bobzy

Fair shout - I guess they didn't average it over minutes.

Whatever our problem is right now, Darren Bent is not the solution. He contributes nothing to a team. I just checked whoscored to see how he's done in general. Interesting thing I noticed is that his av. shots per game have gone; 2009/10: Sunderland: 3 2010/11: Sunderland: 3.1 - Aston Villa: 2.4 2011/12: Aston Villa: 2 2012/13: Aston Villa: 1.2 2013/14: Fulham: 0.9 2014/15: Aston Villa 0.2 He's not just going downhill, he's jumped off a cliff!

Yes, of course. It's a vicious cycle of "poor results = fan frustration = low morale = poor results". If everything is going badly at a club, it can produce a completely toxic atmosphere whereby players struggle to produce anything of note - particularly at home (a good example being our friendly, Small Heath-based neighbours). The fans are obviously less of an issue than the players/manager/owners because the direct effect they have is relatively small. However, as per a famous supermarket motto, every little helps.

The fans play a part, absolutely. "To blame" - no; "part of the problem" - yes. For all of the above? The fact we (the team) come out looking like they have never played in the same before, is not the fault of Lambert, but the fans? How does this explain the fact we have been equally as shit and inept away from home, when we have incredible away support? No-one has said this. Why do people constantly put words in others' mouths to try and "prove" their argument? No-one has said "this is the fans' fault, not Lambert's" - it's obviously more to do with the manager than the fans for **** sake. All I'm saying is that fans play a part. For ex; Adebayor has recently spoken about how the atmosphere at White Hart Lane is affecting him/Spurs. It's naive to think that booing/jeering/not turning up to games has absolutely zero effect on the players.

The fans play a part, absolutely. "To blame" - no; "part of the problem" - yes.

Because he's an ex-Blue. We wanted McLeish sacked before he even came to the club.

Let's say that Vlaar has a brilliant WC under Van Gaal and Van Gaal says to him "Ron, I want you to come with me to Man Utd. I'm going to look to sign Daley Blind as well as you - you guys have been the stars of my defence and I'd want you with me at Old Trafford". Vlaar knows he's in the last year of his contract, sees Man Utd as a] a bigger club b] a chance to win something c] more money for himself and decides not to sign the offer Aston Villa have made him. It may well be the fault of the club but it still takes two to tango. You'd assume (granted, assume) that people at Aston Villa recognise the better players in the team and would want to keep them. I'd assume (again, assume) that efforts have been made to extend both contracts before we've gotten to this situation.

Fairly correct. One of my Spurs' mates said Darren Bent is one of the worst forwards he's ever seen. I pointed out his goalscoring record, how he (now, used to) work well between the lines of offside to get on the end of through balls etc. - his reply was "He does absolutely nothing for the team mate. You lot are being mugged off". I was happy, again, to say he was wrong - look at that first season, scoring all the goals etc. Now I realise, though. Now I realise.

True, but it also requires the player to actually sign. We all seem to be working on some belief that Delph or Vlaar or <next man> would love to stay here. Of course, they may well sign a new deal; who knows. Football is a greedy game though - both know they could get more money elsewhere.

Yes, of course. Good players cost money - always going to be the case on the whole. You might find some cheap gems but, generally, you're paying dolla. I think the thing that is most frustrating for fans (and I know people bang on about "unwanted records" etc. etc.) is the standard of football being played - or, rather, the fact that it isn't attractive or particularly entertaining in an attacking regard. I don't really know what people expect from Lambert/Villa given that our owner simply isn't backing us that much financially; but I think that just staying up whilst playing entertaining football would be sufficient for "most" fans.

I agree that we have had a tough run of fixtures but I don't think you can look at them in isolation. We made a very good start to the season and the momentum gained in those fixtures should have stood us in decent stead for that upcoming tough run. The opposite happened though and we now find ourselves with just one point from 21. Surely the manager should have been able to ensure we fed off that decent start and what you would imagine the confidence gained from it and ensured we made a decent fist of the following fixtures. We didn't though and in almost all the games as soon as going a goal down folded. There was simply no belief that we could come back after going behind and surely the manager has to take responsibility for that lack of belief. I think he did, to be honest. After our decent start, we beat Liverpool 1-0 and started well against Arsenal before conceeding 3 in quick succession (more defensive errors than poor tactics/managerial influence). We were never going to get anything out of Chelsea and Man City, but that seemed to knock confidence and we were awful against Everton. Personally, I didn't think we were too bad against Q.P.R (bar the individual defensive mistakes, again), or Spurs, or West Ham - but, aside from Benteke until he saw red, we look toothless. This is the major problem(!). Fair enough to lay blame on Lambert for that because it's been an issue that he hasn't addressed, outside of signing Benteke.

At the moment, no-one offers a great deal in most games

He's made a few appearances for us, hasn't he? (I could be wrong here). Would like to see him on the bench ahead of Darren Bent - but, at the same time, I think being on loan and playing regularly is better for him right now.

Can't imagine that would be true - Chesterfield are a very decent team at that level and play good football; Oldham not so much. As penguin has posted, I'd assume there'd have been a problem with an extension or something.

Funny, that last bit - this is exactly the position that Lambert was in. A young, talented coach that had overseen successive promotions with Norwich. But that's not who the club would go for? (As an aside, Eddie Howe did wonders at Bournemouth, left to go to Burnley, failed, and subsequently went back to Bournemouth. You'd want him, though?)

