Matt1874

Maybe we could look at getting Albrighton in on loan. He needs a bit of game time and was our most effective wide player last season!

Bournemouth would be a good draw. Maybe Lambert could have a chat with Eddie Howe after the game and get some tips about developing a passing game with end product.

They'll show us what good football is. Hopefully we'll swap managers after the gsme

Bournemouth would be a good draw. Maybe Lambert could have a chat with Eddie Howe after the game and get some tips about developing a passing game with end product.

Happiest I've been about our starting lineup for a long time

Just pick Grealish ffs Lambert!! [emoji16]

Who will be the 3rd attacker on Sunday then?

I think I'll throw up in the stadium if it's Richardson.

Well its not going to be Jack...

"I've got a few options there. I've got Charlie, Kieran or Leo"

http://www.birminghammail.co.uk/sport/football/football-news/aston-villa-paul-lambert-sympathy-8237542

[emoji16]

Great team effort and result. Agbonlahor and Weimann aren't good enough. We need to change things up next game and get some decent creativity and width. Grealish and Lowton would be nice. Benteke must be pretty frustrated having to spend most of the game watching us defend and having to feed off scrapps / make his own chances.

Imagine how many goals Benteke would score if he had a bit of service. Lowton and Grealish playing wide for Agbonlahor and Weimann for me.

--------------------Guzan

Hutton----Okore---Clark-----Cissokho

------------Sanchez--Cleverley

Lowton-----------Cole-----------Grealish

--------------------Benteke

You seem to want to only judge him when everything is going his way and is perfect. That's not football and that's not life. I'm sure a lot of managers look better when you only judge games where everything was set up right for them.

Again this is nonsense, I said Benteke. Specifically that player. Not everything in his favour. I'm talking about by far and away our best and most important player. At our level our equivalent to Suarez or Ronaldo.

There is no denying that Benteke is our best striker. Unfortunately our game plan changes when he is in the side and it becomes 'hoofball' from the defence and goalkeeper in the hope that he can win some headers and get some knock downs.

If Lambert had the nouse he would employ wingers (as we did when we had Young and Downing) to give him a supply that he deserves and no doubt craves for.

Agree with this. The only occasional decent service Benteke gets is when Lowton's on the pitch. Most of the time he's left to basically make goals for himself. I'd play Lowton and Grealish on the wings as I see no better option

The problem here is that two assumptions are being made:

1. Us losing today will get Lambert sacked

2. Getting a new manager in will automatically improve our fortunes

I only assume the 2nd part

I do find it strange that it appears that some fans seem to hate Lambert so much that they are almost hoping that we lose so he might get sacked.

Utterly bizarre.

I liked a post that gave a fictional scenario of Lambert getting the sack if we lose. I don't want us to lose in reality. But losing and getting a new manager in would, imo, over the rest of the season result in more points than say scraping a draw today and having Lambert remain in charge all season.

While Hutton's out I'd play Bacuna at RB and Lowton right midfield. Lowton is a good footballer, creative, good link up player and good crosser but his poor defending always looks likely to give a goal away. Shame Benteke's out as Lowton looks his best supplier of service. Bacuna is a better defender.

Well bloody tell us whats up the club tell us f all

I just have.

Trust me when I say, Okore isn't an option right now.

Grealish is an option and would improve our starting XI yet doesn't make the bench (I think!). Okore situation may be beyond Lambert's control but for me it's very poor management to not start with Grealish. He's clearly got the confidence. If anything I think that keeping him on the sidelines will only be detrimental to his development.

You know its bad when you miss Alan Hutton. N'Zogbia again? Cole and Grealish have to be useless in training or else why can't they get to start in a game like this?

I think it's more a case of our manager being useless.

Guzan, Lowton, Vlaar ©, Baker, Cissokho, Westwood, Cleverley, Sanchez, Weimann, N’Zogbia, Benteke

Subs: Given, Cole, Bent, Richardson, Clark, Grealish, Agbonlahor

BBC and Sky Sports have Senderos on bench and no Grealish

No Grealish in the squad again. [emoji16]

----------------Guzan

Hutton Senderos Vlaar Cissokho

Lowton Cleverly Sanchez Grealish

------------------N'zogbia

--------------------Benteke

With Delph in for N'zogbia when he's fit and then switching to 4-1-4-1 with Sanchez holding.

----------------Guzan

Hutton Senderos Vlaar Cissokho

Lowton Cleverly Sanchez Grealish

------------------N'zogbia

--------------------Benteke

Grealish should be starting games. Not making the odd squad / getting the odd run out off the bench. Why do we need to ease him in? He doesn't look lacking in confidence and would only get more confidence from playing. He's got the ability and is what we're crying out for in our team.

Joke that Grealish isn't in the squad

We do not have a midfield that could even remotely be compared to any of the top 6 clubs

The gulf between the top 6/7 squads and the rest is frightening, sure on a given day any 11 players can beat any other 11 players but over 38 games plus cup matches you don't stand a chance

My point was that individually, Delph especially, they are capable of/potentially capable of playing for a top 6 club. I don't think that as a trio they are as good as a 3 from any of the top 6. More that we have players that are better than have to defend for our lives and have to rely on counter attacking so much.

If you mean the current top 6 the. Yes you right as we currently sit 6th but if you are talking about the actual top 6 clubs in the league then none of our back 5 would be remotely close to their starting 11.

I said collectively. I think if you swapped the back 5 of any of the top 6 (apart from Chelsea) with ours then I don't think there'd be much difference in those teams' results.

You think we have a top 6 midfield

I think Delph is good enough, Cleverley has won the league with United and featured heavily in their line up. Westwood potentially, yes. Certainly rated highly on here.

IMO we have a much better squad than our tactics seem to suggest. We have a gk and back 4 that (collectively) are top 6 quality and a midfield trio (Westwood, Delph and Cleverley) that (individually/arguably) are good enough to play for a top 6 team.

So how can it be that our default tactic is to get behind the ball, hope for a clean sheet and hope for a goal from a counter attack?

And whether we are home or away, 0-0 or 0-3 this is the tactic.

We should have greater ambition than this and Lambert should have more belief in his players than this.

I am not completely against the tactic (especially against the top teams and/or away from home) but where I think it fails is in the selection of the remaining 3 players in the team.

If we are to sit deep and look to counter then surely the 3 remaining picks should be more attack minded/creative. I.E. Grealish has got to be starting! Weimann and Richardson's work rate isn't enough when we've already got 8 players behind them doing that job. N'Zogbia should play over them. When Benteke is fit then Grealish should start with 1 of Gabby (mainly away from home) and Nzogbia (mainly at home) making up the XI.

We have a very strong spine to our team and should be capable of taking the game to teams/creating chances/scoring goals. Especially at Villa Park.