flashingqwerty

agree he is better than clark at CB, but that mostly because Clark is a midfielder.

clark is too good a footballer to play at centre back

As someone who has played in goal, he isn't getting anywhere near either of them, Guzan didn't have much to do apart from them two shots though, apart from the last half an hour we were okay and should have been 1-0 up. We are away at Spurs, its a hard game.

you mean other than the two saves from bale that were tipped onto the post?and the 3 saves from defoe shots that were just inside the post?and the 2 shots from lennon that were heading inside the far post?nah sure he had nothing to do only made 7 saves...

if you would care to share anything he did from around the 52rd minute onwards whcih constitues good play then im all ears, as i said it is from around that time that i started watching the game.if he didnt then you cant have been reading my post very carefully.maybe looking at some of the match again may refresh peoples memories including guzan being motionless, he didnt need to dive, he just needed to move his right arm for the first goalhttp://www.soccer-bl...er-goals-video/and oddly from around the 52nd minute onwards i dont see 1 villa attack, yep, not one so where you think i should see gabby playing from i really dont know

54th minute, gabby crosses from the left to benteke in lots of space, benteke scufffs the shot and lloris makes an easy save.67th minute, gabby chases down a lay out from lloris to caulker amd wins a corner76th minute, gabby chases back to cover for lowton who surged forward and lost possession, beating lennon for pace and shadowing the ball out for a goal kicknah he didnt do anything either...as for guzan not moving for the first goal - the ball was ging wide before it took the deflection so he wouldnt have been even considering diving for it. From it taking a deflection to passing the line is less than .5 seconds which means it was past him before a human being can possible react in that type of situation so him standing still only proves he's human really

Clear booking. Would like to see players sent of for this sort of thing in an ideal world.

totally agree - and that angle shows bale to be precisely what he is - a massive cheating word removed (and he's welsh on top of it all - jk)

we were shit, i only saw the second half but from what i saw

guzan made a couple good saves but was no where near either of their shots for the goals

bennet didnt do anything coming forwards

vlaar did ok

clarke was wasteful with the ball and drifted

holman didnt do anything

gabby? im guessing he played? seriously i dont know if he did, if he did he was never mentioned and did litereally **** all so maybe he didnt play?

i saw benteke was playing although he won not 1 header and did nothing

delph, did little before being taken off

keo did nothing gave the ball away each time he had it disapointing

albrighton didnt see him as i tuned in about 5 minutes before he was taken off, he never touched the ball

dont know who else was supposed to be on the pitch, they did **** all apart from give the ball away and leave great big open spaces for spurz to literally just walk through

subs

bent didnt touch the ball - should have started

nzogbia each and every **** time this idiot gets the ball he homes in on the largest crowd of opposition players and then just walks up to them gives them the ball and then stands there like a twunt

banan did nothing of note apart from his normal hollywood 90 yard air passes to the sidelines

i only saw second half but it was the exact same weak pss poor standrd i saw against southampton

it is not good enough, put 5 in the middle until we have a decent strong midfield because we are getting walked through every week

if our forwards were scoring then the 2 up front would work better as the opponents would be holding back to stop it, we arent and dont look like scoring so they dont need to worry about the 2nd forward

sort it out lambo

I'm sorry but WHAT???

Guzan had no chance with either goal... The first a deflection which took the ball into a totally different direction from its original path and the second was a good finish which he had no chance of getting to. He made a string of really good if not world class saves to keep us in the game until the deflected goal so i dont understand how anyone can criticise brad on this performance - HE WAS IMMENSE

in case you didnt know bennet is a defender, his job is to DEFEND. Not to mention that he has come from a lower division, is very young, and has little Premier League experience. baring that in mind his was excellent today.

