan Petrov and Ciaran Clark for praise, and submitted that Darren Bent “got his reward” for going after the ball for once rather than waiting for a “world class pass”.
Of young Gary Gardner’s first start, drodan said: “I had thought throwing Gardner in at the deep end might not end too well and possibly affect his confidence but fair play to him, he was excellent. He’s clearly more suited to the middle but if he can stick a bit wider and offer another outlet out of defence then he’s golden.”
towbarton was quick to praise the contributions of much-maligned defensive duo James Collins and Alan Hutton, while Zero7 reckoned that McLeish got all his subs “spot on” before nipping off to play some chilled out, lightly psychedelic ambient sounds.
What did you think of the game, Aston Villa fans? Have your say in the comments section below…