GeordieVillan

As I said before kick off, without a target man, we have been forced to pass the ball and retain possession against a Swansea team who are supposed to dominate possession. Unfortunately this desire to retain possession and not play long balls is what caused the second Swansea goal. We lack cutting edge despite our possession. Weimann is anonymous, but he has a goal in him, and so does Gabby, if we can work a bit of space and keep getting low crosses into the box. As usual we have very little down the left hand side. I don't think Bertrand is a Baines or Shaw type fullback who can dominate the left side on his own. Come on boys, we can get a point here at least!

Just seen the team and I genuinely fancy us to pull a result out of the bag today. For the first time in a while we have no big man up front (it will be either Gabby or Weimann or both), so we will have no option other than to pass the ball around. I hope he puts Gabby right up top and we look to use his pace in behind.

Great performance and result. Playing Chelsea suits us, as we outnumbered there 2 hard working midfielders with our 3. The first sending off did change the game, but I have to say its first time in a while I've seen us play well against 10 men, trying to stretch the game and pick out pockets of space. But more than anything else, an absolutely massive result against the backdrop of the results earlier in the day. The wins for Fulham and West Brown have really drawn other teams back into the mix, and this 3 points just gives us a little bit of breathing space. 2 more wins should see us safe, and it would be great to get them in the next few games so that we can then have a relaxed end to the season and maybe blood more of the young players and try playing with a different style. I think it would also represent progress from last year, which hopefully we can take into next year and kick on again.

I was at the game. First half we were the best team by a mile, not just when we had a dominant spell. Our midfield was compact, our forwards were direct, and we should really have scored. I was sat with the Newcastle fans and they all felt Weimann was our most dangerous player, I have to say his movement was pretty good. More than anything else, we mixed our play up quite alot, plenty of short passing and not afraid to be direct when we needed to be. Second half was a totally different game. Pardew clearly told his players to get in our faces and we had no answer. I can't remember having a spell of any pressure in the second half, and there was only one team going to win it. Overall we probably deserved a point, but its a really demoralising defeat, and with Norwich winning, we are now in big trouble. Our saving grace may be that Norwich have 4 tough games at the end of the season, so if they are not clear of the bottom, then I think they will finish 18th. 2 final observations - 1) After the goal, Guzan seemed to come out and have a real go at Delph, I'm not sure why? 2) Benteke walked off at the end without shaking hands with anyone or acknowledging the Villa fans. This may have just been because he was pissed off, but he was straight down the tunnel.

I could live with the team selection, and even with the approach of playing for a draw, but the Vlaar substitution was bizarre, unless he is injured. Don't understand why he would take him off. Fair play to Everton, they are much much better than us. Never stopped playing football and played patiently for their chance. In the end we were undone by a great free-kick. Not sure what Lambert was trying to do today, a point or 3 would have been areal bonus ahead of the next few games.

I'm very happy you don't have to make these decisions Hope he does well, and we sign him and he scores regularly. How anyone can argue with a comment which says - they guy played well, and if he continues to play like that then we should sign him - is beyond me. If he plays well and scores goals, why should/would we let him go? Surely keeping him in that situation would be better than signing another unproven youngster. Holt showed more today than Bowery and (arguably) Helenius have. Also, if they guy is doing well, we should keep him anyway so the inexperienced guys aren't thrown in deep end like last year, and they have someone other than Gabby and Vlaar to learn from.

Good point, and we were pretty solid under pressure in the second half, not a lot of last ditch defending against the best strikeforce in the league (possibly). Benteke looks confident again, and this is bringing Gabby and Weimann back to the fore...Holt looked decent when he came on aswell... Fair to Lambert for taking Gerrard out of the game first half, but second half Rodgers got his tactic right. Bacuna was great first half, but god knows what happened to him at half time, he looked so nervous second half. Sylla was poor on the ball when he came on, but battled well. Suarez did a clever dive for the pen, from the ref's angle it looks like a definite pen. Sterling is a proper little shit, diving around all over the place. I do not like him.

Did enough to suggest he can a decent understudy for Benteke. Held the ball up, worked hard, looked composed and didn't panic on the ball - which helped our midfield who normally lose their heads.... If he can play that every week, I'd sign him and give a 2-3 year deal. He's never been a quick player so getting older shouldn't really affect his game. Like I said when he signed, he could become a Kevin Davies type player for us....

