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VillaAndLoyal

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  1. Why? For all their pretty football they managed the same number of shots on target as us. If you really need me to answer that then I fear for your sanity. But, alas, I'm pretty confident you're just trying to point score. If you watched the match you'd know they had battered us, which doesn't just take into account shots on target..
  2. My West Ham supporting mate came with me yesterday and, whilst he tried to remain polite throughout, he did eventually concede that we are just as bad as his team and just pump it upfield and have no proper strategy or game plan. None of that is news to us, I know, but it just shows you how neutrals can very easily pick out where our weaknesses are. Seemingly, our manager cannot. On the train back to New Street a Swansea fan asked a group of us Villa fans: "Do you play like that every week?" to which we responded "Yes, and in actual fact, we usually play worse." He looked dumbfounded and Swansea fans have every right to be hugely disappointed not to pick up maximum points. We just have nothing at the moment. I can't think of any positives and Lambert is walking a tightrope. Sunderland away is harder than many think and then we have Arsenal and Liverpool. Honestly can't see where the next 3 points is coming from...
  3. Swansea are in poor form so this is the perfect game for them to bounce back from and pick up a win.
  4. After Stoke, I said the next two games would determine where I stand with Lambert but unfortunately my patience cannot be stretched any further after that utter diatribe served up in front of a magnificent home support today. He is absolutely clueless and this club is in free-fall. But do you know what, this stems back to last season when one person and one person alone kept us in the Premier League: Christian Benteke. He contributed to a ridiculous number of goals, be it directly or with assists and it was only a matter of time that our one and only threat was targeted by other teams or had a period off form. Unfortunately for Villa this season, both has happened and this 'team' of dross is what we are left with. Let's get one thing straight, and I can't believe no-one has mentioned it yet, but Lambert now officially has a WORSE goals and points per game average when playing at home than under Alex McLeish, a manager that many can't even bare think about. Paul Lambert I'm afraid has been given an incredibly easy ride up until now BECAUSE he succeeded AMC and for that reason only. The fans wanted OGS if I recall correctly, but when Lambert came in he was backed by everybody, as would any manager have been after the McLeish debacle. But he is now performing on a par and the football is just as bad as under a manager which many labelled our worst ever, so what does that make Lambert? Yes, he has had a small budget but I'm sorry that excuse just doesn't cut it anymore when you buy two players (Kozak/Helenius) for the same position and neglect to buy anyone for positions which really need attention (attacking midfield). Surely, if your budget is tight, you buy even more carefully? But Lambert has bought trash in terms of personnel and in terms of where that money has been targeted which are two major flaws of the "he's had no money" argument. Other people have said it but that team is just not Premier League standard, the only surprise is that we've already accumulated 19 points but without Benteke, who do we have to save our bacon this season? Frankly, and this may sound defeatist, but we've been very lucky for a long time now. We should have been relegated long before now and 2013/14 is looking like our luck might finally run out as I can't think of three teams worse than us at present. This club is rotten from the very top down to the very bottom. Randolph Lerner was a mistake from the very day he walked into this club, knowing absolutely nothing about football and appointing non-footballing people to make the catastrophic short-term decisions which have resulted in the collective mess we see before us. However, I've argued that point for years and, alas, Lerner doesn't care what I or any of us think. We are his business. In terms of manager though, i think he has to go and with immediate effect. When you have head coaches and players swearing at fans for daring to give an opinion, I think it just highlights what a shambles we have become under Lambert. We play no better football than under McLeish, are no further forward 18 months down the line, he seems completely unwilling to accept that anything is going wrong, nor able to inspire/motivate and try and change things to put things right. He is out of his depth, particularly, with the scale of the challenge presented to him at Villa and, for me, the statistics speak for themselves. His position is untenable. As I said in the Stoke thread, he comes out with lots of buzzwords, inspirational visions and bleats on about his "project" when the only thing he has achieved is to turn a really bad team, worse. The majority of our players can't do the basics such as pass and move or trap a football and I'm sorry, that is just completely unacceptable and is a legacy Lambert must live with. What on earth do they do in training? I can accept limitations and I don't think many Villa fans have 'unrealistic expectations' nowadays - I just want a half-decent team which can do the basics well and occasionally excite me, this team is way out on both counts and things appear to be getting worse, rather than this so-called 'improvement' Lambert bored us with for the first period of this season. Funny that Paul, I thought statistics meant very little to you? Lambert out. Lerner and Faulkner, as I've been pleading for years, out.
