Heroes & Villains, the Aston Villa fanzine
Heroes & Villains => Match Threads & Player Ratings => Topic started by: Legion on March 31, 2013, 12:26:51 AM
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Available Sunday afternoon.
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Decent 1st half , very poor 2nd half - really depressing.
Gabby shocking miss in the 1st half , bannan awful and total lack of fight and passion 2 nd half from the team - this is very very disappointing today indeed!
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Gutless second half. Those subs should be ashamed, didnt look bothered at all.
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Great 1st half. Shocking second.
I said in the match thread, this team are giving me an ulcer.
Liverpool are a really, really dislikable team.
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Fucking atrocious second half. What is the point of El-Ahmadi? he's fucking woeful. We offered absolutely nothing in the second half. I don't care how well Baker plays, his idiocy has cost us a point. His idiotic lunges constantly fuck us over.
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Just think w dont have quality in depth... our bench bar delph had nothing to offer
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Appeared to just give up once they equalised.We are going to get relegated with that attitude for sure
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Unprofessional and naive. Days like this I don't think we deserve to stay up when you see the fight from teams like Wigan and Southampton who take on the top teams and really go for it....for 90 minutes
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The lack of fight in the second half was truly pathetic. I repeat as well Baker's stupid lunges are costing us points.
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From what I could make out on the radio here in Siberia, we were crap, but Benteke scored a cracker. If that's right, then it kind of sums up our season.
I never for one minute expected to beat Liverpool, because even though we managed to beat the two worst teams in the league on the bounce, we're a pretty awful side, utterly incapable of defending. As we all suspected, this will go right down to the wire, and we can only hope that Sunderland will be that bit shitter than us when it comes to the crunch.
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Unprofessional and naive. Days like this I dn't think we deserve to stay up when you see the fight from teams like Wigan and Southampton who take on the top teams and really go for it....for 90 minutes
That is what worries me.
We beat Reading and QPR but we never look like pulling off the sort of surprise result other teams around us can.
I dread to think this could go to the final day and the loser goes down, because I'd back us to lose that one, every time.
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That could have been a lot worse. Disappointing not to take points but on the whole a good battling performance with periods of sustained pressure. On another day we could have scored 4 or 5. Impressed with Sylla, his range of passing is better than I expected, and he breaks play up well, a good find, and alongside Westwood in the middle they coped well against a very experienced midfield. Gabby looked bright at times and Benteke did what he does. Guzan was immense. Two big games against Fulham (3 points) and Stoke. That wasn't a relegation performance. We must finish above Sunderland. Please.
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I think that might be the first time we've lost when Benteke has scored.
I'm afraid our defenders simply aren't PL standard and seem to be a bit thick as well, and it's costing us
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Liverpool didn't have to work at all for that win in the second half. Bannan is fucking rubbish.
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Only saw the second half and we just seemed totally toothless. Scared to make chances and happy to sit back and watch them attack us.
I still think we'll outlast Sunderland, Reading, and QPR.
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Didnt think a liverpool win was fair result... just the laps in concentration for the first and penalty, you cant argue with decision, but that doesnt imply they destroyed us...
Our first 11 looks good to me and made a good account of themselves... Its ideas going forward when teams sit back we look clueless
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Bannon should not have started the second half, totally useless and the manager has to take some of the blame for not ringing the changes earlier. Suarez was the difference without him Liverpool would be a very ordinary side.
Apart from Bentekes effort thought we were toothless going forward second half.
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Unprofessional and naive. Days like this I dn't think we deserve to stay up when you see the fight from teams like Wigan and Southampton who take on the top teams and really go for it....for 90 minutes
That is what worries me.
We beat Reading and QPR but we never look like pulling off the sort of surprise result other teams around us can.
I dread to think this could go to the final day and the loser goes down, because I'd back us to lose that one, every time.
To be fair, all we have to do is to beat the teams around us to stay up. If we can win the 6 pointers, we will survive.
I've had about enough of Bannan in midfield. His strength is supposed to be ball retention but he gives the ball away so often when under pressure. Same for El Ahmadi. What is the point of him? I really don't know.
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Didnt think a liverpool win was fair result... just the laps in concentration for the first and penalty, you cant argue with decision, but that doesnt imply they destroyed us...
Our first 11 looks good to me and made a good account of themselves... Its ideas going forward when teams sit back we look clueless
They didn't destroy us, but they didn't need to they were unbelievably comfortable.
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There are 5 players in that team that are good enough to play for us... The other 6 can bugger off to Notts County or some obscure club in Europe. If we do stay up we will need massive surgery
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First time Liverpool have come back to win since December 2011.Villa always happy to oblige
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Bannan could easily of cost us with his idiotic lapses in concentration and Baker did.
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Very disappointed. Liverpool are always a team that can be got at, but we seemed to forget everything that worked well in the 1st half. Same story we've had for most of the season, Surely Lambert's had enough time to address the constant fucks ups?
"Any man can make mistakes, but only an idiot persists in his error"
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Unprofessional and naive. Days like this I don't think we deserve to stay up when you see the fight from teams like Wigan and Southampton who take on the top teams and really go for it....for 90 minutes
Wigan lost 4-0 at home to that lot a few weeks back!
A disappointing result - I was sure all week we would win this match but Wigan's result putting us in the bottom three yesterday created a bit of nervousness to our play once more.
It's a cliche but we simply need to regroup and get ourselves focused again. It's a mental battle and players, supporters and everyone connected with the club need to remain strong.
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We ppppppppp pick ourselved up and go again
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I was waiting for Agbonlahor to score. He usually does when I'm sitting here thinking 'take him off he's been useless'.
Liverpool pressed us well and did a good job of finding space themselves. We should still have gone in at h-t 2 or 3 ahead.
It would help if the centre of the defence didn't part like the red sea at regular intervals.
Ah well, not terminal. We still have plenty in us to stay up.
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We ppppppppp pick ourselved up and go again
We most certainly do.
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Not often we would create 4 goal chances of the likes we created today. 2 sitters missed and Gerrard's clearance from Benteke's header was remarkable. We have some desperately poor footballers in our side and one of them cost us 2 points today. Liverpool didn't seem that bothered either to make things worse. Starting Bannan ahead of Delph is stupid but agreed with others, I don't see the point of El Ahmadi at all.
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Baker's naivety/over-commitment cost us.
Taking off Weimann pretty much muted our attacking play.
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Bennett was decent today. File El Ahmadi under Holman in that he's absolutely pointless and criminally just ambles around doing nothing.
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2nd half pathetic, no level of pressure or creativity.
At one stage I think we had more than 10 passes that ended up back at Guzan.
Bannan should not have come out for the second half.
A clear problem is that there is no driving force on the park, if you watched the game without having seen the team sheet you would struggle to name the Villa captain.
I despair for my beloved Villa as it seems did most of the crowd who seemed to be waiting for the inevitable.
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That could have been a lot worse. Disappointing not to take points but on the whole a good battling performance with periods of sustained pressure. On another day we could have scored 4 or 5. Impressed with Sylla, his range of passing is better than I expected, and he breaks play up well, a good find, and alongside Westwood in the middle they coped well against a very experienced midfield. Gabby looked bright at times and Benteke did what he does. Guzan was immense. Two big games against Fulham (3 points) and Stoke. That wasn't a relegation performance. We must finish above Sunderland. Please.
Really? Thought it was very poor second half and you know that Villa have to score two or more to get anything out of a game. No clean sheet in 20. Once Liverpool went 2-1 up they just sat back, there was no more space in behind for Gabby and Benteke and we looked very poor.
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Unprofessional and naive. Days like this I dn't think we deserve to stay up when you see the fight from teams like Wigan and Southampton who take on the top teams and really go for it....for 90 minutes
That is what worries me.
We beat Reading and QPR but we never look like pulling off the sort of surprise result other teams around us can.
I dread to think this could go to the final day and the loser goes down, because I'd back us to lose that one, every time.
If it goes to the wigan game them i have no doubt we will go down - these players lack the fight - we must get clear before the last game.
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Weimann is too key to take off. He is the only player who runs into space and drags away defenders. Without him we are absolutely toothless.
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That was too easy in the end for a pretty ordinary Liverpool. It only goes to further compound how poor and inconsistent we are. When it really matters we always seem to be found wanting. It's been the difference over the years between finishing 6th when we could have had 4th, or potentially this season surviving and going down. Too poor.
For all Lamberts ideals and good work, he's just sorely lacking in nous. He's clueless tactically. The squad are too young. Games like this we have to be getting points on the board. We bottled it, as we've done all too often this season. The trouble now is we're right in the final furlong now and now is the time to start getting a consistent run of results to survive.
If we don't get a point from Stoke, who are the most off form team in the league right now, then we are all but one nail left in our coffin. It'll be virtually all she wrote.
Our remaining home games are must wins, bar Cheslki where a point will do. We've got to be targeting points off Norwich and Wigan too.
7 games left to get 8-9 points. I can see Soton, Wigan and possibly Sunderland getting close to 40. We may have to get as high as that to survive. If we don't win the winnable games we are completely FUBAR.
Wigan looked dead and buried but Martinez just has the knack of pulling them out of it when the time is right. They seem to build a head of steam when others are lagging. Sunderlands post O Neill response could benefit us, or on the flipside they might have a new manager surge.
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The other thing is in the past three games to win would have had to score 2, 3 and 3 in each game. You can't sustain that sort of scoring as was shown today, you have to be able to grit out 1-0s. Unfortunately Baker cost us a goal at Reading with an awful clearance and he cost us the game today with an awful and typical lunge tackle.
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We were always unlikely to get anything from that match. 3 back to back wins? Aston Villa?! No. Plus a lousy head to head record v Liverpool. But, we would have done, if we had not yet again made schoolgirl errors. Now we need 4-6 points from Stoke and Fulham.
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Weimann is too key to take off. He is the only player who runs into space and drags away defenders. Without him we are absolutely toothless.
At 2-1 there was no more space in behind, they just sat back and soaked it up where our pace couldn't hurt them.
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Very disappointed. Liverpool are always a team that can be got at, but we seemed to forget everything that worked well in the 1st half. Same story we've had for most of the season, Surely Lambert's had enough time to address the constant fucks ups?
"Any man can make mistakes, but only an idiot persists in his error"
Agreed - poor management today - we could all see changes were needed and bannan was shocking.
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were we any better with Delph and N'zog on though?
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Weimann coming off was critical, we badly need him involved hope it isn't a serious injury.
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Nathan Baker. Dough!
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Again this comes down to Lamberts january business again. Baker and Clark dropping clangers persistently just highlights how desperate we were for a centre half. Vlaar hasn't really been the inspirational, concrete Captain we'd hoped for either. It's very depressing.
The sad part is, after two wins on the spin we were going into a run of games where we could have put together something of a run. It was a fantastic opportunity that we couldn't afford to bottle. We've just shot ourselves in the foot here. Had we gained a point today, we'd have fancied 4-6 points in the next two, leading into a likely nil points against Utd.
Given how gutless we looked today, again (just as you think we might turn the corner), we'll be lucky to get 2 points out of the next couple of games. Which won't be enough because I fancy teams around us to win a few.
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I expect qpr to beat Fulham tomorrow and we are in the shit big time - stoke will be a huge huge game now .
The central defensive area is utterly shocking - huge error not bringing in a defender in January and could cost us tens of millions.
Seems di canio is on his way to Sunderland as we speak - how he performs could have a huge say in our future.
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Really, really lost it at the start of the second half. Delph should have come on earlier, although he's not really the answer .
If it's any consolation the Chelsea fans watching it in the pub where I was reckon we'll be fine.
I pointed out that their manager could have helped by not putting out their reserves yesterday.
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I expect qpr to beat Fulham tomorrow and we are in the shit big time - stoke will be a huge huge game now .
The central defensive area is utterly shocking - huge error not bringing in a defender in January and could cost us tens of millions.
As much as Stoke have been shite lately. They're tough to play and with our godawful defence it's a big worry. Our backline could get torn apart.
Again, I think we'll be resting on our ability to outscore them. We can't rely on Benteke all the time. He can't score every single game, despite his best efforts.
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Fucks sake you lot. I'm looking at Wigan's fixtures for April and they're not pretty, not pretty at all. Out of four Prem fixtures, three are away from home against QPR, Man City and West Ham. Then they've got Spurs at home. In between all that, they've got to go away to Millwall in the Cup. Lets see how they get on. I'd prefer our fixtures to theirs any day.
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Fucks sake you lot. I'm looking at Wigan's fixtures for April and they're not pretty, not pretty at all. Out of four Prem fixtures, three are away from home against QPR, Man City and West Ham. Then they've got Spurs at home. In between all that, they've got to go away to Millwall in the Cup. Lets see how they get on. I'd prefer our fixtures to theirs any day.
No reason why they can't win at west ham and qpr and get something at home to spurs - they have done it year on year when the pressure is on .
Millwall is at Wembley.
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Very poor defending for Pen 4 games in row Clark or Baker has seriously fucked up.
Think we will be ok as long as Wiemann not injured too bad big miss when went off and Nzog been poor as of late.
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It's getting tiresome as much as anything.
Lack of movement from the front 3 which disappeared completely when Wiemann went off.
Width non existant.
Seemingly Off the cuff set pieces which amount to nothing.
Fannying around and getting caught in possession in our own half again.
Failure of midfielders to track runners.
Not closing down, meaning opposition always have an option to pass too.
I get the point of patient build up play but why does it repeatedly end up in a pass back to Guzan who promptly punts it upfield. Utterly pointless.
Anyone still fooled by the results against West Ham, Reading and QPR should be rousing themselves and inhaling a lungful of Arabica.
We are a very poor football side.
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If we play like we did from minute 15-40 we'll be fine, if we play like we did for the rest we're buried.
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Nathan Baker. Dough!
Nicely done, sir!
Fuck it, we lost, we have to try and win the next one.
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Fucks sake you lot. I'm looking at Wigan's fixtures for April and they're not pretty, not pretty at all. Out of four Prem fixtures, three are away from home against QPR, Man City and West Ham. Then they've got Spurs at home. In between all that, they've got to go away to Millwall in the Cup. Lets see how they get on. I'd prefer our fixtures to theirs any day.
No reason why they can't win at west ham and qpr and get something at home to spurs - they have done it year on year when the pressure is on .
Millwall is at Wembley.
I can think of a reason; they're shit. And regardless of where the Millwall game is played, they're going to have work hard in that game. Because they're shit.
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Absolutely dreadful today. We've got enough up front, but the rest of the team is embarrassingly poor:
Guzan - class, again stopped it being 5 or 6.
