SikhInTrinity Posted August 12, 2012 Share Posted August 12, 2012 CI, German sides are technically better than most English sides, yes they'll be some points to look at but also some positives! I still feel we need a player that can tackle in the middle of the park! Wanyama will be perfect! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LockStockVilla Posted August 12, 2012 Share Posted August 12, 2012 Cheeky bid for that Aaron Hunt please, thought he was class! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SikhInTrinity Posted August 12, 2012 Share Posted August 12, 2012 He was class, beautiful left foot too! Liked Elia too, but he's just joined from Juventus! Hannover scored 3 against United too! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
macandally Posted August 12, 2012 Share Posted August 12, 2012 Aaron Hunt seems to offer the goals from midfield we desperately need. Still need some bite in the middle, just not sure who is around who offers that. I think part of our defensive troubles over the last two seasons has been how little pressure is put on the opposition in front of our back four. Need someone in there and I see KEA as more cultured than a defensive midfielder. He is our ball player, not our "win it, give it" Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
macandally Posted August 12, 2012 Share Posted August 12, 2012 Thought of one, Romelu from Chelsea on loan? (Think he signed for Chelsea from Barca didnt he?) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mattyp_avfc Posted August 12, 2012 Share Posted August 12, 2012 Thought of one, Romelu from Chelsea on loan? (Think he signed for Chelsea from Barca didnt he?) Romeu would be a decent loan signing with a view to buy... even better, he's like sergi busquets without the attitude and can pass a ball better! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
samjp26 Posted August 12, 2012 Share Posted August 12, 2012 Thought of one, Romelu from Chelsea on loan? (Think he signed for Chelsea from Barca didnt he?) Oriol Romeu - not sure if he's quite ready for the Prem on a game to game basis just yet though. Romeu would be a decent loan signing with a view to buy... even better, he's like sergi busquets without the attitude and can pass a ball better! Wouldn't be possible unless Barca agreed as they have first choice to buy him back if Chelsea decide to sell him, funny how Barca get these clauses in so if anybody they sell becomes good they can have them back On the other hand I can't believe Lukaku has gone to the Baggies on loan, one player that I would've liked to see us loan out of choice rather than not being able to buy anybody else. . Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
onje_villa Posted August 12, 2012 Share Posted August 12, 2012 Nigel Reo-Coker can absolutely get to ****. Don't want him anywhere near this club. Chief general of pointing around and shouting at people to calm down after he's just panicked everyone by losing the ball right outside our box. He can't play football properly. Well sais that man. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Czechlad Posted August 12, 2012 Share Posted August 12, 2012 Coker looked like shit for bolton last season Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Morpheus Posted August 12, 2012 Share Posted August 12, 2012 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.Unbelievable. Not saying we would've been pushing for Europe under a better manager but McLeish is a truly awful manager. Did you not watch us at all last season? Even at full strength he blatantly set out to draw despite the fact that our strength was in attack. That was his most crucial error. Depends what you class as "lacking quality". If our squad lacked quality last season then I'd say pretty much everyone barring the top 8/10 did. 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?Can't believe you're even debating this point. Of course Norwich had a poorer squad. They lacked quality way more than we did. Yes they played better football and got better results but that was down to the fact that their manager could get the best out of them where as ours did the opposite. If McLeish was in charge of that Norwich team last season do you honestly believe they would have even survived? Wouldn't say Lambert is "dismantling" the team. He's clearly trying to address the main area of concern which is the defence. If he had the funds he's got here at Norwich he would have done the same thing. You vastly overrate McLeish. I'm astounded. He was a dreadful manager and we underperformed terribly under him. A team with a front three of Gabby, Bent and N'Zogbia (with Ireland supporting) should not be the second-lowest scorers in the division. All fair points which conform to general opinion that McLeish was the catalyst for our awful performances last season. However while having a poor manager doesn't help, i believe there was a lot more contributing to those performances such as difficulties with certain players who didn't give a toss about the club which was reflected in their performances. Those players were also guaranteed their place due to lack of investment and of course injuries which didn't help either. But the over riding issue for me which is still current is that our squad simply isn't good enough. You only have to look at our first team at the moment to see that. The legacy left by previous managers (buying too many shit players on inflated wages and having to sell our better players due to wage issues and lack of success) has i believe resulted in our performances last season and our flirtation with relegation. You mention a forward line of Bent, Gabby, N'Zogbia and Ireland which shouldn't