Condimentalist Posted February 12, 2014 Share Posted February 12, 2014 Mild disappointment Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Adam_ Posted February 12, 2014 Share Posted February 12, 2014 Huge disappointment, great first game, just went downhill from there! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JoshVilla Posted February 12, 2014 Share Posted February 12, 2014 It's been very up and down so far, with maybe slightly more down than up. I know we're better off than last season points and position wise at this point, but some of the performances have been beyond dreadful, but at the same time, some of them have been fantastic. Our lack of consistency is what really kills us (as well as our home form). If we could always be the team that played at Arsenal on the opening day, Chelsea at SB or Liverpool at Anfield, then we could be in a very strong position in the top half. Instead, we'll have a couple of good performances dotted here and there, some pretty crap ones and some absolutely awful ones, but I guess that's what being mid table is all about. I'd have hoped that we'd have sorted our home form out even just a little bit this season, but that's still embarrassing. We have one of the best grounds in the country, and the fact that we're so rarely treated to the kind of football that should match it is really sad. Home form is so important for so many reasons and I'm very disappointed that we still get taken apart so easily. Transfers have also been pretty disappointing. Bertrand has strengthened the left hand side up a bit, and Holt divides opinions (very dramatically), but we're still so reliant on Vlaar being fit and the attacking midfielder that we so desperately need still hasn't been spotted. I know that Lambert can only work with what he's been given, and if he's not being given enough funding, or if some things just don't come off, then there's not much that he can do, but it's still pretty tough when it's so obvious to see what we need it's still gone unfixed. I guess it will be a matter of waiting to see what happens in the summer. However, those are the negative things. In terms of positives, we've managed some pretty impressive wins. Games against bigger opposition tend to be a lot tighter this season (i.e Chelsea away, Everton at home which was very tight before it became 0-2, Liverpool away and at home). Delph, in general, has looked awesome and a couple of summer signings are looking very useful, such as Okore before his injury and Bacuna. I guess, because of the way we started the season, we all had bigger expectations, which is why a number of results and performances this season have been hard to take, but hopefully, if we hit some decent form like we did this time last season, then surely a half decent finish will be on the cards. UTV Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Electric Avenue Posted February 12, 2014 Share Posted February 12, 2014 At one point last night the camera panned onto Lambert and Carsa for a good 30 secs. Karsa was ignoring the game and was just sat looking at the floor . Kind of sums up the whole goddam sorry situation. Poor team, inept tactics, absent coaching. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
srsmithusa Posted February 12, 2014 Share Posted February 12, 2014 Slow progress, but bizarrely inconsistent most of the time and painful at the bad times. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
HanoiVillan Posted February 13, 2014 Share Posted February 13, 2014 Slightly below expectations. Positives The positives are more points gathered, and a better league position. People always talk about 'lucky' wins against Southampton & Man City, but the team was set up to play counter attack in those games and it worked. I don't accept that we're as bad or worse when compared to last season and taken as a whole, although clearly individual players have regressed. People say it's embarrassing to lose to Sheffield Utd in the cup, and yeah it was, but I felt a lot more embarrassed after the 8-0 tonking at Chelsea last season. We haven't been smashed by anybody this year, and that's an improvement. The defence has clearly improved, which must have happened from the supposedly non-existent coaching, because it's certainly not down to new players. Vlaar has proved a quality addition, and Clark and Baker edge ever closer to being good enough for the division (not quite there yet though!). Delph has improved, and will be useful for us going forward. He still needs to improve his decision-making, and to be surrounded by a lot more quality. Bacuna was a good signing, and will prove to have been a bargain when he's a guaranteed starter. I'd like to see him spend some time in one position, though. Negatives Home form is embarrassing, and becoming a serious threat to the club. How many more years are fans going to continue to buy season tickets to watch the team lose 60% of their home games? I cringe every time it gets mentioned, it's truly pitiful. We have to find a way of playing that works at home. I'm prepared to give Lambert this summer to put things right, but if we lose 5 or more of our first 10 home games next season I'll be calling for his head along with everyone else. Clock is ticking on this one. Far too many players have regressed. Benteke has the injury as a bit of an excuse, but he's still too happy pointing at other players and complaining rather than making the moves himself. When he's good, he's amazing, but that hasn't happened often enough. Westwood and Weimann are both young, but have disappointed. They're probably too young to carry the burden that the club have placed on them in terms of their essential status in the side. Lowton has really gone backwards, defensively and offensively, and seems to have problems off the field, and I've gone from being a big fan to hoping