Lowton - not Premier League class, always out of position
Baker - looks like what he is, a youth team player who isn't good enough
Vlaar - absolutely dreadful, what on earth did Lambert see in this clown
Bennett - not a left back in a million years, quite good going forward though
Westwood - not Premier League class
Bannan - worst player on the pitch by a country mile
Sylla - solid, unspectacular
Gabby - good touch for the goal, still mostly brainless though
Weimann - should have scored, not one of his better days
Benteke - deserves better than this, and will probably move on as soon as he can, and who would blame him.
Shambolic, again. Beating the two bottom teams isn't going to be enough.
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listening to Townsend and Curbishley, (in my view both Villa positive) on
our defending, lack of awareness and poor midfield support to the defence we should employ Townsend as an advisor, because with a constant repetition of oue mistakes either our current coaches/advisors are clueless or the players don't listen and or are inept.
maybe a combination.
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Absolutely dreadful today. We've got enough up front, but the rest of the team is embarrassingly poor:
Guzan - class, again stopped it being 5 or 6.
Lowton - not Premier League class, always out of position
Baker - looks like what he is, a youth team player who isn't good enough
Vlaar - absolutely dreadful, what on earth did Lambert see in this clown
Bennett - not a left back in a million years, quite good going forward though
Westwood - not Premier League class
Bannan - worst player on the pitch by a country mile
Sylla - solid, unspectacular
Gabby - good touch for the goal, still mostly brainless though
Weimann - should have scored, not one of his better days
Benteke - deserves better than this, and will probably move on as soon as he can, and who would blame him.
Shambolic, again. Beating the two bottom teams isn't going to be enough.
I'd say Vlaar is decent and Westwood is good enough, but other than that agree.
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On the bright side, my favourite bet came in again - Villa to be winning at HT but lose at FT - can get 25/1 on that most weeks, and it fits the pattern of us being unable to string together two decent halves very often.
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It's getting tiresome as much as anything.
Lack of movement from the front 3 which disappeared completely when Wiemann went off.
Width non existant.
Seemingly Off the cuff set pieces which amount to nothing.
Fannying around and getting caught in possession in our own half again.
Failure of midfielders to track runners.
Not closing down, meaning opposition always have an option to pass too.
I get the point of patient build up play but why does it repeatedly end up in a pass back to Guzan who promptly punts it upfield. Utterly pointless.
Anyone still fooled by the results against West Ham, Reading and QPR should be rousing themselves and inhaling a lungful of Arabica.
We are a very poor football side.
[/quote having watched the game , this a very fair assessment.
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When we pass the ball with tempo we look like a good and threatening side, see the first half. When we don't we're diabolical. The midfield three should be Westwood, Sylla and Delph. Bannan is shocking, and Sylla did nicely today.
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Missed the first half. Ran 2 miles mostly uphill to catch the second half on TV. Wished I hadn't bothered. Put more effort in than those millionaire wankers.
Have been pretty sure we won't be going down. Now a little worried.
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Basically we need to win our next two games now.
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Just got back. More than decent first half, shit second half.
Fair play to Brendan Rodgers for joining in with the 19th minute.
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We lost again for all of the same reasons we've lost other games this season. Stupid, stupid errors and a defence that isn't PL quality. We give the ball away too much, and why we play Bannan is beyond me. Today is shit, but if it is any consolation, and it probably isn't right now, lots of nuts things will happen between now and the end. Sunderland and Newcastle are in free fall and as far up as Stoke are not safe. Keep the faith (if you can) brothers.
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Well that was bloody painful.
Lambert made the same mistake as the home game with Bradford, playing far too narrow which left no space for the strikers and easy for Liverpool to defend. As Brendan Rogers mentioned, as soon as we went to a diamond midfield they just exploited the wings. Too easy.
I can't recall seeing a match where it was so easy for the opposition to thread the ball through to the strikers, if Bent had been playing for Liverpool he'd have had a bag full. Problem was, we did nothing to stop it. Nothing! It's all well and good attacking gung-ho but we also need to bloody defend, close them down and get in their faces. Today we sat back and gave them far to much space and freedom to thread the ball through.
My other major concern is how much longer this team can keep picking themselves up to go again. After the equaliser I thought we looked disheartened, no fight, nobody prepared to run with the ball, too many simple and meaningless passes. Nobody, including the crowd who have been brilliant this season, had any belief. Very worrying.
Though not a big fan of Bannan, we needed somebody to go looking for the ball, somebody to always make himself available and despite his errors, as soon as he went off we looked pedestrian.
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We lost again for all of the same reasons we've lost other games this season. Stupid, stupid errors and a defence that isn't PL quality.
Not much to add to this, really. It's a cliche, but if they keep on doing what they've always done, they'll keep on getting what they've always got.
All season we've had some good attacking stuff, and scored some very good goals. All season, we've been really really poor at the back, and in midfield, and we've shipped a lot of awful goals.
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Lambert made the same mistake as the home game with Bradford, playing far too narrow which left no space for the strikers and easy for Liverpool to defend. As Brendan Rogers mentioned, as soon as we went to a diamond midfield they just exploited the wings. Too easy.
Indeed, and yet again revealing Lambert to be tactically very poor, in my view.
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For all the flack Baker is getting, he made some fine last ditch tackles and blocks, at least 2 crucial ones in the first half.
But the fact we lost that game with a whimper is very disappointing.
Second half was like someone had turned a clock back 2 or 3 months.
No passion, no pace, no width, no movement.
Wiemann is becoming a real pivotal player for us. The quality may not always be there but his effort is infectious, and the team always look better when he is on.
But, if I never see Bannan and Al Ahmadi in a villa shirt again, I really won't be too upset.
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As I said if we go down it's our defence that will take us down. Baker, Clark, Lowton and Bennett aren't good enough defensively.
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Not great obviously. But at least it was still a close match which might hopefully sustain some element of momentum (just as the defeats to Arsenal/Citeh did). To be honest they sliced through us all game and it was no suprise when they equalised as they did. Should have been 2-1 to them even before the pen when yet another through-ball put one of theirs clean on goal. Absolute stupidity for the pen though and you just knew that word removed Gerrard would sweep it home. After his brilliant goal-line clearence, you just knew it wouldn't be our day. Ah well, Stoke next. I am always more confident for our away games anyhow and I don't see why there won't at least be a point in it for us. Between Guzan and Benteke for our MoTM I guess. I'll go for Tekkers as he didn't really do anything wrong whenever he got the ball. I also hope that Sylla plays deeper next to Westwood as he has offered fuck all in attack the last two games and we need someone of his physique protecting our calamatous back-line.
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Obviously everyone is disappointed with the result, but this is one of the games I'd written off or hoping for a point at best so not at all surprised or too down hearted. This time next week the doom and gloom could easily be shifted to being more positive and hopeful again if we beat Stoke away (not an easy task by any stretch of the imagination). If results go our way and as to be expected next week then we'll be out of the relegation zone and closing the gap on a few other teams...
Chelsea v Sunderland
Newcastle v Fulham
Norwich v Swansea
QPR v Wigan
Reading v Southampton
...realistically we could be sat above Sunderland and Wigan in the table by the end of play next weekend.
Lets not forget its not where we are this week or next, but where we are at the end of the season so lets not get too depressed by to be expected defeats against the likes of Liverpool, Man Utd or Chelsea.
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If it goes to the wigan game them i have no doubt we will go down - these players lack the fight - we must get clear before the last game.
Really? Are we talking about same players who won v Reading and QPR after conceding early goals?
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For all the flack Baker is getting, he made some fine last ditch tackles and blocks, at least 2 crucial ones in the first half.
But the fact we lost that game with a whimper is very disappointing.
Second half was like someone had turned a clock back 2 or 3 months.
No passion, no pace, no width, no movement.
Wiemann is becoming a real pivotal player for us. The quality may not always be there but his effort is infectious, and the team always look better when he is on.
But, if I never see Bannan and Al Ahmadi in a villa shirt again, I really won't be too upset.
It's like I said though, it doesn't matter how good you are for the rest of the game the mistake Baker made was absolutely criminal and cost us the game. It doesn't matter how well you play if you make a mistake that results in us getting no points, because that's all that matters.
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The problems are/were Westwood and Bannan in the middle of the park.A liability when we have'nt got the ball, don't close down quick enough, not strong enough, don't win the ball high enough up the pitch, and isolate the front 3 too much.
I feared for today, and we actually played better than i thought we would , partic in the 1st half, but we are not going to be able to compete with Lplop atm.
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Basically we need to win our next two games now.
I think 4 points would suffice.
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Obviously everyone is disappointed with the result, but this is one of the games I'd written off or hoping for a point at best so not at all surprised or too down hearted. This time next week the doom and gloom could easily be shifted to being more positive and hopeful again if we beat Stoke away (not an easy task by any stretch of the imagination). If results go our way and as to be expected next week then we'll be out of the relegation zone and closing the gap on a few other teams...
Chelsea v Sunderland
Newcastle v Fulham
Norwich v Swansea
QPR v Wigan
Reading v Southampton
...realistically we could be sat above Sunderland and Wigan in the table by the end of play next weekend.
Lets not forget its not where we are this week or next, but where we are at the end of the season so lets not get too depressed by to be expected defeats against the likes of Liverpool, Man Utd or Chelsea.
I take your point regarding expecting defeats against the likes of the Manchester clubs and Chelsea but Liverpool are nowhere near as good as them .
Saints have beaten man city , Liverpool and Chelsea in recent weeks - we never took the game to them in the 2nd half and rolled over too easily .
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Gave up Im afraid, left 10mins from the end. Coundnt see any reason to stay. Forecast the score right but thought we had a good chance of a point after the first half. The midfield was poor in the second half and we let Liverpool do more or less what they wanted.
Benteke furthered his reputation again and Agbonlahor had a good first half but there was no need for Baker to go in like that at all. Stupid in the extreme.
The bloke in front of us reckoned he could see Roy Keane in the stands but why would he be in attendance? Unless he is the new Sunderland manager that is!
A point would have been very useful today.
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Westwood is generally very good on the ball though, Sylla compliments him nicely. It's the third member of the midfield that needs to do both, that should be Delph not Bannan.
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Absolutely dreadful today. We've got enough up front, but the rest of the team is embarrassingly poor:
Vlaar - absolutely dreadful, what on earth did Lambert see in this clown
Shambolic, again. Beating the two bottom teams isn't going to be enough.
Dreardful and shambolic are harsh words however I agree with your assessment of Vlaar. He is very poor on the ball awkward and clumsy. Young Doncian would be better than him even now!
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It was lack of belief in the second half that cost us the points today nothing else. We played some fantastic football leading up to our goal and when it came it was most deserving. After the goal we played well up to half time in a very professional way however we lost that approach at the start of the second half.
Having said we still had 4 very good chances to score in the bad half. Weimann hit the ball too well , how Gerrard got to that ball on line I don't know, Westwood chip just about kept out by Queen and soon after they had equalised if only Gabby had passed to Sylla instead of looking for glory. A goal at that time would have turned the game in our favour. Instead they ended up getting a pen at the other end and our chance of quick equaliser was prevented by a desperate goal line clearance. Most of the time there is a thin line between success and failure.
Anyway no need to slash our wrists we will win 3 more matches and stay up no problem.
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We are still in the relegation zone with 7 games to play and the defence shows no sign of learning from past mistakes.
We may well score enough goals to stay up but on this showing (and in previous games) I am not confident
The end of the season can't come soon enough I just hope we are still in the Premier League come the end. Too many shit players (and sadly many bought in by Lambert) who need moving on in the summer if we are to push on next season.
Today I thought Benteke, Weimann and Guzan very good; Gabby in and out and the rest mostly rubbish; same as most of the previous 30 games and we got what we probably deserved - sod all
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Basically we need to win our next two games now.
I think 4 points would suffice.
Not for me, Stoke are direct rivals and we have to take points out of the gap they have on us and we need to win our home games as well.
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Westwood is generally very good on the ball though, Sylla compliments him nicely. It's the third member of the midfield that needs to do both, that should be Delph not Bannan.
I thought Delph should have been on for Bannan straight away as it was clear in the first half that we were not dealing well with Gerrard/Coutinho link up and some good work by Baker saved us. Very disappointed with N'Zogbia. In fact when he and El Ahmadi came we were finished as an attacking unit.
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Obviously everyone is disappointed with the result, but this is one of the games I'd written off or hoping for a point at best so not at all surprised or too down hearted. This time next week the doom and gloom could easily be shifted to being more positive and hopeful again if we beat Stoke away (not an easy task by any stretch of the imagination). If results go our way and as to be expected next week then we'll be out of the relegation zone and closing the gap on a few other teams...
Chelsea v Sunderland
Newcastle v Fulham
Norwich v Swansea
QPR v Wigan
Reading v Southampton
...realistically we could be sat above Sunderland and Wigan in the table by the end of play next weekend.
Lets not forget its not where we are this week or next, but where we are at the end of the season so lets not get too depressed by to be expected defeats against the likes of Liverpool, Man Utd or Chelsea.
I take your point regarding expecting defeats against the likes of the Manchester clubs and Chelsea but Liverpool are nowhere near as good as them .
Saints have beaten man city , Liverpool and Chelsea in recent weeks - we never took the game to them in the 2nd half and rolled over too easily .
Thats simply because we are shite and lose any kind of confidence when we concede a goal. We all know that Liverpool are almost as Jeckyll and Hyde as we are so theres no point comparing other teams results, but its fair to say that Southampton are better than the current Villa team.
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We are running out of games I'm Afraid. Liverpool were there for the taking today but it just didn't happen. Crowd was very flat too. I really hate the sky games they jinx us I'm sure.
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Hope Clark is back for the Stoke game now. Thought Baker was the better CB but he and Vlaar were just completely awful. Lowton/Vlaar/Clark/Baker is a shite backline, but still the best we can put together for now. Clark being slightly less of a liability than Baker at CB and Baker being slightly less of a liability than Bennett at LB. Luckily we are facing one of the lowest scorers in the league next. No doubt having said that, they'll probably score 3/4 now.
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Bannan and kea offer little to nothing from what I see of them - neither are anywhere near good enough to be playing in the premiership.
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Saw plenty of things in the first half to think that we could have got a result today, however a couple of blunders and some nervous mistakes seemed to shake our fragile confidence just before the break. In the second half we were just feeble. For some reason everybody just stopped the movement and made it impossible to have any meaningful possession.
For all of the cash that Liverpool have spent they don't look particularly good and so much for Brendan Rogers style of passing football - get 10 men behind the ball and belt it up to the good player. We let them off the hook today and there were 3 points up for grabs to a side that had a bit more urgency and belief.
Before the game we were thinking the worst and decided that any points would have been a bonus. At the end we were disappointed by the attitude in the second half more than the loss.
