correct me if im wrong. is this the first time we started with a flat 4-4-2 ? i cant seemed to recall the last time we played or at least started with 4-4-2. the games where we had SAS, it was usually 3 at the back with 2 wing backs.

4-4-2 doesnt seem to be working for now as the midfield duo is being over runned by villa. mind you, villa has a better record on the road than at home this season, they have the best away record for teams in the bottom half when playing away.

ryan bertrand is playing well left back, bitter mou doesnt want to loan him to us, pretty sure he will get the nod over cissokho if hes with us. i blame cissokho n gerrard for ball watching in the goal.

easy to blame toure for the error but i think mignolet has to have known better, he's the one with a view of whats behind kolo n gerrard. 2 players was in close proximity to kolo n anichebe was pretty close from the central of the pitch. while it is pleasing that both gk n back four are encouraged to pass the ball around. sometimes, route one footie does the job. sturridge's 2nd goal against everton an example. n thats when we were at home where usually the home team are expected to have more of the ball.

wba easily our kryptonite. we somehow always lose points against them. prior to this match, they won 4/6 meetings.

on other matters, we were heavily linked and bid for 2 players. both attacking players.

so, jose's been out for awhile now. glen too. flanno had an injury n just got back. kelly had a super long layoff and just got back months ago. why oh why didnt we strengthen our fullbacks ? i know we made a loan offer for micah richards but i feel like we should have gotten another left back. no disrecpect to aly, but even br himself said, that guy is just trying his best. n to be fair imo, his best is for a mid tier team in the bpl. nt for a team trying to get 4th. having jose out for so long has hurt us. this game showed that we are still miles away from the top 3 n even manutd in terms of quality of the squad. its such a daunting task to get 4th. with the revenue generated both by champs league involvement and endorsements, the financial gap has gotten to far for our club to bridge. its obvious to see that we are losing out on players, mainly because of money and non-champs league. i fear if we fail to get it this season, we may never see anywhere close to 4th for a long long time...

its not that i dont have faith or believe. its just reality.

crowd has got a huge chance to help the team this sat. even if we go down 1-0 or 2-0, with sas around, if there are a few decent chances, i would put my money on them to score.