  5. After Stoke, I said the next two games would determine where I stand with Lambert but unfortunately my patience cannot be stretched any further after that utter diatribe served up in front of a magnificent home support today. He is absolutely clueless and this club is in free-fall. But do you know what, this stems back to last season when one person and one person alone kept us in the Premier League: Christian Benteke. He contributed to a ridiculous number of goals, be it directly or with assists and it was only a matter of time that our one and only threat was targeted by other teams or had a period off form. Unfortunately for Villa this season, both has happened and this 'team' of dross is what we are left with. Let's get one thing straight, and I can't believe no-one has mentioned it yet, but Lambert now officially has a WORSE goals and points per game average when playing at home than under Alex McLeish, a manager that many can't even bare think about. Paul Lambert I'm afraid has been given an incredibly easy ride up until now BECAUSE he succeeded AMC and for that reason only. The fans wanted OGS if I recall correctly, but when Lambert came in he was backed by everybody, as would any manager have been after the McLeish debacle. But he is now performing on a par and the football is just as bad as under a manager which many labelled our worst ever, so what does that make Lambert? Yes, he has had a small budget but I'm sorry that excuse just doesn't cut it anymore when you buy two players (Kozak/Helenius) for the same position and neglect to buy anyone for positions which really need attention (attacking midfield). Surely, if your budget is tight, you buy even more carefully? But Lambert has bought trash in terms of personnel and in terms of where that money has been targeted which are two major flaws of the "he's had no money" argument. Other people have said it but that team is just not Premier League standard, the only surprise is that we've already accumulated 19 points but without Benteke, who do we have to save our bacon this season? Frankly, and this may sound defeatist, but we've been very lucky for a long time now. We should have been relegated long before now and 2013/14 is looking like our luck might finally run out as I can't think of three teams worse than us at present. This club is rotten from the very top down to the very bottom. Randolph Lerner was a mistake from the very day he walked into this club, knowing absolutely nothing about football and appointing non-footballing people to make the catastrophic short-term decisions which have resulted in the collective mess we see before us. However, I've argued that point for years and, alas, Lerner doesn't care what I or any of us think. We are his business. In terms of manager though, i think he has to go and with immediate effect. When you have head coaches and players swearing at fans for daring to give an opinion, I think it just highlights what a shambles we have become under Lambert. We play no better football than under McLeish, are no further forward 18 months down the line, he seems completely unwilling to accept that anything is going wrong, nor able to inspire/motivate and try and change things to put things right. He is out of his depth, particularly, with the scale of the challenge presented to him at Villa and, for me, the statistics speak for themselves. His position is untenable. As I said in the Stoke thread, he comes out with lots of buzzwords, inspirational visions and bleats on about his "project" when the only thing he has achieved is to turn a really bad team, worse. The majority of our players can't do the basics such as pass and move or trap a football and I'm sorry, that is just completely unacceptable and is a legacy Lambert must live with. What on earth do they do in training? I can accept limitations and I don't think many Villa fans have 'unrealistic expectations' nowadays - I just want a half-decent team which can do the basics well and occasionally excite me, this team is way out on both counts and things appear to be getting worse, rather than this so-called 'improvement' Lambert bored us with for the first period of this season. Funny that Paul, I thought statistics meant very little to you? Lambert out. Lerner and Faulkner, as I've been pleading for years, out.
  6. I take the point about Andy Carroll but then he is English so ridiculous price tags have always followed him around, just look at what Liverpool paid for him. If we are to believe the rumours, Spurs wouldn't match our asking price in the summer following a barnstorming season from Christian so even if he does improve in the second half of the season, I don't think we'll get the price some people think we will. I guess only time will tell.
  7. Yes I'm aware of that but you are, of course, assuming he will recapture his form of last season and I'm far from convinced he will. For the purposes of this thread I intended to show what I would do without him because, whether he's sold for 12m or 30m, I don't think Christian Benteke is planning on sticking around here for any significant period of time and we need to plan for life without him. He won't save us from relegation every season.