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Hope Clark is back for the Stoke game now. Thought Baker was the better CB but he and Vlaar were just completely awful. Lowton/Vlaar/Clark/Baker is a shite backline, but still the best we can put together for now. Clark being slightly less of a liability than Baker at CB and Baker being slightly less of a liability than Bennett at LB. Luckily we are facing one of the lowest scorers in the league next. No doubt having said that, they'll probably score 3/4 now.
Of the 3 central defenders I'm not sure Vlaar , Clark or baker are good enough to play regularly at this level- Clark and baker seem to drop huge changers regularly whereas Vlaar has looked average at best .
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Westwood is generally very good on the ball though, Sylla compliments him nicely. It's the third member of the midfield that needs to do both, that should be Delph not Bannan.
Delph has to start next week.
Ridiculous we lost today as imo whoever you're playing you should never lose going in 1 up in a home game.
This Liverpool team is just a more advanced version of us, they concede plenty of chances yet have the quality upfront to paper over that, we just concede goals.
Must say it seems ever since the final whistle against QPR, things have been going against us big time.
What a torture this season is, people are bonkers for wanting this "excitement" over mid table mediocrity. Give me that over this anytime.
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Bannan and kea offer little to nothing from what I see of them - neither are anywhere near good enough to be playing in the premiership.
El Ahmadi was embarrassing when he came on, he didn't even try.
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I was all for keeping the same side that had won the last 2 but Bannan should have been hooked at HT and Delph brought on.
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I couldnt see whether Benteke should have put away Bennett's cross in the first half no doubt it will be on the box tonight.
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Westwood is generally very good on the ball though, Sylla compliments him nicely. It's the third member of the midfield that needs to do both, that should be Delph not Bannan.
Delph has to start next week.
Ridiculous we lost today as imo whoever you're playing you should never lose going in 1 up in a home game.
This Liverpool team is just a more advanced version of us, they concede plenty of chances yet have the quality upfront to paper over that, we just concede goals.
Must say it seems ever since the final whistle against QPR, things have been going against us big time.
What a torture this season is, people are bonkers for wanting this "excitement" over mid table mediocrity. Give me that over this anytime.
Yep. You can stick your excitement up your crack, sideways.
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On a positive note Bennett and Lowton put in some excellent crosses and we did look a threat attacking but we are so poor at the back.
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I couldnt see whether Benteke should have put away Bennett's cross in the first half no doubt it will be on the box tonight.
I don't think either he or Gabby were really expecting the ball, difficult half chance I'd say.
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Team for Stoke RFC -
--------Guzan---------
Lowton Vlaar Clark Baker
Sylla. Westwood Delph
Gabby Bowery
---------Benteke---------
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You cannot keep making the same mistakes and hope to get away with it, our defense is an accident waiting to happen, the midfield play with a fear due to knowing what they have behind them. Andi went off and they dropped off Benteke allowing hm to win the headers, as they knew Gabby has no, nohow to make the runs. PL has to start learning quickly and some of these KIDS professional footballers, need to learn from their mistakes or be moved on soonest, whatever division we are in next season.
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Team for Stoke RFC -
--------Guzan---------
Lowton Vlaar Clark Baker
Sylla. Westwood Delph
Gabby Bowery
---------Benteke---------
Bowery instead of Weimann? I don't fucking think so.
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I think we need to improve attacking games to create more chances as Benteke probably have about 3 chances and we only create 3 or 4 chances when we need to make it about 10 each games and also our midfield and defence had given too much space to Liverpool Countinho.
I think we need to find someone to take over Agbonlahor, and Playmaker role and whole back 4.
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Team for Stoke RFC -
--------Guzan---------
Lowton Vlaar Clark Baker
Sylla. Westwood Delph
Gabby Bowery
---------Benteke---------
I expect Weimann to be Fit , if not bent or nzog ahead of Bowery.
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The chances we missed - Gabby 2 yards, Benteke off the line, Weimann over the bar
Them - Suarez 1 on 1, coutunhio 1 on 1, Johnson post.
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I think we need to improve attacking games to create more chances as Benteke probably have about 3 chances and we only create 3 or 4 chances when we need to make it about 10 each games and also our midfield and defence had given too much space to Liverpool Countinho.
I think we need to find someone to take over Agbonlahor, and Playmaker role and whole back 4.
Agreed Michael, we have half a good team .
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Team for Stoke RFC -
--------Guzan---------
Lowton Vlaar Clark Baker
Sylla. Westwood Delph
Gabby Bowery
---------Benteke---------
Bowery instead of Weimann? I don't fucking think so.
I've assumed Weimann out with hamstring pull
Bowery in for extra height
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Bowery definitely should not start. Weimann and Benteke are absolute must starters.
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Decent 1st half , very poor 2nd half - really depressing.
Gabby shocking miss in the 1st half , bannan awful and total lack of fight and passion 2 nd half from the team - this is very very disappointing today indeed!
From where I'm sat it was a brilliant save rather than a poor miss.
Apart from that, I agree.
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Team for Stoke RFC -
--------Guzan---------
Lowton Vlaar Clark Baker
Sylla. Westwood Delph
Gabby Bowery
---------Benteke---------
Bowery instead of Weimann? I don't fucking think so.
I've assumed Weimann out with hamstring pull
Bowery in for extra height
Need to play to our attacking strengths not worry to much about stoke - we need to let them worry about us.
Bowery shouldn't start just because he's taller than bent or Weimann.
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Decent 1st half , very poor 2nd half - really depressing.
Gabby shocking miss in the 1st half , bannan awful and total lack of fight and passion 2 nd half from the team - this is very very disappointing today indeed!
From where I'm sat it was a brilliant save rather than a poor miss.
Apart from that, I agree.
It was a bad miss.
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First half played like a team who looked comfortably mid-table or better; second half played like a team already relegated - no passion, sloppy passing and, crucially, no leadership. Bannan should have been hooked off at half time - he is a liability and really doesn't offer anything positive. KEA and N'Zogbia pretty embarrassing when they came on. When Weimann went off (injured I think?) we lost what little drive we had. Missed chances also cost us - Gabby should have scored first half and Weimann should have got one second half when he shot over the bar. There again they had chances and hit the post so it could have been worse.
Highlight chant of the day - "his teeth were offside, his teeth were offside, Luis Suarez, his teeth were offisde"
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Decent 1st half , very poor 2nd half - really depressing.
Gabby shocking miss in the 1st half , bannan awful and total lack of fight and passion 2 nd half from the team - this is very very disappointing today indeed!
From where I'm sat it was a brilliant save rather than a poor miss.
Apart from that, I agree.
It was a bad miss.
He was 5 yards out whole goal to aim at ands hit it straight at reina - poor miss not great goalkeeping - reina didn't have to move.
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Basically we need to win our next two games now.
I think 4 points would suffice.
Not for me, Stoke are direct rivals and we have to take points out of the gap they have on us and we need to win our home games as well.
I think 4 points would keep us on course for the 38/39 points needed to survive. 6 points and we would be all but safe IMO.
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Still would pick Baker over Clark every day.
Taking into account they had Suarez in their team, i did'nt think Vlaar or Baker gave him many chances tbh.It was when they was running at the defence that we had problems.That is where Westwood/Bannan/Sylla should have defended better.
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The chances we missed - Gabby 2 yards, Benteke off the line, Weimann over the bar
Them - Suarez 1 on 1, coutunhio 1 on 1, Johnson post.
We did enough up front to get a point today - the square defence is terrifying however - Liverpool seemed so much snappier with the ball but luckilly the final one didn't come off for them.
Thought the atmosphere was quite strange as well - good crowd but second half I could just feel us sinking into that mire of lost possession and half-chances going begging.
Midfield must not see Bannan again unless it is an emergency - Ahmadi - why?
Thank goodness there are only a few games left - I can't stand much more of this...
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Baker's naivety/over-commitment cost us.
Taking off Weimann pretty much muted our attacking play.
Weimann was rubbing his hamstring as he went down the tunnel, so it was a necessary change.
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Decent 1st half , very poor 2nd half - really depressing.
Gabby shocking miss in the 1st half , bannan awful and total lack of fight and passion 2 nd half from the team - this is very very disappointing today indeed!
From where I'm sat it was a brilliant save rather than a poor miss.
Apart from that, I agree.
It was right in front of me as i'm Lower North, it was a bad miss. He hit it straight at Reina.
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Having watched Stoke's godawful destruction of the beautiful game yet again at Goodison yesterday, a key point is the size and brute force of their players. Bennett, Bannan, Westwood and Delph might literally be squashed.
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Hope Clark is back for the Stoke game now. Thought Baker was the better CB but he and Vlaar were just completely awful. Lowton/Vlaar/Clark/Baker is a shite backline, but still the best we can put together for now. Clark being slightly less of a liability than Baker at CB and Baker being slightly less of a liability than Bennett at LB. Luckily we are facing one of the lowest scorers in the league next. No doubt having said that, they'll probably score 3/4 now.
Of the 3 central defenders I'm not sure Vlaar , Clark or baker are good enough to play regularly at this level- Clark and baker seem to drop huge changers regularly whereas Vlaar has looked average at best .
Lowton is the only one who should keep his place next season should we stay up IMO. Don't rate Vlaar, but since he is captain he probably won't be axed. So we should be looking for a physical pacy CB and a solid LB at the very least.
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The chances we missed - Gabby 2 yards, Benteke off the line, Weimann over the bar
Them - Suarez 1 on 1, coutunhio 1 on 1, Johnson post.
Add Weimann off the line for when the ball fell to him first half and Gerrard shot for them.
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A couple of questions ........
What was the point of the Karim for Sylla substitution ?
Why didn't Villa go three at the back and push Bennett on as a left-winger for the last ten minutes ?
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As much as I dislike Gerrard, that was one hell of a piece of defending to clear off the line
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A couple of questions ........
What was the point of the Karim for Sylla substitution ?
Why didn't Villa go three at the back and push Bennett on as a left-winger for the last ten minutes ?
Sylla looked out on his feet towards the end of his stint.
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Baker's naivety/over-commitment cost us.
Taking off Weimann pretty much muted our attacking play.
Weimann was rubbing his hamstring as he went down the tunnel, so it was a necessary change.
Let's hope it isn't a pulled hamstring. That would be 2-3 weeks out at least. Along with Guzan and Tekkers, Weimann is one of the players we can't afford to lose. He always gets a good chance every game, even when he isn't playing that well.
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Still would pick Baker over Clark every day.
Taking into account they had Suarez in their team, i did'nt think Vlaar or Baker gave him many chances tbh.It was when they was running at the defence that we had problems.That is where Westwood/Bannan/Sylla should have defended better.
Agreed, I actually think the defence did OK individually today (bar Baker's foul) but the shape of the midfield when going backwards needs looking at.
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There was one tremendous tackle by baker inside the box in the 1st half but he was very naive to be tricked into his challenge for the penalty , no need to jump in there - probably would rate him ahead of Clark as a centre half though.
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There was one tremendous tackle by baker inside the box in the 1st half but he was very naive to be tricked into his challenge for the penalty , no need to jump in there - probably would rate him ahead of Clark as a centre half though.
That 'orrible b'stard has made far better player's than Baker jump into misguided tackles in the box, so its a bit harsh to condemn Baker for that. He made plenty of good tackles and interceptions.
To me Baker's a proper defender, whereas Clark is in Barry-like no man's land at the moment, not really being a centre back, left back or midfielder. It all came good for Barry in the end, so there's hope for Clark yet.
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Still would pick Baker over Clark every day.
Taking into account they had Suarez in their team, i did'nt think Vlaar or Baker gave him many chances tbh.It was when they was running at the defence that we had problems.That is where Westwood/Bannan/Sylla should have defended better.
Baker goes to ground too easily (as does BB in the tackle) and his distribution is shocking.
At the moment, both CC and NB are not up to snuff and are - when they play - usually having to cover for an inadequate LB as well.
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There was one tremendous tackle by baker inside the box in the 1st half but he was very naive to be tricked into his challenge for the penalty , no need to jump in there - probably would rate him ahead of Clark as a centre half though.
That 'orrible b'stard has made far better player's than Baker jump into misguided tackles in the box, so its a bit harsh to condemn Baker for that. He made plenty of good tackles and interceptions.
To me Baker's a proper defender, whereas Clark is in Barry-like no man's land at the moment, not really being a centre back, left back or midfielder. It all came good for Barry in the end, so there's hope for Clark yet.
Maybe but don't think Clark is half the player Barry was (even at 17)
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Agreed, I actually think the defence did OK individually today (bar Baker's foul) but the shape of the midfield when going backwards needs looking at.
Hmmm, in the second half L'pool did what Montenegro did to England: they pinned our FB back and both Bennett and (to a lesser extent) Lowton were under serious pressure. Neither handled it particularly brilliantly.
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Certainly KEA and Charles should be history at the end of this season; waste of bleedin' space, both of them.
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ok first half fooking awful second half
El whats his name , bloody crap
Bannan - go away
Gabby - you should be ashamed , you cant miss them and pass the bloody ball to a bloke in a good position instead of having one of your power puff shots
Baker - ffs , you cant do that.
Lambert - bring the subs on earlier and stop giving HT talks.
Im really disappointed in the team today , we are back in serious trouble as we looked so bloody limp.
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Certainly KEA and Charles should be history at the end of this season; waste of bleedin' space, both of them.
Liverpool had the lead and sat very deep to compensate for Carragher's lack of space. There was very little that Charlie could do.
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Certainly KEA and Charles should be history at the end of this season; waste of bleedin' space, both of them.
Liverpool had the lead and sat very deep to compensate for Carragher's lack of space. There was very little that Charlie could do.
And?
He's still be a total waste of space (as he was for most of his time at Wigan, actually).
Just my opinion.
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Difficult to disagree with most people, an awful 2nd half all round, not sure what Lambert could have said at half time but it had relegation written all over it.
Also, our first 42,000+ crowd for 2 seasons, it could be a lot longer before we get another one.
Various Villa teams/management have also only beaten Liverpool at home once in the past 15 years (and worse against Man U & Arsenal). When you consider that we regularly beat them at VP in the 1990s and less fashionable clubs than us do much better against these clubs, this record is truly appalling. We might not get the chance next season.
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Certainly KEA and Charles should be history at the end of this season; waste of bleedin' space, both of them.
Disagree about Zog. I would start him back in the central free role henceforth. With Sylla playing a deeper role next to Westwood.
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Just seen the Baker challenge...what an absolute cock of the highest order! What on earth was he thinking making a challenge like that for?!
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The chances we missed - Gabby 2 yards, Benteke off the line, Weimann over the bar
Them - Suarez 1 on 1, coutunhio 1 on 1, Johnson post.
who had the one first half when Bannan gave him a lovely through ball
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Our defence is poor, but it's been made to look even worse all season by the midfield. The equaliser today was scored by one of their midfielders, and since both teams were playing three in the middle, it should have been one of our mids who tracked Henderson. But none did, it happens game in game out, and it's the reason we're leaking millions of goals, rather than just being iffy at the back.
