Bunnski

It has 2v2 but only in team play lobby where you make your room and people join it. There's no ranked 2v2.

Think of the job a manager is gonna have trying to replace Delph, Vlaar and Benteke on the wages Lerner hands out. Scary!

All I've left to say on the subject of the manager is that I realise his shortcomings and have been extremely frustrated with alot of things he has done in his time with us. He was by no means the finished article when he took us over and I'm sure he has lerned alot through his time here but maybe hasn't learned enough and maybe never will to be able to get this team finishing higher up the table than 15th but I also realise that many other managers would of had us down by now under the restrictions set in place by Lerner, I'd be fairly sure that OGS would of relegated us in his first season just as an example. I'm prepared to wait til January to see if he can sort it out as a last chance from my point of view. I don't see any good way out of our current situation with Lerner in charge and it's all smoke and mirrors with him and very little genuine ambition which in turn affects the team and restricts any manager who takes the job.

Southampton have the best youth set up in England and thus make extremely high profits on selling their players allowing them to spend more in last Summers transfer window than Lambert has spent in 6 transfer windows. They can also offer the wages required to attract top quality players either on permanent deals or loans.So Bertrand is obviously gonna look better in a team surrounded by quality all over the pitch and on the flip side he is gonna look worse in a team that Lambert has had to put together on Championship standard wages. I'm pretty sure you could of figured that out if you put some thought into it... I can't believe you have said that....what on earth do think we are complaining about. we were supposedly to have one of the best academies in the country ? so where has that line gone, bit the dust has it. The managers/staff at Southampton have bought and developed their players so why shouldn't they prosper from what they sow...its their ability that has generated the funds so good luck to them...why can't we do it? Your argument is just that it is everyone else's fault bar the manager. its his job to find talent and develop it....its his job to find the staff to do it..... whats with all this one of the best academies in the country if we can't produce players that will make an impact on the first team like southampton....do we just make claims and run away from them when it don't work out. I would tender sir, that some of you live in a world of make believe and all these claims are just a figment of the imagination of fans that are desperate for a bit of positivity to feed their passion. I will let you in to a secret...I'm as passionate as the next villa fan but i will be damned to say a pigs ear is a silk purse when i clearly know its not. We all want to be positive, but right now we are having the proverbial Pee taken out of us, by the people running this club and you are not helping by creating mythical mitigating circumstances at every opportunity. In all the years i have been supporting this club I have rarely seen results and performances dished out like this and the manager been granted asylum in the manner this man has.....is it because we have had so many poor managers on the trot that some of us have taken leave of our senses. We buy players and fully amortise them to cut our losses, whose fault is that and if it is the owner for denying him the funds why like a lot of managers does he not come out and say so.....we have now spent 110 mill to end up with this excuse for football. I'm sorry, but i simply do not share your view in the slightest. My argument wasn't that it's everyone elses fault bar the manager so i dunno where you got that from, I stated in a previous post that the manager takes alot of the blame for how things are atm. My argument was that Bertrand looks a better player with Southampton because he is surrounded by better quality players. Southampton are on a different level to us due to how they have been run from the top. Is Nigel Adkins a top manager? Does he take the credit for the position they are in now after his spell with them or do the people running the club? The people running Southampton have backed their managers and set up a quality infrastructure and are the reason they are where they are atm. A different owner with any ambition would of sacked Lambert long ago. Lerner has to take the majority of the blame for how the club is atm. Just because I'm prepared to wait til Xmas before deciding how I feel about Lambert being our manager doesn't mean that I can't see his faults so spare me the condescending dribble about living in a dream world to feed my passion and need for a positive view on things. Such bs it's actually a pathetic statement by yourself! I agree with your criticism of Lerner in saying he should have sacked him a while back, but then you say you would give him until Xmas so why would you wait, do you not think we have waited long enough. I am a bit confused with that line of thought? The reason I would wait is because I'm fearful of how another manager would get on under Lerner. After the Everton game I had nearly giving up on Lambert and the very least I needed to see was some kind of fight and a decent approach to our next games. We then played Qpr and while we looked pretty bad when we got up around there box we atleast tried to take the game to them and had the right approach to the game, we then played great vs Spurs and really had a go at them and were unlucky to come away with nothing. We then played West Ham and battled really hard and just about deserved a point from that game imo. If the team didn't respond after the Everton game I would be calling for Lambert to go also but because we have responded in a positive fashion I am prepared to wait til the midway point in the season and see how we stand then.

