KitKat

Well done Villa/Lambert... Almost a guaranteed loss on paper - they're absolutely not form, their best few players back just in time to play us, Coloccini mopped up easily at the back and Remy dived all about the shop before finally wrong footing someone well enough to finish. Typical. No attempt to change the game through subs from Lambert, possibly enforced subs though injury/fitness, but where is the game changer from the bench? At least roll the dice and change things up! Really starting to question why we're thinking about giving Lambert a new contract and I've very much been a fan. If he's not given a geniune amount of money in the summer then I lose all hope. *edit* Additionally, the players really were poor in attack. The decision making (I suspect down to confidence) is as bad as I've ever seen it.

FFSDGFFJDGFJKDGHG,L,FSDLAMF

YERSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSS

Stoke showed Liverpool could be gotten at...but Liverpool also showed they'll simply outscore you! As long as we dont embarrass ourselves and at least give them a proper game I'll be happy.

So Lambert has had just 3m to spend since he became our manager? That's very obviously not what was meant. Lambert has a budget and a squad to fill. You take a portion of the budget per position and decide on a player by player basis and judge your most pressing needs at the time. Now that we need less players (arguably) and cover for the left might be nice this makes sense. Having spent less on two previous players in the same position has abso-****-nothing to do with potentially spending more on a player in the future for the same position. If the only gap we had to plug was a LB and given the same budget as before then it would make more sense to portion a higher percentage of it to filling that role. Had he spent more on a LB at the time and missed out on Benteke, for example, then things would be different, no?

Must not look directly at doughnut.

There's nothing concrete about any of this, but Dann as a permant signing worries me - does he represent anything better than Baker/Clark? His purple patch at Small Heath is ever more looking like the exception rather than the rule. As a loan it would not be the end of the world, as it is obviously cover and potentially to give the rest of them a kick up the arse - and if he rediscovers some form, or creates a nice partnership with Vlaar then that would be a nice positive. However, the last thing we need is injury prone defenders who rarely get to play together (no idea if he is injury prone, only recall his one serious injury before he dropped off the face of the earth). Hope to be proved wrong on him, but also fully expect this to turn out to be **** all by the morning.

I don't see how anyone can get thier panties in a twist over this. It's a half season loan as a like for like back up for a player who is coincidentally also a backup and out for the same amount of time. Also with the added bonus of being low cost so as not to impact any further business due to its short term nature. I could go on to say he offers an older head in a young team, but if you've made your mind up already it would be largely pointless (note: not a pun re Holt himself).

I was gutted last game, but this game? Maybe its the difference in expectation but I was mostly numb to it - as others have said when Gayle got the ball you just knew the result. I don't think we should remove Lambert (nor do I think Lerner would), but half of the reason I think that is due to there being feck all else to replace him with. I do think there's a good manager in there and I would be prepared to give him the January window (and thus the remainder of the season) if he is going to be backed. We are in desperate need of more quality. It is not good enough that if any of our key players are out we turn in to free points for the opposition...2-3 signings to improve the immediate first team if I can have one Christmas wish. Think we could snaffle up AVB? We'd be like one of those teams whose manager has a similar sounding name then. Which would be nice. Oh yeah the players, Guzan 9, everyone else 1. And please, dont credit Pulis for this, they didnt concede possession to us, they're just - amazingly - worse than us at retaining it. Countering with speed and putting balls in vs a defense lacking in confidence is fairly obvious, and thier goal was a wonder strike. They came for the point and picked our pockets. We just happened to let them by being in appauling form and lacking any real quality.

