Villarocker

If we pay £6m for Rickie Lambert it will be an absolute disgrace. For a 33 year old that is a complete and utter waste of money. He can play one position and that is centre forward. We can't get the bloody ball to a centre forward who scored 20 odd goals for us 2 years ago. How are we going to get it to Rickie Lambert? Absolute panic buy, with no sell-on value and who, in my opinion, is not an improvement on anyone we already have - IF bought!!

Support is a tricky word. I support Aston Villa so I guess Lambert falls within that but, wanting him here at the club is a different matter.

Out of our remaining games, we took 13 points from the next 14 fixtures in the same games last season. Burnley is an unknown. Say we took the same this time around, plus 3 points from Burnley, that would give us a total of 38 points at the end, probably enough to stay up. However, the more damning statistics are these: Last season we were 8 points clear of the bottom three at this stage, compared to being only 3 points above the bottom three this time around. We finished only 5 points above the bottom three last season, meaning we lost 3 points of the points difference that we had at this stage. A comparative return would leave us on level points with the team finishing 18th, which would mean it coming down to goal difference. The three teams with the worst goal difference in the league at this stage last season all went down - Cardiff (-23), Fulham (-28) & Norwich (-17). At this stage last season, only one team had scored less than the teams that were relegated - Palace with 15 (went on to stay up with a -16 gd). The relegated teams had scored - Cardiff (17), Fulham (22) & Norwich (18). We only took 11 points from our final 15 games last season. The same return this season would see us finish with 33 points. Norwich finished 3rd bottom last with 33 points. We certainly need people at the Villa to wake up and see that this season we are in a serious relegation battle and definitely not too good to go down.

The defence can no longer be hailed as superior to last season's really. We've conceded 30 league goals so far this season, one better (31) than at the same stage last season. Which begs the question, how are we improving under Lambert's management? Add the 15 minute interval to the 48 minutes before the second goal and there's your 60 (63) minutes mate I thought of that. It seems that Lambert did too!

Add the 15 minute interval to the 48 minutes before the second goal and there's your 60 (63) minutes mate

It just seems that no matter how bad this all gets Lerner will stick by Lambert. I am convinced that if we had 10 games to go and we were bottom of the league and 5 points adrift of safety Lerner would still not act and leave Lambert in the position to take us down. Pure blind faith. I think Benteke's head has gone and that it may be something going on behind the scenes. He tried and tried when he first came here and now he seems not to be bothered. All can see that and surely Lambert does too. If so, he needs to sit the big fella down and get to the core of the problem because Benteke is the one player we have that can really make a difference to our season. If Lambert has been speaking with him to find out what's wrong, he clearly hasn't made an impression on him to make a difference in his performance. That first season was good from an attacking sense with Benteke, Gabby and Weimann bagging 40+ goals between them. In that 6-1 drubbing of Sunderland those three players scored 5 goals between them and played as the front three in a 4-3-3 formation. The three midfielders that day were Delph, Westwood and Sylla - hardly creative are they? Gil is a cracking little player but he is not defensive minded - confirmed with his covering of Ozil's run for the Arsenal second on Sunday. But, I don't want him playing out wide and tracking players back. I would like to see him playing in the attacking midfield role behind Benteke. Play Delph and Sanchez (I know he can give the ball away but he's probably best at providing cover for the centre backs) as the two other centre midfielders. that gives us an attacking four with the two wide men tracking back. They would be any two out of gabby, Weimann and Sinclair. I really think we can get back to winning ways but we need to be using players the right way and have enough attacking players on the pitch to ensure we have a chance of scoring goals. The Arsenal and Chelsea games were always going to be tough but we should be beating those teams around us and to do that we need to have our best attacking players on the pitch together and in the right places.

I think something happened after that incident with Bacuna where he blamed him for a bad pass that he himself gave up on. Sort of makes me think the others told it how it was and he's probably gone into a sulk since then. I think he did a similar thing in the next game too. His first season was sublime. He bullied players and dragged defenders all over the place, which created space for the likes of Gabby and Weimann to exploit, hence their goals that season. I think he needs to get over himself and watch a dvd of his play from his first season and play like that again. He's more than capable of getting back to that level.

