switters

Samaritans, maybe.

Hutton & Warnock were awful last season and that was with McLeish always playing defensive formation and with a more experienced central pairing so they had a lot more backup & cover on the pitch. If they were played in Lambert's system with no wide midfielder covering them & inexperienced CBs, they would've been murdered again and again.

Good that Lerner has spoken, though the statement is very careful in making absolutely no promises for the future, merely that Lambert has his backing. I think as fans the minimum message we'd like to hear is along the lines of: 'we know it has been crap, but we are doing everything to make it better'. This is more 'we know it's been crap, but we hope it will get better eventually'. It's a lot to ask us to keep faith in current trajectory when it has been constantly downhill for the last 2 1/2 yrs. I appreciate that he doesn't want to raise expectations in a way we can't meet but kind of like Lambert's "we go again" refrain, it doesn't really give any sense of what we're doing to make it different the next time.

Hope this happens. God, can you imagine him up against Messi

To be optimistic, KEA's start is much like Petrov's. promising in the first few games, but then struggling to get up to PL pace for a while (and interruptions of injury/international duty haven't helped). Certainly too soon to write him off.

Our players were awful last year. We were all-but relegated and barely put in a good performance all season. It's just as absurd to pin all the blame for this season's woes on the pitch on Lambert as it is to pin it all on Lerner. It's a whole combination of factors. Lambert has certainly made mistakes but he's also inherited a bad situation. And no doubt you'll see this as excuse-making, but how many of those "rough diamonds" have been fit all season? N'Zogbia & Bent have both had fair spells of injury, Dunne hasn't been available at all. Given being benched is a decision that I'd say has been justified as we look worse when he plays than when Guzan does. And when has Bent ever been benched for Bowery? I think there were only one or two games when Bent wasn't on the bench & was thought to be fit (though we don't even know that for sure). Otherwise he's been deservedly benched for Benteke and Bowery has had no more than a few 10 min cameos.

I've got to admit my faith in Lambert's tactical skills took a big hit in 2nd half yesterday. Particularly when you see his hopeless answer when asked about it after the match (from about 1 minute on the interview here: http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/0/football/21154881). He gets asked if we went too narrow 2nd half and he just agrees & talks about it as if it was inevitability because we were chasing the game. As if he had no control over the width we played or choice in the decision to pile on the strikers and remove the only wide player we had on the left. Easy to say after the fact, but me along with everyone else could see we were overcrowded around the edge of their box & needed width when we were chasing the game. Why not put on Carruthers, tell him to hug touchline & run at players - offer Bradford a different kind of threat? Why not order N'Zogbia to stay wide? Bent, Benteke & Agbonlahor were almost competing with each other for headers at times. The real worry for me is that once they'd scored even he didn't believe we could win - so he just bunged on Bent & Weimann so no-one could accuse him of leaving goalscorers on the bench - and then just hoped it'd somehow magically work. Don't think Lambert should go, but he's got to start showing some progress on the pitch after this diabolical month. I really hope he is better with the players than how he comes off in interviews. we certainly need 2 or 3 new faces to lift mood & to be able to take some of the current team out of the firing line. Ones I think are struggling most with confidence right now are Bennett, Bannan, Clark & Lowton - all could do with rest but we don't have the options. Surely loans are a possibility.

Interesting stuff. With the long pass stats, I wonder what is included: e.g. if a defender hoofs the ball clear, does that count? As we have less possession than someone like Man Utd, our defenders have to do more defending & make more of these rushed clearances, where it is just a matter of getting the ball clear rather than picking a pass. That might skew the stats a bit. Also, while the defence might be faulted for playing it long too often and not giving it to midfield, in some cases it could be because midfielders have failed to find good positions to receive the ball. this wouldn't appear in stats, you'd have to get down to analysing videos of when defenders play it long & what their other options were. I've certainly bemoaned the defence for bypassing midfield on numerous occasions this season, so I think there is something in your analysis but I don't think midfield are blameless in this matter.

