Come At me Brough: Brad Guzan at Middlesbrough

I know but still, allowing in 8 goals ain't gonna do much for your self esteem or the belief in your fellow players. I agree with ya. He's quite underrated now compared to his Heroics last year and it def wouldn't have killed JK had he allowed Howard some rest from playing him non-stop in every friendly last year. Guzan could have done just as well in those games.

 

Yeah, that game sounded a death knell for Lichaj's time at Villa, but if anything, it helped sell people on Guzan's abilities.

From the highlights, it didn't seem as though Guzan needed a strong performance today, though. The second yellow on William was a big and fortunate break for Villa.

 

Guzan has clearly been on better form than Howard the last two years but that is a discussion for another topic. I am just glad he is at Villa. Really good goalie.

 

The first half of this season was arguably the best I have seen from Howard in years. But overall I agree to you. Guzan and Howard can push themselves, they really can and I hope that is what JK is doing. Making sure Howard doesn't get complacent, despite being the no.1 and Vice-Captain.

 

Villa go down 4-1 to Stoke with the Potters getting goals from that Crouching Peter, Hidden Cameron...

 

4-1 loss to United today. Villa's defense was very poor yet again and Brad couldn't do much to stop the bleeding (it would be hard to pin the blame on him for the goals). He did have this nice save on Rooney though.

 

As poor as Villa's defense has been the last two games, Villa's offense has been even worse. Agbonlahor and Weimann look nothing like they did last season and Benteke seems so disinterested nearly every game. Only Villa's midfield seems to be having a great season.

 

Brad Guzan is a giant killer.

They have beaten Chelsea, Arsenal and Man City.

(and he still has his Yank accent)



not quite as good a result yesterday.

 

http://espnfc.com/blog/_/name/worldcupcentral/id/3313?cc=5901

 

http://www.thescore.com/epl/goalie_splits/clean_sheets

Guzan's got 8 Clean Sheets, 404 saves and allowed in 46 goals with 4 PK's taken and 1 saved.

 

It's incredible how AV have gotten in recent years. I remember when I started following the PL back in 07 and AV was competing for that 4th CL spot and had great performers (Barry, Young, Agbonlahor, Laursen) and then somehow they just crashed over time like fighting relegation every match of last season. What's the club looking like going forward? Will they be able to keep Benteke or try and sell him once he regains his form?

 

Don't remind me. I have been a villa fan for nearly a decade now and we weren't just competing for champions league, we were competing for the title at one point. I think it was '08 where we were 1st in the league come new year and 4 points clear of Man U in 2nd. The last 10 games of the season, Villa really screwed up bad. Winning only maybe 2 or 3 of those which sunk us to 6th.

Houllier took over after O'Neill jumped ship because Lerner refused to let him continue to spend millions on mediocre players. Houllier actually did okay finishing 9th, but Villa fans expected better considering O'Neill managed to finish 6th with a worse team. Houllier had to retire so Lerner made the worst decision possible and hired McLeish as his replacement. Whole season was garbage. This is what caused the Villa fans to turn on Lerner. McLeish barely kept us in the league despite having Downing and Young who were in fine form at the time. Lambert took over and another season of struggles happened, but there was talk of progress because Lambert was signing all these young players with promising futures. Now this season, Villa are only 1 point better than where they were last year. No real progress has been made except giving mediocre players bigger deals like Weimann. I think Lambert might get the sack at the end of the season depending how he does in the last fixtures. If he can't get villa over 40 points by the end of the season, there will have been no real progress.

Benteke is staying. Mediocre season with a injury means no team will want him for the price Villa will demand. Benteke signed a 5 year deal last summer with no release clause. Don't see him leaving soon.

 

4-1 loss to Swansea today. Villa's defense is bad. Brad is at fault somewhat for the 2nd goal, he shouldn't have thrown the ball out to Baker who had an awful clearance which led to Shelvey's goal. Nathan Baker was diabolical today.

 

Hull and Man City/Spurs away are the last games of the season. Very scary. I still can't believe they're in this situation. They're consistently inconsistent.

 

Clueless manager with an even more clueless owner.

 

Oh well... at least Guzan did pretty much guarantee to make the end of season highlights reel... conceded what is possibly the goal of the season from Jojo (not the one that Freddy Adu dated btw)

 

Kind of an innocent bystander though. Travesty that theres no pressure on Shelvey.

 

don't get me wrong.... I'm not faulting him for it in anyway, that's just how good of a hit it was...

 

That shot would be hard to get to if he was on his line, that curve and then the dip at the end for a postage stamp. Man that is one sweet hit.

 

Return to Chivas Renamed all but confirmed after that one.

 

Villa has allowed themselves to slip into a very precarious situation in the relegation battle. Their results have been horrendous the second half of the season and particularly recently.

https://uk.eurosport.yahoo.com/football/premier-league/table/

As @LouisianaViking07/09 also pointed out, their remaining schedule is extremely challenging.
The loss of Benteke has been huge, as many of us suspected.

The good news is that their goal differential (-17) is far better than their competitors.
I genuinely hope this does not become a determining factor.

 

Literally just one win out of those remaining 3 matches and we are safe. Everyone below us only has 2 games. Just one win Lambert, come on. Villa have been just utter garbage since Benteke's injury. I don't understand it. Like the whole team just went to hell.

 

Guzan has to keep a cleansheet against City. He just has to.

 

Great save by Brad this past weekend.