Think its a decent signing. I expect him to feature in every other game. I reckon he'll score 5 goals before the end of the season, assuming we can get Lowton forward and crossing the ball like yesterday. If he hasn't been playing games then he should be relatively fresh (if not match fit). Lambert knows how to get the best out of him, and if we are going to continue playing our current style, then he is a player who should fit. Even if he is out of shape, he is player who can hold up the ball, maybe just aswell as Benteke. Hopefully he can be like a Kevin Davies style player for us. If he helps to keep us up then so be it. I also think its ridiculous for people to criticise the principal of signing another striker. If Benteke got injured again and we were left with Gabby, Weimann, Bowery and Helenius, we would be in big trouble in terms of relegation. And people on this board would be going into meltdown blaming Lambert for not having cover. You may not be happy about the signing of Holt, but you can't argue with the logic of signing a big target man with proven premier league experience.

If you offered me 6 points right now I would bite your hand off. Hopefully we will be pleasantly suprised with the return of Vlaar and Benteke.

Like last year, we struggled when Ron Vlaar was injured - and again this year our poor run of form has coincided with his injury. You cannot underestimate the impact of Ron not being there. For a team like us, key players are much more important because we don't have the back up. To be fair to Lambert, I think Okore was brought in so that if Vlaar was missing we wouldn't be left with Clark/Baker/Herd again like last year, and it is unfortunate that Okore has been injured since pretty much day one. I don't expect us to win a game until Vlaar returns, but then I think we will be fine and will return to our early season form. So, can any manager do better - no, not when our two of three most important players (Vlaar, Guzan, Benteke) are injured or carrying injuries and thus out of form.

Shocked by how poor we have been. The reason the ball is being played long every time is that both Gabby and Weimann are running the channels, one of them needs to go long or run the channel and the other one needs to come short for the ball into feet (like Weimann did on the goal), then it at least gives Delph an Westwood an option other than the long ball. I don't think we need to make a sub immediately, I think we just need to play one striker on the shoulder and one striker in the hole, and it will stretch their defence, both strikers so far forward is giving us no options. The only positive is that every player is putting in a shift - which to be fair is the very least they should do. I genuinely expect a much better second half.

To be fair to Lambert, based on the players available he has picked the best possible team. For weeks/months people have been complaining about our lack of width, and today is the first time I can ever remember him playing 2 genuine wingers with 2 strikers up front. He's also got the two "ball players" in midfield, rather than the destroyers, so I think we are going for 3 points and this is going to be wide open. Having seen our team, can't see us keeping a clean sheet, I expect a score draw, maybe 2-2. Should be decent game.

Great point. Actually disappointed as I thought we might get all 3. I'm a big fan of Shane Long. The way West Brom play reminds me alot of how we used to play under MON with Gabby up front. 3 points against Sunderland and we're looking ok. Seeing a very average Newcastle team win 3 on the trot shows that its quite easy to put together a run of form....I think we are a due a good run soon and I think we'll climb the table fast. We've been solid so far without being spectacular. I've got a feeling we'll be comfortable top half during the second half of the season, and end up frustrated that we don't quite make Europe.

Nice to win when we didn't play well. Plenty of times we play well and lose. Not that Cardiff deserved to win, it was pretty even. I think we should stick 2 up front. First 15 minutes it looked dangerous, and then second half it looked decent aswell. Having Kozak up there took some of the heat off Benteke, and Kozak was better today then he has been - I think he is better with a partner rather than as a lone striker. What I really liked was our shape second half, with Tonev play wide and giving us some genuine width for once, sticking to the touch line. We then had 2 centre-mids and one on the right hand side tucking in to make a 3. This worked even better when Bacuna played right midfield, as he was comfortable wide and inside. I think Kozak has done enough to keep his place, but I suspect Gabby will play wide left if fit, instead of Tonev. KEA should be rested and Lowton can come in and play with behind Bacuna. The only question then is if Delph is fit, which 2 play out of Delph, Westwood and Sylla.....I think Delph and Westwood might be too lightweight....

When I saw our team I thought we might get a result (genuinely, read the match thread earlier on!). But I have to admit, the first half was really disappointing, we sat back too much and allowed them too much space and possession. Second half we played how I hoped/expected - direct, aggressive, and in Man City's faces. Credit to the manager, he picked a team of battlers, and they battled through. After 6 games, we have 3 wins, if we can carry that on, we'll finish with 57 points, which would a be cracking season. I would also note (and maybe one of the statto's amongst you can confirm this), comparing our results like-for-like to last season, we have 6 points more this year than we did from same 6 games last year, which is pretty impressive. Still lets enjoy it, but lets not get carried away, if City had capitalised first half....it could have all been so different....

