Con

Claridge just called Weimann "Wiseman"

Bannan took a swig. He's ready.

Bottles thrown on to the pitch... fuel for the Bannanator.

"Westwood doesn't do anything fancy but he does seem to be reasonably good at not giving the ball away"

Forde 6'2 Shittu 6'3 Beevers 6'4 Smith 5'11 Osborne 6'2 Trotter 6'2 Henry 6'1 Feeney 6' Abdou 5'11 Marquis 6'1 Keogh 6' VS Barry Bannan 5'7" 0-0

Steve Claridge?

Anyone notice when Weimann smashed the corner flag to bits for no reason? I think he wanted to start. Best Villa moment of the match.

There may also have been a little bit on arrogance against Bradford. It's a League Two side - stick on an extra-striker, hoof the ball in, they won't clear all of them and there will be lots of chances from the second phase. Win the game, Bannan is rested for Millwall, looks like a genius. Actually Bradford must have dealt with those dive-bomb well because I don't remember one good chance second half, other than the late Weimann goal from Given's kick out.

Agree. It's ordering your soldiers to charge without giving them any ammunition. He's a young manager. Like our young kids is he too easily buckled under pressure?

I don't know where you get that idea from. Westwood hasn't performed a single dribble this season. Westwood gets and gives it quicker and as a result is caught out less often than Delph and Bannan, whom you are right in saying get caught dawdling too often. Bannan has the same number of tackles this season as Britton, in the Swansea team - in less game time. Neither are defensive players but I bet you Britton is working in the better defensive system. Swansea are a team of midgets but they have the highest tackling success rate in the league, because they work together.

The defenders are hurt because they are conceding so many goals. They want to fix everything themselves, play all the attacking balls. It's a natural psychological reaction, but it's an urge experienced defenders would be able to resist. I don't have any real statistics for movement. But it's not really necessary. When defenders play the ball along the back line they only face a striker. If they are patient they can pass it sideways between them until they can find a midfielder. They are too impatient. What our attack has become is this - Silly run down the wings from our WBs, crappy 1-2s with the winger, WB sends in a hopeless cross that gives the ball back.

I'm not blaming the midfield. We could strengthen there of course but with better organisation and a more disciplined defence behind them, they'd at least take us to mid-table. The Lowton/Bennett experiment is really letting us down. So wasteful of possession.

They are being patient, waiting for an opportunity to make an attacking pass. The problem is the defence is impatient, and doesn't give them the ball back to make that attacking pass. 34% of Bannan and Westwood's passes are backwards. That's not excessive. Let's compare shall we? 36% of Dembele's, 35.7% of Gerrard's and 37.6% of Cleverley's passes go backwards. Your criticism is a non-criticism. I wouldn't blame our CMs for passing backwards more often - perhaps they don't because they are used to the defenders not giving it to them back.

the defence is over-worked because they don't help the midfield keep possession. when the defence has possession they give it straight back to the opposition, rather to our midfield. our defence kicks 52% of our long balls but they are only 50% accurate - nearer 30-40% accurate for our WBs. they are constantly giving away possession where as they could be keeping it and giving it to the midfield to do something more intelligent with. Man Utd's defence only kicks 36% of their long balls which tells you where the problem is.

Swansea got out of the Championship with little players. We are one of the best 5 clubs in the league for winning headers. Look at what this table is telling us. Liverpool are one of the most dominant teams in the air in the PL at the moment. Daniel Agger wins 61% aerial dules, Martin Skrtel wins 69%. Clark wins 58%, Vlaar wins 71%/Baker wins 70%. At CB we're about the same. The league leaders? Man Utd are worse. Ferdinand wins 56% aerial battles, Johnny Evans 52%. We are good in the air. What we lack is organisation - at set pieces, and in "second phase."

Look at the key passes stat and compare with other teams - esp. Bannan's. The midfield does provide service. Problem is our wing backs and defence don't have nearly as good passing, crossing, longball stats as our midfield, and it's often the wing backs and CBs - not our wingers, CMs, or forwards - lobbing the balls in. This is also a matter of organisation. Our midfield is not terrible. That is an unfounded assertion. Our midfield is underused. Our defence is terrible and our organisation is wretched.

From the statistics thread. You don't need a team of muscle men to do well in this league - look at Swansea and compare them to Tottenham (one of the tallest teams in the PL).

Disagree. Here is a table of equivalent players from other Premiership teams we could have in their position. In terms of passing, crossing, and long balls, our CMs are absolutely not out of place in this league. I think organisation and defence is a bigger problem.

Nope. Britton has 28 tackles in 21 appearances. Bannan has 28 tackles in 20 appearances. Neither are defensive players. These players were short but very physically strong. Britton's role is more like Xavi with fewer frills. Doesn't put a cross in. He gets and gives, linking the two sides of the pitch. Not a set piece but in the WBA game there was nobody at the top of the penalty box preventing Brunt getting a free shot at goal. This is defensive organisation.

It may look assertive but I've done the research and can back every claim up with stats. Just try.

Long ball is a style. Long balls need to be accurate. We've tried. Ours aren't. They'll win the knock downs anyway so is pointless. 442 is a basic football system. None of this 3-2-4-1 shit. Any length pass you want, unless you're a defender because defenders can't pass.

Maybe with the word "style" Lambert was referring to very attacking WBs? So from now on we'll play traditional more defensive FBs, 442 system and "battle".

I was being sarcastic!

Lambert quote Bad news. We are not going to play any stylish football from now on.

If you look at the top 5 most dominant teams on this list they are Man Utd, Man City, Chelsea, Arsenal, Liverpool. They all have the top percentages for possession and tackling. Heading seems less important, so long as you are not bad at that. I don't think the evidence is we are especially bad at heading. We don't concede a lot of goals to headers in the PL, although our air dominance here may be a statistical anomaly due to the Benteke Effect. What we lack, as you suggest, is a physical presence in midfield. Our midfielders can pass but they can't tackle. We shouldn't over-exaggerate the physical though - look at this. What I find incredible, Swansea, which is a midget team, wins 79% of tackles, whilst Tottenham, which is a team of giants wins only 74%. How does AVB restrict opponents to so few shots at goal whilst being so bad at tackling and weak in the air (despite their height advantage over most teams - tallest midfield in the PL!)? Who is Swansea's defensive midfielder who wins all these tackles? They ain't got one. Swansea's players may be playing a more effective defensive system to us, where they pick and choose tackles better. They don't dive in but only tackle if they are definitely going to win the ball, otherwise they work with each other to shepherd opponent players to the wings where they are less dangerous. This would mean the Swansea midgets will have attempted fewer tackles than other teams. (From a quick glance at the stats again - yes this is true!). So it's not just a question of physicality. A big physical player who can tackle would help but as Swansea shows, it's not necessary. It's organisation.