weedman

THAT makes you cry with laughter? Easy to please eh You seriously can't see that you stepped in your own pile of it? He has been crap this season though, can you honestly not see the difference between what I posted accepting that he's been shit this season but there are a variety of potential reasons why and a couple of months out of the team to get his fitness and sharpness up would be a good route to go and most others on here calling him a disgrace, stealing a living or just saying **** off you waste of space etc? Some are overly harsh, which is undeserved, that was the point I was making and followed by stating my reasons why, perhaps I should have just said "he's a waste of space who's only interest is bleeding us dry, no better than my Sunday league team, needs to be sacked with immediate effect, the fact he's our record ever goalscorer is a disgrace and an insult to the club. Oh and he's fat as well, probably got about 10% body fat, disgrace", pretty sure that would have garnered less criticism that my actual post I'll say it one more time. You said he doesn't deserve half the harshness he's getting. Then you said "he's shit." That's it. If you're too tightly wound to see the humor in that and laugh at yourself, then I'll just leave you to it. Yes. I do understand the "joke", I have no problem laughing at myself, as it happens I do a lot of stupid things so I'm pretty used to it, it's just...you know it has to be funny, doesn't it?!

Of course I understand the frustration, I'm a Villa fan too after all. And I'm not here trying to claim the guys some hero who needs to start every game, I'm simply arguing against some of the way over the top criticism that he often receives. During the last few years he's been an average winger playing in an average team - doing the job asked of him (effectively too, the weak link in our side during that time has been left back and his job has pretty much been to cover them and defend and track back, hardly a surprise when he's not banging in 10+ goals a season in that period is it? And considering his goal return is pretty much in line with what other average wingers in average teams have been scoring, I don't think he's been too bad there either). He's got some pretty glaring weaknesses of course, but the reason he's played so many games is simply he's the best we've had. Even if that isn't as good as most would hope for (which, reading this thread it clearly isn't) does not justify half as much criticism as he receives. This season he has been way worse than usual, it is in no way the same as previous years. Now that could be because he's "past it", or it could be down to missing pre season and picking up a number of injuries this year, we don't know, hence my thought to leave him out for a month or 2 and let him get that fitness and sharpness back and see if he improves. If he doesn't, we don't have to play him, and if it does then great, that will benefit us. Regardless to thoughts on how good or bad he is, he deserves a lot more respect than he gets on here. Hes been consistently slated by his own fans for years, played out of position, played under some of the worst managers the clubs ever seen and he has never once had a bad word to say for the club, never once. His ability is his ability, it's the best he's got, his attitude could be far more N'Zogbia esque if he wanted but it's not, he does whatever is asked of him by the club and never complains. He's not a great player, no, but if opinions on here are indicative of the general fan base, he will probably be the most disliked player to ever be a clubs record goalscorer, and that says a lot more about us fans than it does him

THAT makes you cry with laughter? Easy to please eh You seriously can't see that you stepped in your own pile of it? He has been crap this season though, can you honestly not see the difference between what I posted accepting that he's been shit this season but there are a variety of potential reasons why and a couple of months out of the team to get his fitness and sharpness up would be a good route to go and most others on here calling him a disgrace, stealing a living or just saying **** off you waste of space etc? Some are overly harsh, which is undeserved, that was the point I was making and followed by stating my reasons why, perhaps I should have just said "he's a waste of space who's only interest is bleeding us dry, no better than my Sunday league team, needs to be sacked with immediate effect, the fact he's our record ever goalscorer is a disgrace and an insult to the club. Oh and he's fat as well, probably got about 10% body fat, disgrace", pretty sure that would have garnered less criticism that my actual post

THAT makes you cry with laughter? Easy to please eh?

Obviously doesn't deserve half the harshness he's getting on here, but that's par for the course really. He's been shit this season though, hadn't contributed at all, I don't think the fact he's been injured a couple of times already has helped especially with his fitness and match sharpness but it's not been good enough. What he needs now is to be out of the team for a couple of months, get fit, get raring to go and see what he's like when he comes back. If there's no change then it's probably time up with us, which would be a shame as it's not a great end for someone who has been with us a long time, but hopefully he can come back fully fit and hungry to prove everyone wrong Also just to point out for everyone laughing at him on Monday night, we never supplied him at all first half and he was injured which would definitely explain the lack of movement which was clearly worse than usual that evening

Bit harsh if they're in the crowd [emoji6] Ha, I think that's more of a Guzan problem than a weedman problem...my "crowd" usually consists of 4 or 5 mostly hungover subs and 1 or 2 wags none of whom are watching the game!

