Back off Andi!

[JUAN PABLO]

Lambert has made a mistake never dropping him . Would have been better to take him out the fire for a bit even some reserve games to get him scoring again.

[ozzjim]

Not at all for me. He has been beyond woeful much of the season. Albrighton deserves the spot way more than Weimann. Gabby, Albrighton and Holt all bring more to the table in that front 3, but the biggest issue with the formation in its entirety is that that 2 "wide" players simply do not have the attributes to succeed in the role. You need to be skillful, mobile and creative while getting 10-12 goals.

[fredm]

I don't get why people seem to think that because we had 3 up front then 2 of them must be wide players. Surely the idea of playing 3 strikers is so they interchange and move around?  That is the problem I feel, Benteke naturally moves out to the left but neither Gabby nor Andi move around the pitch to pull defenders around or to give those with the ball an option. 

[supertom]

Perhaps Lambert should play him in his natural position. If he wants the fans to go easy on Weimann (are we not quite patient with him?) he should stop playing him out of position. The only person wrecking Andi's game and sapping his confidence, is Lambert and his brain dead tactics and selections.
Likewise as others have said, he needs dropping. Sometimes it can be to a players benefit to be dropped. Apart from anything else, Weimann is still pretty young and he's playing 2 full seasons now. He's looked out of steam for the past 2 months. He's lacking confidence, drive and energy, making him utterly useless to us at the moment. I don't put this down to him, I put it down to Lambert. Again, Lambert has shown plenty of times he's not adverse to dropping players and making them work hard to regain their shirt, like Lowton. So I'm not sure why he feels Weimann warrants playing every game.

Again, we can't play Andi in a position where his on the ball game is paramount. Play him through the middle where his off the ball attributes like his movement and finding space, can be used. If Andi played in the middle, he could actually get a good amount of joy off Albrightons service. Andi cannot be expected to make things happen on the ball, because as Ozzjim says, he doesn't have the skill. He's not got a great touch or vision. He's got a bit of speed, but not enough for a wide position to make up for his lack of technical quality.

[supertom]

I don't get why people seem to think that because we had 3 up front then 2 of them must be wide players. Surely the idea of playing 3 strikers is so they interchange and move around?  That is the problem I feel, Benteke naturally moves out to the left but neither Gabby nor Andi move around the pitch to pull defenders around or to give those with the ball an option. 

Theres an onus on Gabby and Weimann as the right and left forward to link midfield and attack and retain the ball. Obviously showing movement and giving the midfield the option to send them on an attack against the opposing fullbacks, or between the fullback and CH, is one thing, and we do this when we're counter attacking at our best.
The problem is at other times, we can't just rely on 3 midfielders to retain the ball. When there's an onus on Gab or Weimann to come back into play and try and influence things on the ball, they come up short because they're not technically adept footballers. Weimann if anything is more akin to Bent, who's best playing right up through the middle, feeding off service. Gabby's all about pace and in an ideal world will be hitting sides quickly with his pace on the counter.

4-3-3 works to a point for us, when we counter quickly and efficiently. Every other time it fails because both Weimann and Gabby don't have enough facets to their game. Again, this is Lamberts fault, not theirs. He's had 2 years to find more than one effective way of playing, and he's bought in well over 10 players too.

[Clampy]

The one thing which a lot of people might miss because of his lack of goals is his hard work, which is probably the reason why he gets picked every week. The kid does needs a break though every now and again though.

[supertom]

The one thing which a lot of people might miss because of his lack of goals is his hard work, which is probably the reason why he gets picked every week. The kid does needs a break though every now and again though.

There's times when he's dead on his feet and just looks drained of all confidence too. I don't know why Lambert doesn't see this. It's not doing Andi any favours. Even last season Andi's performance levels dropped in the last couple of months and he seemed to be running on empty. Not that I want to make Prem footballers seem in any way hard done by, but as we saw many times under O Neill, that you can overwork players. Lambert has been similar and much like Pubehead doesn't seem to trust half of his signings.

[Des Little]

Hard work is a minimum requirement.  I'd work hard if I played for Villa.  He's gone backwards in terms of output this season...and its the manager's job to address this with him.  Maybe if he'd been dropped a while ago, he'd have come back firing. 

[Mister E]

Weimann's drop in form this season versus last has a lot to do with Benteke's diminished effectiveness. Many of Andi's goals last season came from good work done by the Beast, and he was sufficiently in form that his finishing was often clinical.
This season, more-aware opposition defences and Benteke's injuries have meant that Weimann has been less effective.

I think he's a very good finisher and needs to be played to his strengths. He's also suffering from second season syndrome.

[ciggiesnbeer]

Many of us were delighted when he signed a new contract last year. I think he has let us down not the other way around.

I am desperate for us to have a new young exciting player burst onto the scene, probably too desperate and I saw what I wanted to see instead of the reality.

See also, Albrighton, Gardner, Bennett, Tonev.

Sigh.

[Monty]

He's asked to play too close to the touchline, with his back to goal and largely on the right-hand side, when he's clearly better cutting in from the left.

[ez]

I feel a bit sorry for him as he usually puts a shift in. There are worse players than Weimann.

[ChicagoLion]

He has had an awful season and does not deserve his place. If he is now under pressure it is because this idiot manager has played him every week despite his dreadful performances.

This is Lamberts problem and it is pathetic that he trying to hide behind another one of is obvious failings.

[pooligan]

I agree with you ChicagoLion, i like Andi,but he has been awful this season and does not deserve the automatic place he seems to have under this clueless manager.

[TheMalandro]

Not had good season but think he will be a pretty good player eventually. We'll probably ditch him before then