  8. Oh, my bad, I forgot Christian was next Luiz Suarez and will not be leaving for anything below £30m Things, and valuations, change quickly in football. Which means I'd hazard a guess my valuation at this moment in time is far more accurate than anything you would come up with. But, don't mind me, carry on laughing...
  9. "1) You have a full squad to choose from. 2) You have £10m to spend and an extension of 40k P/W on wages to use - be reasonable. 3) You can do whatever you like for selection, formation and signings. You can buy three players, or just one. But you must be reasonable, no Messi or Ronaldo, think of who you can get for the money. Now put that all together and tell us your tactics." First thing I would do is sell Benteke for £12m as well as getting rid of Bent, Bowery, KEA and Tonev. I think that is a realistic price for Christian going off his recent poor form, but potential to rediscover last season's form elsewhere. That would take the transfer kitty to £22m+, plus a healthier amount to spend on wages with the offloading of Christian and Darren. I would then target three key players in Micah Richards, Youssouf Mulumbu and Nikica Jelavic. Micah is injured at the moment and has fallen out of favour at Manchester City under the new regime. Being from Birmingham, I think we could tempt him here and give him the chance to rediscover the form he had when he first burst onto the scene. He's a big, athletic defender who is young but has good experience already and is exactly the type of player we need to help shore up our defence but also offer more going forward as a unit. I think an offer of £7 million and 35k a week would be a realistic offer to put on the table. Youssouf is a player which has consistently impressed me at our friendly neighbours and, alongside Yacob, they have cemented a good Premier League midfield. People may say, but what about a creative midfielder? But I would actually like to give Delph the freedom to play there. Delph can beat players, can pass well and decisively and given the chance I think he could improve his shooting and general creativity. Mulumbu would be that anchor in midfield to help break up play and start attacks. He is also 26 so has that PL experience to help our younger crop, but is by no means over the hill and probably has another 3/4 years playing at a good standard. WBA would be reluctant to sell, which may force the transfer fee up, but now that they are without a manager I'm confident a deal could be reached for this player. Probably 8/9 million, on 30k a week. Jelavic used to be first choice striker at Everton so I'm sure he won't be very happy at having to play second fiddle to a loan player this season. He is good in the air and on the ground and has proven he can score goals in the top flight. He can act as a target man but also has a bit of pace and likes to make runs off the last man, something we haven't really got at present. I would initially try to loan Nikica, and I haven't got a clue how much he is on at Everton etc so for arguments sake I'll pluck a figure out of thin air and say he would cost 30k a week. I think one of our biggest weaknesses at the moment is that the core of our team is not strong enough. Signing these three players would go some way to addressing that, and also addressing our lack of experience, without breaking the bank. ---------------------Guzan------------------ M.Richards--- Vlaar -- Okore --- Lowton ------------Bacuna --- Y. Mulumbu ------- Albrighton ----- Delph ----- Agbonlahor ---------------- N. Jelavic ---------------- I think that team has pace, more creativity than at present and the ability to adapt our style of play depending on the circumstance. The formation would vary depending on the opposition and whether playing home/away but there would obviously be an emphasis for Gabby and Marc to make lots of forward runs to support Jelavic, as well as supplying plenty of crosses into the box to capitalise on Jelavic's aerial presence. Jack Grealish and Gary Gardener would be on my bench and Kozak and Wiemann would be used as impact substitutes when needed. I would also stress the absolute importance of passing and moving and being comfortable on the ball when in possession and pressing high up the pitch when we don't have the ball. Delph would work on his ability to feed clever through balls and to spot the runs of Jelavic. I think this is a fairly realistic team and, whilst not setting the place on fire, I think it would be a solid top 8-10 side and something to build on.
  10. Mantis, can you ever contribute to a thread without getting engaged in an argument or taking offence at something? Genuine question as every time I see your name on here you seem to be in some sort of conflict with someone. It's rather tiresome. In answer to the thread: I genuinely don't know. I'd like to think not, but then Lambert's records just keep getting worse by the week. Does anybody know what his win percentage is? If we lose the next 2/3, this question may become irrelevant anyway.
