TJVillan

If Delph doesn't make it that leaves us with 16 first team players available for tomorrow. That means 1 or 2 subs will have to come from the reserves. Presumably Daniel Johnson + 1 other if no Delph. Robinson?

At most we will have 17 available first team players tomorrow. If Delph is out, we will have 16 available. That means definitely 1, maybe 2 of the reserves WILL make the bench unless one of our casualties makes a miraculous recovery or we recall someone from loan or Lambert eases his principles on Hutton or Stevens. Johnson will be probably be the 1 to fill the gap. Question is who is the 2nd player if Delph is out? Webb, Donacien, Burke, Robinson? I don't think it would be Jordan Graham as he has only just returned to the reserve team after long term injury.

It's worth remembering that it isn't easy to fix all the team's problems at once. Last season we struggled immensely with defending. We were just horrible at the back, but we were excellent up front and created plenty of chances. This season we are struggling up front, but we are more difficult to break down and score goals against. I would bet my house that Lambert and the coaching staff have been focussing primarily on teaching the team how to defend over the last few months. The young players are learning bit by bit how to be successful in the premier league. Sometimes our attack will be lacking, sometimes our defence will be lacking. Sometimes it will look like we don't even have a midfield (see West Ham game!). But eventually we will get there. Those that question the current "project" Lambert and the club have going - how would you do it? How would you look to build long term success in the midst of a financial crisis, and bearing in mind without a change of owner we will never have the same cash backing that the top teams do? I don't agree entirely with everything Lambert has done, but the fundamental principles behind it are spot on for me. I don't see any other way we can build long term success without a owner that will spend massive amounts of money.

By the end of the season: 1) Well clear of the relegation battle. 2) Proof that we are able to attack and score goals without Benteke. 3) Evidence of improved defending as a unit. And everyone would do well not to have a meltdown if we lose our first 3 games. Anything we get from them is a bonus.

Please come to terms with the fact we will concede a lot of goals this year. Lambert's Norwich kept 3 clean sheets in 2011-12. That's less than we did last season. He'll always look to play attacking football. Yesterday we played an incredibly attacking formation against a good team. We outscored them. It worked. It's not easy to put a good solid defence together with players aged 20-23 unless you have silly money to go out and buy the world's top prospects. It will take time. I guess you can focus on our defence being dodgy or our attack being really strong. I still remember the days of McLeish when we struggled to have 1 shot on target over 90 minutes, so I'd rather focus on the fact we play attractive football and get to watch 1 of the best strikers in the world do his thing.

Bring in Messi, Schweinsteiger and Baines and we're pretty much sorted! We're not going to sign 99.9% of the players people mention on this board, and we're not willing to finance the vast majority. Think 30-35k/week absolute maximum. That rules out (i'm just looking up this page) Diame and Douglas, Jones would have to take a fairly significant wage cut. Anyone currently playing regularly for a premier league club who is half decent would want serious money if they were convinced to come to Villa. If we're signing premier league players, it will be people out of favour. On low wages or probably on loan. Think Livermore on loan, rather than Diame for 3.5m and 50k/week. To be fair I'd be happy enough with Livermore.

I'm willing to believe that there is the slightest chance we can stay up until 23:00 on January 31st. It looks like Warnock is off to West Ham in the next day or so, with Hutton apparently in talks to join Mallorca on loan. If we have been waiting to get players off the wage bill before signing anyone, there is a chance we might be able to do something last minute, even if it's just a loan or 2. We need to improve a lot if we are to have any chance of survival, but strengthening center back/center mid would at least give us a chance. Keep the likes of N'Zogbia Benteke Weimann Vlaar Westwood fit + 1 or 2 new players who can make a difference down the middle and I will not give up hope. Yet. If we sign nobody I lose all faith in Lerner's ability to run the club and would back any protest measures against him. Yes he's invested heavily in the past, but he's enforced cuts and changes too quickly and now must swallow his pride to avoid us dropping and losing vast amounts of his own money. If he does nothing either he has no interest in Villa or his cash, or he is blind to our problems delusional and in no fit state to run the club. Looking at how Cleveland Browns went, I'm not optimistic.

