VillanousOne

i hope this game doesn't come back to haunt us!

It is gauling, Baker, Westwood and Delph have been brilliant at times yet three own goals!

Also how many free kicks and corners did we have that failed to even test the keeper once, have we really got no-one on deadballs who can cross?????

Taking Nzogbia off was a baffling decision, that could well of cost us the game!

if he gets his confidence back and stays fit i think he is worth keeping. Delph has proven that lost causes can be turned around. You do begin to feel though that fringe players like him Delf, Lichaj, Ireland etc etc. need to be replaced by players the gaffer actually has faith in.

he will make other mistakes, but he will learn from them. Technically he looks as good as any left back we have ever had, if he can toughen up and add a bit of muscle and stop looking like an 13 yr old extra from Attack the Block he will do well.

i'm sure he's not a bad player - just don't think he's a natural winger/wide man. Lambert doesn't seem to understand the difference between the roles of striker or winger, he just see's attackers and if he can play at least 4 of them he's happy as fox on a glacier mint, ok that reference is older than Bruce Forsyth's penis.

Lowton doesn't score tap ins does he I really thought we were going to throw the whole game away when Stoke scored Guzan 8 - Immense Lowton 9 - What a goal! Baker - 6 - Solid enough Vlaar 6 - Did the job needed Bennett - 6 Did ok Westwood 7 - Did well Delph 6 - Not back to his best but not far off Bowery 6 - Helped set up the first goal but don't think he should start Gabby 8 - He has been awesome of late Benteke 8 - Great goal at the end Weimann 7 - Unlucky not to score

Collectively a defender can make mistakes as long as you have someone playing with you to mop up. Or heroic dick splashes like Steven Gerrard to head off the line. None of our defenders are good enough to account for their own mistakes let alone anticipate anyone elses. The most frustrating sight this season apart from uncontested headers flying in is when you see a goal scored from inside the box where there are literally 6 Villa players all sprawling all over the place as they try and fail to block the pea roller goal effort that always goes in.

Westwood is a tidy player who does the basics well and in many ways he is one of a few players like Lowton who is consistent. he rarely lets anyone down but does he tackle and offer a midfield defensive shield? Ummmm not really although he covers a lot of ground and closes down well does he create lots of goals or score goals? Ummmm well he's had his moments not many but a few, but i wouldn't say he is very creative or attack minded player. Aside from a few blips he has definitely been getting better but at the moment he is a slightly above average player in a team of mostly average players who i think will continue to improve.

Can't agree with having him ahead of Benteke. Bent has done **** all this season when given the chance. how many starts, how many goals or assists? I can think of about three games where he has been really poor, but no poorer than any other player but for some reason he gets utterly ripped apart - like he is somehow evil and the worst signing ever made - like the goals and form before this season are utterly forgotten, and the euphoria when we signed him was make believe. He went from hero to 'overpaid billy big bollocks who doesn't fit Lambert's style of play' just because Lambert decided to drop him. I support Villa, I support whoever the manager is but i will not blindly endorse every decision he makes and Lambert's utter mismanagement of Bent has wiped about half the value off the player - who would pay more than 6-8 mil for him now? Putting Bowery on the bench ahead of him to really ram home to Bent how little Lambert thinks of him is **** baffling. Why make him captain, why look as though you are going to build a team round someone and then do the opposite. May be we will never know the true story - but leaving a 20 mil highly paid player rotting in the reserves in a battle of ego's is **** disgusting. I'm sure Bent is in no way innocent in all this but he's not the architect of his downfall at Villa even if he has probably now acted petulantly and sealed that fate. If Lambert is so great then he should be able to get the best out of Bent and both should put their differences aside for the good of the club. The same goes for Ireland but at least most of us would concede the main person that destroyed Ireland's career is Stephen Ireland. people who hate Bent and disagree are entitled to that opinion, I would have been happy if Lambert kept Darren involved - even if it was just on the bench and cameos and then sold him in Jan or this summer, but to leave him out of the squad altogether winds me up. and yes i am ranting like an old woman and i don't mean to cause offence, for some reason the whole Bent and Ireland thing really annoys me. If we had pots of lovely cash it wouldn't matter so much but when we are scraping the barrel to afford the wages of Simon Dawkins yet have a 60-80K a week player sat in the reserves.......

