VillanousOne

need Vlaar to stop being injured, his injury has been going on forever!

Think sniping at each other is pointless. I hoped that players like Nzogbia and Ireland would thrive under Lambert, even Warnock and Hutton. Not saying they deserve to be given a second chance or not, to me that is irrelevant, all the while they are Villa players contracted to us and paid by us I will want them to do succeed, they owe it to us to do well. Now Ireland, Bent and Nzogbia have hardly been backed to the hilt by Lambert and had a long run in the side, plus injuries haven't helped. But what people is forget is whatever they are paid, they still need confidence, they still need to believe in the players they play alongside and likewise the players that play with them. What i see at the moment is no-one is leading on the pitch, few players demand the ball in the final third. Ireland was stuck as a headless chicken trying to gain possession but not really having anyone round him he could pass it to, and i'm not excusing him as he was awful, he could have led, he could of motivated those around him, but he does **** all. Football is all about psychology, confidence, belief and luck. I don't know how it has happened but it feels like Lambert has actually weakened the team since he arrived, it certainly feels like the problems McCleish had around senior players getting injured and over reliance on average youth players has struck again. When will the board and manager learn from past mistakes?

so Lambert has said we'll be fine, the players will be fine, everything is fine. fun times

he could have given the performance of his life today and we'd still have lost. i am tired of defending him, tired of defending any of them. he is no worse than the rest, but i won't cry if he **** off in Jan.

3rd best, i would say we are only second to Spain?

big wages, short contracts, until some of the younger players can gain the experience needed. playing a bunch of young average players and then adding more young average players to them is not going to work, even if some of these players has 'potential' to be great three years down the line. I like Lowton, but he is not immune from criticism, his ability to cross is awful and when he is the only width we have on the right you do wonder. Lichaj not being able to cross doesn't help either. The only reason players will want to come to Villa is the fact they know they will get a game!!!

It is perplexing that we we managed draws against Stoke and Arsenal, and that was largely with the kids. There is clearly no one single factor that has meant we have unravelled as we have. But it feels like groundhog day seeing the same players that nearly got us relegated last season somehow given a chance to do it again. Whether or not you sight injuries as the main factor, the fact the players couldn't pass to anyone other than the opposition today is down to Lambert. We can't set up to defend vs Swansea, worrying about losing is one thing but now it's by how many which is an absolute **** disgrace.

if we get that couple of wins, when was the last time we got two wins in a row in the Prem? Lambert does deserve time and i was glad he joined us, you can see what he is trying to do, but how much worse can it get before it gets better. It is possible if Lambert had his prefered players available then we could probably comfortably sit mid (ish) table. But surely he and the staff at Villa must have known we would get the same amount of injuries this season as last, virtually every team in the premiership has 3-4 key players out injured at any given time. Why have we not learned this? Why have we not brought in more players than have sold to plug the gaps. Under Lambert the squad has not got bigger or really improved much, he has gambled three key defensive positions on youngsters, this became 5 when Vlaar got injured. Maybe January he will bring in another 9 players and half of those will be ready to improve us? Lambert's choices on loan: 4 players sold: 1 player released: 2 players long term injured: 2 players (Dunne being one) Total: 9 players brought in: Vlaar, Westwood, KEA, Lowton, Bennett, Benteke, Guzan, Holman, Bowery Total: 9 Players being driven out: Nzogbia, Bent, Ireland. Ireland has played but only when no other option - Lambert prefers Bannan and Westwood over him and he would play my mum rather than Bent if he could get away with it. Now I am not saying Lambert isn't right to do things his way, even if that means experienced players out on loan or not being played. But right now we need everyone we can get and I would welcome Hutton and Warnock back in a heartbeat.

Blind faith in the manager and willing him to succeed is acceptable as long as people realise that as yet he's not proven anything whatsover.

one of the issues we have is we still think like a top 6 team, we try and play fast pace passing football but we don't have the talent to pull this off. Look at Stoke, West Brom, West Ham - they play ugly physical direct football which also revolves a lot around set pieces. 1) Our set piece taking is next to useless, we score **** all from corners and free kicks and this has been an issue since MON left. 2) We don't have any ugly, big physical players in midfield, as close as we come are some moody tackles by Delph, KEA and Lichaj - none of which are good at it. Herd is about as good as it gets for us and i don't rate him at all plus he is playing in defence. We need to be bigger and uglier, we need some players to do the donkey work so others are free to be creative. Most of our midfielders are jack of all trades masters of jack shit.

his first cameos under Lambert he looked pretty good, but he seems to have lost his touch and bottle of late but in truth so has everyone. i wouldn't write him off just yet, he really needs some confidence but so does the whole team - oh and some luck with injuries!

official site says he's a midfielder, i'm guessing then he's an attacking one? I'm sure when he had that cameo under McCleish he played wide? and for the record i want the all the young players and all signings regardless of who signed them to do well and I hope that they start to prove me and all other doubters wrong.

isn't he? My bad I always thought he was a wide player?

doesn't take a rocket scientist to work out which four does it based on how bad the rest are, doesn't mean they are as much of a success as you seem to think. I mentioned a winger, i didn't say superstar winger, right now i'd be happy if Lambert played Carruthers. Bent scored the odd goal? I think he has scored more than the odd goal for us, would it make any difference if he ran round like a headless chicken as well? Goals aren't enough on their own? We've wanted a selfish goal poacher since the days of Saunders and Yorke, we get one and everyone bleats on about how he's a luxury player, along with Ireland and Nzogbia. Anyone who has any actual talent is a luxury player and mercenary these days. Young hungry but crap is the level we want and expect?