  11. Some great points TRO and HH. Restored my faith in this thread!
  12. I haven't posted on here for a while and I must say the amount of childish posts on this thread is staggering. People only interested in point scoring, belittling other posters, deliberately winding up others, carrying on 'grudges' that date back years, insults, people getting far too defensive - a lot of you need to grow up and realise that everyone has different opinions when it comes to football. Right, back on topic. I've really tried to back Lambert since he came to the club and I realise there are bigger problems than him (Randy Lerner, to name but one). I also despise this managerial merry-go-round we have nowadays. Stability builds success, I fully agree with that sentiment. However, I'm very close to losing my patience with Paul Lambert now. He goes on about his "project" and how it is still early days but I'm sorry, I just don't see what he is trying to build and because of that I don't buy the excuse about timescales. Newcastle bought loads of new players last season and, at first, they struggled to settle. But this season Pardew now knows what his best team is and is playing a regular, consistent system and it is working for them. What is Lambert's aim with this "project"? I thought, initially, it was about bringing talented youngsters through who fought for the shirt and wanted to play football in the way it should be played. What I actually see at present, this far down the line, is a team littered with inexperienced players not up to the standard of the Premier League, not putting in 100% effort and not able to do the very basics in football such as passing and moving. We just simply have no style, no shape, and seemingly no strategy under Lambert and as many have said we appear to have gone backwards from the end of last season. I would bemoan the fact that we haven't got a Plan B if it weren't for the fact that I don't think we even have a Plan A. Yes, the restructuring of the club and the small finances now available to Lambert have undoubtedly hindered him. But, that said, I still think his transfer market dealings have been both hugely disappointing and, in many ways, perplexing. Why buy Helenius and Kozak, two players of the exact nature, when we desperately needed a creative midfielder and further cover in defence? Why buy players like Bowery when blooding someone like Jack Grealish would seem the far more logical step? When he discovered Benteke it gave many of us hope that he had the eye for a good, bargain signing but players like Bowery, Luna, KEA, Westwood, Tonez, Helenius etc now maybe suggest the Benteke capture was a fluke. The players I've just mentioned are simply not good enough for a solid, mid-table Premier League side and some would struggle to cut it in the Championship. Paul Lambert has already proven himself to be very stubborn, emphasised none more so than with his numerous falling outs with high profile players at the Villa. And I think it is this stubbornness which winds the Villa fans up with his boring, lifeless, nondescript post and pre-match interviews. He uses buzzwords and meaningless rhetoric which leaves fans such as me wondering whether he can really see the weaknesses in this team, or whether he just cannot see past this stubborn facade which has unnerving similarities to that of Martin O'Neill. Nobody wants him to publicly critisise the players a la Di Canio, yet plenty of managers manage to be full and frank in their assessment of performances and consistently telling us we were "excellent" when we clearly weren't is just fueling the fire I'm afraid. On the one hand, I thought one of the 'key criteria' of the PL project was to have the fans considerations at its heart and to create a good rapport between manager, fans and players, rather like his Borussia Dortmund side. And yet, by never holding his hands up and saying "we weren't at the races today. I'm not a happy man etc" he just loses any rapport with me and many others as I just find him unwilling to accept where we have gone wrong. I think we've had more than our fair share of luck this season and (with the recent injuries) that luck is beginning to wear out. Today at Stoke, they were pretty bad but we were just worse and that is quite worrying. Generally, far too many players are either out-of-form or not up to standard at the minute and I'm struggling to take any positives from the Lambert regime, much as I'd like to. After the McLeish debacle, everybody was delighted to welcome Paul to the club and I think that naturally bought him some extra time and patience from the fans. But I have to admit to being pretty damn disappointed with where we are as a team now, some of the signings he has made, and some of the decisions he has made both on and off the pitch. From where I watch the games, we are not any further forward than we were under AMC and the football is almost as uninspiring. The next three games over Christmas and New Year are massive for us and will probably go along way to me personally deciding where I stand with him. I think many fans share these similar views: I want to like him, and do still back him and the team, but when you look at the facts and the apathy around the club, it tells a different story... I'm sure many will disagree with this assessment and that is completely fair enough, but it's where I stand at the moment.
  13. Yeah same here Stefan. He was practically serenading the girl behind the bar. So much so that she served him just to get rid of him! Funny guy!
  14. It was so funny when everyone in the Red Robin beer garden spotted the Jimmy Savile fancy dress guy... to say he got it both barrels would be a massive understatement!