No defence in the league could survive long with opposition attackers running at it freely. We're missing Petrov really badly - he's the only midfielder at the club with the ability to read the game developing in front of him and taking pre-emptive actionrather than reacting.
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I wouldn't be too hard on no one tracking Henderson. I had forgotten he was playing as well.
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Not that it would have made a difference, but how many tackles are allowed before someone is booked for persistent fouling? Or to put it another way, how many times after a ref has a 'final' talk can you foul? I thought the ref had a very good game today, he just seemed to not want to book Lucas at all.
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Just seen the Baker challenge...what an absolute cock of the highest order! What on earth was he thinking making a challenge like that for?!
He didn't expect Bucktooth to cut inside (which he should of as that is a typical Suarez move) and thought he was therefore going to get ball and man. Had he legally clattered Suarez, we would probably all be still wanking over it now to be fair. Baker is a pretty rash player though. As we have seen in the past, his actions precede his thought-process. Which is why he got concussion against QPR.
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Just wanted to say that the ball played into the box where gabby missed from 2 yards, the pass itself was one of the best balls played into the danger area I have seen for years.
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Lambo's post match comments. We go again. (The latest player to bring defeat) is young and will learn from that mistake. Could we hire a tape recorder on much less money yet equally effective at coaching?
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Our defence is poor, but it's been made to look even worse all season by the midfield. The equaliser today was scored by one of their midfielders, and since both teams were playing three in the middle, it should have been one of our mids who tracked Henderson. But none did, it happens game in game out, and it's the reason we're leaking millions of goals, rather than just being iffy at the back.
We don't play a proper defensive midfielder so what do you expect? We all thought Sylla would be that player and he is actually being played as the most advanced of the midfield three. Westwood, Bannan and even Delph can't defend and why Lambert didn't bring in a proper DMC, I'll never know.
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Just wanted to say that the ball played into the box where gabby missed from 2 yards, the pass itself was one of the best balls played into the danger area I have seen for years.
Tremendous ball. Gabby should have done better but it was one of those that he caught it too well.
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Our defence is poor, but it's been made to look even worse all season by the midfield. The equaliser today was scored by one of their midfielders, and since both teams were playing three in the middle, it should have been one of our mids who tracked Henderson. But none did, it happens game in game out, and it's the reason we're leaking millions of goals, rather than just being iffy at the back.
No defence in the league could survive long with opposition attackers running at it freely. We're missing Petrov really badly - he's the only midfielder at the club with the ability to read the game developing in front of him and taking pre-emptive actionrather than reacting.
10000000%
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Just seen the Baker challenge...what an absolute cock of the highest order! What on earth was he thinking making a challenge like that for?!
He didn't expect Bucktooth to cut inside (which he should of as that is a typical Suarez move) and thought he was therefore going to get ball and man. Had he legally clattered Suarez, we would probably all be still wanking over it now to be fair. Baker is a pretty rash player though. As we have seen in the past, his actions precede his thought-process. Which is why he got concussion against QPR.
Which is why he'll never be a top player.
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Just seen the penalty, that challenge by Baker for the penalty is one of the most ridiculous challenges I've seen in a long long time. Stupidity beyond belief. Draw would have been a fair result.
It seems the defenders are taking it in turns to give a goal away.
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Paul Lambert on Reds loss.
Paul Lambert called for Villa to "be big enough and brave enough" to keep going in the wake of their 2-1 defeat to Liverpool.
Lambert was frustrated at the manner of the two goals conceded after the break, following an excellent first-half from his side.
But despite the defeat, Lambert insists confidence is still high, belief is strong and the way forward is there to be trod upon.
He said: "I thought for 45 minutes we were excellent. We looked a threat every time we went forward. We competed brilliantly against a really good side. We were well in the game.
"I keep saying it, the one thing we have got is that we are playing well enough to win games.
"Brad has not had too much to do other than pick it out twice.
"From our point of view the first goal was disappointing just after the restart. That was really poor especially since we were attacking. But you can't take your eyes off it for a minute.
"Nathan will learn from the penalty because he is young. If you go to ground in the penalty box, especially against someone like Luis Suarez that's what can happen.
"But you can't blame any individuals. I think it's a team game, a team spot, we need everyone together. I can't have a blame culture.
"We are in it together and it will stand us in good stead.
"You have to be big enough and brave enough to keep going. The league is unforgiving as everyone knows.
"Performance-wise, they just need to keep doing what they are doing.
"It's not every day you will play a Liverpool. They are good side still. They have some terrific players. We need to keep going the way they have been doing it."
Lambert believes the position hasn't changed a great deal despite the loss, with several teams firmly in the mix in the lower reaches of the table.
He continued: "It's the same. Looking at results, we are four points from eleventh.
"There will be so many twists and turns.
"The thing for myself is we are playing well. In spells we are playing really, really well.
"The confidence is a big part of the game of football, if you keep that it will certainly help.
"You look at today there was not too much in the game. There was not too much between the teams.
"I just think we are playing well. We don't look like a side down there, that's for sure. Okay the result went against us and it's results that matter most but the belief is there for us to win games."
Finally, Lambert bemoaned several chances that could have given the result a very different complexion.
He added: "If Gabby fluffs that chance it goes in, he's hit it too good and then there was Christian's header from Joe's cross early on in the game. We played well in the first half.
"And Steven Gerrard clears it off the line. He senses danger and his experience takes him into positions where he thinks the danger is. It was a brilliant header from Christian. He did remarkably well to clear it off the line."
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Just wanted to say that the ball played into the box where gabby missed from 2 yards, the pass itself was one of the best balls played into the danger area I have seen for years.
Lowton again, he set up the Gabby goal against QPR.
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I thought for the first time in the Lambert era both Lowton & Bennett played well as a pairing, offering an attacking outlet. I shuddered when I saw Bennett on the team sheet, but the lad had a good game.
Bannan can go & fuck right off for me. Someone who can't get into a Scottish squad of the first time of asking isn't a PL starter. Westie lacked his normal assurance, whilst Sylla tired, although did some good stuff in batches. It's crying for some responsibility in their, but who can do that? As a NZog or Holman to curtail their natural instinct? I doubt that would work.
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Just seen the Baker challenge...what an absolute cock of the highest order! What on earth was he thinking making a challenge like that for?!
The Scottish translation of that is 'He is a young lad and will learn from that mistake.' Then again, I saw him make his full debut and he was sent off for a balls height challenge.
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Lowton has played some lovely balls into the box, but he badly needs to work on his positioning.
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What was Baker thinking?
You don't make tackles lile that at any level.
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I really thought we would do them today.
It's quite sickening really considering the poor start we had, we were good value for our half time lead.
Pathetic headless chicken display in the 2nd half.
The substitutions didn't add anything to the performance.
Shit weekend for us really.
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I've nothing to say about the game that hasn't already been said.
Just wanted to say that those wretched flares really stink. We were directly above the second one and it was vile.
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I was quite disturbed by the lack of fight in the last 10 minutes. We were somehow still in the game yet made no attempt to try a gung ho approach at the death to snatch a point. It was as if we'd accepted an'only' 2-1defeat.
Not good enough, but we just don't have a leader on the pitch. Oh well onto Stoke then.
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When we're chasing the game we really need a plan B. Why not go 4-4-2 and try to get some crosses in? We are so easy to defend deep against with our narrow formation. It was the same against Bradford, let alone Liverpool. The last 20 minutes should have been a siege but most of our play was on the half way line.
KEA is absolutely awful, what a waste of a sub that was. Should have tried Dawkins instead, he can't possibly be worse.
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Both Baker and Clark have been directly responsible for us conceding goals in the last few games, but I don't think we should be too harsh on them. They're still young and learning their trade, and in an ideal world wouldn't have been thrown in the deep end as much. If Dunne had been fit this season - or if Lambert had bought an experienced CB in January - they'd have been back-ups rather than first choice, and introduced more gradually so they could develop alongside more experienced defenders. Hopefully the howlers they've made won't destroy their confidence as both have the potential to be quality defenders
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When we're chasing the game we really need a plan B. Why not go 4-4-2 and try to get some crosses in? We are so easy to defend deep against with our narrow formation. It was the same against Bradford, let alone Liverpool. The last 20 minutes should have been a siege but most of our play was on the half way line.
KEA is absolutely awful, what a waste of a sub that was. Should have tried Dawkins instead, he can't possibly be worse.
He is indeed.
Surely the worst of Lamberts signings.
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Decent 1st half , very poor 2nd half - really depressing.
Gabby shocking miss in the 1st half , bannan awful and total lack of fight and passion 2 nd half from the team - this is very very disappointing today indeed!
From where I'm sat it was a brilliant save rather than a poor miss.
Apart from that, I agree.
Wait til you see it on MOTD...
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Disappointed. Liverpool aren't all that. Still, I think we've shown in last few games that we've got enough to stay up.
And being on holiday & watching the game in Lyne Regis (Dorset), at least you didn't have to watch the game with Liverpool fans from Yorkshire and local residents. No idea at all. "Why the booing Downing? Did he play for them?".
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Mind I if I have a little moan? I am tired of being relegation fodder , just constant losses punctuated by the occasional win. That said, if we were not in the bottom three I wouldnt be too gutted about todays game, these things happen. But we are in the bottom three , so it is yet another depressing defeat.
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When we're chasing the game we really need a plan B. Why not go 4-4-2 and try to get some crosses in? We are so easy to defend deep against with our narrow formation. It was the same against Bradford, let alone Liverpool. The last 20 minutes should have been a siege but most of our play was on the half way line.
KEA is absolutely awful, what a waste of a sub that was. Should have tried Dawkins instead, he can't possibly be worse.
He is indeed.
Surely the worst of Lamberts signings.
I had high hopes for KEA but apart from the first month of the season he's been gash.
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When we're chasing the game we really need a plan B. Why not go 4-4-2 and try to get some crosses in? We are so easy to defend deep against with our narrow formation. It was the same against Bradford, let alone Liverpool. The last 20 minutes should have been a siege but most of our play was on the half way line.
KEA is absolutely awful, what a waste of a sub that was. Should have tried Dawkins instead, he can't possibly be worse.
He is indeed.
Surely the worst of Lamberts signings.
I had high hopes for KEA but apart from the first month of the season he's been gash.
KEA would give his right bollock to be as good as gash.
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When we're chasing the game we really need a plan B. Why not go 4-4-2 and try to get some crosses in? We are so easy to defend deep against with our narrow formation. It was the same against Bradford, let alone Liverpool. The last 20 minutes should have been a siege but most of our play was on the half way line.
KEA is absolutely awful, what a waste of a sub that was. Should have tried Dawkins instead, he can't possibly be worse.
He is indeed.
Surely the worst of Lamberts signings.
I had high hopes for KEA but apart from the first month of the season he's been gash.
Yeah absolutely woeful, Sylla looks a much better player to me.
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When we're chasing the game we really need a plan B. Why not go 4-4-2 and try to get some crosses in? We are so easy to defend deep against with our narrow formation. It was the same against Bradford, let alone Liverpool. The last 20 minutes should have been a siege but most of our play was on the half way line.
KEA is absolutely awful, what a waste of a sub that was. Should have tried Dawkins instead, he can't possibly be worse.
He is indeed.
Surely the worst of Lamberts signings.
I had high hopes for KEA but apart from the first month of the season he's been gash.
Yeah absolutely woeful, Sylla looks a much better player to me.
Sylla looks a real player to me. Been very impressed with him so far.
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Sylla is decent enough , no complaints about him but its demoralising to see people like bannan and kea on the pitch - i not sure they are good enough even for the championship.
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What's strange is that it's the players who have come through our youth system who seem to be prone to absolutely horrendous and often fatal errors.
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Disappointed. Liverpool aren't all that. Still, I think we've shown in last few games that we've got enough to stay up.
And being on holiday & watching the game in Lyne Regis (Dorset), at least you didn't have to watch the game with Liverpool fans from Yorkshire and local residents. No idea at all. "Why the booing Downing? Did he play for them?".
Can't have been any worse than it was for me selling by the away end. Reminded me of why since I was a kid i've hated their support. Mostly Welsh or Scandanavian, with the ones that are scousers living up to most stereotypes. Including selling dodgy Scouse merchandise out of a shopping trolley.
And most of the older Scousers think they are Jimmy Tarbuck. Two stood near me taking the piss while I was selling.
"Not selling many there la" And whenever I sold one "that's a result there kid" etc
After 5 minutes of it one said to the other (deliberately loud enough so i'd hear) "At least Big Issue sellers keep 80p from every sale"
Me "It's good that you sell enough to afford away games"
Funnily enough they left about 30 seconds later. Does that count as a Villa victory?
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What's strange is that it's the players who have come through our youth system who seem to be prone to absolutely horrendous and often fatal errors.
What about Bennett, Lowton and even Benteke? It's got less to do with our academy and more that they are young IMO.
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Yeah I suppose, but it just does my head in that our team seems intent on committing suicide.
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Just seen the Baker challenge...what an absolute cock of the highest order! What on earth was he thinking making a challenge like that for?!
The Scottish translation of that is 'He is a young lad and will learn from that mistake.' Then again, I saw him make his full debut and he was sent off for a balls height challenge.
Ah yes. The FA Cup game against Blackburn. I was the other side (DE stand) from the challenge, but that one looked a certain red. Another needless one as well, as we were 3-1 up and cruising at the time IIRC. Don't think it was his full debut though. That was against Wigan in the league.
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Our central midfield is so poor that Delph starting next week will improve it. And I'm no fan of him.
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Disappointed. Liverpool aren't all that. Still, I think we've shown in last few games that we've got enough to stay up.
And being on holiday & watching the game in Lyne Regis (Dorset), at least you didn't have to watch the game with Liverpool fans from Yorkshire and local residents. No idea at all. "Why the booing Downing? Did he play for them?".
Can't have been any worse than it was for me selling by the away end. Reminded me of why since I was a kid i've hated their support. Mostly Welsh or Scandanavian, with the ones that are scousers living up to most stereotypes. Including selling dodgy Scouse merchandise out of a shopping trolley.
And most of the older Scousers think they are Jimmy Tarbuck. Two stood near me taking the piss while I was selling.
"Not selling many there la" And whenever I sold one "that's a result there kid" etc
After 5 minutes of it one said to the other (deliberately loud enough so i'd hear) "At least Big Issue sellers keep 80p from every sale"
Me "It's good that you sell enough to afford away games"
Funnily enough they left about 30 seconds later. Does that count as a Villa victory?
What dodgy merchandise were they selling ?