struggle to score goals. On paper you are correct. On paper! Gabby hasn't been the same player for quite some time now. His attitude for me hasn't been right and whether its due to injuries or too much time in the gym he has also lost a bit of his main attribute, pace. Not the same player. N'Zogbia to date has been a poor acquisition. He was a big fish in a small pond at Wigan and again his form has been well below of what has been expected. You could blame the previous manager for that but since his pre season performances are already reflecting his performances last season then the name seems to be bigger than the quality! Ireland is another one of those players who flatters to deceive. Yes he probably was our best player last season with McLeish getting him to play better, but he shone in a very poor midfield which wasn't hard to do and in his time with us has he ever taken a game by the scruff of the neck and won it for us? Thats why there's so much debate about him whether he is indeed worth the wages and if we should sell him to fund a more effective player on lower wages? Looks good on paper due to his reputation with City but the reality is something quite different. Bent is the one quality player we have left and i agree he was misused under McLeish's tenure but again i believe there were several reasons for that. His supply was cut when both Downing and Young were sold and their replacements Albrighton and N'Zogbia were simply not up to the job. We also lost Petrov, the heart and protector of our midfield and therefore it is my opinion that Bent had to be played in a slightly more withdrawn role to try and protect the gaping hole through our centre. Since both our wingers were not contributing much going forward they were given a more defensive role by McLeish to stop us conceding which obviously didn't suit them. If you remember when we signed Keane how we became more offensive and no-one could disagree that our performances improved when he was in the team because the system was then changed to accommodate him. Where have i said i overrate McLeish? I have said he was a poor manager but i have tried to be fair to him in that there were other factors which contributed to last season. Lambert is trying to dismantle the present team because they are simply not good enough. He would have seen how poor our team was in the last game of the season against his own side who you say are inferior. The old adage remains. You finish where you deserve in the table and we finished below Norwich last season for a reason. They were better than us and proved it! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Morpheus Posted August 12, 2012 Share Posted August 12, 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. If we don't make any further improvements to our squad by the time the transfer window closes then this is definitely owned. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
VillaN.I Posted August 12, 2012 Share Posted August 12, 2012 Well with 1 week to go to kick off I have to say I am unsuprised of the lack of ambition shown by the board. They managed to do something right for the first time in 2 years in appointing Lambert but the transfers show little signs of making us a force to be reckoned with. We are still very short on numbers of first team quality players unless this week proves to be exciting. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kiwivillan Posted August 12, 2012 Share Posted August 12, 2012 If people think Norwich have a poorer squad than us I think they're fooling themselves. We have bigger named played but we're devout lacking as a unit IMHO. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
juanpabloangel18 Posted August 12, 2012 Share Posted August 12, 2012 Romeu?! He'd waltz into our first team and probably be our best player. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
omariqy Posted August 12, 2012 Share Posted August 12, 2012 Patience is the key and I don't just mean for this window. It will 2 or three transfer windows to.sort us out. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
juanpabloangel18 Posted August 12, 2012 Share Posted August 12, 2012 We have bigger named played but we're devout lacking as a unit IMHO. you alright there pal? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CI Posted August 12, 2012 Share Posted August 12, 2012 Defence still looks porous Midfield is powder puff and seems to go AWOL at times for long periods The good news is Bent has hit form just in time Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
villabromsgrove Posted August 12, 2012 Share Posted August 12, 2012 At the level AVFC are at now we can't buy success, so we have to coach it if we can. Our defence may be a bit leaky and our midfield may lack cohesion at the moment, but I'm looking forward to seeing what this bunch of players can do with good coaching and thirty odd prem matches behind them. We probably need another striker and also a reliable left back, but I think that even without more signings this summer, PL still has enough to work with. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ryanvilla_1994 Posted August 12, 2012 Share Posted August 12, 2012 I will be bitterly disappointed if we don't add 2 or 3 quality players to the squad. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
VillanousOne Posted August 12, 2012 Share Posted August 12, 2012 well i genuinely thought we would spend 15-20 mil on new players as well as selling a fair few before the season started. i think maybe it's going to take a lot longer for Lambert to turn things round as footballers and agents are such corrupt greedy mutha f*ckers. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts