Aston Villa 4 - West Bromwich Albion 3

Mark Koppel:

Just back from Villa Park dodging the rain and the rather unsavoury behaviour of some West Brom Fans outside the ground before and after the game. I'm equally frustrated at tonight's result but did not feel like punching any Villa fan in revenge.

As far as the match was concerned, Pepe Mel needs to learn quickly who his best team is.

His decision to play Lugano instead of man-mountain McCauley was a disaster waiting to happen. He also left our best striker on the bench until there was only c.19 minutes left, and got caught up in Anelka's fame again by picking him.

I have said all along since our disastrous summer signings, and the inept performance against Southampton first game up, we could go down this year. If we don't strengthen this week with a quality striker, and probably a new left back, we will get relegated.

• Foster 6 - Did ok, not at fault for any of the goals really.
• Reid 4- Too slow and ponderous now for the Premium,especially when the rest of the defence is too slow as well to cover for him.
• Ridgewell 5 - Did not do much right or wrong.Got forward quite effectively but his crosses were poor.
• Olsson 7- Played with lots of passion and had to cover for Loony Lugano don't forget..
• Lugano 2- Hopefully his last ever game for West Brom. Gave away a silly penalty, missed a sitter, and was at sea for both Villa's first 2 goals. I honesty think we would have won tonight with McCauley instead of him.
• Morrison 7 - Good first half, especially when working through the middle. Tired somewhat second half.
• Yacob- 7 Plenty of tackles again and rarely gave the ball away when in possession.
• Anelka 2 - Hands up the person(s) at our Club who was responsible for signing him!! Even before he went off injured he was slow and looked totally uninterested. I fear Anelka will be a lasting symbol of our terrible relegation season.
• Mulumbu 7 - I thought he battled well for all 90mins and his goal should have saved us.
• Anichebe 7 - Worked really hard without looking like scoring. Needs help though up front from a goal scoring striker.
• Brunt 6 - Great strike for his goal and worked well with the rest of midfield. Not his fault we lost.

Subs:

• Berahino 6 - Introduced too late again to have the time to make real impact.
• Vyrda 5- As per Berahino. didn't know Steve Clarke was still deciding when the subs come on!
• Amalfitano 4- Much too light weight for the Premium League. Keeps getting knocked off the ball and then just complains to the officials. Yet another bad summer signing.

Didcot Baggie:

A disappointing night that showed the limitations of the current squad and that Pepe Mel is no miracle worker. The biggest worry for me was the selection of Lugano over McAuley. Lugano may suit Mel's pressing style, but he is no Premiership defender. Please restore McAuley now and if you want to play Lugano then it has to be as part of a back 5. The limitations of Reid and Ridgewell were exposed as were those of Anichebe and others up front.

Good effort from the midfield stalwarts of Brunt, Morrison and Mulumbu, but not enough creativity for this level.

Bottom line is that Mel needs to find his best team quickly. The team out there last night wasn't it.

Big Frank:

We attacked well, occasionally incisively, certainly much quicker than we have in the recent past. But............ we were v v poor defensively generally because most of our back four are aging athletes and/or just not up to the job. I'm not going to get into the Lugano/GMac and Reid/Jones thing or Ridgewell?s obvious limitations. Mel?s tactics were pretty sound, selection was........ questionable at best, criminal at worst. I do wonder what advice the old coaching staff are giving him, or if he listens to them?

Mulumbu played a more forward role and Yacob was immensely active and influential, tackling and harrying throughout. Both of them appear to have been instructed to get forward more and pass forwards rather than sideways. Brunt was the enigma that is Brunt, cracking goal and the usual head-droops and shoulder shrugs interspersed some good work. Morrison started brightly but faded late on and Victor done good throughout holding up and using the ball intelligently. Quenelle never got going, Ollie strove more than manfully to make things happen and Foster had no chance with any of the goals. If I have missed any one out it?s ?cos their contribution didn?t impress itself on to my tired old brain cells or their substitution role came too late to make a difference.