Please people. There is a middle ground. It comes somewhere betweenv Karl Henry and Arturo Vidal. That's where we'll be shopping if we sign players.

Contract runs out in 18 months (summer 2014), same as a lot of our young players. Give him an extension asap!

That Liam Bridcutt looked very useful. Unfortunately he'd probably cost us a couple of million more now!

YES. Someone who understands why Gabby is important. He is actually very calm in possession these days, his all round game has improved. He can still run the channels, run at players and get us into the final third quickly. But he can hold the ball up, bring people into play and so on. He can wait a moment and pick the simple pass to build an attack rather than try a stupid flick giving away possession. Something Benteke can learn from. Gabby is by no means prolific in goals or assists but we play better with him in the side.

We made a net loss of £19 million on Reo-Coker for fees and wages. Charles N'Zogbia has given us 2 goals, a couple of assists for the £14 million we have spent on him so far. When you consider Stephen Ireland was worth around £8 million of the Milner deal, he's effectively cost us £16.5 million so far. That's just 3 of a vast number of costly players. Just stop for a second to consider this - we have spent £50 million on 3 players that have contributed 4 goals, a handful of assists and mostly very poor performances. At the very least you could say these 3 players have done nothing at all special, and their efforts could have easily been replicated by much, much cheaper alternatives. Say somehow we did get Lescott and he agreed to a pay cut from 90k/week to 60k/week. We got him at less than the reported asking price, maybe £8 million and gave him a 3.5 year contract. By the end of that contract he will be 34, absolutely no chance of recouping any of the £20 million we would have spent on him, however well he might have played. We have seen it. But the club finally seem to be learning the lesson. To build a good side, without champions league revenue, a mega-rich owner or racking up huge debts, you cannot make this sort of purchase. If you are going to spend £8 million on a player, they must be young. Their wages cannot break the wage structure. They must be driven to succeed at Aston Villa and they must have a big potential resale value. They cannot be a 30 year old center back, no matter how good you might think he is. That is why I don't think we will try to sign Lescott (unless he is willing to take a really massive wage cut and the fee is unexpectedly low). Some will say "it's worth it if he keeps us up". But we will never progress as a club if we keep firefighting like this. If we're going to blow big money on a center back, do it on someone like Toby Alderweireld or Simon Kjaer. Young players, but with proven quality. International regulars. Players that could potentially be at Villa for 10 years or make us a fat load of money when they leave. Players currently on salaries we can improve but still manage within the limit. Players that would do anything to prove their worth in the premier league. Experience is one of a number of attributes a player draws on, and it is one that every player will inevitably gain, you don't have to be naturally blessed with it. Even now when it seems we need experience most, I would take higher overall quality and determination to succeed every single time. This is what I hope the club's "new philosophy" is all about. It's not about picking a team of lower league players. It's about finding value for money and players that will give everything to succeed at the club, that depend as much on taking the chance the club is giving them as we do on them coming good.

I'd go with Given Lichaj Herd Clark Stevens Bannan Delph Carruthers Ireland Graham Bowery

Pretty much all of our current central midfielders that are limited in the following ways: not quite up to standard physically, don't contribute going forward, don't have enough composure to keep possession for a significant period of time and don't have the ability to protect the defence. Maybe versatility is a good thing, maybe Lambert is looking for the modern footballer who is not necessarily a specialist, more an all rounder. But the fact is we cannot afford or attract a player that is brilliant at all of those things and we have a severe deficiency in most of those areas. Any center mid we bring in has to cover some of these issues. Would Dale Stephens or Kelvin Leerdam - today's links - be significantly different to what we already have? I'm not sure. Stephens is supposedly good in possession but isn't really an offensive player or a defensive rock. He's quite tall but that is no guarantee of strength to hold players off, as we saw with Gardner last season. Leerdam looks very slight and not tall at 5"10. He is clearly not an offensive player, I have heard that he is not particularly special on the ball and looks a walking card. I could be very wrong, but it doesn't sound like these players would transform our midfield or the way we currently play. What I want to see beyond anything is quality. The quality that can protect our defence, control the game and get us moving in the final third. Our survival depends on it.

