You didn't offend us and you can carry on posting if you like, but you must understand our frustrations with him yesterday.

There was no logic to not play our best team against one of the strongest teams away. We only have two games this month (two weeks apart) and we've only played one game in two weeks (before the City game), so why not give this cup a go?

The selection was just insulting and embarassing against a side like Man City. We might as well have not turned up. Did you see Houllier in the dugout? No pride or passion. Just looked bored and confused. And can someone please tell me what is the point of Gary Mcallister? He makes me vomit.

Dunne, Collins and Cuellar are all injured! I'm not sure about Baker and L.Young condition though. We will have to rely on the young players and some will be played out of position! Not good.

I don't see why we can't move Heskey into CB. We did it with Dublin.

Monsieur Houllier certainly knows now to endear himself to the Villa fans. His "apology" for Wednesday's farcical capitulation of a team selection is here:

http://www.guardian.co.uk/football/2...gy-aston-villa

I especially like the bit where he says of the Villa fans;

"The fans have a go at me because the goalkeeper of Arsenal messes around."

Oh dear!!

As for Heskey at CB? Well he certainly has an almost unmatched talent for keeping the ball out of the net so why not?!
I think we will struggle big time if Bolton get their delivery from set pieces right as Davies, Wheater and Cahill are all very good in the air and physical presence is probably Ciaran Clark's main weakness.
We have a very good record at the Reebok but we will do well to come away with anything today.

http://www.express.co.uk/posts/view/...anchester-City

Oh dear again! Yes its the tabloid press, but neither Houllier nor Villa are coming out of this sorry episode with much credit.

He made a lot of very baffling comments in his days at Liverpool.

He has form for it.

If your manager doesn't think you can win a game of football how are the players supposed to respond?

No, Gerard. We'd have had a go at you regardless of the CC final result. But the fact Birmingham won did arguably make it worse. Because did Alex McLeish ever say "We're going to be ****ed by Arsenal, so there's no point playing our best team?" No. He believed in his players, his team. And it paid off. Despite them being our biggest rivals, I have to applaud them for their strong belief and attitude.

I also applaud the Express for having the balls to say it like it is. The apology was obviously a PR stunt with the intent of damage limitation. But it's too late...Houllier has treated the players with disrespect and us fans with complete disregard. I want him out of my club as soon as possible.

Good luck to our boys against Bolton. Let's bring home another three points.

Super Darren Bent strikes again!

And pop goes another clean sheet.

Houllier's gamble has failed. He can't last much longer, surely?

Well done Bolton. Thoroughly deserved win.

Houllier sacrificed our chance of the FA Cup for a loss against Bolton, what a pilchard.

He has a Premiership win percentage with Villa of only 23%

Was it a deserved win?As from what I heard about the game it was mainly Villa with Bolton scoring with their few chances.The result may have been different as well if Ashley Young scored that penalty!

It's not looking good for Gerard Houiller now.Villa only have 2 games in the next month so he won't have a chance for a while to turn thinks around if they let him stay on!

We cannot defend no matter what players we have. Who was marking the posts when we conceeded from the corners? Nobody. I'm furious with Houllier's defensive tactics. I'm furious with his attitude towards the club. And I'm furious he still can't get us out of relegation danger.

I don't wanna see Ashley Young take penalties for us ever again. Get Darren Bent to take them in future. No one is bigger than the club. NO ONE.

Houllier must not be given another chance next season. The man has embarassed and belittled our club a numerous of times. Not only that but I can see him having a disasterous start to next season, that's if he keeps us up. He still hasn't shown any signs of fixing our defense against set pieces. Why won't anyone tell him that? Teams can easily expose this weakness by getting a few corners under their belt and that's at least two goals guaranteed. It doesn't matter what defenders we have on the pitch because even our seniors who were the masters of it last season now look clueless thanks to our manager. I also think Gary Mcallister is part of the problem. The Leeds fans don't rate him at all. Houllier was the one who hired him though so he takes full responsibility.

Who else would like to see us get Coyle for next season? I can see him becoming a real treat in coming years. I would love it if he came to us. He could easily bring back Cahill to us as well.

We really need to get the board to listen to us because we cannot have another hell season from Houllier. Even fans from other clubs are saying his a nightmare and are feeling sorry for us. Says it all really.

So Man City scrape a 1 - 0 home win vs Wigan in the league, a week after drawing at home against Fulham 1 - 1, and have no doubt the league and qualiifying for the Champions League is a huge priority for City.

But in between times evidently Aston Villa FC have no chance of fielding a side who can match City in the cup and possibly progress to a home QF with Reading, so effectively just gave it up.

Might even have given some hardly overworked players recently a boost for their league game today.

Will never be sorry for Villa fans, but do understand their frustrations with that guy.

We played well in patches today and the turning point was Ashley Young missing the penalty. I have never had much confidence in his ability with penalties. He doesn't give the impression that he practices them and just relies on the keeper going the wrong way.
The main problems imo are that we are still making the same basic mistakes and not learning from them. We have seemingly cemented our place at the top of the league for goals conceded from corners and points lost from a winning position. With only 2 points gained from a losing position we must be pretty much top of that table. Also, with yet another goal conceded in the last 5 minutes we must be in at least a Champions League spot there!
The squad and manager are seriously under-achieving. Our away form is awful and it is difficult to be confident of picking up any wins on the road, which puts real pressure on our home games.
Looking on the bright side, at least if Liverpool relegate us on the final day of the season Monsieur Hasntgotacluellier can say that if anyone relegates us then he is glad it is Liverpool!

If we conceded 3 goals, I don't class that as playing well to be honest. Yes we looked good at the front but the amount of schoolboy errors at the back cost us the game making it an overall subpar performance.

Why doesn't any interviewer bring up on why we're so hopeless at set pieces now? Surely get Houllier to answer on why none of our defenders can do well when before they were the best at it.

Even a sunday team could score with ease given the chance. Hell, I could take the corner myself, run up to the box and slot it in...BLIND FOLDED. Or even better, just kick the ball in the box and no doubt one of our players will score an own goal.

I'm just annoyed by these basic schoolboy errors time and time again. Do we even have an defensive coach? If we do, name and shame that person and then fire him with immediate effect so no club has to suffer his rubbish. If we don't then Houllier has some serious explaining to do.

Dunne and Collins get pissed and argue with backroom staff

Words just fail me. Is ANYTHING positive happening at Villa at the moment?:sleep:

Both have been diabolical and now they're causing trouble. This pre season can't come fast enough.

Our defense isn't the strongest lineup, but the best form of defence is attack. 2 weeks breathing space against the team who have the worst away record.

No excuses. We want results.

*sigh* Third time lucky for Wolves, and they deserve it. I'm starting to get really worried now.

I'm starting to hate everything associated with this team. I think it's best if we go down to start a fresh.

Houllier getting booed and chants of "you don't know what you're doing." after he took off Marc Albrighton. Hope the board are listening.

They were exactly the same at Sunderland and shortly after the board awarded him 30m for bringing us down to bottom 3. Look at the fine job his doing now. We're gonna end up at that exact same position at the end of the season.

I truly hope this hurts the board pockets when the time comes. We need to get rid of that CEO with immediate effect. His the main reason why we've ended up with Houllier in the first place and why he hasn't been sacked yet.

Fair point regarding the board rewarding him with £30m.

The board/club will be hit badly in the long run by the fans staying away, so hopefully that will be a key factor on making a decision soon. Can't see the CEO going anywhere either. Pretty sure he's a good mate of Lerner's, so the fact he's useless at his job is sadly irrelevant.