If anyone else calls "keepers" when I'm in goal they get a smack on the back of the head and relentlessly shouted/moaned at until they learn better

I suppose if he'd kept his legs closed and let the ball in at the near post that's his fault as well? Shots through the legs are incredibly common and in no way goalkeepers fault. Not trying to argue that he's an incredible keeper or anything, but come on, if you guys maintain your goalkeeping standards we will never have a keeper that meets your approval because you are blaming Guzan for things that literally every other keeper in the league would do. Criticise him for poor distribution, sure, but criticising him for conceding a goal from a worldie free kick, a 1 on 1 through the legs or passing to a player who subsequently gets tackled is ridiculous. I suppose he was at fault for Kanes as well because it was barely in the corner, didn't even hit the post before it went in!

Managers have taken over clubs later than this in a lot worse positions and kept teams up. Any manager who takes over us now should keep us up! What managers and what teams?? Fill me with hope cause 36pts in 28 games dos the fill me with hope if we are to achieve 40points. Don't think about 36 points in 28 games, think 4 points more than some of the shit above us in 28 games, infinitely achievable.

We appointed a gamble of a manager, it didn't work out and he has been sacked, it happens, it doesn't mean the system is wrong. As for being 20th...well, that's a combination of the structure we are using and the manager we had, had we started this philosophy as a club sooner we wouldn't be in this situation now, granted, and it will have some teething problems, but again, it doesn't make it wrong. We would have had to start working this way eventually, and it would always have some initial problems, but we've started now. And again I go back to...other than throwing money at us, what could a new owner offer us now moving forwards? I have no doubt Lerner is the man mainly responsible for our current situation, but unless we get someone mega rich (and they don't seem to be forthcoming), I am really struggling to see what would happen to suddenly improve us if he were to sell up tomorrow

Oh I agree, and believe me I'm not trying to claim he's been a good owner or anything! However...whatever the reasons for him putting these things in place, he HAS put them in place, that will benefit us as a club in the long run. It's not like the Man City owners gives a toss about Man City, they were bought to build a brand and indirectly turn a profit and it's worked perfectly, the fact that the fans of the club have benefitted enormously is simply a happy side effect. I'm more asking from this point forward, ignoring what he's done in the past, moving forward what would you expect a new owner to do that would solve all our problems? There is no guarantee, absolutely none that a new owner would do a better job at recruiting managers or making decisions...especially since we now seem to have an actual team in place that actually understand football - I'd wager that if we had the current set up when Randy first came we'd be in a far stronger position today. The only thing I could see a new owner bringing to the table that the current one can't is money, and I don't think Randy lowering his price by £100million and selling to the highest bidder is going to leave us with an owner who wants to blow hundreds of millions on us...

Genuine question, other than spunk a few hundred million quid of his own cash into us (which he is not going to do) what more could Randy be doing right now? He's not taking any money out of the club, so what we spend is nothing to do with him, it's what we can afford, he's put football people in charge of football matters (something we all wanted him to do) and is trying to make the club well run (with actual structures in place for recruiting players etc) and self sustaining (so the next time a manager leaves were not left completely in the brown stuff)...I know this is all way too late, but for the here and now what exactly could he do more? If the only thing he can do is hand us money then what do you expect from a new owner that can't afford to buy us and present and would need him to lower his price? I'm not trying to start an argument or anything, but I'm genuinely curious as to what more he could be doing right now that it would make such a massive difference if someone else came in?

Have you seen us attempt to play football [emoji38] New manager, actual tactics, hell even the new manager bounce should get us 2 wins, then we have a squad that is no worse than any of those teams and should as a very minimum be able to match them through the season (ignoring any other teams for now such as Baggies, who's main difference to us is that they are organised). We've been shit so far, but it is about as far from being a certainty as it could get at this stage

To people thinking were already down...we have 28 matches to win 2 more matches than 3 of Bournemouth, Norwich, Newcastle and Sunderland. Hardly walking on water territory

We'll agree to disagree then.I believe a walls purpose is to shield as much of the goal as possible, not just one side. We might agree that he shouldn't have been as far over as he was. And in my defence, if I need any. I take my evidence from watching football from behind the Holte End for 54 years.I'll take that over a few videos. The wall only covers one side as it needs to be fully covered, better for the wall to do 50% and the keeper 50% than the wall being in the middle doing 70%, the keeper also in the middle covering the same area and both corners completely open to smash the ball into. Go speak to any goalkeeping coach and they will tell you the same thing

Any bloody further over and he'd be bang in the middle of goal leaving an easy strike to the other side. I guess if that had happened all we'd hear about is how he was beaten on "his" side. It was a good free kick, hit hard and up and down quickly, they happen. The only person even slightly at fault was Richards for giving away the free kick needlessly, but he's been good this season so it'd be harsh to be too...well harsh