I hope we can do some early business and get a boost for the Southampton game. With so many central midfielders unavailable, Westwood and KEA (presume as not on bench) the latest, surely central midfield is a desperate priority. Swiftly followed by center back where we have 3 missing. God, if you're up there, we could use a bit of help on the injury front. It's getting silly If the Denmark international rumour is true, I'd certainly hope for Kvist or Kjaer rather than Frederik Sorensen or Andreas Cornelius who we have also been linked with recently. Caps over Kids!

The Scott Parker thing was me. I was trying to show how easy it is to fake a Sky Sports account tweet for any player you like. Someone did it for Milner to Sunderland so I said stop being so gullible - look, I can do one right now: RT @SkySportsNews: Aston Villa have had a loan bid for Scott Parker accepted by Tottenham Hotspur. #SSN ....and then of course everybody fell for it and started asking journalists if it was true So my bad. I'll try not to joke about these things or reason with those that can't understand ever again!

Guzan Lowton Vlaar Baker Warnock Petrov Gardner Bannan N'Zogbia Agbonlahor Benteke

Look at Everton. Look at West Brom. Look at Newcastle. Look at Swansea. Where did all their players come from? Mostly purchases from around Europe and some lower league players. It seems to be working for them. There is no reason it will not work for us in the long term. Lerner must give Lambert the money to bring in the players he wants, and trust him. If he is not an absolute head case then he will bring in players with quality, and a bit more experience. If we do not buy a few players, I believe we will go down. But do not expect Joe Cole. Do not expect Joleen Lescott (where the **** has that rumour come from it's insane). Do not expect Michael Dawson. Do not expect Scott Parker. The time of Villa paying 50k/week for a player looking for 1 last big pay day are over. It really isn't that difficult to comprehend.

I think Lambert's style relies a lot on full backs bombing forward and contributing to the attack, especially when the midfield plays narrow. I think we'll see Lichaj replaced with someone more comfortable in possession. He's handy cover but I think he would have been given a new contract by now if we wanted to keep him beyond this season.

I would love to see Guidetti in the Claret and Blue. But it is totally counter productive for us to take him for 6 months only to hand him straight back to Man City an improved player. Only ever go for loans with an option to buy unless you are REALLY struggling for options. It's getting pretty exciting. The squad can only get stronger from here. 11 days until January. Let's see what Lambert and Henke can conjure up!

Seems he did ok tonight. Brentford's FA Cup 2nd round tie with Bradford. When he came on in 71st minute, it was 1-1. It finished 4-2 to Brentford. Forrester got 2 assists and a goal in the space of 4 minutes! I didn't know a lot about him when he was at Villa to be honest. But from what I have seen he has good technique, can go past players and score goals. The Brentford fans rave about him and clearly think he is destined for a big future. They are desperate to hang on to him.

Westwood and Bannan aren't the issue in my opinion. Maybe a bit more strength in there would be handy. But it's the players ahead of them, behind Benteke that are the problem. Ireland, Holman, Albrighton, N'Zogbia etc. They just don't create chances and we're forced to play Gabby and Weimann there, who don't create chances either. For me: 2 attacking midfielders + replace anyone who leaves (Bent, Dunne etc). Anything else can wait until the summer.

Hopefully he has a good season this time around, sell him for a couple of million. I don't think he has a future at Villa but I think some are being a bit harsh on him - remember he is still young and hasn't played much first team football, we have a lot of young players still finding their feet. Ultimately I think he'll end up in the championship, maybe low prem eventually a bit like Luke Moore.

Baker was immense today. Good battle between him and Clark for the spot alongside Vlaar. I think you've got to play all of them against Stoke next weekend, especially considering how poor Lichaj looked at left back today.

Agree totally with Raymond. Those are the positions I would look at. We especially need new players in the attacking areas. 12 goals from 14 games is not enough, and that's even with Benteke absolutely on fire. Bennett is interesting, I've heard very mixed reports from people who watched at Boro - some say he was excellent some say they didn't know how he got in the team. Stevens is doing ok but for the future we need someone who can get at the opposition and get crosses in. Our play is all focussed down the right at the moment, a threat down the left would help us open up teams.