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Just the usual, scarves, hats, gloves, car stereos, hubcaps.
Okay, I may have made the last two up. Still can't believe though they were in the middle of Witton Lane selling out of a shopping trolley though.
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I agree with a lot of what RudybLambert said on page 5. Having calmed down a bit, I can now add my own tuppence worth:
Positives
Generally a bright and positive first half performance, with decent movement and a few chances that were convertible
We opened them up a fair bit down the left flank, and Bennett had one of his better games for us. Lowton too looked positive in the first half.
Baker made some decent first half interceptions, one top drawer against Suarez (however I think he is making last ditch tackles through poor positioning and absence of speed)
Periods of good possession
Bannan's willingness to take the ball, even though not playing well
We actually created a fair few chances - Gabby's point blank miss, the first half header off the line(Weimann?), the Bennett cross that 2 forwards missed, Lowton's attempted chip of Reina ( assuming it wasn't a shit cross) Benteke's header off the line and that miss by Weimann.
Negatives
An utterly woeful second half- God only knows what Lambert said to them at half time
The absence of leadership on the pitch - we looked beaten at 1-2 with 30 minutes to go
The absence of belief and fight in the second half, both on and off the pitch. You could have heard a pin drop for the last 35 minutes - I felt we were as defeated in the stands as the players were on the pitch
Poor substitutions - KEA was awful and Zog was roaming around too centrally. With Gabby moving inside this meant we had no width at all. It was almost, but not quite, as bad as Bradford at home and seemed utterly clueless
Too many "coward's passes" - playing a pointless ball sideways or backwards to another player hoping that they will take responsibility. This frequently leads to a pointless Guzan or Baker hoof, leading me to reminisce fondly of Southgate's 60 yard cross field passes to the advertising hoardings
The forwards too often being caught on their heels and being beaten to the ball
The realisation that we have no subs of any impact
I thought the ref had a good game and was even handed (Lee Mason?)
And fair play to theLiverpool fans. From where i was sat they stood and applauded to a man in the 19 minute. If Rodgers did so too, then fair play to him as well.
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Rodgers definitely applauded for about 30-40 seconds. And as you say, fair play to the Liverpool fans as well.
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Just seen the Baker challenge...what an absolute cock of the highest order! What on earth was he thinking making a challenge like that for?!
He didn't expect Bucktooth to cut inside (which he should of as that is a typical Suarez move) and thought he was therefore going to get ball and man. Had he legally clattered Suarez, we would probably all be still wanking over it now to be fair. Baker is a pretty rash player though. As we have seen in the past, his actions precede his thought-process. Which is why he got concussion against QPR.
Which is why he'll never be a top player.
Sadly I am starting to agree with your opinion. Hate writing any player off and especially one of our academy lads. But looks like he may join the others from that great reserve side -Fonz, Albrighton, Clark, Bannan (really thought he was going to be something special)- who aren't quite good enough.
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Putting KEA anywhere near the pitch is about as useful as playing an oversized, threadbare, clockwork Teddy Bear.
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Rodgers definitely applauded for about 30-40 seconds. And as you say, fair play to the Liverpool fans as well.
Their fans responded well at Anfield too. I therefore assume that the Liverpool fans who actually go to the games are a more likeable bunch than the twunts you get on RAWK, Twitter and in in the media.
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Just seen the Baker challenge...what an absolute cock of the highest order! What on earth was he thinking making a challenge like that for?!
He didn't expect Bucktooth to cut inside (which he should of as that is a typical Suarez move) and thought he was therefore going to get ball and man. Had he legally clattered Suarez, we would probably all be still wanking over it now to be fair. Baker is a pretty rash player though. As we have seen in the past, his actions precede his thought-process. Which is why he got concussion against QPR.
Which is why he'll never be a top player.
Sadly I am starting to agree with your opinion. Hate writing any player off and especially one of our academy lads. But looks like he may join the others from that great reserve side -Fonz, Albrighton, Clark, Bannan (really thought he was going to be something special)- who aren't quite good enough.
His lunging in is a symptom of his lack of positional awareness sadly.
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When we're chasing the game we really need a plan B. Why not go 4-4-2 and try to get some crosses in? We are so easy to defend deep against with our narrow formation. It was the same against Bradford, let alone Liverpool. The last 20 minutes should have been a siege but most of our play was on the half way line.
KEA is absolutely awful, what a waste of a sub that was. Should have tried Dawkins instead, he can't possibly be worse.
He is indeed.
Surely the worst of Lamberts signings.
I had high hopes for KEA but apart from the first month of the season he's been gash.
My thought - expressed vociferously at the game today - exactly. The man who - I suspect - was boiught to be our MF lynchpin is indeed gash.
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Just the usual, scarves, hats, gloves, car stereos, hubcaps.
Okay, I may have made the last two up. Still can't believe though they were in the middle of Witton Lane selling out of a shopping trolley though.
Dirty scoundrels:(
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Just seen the Baker challenge...what an absolute cock of the highest order! What on earth was he thinking making a challenge like that for?!
He didn't expect Bucktooth to cut inside (which he should of as that is a typical Suarez move) and thought he was therefore going to get ball and man. Had he legally clattered Suarez, we would probably all be still wanking over it now to be fair. Baker is a pretty rash player though. As we have seen in the past, his actions precede his thought-process. Which is why he got concussion against QPR.
Which is why he'll never be a top player.
Sadly I am starting to agree with your opinion. Hate writing any player off and especially one of our academy lads. But looks like he may join the others from that great reserve side -Fonz, Albrighton, Clark, Bannan (really thought he was going to be something special)- who aren't quite good enough.
His lunging in is a symptom of his lack of positional awareness sadly.
He needs to stay on his feet!
And learn to pass the ball.
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Just seen the Baker challenge...what an absolute cock of the highest order! What on earth was he thinking making a challenge like that for?!
He didn't expect Bucktooth to cut inside (which he should of as that is a typical Suarez move) and thought he was therefore going to get ball and man. Had he legally clattered Suarez, we would probably all be still wanking over it now to be fair. Baker is a pretty rash player though. As we have seen in the past, his actions precede his thought-process. Which is why he got concussion against QPR.
Which is why he'll never be a top player.
Sadly I am starting to agree with your opinion. Hate writing any player off and especially one of our academy lads. But looks like he may join the others from that great reserve side -Fonz, Albrighton, Clark, Bannan (really thought he was going to be something special)- who aren't quite good enough.
His lunging in is a symptom of his lack of positional awareness sadly.
He needs to stay on his feet!
And learn to pass the ball.
In fairness he did produce a fantastic interception in the box in the 1st half just as Suarez was about to shoot - its the silly lapses that he needs to cut out.
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But he doesn't cut them out and that's the problem, and the harsh reality is that his 'silly lapse' could potentially be the difference between our survival and relegation.
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I've nothing to say about the game that hasn't already been said.
Same here.
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What I don't get is the pedestrian nature of the second half. We are a goal down with 30mins left and the team are strolling around the pitch, no energy, no determination. If a couple of strong tackles had gone in or a couple of runs and shots had been the hit the crowd may have made some noise too, but it was all so flat.
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But he doesn't cut them out and that's the problem, and the harsh reality is that his 'silly lapse' could potentially be the difference between our survival and relegation.
Bennett , Clark, and baker have all given stupid goals away in the last few games - we simply cannot afford to gift soft goals if we wish to stay up .
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All three of them have alarming lapses in concentration and it's unforgivable I don't care about their age.
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The chances we missed - Gabby 2 yards, Benteke off the line, Weimann over the bar
Them - Suarez 1 on 1, coutunhio 1 on 1, Johnson post.
who had the one first half when Bannan gave him a lovely through ball
That fell to Rat boy , he tried to meg Guzan
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What I don't get is the pedestrian nature of the second half. We are a goal down with 30mins left and the team are strolling around the pitch, no energy, no determination. If a couple of strong tackles had gone in or a couple of runs and shots had been the hit the crowd may have made some noise too, but it was all so flat.
..... and no movement off the ball. As a passing team, no movement means no outlet for the man on the ball. Without a player that can be direct and run at the opposition as an alternative, the play stagnates i.e. us in the 2nd half. We have two players (Gabby and N'Zogbia) that can run with the ball but both failed to take on this responsibility. As two of the more experienced players in the team, they let the younger players down.
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Rodgers definitely applauded for about 30-40 seconds. And as you say, fair play to the Liverpool fans as well.
Credit to Rodgers and the Liverpool fans. They showed some class today.
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I think there's a bit of an over reaction from what I saw - the last 25 mins. We could easily have got a couple in that time from weimann and Benteke. Gabby also missed a sitter
I thought delph should have started. KEA shouldn't be near the first team
Any points would have been a really welcome bonus. Really welcome. But it's the stoke, Fulham, Sunderland and norwich games that are going to define how we go into the final game. We need two wins and two draws from those two. Preferably beating Sunderland and stoke, but beggars can't be choosers.
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In fairness he did produce a fantastic interception in the box in the 1st half just as Suarez was about to shoot - its the silly lapses that he needs to cut out.
Disagree. It wasn't just a matter of one silly lapse that cost us the game. The CB's were played through by 'The Mighty Reds YNWA' at will. Where were the CBs for the equaliser? And it should have been 2-1 even before the pen, when once again they couldn't deal with the through-ball. Just to be clear, Vlaar was equally culpable in this. Baker is getting all the stick because of the pen but Vlaar wasn't any better.
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The match day pie was a highlight, as always :P
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A decent first half, ran out of ideas once we went behind though. I like Bannan a lot but he was dreadful today and Sylla looked a bit out of his depth. I thought we were worthy of a point but no more than that.
As for Baker, I've not seen the penalty back yet. It's a shame because he was greay in the first half.
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In fairness he did produce a fantastic interception in the box in the 1st half just as Suarez was about to shoot - its the silly lapses that he needs to cut out.
Disagree. It wasn't just a matter of one silly lapse that cost us the game. The CB's were played through by 'The Mighty Reds YNWA' at will. Where were the CBs for the equaliser? And it should have been 2-1 even before the pen, when once again they couldn't deal with the through-ball. Just to be clear, Vlaar was equally culpable in this. Baker is getting all the stick because of the pen but Vlaar wasn't any better.
Most of the times when we were caught through the middle it was after we lost the ball further up the field and the fullback (mainly Lowton) was out of position. That is where the lack of experience comes in. An experienced defence would move across with a midfield player dropping deeper. We fail to do this and the centre backs are then caught so far apart.
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Before we decide we're definitely doomed, I suggest people check out some of our rivals. I'd argue we're playing better than stoke, Sunderland, norwich and possibly Wigan too. We just need to out perform them to stay up, not just match them. We've got two away goals in every league away match this year (save arsenal). I fancy us to remain dangerous on the break and I think even our shitty defence might be able to restrict stoke and norwich to one goal apiece.
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A decent first half, ran out of ideas once we went behind though. I like Bannan a lot but he was dreadful today and Sylla looked a bit out of his depth. I thought we were worthy of a point but no more than that.
As for Baker, I've not seen the penalty back yet. It's a shame because he was greay in the first half.
A minute before he made the rash challenge, my lad had said Baker had been our best player and I totally agreed. I was texting people at half time saying how much Gabby had improved as a player, I know feck all for all my 49 years. I see a team there but we needed to get in there faces more.
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I can take a Gerrard or a Suarez scoring against us (just), but Jordan bloody Henderson !! Come on
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The match day pie was a highlight, as always :P
Balti pie ?
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In fairness he did produce a fantastic interception in the box in the 1st half just as Suarez was about to shoot - its the silly lapses that he needs to cut out.
Disagree. It wasn't just a matter of one silly lapse that cost us the game. The CB's were played through by 'The Mighty Reds YNWA' at will. Where were the CBs for the equaliser? And it should have been 2-1 even before the pen, when once again they couldn't deal with the through-ball. Just to be clear, Vlaar was equally culpable in this. Baker is getting all the stick because of the pen but Vlaar wasn't any better.
Most of the times when we were caught through the middle it was after we lost the ball further up the field and the fullback (mainly Lowton) was out of position. That is where the lack of experience comes in. An experienced defence would move across with a midfield player dropping deeper. We fail to do this and the centre backs are then caught so far apart.
Yep. Ain't that what the manager and coaches are paid a fortune to teach them on the training ground?
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What I don't get is the pedestrian nature of the second half. We are a goal down with 30mins left and the team are strolling around the pitch, no energy, no determination. If a couple of strong tackles had gone in or a couple of runs and shots had been the hit the crowd may have made some noise too, but it was all so flat.
.... and no movement off the ball. As a passing team, no movement means no outlet for the man on the ball. Without a player that can be direct and run at the opposition as an alternative, the play stagnates i.e. us in the 2nd half. We have two players (Gabby and N'Zogbia) that can run with the ball but both failed to take on this responsibility. As two of the more experienced players in the team, they let the younger players down.
This is why Bent is worth a place on the bench ,he has the movement that will create space and gives the opposition someone other than Benteke to worry about.Coming on against WHU had this effect.When Weimann went off the movement decreased and we became pedestrian.
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Easter treat from the grammar nazi. Let's at least be the best fans in the Championship for spelling and grammar...
http://www.shotdeadinthehead.com/grammar-t-shirt-mens.html
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In fairness he did produce a fantastic interception in the box in the 1st half just as Suarez was about to shoot - its the silly lapses that he needs to cut out.
Disagree. It wasn't just a matter of one silly lapse that cost us the game. The CB's were played through by 'The Mighty Reds YNWA' at will. Where were the CBs for the equaliser? And it should have been 2-1 even before the pen, when once again they couldn't deal with the through-ball. Just to be clear, Vlaar was equally culpable in this. Baker is getting all the stick because of the pen but Vlaar wasn't any better.
Most of the times when we were caught through the middle it was after we lost the ball further up the field and the fullback (mainly Lowton) was out of position. That is where the lack of experience comes in. An experienced defence would move across with a midfield player dropping deeper. We fail to do this and the centre backs are then caught so far apart.
I agree that the full-backs and midfielders don't help out enough. But looking at today, most of the through-balls were played when the CBs were in position to deal with them. It wasn't a case of them being pulled out of position.
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In fairness he did produce a fantastic interception in the box in the 1st half just as Suarez was about to shoot - its the silly lapses that he needs to cut out.
Disagree. It wasn't just a matter of one silly lapse that cost us the game. The CB's were played through by 'The Mighty Reds YNWA' at will. Where were the CBs for the equaliser? And it should have been 2-1 even before the pen, when once again they couldn't deal with the through-ball. Just to be clear, Vlaar was equally culpable in this. Baker is getting all the stick because of the pen but Vlaar wasn't any better.