Vlaar did ok? c'mon were you even watching? If it wasnt for vlaar we'd have conceeded double figures today, the man was immense

clarke wasteful? yeah that one i can agree with - but we havent anyone else who can play centre back who knows how to pass or defend so until januray we're stuck with him

holman didnt do anything - again were you watching? he's the only player in the entire team who bothers his arse to close don and make himself a nuisance in misdfield. without him ni the side our midfield would be an ever bigger joke than it already is

gabby - probably our only real creative force today when given the passes to feet in a little space made their defenders worry and work very hard. If our midfield were able to pass better he'd be doing better but a striker cant cause problems if the midfield is only capable of giving the ball away

benteke... well he was wasteful. shockingly so... i think i could have scored with that header today, not to mention the other great chance he had inside the 6 yard box. i understand why he's playing ahead of bent - because he actually puts in some effort when the team doesnt have the ball, but the lad hasnt a notion how to score a goal...

delph was a funny one... made a nuisance of himself but was a little reckless. But it says a lot that we completely fell to peices after he left the pitch

not sure who keo is i assume you mean KEA? and i'd say he was our best midfielder today, both the highest pass completion percentage and higherst tackling success rate in our starting line up today

albrighton was awful, wastful and lacked an guile at all - i'd love to see johnson given a chance in the first team as he is a winger than has skill, pace and trickery all of which albie has little of

banna played well considering he was employed at left fullback...

No doubts Lambert got the line up wrong today.

Looking forward to getting Dunne back in place of Clark. Also, N'Zogbia and Bent should be starting.

Worrying times but I believe that Lambert will put it right.

dunne who was our biggest liability in defence last season?

Dunne who cant pass the ball more than 2 yards without giving it away?

dunne who cant even outpace jan molby?

That richard dunne?

the man is a has been of the highest order and has no place on a football pitch at any level

not to say we have nayone better, but al least clarke tries

even with a better manager and new signings with our current squad we will still struggle to survive this season - more investment is needed in january

ive been to less than 50 games i'd say...

the first game i rememeber going to was the 7-1 win against wimbledon.

i won the tickets and was sitting in the away end but still celebrated each goal to its fullest

i'll always remember the wimbledon fans doing a konga round the lower north singing "we want 10" and after going 1 up that was great sportsmanship!

my last game was a humiliating 3-0 defeat at the hands of middlesbrough in Villa Park about 11 years back... havent lived in england really since so no opportunity t go again

I agree it was never a foul.

If someone has decided that "in this day and age" that is a foul, then the authorities need to go and change what is acceptable back 10 years.

I also don't understand the argument "studs showing". Please explain to me how it is even physically possible to slide tackle without studs 'showing'. It's not possible to slide with your foot facing flat down on the ground as your leg is on it's side.

i think 'showing' is to be interpreted and angled towards the player.

its very easy to do a slide tackle with the bridge of your foot angle towards your target rather than your sole and i believe this is why he got booked.

A bit harsh but by the above reasoning a just one (not saying i agree with the rule in any way shape or form)

Vlaar played well at Newcastle and against Swansea. His other performances have been a bit ragged, particularly at St Marys and yesterday.

do me a favor - go and rewatch the footage from the other games...

Vlaar's 'ragged' displays are caused by the central midfielders failing to provide even the slightest protection for the defence (see after Ireland went off against soton) and him having to also cover for the glaring lack of positional awareness of the fullbacks and his central defensive partner because they lack experience.

As for people saying he should be marshalling them better - its hard for 1 man to control the movements of three and that he looks head and shoulders one of the best central defenders in the league so far this season in such an inexperienced defence shows he is a class act.

If you dont think he has played well this season i think you need to consider interest in another sport tbh

Agree there, Vlaar is o.k but no more than that, I think he'll be found out in November when we play the better teams. Would rather have kept Carlos from what I've seen.

seriously? Watch a few of sunderlands games this season - he's been WOEFUL

lost any little pace that he had and his decision making for them has been beyond questionable

fortunately for hm he's gotten away with it so far but his luck cant hold

No it wasn't. We were actually fairly crap 1st half at St Mary's too.

You prove once again CI that we can safely skip past your posts in the knowledge that the content is utter drivel.

There is no way that Westwoods performances this season are worse than Ireland's on any planet or parallel universe.

Obviously delighted with the result, but we conceded the same goal again and it is starting to get worrying now. We seem to stand off the opposition when they have the ball 30-35 yards from goal and we are being caught out time and again with it. Balotelli scored with it tonight, Southampton tore us apart with it on Saturday, Brad had to make a spectacular save from Nathan Dyer against Swansea because we didnt press the ball and Newcastle scored with it too. It seems to be a real weakness that needs to be addressed, but it strikes me as it's something Lambert is aware of and is just a by product of something else he is asking our players to do. Does he think keeping shape there is more important? Am I just reading it wrong? It just seems that we are especially vulnerable to a player with the ball 30 yards out at the moment.

this is an issue with the midfield not protecting the back 4 the way they should and is probably caused by a lack of communication/understanding between our midfielders at the moment.

