Mantis Posted August 11, 2012 Share Posted August 11, 2012 We'll be fine. Even if the squad stays as it is (and I'm not denying that more needs to be done) we'll be absolutely fine under Lambert. Probably won't pull up any trees but no danger of relegation either. Don't get the doom and gloom on here. I grew up on Ron Saunders football. get the defence tight and take it from there - granted thats old fashioned now - but six goals against in 2 games + a lot of inexperience in that defense gives cause for concern.It is concerning, but the defence isn't the be all and end all. Obviously it needs to be imrpoved (and it still might - transfer window doesn't close for another 20 days) but look at Norwich last season. Poorer squad with a poor defensive record yet still managed to steer way clear of relegation (and above us as well). After McLeish I'd much rather see us draw games 3-3 than 0-0. Ideally you need to strike a balance but if Lambert's philosophy leans more towards the attacking side so be it and I welcome it with open arms. Yes @ £40 a ticket - I agree with you. At least if we go a goal down we know the game isn't over !Exactly. I've had enough of the type of football where the defence comes before all else. Tickets are a lot of money and I wasted a lot of money on tickets, food and travel only to witness a boring 0-0. I doubt any of us want to go through that again. Attack attack attack! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ginko Posted August 11, 2012 Share Posted August 11, 2012 I grew up on Ron Saunders football. get the defence tight and take it from there - granted thats old fashioned now - but six goals against in 2 games + a lot of inexperience in that defense gives cause for concern. Yet before the last two games we had two clean sheets and before that we let in one goal. Either way you slice it, preseason is preseason, our fitness is a lot better now as is our sharpness and it's really difficult to judge how well your starting eleven will do when you're constantly switching things about to give all of the players some game time. Add to that that two of our defenders are new and will take some time to settle in and it's really not that surprising. I'm not saying I don't agree with you that we're a little thin and I would really love to see at least one experienced and talented fullback come in, particularly on the left, but I don't think the preseason games are good indicators of how your starting eleven will play week in week out. I'd be a little more confident if we did bring in one more defender, a CDM (but not Reo-Coker, the guy is shite) and an exciting signing in the form of a striker, however. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jim Posted August 11, 2012 Share Posted August 11, 2012 Pretty hard to prove that 'Mantis.' If you consider the same circumstances, injury to Bent, Gabby out of sorts due again to injury or otherwise then we would still have struggled to score goals. Couple that with Petrov's illness, i tend to think, even with a better manager we still would have struggled badly and probably finished in a similar position.Under a mediocre or even poor manager Bent would have scored a lot more than he did (e.g. like he did under Bruce at Sunderland). Bent's injury and Petrov's illness came as a massive blow but both of them were towards the end of the season. Any competent manager would have amassed enough points by then to see us through to the end of the season comfortably. Not saying we would've finished top half, but definitely a fair bit higher than where we finished under McLoser. Really don't think your being realistic here at all considering where we finished last season. Has our squad improved quality wise since Lambert been here? I certainly don't think so and neither do the vast majority of VT who are still waiting on that quality coming in. Consequently we do not have a mid table squad at the moment as it hasn't changed much from last season. Our squad at the moment is where it finished last season and whether we have a better manager hasn't yet been proven either. I would certainly hope Lambert is better but we'll find that out soon enough!Where we finished last season was in large part down to having one of the worst Premier League managers in history. Not entirely, but he was a large part of that. Yes, I think the squad has improved, albeit not by a great deal. The only real loss was Cuellar, and we've brought in Vlaar since. We've also added a few more on top of that. It's not great, but as I said it isn't terrible either. Obviously we still need more players to come in but even now the squad isn't one that will be scraping relegation under a manager like Lambert. Our squad wasn't bottom 5 last season and it certainly isn't this season. Are you trying to say that McLeish did a fair job? Of course Lambert is a better manager. He finished above us last season with a poorer squad. Can't believe this is even up for debate. Anyone is better than McLeish FFS. Unsurprisingly i disagree that we would have finished higher with a more competent manager in place. Our squad is a very poor one and bereft of any type of quality with the obvious exception of Bent. Squads which lack quality usually end up in a relegation battle no matter if they do have a decent manager and thats where we were last season. Did Lambert have a poorer squad than us last season though? It certainly didn't look that way when we played against them. Norwich might not have had too many named players but they certainly played better football than us and to do that it can't be all down to the manager. If we had better players than Norwich why is Lambert in the process of dismantling our team rather than just imposing a new system? You see my point Mantis? What drivel, other than a couple of players it wasn't that much different to St.Martin's team that finished 6th a couple of seasons before. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jim Posted August 11, 2012 Share Posted August 11, 2012 We'll be fine. I read that a few times last season and we all know what happened! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mantis Posted August 11, 2012 Share Posted August 11, 2012 We'll be fine. I read that a few times last season and we all know what happened!That was under McLeish though, one of the worst managers in the history of Villa if not the Premier League. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tprice5 Posted August 12, 2012 Share Posted August 12, 2012 why not make a bid for matt jarvis, kightly, fletcher from wolves? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
villa75 Posted August 12, 2012 Share Posted August 12, 2012 Not much speculation on here , should be renamed guff from vt Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Avfc96 Posted August 12, 2012 Share Posted August 12, 2012 why not make a bid for matt jarvis, kightly, fletcher from wolves? Kightly has gone stoke m8 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Villan4Life Posted August 12, 2012 Share Posted August 12, 2012 Swansea are apparently after Mohammed Abdellaoue for 3million, would love us to take a punt on him for a while, he scored a cracking backheel against Man Utd yesterday.. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
P3te Posted August 12, 2012 Share Posted August 12, 2012 We'll be fine. I read that a few times last season and we all know what happened!That was under McLeish though, one of the worst managers in the history of Villa if not the Premier League. and bad and all as he was, we were ultimately still fine Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
nick76 Posted August 12, 2012 Share Posted August 12, 2012 Is it me or has it gone quiet down villa park, we aren't even being linked with players from any decent source? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ciggiesnbeer Posted August 12, 2012 Share Posted August 12, 2012 Is it me or has it gone quiet down villa park, we aren't even being linked with players from any decent source? According to Gaston after the Vlaar leak the club has been extra careful about information limitation. Seems a reasonable assumption. Or we could just have completed all our signings already....:eek: Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
P3te Posted August 12, 2012 Share Posted August 12, 2012 id expect the next 2 weeks to be very busy tbh if not ill be quite disappointed Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
stewavfc Posted August 12, 2012 Share Posted August 12, 2012 Ola Toivonen wasn't even in the matchday 18 for PSV yesterday, even after scoring 2 goals in the Dutch equivalent of the Charity shield in midweek. Not injured as far as I can see, on the move perhaps? Rumours of interest from Newcastle, would love him to be our 'big man' along side Bent, apparently he played the No.10 role very effectively during the week.We can but hope I suppose! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Richard Posted August 12, 2012 Share Posted August 12, 2012 Not much around today in terms of gossip. I hope and believe reality is a little different Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Moorski Posted August 12, 2012 Share Posted August 12, 2012 12th August 2012 By Daily Star Reporter Stoke want Aston Villa defender Richard Dunne. The Republic ace, 32, can go for £3million – although he won’t be ready to play until October after a groin op. If Only! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LockStockVilla Posted August 12, 2012 Share Posted August 12, 2012 12th August 2012 By Daily Star Reporter Stoke want Aston Villa defender Richard Dunne. The Republic ace, 32, can go for £3million – although he won’t be ready to play until October after a groin op. If Only! We will give them our CB with a crocked groin for their crocked CB Huth who has meningitis...win win for everybody! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Richard Posted August 12, 2012 Share Posted August 12, 2012 12th August 2012 By Daily Star Reporter Stoke want Aston Villa defender Richard Dunne. The Republic ace, 32, can go for £3million – although he won’t be ready to play until October after a groin op. If Only!They can have dunne and Hutton for that Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CI Posted August 12, 2012 Share Posted August 12, 2012 If Lambert is as good as one or two on here think, there'll be a few more signings to come The 2nd half in Bremen will have been a wake up call if he thought the team was Ready Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CI Posted August 12, 2012 Share Posted August 12, 2012 Actually think we may need Dunne this season as things stand Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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