CottenM

NBA League Pass is £25 a month and you can watch every game from every team No unfair bias for fans of smaller / bigger teams Even if the games are on network TV they're still available also* £25 is still reasonable money, but not extortionate imo Something like this would have been easy to copy, and they've got it wrong for me. (*sure BT and Sky wouldn't let this bit happen...)

The injury to Wesley is an issue, because we have a striker on starters wages we'll still be paying, and if we buy another striker, when he does come back suddenly we're overloaded in that position. Davis would in theory be ok as a third choice in my opinion, he's shown some ability, needs to improve if we're going to be pushing on as a club though

Thanks for the help guys, I did ring the ticket office and she said theres 90 odd returned tickets, or like you say become a Swindon fan for the day. Going to take a punt anyway just for the road trip.

Looking to take a couple hour drive up from Devon with a couple of mates. What are peoples thoughts on a) definitely being tickets on the gate and being a decent amount of first team players?

I say this every time it comes around (all too frequent in recent years) Slaven Bilic! Did a good job with Croatia, his club record might not be brilliant but, he is in a rock band... And he looks pretty cool. And isn't Scottish.

... and yet, we only conceded after he went off. I have a rock that keeps tigers away...

I think a haircut would vastly improve Joe Bennett as a player.

Excellent post by The_Rev a page back, makes it a little clearer. I can't see Newcastle and Norwich both getting the win they need to leapfrog us. Hoping for a positive result in the Swansea - Wigan game tonight obviously but not the end of the world if they win, just needs one team to finish below us. We SHOULD be ok, enough teams below us that all need to get points.

We should never have sold Steve Sidwell, with a win percentage of 53% officially the greatest ever Villa player of the Premier League era. (and probably all time) I didn't need win percentages to tell me that though...

I'd suggest that with Big Barry's raw crossing ability from the middle of the park, and his 2% better success ratio from corners than the former Crewe* man, he should definitely be starting every game. As we saw in the season when Liverpool adopted the "moneyball" method and snapped up Henderson, Carroll and Downing, the statistical approach is one that works well. Its interesting because from watching the matches myself I'd say he offers very little going forwards or backwards. Which is in fact, wrong. *this isn't knocking Crewe's fine academy or Westwood who has had a decent season. Just saying, it's a bit like beating Britain's number 3 tennis player.

SO, ANY TRANSFER SPECULATION? Yeah, I put capslock on, thats how serious its got.

So, all the people that reply to Con with his Barry Bannan and Kyle Walker antics.. You do realise that, I mean, the clues in the name surely? Con.

Am I the only one secretly enjoying being in a relegation battle? I mean, I don't want us relegated but its nice having something to play for... No, just me?

Good points GarethRDR Do we know what counts as a successful cross? I bet the high hanging one to the edge of the box that Benteke barely gets his head on and it goes out of play that count. I'd prefer an "unsuccessful" one in to a dangerous area that forces a defender to put it behind Don't know what happened to Barry, used to have a great set piece if nothing else, not really sure what the point of him is right now. Shame.

Looked like he was told to go and do a marking job on Lucas, which I thought he did reasonably well. And looked as good on the ball as anyone in this game (thought Westwood was unusually poor) Trouble is it seemed to make Liverpool play the early ball in to Suarez or Coutinho to some success. I'd like to see him play deeper in front of the centre backs and stay there, stop the danger men getting the ball in space so much.

"People need to realize its all about the money and Norwich are small time" "Norwich have agreed to sign van wolfswinkel from sporting for £8.5m"

The spelling of sentences. No capital on God. Filling a Paul Lambert thread with non Lambert posts. The assumption that we are getting relegated. There's probably more errors, I apologise, but those darn dots really cut deep.

Please, for the love of god, can you stop ending your sentances with ellipsis Sutherland. I can't take relegation and terrible grammar.

In the Soccernomics book, which has very deep statistical analysis on this issue, it says there is a direct correlation between wages and success. Its obvious really, more money = better players. Obviously there are anomalies, but the chances of us finding a squad of 22 anomalies arent great... From what I read it sounds like we're trying to do what Alan Sugar did at Spurs in the early 90's and run a profitable football club? It didn't work.

Alright... what about the 60% (roughly) in every game where we don't have the ball? What about the stats for what I believe is our most played "pass", Guzan to Benteke...? Dribbling and shooting no longer part of the game? How many of those midfield "succesful" passes are one's where Delph gets in a spot of bother, shits himself and knocks a dodgy pass back to Clark who has to pump it? (i see this sort of thing happening a lot) I got a stat for you, most goals conceded in the league, second lowest scorers. We have a bad team. All that said, I do agree we should look to play through the midfield more, and the midfielders need to be looking to play a more attacking ball more often. For me, we need to go 4-4-2...

People up with Serie A, do Lorik Cana and Mathieu Flamini get much game time at their clubs? Couple of players with Premier League experience I can think of that we might have more chance of getting then players already here that know how dire it is at Villa. Would be ideal in that holding role, but not sure how realistic. Another former Premier League player for that role, Denilson of Arsenal, not sure what the situation is with him though. Expect these names to be mentioned in some twitter itk soon anyway...

I can't be the only one to see that, yes our defence is awful (especially the full backs*) but it wouldn't hurt to have a little help from midfield. This doesn't have to be charging about like an idiot (I'm looking in your directions Holman and Delph) just being in the right places and getting in the way. Dodgy full backs, Benteke and Weimann seem a half decent partnership with a couple of goals, all points to a 4-4-2 for me. Guzan Stevens Clark Vlaar - if at all possible Lowton - *who has actually looked a half decent purchase Westwood - sitting Ireland - for a bit of experience and also works harder than people give him credit for Nzog - wide left, politely ask him if he could maybe track back (cant believe this guy started out as a left back) Holman - wide right Benteke And Weimann. 2-1 to us, fairly late on MOTD, Hansen looks bored and tired and declares us safe.

Not sure on the personel, but nice to see 4-4-2 (ish, not sure what Bennett was?) Albrighton isnt a fantastic player but was a good outlet I thought. Maybe a wide man in the transfer window wouldnt hurt (or Nzogbia to step up)

I think we should play a couple of defenders in midfield and try to sneak a point...

I've seen Cresswell play for Tranmere! But I don't remember seeing him play I.E he was not a standout player. It seems like Lambert may be trying to find gems from lower divisions for the sake of it. We do NEED a left back though and whoever we get, I'll back them.