Southampton have the best youth set up in England and thus make extremely high profits on selling their players allowing them to spend more in last Summers transfer window than Lambert has spent in 6 transfer windows. They can also offer the wages required to attract top quality players either on permanent deals or loans.So Bertrand is obviously gonna look better in a team surrounded by quality all over the pitch and on the flip side he is gonna look worse in a team that Lambert has had to put together on Championship standard wages. I'm pretty sure you could of figured that out if you put some thought into it... I can't believe you have said that....what on earth do think we are complaining about. we were supposedly to have one of the best academies in the country ? so where has that line gone, bit the dust has it. The managers/staff at Southampton have bought and developed their players so why shouldn't they prosper from what they sow...its their ability that has generated the funds so good luck to them...why can't we do it? Your argument is just that it is everyone else's fault bar the manager. its his job to find talent and develop it....its his job to find the staff to do it..... whats with all this one of the best academies in the country if we can't produce players that will make an impact on the first team like southampton....do we just make claims and run away from them when it don't work out. I would tender sir, that some of you live in a world of make believe and all these claims are just a figment of the imagination of fans that are desperate for a bit of positivity to feed their passion. I will let you in to a secret...I'm as passionate as the next villa fan but i will be damned to say a pigs ear is a silk purse when i clearly know its not. We all want to be positive, but right now we are having the proverbial Pee taken out of us, by the people running this club and you are not helping by creating mythical mitigating circumstances at every opportunity. In all the years i have been supporting this club I have rarely seen results and performances dished out like this and the manager been granted asylum in the manner this man has.....is it because we have had so many poor managers on the trot that some of us have taken leave of our senses. We buy players and fully amortise them to cut our losses, whose fault is that and if it is the owner for denying him the funds why like a lot of managers does he not come out and say so.....we have now spent 110 mill to end up with this excuse for football. I'm sorry, but i simply do not share your view in the slightest. My argument wasn't that it's everyone elses fault bar the manager so i dunno where you got that from, I stated in a previous post that the manager takes alot of the blame for how things are atm. My argument was that Bertrand looks a better player with Southampton because he is surrounded by better quality players. Southampton are on a different level to us due to how they have been run from the top. Is Nigel Adkins a top manager? Does he take the credit for the position they are in now after his spell with them or do the people running the club? The people running Southampton have backed their managers and set up a quality infrastructure and are the reason they are where they are atm. A different owner with any ambition would of sacked Lambert long ago. Lerner has to take the majority of the blame for how the club is atm. Just because I'm prepared to wait til Xmas before deciding how I feel about Lambert being our manager doesn't mean that I can't see his faults so spare me the condescending dribble about living in a dream world to feed my passion and need for a positive view on things. Such bs it's actually a pathetic statement by yourself!

The manager is limited in what he can promise a player in trying to convince him to stay, I'll leave it at that and leave you guys to keep arguing the same points over and over without ever changing your views...

Or maybe coaching and management have a part in how a player performs. With your logic anyone could be a successful manager as long as the club signed good players. That's not my logic at all, but money plays a bigger part in competing in the premier league these days than ever before so when a club like ours spends peanuts on wages and transfers then its without doubt gonna affect our ability to attract quality players and leave us having to sign unproven players, many of which won't work out and in turn affects the overall quality of the team and squad. Yes, two differences to be precise. 1.Their club is well-run with an investment strategy that can survive a massive turnover of their best players like in last summer's window (cf how we managed the aftermath of the sales of Milner, Young, etc.); 2. They have a good manager who can recruit little-known talented players and mould them quickly into an effective team. (cf Lambert's rather shambolic buying, loaning out, loaning in, exiling to "bomb squad" then un-exiling etc.) (Oh, and I don't know this but I'm willing to guess they also have an assistant manager who concentrates on the club and doesn't spend most of his time either working with an international side or being controversial in public to help sell his book.) It has been stated that the bomb squad was enforced upon Lambert by Lerner so you can lay the blame for that with the chairman along with your first point. I'm not saying that Lambert is the messiah but I believe he deserves more of a chance this season and we can see where we stand in a couple of months time. I voted for the third option in the poll. I agree with your last point about Keane and am finding him a bit tedious at this stage tbh. Time for an avatar change I think

For the fee and wages paid and the performances we got out of him I'd definitely class it as a masterstroke. God forbid anything positive and true could ever be said about Lambert without other people making sure the negatives are over stated!