Most of the times when we were caught through the middle it was after we lost the ball further up the field and the fullback (mainly Lowton) was out of position. That is where the lack of experience comes in. An experienced defence would move across with a midfield player dropping deeper. We fail to do this and the centre backs are then caught so far apart.
Yep. Ain't that what the manager and coaches are paid a fortune to teach them on the training ground?
I am sure they do, just like staying on your feet in the penalty area. It does not mean that the players carry out training ground routines in matches though. Young players ball watch at times and the game passes them by. At PL level, time does not stand still for decision making.
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I've nothing to say about the game that hasn't already been said.
Same here.
What? Not even the the handbag Downing was wearing?
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I've nothing to say about the game that hasn't already been said.
Same here.
What? Not even the the handbag Downing was wearing?
That's par for the course.
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In fairness he did produce a fantastic interception in the box in the 1st half just as Suarez was about to shoot - its the silly lapses that he needs to cut out.
Disagree. It wasn't just a matter of one silly lapse that cost us the game. The CB's were played through by 'The Mighty Reds YNWA' at will. Where were the CBs for the equaliser? And it should have been 2-1 even before the pen, when once again they couldn't deal with the through-ball. Just to be clear, Vlaar was equally culpable in this. Baker is getting all the stick because of the pen but Vlaar wasn't any better.
Most of the times when we were caught through the middle it was after we lost the ball further up the field and the fullback (mainly Lowton) was out of position. That is where the lack of experience comes in. An experienced defence would move across with a midfield player dropping deeper. We fail to do this and the centre backs are then caught so far apart.
I agree that the full-backs and midfielders don't help out enough. But looking at today, most of the through-balls were played when the CBs were in position to deal with them. It wasn't a case of them being pulled out of position.
Henderson waltzed through a gap the width of the Mersey tunnel!
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Typical Villa. I'd got this down as a "free" game, hoping for a result but not really expecting too much. We then play a great first half and go in 1 up (should've been more).
Whatever PL said at halftime he needs to re-read and never repeat. Get in their faces for 10-15 minutes and the sting goes out the game. Instead we sat back, gave them space and looked like we were still in the dressing room.
OK so it's 1-1, and we'd take a draw so we bring on some subs.
To a man all the subs were useless. Christ they only have to play 30 mins so why cant we have some fucking endeavour grrr!!!! No heart, no desire etc. etc. (all been said earlier).
Nathan, you got suckered - learn the lesson and dont do it again.
We need to make sure we beat the teams around us but it still would have been nice to get something from this (like West Brom, Everton, Man Utd, Newcastle....)
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I must mention the support today. Villa Park looked fantastic today with over 42000 there despite the early kick off (12.30) and match being live on telly. Well done all of us!
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The chances we missed - Gabby 2 yards, Benteke off the line, Weimann over the bar
Them - Suarez 1 on 1, coutunhio 1 on 1, Johnson post.
who had the one first half when Bannan gave him a lovely through ball
That fell to Rat boy , he tried to meg Guzan
I saw him nut meg Baker too but Guzan did brilliant to stop him .
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Fucking lost today and probably deservedly so after second half, but lets continue to back the guys. I have supported Vills in the old third division asnd would again, but 3 wins will keep us up, lets back em.
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I must mention the support today. Villa Park looked fantastic today with over 42000 there despite the early kick off (12.30) and match being live on telly. Well done all of us!
Are you sure? Loads of spare seats from what I saw and it didn't sound too loud either.
I'm not knocking those who went but it didn't look that great on telly.
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I must mention the support today. Villa Park looked fantastic today with over 42000 there despite the early kick off (12.30) and match being live on telly. Well done all of us!
Are you sure? Loads of spare seats from what I saw and it didn't sound too loud either.
I'm not knocking those who went but it didn't look that great on telly.
The official attendance was over 42000. That will be on tickets sold. A good indicator on a full house is how many seats are visible in the upper trinity and it wasn't many.
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Although the attendance was superb, i thought the atmosphere was very subdued.
The crowd were brilliant after our goal, but didn't really have a lot to feed off in the second half.
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I must mention the support today. Villa Park looked fantastic today with over 42000 there despite the early kick off (12.30) and match being live on telly. Well done all of us!
Are you sure? Loads of spare seats from what I saw and it didn't sound too loud either.
I'm not knocking those who went but it didn't look that great on telly.
I was really disappointed in the atmosphere from half time onwards. We played badly but I felt that the fans meekly accepted the result too.
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I must mention the support today. Villa Park looked fantastic today with over 42000 there despite the early kick off (12.30) and match being live on telly. Well done all of us!
Are you sure? Loads of spare seats from what I saw and it didn't sound too loud either.
I'm not knocking those who went but it didn't look that great on telly.
I said earlier the atmospere was strange for a (nearly) full house. The scousers didn't add much.
Only gaps I could see were extreme wings of the Holte Lower - not sure how that would not look great?
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I must mention the support today. Villa Park looked fantastic today with over 42000 there despite the early kick off (12.30) and match being live on telly. Well done all of us!
Are you sure? Loads of spare seats from what I saw and it didn't sound too loud either.
I'm not knocking those who went but it didn't look that great on telly.
It looked and sounded a lot better in the ground.
Second half was a lot more subdued though.
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1 The Centre backs are crap, Vlaar included.
2 Bannan is terrible. Im no Bannan hater but physically he's appalling and technically crap too.
3 Benteke is our best out and out centre forward of the last 20 years for me. Imagine him with Yorke up front.
4 Sylla is scared to pass the ball forward more than 5 yards.
5 There is too much pointing at players making runs and not enough following them
6 The players don't take the game by the scuff of its neck, loads of indecisive half hearted attempts at tackles and passes. No one saying give me the fucking ball.
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I said earlier the atmospere was strange for a (nearly) full house. The scousers didn't add much.
Only gaps I could see were extreme wings of the Holte Lower - not sure how that would not look great?
I saw empty seats in the Trinity lower, not loads just here and there.
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Most points have been made already: We can play well for spells, but our defence remains woeful.
Lowton's attempt at setting Henderson offside (Liverpool's first goal) was painful to watch, and so was Baker's headless dive which lead to the penalty.
Even so, Liverpool had 23 shots, so it's clear that we didn't do enough to deny them. It wasn't (as Lambert claimed in the post match comments) simply a case of conceding "two poor goals".
The mantra "one good half and one poor" may be applied again, but when Liverpool are trailing by a goal after half time, it shouldn't come as a shock that they will try to grab the initiative in the second half. In such a case, it would have been nice if we at least had the ability to close down a mediocre Liverpool side, but even with Sylla our midfield is too lightweight and inexperienced. And our defence is simply enough not good enough for the Premier League, both player for player -- and as a unit.
The team has potential, but is far from good enough for gung ho to work as a tactic for the entire 90 minutes. That's why we are in trouble.
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Henderson waltzed through a gap the width of the Mersey tunnel!
And who's fault was that? Why were BOTH CBs found wanting? Just shocking positioning and movement from them both all game.
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1 The Centre backs are crap, Vlaar included.
2 Bannan is terrible. Im no Bannan hater but physically he's appalling and technically crap too.
3 Benteke is our best out and out centre forward of the last 20 years for me. Imagine him with Yorke up front.
4 Sylla is scared to pass the ball forward more than 5 yards.
5 There is too much pointing at players making runs and not enough following them
6 The players don't take the game by the scuff of its neck, loads of indecisive half hearted attempts at tackles and passes. No one saying give me the fucking ball.
Sylla does what he's been asked to do, press the opposition and keep the tempo going I think he's done very well.
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Yeah I though Sylla put a decent shift in today.
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I said earlier the atmospere was strange for a (nearly) full house. The scousers didn't add much.
Only gaps I could see were extreme wings of the Holte Lower - not sure how that would not look great?
I saw empty seats in the Trinity lower, not loads just here and there.
I was in the Upper so can't see them. Best crowd of the season numbers-wise but certainly not loudest
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Very quiet , I was in the witton lane lower and a good dozen or so in a row were empty in front of me. I was telling my son how we used to sing a song for every player as they came out on to the pitch . How times change .
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1 The Centre backs are crap, Vlaar included.
2 Bannan is terrible. Im no Bannan hater but physically he's appalling and technically crap too.
3 Benteke is our best out and out centre forward of the last 20 years for me. Imagine him with Yorke up front.
4 Sylla is scared to pass the ball forward more than 5 yards.
5 There is too much pointing at players making runs and not enough following them
6 The players don't take the game by the scuff of its neck, loads of indecisive half hearted attempts at tackles and passes. No one saying give me the fucking ball.
Sylla does what he's been asked to do, press the opposition and keep the tempo going I think he's done very well.
I agree with all that but the Sylla point , this is what Carrick does for Manure . He has more potential than KEA anyway .
I think we look better with Sylla in the side , just need to decide who to put in instead of BB
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1 The Centre backs are crap, Vlaar included.
2 Bannan is terrible. Im no Bannan hater but physically he's appalling and technically crap too.
3 Benteke is our best out and out centre forward of the last 20 years for me. Imagine him with Yorke up front.
4 Sylla is scared to pass the ball forward more than 5 yards.
5 There is too much pointing at players making runs and not enough following them
6 The players don't take the game by the scuff of its neck, loads of indecisive half hearted attempts at tackles and passes. No one saying give me the fucking ball.
Sylla does what he's been asked to do, press the opposition and keep the tempo going I think he's done very well.
I agree with all that but the Sylla point , this is what Carrick does for Manure . He has more potential than KEA anyway .
I think we look better with Sylla in the side , just need to decide who to put in instead of BB
Delph
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1 The Centre backs are crap, Vlaar included.
2 Bannan is terrible. Im no Bannan hater but physically he's appalling and technically crap too.
3 Benteke is our best out and out centre forward of the last 20 years for me. Imagine him with Yorke up front.
4 Sylla is scared to pass the ball forward more than 5 yards.
5 There is too much pointing at players making runs and not enough following them
6 The players don't take the game by the scuff of its neck, loads of indecisive half hearted attempts at tackles and passes. No one saying give me the fucking ball.
Sylla does what he's been asked to do, press the opposition and keep the tempo going I think he's done very well.
I agree with all that but the Sylla point , this is what Carrick does for Manure . He has more potential than KEA anyway .
I think we look better with Sylla in the side , just need to decide who to put in instead of BB
Delph
Agree I think Westwood, Delph, Sylla would compliment each other.
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Delph?!
He came into form, let the yellow cards catch up to him, served his ban.. and then loses his place?! I think Delph and Sylla would've bossed the midfield today. We can't expect poor little Barry Bannan to be our #10, he just doesn't have it.
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1 The Centre backs are crap, Vlaar included.
2 Bannan is terrible. Im no Bannan hater but physically he's appalling and technically crap too.
3 Benteke is our best out and out centre forward of the last 20 years for me. Imagine him with Yorke up front.
4 Sylla is scared to pass the ball forward more than 5 yards.
5 There is too much pointing at players making runs and not enough following them
6 The players don't take the game by the scuff of its neck, loads of indecisive half hearted attempts at tackles and passes. No one saying give me the fucking ball.
Sylla does what he's been asked to do, press the opposition and keep the tempo going I think he's done very well.
I agree with all that but the Sylla point , this is what Carrick does for Manure . He has more potential than KEA anyway .
I think we look better with Sylla in the side , just need to decide who to put in instead of BB
Delph
Agree I think Westwood, Delph, Sylla would compliment each other.
should have been the starting 3 . Clanger from Lambert for me
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1 The Centre backs are crap, Vlaar included.
2 Bannan is terrible. Im no Bannan hater but physically he's appalling and technically crap too.
3 Benteke is our best out and out centre forward of the last 20 years for me. Imagine him with Yorke up front.
4 Sylla is scared to pass the ball forward more than 5 yards.
5 There is too much pointing at players making runs and not enough following them
6 The players don't take the game by the scuff of its neck, loads of indecisive half hearted attempts at tackles and passes. No one saying give me the fucking ball.
Sylla does what he's been asked to do, press the opposition and keep the tempo going I think he's done very well.
I agree with all that but the Sylla point , this is what Carrick does for Manure . He has more potential than KEA anyway .
I think we look better with Sylla in the side , just need to decide who to put in instead of BB
Delph
Agree I think Westwood, Delph, Sylla would compliment each other.
should have be
Wen the starting 3 . Clanger from Lambert for me
We had actually won the last two games so not a clanger IMHO
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I can understand Bannan's inclusion because him, Westwood and Sylla were the midfield in the last two games that were won, but I'm pretty confident he won't start the next match.
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Well what can you say? we know nothing worse about us today than we already know. Defensively we are poor. Hence we're in this position. Going forward, and when we appear confident, we are a threat and if we survive this season and can build next season there is more than enough there to suggest we could challenge higher up the table.
First half we played very well. We could have scored more, but so could have they. It was another 45 minute performance that we are used to seeing this season. However, it is better still than the abject Villa we saw too often this season. It does feel and look a lot better, but until we can sought that defence out we'll always be struggling.
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Haven't seen the match, but it sounds like more of the same, so don't think I'll bother.
I honestly thought we'd win this one, having a big of momentum from reading and qpr. The international break probably didn't help though in that regard and as someone else mentioned we never seem to give a good account of ourselves when we're on TV.
Whilst I realise we've been shit for most of the season, I've usually seen enough there for me to stay positive about surviving the drop. Not so sure now. I see Sunderland as our main rivals and if they benefit from the new Manager bounce and have a decent 4-5 games including against us, we could find ourselves in trouble worse than we're in now.
If we have to go to Wigan needing a win I think we may be fucked. I still think we can do it, but we need to start winning games again. It's lucky that we've still got quite a few realistically winnable ones left. Man U is the only one I think we definitely can't get anything from. All the rest we can get points from in my view.
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I can understand Bannan's inclusion because him, Westwood and Sylla were the midfield in the last two games that were won, but I'm pretty confident he won't start the next match.
Good comment and maybve some people need to be realistic, Bannan fucked up massively with great pass to Suarez but he werent crap IMHO and I am not a fan.
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Thought we played very well in the first half. Lost our way in the second and highlighted our desperate lack of in-game leadership. Not for the first time we needed someone to grab the game by the scruff of the neck and weather the storm.
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Very frustrating second half. I was screaming at Lambert to make a substitution (namely Delph for Bannan) as soon as Liverpool equalised as they had been building momentum since the latter stages of the first half and there was a big hole between the centre backs and our midfield where Suarez and Coutinho were finding space. As soon as the penalty went in it was always going to be a long way back. Our confidence in passing and pressing high up the pitch in the first half had waned and Liverpool were less careless in possession with a lead to protect. Sylla looks like he might be a player but too often he chose the wrong option. That our midfield has the experience of Sylla-Westwood and Bannan is laughable really. Petrov, you don't know how much we miss you. Dunne at the back too and this team would comfortable be 10th or thereabouts.
