Villarocker

Nobody who watched tonight's game can say that those players are playing for their manager. They didn't look bothered or inspired to perform well. The commentator was right in his assessment of our players. Couldn't cross a ball and there was no movement from our forwards, who were all static and standing close to each other. The players are shocking right now and not worthy of the shirt but, they won't be going anywhere. Only the manager situation can change.

Nobody who watched tonight's game can say that those players are playing for their manager. They didn't look bothered or inspired to perform well. The commentator was right in his assessment of our players. Couldn't cross a ball and there was no movement from our forwards, who were all static and standing close to each other. The players are shocking right now and not worthy of the shirt but, they won't be going anywhere. Only the manager situation can change.

I'd take a praying mantis as manager!

I'd take a praying mantis as manager!

I've got news for you Paul, the players aren't playing for you. A blind man could see it and so can all of us. They might go on the official website saying good things about you but what else are they supposed to do? Show some dignity and resign before you relegate this great and famous club.

On top of the fact we're losing their strikers both netted and we've handed a dream debut to their new striker. Leicester's new striker scored tonight too. And..... QPR getting their first away win. How much worse can it get?

Since Hull got the second they've been all over us. Absolutely disgraceful performance from players tonight.

Bye bye Lambert!

Benteke is playing like he doesn't give a shite. Lazy, passing casually too. But, he's probably wondering what the manager is still doing here like the majority of us. This really is desperate and all against a very poor Hull side.

I can't see Lerner doing anything about the managerial position unless we collapse second half and lose by 3. Maybe then he would get the point!

Benteke needs to come on and I can see a Bradford with us finishing the game hoofing it into their penalty area and hoping to win a knock-down.

^^^^ ^^^^

I think tonight's game will give us an insight into how the next few months are going to pan out for us. Historically, when needed, Lambert has been able to get the lads up for the games against the teams around us and that's probably why we are still a Premier League club. Losing tonight's game might just show a turning of the tide in that sense and, if so, might set alarm bells ringing on the other side of the Atlantic. Although, I say "might set alarm bells ringing" without any real confidence that it will.

I think we will draw or scrape a win and there'll be grumblings from both sides of the fence. It will continue like that until the end of the season where we will stay up, probably with one of the worst goal differences and with 2 or 3 points to spare. Following the above we will get the usual pat on the back from Lerner and Fox will make a statement saying how it was right to stick by their man and now we can all look forward to a good pre-season and a better season next time around. In other words - groundhog day! In other, other words - we go again!!

He didn't keep us up. Its teams below us that saved our season, will be the same this time, not Lambert's genius. That's like saying to the Champions (whoever they may be at any given time) that they're only Champions because the teams below them weren't good enough. Yes, but that is correct, the teams below them weren't good enough. The main point is the reason we haven't been relegated under Lambert is because he's managed to make us a better team than three other teams in the division. When Usain Bolt wins a gold medal people don't say the other runners saved his Gold because they weren't good enough to run under 9 seconds (or what ever it is). Both Bolt and Lambert finish ahead of the pack because they're the leaders of the pack. (In Lambert's case I'm referring to the bottom three of course) Martinez kept doing that with Wigan until they eventually came up against better teams!

Desperation?

I liked a previous post similar to this as I thought it was a great wind up, which nearly caught a few. But I think you're actually serious. I was really happy about that like, I know you don't like Lambert as a Manager but I thought you could see a lot of sense in what I was saying. And yes I'm serious, I'm a bit bemused that you think it's wind up, to be honest. I'm just amazed that you think Lambert is trying to teach them something and they can't grasp it. What great ideas does he have that makes you think once the players grasp it we'll be good? He's just trying to teach them how to be a better footballing side, in terms of passing and movement and not being scared of the ball. You can't try that and expect them to just suddenly be masters at it,they have to learn and will make mistakes along the way. That's why when I think of Lambert I think of him in terms of when he first introduced his new methods, 'the second coming of Lambert' if you like. It's my dream that like Lambert visited Bayern Munich to watch them train, one day Europe's up and coming young managers will come to Bodymoor Heath to watch Lambert and Villa train. I like your thinking! Let every other coach and manager learn from Lambert and then everybody else will become as shit as we are and we'll be on a level par.

There's something that's undeniably certain and that is, if we go down this season, with the fixtures that we have remaining and the way the bottom four teams are performing, we will have massively underperformed in those last 14 games.

When you think that out of the other 8 fixtures we have to go away to Spurs, Southampton and both Manchester clubs you couldn't see us taking too many points from the last 8 games. Therefore, I think we will need at least 8 points from the next 6 games to make life a little more comfortable for the run in.

I'm going to say that this team can't go that many games without losing at least once. Can't see us winning more than two of them either. I'll predict somewhere between 6-9 points.

Fortunately for us, the three teams that came up are all terrible and we might be lucky again. God help us when a decent team or two get promoted up into the league.

He shouldn't be playing out wide unless he drifts there. He should be behind Benteke and others should be playing out wide, with Delph and one of Sanchez or Westwood behind Gil.

Agent Cahill is playing today so he'll let Gabby have a goal before this game is over. Gil is quality and Valencia must be overwhelmed with talent to let him go so cheaply. But, he cannot chase back and shouldn't have to. Play him behind the striker and get someone else out wide who can chase back!! Hutton's crossing is poor and he's been in so many good positions to deliver too. We've played well so far and deserve to be in this match and and not behind.

That's our problem with Weimann playing wide right, he always drifts inside. We need wide men to stay out there and get Gil playing attacking midfield. Looking at this, I'd swap Cleverly and Weimann for Benteke and Sinclair. Play Gil attacking midfield and then swap Benteke with Gabby. That's attacking but we need the wide men to come into the box when the ball is delivered from the other side.

Weimann bottled that. If he'd stuck his head in he'd have been awarded a pen. OK, he'd have been unconscious for a while after but at least we'd have had chance of scoring. Westwood stupidly getting booked too. The players need to man up!!