Once we have a settled midfield and they become more accustomed to the style and teammates this will improve

i expect a reaction from soton.

but so long as we can weather the storm for the first 20 mins or half hour we should have enough about us to see them off 2 - 0

if we concede early though i think we'll struggle...

from what i have seen i reckon gabby and benteke will be our best strike partnership

bent just doesnt have gabbys pace and benteke will be all about the flick ons and through balls but until hes fully fit i expect to see a lot of rotation.

great thhat we have 4 decent strikers for a change

the reactions of people on here saddens me to be honest...

if the players cant "muck in" when the club captain is involved then i think thats is a very poor reflection on them and on the club.

45k isnt even a weeks wages for a good few members of the villa first team and in that respect it is not a significant amount of money.

I have lost all respect for users of this forum based on this feedback and that noone has even attempted to publicise or get behind a cause that has been setup in a large respect to help someone so closely related to a club you all profess to love so much.

It sickens me to the core that people care so little about our club captain that they are condoning the players not publicly supporting this cause.

I am shocked horrified and appalled the pedal for petrov fundraiser.

Went to the site to make a donation and was horrified to see tgey have only raised 45k

If every villa plyer offered even half a weeks wage they would have raise the target of 250k

Can the mods please post something on the main page asking pp to support this cause?

If anyone has contacts within the club please mention this as its a very poor reflection on the club that a fundraiser is failing so badly when its supporting our club captain!!!

yeah this points to the fact that lambert is doing things the right way and if we can get the likes of albie, and gabby back ino the fray and have holman and al hamedi getting more acustomed to the pace and physicality of the english game then i think we'l cause sides problems.

it'll take more than a few games though and until everything starts to click i think we'll see a few more defeats

to be fair we've had more shots than them, more possession, more territory and more shots on target.

yeah we've looked poor at times but remember this is a very inexperienced side in thepremierleague so that we're struggling as a team isnt a surprise

still hate that the kit stealers are wiinning thought...

n fairness we've been shit the l;ast 10 mins

nice to see the officials havent changed anyway

watched some footage of nobay - have to say he looks like a passenger - decent when he has the ball but not interested if he hasnt

when Darren Bent, one of the most prolific scorers in the prem in recent years, says he's the best finisher at the club and has a great future i suggest you listed up.

just as an aside, i recall michael owen and wayne rooney having poor loan periods in the lower leagues not to mention Denis Bergkamp scoring only 5/6 goals in 48 games in the prem - i guess those guys must be shit players too then yeah?

god no please dont come to villa

complete waste of a football jersey - a complete and utter donkey, good for nothing other than using as a battering ram.

He's a remnant fossil of an aspect of the game that no longer exists and for the benefit of the sport.

Graham Taylor MKI would have loved him but he's not a modern day footballer and never will be. Give me gabby over this guy every time

bringing on an attacking left winger to play left back will cost you goals - bale started to shine when he was played in his correct position and given licence to attack at will he started putting in some great performances. I'm not saying he's world class but he is a very good attacking player who has the ability to tear defences apart with his pace and skill, but as with all creative players he doesnt do it every game - SHOCKER

GG is a class act and played in the right position and given a run of games (not a few starts here and there and sporadid sub apps) he'll become a good player but he's not going to come into a poor and dereft villa side and set the prem alight playing as a defensive midfielder or right midfielder - because he isnt one.

Thats like saying the cashier in a bank thats getting bailed out is a bad cashier because the bank is doing badly - it just doesnt make sense

for his performance against england mellberg

Laudrup is an unproven manager, and is unproven in england as his is style of football

Lambert has worked in england quite a while, done well with norwich and his style of football works here.

Laudrup may prove to be a great manager he may be a flop - lambert is a solid manager how is capable of at least steadying the ship which is precsicely what we need right now

7 goals in 13 appearances is decent in Sapin... but only 1 appearances in a distinctly average osasuna team amkes me think he's not that great

guzan is a better eeper than ruddy.

ruddy is not a good keeper.

having said that i'm not a fan of shay either - not because i dont htink he's good - he is - but he isnt the type of keeper we need.

We need a big keeper who can command his area and kick the shit out of (verbally) the defence - shay can do nether of these and i think that is why the defence fell apart last season