Fazilla

The bottom line in this relegation scrap is that we need to concentrate on our own form rather than worry about other teams.  The way we have been playing recently gives me confidence that we can stay up.  The team has a good balance and players like Guzan, Weimann, Benteke and Westwood are really stepping it up.  They all work their socks off for each other and there is no comparison between this team and the one that was relegated in the eighties.

That pass completion stat is amazing considering he was playing a mixture of long and short passes and trying to get the ball out wide or forward.

A superb performance from him.

And who signed him for peanuts?

Even if we go down I probably wouldn't be actively calling for him to be sacked. Would do more harm than good in our current situation and I dread to think who the board would replace him with.

 

Don't think I'll ever forgive him for the League Cup SF though.

Try blaming the players who should have been more than good enough to see us win those games.

I've always maintained Lambert is the right manager for us, and won't be changing my opinion when things get tough.

I have read that during the summer when one prospective manager was told what wages we were prepared to pay to new signings he laughed in RL's face.  Lambert had a very good reputation and job at Norwich but was prepared to come here and sort out the mess.  Last season we were very nearly relegated, have huge debts and a number of high earners who are are not pulling their weight.  Apart from an awful run of form around Christmas I have seen signs that we are heading in the right direction.  Performances against Man Utd, Swansea, Everton and Liverpool have been really encouraging.

The team we played against Reading included 5 from the academy and cost less than £20 million.  The wages for that team are well within our budget.  Lambert has made some very good value signings such as Westwood and Benteke who we could sell for a profit.

I hope he is not sacked even if we go down because who else is out there who would be willing and able to restore the club to anything like its former glories.  

Still a fan of the lad - but in recent games I've wanted him to have a bit more bite, against West Ham I thought he was a little guilty of bottling it in challenges. Needs to get stuck in a bit more.

Very harsh considering he had been ill all week.

It's weird how people love to hate him, i don't think he has been that bad at all, we are now only starting to see the benefit of what Zog can do because he has had a chance rather than every time he is a bit iffy he gets dropped.

Ireland if given a run would probably be ok, not saying he is the player we want or need but the hatred and bile he gets harsh. I really thought he had turned a corner last season.

 

I don't want him to play because i am the Ireland fan club, i want him to play because if he doesn't even make the bench his value plummets and we still have to pay his wages. If Lambert doesn't want him then he should have loaned him at the very least.

We had no offers for any of our players in the window.  We tried to loan out Ireland to Newcastle last year and it all went tits up.  I think he has had plenty of chances, but the bottom line is he is not good enough and we will find it very difficult to move him on. 

Reckon Lerner will have to write a pretty big cheque to get rid of him this summer. No one will pay him anything close to what he's on at the moment.

Whoever agreed to him being valued at £8m plus wages of 65k per week needs to be taken into the bullring and flogged repeatedly.  We can't even blame MON for this one.  If he knew this was in the pipeline, perhaps that's what made him walk out.

 

I still don't really rate him. His first touch is often too heavy and some of his decision making is terrible, he works hard I will give him that but that is about all.

Not picking on you but I thought his touch looked quality today; for instance there were a few hoofs from their goalie and defenders he instantly controlled with his first touch which should not go unnoticed.

Again his build-up play and one-touch passes with others was very good today and he showed glimpses of exceptional skill, most notably when he skipped past a few players and then got fouled by Pogatetz.

On at least 3 occasions he tried to run the ball out from the edge of our box only for his touch to be too heavy and him knock it way ahead of himself. Each time he lost the ball to a West Ham player resulting in us being put back under pressure. He didn't have a bad game but his first touch was at time simply terrible as it has frequently been when he plays.

According to the stats on the OS, Delph made 43 successful passes out of 47, 4 out of 7 take ons, 6 successful interceptions and 5 successful tackles out of 5.  In the past I have not thought that he was good enough, but those are very impressive statistics.

