VillanousOne

Really impressed with Bacuna. we did look a little lacking without Gabby and Benteke though. Weimann looked better but needs a goal. Our midfield seemed to disappear towards the end. very scrappy from both sides, just glad we won.

We need sylla for tonev

Bacuna has looked good, Kozak has done well. Tone. needs to calm down and stop shooting on site. Please god let the injury to Tekkers not rule him out for months. I can't see us not conceding though

Lambert needs more time I agree with that. But now that this team is pretty much 'his team' and he's had enough time to change things and put stuff right - i do expect to see improvements. However I don't expect us to be competing on any level for anything just yet, I just want to us progress to mid table obscurity and right now i'm sure all the arguments in the world won't convince me we are near that. There are two many questions marks. Gabby, Benteke, Guzan - are the only consistent 'good' players we have Then we have second season syndrome candidates in Weimann and Lowton Maybe Delph and Westwood are players who have impressed and need to keep impressing - but again Westwood is pretty limited and Delph hasn't quite delivered yet although again he's looked the part at times. So aside from the new players who haven't played enough to be judged yet, the rest seem to have question marks against all of them. We don't even seem to have 100% faith in our Captain or have any idea what our midfield should be. I don't honestly know a single Villa fan who believes in the tactics we play at the moment. Yes the Kevin Keegan style of play is awesome when it pays off but horrendous when it doesn't. Hoof ball from Guzan to Benteke is lame, bringing on more strikers when losing the midfield battle is also useless.

People keep saying Lambert's project is a long term thing and we have to be patient, but in all honesty I can't remember a manager being this bad at getting results for this length of time without getting sacked. Yes there is a lot to admire in what he has done so far, but the successes are pretty slim compared to the seemingly inevitable flirtation with relegation we will get every season if he continues with these players and tactics. Amongst other suppoters and media - we are known for three things now - Being appalling at defending - Having a young team - and Christian Benteke. No-one expects us to do anything other then narrowly stave off relegation and get rolled over a lot. I will back Lambert when we stop conceding comedy goals every game and stop playing like a bunch of headless chickens at home. I want to love the manager and back him and stop being a pessimist, but the post O'Neill era has just been - utter humiliation and misery.......................... and i'm jaded as hell.

new suggested tactics for Lambert: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZrBnTlesjHk&feature=player_embedded

if you watched the YT videos before he joined he was everywhere - an all action tackling midfielder always in everyone's faces now it seems he has the turning circle of broken down coach and the speed to match, he takes so long to make a decision to pass forward that it's usually half time before he remembers what he intended. you can see he has skills and talent, but as yet it has only been shown in brief but beautiful glimpses.

I wish Jores well as that is unbelievably shitty luck. Haven't Gardener, Albrighton and Delph all had similar injuries or ones bad enough to majorly disrupt their careers? For such a small and average squad we have some **** diabolical luck.

How come? Do you know him personally? Is he evil? The son of doctor No? Er..... perhaps he just means because he is a PL footballer and so will be paid well thus not poor. Not sure what you are on about to be honest. I know what he meant. But a player being payed well does not give supporters the right to abuse him. Is it really so hard to support our own players? Really?? It's more the issue that as soon as Lambert decides that he doesn't like someone then suddenly people on here decide to become like rabid sheep tearing those players apart. I'm guilty of it to - but I certainly have never been in the camps that went feral on Bent, Hutton, Ireland and co. And i am not saying criticism is not deserved, but most of it is based on perserved life styles, attitudes, effort and what they earn - much if which is total and utter conjecture. 98% of players are over paid delude rocket polishers with no concept of the real world, (in fact the whole state of football is now just a infated oil billionaire's playground, only a matter of time before there is 20 teams the world over that everyone pays billions to see and the rest slowly fade and die....... but i digress) Yes we should back the manager but he's far from perfect and is often as much as fault as the players, as people have pointed out Bennett has had very little protection plus he came in the side at a time when we were already defensively awful. I agree that Bennett has been crap at times, but he's also just stepped up a division and shown just about enough to suggest he has some genuine talent and that we should back him when he next gets a chance to play.

still has more technical ability than KEA and can cross a ball unlike the rest of the midfield. also at times he has been decent defensively as well as awful, my feeling is he could make it if he changes his weight/muscle ratio and haircut. with Villa when anyone is shit there is no covering for them, all players make mistakes in other teams it just seems that because average players can't mop up other average player's mistakes, therefore we get punished for every mistake made big or small.