Again, criticising Guzan for the goal only shows you have no idea about being a goalkeeper. It's easy in hindsight to say he should be further over, but there is a reason 99% of goalies (half decent ones at least) stand at about the 2/3rds point in the goal, any further away and it's just too much to get across, any further in and any player capable of cleanly striking a football simply smashes the ball into the unguarded part of the goal. To anyone thinking he should stand in the middle...would you get rid of the wall as well? Because the wall can't cover the whole goal unless it's got 8 players in it and if you only have wall covering one side, and the goalkeeper not covering the other side what do you think will happen? The only reason players ever learned to get the ball over the bloody wall in the first place is because the keeper covers the other side so you can't score there, put the keeper in the middle and you may as well stick a sign up that says "score goal here" on the other side

Anyone blaming Guzan for the free kick has obviously never played in goal

The thing with Westwood is that he's not overly offensive or defensive, he's a transition player. He can pick the ball up and transition it from out defensive players onto the more offensive one's. To this end he really shouldn't play in a midfield 2, as you need people to do more in a midfield 2. However he could easily play alongside Sanchez in a DM position so Sanchez can win the ball back and rather than mess around with it for ages and lose it or try a killer ball and lose it he can give it to Westwood to move it forwards.. Delph used to do this for us (by dribbling, rather than passing) but he was/is far more mobile so wasn't caught out nearly as often. Ideally you'd want 1 DM player who can break up play like Sanchez but move the ball around like Westwood but we don't have one (possibly Gana could be that player but haven't seen enough really to form an opinion). Put them two with a more attacking player like Veretout and it could work and could help cut out those endless punts upfield as there's a clear link between defense and attack. Westwood can get the ball deep and move it forwards, but we need an offensive midfielder there to get the ball and keep it moving, otherwise we inevitably run out of options and it goes between midfield and defence for 10 minutes until we make a mistake and lose it or lump it upfield and hope for the best

Big mistake vs Leicester? And I know this was last season but his mistake vs Man City was also horrendous. Guzan is shite an if we had decent back up I'd be happy to not see him in Villa shirt again. I can't even remember the last time he had a really good game V Liverpool? Man City was a bad one yes, but that was last season and it was probably his first major mistake since joining us. I'm actually really struggling to remember the Leicester goals now, what was his mistake there?

I was a Lambert "supporter" right up until the end, I still think he's a decent manager, but after the Hull defeat he simply had to go or we would have gone down, he'd totally lost it, next week V Swansea is starting to feel like that game now, we are getting pretty cut adrift already and we need a bit of a run to get ourselves out of it. I believe we are good enough to do it, and we've certainly got time on our side, but the players need a boost, a new manager gives that boost even if it's only temporarily and I feel if we can get ourselves back into it we will be comfortable by the end of the season. I think it's about time for Tim, but a win and a good performance can change a lot, if he's staying we need a victory next week, if not we need a new manager ASAP to give ourselves a fighting chance

The reaction on here is incredible, it was a mistake, a terrible pass that led to the goal. 90% Guzan, 10% Lescott, I'd say, but reading the posts prior to the game it was pretty unanimous that he was playing well, keeping the score down in games and making some great saves, suddenly he's a word removed who should never play for us again?! That's 1 mistake for the season in my eyes (I can watch it countless times and I still don't regard the other one as his fault, it was a comfortable pass to Amavi when their player was retreating, their player spotted it and went to close Amavi down and rather than clear it or pass to someone else he lost possession and cost us a goal), he's not been the best keeper in the league, nor the worst, comfortably in that middle bracket and some of you need to get a bloody grip

The problem is the service, it takes a pretty special player to feed on scraps and aimless balls forward with very little support and score goals (like Benteke), those are few and far between and not many clubs use a striker like that. We need to improve the service into him (or whoever is played up front) and allow them to play to their strengths. Gabbys strength is his physicality so we need to get him on the shoulder and ping good balls down the line to him and get players up and in the box supporting as quickly as possible. Even if this fails it will force the defence back to counter his pace which will either force their whole team back, allowing us to get on the front foot or open up space for the likes of Gil and Grealish. It worked yesterday and he set up probably our best chance in the game, unfortunately we reverted back to floating the ball forward afterwards If we continue to float aimless balls forward to him on his own surrounded by defenders twice his size it simply won't work. The only players that would make that work are the likes of Costa, even Benteke struggled with this tactic under PL, I thought Sherwood had put a stop to it!

Gabby really can't win now, he plays well, "Yeah but he's normally crap", plays average, "only 1 assist?! Besides he's normally crap anyway", plays crap, "you see? He's ALWAYS crap, been stealing a living"

Sinclairs effectiveness scoring goals is, in part, down to him either getting into the box late if he's dropped back or attacking the far post when the winger on the other side is going to put the ball in, playing him centrally would stop him being in those positions. For all the talk of finally having players playing in their natural positions plenty of people seem happy with taking one of our biggest goalscoring threats at the moment and playing him out of position! Forcing him to play centrally would likely see him score less goals and be more of a burden on the team Hes scoring goals as a left wing forward and that's where he should play at the minute, I can't see him playing as a striker as it's a totally different role which requires a totally different skill set