Four? Benteke........... replaced Bent when we needed someone alongside Bent, Bent was scoring goals, we needed a winger/wide player. Not saying he isn't decent but to alienate one player in favour of another when we have a small and average squad is utterly barmy. Lowton...... ok he's better than Hutton, but we are asking way to much of him. Vlaar.......... we have still shipped as many goals with him in defence as we did with Collins and Dunne, i like Vlaar but i'm not sure he's as amazing as a lot of people think he is. For every positionally astute interception and tackle he makes he misses about three. Westwood....... our team is so **** bad that a player that does the basics right is suddenly heralded as amazing, yes Westwood is half decent, but what is his role in the side, he doesn't create anything and he's not defensive at all? Maybe alongside a player we've yet to sign he will thrive and continue to improve, but until then??? Then it is Lambert's fault for not signing these more established players.

anyone not think that Lambert is going down the exact same route of using the youngsters that almost got us relegated with McCleish? I am almost bored of pointing out how average the core of our squad is.

i genuinely think he isn't that bad, he looked ok when beside Cuellar in defence - just terrible when next to Max Branning. He would be great in back three with Vlaar and Baker or Clark. we could sure do with him and Vlaar right now.

now i've calmed down a bit - I can maybe admit myself and probably others are over reacting, the squad Lambert inherited was poor and his attempts to strengthen it were never going to come off in one transfer window. His ethos of young and promising players and pulling talent from abroad and lower leagues is something we have lacked and needed for a long time now and until two games ago people were starting to see what he was trying to do. I personally don't know if the way he has treated, Hutton, Warnock and Collins has really paid off, but you can see why he wanted to change things. In my opinion though if you are going to sack off three experienced (if out of form) players, you need to replace them with three experienced but better players. Vlaar is unproven and not without his merits and faults, Lowton is promising, Bennett is out of his depth. I don't agree how he has handled Bent, Ireland and Nzogbia, the last two may not have/ever live up to expectations but they still have the most talent and experience we have in midfield, Bent in my opinion didn't deserve to be humiliated by being dropped in favour of Bowery in the bench/squad - even if he is a stroppy egotistical player who is hard to accomodate tactically when things aren't going well. Why we have imploded I am not quite sure, injuries, over reliance on average players.... maybe, we genuinely seem to be having some shocking luck, every interception or 50/50 challenge today won ended up bouncing straight to a Spurs player, every time Chelsea shot on goal it went in. Clark, Bannan, Herd, Delph and Lichaj have not shown me anything more than the Championship form they should under the last three managers. Ok so maybe Clark deserved a run in the team as did Baker but they still make rookie mistakes and cost us goals. You can't blame Lambert for using his judgment to give these players a chance though, but what he has to do is learn from what is happening now and use the Jan transfer window wisely. Benteke suffers when the team suffers, just like Bent does - people forget how young he us. I thought him Weimann and Gabby as a front three looked really good. Holman and KEA need to be used as back up as both have looked pretty ropey. Lerner isn't going to sack Lambert and throwing money at the team isn't a solution on it's own, but i've never seen a time when we need bodies more than ever, not even world class players - just players that can do a job in the premiership. Lambert has to accept that if he wants young players to flourish at the foundation of his team then he needs some short term thinking, meaning we need proven prem players probably on high wages and shorter term contracts - to allow us to survive while Lambert and Lerner's cheap youthful utopia takes root.

you mean the way we had 1 shot to their 10 and their non-stop corners and freekicks? Yeah we matched them alright first half

We didn't get tonked by Man Utd or by Liverpool, defeat isn't the problem, it's the manner of the defeat that hurts. Had we lost 3:1 to Chelsea or 2:0 to Spurs we would have been annoyed but we would have shrugged and said 'we were beaten by the better team' but I think the problem was also down to the fact we had come off the back of a good unbeaten run including clean sheets. I think Lambert is utterly deluded but look at the team he could have put out injuries permitting. Not saying we'd win with the below, but we'd stand a chance in hell which we don't now. ------------ Benteke --- Gabby Ireland Weimann ---------- Westwood Bennett --- Herd ---- Lowton ------Vlaar Clark Baker ------------ Guzan I presume Weimann was injured today?

Play any side and it's suicide.

i would like to believe this but as many has said Norwich have not got a better squad, neither have West Brom, Stoke etc etc. we have had atrocious luck with injuries, but you still have to say the board and manager have known how weak our squad is and how rubbish most of the youth are because they were all terrible last season. It feels like no lesson has been learnt at all. Now people will slate me for this but - by the end of last season our defence was actually pretty good and it had to be to keep us in the premiership, yes i appreciate that Hutton and Warnock were often terrible, but the approach of hoofing them out of the club rather than trying to get the best out of them hasn't worked at all. Deciding to play the big boss when it comes to Ireland and Bent hasn't worked either. Rather than add to what little quality we did have Lambert has stripped it back and replaced it with 'young and hungry players' players that I thought had already proven they weren't good enough like, Delph, Herd, Lichaj, Clark, Bannan. Guzan, Benteke, Vlaar and Lowton are the only players to add anything, the rest have taken us further back. Benteke should have been bought to play alongside Bent not as a replacement. Is Vlaar better than Collins, you'd think so but Collins has been solid for WHAM this season getting MOM on a handful of occasions, has Vlaar had MOM for us? And i don't mean the self-appointed ones our club gives the least crap person on the field i mean the prem league MOM. If it wasn't for the fact Lambert's tenure was following McCleish then there would be a LAMBERT OUT thread by now, so many of us including me want him to succeed so hard we are utterly blinkered by the horrible truth. I expect to be beaten by Spurs and Chelsea, but by the odd goal, not this.

he will if we continue shipping this many goals.

i think he has 2 or 3 games left to be honest, i don't even think Randy can stomach this shit