Why would Vlaar sign a new contract when Lerner put the club up for sale and the whole club is surrounded in uncertainty? Vlaar not signing a new deal has nothing to do with Lambert and everything to do with wanting to play at a higher level and to compete for trophies.

How is it a mess up from Lambert? I'd class it as a masterstroke myself that Lambert got Vlaar for £3.5m. Name me some other centre backs that we could of signed for that money and wages that would of performed to the level that Vlaar did in his time with us? He basically won us points on his own with his performances and there was a stat last year of points won with and without him in the team which clearly showed his importance to the team. It's ok to find negatives in the way the club is run but you don't always have to try and find a way to blame Lambert for things that go wrong. Lerner is the one who has us where we are now and imo Lambert has constantly had the odds stacked against him and has in turn had to adapt to try keep us in the league. A masterstroke? Have you seen our defence since Lambert's been here. We were better with him but still not good enough. He's importance shows how poor the rest of the defence Lambert put together was. Yeah we should of just signed Kompany and Mangala and offered them £20k per week, easy isn't it?

Yes I agree Lambert takes alot of the blame but I also realise that he has been fighting a losing battle due to the chairman and how he changed things when Lambert took over. He has had to sign unproven players mainly due to wages and had the bomb squad enforced upon him. Any manager that took over would of had the odds stacked against them, I'm sure some other managers could of done a better job but I'm also sure that plenty of other managers would of had us relegated by now. It's still early days this season and we have had rotten luck with injuries and illness, I'd also state that out of all the teams in the league we have had the hardest run of fixtures. The manager deserves the chance to see it through to Xmas atleast and then we can assess things although I can't see Lerner sacking him regardless anyway so give over the moaning and support the players and manager.

How is it a mess up from Lambert? I'd class it as a masterstroke myself that Lambert got Vlaar for £3.5m. Name me some other centre backs that we could of signed for that money and wages that would of performed to the level that Vlaar did in his time with us? He basically won us points on his own with his performances and there was a stat last year of points won with and without him in the team which clearly showed his importance to the team. It's ok to find negatives in the way the club is run but you don't always have to try and find a way to blame Lambert for things that go wrong. Lerner is the one who has us where we are now and imo Lambert has constantly had the odds stacked against him and has in turn had to adapt to try keep us in the league.

Our youth set up under Lambert does not seem to be improving - if anything it looks like it is getting worse. That doesn't factor in all the players they sold. On a net basis their net spend was negative £31m whereas our was positive £6m. Yes, they purchased some decent players but they sold most of their best players too. Bertrand is going to look better when a team plays to his strengths. Sadly our manager sets up the team about 90% of the time to stop the opposition playing rather than to get us playing in an exciting and successful way. So what if their net spend was minus £31m, they spend roughly £70m last Summer and signed some absolutely top quality players. Can you not see the big difference between their situation and ours? As for the youth set-up, I'd put more blame on the likes of Faulkner and Lerner. If we had a chairman who supported his manager then we would have a better quality team with better players thus allowing our youth players the chance to come into a team with less pressure on them. In the current state our youth players are being thrown in at the deep end and have had too much responsibility put upon them.

Southampton have the best youth set up in England and thus make extremely high profits on selling their players allowing them to spend more in last Summers transfer window than Lambert has spent in 6 transfer windows. They can also offer the wages required to attract top quality players either on permanent deals or loans.So Bertrand is obviously gonna look better in a team surrounded by quality all over the pitch and on the flip side he is gonna look worse in a team that Lambert has had to put together on Championship standard wages. I'm pretty sure you could of figured that out if you put some thought into it...