Our only hopes of survival are Benteke waking up and playing like e was a couple of years back or, three teams being worse than us. I think Hull and QPR will go but not sure about anyone else. We're well in that mix.

Not really. Most goals were scored on the counter because Lambert's tactics of sitting high up the pitch never changed. We made it much to easy for them. So true! After about a minute, when Walcott burst through, Niall Quinn commented how Walcott won't be disheartened (or something similar) because of Villa playing such a high line. Arsenal must have thought it was Christmas.

Agree with the last few comments. Yeah he had a bad game but, he never stopped wanting the ball and was simply trying to do something different as those around him weren't getting anywhere.

Just watched his interview and he's as pathetic as usual. He will take us down. He's had this problem all season, of not scoring goals, and still he has no answer. Lerner is guilty of neglect to the club and its fans if he keeps faith with Lambert. Fox can bulls**t all day long about European football ambitions but with Lambert in charge the only way we will play football in Europe is on pre-season tours! It's not Lambert's fault he's still here. He earns good money no matter how the team performs. Why should he walk away? It's Lerner's fault for this mess. He's a clueless owner of a club in a sport he knows as much about as I do American Football. Tom Fox needs to man up, get on the phone to Lerner, and tell him just how bad this manager is. No PR friendly crap - the straight truth!!

What about him not tracking Ozil for their second? I called this a week ago. This lad is good going forward but will get caught not tracking players back. Now, before I get slaughtered, I'm personally wanting our attackers to stay up field so they can do some damage. But, with our holding midfielders not defending properly, it needs our wide men to track back and unfortunately he didn't.

A bit like asking would people rather have uncontrollable vomiting or rampant diarrhea. In our situation, with the worst gd in the league, I'd take 0-1. But, I see your point about needing a goal. I'd drop Benteke because he looks like a really bad impersonation of himself right now. Sanchez was poor today in his distribution but he's the only central midfielder to give that defence some cover. What he needs is someone from centre midfield to come and get the ball off him and drive the team forward. Most of all though, we need to get rid of this blind manager. Sanchez should have been off today, way before he was taken off. Lambert is clueless, pure and simple. Anyone defending this man is basically saying that they do not mind gambling with the club's Premier League status. We will go down under his management before long. We might get lucky this season, with Hull having injured strikers and QPR unable to even get get a point away from home but, sooner or later, if we persist with this man in charge, the inevitable will happen. We can't be lucky in having three poor teams promoted forever!

Never mind, let's stick with Lambert though because Arsenal are way out of our league.

There'll have to be a relegation thread though, just in case we lose the other 25 games!

No smiley, so assume you are blinkered on the matter and have the guy banged to rights already. Key word 'potential' i.e. unproven... and at the end of the day, still a human being. I normally like your posts, but not this one, soz. Welcome to the 21st century UK. Guilty until proven innocent! Anyway, Tom Fox is just earning his corn and speaking up for his boss, just to let everyone know that Lerner is still Villa owner.

I'm a bit sheepish about this deal. I think someone's trying to pull the wool over our eyes.

He was probably knackered after such a long season!

Right after Elche do. Hotels in both of these city's must be cheap Any chance they're connected by a rail line as well?

Does he play for Clermont Foot?

My only concern is his wages. He was never worth what he was reportedly earning before so I'm hoping that he's not on more now.

I had a feeling about this midweek, that we score through Benteke but still lose 1-2. I hope I am wrong and we win this. I couldn't care even if we play 9 men and scrape through in the last minute. With the teams left in this we have a chance, regardless of how crap we've been all season. Just getting into the draw for the next round is all that counts. Come on Villa!!!!

I thought the lower the nett spend the worse you are? If so, we should win this one surely. No pressure Paul!!

If Lerner had any sense at all you would think he would be on the phone and offering big bonuses to the players if they win the FA Cup this season. It would surely help his cause in trying to sell the club.

Paul, don't you or your players cock it up tomorrow!!!! Let's get in the draw for the next round and take it from there.