I'm kind of resigned to going down. Our defence is the worst I can remember in my 25 years of being a fan. Conceding late goals at Swansea, Albion and Everton might be disappointing, but they won't be the reason we go down. It was the home defeats by Wigan, Southampton and Newcastle that will do that.

Although our defence is poor I think that the whole team must take responsibility for our likely relegation.  We don't keep the ball when we are in the lead so our defence is under constant pressure.  We all know that sooner or later we will crack.  Once Everton scored the second goal I couldn't bear to watch any more because I knew what was coming.

Needs to be dropped for a game or two, his confidence is shot to pieces. He needs to re focus because theres a good defender in there somewhere. And lets not forget the 3-5-2 would make any defender vulnerable.

I agree because I thought he had a shocker yesterday.  With him and Bennett on the left of the defence it is hardly surprising that we have leaked so many goals.  I would bring Baker in for West Ham because I don't think Clark will be able to handle Carroll.  Who to play left back is a toss of the coin job between Lichaj, Gordon and Shakin.  To be frank, none of them fill me with much optimism. 

We will be relegated if we keep on conceding goals from corners.  Will we stop doing this?  Does a bear shit in the woods?

Further we need to beef up our midfield.  Ireland/KEA/Holman/Delph/Bannan are simply not good enough to keep us up.

This has got to be one of the worst month's I have ever known as a Villa fan and I have seen us relegated to the old third division.  Diabolical performances against Chelsea, Spurs, Wigan, Bradford and Millwall have made it plain to every Villa fan that we needed to strengthen during this window.  However, here we are with 3 days to go and the only time that a sky reporter has pressed our transfer sign is to tell us we have no money.

What is going on in RL's head is beyond me.  He has invested the best part of £200m in the club and next season PL clubs are set to share in a £60m bonanza.  Surely now is not the time to prevent Lambert buying a couple of players to help keep us up.  Lambert has proved if he is given money he can unearth gems like Benteke.  Everton have just gone out and paid £7m for Leroy Fer, who is the sort of big, skillful midfield player we are crying out for.  Surely if Everton can do business like that, Villa should be doing the same. 

When Villa were relegated from the old first division, it took nearly ten years to get back to the top flight.  I can see the same happening again if we don't act immediately.

With 4 (or 5, not sure) new signings that will probably be in the starting 11 on tuesday, it will take time for them to gel together (QPR a good example). I have a feeling that we'll nick a win.

I will have a pint of what you are on please. 

In some ways you'd rather lose 8-0 than 1-0 to a goal 4 mins into injury time.

At least 8-0 means an internal inquiry / investigation and action

Did the players go out On the piss last night ?

A big reaction and changes needed for Wednesday. Depending on fitness and availability: out Herd, Lichaj/Bennett, Bannan, Holman, Weimann; in Vlaar, Stevens, Delph, Ireland and Gabby.

Each one of his goals this season have been hit first time, which is a rare talent for a stricker to have. He has made all of his goals look easy, but he proved with his cracker against Stoke last year that he has got a great shot in his locker,

I don't know diddly shit about Glenn Murray. I tell you what I do know though; I know some kid I'd never heard of, who'd never played higher than a handful of games at League One, is arguably the best midfielder at this club. I know some striker who managed double figures one time only in the Belgian league now looks like the most complete forward this club has bought in the last decade. I know another kid, his team went down to League One and then couldn't make it back up, who's looked every bit the competent Premier League right back from his first kick of the ball with us. And I know a defender who'd l'd only ever seen make a clown of himself in the Euros, make the captain's armband his own.

If Paul Lambert thinks Glenn Murray can do a job for Aston Villa for a couple million, he's got enough goodwill from me to just get the **** on with it.

Well said sir!

Above WBA.

I see no reason why we should break up the current defensive trio. Vlaar will have to bide his time, which I'm sure he'll understand being the professional he is.