He was terrible when he came on vs Parma in pre season and looked very shaky. Hopefully he is in good condition and he said himself he is ready. We are gonna need him to play to the top of his game vs Southampton which I doubt hew will due to it being his first proper game in over a year but I'll be happy if he atleast comes through the game without any injuries and he can then try and nail down a place in the starting 11.

Be careful what you wish for, plenty of examples of teams who went down and people thought they would come straight back up but they end up stuck in the lower divisions. Would people seriously think us being in the championship with Lerner as owner would be a good thing?? Our best outcome is to stay up and get new owners that are ambitous.

Lambert is going to sign a decent winger in a million years, and even if he did, where would he play? Eh...as a wing forward in our 4-3-3 formation. A decent winger with a good touch and end product would do wonders for us. We were linked to Gnabry, Moses, Sinclair and Atsu in the Summer so I don't see it as being too far fetched to suggest we might sign a winger in January.

Sign a decent winger and get Benteke firing and we will be fine. Might need to get a striker in on loan also if Kozak doesn't get back playing. 11th place finish.

One of the pundits on setanta said that MON got Keane to do the press conference after the Scotland game to cause a bit of controversy and take some of the headlines away from how terrible Ireland played in the match. Sounds fairly spot on to me.

After 7 months of training and numerous matches you think he's not match fit? Let's see who plays Monday as I think Jores really deserves a chance 'match fit' or not? I think he's match fit in terms of being able to play a certain level of 90 minute football match. That doesn't necessarily mean he's match fit for the premier league. So without playing in the Premier League how does he get match fit for the Premier League? It would be completely dependant on the injury and/or the individual. I don't know Jores or have much detail about his injury, or his recovery or his mindset, or his training regime or even his performance in the games he's played in so I couldn't possibly comment. See above See above No it isn't. But it is certainly a level of football below the premier league. MAYBE the best way to get Okore back is to ease him into football gently via pre season games, U21 games, international U21 games and then first team appearances? MAYBE throwing the player into first team action isn't the best course of action in this case? I don't know, I'm just guessing. I find it hard to believe that he's fallen out with the manager and I find it hard to believe that he is lower in ability than all of our other defenders. The conclusion I've come to is I think he's being eased back in slowly after a very bad injury. I might be wrong, but I think I've explained sufficiently why I've come to that conclusion. Whether it's falling out or Lambert easing him back gently I still want him to start against Southampton if Vlaar, Senderos and Baker are all injured! I don't see why he couldn't have fallen out with Lambert we know Lambert is a vindictive little man from past actions? Yeah it's all 'little vindictive' Lamberts fault , everyone else is free of any wrong doing because Lambert is the devil himself. Bore off

I've really being enjoying it so far. The online works great and most games are different from the last. The one-two is the best way to get behind an opponents defence for online that I've found. I've been playing 2v2, MyClub and Champions League with a mate using Share Play and have had great fun with all of them.

I read a few weeks back that Kjaer from Lille wants to move to the Premier league. He would be a decent replacement imo.

His agent is quoted Today as saying Southampton wanted him in the summer but Vlaar didn't see it as a step up from Villa. Hopefully he is fit for a prolonged period heading upto the January transfer and we can look to still get a decent fee for him. I can see Arsenal being desperate to get an experienced centre back and Utd also might be desperate so we could get an inflated fee.

I still don't rate him in a defensive sense, he has lots to improve on but I think he has tried to get stuck in a lot more so far this season. As for attacking, he is the only player in our team capable of an accurate first time pass and he sets up so much of our good play by thinking quickly and executing the required pass. I don't get all this 'he has to impose himself on games', I mean he doesn't have the build or the height to be bullying players off the ball. If Sanchez can keep up his good work in a DMF role then I'm sure that his job will be to impose himself in midfield thus allowing our other midfielders to concentrate on us improving our play when we have the ball instead of all 3 midfielders having to be more defensive than anything in most games as it currently stands.

Crikey, if it was easy to pick up extra points in those games, it makes you wonder why we didn't... What are you on about? The point is we have been well in them games and should have took more than a point. People are talking like we have been atrocious and were dominated by the opposition when in fact we have showed great fight and played well enough to win games and I'm sure we will if we keep playing similar.