Heroes & Villains, the Aston Villa fanzine
Heroes & Villains => Match Threads & Player Ratings => Topic started by: Risso on October 04, 2014, 07:27:56 PM
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Might as well start one I suppose
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Totally depressing. I can only applaud those who go week in and week out because they really don't get much back for their effort or hard spent cash. I thought Sky were virtually willing City to score and they got what they wanted. 4-5 teams with super cash and the rest of us are just teams they have to play and beat. Totally totally fed up with it all. I could go on about our inadequacies, our pathetic home record and style of play but it still doesn't help when you have to face a team made up of 1-2 that cost more than your whole team.
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As expected. Apart from 15 minutes we had zero attacking threat.
We defended wellish, but if truth be told it was more their wastefulness that kept the score down.
I get, and largely agree with the points people make about strength of the opposition, but only 1 shot on target at home is not acceptable against anyone really.
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Without money thrown at us, we are going to stay an irrelevance.
That is the shitness of modern football for you. The only thing that can save us is cash and even that is limited in terms of what it can do now
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Totally depressing. I can only applaud those who go week in and week out because they really don't get much back for their effort or hard spent cash. I thought Sky were virtually willing City to score and they got what they wanted. 4-5 teams with super cash and the rest of us are just teams they have to play and beat. Totally totally fed up with it all. I could go on about our inadequacies, our pathetic home record and style of play but it still doesn't help when you have to face a team made up of 1-2 that cost more than your whole team.
Agree wholeheartedly with you.
Its all totally wank.
What really is the f in point
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Totally depressing. I can only applaud those who go week in and week out because they really don't get much back for their effort or hard spent cash. I thought Sky were virtually willing City to score and they got what they wanted. 4-5 teams with super cash and the rest of us are just teams they have to play and beat. Totally totally fed up with it all. I could go on about our inadequacies, our pathetic home record and style of play but it still doesn't help when you have to face a team made up of 1-2 that cost more than your whole team.
Sums it perfectly. It's hardly worth watching football any more to be honest. I too can only applaud those that go and spend money watching that as I certainly couldn't and won't be for a very long time to come
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Last week I worked out that our starting 11 cost £14m while Chelseas cost £190m.
It's probably a similar story today although I imagine City's side cost more.
If we found ourselves in the Champions League we would do well to win 1 game in 4. That's effectively what's happened over the last few weeks.
Get Benteke back and play some teams we can compete with and we'll be fine. All a bit pointless though when the teams at the top are so far away you know all you can do is stay in the league.
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Remember Paulie when Sky told us 'it's a whole new ball game.' They weren't kidding were they?
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Predictable and depressing
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On the evidence we'll struggle like last year. Desperately need something from goodison. A clean sheet and point would be a start
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Disappointed I thought we could hold on but there class told in the end.
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Credit to those who go to the games but I really struggle to see the point of paying to watch the skywankfest5 . Last 3 games would have cost what £135 in ticket prices plus all the other expenses so near on £200 to watch us make up the numbers? I don't buy into the sky vision / dream.
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Totally depressing. I can only applaud those who go week in and week out because they really don't get much back for their effort or hard spent cash. I thought Sky were virtually willing City to score and they got what they wanted. 4-5 teams with super cash and the rest of us are just teams they have to play and beat. Totally totally fed up with it all. I could go on about our inadequacies, our pathetic home record and style of play but it still doesn't help when you have to face a team made up of 1-2 that cost more than your whole team.
Sums it perfectly. It's hardly worth watching football any more to be honest. I too can only applaud those that go and spend money watching that as I certainly couldn't and won't be for a very long time to come
Its not just the bigger teams that turn us over at home though - its most of them. We beat City and Chelsea last season but lose to the likes of Palace, Stoke, Spurs, Newcastle, Everton, Fulham.... add to that the Sheff Utds, Leyton Orients of this world. Lambert cant even get us to beat any of them.
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Not sure the midfield 3 is the right balance, not sure Cleverley is worth £8m, would bring in Sanchez because i think we need his strength and power.
CBs back, and the defence was ok, apart from that i didn't expect too much.
Disappointing that we are where we are, but N'Zog and Bent, with the money they are on, should be better than what they are providing.
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What was the point of making that double substitution late on? Grealish may well turn out to be a decent player in time but feck me he's hardly gonna shine against the champions. He did exactly what I thought he'd do which was run around like a lost kid.
For 20 mins in the second half I thought we'd get something out of the game but we soon reverted to type. The only plus points were seeing Benteke back in a Villa shirt and the fact we've got that run of games out of the way.
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Everton away is a game I'd class in the same vein as the four that have gone before.