I still think we'll stay up but we've made it hard for ourselves with today's result coupled with the Wigan and Saints games going against us yesterday.
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A disappointing second half, the early goal certainly did not help, without stating the obvious.
First half, we were very good, I enjoyed watching us immensely. Bannan is still a liability, and should not have started ahead of Nzogbia or Delph. Gabby was the main man first half, despite his miss and was well up for it....he, along with the rest of the team seemed to run out of steam in the second period.
Worrying, but I think we'll be fine. Baker....sigh. It is the one area of his game which he seriously needs to work on as he is a decent centre half otherwise and we look more solid with him in the centre back position. Bennett and Lowton did well too. We have to remember that the defence was up against a striker who tricks far better back lines than ours week in week out, pretty much.
Not bad Villa, just sadly not good enough on this occasion. I think we deserved a point overall.
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Sylla looked a decent player to me, albeit in a more forward midfield role. Not a Bannan fan, but he werent that bad but for the pass in first half. Lets not do scapegoat thing
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Not as bad as the mood suggests... Think we have become pessimistic as supporters.
I lived in northwest for years and have lots of scouser mates...
They felt lucky to have kept the league and where worried when we did attack, have also had texts saying your a lot better than the media make out... Can't see you going down.
It was a little flat the last 15 mins but we had a goal disallowed (correctly) and Weiman missed a sitter.
If it wasn't for how the other results went and the table sure we would all be more positive.
I've seen enough over the last 5 or 6 games to be confident we are not going down!
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Truly awful second half, as bad as anything we've served up this season. Lambert's half time team talks are the stuff of nightmares.
So many poor players in our squad. To think we've gone from Champions League contenders to relegation fodder in such a short time beggars belief. Lerner should be ashamed of himself. Our defence is so bad it's unreal. It's just bizzare that we didnt strengthen in January.
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Just seen the Baker challenge...what an absolute cock of the highest order! What on earth was he thinking making a challenge like that for?!
I've just seen it too, WTF!! He's a fecking walking liability him and Clark. McGrath only knows how many goals we've conceded this season down to those two. IF we go down this season that'll be your reason right there.
I was just starting the breathe a little easier about relegation too, then we see our dumbass defending return.
Hard to build a team around two strikers and a goalkeeper as really that's all we've got. I still think Stoke and sunderland are worse than us though so we've just got to prove that when we play them both, nailed on 6 pointers.
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Absolutely dreadful today. We've got enough up front, but the rest of the team is embarrassingly poor:
Guzan - class, again stopped it being 5 or 6.
Lowton - not Premier League class, always out of position
Baker - looks like what he is, a youth team player who isn't good enough
Vlaar - absolutely dreadful, what on earth did Lambert see in this clown
Bennett - not a left back in a million years, quite good going forward though
Westwood - not Premier League class
Bannan - worst player on the pitch by a country mile
Sylla - solid, unspectacular
Gabby - good touch for the goal, still mostly brainless though
Weimann - should have scored, not one of his better days
Benteke - deserves better than this, and will probably move on as soon as he can, and who would blame him.
Shambolic, again. Beating the two bottom teams isn't going to be enough.
Agree 100%.
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Truly awful second half, as bad as anything we've served up this season. Lambert's half time team talks are the stuff of nightmares.
So many poor players in our squad. To think we've gone from Champions League contenders to relegation fodder in such a short time beggars belief. Lerner should be ashamed of himself. Our defence is so bad it's unreal. It's just bizzare that we didnt strengthen in January.
Wasnt as bad as Chelsea or Wigan or spurs - we were poor 2nd half but still could have had 2 goals - in those games we never looked like creating fuck all.
The failure to sign a defender even it it had been a loan deal in January is quite staggering.
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Truly awful second half, as bad as anything we've served up this season. Lambert's half time team talks are the stuff of nightmares.
So many poor players in our squad. To think we've gone from Champions League contenders to relegation fodder in such a short time beggars belief. Lerner should be ashamed of himself. Our defence is so bad it's unreal. It's just bizzare that we didnt strengthen in January.
Wasnt as bad as Chelsea or Wigan or spurs - we were poor 2nd half but still could have had 2 goals - in those games we never looked like creating fuck all.
The failure to sign a defender even it it had been a loan deal in January is quite staggering.
And could have conceded a lot more as well.
We were quite dreadful second half. Considering where we are in the league you'd have thought we'd have shown a bit of fight, but no we were more than happy just to play possession football in our own half playing tippy tappy football amongst the back 4. Liverpool didnt know their luck! They were quite happy to let us keep possession in our own half knowing full well we wouldn't dare cross the half way line. It was just awful!
I've said it before more than once, this is the worst Villa team I've ever seen. Even worse than the last time we were relegated.
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Truly awful second half, as bad as anything we've served up this season. Lambert's half time team talks are the stuff of nightmares.
So many poor players in our squad. To think we've gone from Champions League contenders to relegation fodder in such a short time beggars belief. Lerner should be ashamed of himself. Our defence is so bad it's unreal. It's just bizzare that we didnt strengthen in January.
Aargh. I just wrote quite a detailed response to this and then wiped it. I'm not doing that again. But in summary Saunders heroes, I disagree. I think we're improving and the performance was much better than you suggest. First half the sort of performance oneill never got out of us. We actually passed the ball properly.
We could still go down. But play like that ad I think we will be ok. We can get 4-6 points from the next two games.
I agree bakers challenge was idiotic though.
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The thing i find depressing is our record against so called top teams - in 42 home games against man utd , arsenal and Liverpool over the last 15 years we have won just 1 game - embarrassing and shocking.
I watched the way saints beat man city, Chelsea and Liverpool at home recently and how I wish we would have that sort of approach - we give teams far too much respect.
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Weiman's tap in that went over and Benteke's header that was brilliantly cleared off the line was what did it for us.
It was very frustrating and both sides missed gilt edged chances. But the only thing that seperated us was that tackle. In a million years I will never understand what he was doing.
While the front three missed chances it was pleasing to see them do it against a top 8 side; gives me confirmation that in the six pointers against Stoke and Sunderland, we will have too much for them up top, while their own defficiencies up top should make our biggest weakness not stand out.
I think Fulham is another good fixture and Norwich will be winnable and potentially very interesting.
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Which teams sorry? We've beaten Chelsea, Liverpool and city in the last few years at villa park. I agree we have a hoodoo against Man U and arsenal and increasingly spurs too
Ad just to repeat, the singling out of bannan is way over the top. I'd still have played delph. But he made one really stupid error and otherwise passed the ball well. Weimann was worse for example but he's due to be scapegoat of the month just after he (hopefully) signs a new contract I imagine
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Most teams have a hoodoo against Man United.
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Which teams sorry? We've beaten Chelsea, Liverpool and city in the last few years at villa park. I agree we have a hoodoo against Man U and arsenal and increasingly spurs too
Ad just to repeat, the singling out of bannan is way over the top. I'd still have played delph. But he made one really stupid error and otherwise passed the ball well. Weimann was worse for example but he's due to be scapegoat of the month just after he (hopefully) signs a new contract I imagine
Man utd , arsenal and Liverpool = 1 home win in 42 games over the last 14 years .
Regarding bannan - a player totally out of his depth at this level ., get rid!
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How many titles have Man United and Liverpool won in that time? Weigh up those loses to the above average number of beatings we have handed to Chelsea.
We should win more, but given the gulf in class that has always been there and is even larger now, its no real surprise.
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Yes that is terrible. But surely also puts yesterday's performance in context? We've not beaten those sides at home when we were a top six side, do to describe yday as evidence of the worst villa side ever seen seems unjustified
We have racked up a few wins away from homes against those sides too
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Clearly yesterday wasn't the worst second half performance in history. That is hyperbole and utter nonsense of the highest order. Unless you were watching the Villa for the first time yesterday of course.
Remember folks, you have to ignore the six from nine and that things are shit, shitter than shit, never been this shit and despite evidence to the contrary, will only get shitter.
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Truly awful second half, as bad as anything we've served up this season.
As bad as anything...really? I guess you love a chance to repeat your embedded views on the team but whilst we lacked true belief in the second half we still had enough chances to win the game.
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A random thing to throw in the pot but there were a number of new faces in my part of the Lower Holte yesterday and fuck me were they a moaning bunch of bastards.
Everyone and everything was shit from start to end in their eyes.
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Aftab, we have just won two on the spin and we will more than likely win another two on the spin, so this means you have to really ramp up the hyperbole while you have the chance.
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The lack of fight and intensity was very worrying, Liverpool didn't really need to get out of second gear to beat us. Glad they didn't as our goal difference could have taken another hammering.
My first time in the Upper Trinity and hopefully last, tourist central, hence the size of the crowd but lack of any atmosphere.
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Aftab, we have just won two on the spin and we will more than likely win another two on the spin, so this means you have to really ramp up the hyperbole while you have the chance.
In the relegation zone with 7 games to go. Stick that in your hyperbole.
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Yes sort of "get in" whilst you can as humble pie is cooking up nicely and hopefully will be waiting for some!
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Aftab, we have just won two on the spin and we will more than likely win another two on the spin, so this means you have to really ramp up the hyperbole while you have the chance.
In the relegation zone with 7 games to go. Stick that in your hyperbole.
Yes that is correct 7 to go not 1 or zero.
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1 win in 15 years spanning 42 home games v Utd, Pool and Arse
That's truly abysmal .
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Yes sort of "get in" whilst you can as humble pie is cooking up nicely and hopefully will be waiting for some!
Humble pie? Even if we avoid relegation it has been a horrendous awful season and certainly I don't think humble pie will be the order of the day - I'd be hoping people look at the season and question how the hell did things go so badly and make sure not to happen again than be celebrating wildly should we stay up
This is aston villa not wigan !
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We have Man United coming up. Time to flex those worst ever muscles ah?
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We have Man United coming up. Time to flex those worst ever muscles ah?
Yes because I absolutely love seeing the Villa in the relegation zone.
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1 win in 15 years spanning 42 home games v Utd, Pool and Arse
That's truly abysmal .
Which is why when people ask you who you support the response is normally "Villa? - meh"
Not competing with the above is bad enough but when you struggle to beat the likes of Wigan and Southampton you realise that we are now merely a "club steeped in history" - Proud History Glum Future
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Lowton and Bennett are decent on the ball but both are fairly desperate defenders. The effort Lowton made to play offside for Coutinho's chance, you really shouldn't see at youth level. Thought Lambert should have pushed one of them into midfield and brought on Lichaj when Sylla went off. El Ahmadi was a waste of a sub and we had 4 players occupying the centre from then on.
The likes of Gary Neville will have a field day at how poor the defensive positioning of our midfielders and centre halves was in the second half. The first goal was utterly farcical really. Westwood hadnt the pace to track Henderson but Coutinho was able to turn inside far too easy Vlaar first off. Vlaar was covering from a MIA Lowton and was 20m away from where he should have been. Baker didn't anticipate the danger and Guzan was too slow off his line. Coutinho's chance was a similar type play.
We conceded a load of chances against QPR and Reading too. Though this time around we didn't put away the chances we did create.
A top right sided centre half and holding midfielder would have us in the Europa League places imo. Failure to strengthen these two areas may well turn out to be our undoing.
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So who is that bloke who sits in The Lower Holte behing the goals with dyed hair usually no shirt but he had a shirt with Psycho on the back, always looks wasted
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Ad just to repeat, the singling out of bannan is way over the top. I'd still have played delph. But he made one really stupid error and otherwise passed the ball well.
I thought he was piss poor yesterday but i have to agree. He's become a bit of an easy target. N'Zogbia cost us £10m and has'nt done a great deal to justify us paying it but i don't see a 20 odd page thread on him.
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Ad just to repeat, the singling out of bannan is way over the top. I'd still have played delph. But he made one really stupid error and otherwise passed the ball well.
I thought he was piss poor yesterday but i have to agree. He's become a bit of an easy target. N'Zogbia cost us £10m and has'nt done a great deal to justify us paying it but i don't see a 20 odd page thread on him.
Very occasionally we get a decent performance out of N'Zogbia but I'm struggling to remember Bannan dishing up anything of note. Hate to say it but he's a complete waste of space.
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Ad just to repeat, the singling out of bannan is way over the top. I'd still have played delph. But he made one really stupid error and otherwise passed the ball well.
I thought he was piss poor yesterday but i have to agree. He's become a bit of an easy target. N'Zogbia cost us £10m and has'nt done a great deal to justify us paying it but i don't see a 20 odd page thread on him.
Very occasionally we get a decent performance out of N'Zogbia but I'm struggling to remember Bannan dishing up anything of note. Hate to say it but he's a complete waste of space.
Very occasionally for someone who cost £10m is not good enough.
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The one thought I cannot seem to shake off is why the fuck did Baker make that tackle?
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Ad just to repeat, the singling out of bannan is way over the top. I'd still have played delph. But he made one really stupid error and otherwise passed the ball well.
I thought he was piss poor yesterday but i have to agree. He's become a bit of an easy target. N'Zogbia cost us £10m and has'nt done a great deal to justify us paying it but i don't see a 20 odd page thread on him.
Very occasionally we get a decent performance out of N'Zogbia but I'm struggling to remember Bannan dishing up anything of note. Hate to say it but he's a complete waste of space.
Very occasionally for someone who cost £10m is not good enough.
Very true, but he's still better than Bannan (which isn't difficult I know).
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The one thought I cannot seem to shake off is why the fuck did Baker make that tackle?
It was naive in the extreme - utterly ridiculous and makes me wonder what the hell the defensive coaches work on during the week.
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The one thought I cannot seem to shake off is why the fuck did Baker make that tackle?
Rush of blood probably. He isn't and probably never will be Premier League class and it shows. Makes the decision not to strengthen the defence in January look even more bizarre.
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Ad just to repeat, the singling out of bannan is way over the top. I'd still have played delph. But he made one really stupid error and otherwise passed the ball well.
I thought he was piss poor yesterday but i have to agree. He's become a bit of an easy target. N'Zogbia cost us £10m and has'nt done a great deal to justify us paying it but i don't see a 20 odd page thread on him.
Very occasionally we get a decent performance out of N'Zogbia but I'm struggling to remember Bannan dishing up anything of note. Hate to say it but he's a complete waste of space.
Very occasionally for someone who cost £10m is not good enough.
Very true, but he's still better than Bannan (which isn't difficult I know).
Bannan wasnt good enough in the lower league on loan - he is nowhere near good enough to start in a premier league side.
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Its like the Nazcar Lines, nobody will ever know why Baker made the tackle he did.
The post and Steven Gerrards head apart, it was the only difference and alas the only one that matters.
