Con

Clark can play DM because he has enough technical ability but he's not athletic enough or a particularly great tackler. He was okay in that position when he was younger because he was still growing and hadn't bulked up. DMs need to be powerful but also agile because they're always moving and following the ball, falling down, getting up. Clark has the agility of a tardis in quicksand. I want him to continue at centre back. He's good there.

I thought I got it from wikipedia. These numbers seem to change. I agree with you now that Clark is not 6'3. Wiki has Clark at 6'2 (188) and Baker at 6'3 (191). Whoscored has Baker and Clark at 188. 188 = 6'2. http://www.miniwebtool.com/cm-to-feet-and-inches-converter/?cm=188

Both our CBs are 6'3". Winning aerial battles is only partly to do with how tall you are. It's also a question of good positioning, when you time your jump, and how springy your leap is.

That's a ludicrous and pointless rule.

I would not normally pick Bowery either but an on form League Two striker would surely have put away some of the chances Benteke has missed in the last few games. Only needs to play for 60 minutes. It's not much point having Benteke on from the start, him scoring two, and we lose 3-2. Benteke might not perform again for the rest of the season. If we bench him, we're down 2-nil he could come on and pull out a result.

AndyM3000 included examples from open play. However, creating opportunities from open play when your team is under defensive siege for 90 minutes is hard, unless you use the long ball.

Actually I can think of a reason. Benteke got us confused with another club (West Ham?) when he arrived (thought Aston Villa was in London), then later told the media his favourite team was Arsenal, hoped to play for a big club one day. Something like that. Perhaps this shows he doesn't respect Aston Villa as a club that much compared to some of our other players. Doesn't like being in a relegation fight with all this pressure he has never felt in his career before. It's not fun. Liverpool game showed he can do it in the Premiership. It doesn't if Villa goes down, they'll be buyers even if he doesn't score again this season. What Benteke needs is competition. I'd be tempted to bench him for the West Brom game. Especially as fellow Belgian Lukaku will be playing for the baggies. He'll be desperate to prove he is better than Lukaku, so bench him, bring him on as sub.

N'Zogbia was taking a lot of our corners and free kicks last season, and Albrighton also takes corners. Bannan needs to be a permanent fixture in our midfield and nobody else should be allowed to take set pieces when he's on the pitch (r u listening N'Zogbia?)

Excellent post Cambridge-AVFC! Agree with all of that. Could I make a small suggestion though? You are writing in large paragraphs which I find difficult to read on screen. Could you put more spaces between the sentences?

what is the question? If the question is: how do we create more chances, get accurate set piece delivery, retain ball possession? Bannan is the answer (out of the selection of CMs we have on offer). If the question is: how do we break down opposition attacks, steal the ball, boss the midfield with strong physical play? Bannan is not the answer.

The MOTD pundits showed a highlight where Delph gave the ball away on the edge of the Southampton semi-circle which lead to a breakaway. He also made a keystone cops clearance against Clark which lead to a chance for Southampton and the penalty. He was mostly good defensively though but did not cut through the Southampton line with his passes in attack. He's done enough to keep his spot in the next match if we don't sign any new CMs before then. Edit: Actually if Herd is back fit, I'd start him ahead of Delph.

What is the value of Leon Britton to the Swansea team? I do think Bannan is an assist getter. He would get them if the finishing was better. That's been more obvious over the last two games when our finishing has been very poor. I'm not saying really weird trollish comments from Mars. He was complimented in the Guardian for his crossing against Bradford. I posted the quote to this thread. Bannan has real talent that is noticeable to neutral observer. Why are we wasting it?

Don't understand this comment after today's defensive performance. Would have been his 6th clean sheet of the season if it wasn't for the cheated penalty decision.