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Another home defeat,another home game without scoring, another game without a shot on goal to speak of, god it is so depressing watching Villa under this clueless idiot of a manager. We have failed to score in four of the five home games and still he plays his negative style of football
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Sorry but I thought in the circumstances we did well and an improvement on last year. Still missing the creativity in the middle but can't fault the boys for effort. Pluses were Benteke got half an hour, baker and senderos did well, Delph looked good in spells.
Footballs changed and not for the good. I'm afraid we just make up the numbers. Pretty shit I know but the way it is.
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It was like watching the romance of the FA Cup, giant against minnow. Minnow puts up battling performance but succumbs in the end.
Heads held high at full time. Depressing.
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3 straight defeats and no goals , virtually no shots on target. Anyone who thinks Everton away and spurs home are easy games are so wrong. I think we're looking at 2 more defeats and hoping Lambert gets the push then .
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Everton away is a game I'd class in the same vein as the four that have gone before.
Everton were often superb last season. I think they're starting to warm up too. I'd fully expect them to dominate the game and for us to show all too little attacking intent. And we really should attack them because they've been poor defensively this season but I just don't see Lambert having the sense to identify that weakness and try to exploit it. We could have got at Arsenal if we'd wanted but didn't.
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He's not going to get the sack.
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It was like watching the romance of the FA Cup, giant against minnow. Minnow puts up battling performance but succumbs in the end.
Heads held high at full time. Depressing.
That Gabby hattrick against City feels a lifetime ago.
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And the Darren Bent 1-0 3-4 seasons ago. We went for it that game too, it wasn't a backs to the wall job if I remember rightly.
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We did ok for 75 mins. But we looked tired last 10 mins. Double sub seemed to kill our momentum. If Zog could provide an end product it may have been a different story. Played some nice stuff at times and Baker was good.
Great seeing Benteke back. Not so much city fans in the UT.
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Stan is doing us proud on TS .
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Everton away is a game I'd class in the same vein as the four that have gone before.
Wet spam away won't be a walk in the park either.
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We did ok for 82 minutes then Delph gave Toure far too much room to pick his spot (where the hell Delph was going is anyone's guess) and Senderos did likewise with Arguero. You can't give world class players that much space on the edge of the box. But I guess they were knackered.
Our lack of creativity/adventure is a concern. I am starting to think our assistant manager is one A. McLeish in a Roy Keane mask. It may as well be.
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At least Lampard didn't score
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Everton away is a game I'd class in the same vein as the four that have gone before.
Wet spam away won't be a walk in the park either.
QPR is a must win. Monday night game which isn't always good for us.
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3 straight defeats and no goals , virtually no shots on target. Anyone who thinks Everton away and spurs home are easy games are so wrong. I think we're looking at 2 more defeats and hoping Lambert gets the push then .
After being awarded a new contract? Dream on. Another masterstroke by lerner
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3 straight defeats and no goals , virtually no shots on target. Anyone who thinks Everton away and spurs home are easy games are so wrong. I think we're looking at 2 more defeats and hoping Lambert gets the push then .
After being awarded a new contract? Dream on. Another masterstroke by lerner
Four more years of this.
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Collymore? Jesus wept. He must be putting in more effort than when he was actually playing for us. Wanker.
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We haven't scored in about 6 continuous hours of football .
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We battled away with plenty of endeavour and little or no creative spark.
Benteke's return was a plus and we were only 8 minutes away from getting a very unexpected point
However football is not about teams like us any more it's all about City, Chelski, Arsenal etc - we're just there to make up the numbers and to act as fodder for them when the Sky cameras roll into town; a role we seem only too willing to embrace
Right that's me depressed; time for a drink!
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Our home form is so incredibly poor. This is a big factor why I hardly go to VP even if I can get a cheap ticket like for today, what's the point your chances of seeing a win is something like one in five or six.
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I thought we played ok, we did tire at the end but I wonder how much the after effects of the virus had on stamina.
My main gripe was the amount of misplaced balls, they might not be world class but they should be able to pass to each other on a consistent basis.
As others have said, we now just make up the numbers. Sad but its just the inevitable effect the Sky money has had the game.
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We haven't scored in about 6 continuous hours of football .
4.5 hrs.
Oh you're counting the rest of the 'The Mighty Reds YNWA' game too, I see
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The Premier League is 4 or 5 teams. Then there is the Championship-Plus league below it which we are in.
It is depressing but we need to focus on competing with other teams like us.
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As long as people subscribe to Sky this will continue. Oh' it's my right, init. Put roller skates on your knuckles to make walking easier. Me, I've had enough - go to hell Premiership.
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I thought the back 4 played really well but the ball kept coming back to them within every second breath. It's amazing they held out for so long.
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He's not going to get the sack.
If we score a goal in the next two games he'll probably get 3 more years extended on his contract
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We haven't scored in about 6 continuous hours of football .
4.5 hrs.
Oh you're counting the rest of the 'The Mighty Reds YNWA' game too, I see
Yeah didn't gabby score in the opening minutes ?