I think its the best team he can pick to be honest. Looking at the bench, I don't think there is anyone else you could bring in. The other thing is, he's picked a team of "strong" players, and I think this is because City bullied United on Sunday, so at the very least I expect us to be competitive. I reckon we might pose a danger from set pieces if Bacuna can get his delivery right.... Strangely, I'm feeling a bit more optimistic now than I was before I saw the teams!

Not a good night. A few observations - 1) We actually seem reasonably well organised, despite the scoreline, which is a bit flattering to Spurs. The players heads went down, that can happen. 2) Albrighton looked decent, and so did Tonev as the game went on, I would consider starting both in a 4-4-2 man midfield, with Delph and Bacuna or Sylla. KEA looked tired today, think he needs a rest. We looked much better second half when we had a bit of width, the only problem was that we had too very very inexperienced strikers up front, if we had any combo of our first choice strikers I think we might have had a chance. We don't have a Ben Arfa type player that can unlock teams, so we have to play with width. 3) I think in the end Lambert was using this to blood the youngsters. Taking off our best striker at half time should show that. 4) What has happened to the passing game we were trying to introduce last season? Last season we were losing games that we were playing well in, but we were at least trying to pass the ball. Today there was alot of long ball. 5) Lets not over-react. Sadly Spurs are light years ahead of us (which is sad given where we were under MON), but c'est la vie. And lets not over-react if lose badly to City at the weekend. The time to over-react will be if we continue our poor form at against the teams we should hoping to beat or at least giving a good game to (i.e. anyone outside the top 6).

Don't want to jinx him, but been impressed since he has come on. His movement looks good - he's not just playing with his back to goal, he's trying to run into space aswell. I've got a feeling he might get another goal second half. He's done more since he's come on today than he did when he came on against Newcastle. Also, think that without Benteke, its gives the rest of the lads to step up, and not just rely on him....

I posted last week that while the Liverpool result was great, it was papering over some the cracks in some respects, and I wasn't getting carried away. Just a few observations - 1) The scoreline is awful. 2) It will sound stupid, but I didn't see a great deal of difference between our performance this week and last week other than - Benteke was shit today, and Chelsea were very clinical. Liverpool quite easily could have beaten 4/5 nil last week. if they knew has to finish. At times we actually passed the ball around pretty well, particularly first half, we just didn't have the cutting edge because we are now so reliant of Benteke that if he has an off-day we are always going to struggle to score goals. 3) The 5-3-2 has worked for us since Vlaar has been injured as its protected out yougn defence, today it didn't work because our midfield looked like they just couldn't keep up. 4) I'm not going to get on the back on the young players after one game - they are all showing promise for me, allbeit to varying degrees. I think Bannan and Herd are decent premier league players, despite what others have said. My problem with Bannan is that he always looks hungover. 5) If Benteke could stay on-side, he could have been clean through 3/4 times in the first half. 6) When Torres scores a header like that, its a really bad omen. Bloody Torress. 7) I genuinely wouldn't be suprised if we beat Spurs. I don't think we'll murder them or anything, but we could easily win by the odd goal. With our young players, you just don't know what you're gonna get. 8) Likewise, if we get through to the Cup Final and play Chelsea, we could win it. They will be massive favourites, but on our day we can give them a game. 9) Part of me loved how we were still playing open attacking football even at 4-0, even though it wasn't successful attacking football. It may be naive, but I think Martin Tyler even said its great to see that Villa are still having a go, rather than doing damage limitation. Of course, part of me would have loved us to keep the score down. Still behind Lambert, I'd be happy with 15th place this season as long as we are safe with a few weeks to go. Then we need some investment in the summer.