  15. Amazing some of the early comments on this thread calling it a "lame" end to the season, "shameful" and one person even glad they sold their ticket... err why? More fool you is all I can say! Was a cracking last day of the season, the Villa fans were electric from start to finish! Petrov and Lambert coming on the pitch at the end was so emotional and - although the lads had made this a meaningless game well before today - they still got us a couple of goals to see the season out on a high! Fantastic atmosphere around the club at present, despite what Villa Talk would have you believe sometimes! And some of the fancy dress outfits were, well, brave! Credit to my one mate who went dressed as a Peperami!! "I don't care about Wigan! They don't care about me! All I care about: is AVFC!!!!!!"
  16. Firstly, well done to the fans. It was an amazing atmosphere - so, so loud at times - and it was exactly what the players needed. QPR's fans, on the other hand, were woeful and small margins like this, I believe, are where certain games are won and lost. It does sort of raise the question I posed above however, why don't we do this more often? And yes, I'm aware that an exciting, crucial game will usually help a better atmosphere to be created. I'd be really interested to know how many more points we'd have on the board if the atmosphere was like that, or similar, at every home game. Think we'd be in mid-table myself. Anyway, great atmosphere! I wish it was like that every game...
  17. Without wanting to be too hard on our own fans (I do think we are good fans in general) but many people even on this thread have mentioned the fans who get too negative, too quickly, and you may well have a point. But what about the thousands upon thousands who sit there in silence every week? Isn't that just as bad? If those said people sung a little, the so-called negative fans would be heard even less. And yes, it would be great to get 36-38k through the door tomorrow, but what use is that if it's still the same few thousand in the Upper Holte and Lower North putting in all the vocal effort. After all, I'd much rather play in a packed, but silent Nou Camp than a loud, terraced old Division Two sides ground if I was an opposition player. I realise singing isn't for everyone and I'm not trying to discredit those who choose not too but I don't think anyone can deny that an intimidating home atmosphere gives us a better chance to spur the players on to win, no? So, as this is such a crucial game, why can't a few more people forget about their usual routine and just sing their hearts out for the lads? I know this will fall on deaf ears (pun not intended) but it is worth raising in my view.
  18. I had a really good feeling before the Reading game that we'd get the win we needed, and we did. And I have a really bad feeling about this one. Whilst we are improving, it is very gradual and our defence still looks far too shaky. QPR are coming good at just the right time and, in a way, are playing without pressure as everyone expected them to be down by now. The pressure is all on us and I just pray we pull a performance out of the bag, as QPR have some very dangerous players. We'll have to step up the level of performance another 'two gears' against these lot to get anything out of it, in my opinion.
  19. Our fans were LIONS yesterday! We roared the lads to victory! It was so, so loud - at half-time everybody was just bouncing - and at full-time it was like we'd won a cup. Sounds like I'm exaggerating, but that's what it was like. You could tell how much the win also meant to the players and manager at the end and how much they appreciated the amazing away support. It is days like this that make me **** proud to be loud, proud and Claret & Blue - whatever division we happen to be in.
  20. I can't sleep ahead of this game - nervous as ****! But Premier League or Championship, i'm Villa 'till I die! For those also going tomorrow - sing loud and sing proud! See you there. Do YOU believe in the Villaaaaaa??? Ohhh Yessssss!!!!
  21. Stats should be treated with caution at the best of times. But stats with no comparisons? Well, the OP has just wasted his/her time really. Our defending at balls into the box is woeful, even the bumbling Lambert has admitted that. It has nothing to do with 'what the media are telling us'....
  22. Interesting thread but I think it's literally impossible to predict our points total. If we scrape a win tomorrow and then start playing to our potential then we can survive and that probably means 35/36 points plus. But the point is we've not played to our potential for most of this season, hence why we're in this mess, and if Lambert persists with his woeful formations and tactics then we will go down and probably won't even get to 30 points. Looking to the fixtures in our present form, I just can't see us staying up so we need something to change and a good start would be 4-4-2, Sylla in the side and Weimann as an out and out striker (imo).
  23. Yacouba certainly has the attributes we were after in midfield so I'm trying to be quietly optimistic about this signing. Given the above, there's a good chance he will improve our midfield. I've said for a long time we need an athletic, tough-tackling player in the centre and by all accounts he fits that bill.
  24. Speculating about what relegation would be like is a source of hope? I've heard it all now.
  25. When did we get relegated? Must have missed it.
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