"Bent is off to Newcastle with Pardew watching from the stands tonight" We're playing Newcastle next week. could well just be scouting - would've had plenty of weaknesses for him to take note of

What in the sweet **** was the plan after they scored? We ended the match playing: Lowton-Vlaar-Clark Delph -- -- -- -- -- -- -- N'Zogbia-Ireland Weimann-Bent-Benteke-Gabby All the forwards were getting in each others way. We kept punting it forward and someone would flick it on to nowhere. Again and again. Finally got the goal but it was a freak rather than result of real sustained pressure, and we managed to do nothing else after except pray for another freak. Dismal. God knows where we go from here. Lowest of the low. Until we follow it with heavy defeats at Millwall and Newcastle.

nice run. And good to see Ireland getting into the box like that, even if offside this time.

that's what we needed. should reduce the nerves, now to put the pressure on.

Team pretty much what I expected/wanted, though I thought Weimann would perhaps start. Still, it's good to have him & Bent to bring on if we're chasing goals 2nd half. Likes of Bannan/Ireland/Zog can't ask for better opportunity to win over fans than tonight..At home, with a cup final on offer, against a lower-league team. Perfect time to chip in with a goal or crucial contribution of some kind..

I think it evens out though, because you can equally argue we get the advantage of an extra 30 minutes with home support, and we'd get penalties in front of our own crowd if it got there. edit: damn Danwichmann just beat me too it. and more succinctly too

The thing is we do have the attacking players to cut them open & create chances. we showed that in the first leg but didn't finish the chances off. Gabby, Zog & Benteke are much better players than their defence is used to facing so I do think we are capable of scoring 3 or 4. Pressure is on us, but it is also on them, esp if we can get early goal and get the crowd right behind the team rather than nervous.

Would kill for a Villa goal in first ten mins. Longer it takes more nerves will kick in. fancy Weimann to score, so I'd start him (assuming he's fully fit) and go attacking: Guzan Lowton-Vlaar-Clark-Bennett Bannan-Delph/Ireland Weimann-Zog-Gabby Benteke good night for likes of Bannan and N'Zogbia to prove their worth.

I think basically any player over 23 who predates Lambert's regime would be offloaded if we had offers, with exception of Guzan. That means: Hutton, Warnock, Dunne, Given, Makoun, Holman, N'Zogbia, Ireland, Bent they're not all deadwood exactly, but they are the ones I certainly can't see being here too much longer. Agbonlahor would be borderline. Wages are probably well out of line with the squad they trying to build.

One player cannot affect the possession stats that much. Bannan also came on 3 mins after WBA had scored. It's not uncommon for a home team which has gone from 0-2 to 1-2 to suddenly have a lot more belief and dominate the game, push for an equaliser with crowd behind them. Bannan certainly didn't have a good game, but to seek to blame him entirely for us being dominated right after they'd scored is pretty harsh. If he wasn't in Africa, I'm sure El Ahmadi would've been preferred sub for Delph at that point in the match, but Lambert didn't have a lot of choice (assuming Delph was injured). Can't see Ireland having done much better.

People have made up their mind on him and just look for reasons to hate him more. e.g. last match he came on 2nd half and took (to my memory) 4 corners. 2 of which were poor and 2 of which caused clear chances (one Benteke flicked across goal & one Baker/Clark headed onto bar). The two poor corners got a string of comments on the matchday thread about how awful Bannan is. The two good ones got about 1 positive comment about his delivery. Westwood had similar hit/miss rate with his corners today, but doesn't get any of the criticism about delivery because he is not designated scapegoat.

So true. I saw him kick a pile of kittens as he walked off the pitch. EVIL! -- Seriously people all that happened today was he was brought on when WBA were in the ascendancy and he failed to change the course of the match. That doesn't make him the worst player of all-time, never fit to play again. There are 11 players in our team and he's far from the only one who made bad passes in the 2nd half.

Very disappointing to not close out from 2-0, but draw is a result we'd have taken beforehand. Gave MOTM to Gabby. could be him or Zog who both put in great shifts. Zog substitution didn't make sense to me unless he was injured. oh and Barry Bannan eats babies (just trying to fit in with the hate mob on the matchday thread).

I say a long overdue battling performance to grind out a 2-1 win

Not totally against the 352/532, esp as Vlaar should organise the backline better than when it was Herd-Clark-Baker. Think it suits our fullbacks more. Really need to get something today though, with Reading winning, QPR drawing.

Fernandes is not the only money behind QPR. This man apparently still owns a 1/3rd stake: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lakshmi_Mittal though the situation is pretty murky because they've changed ownership structure several times in just a few yrs (Ecclestone etc.). Might be another Portsmouth in the making.