Bored and frustrated almost to tears with this team now, absolutely infuriating to watch and made all the worse by the massive sense of deja vu. Yes we've been ravaged with injuries and it seems that every game we get the ref who is going for their clown of the month award - but how long can that go on for as a reasonable excuse? They should have been a man down today and it would have been a different game, that or Crouch shouldve been carded and his "goal" disallowed, but outside of that we were still utterly dreadful. even our goal was gifted and not created. We do try very hard and its hard to fault that, but we are technically one of the worst teams in the league. We can't retain possession, we barely put teams under pressure, we lose most of our 50/50 battles, our passing is beyond attrocious - what the **** do they even do in training? What is our plan A? We have absolutely no idea what to do when we've got the ball and they're so low in confidence they give it away at least half the time under very little pressure. Delph looks like our only midfielder who is premier league quality right now. In addition we absolutely cannot win at home, so being poor away is very very concerning. Stoke didnt need to come out of the own half after they went a goal up today but we looked so deflated they decided they might as well anyway, presumably surprised at the lack of reaction. I really can't be **** arsed to rate each player individually, they do not deserve it, much like we as fans don't deserve to have to sit and suffer through this shit every single week. I don't mean to sound so reactionary - yes we were without Benteke, Gabby, Vlaar & Okore today but Stoke were dreadful and we made them look amazing. Sick of having my weekends tarnished by this shit and now to make matters worse my wife is going to mock me for being upset for "only losing a game of football"!

Imgur isn't letting me upload it for some reason...

Without repeating everything that's been said - it's amazing to have 4 players contesting our MOTM and all for geniune reasons with a solid argument for each. Last season would've been Petrov because he was the least shit or Gabby because one of his shots was on goal. It hasnt really sunk in yet but we're so enjoyable to watch and the players are so committed it almost seems too good to be true. But Swansea fan's were probably riding the biggest high from thier excellent start but we just strolled in and burst thieir bubble. I think getting a dissapointing loss on the opening day to West Ham was probably a bit of a blessing, especially if it got Benteke/Westwood through the door now rather than in Jan.

Wow, glad we didn't get Ramis then?

To save anyone else having to offend themselves reading through the awful Norwich "Pink'un" forums, here are some quotes from the FIFTEEN threads that directly mention Villa or PL on the first page alone: Next thread: (Holt) lol (Culverhouse & Karsa) (Culverhouse & Karsa) That's all I could stomach.

This is the most commited I've seen us under McLeish before, I think... If we can get further up the pitch and get our wingers to the byline we should do well.

Been building up to a win like thar for a few games now, think theres finally a bit of positivity about the team and some understanding. A decent system emerging with our wingers coming into a bit of form and the defense making less silly mistakes, it's starting to come together a bit. Our midfield has been a big concern for a while now but they've started putting in good performances which shoud put the pressure on the rest of the team to do the same hopefully. Ireland will be the cliche new signing if he turns in performances like that every other week, just waiting on Zog to score now to kick start his season too. Good to see Gardner get a run out as well, and finally a goal for Bent. Top marks all round, shame it was marred slightly by that absolute **** cock wank ref who obviously hates us. I hope he is raped by a clown infront of his children. Him and Terry.

yhwrujwryqr no ffs

Guzan and King Carlos looked good. Petrov put in a good shift again, still worryingly poor upfront though, and I am not confident that will change when Bent is back... Still need another midfielder/winger to give us more attacking options and a replacement for Collins.

**** yes.

Comedy defending costing us again. Yet again an unchanged back four, and I would bet good money that it will be the same defense next match too, despite threats from McLeish. It's just going to be about how much damage is done (ie is Bent going to leave? Into the relegation zone?) before we change manager now. I cannot see any way McLeish can turn this around, even with his own Jan signings.

We're mugging them even at 2-0, pure luck has saved us from conceding about 3 goals now.

Liverpool love hitting the woodwork don't they? Comedy defending.

LOL Heskey. Is he finally out of contract at the end of this season or did genius **** Martin give him a 12 year contract? I used to feel angry to see him playing for us and the waste of a starting spot he represented, I just laugh now (else I would cry). Zog/Fonz looking good mind.

I really can't wait to see the back of some of our defenders, McLeish is an easy target right now, but some of the goals we concede are diabolical. I don't think it's just case of just one side being to blame, I think we need a whole new defense, too. We will never win games whilst we have a poor attacking outlook while we give SO many goals away for **** free...