The set pieces today were great though. We can agree he is not a tackler. I don't think he should be in the team to tackle. That is why some think he should be paired with a "Busquets" - a strong DM. As for number of assists, as Leon Britton has shown for Swansea you don't need to have any goals or assists to be an important member of the squad/team. Also, you need goalscorers to get assists and apart from Bent we've not had many real goalscorers in the team until this year. This year Bannan has one assist, and has not had that much game (50% available minutes in midfield) and when he has delivered like today or in midweek against Bradford, the team-mate hasn't found the net. The important thing is the team is creating chances. When the team is not creating chances - then you worry. I was worried in the first half when Bannan wasn't playing.

I don't think I'm on my own. In the last five pages, there have been 8 supportive comments from 8 different posters. Now 9 including lexicon, above. When I say these are supportive comments, I'm not saying they are not at all critical. I am often critical of Bannan's play and you can read my criticisms in posts on previous pages. So the following posters I would say are not haters, rather than supporters. I'll leave them to their own posts to say what level of support they'd give the player.

I disagree, if you read through the last pages you will find Bannan has a lot of supporters on here. I have provided the source for my stats. Whoscored.com and my own data on minutes played - which can be checked by anyone with the interest to do so. If someone plays well and people say he is as terrible as ever, that is the moment when I feel bias - who knows where it is from - influences judgement. Bannan was at the very least an upgrade on N'Zogbia but nobody is giving him the credit for that. He has been criticised for his corners but one today was half-a-post-width away from being a goal. That would have been another assist. Bannan has been very unlucky over the last two games that his excellent delivery has not been converted into any goals.

For the amount of touches he had stuck out on LW, and for the amount of time he was on the pitch (half-time sub), he was our most effective midfielder. I'm defining effective as being dangerous to the opposition. Delph had a good game defensively but did not do anything incisive with all the touches he had. That is why Lambert eventually subbed Westwood, who was not having the best game, and brought Bannan into CM with Delph about 15 minutes from time. That decision was made way too late. Bannan should have started.

Does he earn enough yet to afford an agent? I also speak with an English accent so not his brother. Just a Villa fan. You are trying to sound incredulous that I could say anything positive about Bannan. The compliments are not hard when you look at his actual performances without bias. He was stuck out on LW today, not his natural position, and was still our most effective midfielder.

I won't find getting relegated because we did not play Barry Bannan often enough funny. 18/19 points he's won for us. 10k a week midifielder who's only played 50% of available minutes. No other midfielder gets close to him. Not to his record, not to his set piece delivery. It is bizarre why he is not first choice week in week out. Perhaps Lambert reads this thread and does not want you guys to hate him for picking Bannan? If that's the case... better start supporting Bannan or we're going down.

Your comments do not reflect the match. Bannan's delivery was superb. There was not one misplaced free kick or corner. You must be confusing his corners with N'Zogbia's which were all over the place. N'Zogbia was taking the corners even when Bannan was on, they on switched when N'Zog was subbed.

Bannan did well when he came on, initially LW until Westwood subbed. Corners started to hit their targets (N'Zog taking them before) and we got chances from set pieces. Shocking decision not to start him after he created so many chances against Bradford. Bannan changed the game as in the first half we had no threat going forward. For some reason though, Lambert did not return him to CM until Westwood left the pitch.

Benteke is in the right place to shoot. He creates chances with his flick ons. A key player for us and will be for the rest of the season. Feeling the pressure of the relegation fight, I think.

No defending can stop a one-on-one with the keeper which is what happens if your defender miskicks the ball straight to the opposition. Talent is not infinite in supply, so there is usually a trade-off between defending and passing skill. There are very few Beckenbauer, Ramos, Kompany, Ferdinand, and Terry's who have it all but there are a lot of Robert Huths and James Collins who don't. So if you can't have a player who has it all - there are so few and all the biggest clubs have them - you have to compromise either on the defending skill or the passing skill. You can't have both. So your options are: - two James Collins at CB playing hoofball, giving ball away to opposition midfielders, misdirecting pass-backs to keeper - two David Lulz at CB playing fancy football, spraying passes around like David Beckham and scoring great goals, but making ludicrous traditional defensive errors like offside, positioning - one David Lulz and one James Collins. So like the top teams you get a bit of both skills, although you don't get them both in the single player i.e. Vincent Kompany, Sergio Ramos etc.