Conditions were atrocious inside and outside the ground, the ref was a bit a billy, look at me, big nob and the lino in front of us was a complete idjut! It was good fun baiting the seals while we weren?t losing and the away area of seal park needs condemning as a health hazard. The stewards in front of the Baggie fans almost lost control towards the end of the first half and I honestly thought it would ?kick off?. Nice new ?chant? made an appearance along the lines of ?West Brom FC from the Black Countreeeeeee? which was driving the seals near me a bit demented.

If we play the same personnel with the same tactics against pool then a cricket score is on the cards.

oshawabaggie:

Bloody hell, 2 - 0 up after 9 minutes and we blow it. If only Albion had had experience of being in that position before against Villa, we might have..... What's that? We were 3 months ago? Oh yeah, forgot about that.

I have to echo the comments on Lugano and Anelka. The game screamed out for McAuley on Benteke and we paid the price for his omission. Perhaps McAuley has to learn Spanish to get back into the team. I would much rather see a raw Berahino (making a few novice mistakes, but at least giving it a go)than the lazy Quenellka. It makes you wonder if Mel has watched any tapes.

I am desperately searching for some positives, so I would agree that Mulumbu playing further forward was a plus.

Please Senhor Mel, bring back McAuley and Jones and start Berahino instead of Quenellka.

Van Greaves:

Roy Hodgson left us with ORGANISATION. At the time the club were making cute, sensible signings at an economic level to suit the club's financial remit. Steve Clarke had a honeymoon period where just a few cracks began to show. whereby if the club were a CLIFF, a few stones began to dislodge themselves from the face. As the year turned it started to become a rockfall.

Jeremy Peace and the club directors dallied during the summer, hoodwinked by 8th position. Dan Ashworth, a football man left the club, to be replaced by... a solicitor who simply cannot know as much as even senior supporters as to who/what makes an ALBION TYPE Premiership player. Hence, beguiled by Clarke into signing Anelka (probably worth more financially than Peace himself) very much a maverick, a NAME only and NEVER a WBA type signing under any circumstances. (REMEMBER Geoff Hurst, Andy Gray, Garth Crooks, Viradi, Phelan and Roberts anyone? losing Lukaku to Everton, (I am told that Chelsea wanted him to pro gress to a BETTER CLUB, and that we would not meet the INCREASED loan fee) the FIRE PURCHASES of Sessignon and Anechebe seemingly without any regard to their goal-scoring ability, the brief honeymoon of Amalfitano who simply needs to deliver quicker without trying to show us what he can do on the ball and increasingly failing in that, the club are in a relegation battle. We hear about our lack of pace via Ridgewell, Reid, even Brunt, even Gera now, oh and the 12th "VILLAIN" on the pitch last night in the shape of LUGANO, culpable for two goals and an unmarked miss. The quote of the week came from Martin Keown on M O D when he said "I hope he plays for Uruguay against England!!" Also culpable for the Arsenal goal in league Cup, culpable for a Palace goal FAC3, culpble for the Everton goal last week (although Ollson got beat in the air by Lukaku) who played that game as if he owed us not to be too good. Why is it why EVERYONE bar none except the club is RIGHT about this, another aged, duff signing.

Readers of this should look up DAILY MAIL 16th August 2013 with Jeremy Peace whose words about aged signings and just one or two duff ones could lead to disaster will realise his thoughts are now coming to haunt him. Now, the rockfall is becoming a landslide, big enough to send us down. Mel's theory about playing a pressing game higher up the pitch might be at best risky, simply because when we lose the ball against pacey opposition, we haven't got the organisation or speed to recover.

It could be back to the old days against Liverpool on Sunday, and we know what that could mean!

Steve Fereday:

Stuart Russell - where are you son?? You gave me some stick after the Palace cup defeat. What are your thoughts now? What do you think we need to do to stay up??

Van the Man. Spot on mate. Same old same old is not going to keep us in this division.