we buy a quality right-back in the summer so he can spend some time as a squad player. In general, there are still too many passengers in the team too much of the time. It's clear Lambert doesn't like the press very much, but it would be better if he were a little more forthcoming about his decision-making. He doesn't have to give tactics away exactly, but it would be nice if we were invited to the table at least a little bit. Overall This time last year, I was sure we were going down. This season, I think we probably won't. So that's an improvement, although I don't give too much credit for this to Lambert. The bottom line is that this is the worst Premier League season ever in terms of overall quality, with 10 teams who have been generally poor, and all of whom could have gone down in a different year. West Ham are 11th, for crying out loud! Unfortunately, we are one of the poor teams. I'm willing to give Lambert about 8 or 9 more months to sort things out (unless we go down, in which case he needs a p45, and I can't believe we're offering a contract extension before we're safe). But some improvement in the home form is vital, as is the addition of some real quality in the summer. We need more killer and less filler these days. Finally, I'd like to say that we're a million miles from the top six or seven in the league. A fissure has opened in this league between the richest clubs and the rest, and I truly can't see us challenging for a place in this group any time in the foreseeable future. That's depressing, and it's not all Lerner's fault. Football across Europe is slowly rotting from the inside, and the caste of teams that can never be knocked from their perches have a more secure hold than ever (with the happy exception of Man Utd, obvs!). I remain interested in football, but I can feel it starting to wane. High point of the season (Villa): two great fightbacks against the Baggies. Low point of the season (Villa): the inept display against a weak United team. High point of the season (everything else): United's delicious downfall, and the football Everton and Southampton are playing. Low point of the season (everything else): Mourinho and Pellegrini each trying to pretend that their club is poorer than the other, just to rub everyone else's noses in it. My Arsenal-supporting friends telling me that supporting Arsenal means they know the 'meaning of frustration', egads. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
heid3ster Posted February 13, 2014 Share Posted February 13, 2014 Overall, at this point in the season I have to admit I'm disappointed. It started out well, with the win at Arsenal on the first day and good performances against Chelsea, Liverpool, beating Man City at home. It looked like we were going to carry on from late last season's form and improve. And while I'm doing my best to remain positive and optimistic, I'd be lying if I said I find the football entertaining. I'm disappointed by the lack of form and consistency of Westwood, El Ahmadi, Weimann, Benteke, Agbonlahor, and Lowton -- especially Lowton, my favorite player last season, who's been inexplicably poor this season. And I'm frustrated and sometimes confused by Lambert's tactics. Then again, I'm buoyed by the improvement in Vlaar, Delph, and Clark, and optimistic about the potential of Bacuna. Also frustrated by the injuries to Okore and Kozak, two newcomers who I thought would strengthen us considerably. We're wildly inconsistent -- maybe understandable given the youth and inexperience in the squad. We had some great results vs. City, Arsenal, Southampton and West Brom, but some really dire performances and results vs. Hull, Fulham, West Ham and Crystal Palace. Too often we seem to lack any real desire on the pitch and that's one thing that I can't forgive. I don't mind losing but I mind giving up, I mind not trying. And I don't understand the narrow, defensive, conservative, static play. Don't tell me we can't pass the ball, don't tell me we can't attack -- we did it last season, we've done it (albeit rarely) this season when the shackles are off. But why are the shackles on so often? I'm pleased we haven't had another 8-0 thrashing but there are days when I think I'd rather lose 5-3 than sit through another goddamn 0-0 draw (or 0-1 loss due to conceding a late goal). For what it's worth, I'm still not worried about relegation and figure we will likely finish right around where we are now, probably 10th - 12th. I'm still optimistic that we can go on a little unbeaten run and put some distance between us and the bottom teams, although I've been optimistic about that at a few different points in the season and it hasn't happened so far. I'm thankful there's so many other crap teams this season but am, again, disappointed that we're having to rely on others being crap. I had higher hopes for this season -- not unrealistic, I don't think, probably even right around the same table placing -- just better results and more positive, entertaining play, that's what I hoped for. It's not over yet, but those hopes are fading. Really wish there was more to be positive about. I prefer being positive. UTV. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Raver50032 Posted February 13, 2014 Share Posted February 13, 2014 Been bored off my tits and very disappointed indeed at Villa Park, which for me, as a paying season ticket holder is where the Club has AGAIN let the fans down. Poor value for money. For that alone - I am out (given my ST to my mate for the rest of the season, for free). As an aside, I had asked the club to refund me as a result of ALL the bizarre fixture changes in March and was contacted personally by the club who said they couldn't refund me as the first match of the season had been played... whatever. To be fair, the lady who phoned me to explain all about how the Club really needed to obey the Sky/BT Sport TV obligations said how surprised even the Club itself were that AVFC had become 'so popular' with the TV broadcasters in March. When even the club say that, you know it's bad. Meh... Other things to spend my money on... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PaulC Posted February 13, 2014 Share Posted February 13, 2014 We haven't really significantly improved on last season. We're tighter at the back because Vlaar has played more games. Most of the summer signings have been a dissapointment which the exception of Bacuna and Kozak, we don't know about Okore. Our home form is dire! I'll be thankful just to stay up and hopefully sign a bit more quality in the summer. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pacbuddies Posted February 13, 2014 Share Posted February 13, 2014 Nice new kit, same old shit. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jim Posted February 13, 2014 Share Posted February 13, 2014 Disappointing Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Electric Avenue Posted February 14, 2014 Share Posted February 14, 2014 Just worked out I've only seen us score 4 home goals this season so far and I'm a ST holder ! (Missed the Ci£y and smethwick games ) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
IrishVillan Posted February 14, 2014 Share Posted February 14, 2014 Progression, slowly but surely. Higher in the table, more points on the board, more goals scored and less conceded than this time last year. It's not perfect of course with home form and general inconsistency obviously the big ones but there has been slight improvement which should culminate in a final position of around 10 - 14. Rome wasn't built in a day and I still back Lambert Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
vandaq Posted February 14, 2014 Share Posted February 14, 2014 All things considered, I am a bit dissapointed even when I am a big supporter of Lambert. Really didn`t think we would be in the mix this year but we certainly are. I just hate the inconsistency, a lot of teams are but we seem totally random. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tomaszk Posted February 14, 2014 Share Posted February 14, 2014 So so gutting. Turgid rubbish. I've been right behind Lambert from the start, but I'm honestly on the brink now. Without improvement, if a decent manager becomes available in the Summer, I'd struggle to defend any decision to bin Lambert off and get someone new in. The thinking being Lambert's job was just to clear us out, get rid of all the high earners and keep us in the league, which he has done, now we can get someone to play some good football and get up the league. I do hope it doesn't come to that and we kick on, but the performances have been far more concerning than the results for me. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
One For The Road Posted February 14, 2014 Share Posted February 14, 2014 For me, I think we are one of many teams who are performing slightly worse than expected this season. It's been a strange old season in the Prem and it's a good job it has been otherwise we would be closer to the drop than we are. I still believe in Lambert, the problem clearly lies with the austerity measures that we have in place and until that changes we will be in that group of 8 or 9 sides that are constantly looking over our shoulders. I predicted 10-12th and I think that will be about right. That would show some progression, albeit not quite as much as we had hoped. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Davkaus Posted February 14, 2014 Share Posted February 14, 2014 For me, it's finally reinforced that we are a mid table club again. The previous 3 years I've written off due to new managers, time to settle, etc, but for 5 years we've been progressively getting worse. It''s depressing enough to think we'll won't win a trophy for another generation, at this point it's hard to see how we could even get in to the Europa. We're a club in stagnation. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dukes Posted February 15, 2014 Share Posted February 15, 2014 The year I fell out of love with football. Depressing ! 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Whatever happened to ..... Posted February 15, 2014 Share Posted February 15, 2014 I always thought 12th and i reckon we are still on for that, bentekes injury set us back and that means we are too easy to knock off track but the problem us the defence standing off. The old idea of if you lose the ball you get bit back would be a good start. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
markavfc40 Posted February 15, 2014 Share Posted February 15, 2014 (edited) Its all a little sad isn't it. After finishing well last season this season was a chance to really kick on. We simply haven't though. We are just stagnating. We may finish with 2 or 3 points less than we had last season and a couple of places lower or we may finish with 2 or 3 more points and a couple of places higher than last season but really the difference from this season to last will be minimal. Therefore it is clutching at straws to say we have improved because we are a couple of points/places better off. Bottom line is the club is standing still and stagnating. We missed a trick in the summer again by not going for a couple of players of proven quality at Prem level. Gareth Barry would have been a cracking signing. Unless the owner and/or the manager change this philosophy of buying cheap, unproven, players, some with potential, then we are destined for what we have endured in recent seasons becoming the norm and what we are. Like I said at the start it has all become a little sad. Edited February 15, 2014 by markavfc40 4 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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