I agree. The current trio have played together for years and have looked very solid and mobile. Although I have been very impressed with Vlaar he should be made aware that he is not an automatic choice. I think this is Lambert's great strength. He does not have favourites like MON and BFR. You only have to look at Bent and Given to realise that CR will have a fight on his hands to get back into the side.

Came over from Ireland for the 2010 game, with a Liverpool fan & a baggies fan, we got tickets for Ireland vs. England at Twickenham the day before but as of 1pm on the Sunday didnt have Cup final tickets, got ones eventually right at the top of the United end, had to be calmed down when Vidic wasn't sent off for my own safety. Was sick looking at the celebrations when we scored and couldn't join in.

Shit refs we always get shit refs and Dowd has got to be the worst of the lot.

I do get the feeling that our results in the cup this season suggest that our name may again be on the trophy this season.

The best game I have seen in this competition? Beating QPR 3-0 in the semi-final replay in 1977 with a Brian Little hat-trick and then beating Everton in the second replay of the final 3-2 at Old Trafford, turning over Manchester United 2-1 in our 1970 semi-final and that 1994 win against the same team 3-1 and singing "where's your treble gone" to them.

Great games and great memories from all of them but for me beating a Manchester United team who had lifted the European Cup 2 years earlier that contained George Best who had said, "I know we've still got to meet Aston Villa in the semi-final, but I'd be lying if I didn't say that, so far as I am concerned, we must be there already" as a third division club in front of 62,500 at Villa Park was the best of the bunch.

For me out of all those matches and great memories it has got to be the 1977 second replay against Everton at Old Trafford. What a team we had on those days. On the night Morty and Brian Little were magnificent. Mortimer is magic and Brian Little walks on water was ringing round the ground. On the train back to Brum it was packed with Villa fans signing non-stop. Happy days!

When we played 3-5-2 under Brian Little we won the League Cup, were in the semi finals of the FA and finished fourth. The next season we changed the system to accommodate Collymore and everthing went tits up.

3-5-2 suits us because we do not have wide men who are good enough to make 4-4-2 effective. I would keep it as long as we are getting good results, but have confidence that Lambert will change the system if and when the need arises.

I think it is about time the chap had a song of his own and I don't mean something like "one Christian Benteke..."

He needs something individual like Carew or Gabby.

If he keeps playing like he has done so far I predict that he will have at least 3 songs dedicated to him by the end of the season.

Hey, there's nothing I want more than Westwood to be as good as I think he could be, and to stay with us. He's my favourite player right now.

But if he does end up as good as I think he will be, bigger clubs will come calling. Lambert can say they're not for sale, and I believe he intends that. But Young, Downing, Milner, Barry etc weren't for sale. If a player gets his head turned, then there's not much we can do to stop them leaving.

Will Westwood buck the trend and actually be happy to stay with us? Or will we improve enough so that he can realise his ambitions with us?

I would love both or either of those things to be true.

Sorry, I didn't want this thread to go this way. I'd be annoyed if someone else did this, so I won't post on this subject anymore.

I would hope that under Lambert, he and Benteke can realise their ambitions with us, but even if they eventually decide to move on I would trust Lambert to find adeqate replacements. Every player has his price, even United found this with Ronaldo, and if a player wants to leave there is no point in trying to hold onto them. It is the law of the jungle I am afraid.

I think your wrong, Joe.

He's going to be excellent. Depressingly, probably too good for us.

PL is quoted to-day saying that we are trying to build something for the future and that none of our young players are for sale. Lambert has got them believing in themselves and hence they are playing with confidence. Westwood said recently that he honestly did not think he was good enough for the Villa, but he is proving himself wrong. Why should he be too good for us when the future is looking bright. We have huge potential as a club but have never been able to fulfill it since Sir Ron left. If Lambert keeps signing players like Lowton, Westwood and Benteke there is not going to be any reason for any of them to want to leave Villa Park.

Don't you wish your striker was Benteke. Don't you.