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I'm as unhappy as the next man but I think some need a reality check, losing Gabby was a blow before the game but this team cost a fucking fortune.
We aren't anywhere near as good as they are! I'm just pissed off we haven't seen a goal since Liverpool. Think we should judge the team after playing the rest rather than judging us against the champions
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Apart from Weiman who looked totally out of his depth we did ok for about 60 minutes.
We ran out of steam and it was inevitable they would score, I will take that performance over the surrender at The Bridge last week.
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We did ok for 75 mins. But we looked tired last 10 mins. Double sub seemed to kill our momentum. If Zog could provide an end product it may have been a different story. Played some nice stuff at times and Baker was good.
Great seeing Benteke back. Not so much city fans in the UT.
City really area classless bunch of ******
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We have played the sides who, in my opinion, will finish 3rd, 1st and 2nd, all of which spent in the summer the equivolent of a third world country's GDP, all of which will win 20 plus games. Trust us to get all three of them back to back.
I thought we competed really well right up until their goal and it took a couple of good finishes to undo us. I hate losing, but it's a sad fact that you go to these games where a point becomes a bonus. Bought and sold for Sky gold and all that and the wonders of Misnomer League football.
Got to take your chances against these sides and we didn't. I thought Delph looked impressive on the ball and we generally looked pretty solid. Benteke is short of match fitness, but the way he brought the ball down on his chest and got a few flicks off really gives me heart.
N'Zogbia did ok, lacks end product, while I wouldn't have brought Grealish on. Richardson might have been indifferent going forward, but I think you need experience at times.
Looking forward to playing the normals again. Everton and Spurs might have good players and be decent sides, but Christ, at least you're in with a chance of beating them.
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At the end of the day, we have been beaten by 3 sides that are so far ahead of us it is frightening, they all played well against us and it went on ability.
Still happy with our points return given the opposition and that more crucially we have done it without our captain and main goal threat....Gabby not playing today also hurt any slim chance we had.
Looking forward to a two week break to get the boys fit and I'm off to Everton.
UTV
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We haven't scored in about 6 continuous hours of football .
4.5 hrs.
Oh you're counting the rest of the 'The Mighty Reds YNWA' game too, I see
Yeah didn't gabby score in the opening minutes ?
To count the outstanding minutes of a game won, to be part of your statistical "argument" has cheered me up. Thanks for that.
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Barely a shot, no corners, no free kicks earned, in dangerous positions!
God, we really are piss,piss poor when we play out with the big boys.
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We had a few decent chances to score but we made the wrong decisions with our sloppy passing. I don't buy all this sky 4 BS.
We bring everybody back to defend which allows all their players to attack so basically they'll score eventually, we need a new system because playing this way isn't working and never will.
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we looked pretty good for 20 mins then their manager did the sub and put a stop to it and then we waited until they scored . no suprises really.
bonus CB got some time
weimann is out of his depth
modern football is shite. I have claret and blue blood but Im getting bored with the sky prem and could easily turn off to it all.
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I don't think having all the players back to defend a corner is what undoes us, and most other sides in the league.
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Plucky underdogs lose against side form different league shocker.
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Great atmosphere and great to see Benteke back. We did pretty well in patches for the first hour or so but the longer the game went on the more we were pinned back to our 18 yard line and the first goal had been coming for about 15 minutes. Can't complain about the result - they hit the post twice and Guzan was pretty busy throughout. I can't recall Hart having to make a single save. Depressingly predictable. Have to say I thought Silva was brilliant and if I was a neutral it would have been a joy to watch him play
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Lambert will NEVER change his narrow system. He won the European Cup playing it. Without quality players to play it. Hutton will provide our width for evermore. Woe.
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City's shooting is shocking, Guzan only made one decent save. Same as last year really.
It was a demonstration of why 17:30 kick offs can be dicy. I don't think I would be stretching things to suggest that alcohol had a large part to play when it kicked off in the North. They need to put something in place to stop away fans from running on the gangway.
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Looking forward to playing the normals again. Everton and Spurs might have good players and be decent sides, but Christ, at least you're in with a chance of beating them.
We've beat Everton away 3 times in 15 years. I would say there's a chance of a point, beating them is unlikely.
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They've beat us about three times up there in twenty years, so historically, a draw is on the cards. They've been utter toss so far and I fancy us to go and win.
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And the Darren Bent 1-0 3-4 seasons ago. We went for it that game too, it wasn't a backs to the wall job if I remember rightly.
Nah it was similar to tonight.
I was pretty confident we'd get a 0-0 out of that which would've been excellent but what can you do when a world class player decides to finally turn up this season and win the game for them?
Thought the defence was back at it tonight so hopefully with more manageable opposition over the next month we can nick a clean sheet or two.