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Bannan wasnt good enough in the lower league on loan - he is nowhere near good enough to start in a premier league side.
Agree, just cannot cut it. Makes the odd good pass and is tidy on the ball, but is too small and slow to make an impact on games. The general play passes him by and spends most matches chasing shadows.
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I think we needed Delph in there about twenty minutes before he came on. Bannan just isn't up to it for me either.
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Yes sort of "get in" whilst you can as humble pie is cooking up nicely and hopefully will be waiting for some!
Humble pie? Even if we avoid relegation it has been a horrendous awful season and certainly I don't think humble pie will be the order of the day - I'd be hoping people look at the season and question how the hell did things go so badly and make sure not to happen again than be celebrating wildly should we stay up
This is aston villa not wigan !
Absolutely, this season will end being either utter crap or utterly disasterous, with the only saving graces of 2 class forwards (who probably won't be with us much longer) and a class keeper!
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I think we needed Delph in there about twenty minutes before he came on. Bannan just isn't up to it for me either.
I think Delph needed to come on at half time. The fact that Sylla was'nt as good as he was in the previous two games did'nt help either.
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I think we needed Delph in there about twenty minutes before he came on. Bannan just isn't up to it for me either.
I think Delph needed to come on at half time. The fact that Sylla was'nt as good as he was in the previous two games did'nt help either.
Agreed , lambert should have brought Delph on at half time for bannan and many people were in agreement about that at half time.
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To sum up. Once again we looked a top half side ....for one half. Its happened for about the sixth time this season.
Forget Baker and forget Agbonlahors miss and forget Weimanns miss can someone explain why we appeared to give up?
Why was Agbonlahor(who had a fine first half) laughing after his miss, that didnt add up in any way.
It will be a struggle to stay up but despite Lambert saying positive things about everybody and everything which doesnt ring true I think we will just make it by possibly one point.
Lamberts coaching staff (mates) do not appear to be having an effect on the players in any way.
Lambert himself like (Martin O'Neill) may not be good enough for a historic club like Aston Villa.
and yes the Liverpool supporters and their manager were very good in acknowledging the 19th minutes applause for our captain.
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To sum up. Once again we looked a top half side ....for one half. Its happened for about the sixth time this season.
Forget Baker and forget Agbonlahors miss and forget Weimanns miss can someone explain why we appeared to give up?
Why was Agbonlahor(who had a fine first half) laughing after his miss, that didnt add up in any way.
It will be a struggle to stay up but despite Lambert saying positive things about everybody and everything which doesnt ring true I think we will just make it by possibly one point.
Lamberts coaching staff (mates) do not appear to be having an effect on the players in any way.
Lambert himself like (Martin O'Neill) may not be good enough for a historic club like Aston Villa.
and yes the Liverpool supporters and their manager were very good in acknowledging the 19th minutes applause for our captain.
Agreed , I found it strange agbonlahor laughing like that after his miss - it wasnt funny it was embarrassing !
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I can understand Bannan's inclusion because him, Westwood and Sylla were the midfield in the last two games that were won, but I'm pretty confident he won't start the next match.
I can understand Bannan's inclusion because him, Westwood and Sylla were the midfield in the last two games that were won, but I'm pretty confident he won't start the next match.
Good comment and maybve some people need to be realistic, Bannan fucked up massively with great pass to Suarez but he werent crap IMHO and I am not a fan.
You might get away with playing Bannan against a championship side like Reading but not against Liverpool.
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I can understand Bannan's inclusion because him, Westwood and Sylla were the midfield in the last two games that were won, but I'm pretty confident he won't start the next match.
I can understand Bannan's inclusion because him, Westwood and Sylla were the midfield in the last two games that were won, but I'm pretty confident he won't start the next match.
Good comment and maybve some people need to be realistic, Bannan fucked up massively with great pass to Suarez but he werent crap IMHO and I am not a fan.
You might get away with playing Bannan against a championship side like Reading but not against Liverpool.
I thought a similar thing about Sylla. He was great against Reading and did ok againt QPR. Yesterday was probably the best midfield he's played against in his career and it showed.
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I think we needed Delph in there about twenty minutes before he came on. Bannan just isn't up to it for me either.
I think Delph needed to come on at half time. The fact that Sylla was'nt as good as he was in the previous two games did'nt help either.
exactly HT . You could see Liverpool was getting on top and was going to score , we needed to hold on for the next 15 minutes buy hey , those Lambert team talks are great
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I think we needed Delph in there about twenty minutes before he came on. Bannan just isn't up to it for me either.
I think Delph needed to come on at half time. The fact that Sylla was'nt as good as he was in the previous two games did'nt help either.
exactly HT . You could see Liverpool was getting on top and was going to score , we needed to hold on for the next 15 minutes buy hey , those Lambert team talks are great
Not to mention the timely substitutions when things clearly aren't working. Bringing on KEA yesterday was truly an inspired idea......
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I can understand Bannan's inclusion because him, Westwood and Sylla were the midfield in the last two games that were won, but I'm pretty confident he won't start the next match.
I can understand Bannan's inclusion because him, Westwood and Sylla were the midfield in the last two games that were won, but I'm pretty confident he won't start the next match.
Good comment and maybve some people need to be realistic, Bannan fucked up massively with great pass to Suarez but he werent crap IMHO and I am not a fan.
You might get away with playing Bannan against a championship side like Reading but not against Liverpool.
I thought a similar thing about Sylla. He was great against Reading and did ok againt QPR. Yesterday was probably the best midfield he's played against in his career and it showed.
The thing is you can improve Bannan with Delph ( he was excellent before he was suspended ) but sylla would have be replaced with KEA? and he is a poor player .
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The one thought I cannot seem to shake off is why the fuck did Baker make that tackle?
Baker has put in some very telling and precise interventions in the first half. This was the one he was going to get wrong. Just remember Suarez was the player who got better of him a player ranked in the top 2/3 of world class strikers.
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First time back in the lower Holte for a few seasons and i don't remember a weirder or muted atmosphere than that second half.It was like Silent Hill.
Did anyone feel the linesman was ,shall we say, a little too keen to help out pool for the last 10mins.One blatant call over the line not given and seeming instructing pool players to slow it down.
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I said earlier the atmospere was strange for a (nearly) full house. The scousers didn't add much.
Only gaps I could see were extreme wings of the Holte Lower - not sure how that would not look great?
I saw empty seats in the Trinity lower, not loads just here and there.
Shame you couldn't have been filling one of them yourself.
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Yes sort of "get in" whilst you can as humble pie is cooking up nicely and hopefully will be waiting for some!
Humble pie? Even if we avoid relegation it has been a horrendous awful season and certainly I don't think humble pie will be the order of the day - I'd be hoping people look at the season and question how the hell did things go so badly and make sure not to happen again than be celebrating wildly should we stay up
This is aston villa not wigan !
There are people who have set their stall on "we are shit and we are going get relegated to Blue Sq Premier" and I sometimes get the feeling that relegation will make them feel vindicated. The Club and Lambert are trying to do something good rather than resort to signing a few more mercenaries on inflated wages to patch up and stay in the Prem league. We are doing this season something we would have had to do when McLeish had us "relegated" in all but name.
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I said earlier the atmospere was strange for a (nearly) full house. The scousers didn't add much.
Only gaps I could see were extreme wings of the Holte Lower - not sure how that would not look great?
I saw empty seats in the Trinity lower, not loads just here and there.
Shame you couldn't have been filling one of them yourself.
We were 500 or so short of ground capacity. Obviously people watching streamed broadcast were offended by an empty seat here or there.
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First time back in the lower Holte for a few seasons and i don't remember a weirder or muted atmosphere than that second half.It was like Silent Hill.
Did anyone feel the linesman was ,shall we say, a little too keen to help out pool for the last 10mins.One blatant call over the line not given and seeming instructing pool players to slow it down.
I would like to hear from those watching on Sky about Reina's catch under the post and than step back not 1 but 2 over the line?
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The one thought I cannot seem to shake off is why the fuck did Baker make that tackle?
Baker has put in some very telling and precise interventions in the first half. This was the one he was going to get wrong. Just remember Suarez was the player who got better of him a player ranked in the top 2/3 of world class strikers.
I like Baker but he has a tendancy to dive in at this stage of his career. Hopefully with experience he'll modify this side of his game.
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The bloody Ref blew up on exactly 3 mins (added time) which included nearly a minute where there was a player down injured. You'd have thought he would have added it onto the time, but no he didn't bother.
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Yes sort of "get in" whilst you can as humble pie is cooking up nicely and hopefully will be waiting for some!
Humble pie? Even if we avoid relegation it has been a horrendous awful season and certainly I don't think humble pie will be the order of the day - I'd be hoping people look at the season and question how the hell did things go so badly and make sure not to happen again than be celebrating wildly should we stay up
This is aston villa not wigan !
There are people who have set their stall on "we are shit and we are going get relegated to Blue Sq Premier" and I sometimes get the feeling that relegation will make them feel vindicated. The Club and Lambert are trying to do something good rather than resort to signing a few more mercenaries on inflated wages to patch up and stay in the Prem league. We are doing this season something we would have had to do when McLeish had us "relegated" in all but name.
I haven't seen anybody intimate this in the slightest and in fact its an impossiblity but hey don't let that stop you!
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I can understand Bannan's inclusion because him, Westwood and Sylla were the midfield in the last two games that were won, but I'm pretty confident he won't start the next match.
I can understand Bannan's inclusion because him, Westwood and Sylla were the midfield in the last two games that were won, but I'm pretty confident he won't start the next match.
Good comment and maybve some people need to be realistic, Bannan fucked up massively with great pass to Suarez but he werent crap IMHO and I am not a fan.
You might get away with playing Bannan against a championship side like Reading but not against Liverpool.
Yes, thank fuck he didn't play at Anfield this season, we'd have been massacred.
What's that? Oh.
More seriously, it really frustrates me why people make 'black and white' statements that are unjustifiable. 'Baker will never make it'. 'You can't get away with Bannan against Liverpool'.The world is rarely that straightforward.
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I can understand Bannan's inclusion because him, Westwood and Sylla were the midfield in the last two games that were won, but I'm pretty confident he won't start the next match.
I can understand Bannan's inclusion because him, Westwood and Sylla were the midfield in the last two games that were won, but I'm pretty confident he won't start the next match.
Good comment and maybve some people need to be realistic, Bannan fucked up massively with great pass to Suarez but he werent crap IMHO and I am not a fan.
You might get away with playing Bannan against a championship side like Reading but not against Liverpool.
Yes, thank fuck he didn't play at Anfield this season, we'd have been massacred.
What's that? Oh.
More seriously, it really frustrates me why people make 'black and white' statements that are unjustifiable. 'Baker will never make it'. 'You can't get away with Bannan against Liverpool'.The world is rarely that straightforward.
Those black and white statements are just opinions that we're entitled to. If someone claims the likes of Baker and Bannan won't make the grade then I don't see what's wrong in saying it. Sometimes you have to trust your own judgement.
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Of course. And I don't think Bannan will be here in a couple of years, and Albrighton, Lichaj and Herd I don't think are good enough either.
But that's different from giving up on someone after 4-5 games (Benteke) or saying that because a 20 year old defender makes stupid mistakes now he's never going to be good enough to stop making them.
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Bannan and Westwood are the same player for me.Both good footballers, generally good passers, but both are young, and vulnerable to nervouseness.Both lack the physicality to get us out of this mess imho.
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Bannan and Westwood are the same player for me.Both good footballers, generally good passers, but both are young, and vulnerable to nervouseness.Both lack the physicality to get us out of this mess imho.
Bannan is 23 for gods sake! In footballing terms that is not young. His problem is that although he does have talent he does not have the ability to use it at speed like Zola could ,or the physical shape to hold off the well muscled boys that most top clubs use in midfield these days.
Not his fault thats just the way he was born. I suspect he will head north at the end of this season probably for 2mil or something like that.
Or to a Dutch club where he might do well with his technique.
Which means Lambert will no doubt play him against Stoke whose giants will be rubbing their hands with glee at the thought.
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1 The Centre backs are crap, Vlaar included.
2 Bannan is terrible. Im no Bannan hater but physically he's appalling and technically crap too.
3 Benteke is our best out and out centre forward of the last 20 years for me. Imagine him with Yorke up front.
4 Sylla is scared to pass the ball forward more than 5 yards.
5 There is too much pointing at players making runs and not enough following them
6 The players don't take the game by the scuff of its neck, loads of indecisive half hearted attempts at tackles and passes. No one saying give me the fucking ball.
Sylla does what he's been asked to do, press the opposition and keep the tempo going I think he's done very well.
What tempo is that? 2 yard passes backwards and sideways contributes nothing 99% of the time. He doesn't add any protection to our donkey back 4 either.
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... No one saying give me the fucking ball.
One of BB's problems is that he demands the ball too much, sometimes in places where he does not have the physciality or speed of thought and action to avoid opposition attention.
Several times this season he has demanded and rceived the ball from the back five in places that are just not sensible.
He's either too keen or has an inflated opinon of his ability to get out of tight situations; probably a bit of both.
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The bloody Ref blew up on exactly 3 mins (added time) which included nearly a minute where there was a player down injured. You'd have thought he would have added it onto the time, but no he didn't bother.
Stevie didn't ask for it.
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The bloody Ref blew up on exactly 3 mins (added time) which included nearly a minute where there was a player down injured. You'd have thought he would have added it onto the time, but no he didn't bother.
Stevie didn't ask for it.
And then the time before he finds 5 minutes from nowhere and plays nearly 6
Wheres that conspiracy thread
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... No one saying give me the fucking ball.
One of BB's problems is that he demands the ball too much, sometimes in places where he does not have the physciality or speed of thought and action to avoid opposition attention.
Several times this season he has demanded and rceived the ball from the back five in places that are just not sensible.
He's either too keen or has an inflated opinon of his ability to get out of tight situations; probably a bit of both.
Maybe so but his biggest problem Is he isn't very good! ( and thats being far more polite than I would like)
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10 pts from the last 21, another 10 from the next 21 should be enough.....and then a huge car boot sale to clear out the wasters.
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The bloody Ref blew up on exactly 3 mins (added time) which included nearly a minute where there was a player down injured. You'd have thought he would have added it onto the time, but no he didn't bother.
I noticed that too, especially as the week before the Ref played nearly a minute extra for similar reasons (when QPR nearly scored).
That's 'The Mighty Reds YNWA' games for you.
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A random thing to throw in the pot but there were a number of new faces in my part of the Lower Holte yesterday and fuck me were they a moaning bunch of bastards.
Everyone and everything was shit from start to end in their eyes.
They will be first in the queue if we get to a Final. Funny have these people cluster together or is there one main arsehole and the rest join in like sheep?