Houllier really is an idiot. There's just no need to rest players who have played one game in two weeks, especially when you're going to Eastlands. How dumb is that? I could just about understand it (still major risky) if we did it against Reading home, not Man City away of all places!

Petrov is really a waste of space. He is an awful player. I can't wait until we get rid of him. Gabby is a lazy bastard as well and that's shocking when all his good for is pace. Heskey is Heskey. I won't be sad if they all went in the summer.

Bannan and Bradley have impressed me though. They're the only ones who really look hungry for it.

We really need Young and Downing on the pitch. We need more width on the pitch!

Agree with you about Petrov. He's never been the most skilled player, but tonight he's been shockingly bad. Needs to be sold in the summer. I'm not going to be too critical of Herd and Delph, especially as they're being played out of position.

Hmm, I take that back about Bradley. His passing has been appauling.

Oh great Tevez on the pitch. And who have we brought on? :sleep:

I'd be spitting chips if I was a Villa fan tonight.
After a piss poor season you might have expected him to go full pelt to get a result with a full strength team and give the fans something to look forward to for the rest of the season,

Especially with the prospect of a tricky but very winnable tie against Reading in the quarters.
Bizarre.

A lot of us are indeed absolutely furious with Houllier right now. Man City haven't looked at their best tonight, and we just get the feeling that with a more experienced line up, we could have had a chance tonight.

I've tried to be fair. I've tried giving him some time, but it's clear Houllier just isn't good enough. He might be good in the transfer window, but his tactics are just ridiculous. I want him out.

I really can't wait to see what the coward has to say. I don't see how putting on a weak team in the FA Cup will improve our Premier League run. It just makes it worse.

I wouldn't have cared if we lost against City as long as we tried our best cos we know they're the better team, but it's an absolute disgrace to give up before we've started.

Hehe, at least our fans are hilarious.

Our fans really are brilliant. They've stolen a ball and are playing their own "game" in the stands.

houllier is a muppet, makes no sense to rest players when u've actually had a chance to win the competition

With a quarter final place against Reading up for grabs and therefore a likely semi final place I really expected more from tonight.

It just goes to show what a loser Houllier is.

Tonight, Houllier has lost my support. Had we lost 3-0 with the likes of Downing, Young, NRC starting then I would have been more tolerant...at least we'd given it our all. But playing a weakened side...what are his excuses for not playing our best players?

Tonight was Houllier's Moscow moment. Playing a weakened side away in a cup competition was something MON never really heard the end of, but at least he had a half-decent excuse of fighting for the Champions League at the time. Houllier has no excuse, and I think there'll be little chance of the fans forgiving him for it.

Actually, Houllier does have an excuse. Relegation survival.

He really is a joke and a coward. I don't see why he 'rested' players when they've only played one game in two weeks. We already know this type of rubbish doesn't work when we lost out at Moscow followed by a terrible Premier League run.

Watch us get beaten by Bolton now and struggle to get a result against Wolves due to morale being low.

He had the chance to keep the momentum going from the Blackburn result and he blew it big time. What on earth was he thinking bringing in Young and Downing 3-0 down with 20 mins to go. Why would any manager do that when there's a risk of injury/red card? Flipping madness!

If I was a Villa fan I would be disgusted.

The manager is 100% responsible for that non-event. Then almost unbelievably under the pretence of leaving Young and Downing out for a rest, brings them on for 20 minutes with the game lost, Young actually nearly getting injured in one challenge which would have been the icing on the cake.

There are Villa fans on the radio well and truly pissed off and quite rightly so..

Having said that, the keepy up headers by your supporters were a rare moment of class.

I'm astounded. The hatred towards your manager is well OTT. Losing away to Man City shouldn't result in the name calling he's received on here, dreadful. One defeat after a good win and he gets called a joke, idiot, loser, muppet, coward.

Disgraceful

I dont think it is due to them losing against Man City, do you actually read the thread?

Its because of fielding a weakened team in the FA Cup, in a competition which they could have arguably went on to reach the Semi's at the very least had they got past City.

Erm, do you? If you did, you'd see I post in it so I obviously read it.

Getting past City at citys ground would have been difficult no matter what team had been put out, even Man Utd/Arsenal could have gone to city and lost.

Maybe league form and avoiding relegation, which was a worry a while back, took precedence.

Aston Villa will not get relegated - why do you think the Villa fans are up in arms over the team selection?

I felt this club had a real chance in the F.A Cup had they played a full strength squad, and I think most Villa fans would agree.

There really was no excuse in playing the team he did last night.

Well, sorry, but you didn't post as if you were following it. And you know, some people believe it or not actually do post in threads while clearly not reading or interpreting correctly.

The Villa fans to me were clearly particularly upset about the team selection, particularly given they haven't really played much lately, and playing a Man City who have hardly been in the greatest of form and are under some pressure themselves, no doubt relieved a bit by seeing the Villa starting lineup. And it was for an FA Cup home QF vs Reading !

After seeing the ridiculous team selection I said that it would be at least 3-0 to Citeh. Our lot have only just had a 2 week break and yet most needed to be rested last night? Yeah right! Well now they can all enjoy another nice 2 week break after Saturday. Houllier's attempts to defend his team selection were pretty pathetic too imo.
Yaya Toure and Barry have played more games than anyone in our team and coped perfectly well so I see no reason why the likes of Ash, Downing, NRC, Walker etc (all riding high after very good performances on Saturday) could not cope with playing last night. I hope that Randy has summoned Houllier to give him a good bollarding but somehow I doubt that he has.
Realistically we have 2 chances of silverware and the FA Cup was one of them and Houllier treated the competition and the fans with contempt last night imo. Bringing Ash, Downing and Walker on at 3-0 was totally farcical. If our manager cannot show some passion for such an important competition then the board can hardly expect the fans to keep giving them their hard earned money.
On the game itself I would not generally fault the effort but Citeh never had to get out of 2nd gear. Bannan was generally neat and tidy, however I saw no really good performances but I did see a few shockers. However, the main culprit for last night has to be the manager. Maybe we would not have got a result against a tired Citeh team even if we had played our best team but at least we could have held our head high as a club rather than being the subject of either incredulity or laughter from most neutrals as we are this morning.

After his post match comments saying he didn't think we could beat Man City, I want him to clear his desk at the end of the season.

You would think after Alex McLeish got his team to win against Arsenal he proved it's not always about 'paper'. You would think after that Houllier would get us up for City. Instead, he has told our players they're not good enough and we should settle for table mediocrity. His ignored the fact Fulham got a result over at the Eastlands, so anything is possible on the day. He removed that possibilty and what's worse is he said he would do it again.

I want this loser out of the club. Yes, he is a loser because his a defeatist. We won't win anything under him or even reach top 6 again.

You read the thread further back then, the Villa fans have been on Houlliers case since he lost the opening couple of games, the team selection last night may have been the straw that broke the camels back but it was far from just about last night.

Besides, as a fan, if I was upset at my managers team selection I think I'd have enough restraint to stop short of calling him names.

I don't recall anyone on Houller's case until the Liverpool match (over 10 games), which was fully deserved when you take into consideration his loving of Liverpool, one of the biggest gutless performances in a Villa shirt, ignoring the supportive away fans (while waving to Liverpool home fans) and his comments about prefering to lose to Liverpool.

And what would you call a manager who threw in the towel before the game has started?

Really? I'd say we were fairly positive about him...he wasn't our first choice, but we gave him a chance. Here's a small number of comments made between GH's arrival and the Liverpool game (which was played on 6 December, three months after GH arrived)





We gave him his chance. He blew it at Liverpool. He blew it again last night. He doesn't care about Villa, so why should Villa care about him?

Incidentally, were you this critical of Liverpool fans? Their fans were far less patient with Hodgson than we were with Houllier. Houllier's had more time and games too.

Just to even things out, all these Houllier posts were made before January, they started after a few losses and then it spiralled. I could continue the search and probably find another fifty and thats without the Liverpool match ones.

Anyhow I'll bow out now, didn't mean to offend but did just think he hasn't had a fair deal from the off with most with somewhat insulting comments, I stand by that.

Good luck for the rest of the season