The problem is the headline every week is 'young villa defender makes mistake that leads to ******** win' or midfielder I rate Baker highly, along with Lowton and I think Bennett has a future, maybe even Clark - but i still wouldn't rely on those four players week in week out.

yep also can't deny that any defender at any professional level should know that a tackle like that is sheer stupidity. But in fairness there are older more experienced defenders than Baker who have done exactly the same stupid tackles, he may be a clown but he's not alone in the fact.

Agreed. Until this season Baker had made a few cameos - maybe started one or two actual premiership games Bennet - played one prem game for Middlesborough Clark - had a few random starts but mainly as a midfielder Lowton - Never played at this level Vlaar - Never played in the prem Now Lowton and Vlaar have done ok - but don't have the presence to really look after the rest of the defence although you can see Vlaar tries. In any other season under any other manager some of these players would have been blooded gradually, maybe start Baker and Clark in cup games, maybe as defensive cover, just not week in week out. I get the fact that age isn't an issue as Clark certainly should be able to sink or swim now, but when he has sunk badly along with Baker and Bennett he knows he will play the next game as Lambert won't drop him. I realise the Dunne situation has been ridiculously unlucky but the club did not need to sell Collins or Cuellar. Collins has done well at Wham and ok maybe Cuellar hasn't been great at Sunderland but would have still been useful to us. I get buying Sylla in January, but when the next obvious move was to sign a defender on loan we buy Simon Dawkins who has barely played since. I have never seen a season where there has been so many comedy defensive **** ups, yes Dunne and Collins were rubbish at times but not as consistently bad as the clown school we have at the moment.

Are MOTD going to be showing a different Villa match then? Because if he wasn't involved in any moves in the game today how are they going to show them? Watch MOTD you must have missed what I remember. All the players made errors today. Bannan was dispossessed twice, so was Westwood. No need to pick on Bannan. Bannan had an awkward skewed kick that landed at Suarez's feet. Didn't lead to a goal. Westwood didn't track Henderson and that did lead to a goal. No need to pick on Bannan. Bannan this Bannan that. It's like he's the only player on the pitch. You do realise that we are in the Bannan thread? Of course it is going to be Bannan this Bannan that.. He looked good against the 2 worst teams in the league. These were his best performances of the season... I think this speaks volumes as to the level that he actually is. Maybe, but at least he played well against someone - I don't think it really matters who. On paper even on a good day we don't have the defence or midfield to compete with many other teams even if we have the strikers and keeper. But I don't think we should blame just Bannan, but then again in my mind Westwood has done little wrong - although I do feel he is a bit over rated - he doesn't contribute massively in any game although he does the basics well. part of me wants Zog to play more as he adds a bit of quality when not running into cul-de-sacs, but it's hard to see the best system to use him in.

Bannan has looked good in the last few games but today he had a bad one, yes he did some good passes and tracked back well a few times- but floaty crosses and misplaced passes cannot be excused. against Stoke I think we need Delph and Sylla playing as we need all the physical presence we can get against there dirty nasty bunch of players.

Bannan didn't show up and Delph looked much better, but Sylla did ok I thought - we certainly looked worse when he came off. We lost shape completely when Weimann went off and for some reason Bennett stopped going wide. I wish Lambert would give KEA the Ireland treatment, he's so slow and never gets near a player - total waste of **** space. Baker's tackle was ridiculous he didn't get anywhere near the ball, it's like this every game - Clark costs us a goal, Bennett costs us a goal, Baker costs us a goal, Bannan costs us a goal and on and on it goes. I know Vlaar has been culpable aswell but mainly the sort of errors that all defenders make, the others have been pub football.

Liverpool were good enough to win regardless of the defensive **** up but no matter how anyone spins it, it is the fact that Lambert didn't bring in enough strength and experience to the team in the summer or January that will send us down. his gamble has not paid off despite all the promise shown by the players he has brought in

if we were winning it would be 8 mins stoppage time

the subs killed the game enforced or not

we've gone to shite

luck is going for them now

we still make it too easy for the opposition

Exactly this. But we need someone who can pass fwd i.e. Zog or Bannan, Delph and Sylla in midfield would be a sending off waiting to happen.

Yep bizarre. Lambert has wiped millions off Bents sale price. Idiotic Love or hate them Ireland and Bent are now worth peanuts because of Lambert. I've a feeling Stephen and Darren may have had a hand in that as well Stephen quite possible, Darren Bent has don't little other than be Darren Bent which is fine for one manager but not another it seems.