PB

Because Shay would have saved it ... in his dreams

Did I hear this right? West Ham approached us for Bent but didnt get anywhere?

Why worry about Chelsea? Even in the deep dark depths of last season we scored 5 against them in the league. Villa Park is about as close to a bogey ground as Chelsea have. Would rather play them over 2 legs than at Wembley, thats for sure

No worse than 14th. If we come in the top half lambert should get knighted for pulling off one of the biggest gambles of all time

I dont know what you were watching then, because quite alot of people could see in those early games that the lad had massive talent. Im not only saying that because I was one of them and said so repeatedly and loudly in the face of the frankly bizarre criticism he was getting. To be so over the top dismissive of a player who quite clearly had a hell of alot about him hints at a pretty deep and dark cynicism that does you no favours People need to relax, be patient, and you know what? Be bloody optimistic. We are supposed to be fanatical supporters of our football team. Im not saying to blindly follow, me of all people could not preach that without massive hypocrisy, but when things are clearly on an upcurve, enjoy it, accept it will take time. Dont be so hasty to paint yourself into a stupid corner you then feel the need to defend.to such ridiculous extents

Agreed. We have lost only twice in the last 11, to the top 2

22 Oct 2012 http://www.villatalk...ot-good-enough/

He has such massive strength, so you cant stick close or he will brush you off (see Smalling, Skrtel). You cant give him space either because of his technical ability. He will win more than share in the air, and is equally adept on the floor. He has this great ability to ghost into space, he is unselfish, hard working a proper team player. How do you defend that?

West ham are all about Diame. If he is fit and playing they are a really decent team, without him they are pretty weak of course there will be, we are a ridiculously young team. Did they say on MOTD that bannan was our most experienced player yesterday? Thats silly. What you look for, as I said a few weeks ago, is improvement over groups of games. I think i said (after the Norwich game) that we needed to be turning the new year with 20 points or more.. Doing so would show a really big step up from the start of our season. It is a measure of how much we have improved that it seems unlikely we will turn the new year with less than 20 points, whereas when I wrote that it looked a tall order I think this shows that we should very much be looking upwards in the table. I am EXTREMELY confident that we wont finish lower than where we are.now. I am starting to think top half might be possible, and if we achieve that it would be a truly remarkable achievement for lambert

Time to start looking up the table now and forward to a cup semi,and stop worrying about relegation

Ok,so just to clarify in a non withering put down way. What I meant to say, is that despite our apparent lack of shots, I have felt in all four games now of 3-5-2 that we look far more likely to score goals, I have been much more confident that we could and would score goals than at any time for about five years Now i understand thats my subjective opinion, but its an opinion now being borne out. I had no doubt at all watching yesterday's game that we would win . Liverpool may have had more shots and possession, but never really looked threatening, never really looked likely to break us down. We, however, looked every time that we broke like we could score. We carried the greater threat. Thats all I meant by shots having no real correlation to goal threat, that the two arent related. I think thats pretty clear, and Im not sure why you feel so upset by me pointing it out, but as I appear to have somehow offended you,I'm sorry, no offence meant,.

How many shots did we have today? How much threat did we pose? Football isnt played with statistics

Considering that they brought back two players from injury who had been first picks before, and otherwise fielded eight of the nine who started the game at Swansea, how do you think they could strengthen? They may well make some changes, but thats because they just got tanked at home by a team they thought they'd beat Why is it that the team and managers biggest critics, the hardest to please, the last to be convinced, are the clubs own fans? Isnt it supposed to be the other way around?

\you dont think Norwich and Villa took the game seriously on Tuesday? Really? Wow, I thought that both teams and both sets of fans gave it everything. Statistics dont mean a thing. In all three games we looked like we could score, we had decent pressure, we had decent possession. Yeah we struggled second half v QPR but otherwise. We didnt always turn that into shots, but thats just not the same thing as goal threat in any sense..

And yet we seem to have posed a greater goal threat in our last three games than any others? 3-5-2 can be a very attacking formation, depends on your full backs and the attacking one of the three midfield players When we last won the League cup in 96 we played a VERY attacking 3-5-2

Reading are going down. QPR are too far behind too, if they were going to stay up they would have won one of their last two games which they must have viewed as must wins. Because they didnt win either of those (against us and Wigan), I dont think they'll invest in january as they wont want to go down with a massive wage liability- if anything they might even cut some existing players loose. So that leaves one spot. There is just no way that we are the worst team of those left. Wigan, Sunderland, Southampton and even Norwich imho are all going to finish below us. Relax and enjoy our improvement.

The people organizing the pound sign protest were very careful to give the manager and players their full and unconditional support. As I wrote the press releases for the organisation behind the protests I can tell you that this was explicit throughout

In the system we play we need goals from midfield, especially those who play behind the striker - Gabby, Holmann, Ireland. Thats whats missing so far. Benteke is doing an awesoime job. but youre right, we shouldnt rely on him to carry all thej goal threat

He'd be wasting his breath if he did

One could argue that we drew jsust enough games to stay up...... however, we arent drawing as much this year are we? Can you not see a draw as being a good result sometimes?

A point away from home when youre at this end of the table is almost always a good result. Under the circumstances, first home game for their new manager and the crowd really being up for it, the second half battering we took, I think a draw is a really good result under those circumstances. Many people on here were predicting we'd get mullahed so presumably those people are very happy with the draw? I also dont think the performance was *that* bad, first half it was pretty decent - its the first half of football we've had more than 50^ possession away form home all season I'd imagine.Second half, yeah we were outplayed, but, and its a MASSIVE but, we didnt concede, and even as recently as a couple of weeks ago we'd have crumbled under that kind of pressure. We have needed all season to start getting better at holding onto things, and the last 3 games we have shown real progress in that department. So there are positives to be found. We are getting there. The kids are adjusting to the League, we are getting harder to beat, our second halfs are improving. Yes, we need to get better, of course we do, but we are showing signs that we are doing exactly that

If we keep the ball on the floor Stoke wont even see it Bentekkerrs will eat Shawcross for breakfast But yeah, a draw would be OK

Someone from the lower leagues pls

I think we are showing signs of it coming together. We are playing more as a team, we look less fragile, more resilient. There is still clearly massive room for improvement but we are getting there.in stages. I think this is also the general view of most people who have seen villa recently from what I read and hear You know what I'd love? I'd love these kids to get a shot at Wembley in the League Cup Final

Unless you have someone who scores as many, but gives so much more?