I said on here last week. His distribution isn't great but he rarely gets any options from our defenders to go short. When he gets the ball the fullbacks push up, whereas if you want to play it short you need them dropping wide as an option or drawing the strikers to open up the centre backs. That doesn't happen for us. Who's fault that is is up for debate. Is it guzan because he never keeps it short so they know there's no point. Is he told to kick it long by management? Do the fullbacks not want it? Against Q.P.R., the ball was almost always rolled out to a defender and passed forward rather than hoofing. I think this would suggest management tell him to take it long?

I think it shows how uncreative Cleverley and Westwood are that a DM comes in and looks more attacking! LOL I thought we were going to see how creative Westwood is once Sanchez came into midfield and did the defensive duties. Not working well yet. Also hasn't happened. Top post though

An interesting idea but absolutely made up to create a scenario where 11 points and 5 goals is considered good. We average a point a game and funnily enough we did the same last year. I think we've taken 30 points out of the last available 105. Interesting that you have decided to use the term "good" and, in DelboyVilla's case, saying a draw against West Ham is a "major result". Would you like to show me where either thing has been said at all? It's this sort of posting that makes the board so intolerable at times.

I think his interception stats would be pretty good compared to most - contrary to your opinion, I think he reads the game well off the ball - but his tackling stats would be awful. Of course, this doesn't work well if he's to be used as a defensive midfielder because the least you'd expect from them is to be able to tackle . For me, he's not a defensive midfielder and this was one the main reason why signing Sanchez was exciting.

So you counsel against comparing average points etc. at this stage in the season, then go on to construct some very detailed averages, and even use them to gross up to a final points total and hint at a finishing position! I think that qualifies for a briny_ear dodgy statistics award. So the emboldened, italic "if" wasn't quite enough to suggest that it's a hypothetical situation, rather than a factual, statistical basis saying "we are improving" - noted for future posting FWIW, I'd say the same if we'd played none of the top 6 at this stage; this isn't a pro-Lambert thing. Just that, taken in context, our results aren't that bad - but our attacking football most definitely is.

Just wrong to be honest. There are many different types of midfielder - their roles vary so much that to bracket them all under "impose on a game, always pass forwards, dictate tempo, control the game" is straight up wrong. What Westwood does that the rest of our team is almost entirely incapable of is not panic on the ball and look to retain possession. Delph is a more exciting player, makes forwards runs, but contributes roughly the same amount of end goal that Ashley Westwood does. Yet who do people rate more highly in general? Delph, right? The thing is that the things you see as "basic" aren't done well enough and often enough on the whole. For example, Westwood's passing (which most people praise him for) really isn't that good in terms of pass completion % and it looks like a really basic thing to do. However, if you look at how well he reads the game - interceptions, blocks, clearances etc - he does relatively well. These are the basics that are often overlooked; no "better fan" bollocks, just things that most people (myself included) don't take into account because they're not clearly visible.

I actually think he's the AM we've been praying for

I expected progress from an awful season last year. We're averaging the same points per game and scoring less. Its not what I expected. Personally, I'd only compare average points/goals etc. after we've played each team once. At the moment, our fixtures have been completely skewed towards playing the better teams in the league. As things stand, we've taken 3 points from a possible 18 against the top 6 last season and 8 from a possible 15 against the rest of the league. If we were to continue in this manner, we'd hit 48 points this season. Last season, that would've been good enough for 11th place - the season before, good enough for 9th. We've had key injures this season (I know, who hasn't) and it also doesn't account for oddities like Man Utd finishing 7th etc but, purely in terms of results, we haven't actually done badly this season. I'd happily take 48 points and a 9th-11th finish in the table. The problem is the football being played - and definitely in an attacking sense. We look toothless and like we don't really know how to open up defences. Even with that, we've done "well" against the teams in the league that we should look to be beating, rather than relying on unexpected results against the big teams. We've even kept 4 clean sheets out of a possible 11 - which isn't bad. The substance of what we do with the ball needs to improve dramatically, in short. The results in themselves aren't too bad.

FWIW, I think we've played alright the last 3 games (after our tough-on-paper run) but lacked a cutting edge against Q.P.R. and West Ham - partly due to Benteke who looked good against Spurs before Mason-gate. It's given me hope that, Lambert-in or Lambert-sacked, we'll stay up this season. Last seasons top 6: Won 1, Lost 5 Other games: Won 2, Drawn 2, Lost 1 Pretty much an "expected" return from the games in my opinion.

Oh! That was incredible! Off to watch that now One of my favourite ever Villa moments. And one of my biggest regrets that I was watching that at home, on my own, and not in a pub or at the ground where I could have gone mental. I was also watching at home, but with my Dad (who is a Newport County fan and has Newcastle as a second team due to my Mum's allegiance). He jumped up and cheered along with me when Young scored that goal - hasn't ever done that before or since with Villa It might be slightly rose-tinted, but I think that's the "best" game I've ever watched. In terms of, the game was pretty decent (I think Everton were probably the "better side" from what I remember?) and the drama at the end played with my emotions a bit too much. Also after Lescott did the whole pretending-to-throw-shirt-into-the-Villa-fans thing Love the photo of him and big mart after the goal running with there ears cupped They also flung their arms out from the "ears cupped" position at exactly the same time as each other