My dig? What was my dig? Bennet didn't do enough because he wasn't good enough and it seems the manager agreed. i'm with StefanAVFC, Bennett had some shockers last season - but he did improve. And a lack of preseason has caused him to be dropped not just Tony Moon coming to town. well...... possibly

It is impossible to say if Luna is better than Bennett or vice versa yet and I like Luna, but in terms of someone with a little of technical ability and composure on the ball Bennett was one of few players we had who can 'sometimes' do that. Most will argue he doesn't have the physical frame to be a midfielder, but considering our lack of other options I just don't buy that.

putting it out there, but do we look better with Luna in the team? I'm not sure i rate Bennett as a defender although he did get better towards the end of the season, but i do know his passing and crossing puts most of the rest of the midfield to shame. it's too early to write Luna off as i still think he has great qualities, but so far I think bringing Luna in and KEA back has taken us backwards.

i don't get why we continue to play Andi as a winger, Gabby has done this in the past so at least we know he can do it (sort of), Andi is as many have said on here a goal poacher. I understand why Lambert has set us up in the past because of the limited options we had across the squad, Zog, Albrighton, Holman and even Dawkins failed to provide the width he craved so he went with 3 strikers, also KEA, Ireland failed to give us any stability or creativity in midfield. But he has had plenty of time to bring in new players to change/improve how we play.

So even when the weight of opinion was almost 80% of fans and tabloid media stating we want or need an attacking midfielder all close season - we don't sign one, instead we sign Kozak the one type of player no-one thought we needed - remember Heskey? (And yes that is harsh on Kozak who could turn out to be a hell of a player) When we were crying out for an experience defender we got Dawkins and Sylla When many (not all) though Bent should still be part of our squad and on the bench at the very least, Lambert plays Bowery. Despite the loss at Bradford, Lambert hasn't learnt the lesson that playing 4 attackers when your midfield is being over run is not a good plan - cue us getting beaten by Newcastle We managed to get so much from players we had no right to expect so much of such us Lowton, Westwood, Weimann etc. now some of those players could struggle with second season syndrome. Tactically i can honestly think of less than a handful of times Lambert's subs/formation changes have ended with us turning defeat into a draw or win. I like the idea behind a squad of young hungry players and pacy attacking football, but it's not quite working out. Lambert has had enough time now, their is no excuses.

It may sound ridiculous so early on in the season, but my optimism is already fast fading. 1) Passing - if we aren't hitting teams on the break then most of our passing seems to be backwards or hoofed to Benteke as we have no middle through play. Delph tries - and I think he will get there, but he is the only one. Westwood is very tidy and I really like him as he is so consistent, KEA is also tidy but for me he is too slow especially with his decision making. Sylla is all action, not sure he is especially creative but he adds energy to our midfield and you'd hope that other players could feed off that. Bacuna was poor against Liverpool but too early to judge him, Tonev or Helenius. 2) Set pieces - Westwood isn't great, nor is he terrible, 1 in 4 set pieces might pose a threat - which is better than Bannan ever was. But we need more options. Most training ground based set pieces are useless and we still pose no threat whatsover from free kicks. 3) Counter attacking - Our best hope still, but if Weimann continues to be poor or we get heavily marked we lose our shape and it becomes all about hoof ball to Benteke. 4) Defending - we've stopped looking so fragile at set pieces, but we are still giving away poor goals, usually as a result of mistakes in possession or poor marking. I feel much happier with the likes of Vlaar, Clark, Baker and Okore as options now. But it feels like that has come at the expense of Lowton and Luna - who have been sketchy at best. Looking at Newcastle today that had much more physical presence and won more balls than us and they countered much better than we did. If 433 means we are utter cobblers at home and have to out score teams people after giving them one goal leads away then i'd rather we ripped up the game plan and started again as i've seen enough. I want to see what Tonev, Gardener and Helenius can do, utterly sick and tired of being outplayed at home. Plus I think teams are wising up to the way we play now. So Lambert show why exactly we should be lauding your greatness.

Guzan: 6 - couple of good saves but the one into the path of Gouffan was iffy Lowton: 5 - just not at the races Vlaar: 6 - the best defender out there Clark: 6 - hardly saw him do much aside from almost concede a penalty (no point in including Okore but hope he isn't crocked) Luna: 4 - dreadful Delph: 5 - burned bright then fizzled out completely KEA: 5 - Did not play well and just doesn't know who to pass to or when to pass Westwood: 6 - One good cross, mainly tidy play Gabby 5: Poor miss Weimann: 3 - useless Benteke 5: Aside from the goal did very little subs: Kozak, Tonev - not possible to rate the two touches they had between them

what no ratings thread?

I think taking KEA off really just lost us the midfield and the game

they have one the physical battle all afternoon

hooooooooooof

are we the home team?

Weimann has been **** awful and so as our defence

utter defensive wankery.

it's like the second half of the season didn't happen