Jump to content

Season 2012/2013 Review


VillaForever1970

Recommended Posts

Positives

  • Attack, Tekkers etc
  • Westwood, Lowton players performing coming from lower leagues
  • Some attractive football at times, enjoyable.
  • Guzan
  • Survived the strip back build,
Negatives
  • Defensive is woeful
  • Some truly horrific perofrmances and results
  • Far too close to relegation
  • To strip back a team to almost basics and start again from basically scratch was never going to be easy and was always going to be painful before it was enjoyable, we've had both this season. Hopefully next season the build can continue with more enjoyable games and less of the horror shows. What we should remember is that we're suddenly not going to be awesome next season, there will still terrible results just hopefully less than this.

    Lambert and co have deserves our patience imo, whilst most fans were creaming themselves over QPR and Newcastle signings (Remy will keep QPR up) where have they finished? Did spunking all that money really do them any more favours?

    We have improved since the turn of the year, its quite simple to see and there in black and white for the fans to see that giving a team time does offer rewards under the right guidance.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Ive had some good memories to take away from this season, beating Liverpool away, that Lowton goal, the wins over Sunderland home and away, beating QPR and holding on against West Ham. The emergence of Benteke, Lowton and Westwood and the form of Guzan has been really encouraging.

 

However mostly its been dire. I've never known a Villa team as weak or as fragile as this. Hopefully the form of the last few months has turned things around and we now have quite a settled club. There is still a huge amount of work to do but for the first time in years we have the core of a good team.

 

Not a season to remember with any great fondness though. I hope this season is the "pain" before the pleasure so to speak.

  • Like 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Would have took 15th in a heartbeat after the humiliating festive period. What's frustrating is that we have played good football and if we had a  little bit more experience in seeing games out we'd be top half. The last minute goals against Swansea, Everton & throwing 2 goal leads away against Albion and United. All points that were thrown away.

 

Can't say I've enjoyed the season. Praying for a comfortable campaign next time round and to be safe before the second to last game.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I said at the start of the season I'd snap the hand off anyone offering us 15th place so I guess I can't complain. 

 

Thank goodness that season is over though and we are still in the Premier League. It can only get better right??

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Overall, another painful season.

 

The 8-0. The 5-0. Getting trashed by Wigan at home. Losing to Bradford. Losing to Millwall. Throwing away points against Everton, West Brom, and United.

 

But unlike last season, there was hope there. A glimmer of some promise, and some will to fight. That's what made this season a lot more enjoyable than last.

 

I said in October we'd finish 15th and we did. Fingers crossed for next year, but we still have a long way to go.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

We conceded more, but we scored 10 more goals than last season and finished with three extra points. Lots of positives from another transitional season (hopefully we can stop saying that). Given how many of our young players are used to this league, it's quite a testament to Lambert, the players and staff. He has a vision going forward, which is very exciting. Gone are the days of marquee players as he builds a squad hungry to complete.

 

December destroyed us. We only brought in Sylla in January but we deserve to stay up for our form. 5 defeats in 14 games since February. Overall, from August to December we W4, D6, L10.

 

From January to May we went 6W, 5D, 7L. An impressive turnaround given we had practically the same squad all season.

 

Guzan, Benteke, Lowton, Weimann, Westwood are our outstanding players for the season. However, lets not over look the end of season form of Gabby. Proved to be so vital these past few weeks.

Edited by The_Steve
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Shopping list:

 

Defenders: CB & a new wingback for rotation.

Midfielders: Creative midfielder who can unlock a defence. We are shocking in attack if not on the counter.

Attackers: Rotation option for Benteke. Bowery not there yet.

 

Bonus points: Someone who can take a threatening free kick.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Diabolical first half of the season, second half much better although the defence let us down throughout the season. There were good and bad moments in equal measure and im just happy to have survived and now we can hopefully build on what we've got priorotising defence for me.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

People have said that Lambert had a lot to do when he first arrived - he needed to purchase a whole new defence. In my opinion he still does:-

 

Vlaar - Has done ok - but is injury prone and a slow healer

Baker - Best of the rest - but still learning

Clark - Not for me

Bennett - No

 

So with Lambert saying there will be no big signings - the best we can hope for is another promising CB - Again though should

the Vlaar injury strike again - that leaves us very short of experience at the back.

 

I don't see those players improving considerably over the summer - they will perform much the same in August as they did Today. Our defense is a massive weakness - gotta say I am not convinced this will be sorted over the summer.  

Edited by smetrov
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Disappointing overall but with a bright finish and plenty to look forward to next campaign. Clear improvement from the squad over the course of the year and, for once, we look in good shape for next season. Lambert's approach was gutsy and seemed naive at times but we're better for it. It's good to have a man with a plan in the hot seat, it feels like it's been a while.

 

Here are some meaningless numbers:

 

Guzan: 9

Given: 5

 

Lowton: 7

Vlaar: 6

Clark: 5

Baker: 6

Lichaj: 5.5

Bennett: 5.5

 

Westwood: 7

Delph: 7

Sylla: 7

Ireland: 5

N'Zogbia: 6

Herd: 5

El Ahmadi: 6

Holman: 6

Bannan: 6

 

Bent: 5.5

Agbonlahor: 7

Benteke: 9

Bowery: 6

Weimann: 7

 

Lambert: 7

Edited by PatrickCousens
Link to comment
Share on other sites

At the end of the day,

 

2011/2 season we ended 16th with 38 points.

2012/3 season we ended 15th with 41 points.

 

That is a smidgeon of improvement but, despite all the spin about "turning the corner", "onwards and upwards", etc., it's fundamentally not good enough and we need significant strengthening during the summer if we are not to have another miserable season in 2013/4. The areas of weakness are now well-established and have already been mentioned several times in this thread.

 

I worry that Lambert's approach to defending is fundamentally risky and he will never set us up to keep things tight. Unfortunately this is crucial to Premier League survival.

  • Like 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

a terrible season with three saving graces:

 

our goals DVD is gonna be awesome

it was better than last year

we stayed up when this would have been about the worst year to go down

Link to comment
Share on other sites

People have said that Lambert had a lot to do when he first arrived - he needed to purchase a whole new defence. In my opinion he still does:-

 

Vlaar - Has done ok - but is injury prone and a slow healer

Baker - Best of the rest - but still learning

Clark - Not for me

Bennett - No

 

So with Lambert saying there will be no big signings - the best we can hope for is another promising CB - Again though should

the Vlaar injury strike again - that leaves us very short of experience at the back.

 

I don't see those players improving considerably over the summer - they will perform much the same in August as they did Today. Our defense is a massive weakness - gotta say I am not convinced this will be sorted over the summer.  

How does he still need to purchase a whole new defence? Lowton and Vlaar should both be starting next season. We'll look a lot better with a new CB and LB.

 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

×
×
  • Create New...
Â