Really trying not to get carried away with this, didn't expect it at all, wow, as Charlie Nicholas just said - this result and performance is a statement that we are heading in the right direction Positives - 1) I can't pick a bad performance from anyone really. Delph looked like he was overplaying like he used to when he came on, but other than that, no poor performances 2) The defence, individually and collectively were great, playing 5 at the back while Vlaar has been injured has been really astute, and it doesn't look like we are missing him at the minute. Fair play to Herd, he's a good team player, slots in and does a job with no fuss. But its definitely a 5-3-2 formation, not a 3-5-2. But it seems to suti the players at the minute. 3) Benteke and Weimann look like they might be striking up a bit of an understanding, I hope they get a run in the team now for 5-6 games to see if they can really click. We havn't had a good partnership up front in years. 4) The back heel was the first time in years we've had a execute something like that, it reminded me a Dwight Yorke years ago. 5) At times, we looked really comfortable on the ball, Bannan especially, Westwood is a quiet hero, and Holman is really coming into his own now as a link up player. But (and I hate doing this because we've just had a great win) 1) Early on we were getting killed on the wings with 2-on-1s on our wing backs, this is always going to be a problem with 5-3-2 2) Once the 3rd goal went in, we resorted to our old style of sitting back, and apart from a couple of decent passing moves, it was all Liverpool, but we defended very well, everyone prepared to die for the cause. 3) The centre halves got caught in possession quite a few times first half which could have caught us out 4) On another day, we could easily have lost this by a few goals. Today things went for us. But on other days things go against us when we deserve a result. Swings and roundabouts. Not alot of negatives for once! But still trying to be realistic about the rollercoaster we are on. We could easily lose by a large margin at Chelsea, and I hope there is no over-reaction if thats the case!

Don't think media will keep off Lambert's back - he didn't bring him off the bench! But, for what its worth, I thought Bent had been poor for while, but was undroppable before, now that we have Benteke we have the option to not play Bent. Hopefully this is some kick up the arse tactics from Lambert. When you think back to when Bent was playing, he only having 3-4 touches in some games, so something was right - either the tactics or Bent himself. Personally, I don't think were missing him at the minute. But you could argue that he should be playing ahead of Gabby.

He's a good squad player, a hard worker - the kind of player we need at the minute. I would pick him ahead of Ireland in these kind of battling games. Saying that, Ireland had a good game at Sunderland.

Can't believe people think bringing on Bent and Ireland in that second half would have been a good idea! We were getting mauled in midfield, Benteke and Agbonlahor were battling and winning nothing - I would have rather put Given outfield than put on either Bent or Ireland. No I'm not being serious, but you get the point.

Suprised my alot of the criticism of Lambert, well actually, I'm not suprised at all. I watched the game and thought - 1) We decent first half, reasonably positive, and were better than QPR, which I didn't expect as I thought they would come at us hard in Red-Nose-clearing in the woods's first game. 2) I thought the subs were fine - yes not very positive, but if he'd thrown on attacking players or change formation, and we had lost, people would be saying that we should have kept it tight. As far as I saw, first 20 minutes of the second half our midfield looked tired and were getting overrun badly, so we need fresh legs, so it made sense to brign on like for like - if we didn't make those subs I think we would have lost as Delph KEA gave us a bit of energy again. I also noticed we were starting to rack up yellow cards as the players were tired and diving in to tackles, so three separate subs just helped to break up the game and QPR's rhythm. I als think it sensible to pick a solid midfield (including Herd) to protect our inexperienced back 4 (Clark and Baker were both brilliant by the way - the future is bright if we can keep those 2 and they keep developing). 3) No way would I have brought on Bent or Ireland in the second half when we needed players who were going to battle and scrap for point, I don't think they have it in them. But I, like everyone else, do not understand why Bent is being excluded, there are times when we need him. I don't think Ireland is being excluded at all, he is playing games and being rotated like everyone else. 4) On current form, Bannan should be our first choice play in midfield, followed by Westwood. The other places are all up for grabs. 5) We showed a capacity to retain the ball in the second half and pass it around under pressure for 20-30 passes, which I havn't seen in a while from a Villa team, so this is obviously something that is being worked on in training. Saying that though, we didn't really get anywhere with the passing, it was all in midfield. We were not as direct (i.e. Playing long balls up to Benteke) as we have been previously - but maybe thats why he was less effective in the second half. 6) I think Gabby needs to be dropped. We would be better off with Weimann (if not Bent) at the minute, as Gabby seems to be playing every game but not really contributing much. He seems to have lost that directness to run at people and get into his stride, he's definitely still for the legs for it, as when he does start running dow the line, you can see he is still quick, he's just not positive enough now, he's always looking for a sideways pass. On the whole though, a good point, and the kind of battling performance that I think we'll need against Stoke, who we normally get bullied by.