I do think we've been unlucky to follow a superb win at Liverpool with the three fixtures we've had, after beating Spurs away, WBA had Burnley at home to continue the momentum. West Ham beat Liverpool two weeks ago, were arguably unlucky at Old Trafford and have QPR at home tomorrow to get another win. It would've been good to have played that sort of team inbetween this trio to try to at least maintain momentum.
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Well that's the difficult games over. Let's get back to attacking football now. I seem to remember we played some this season.
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Looking forward to playing the normals again. Everton and Spurs might have good players and be decent sides, but Christ, at least you're in with a chance of beating them.
We've beat Everton away 3 times in 15 years. I would say there's a chance of a point, beating them is unlikely.
You could always look at the positive that we've left there with at least a point 8 of the last 10 league games.
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Our home form is so incredibly poor. This is a big factor why I hardly go to VP even if I can get a cheap ticket like for today, what's the point your chances of seeing a win is something like one in five or six.
Looks like nothing's changed really. 4 home games, 3 games we've not scored in (nor really looked like scoring when you consider we couldn't even manage a shot v Newcastle), does anyone really expect that to significantly improve over the season even when we play weaker teams?
In a way I'm glad 3 of our next 4 games are away from home. Not easy fixtures but already this season we've won two away games so think it will be another season where we're better on the road than at home.
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Did OK for the first hour or so but once they shored up the middle in the 2nd half it was one way traffic. The fact that we concede possession, and are also prepared to do so against nearly everyone, let alone the champions, means we have to run a lot more to chase, so players necessarily need to be fitter. We can't use the 'dead on their feet' line either as we play fewer matches than anyone else.
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I think the home form will improve. We won't play sides as bad as Hull everything, but by the same token we won't keep playing the likes of Arsenal or Man City.
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I think the home form will improve. We won't play sides as bad as Hull everything, but by the same token we won't keep playing the likes of Arsenal or Man City.
Already to get to just 10 home wins we need to win 9 out of 15, 14 if you factor in the annual Man. United testimonial.
It's a big ask for a Lambert counter attacking team.
I would like to think at least we won't lose as many as last season but looks like another struggle to see many goals.
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One frustration today was how often we had the opportunity to put it in a cross when we had players in the box and didn't.
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Lambert took off the one player who had looked anything like scoring ( Zog) and at the same time took off Richardson who was doing a steady job on the left,then City did exactly what Leyton fucking Orient did and scored later in the game.This recurring theme of getting beat at home helped by our manager's tactics is very frustrating.I don't agree that we should accept defeat because it's one of the Sky 5,I didn't think City were that great ,yes Toure is class Nd basically win it for them,but our negative tactics helped them,Lambert worries the shit out of me.
A word on the most classless and obnoxious bunch of fans who were not heard at all till they scored,the only fans who piss me off more with their arrogance bear the name of the same city,what a horrible bunch.
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Nobody is accepting or enjoying defeat, it's just not all that surprising to lose at home to Man City.
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I think the home form will improve. We won't play sides as bad as Hull everything, but by the same token we won't keep playing the likes of Arsenal or Man City.
Already to get to just 10 home wins we need to win 9 out of 15, 14 if you factor in the annual Man. United testimonial.
It's a big ask for a Lambert counter attacking team.
I would like to think at least we won't lose as many as last season but looks like another struggle to see many goals.
It's a big ask of any Villa manager to win 10 home league games as we rarely do it. Something like 3 times in the last 15 years.
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I think there have been signs in the last few games that we have more in midfield than last season and we do look more solid at the back. The goals will come against teams where we can open up a bit.
I think we'll be alright this year.
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I think so too Django and having Benteke up front to hold it up will help massively.
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Sorry but I thought in the circumstances we did well and an improvement on last year. Still missing the creativity in the middle but can't fault the boys for effort. Pluses were Benteke got half an hour, baker and senderos did well, Delph looked good in spells.
Footballs changed and not for the good. I'm afraid we just make up the numbers. Pretty shit I know but the way it is.
An improvement on last year? ???
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Sat in the Lower Holte for the first time in 5 years and enjoyed chatting with the folks in L4 immensely. They seemed to think it was "mad" in the Upper Holte. Occasionally.
First half was fair for us and Baker's tackle a highlight.
Second half thought we were alright-ish but you could see City upping the gears.
The substitutions seemed to kill any real forward play we had in the game and the Guzan > Beneteke axis re-appeared after 6 months.
Thought we were on for a point but you could see the first goal coming as soon as YYT took his second touch and shaped to shoot.
Don't feel as bad as I thought I would...
When do we play someone who is shit?
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Our home form is so incredibly poor. This is a big factor why I hardly go to VP even if I can get a cheap ticket like for today, what's the point your chances of seeing a win is something like one in five or six.
Looks like nothing's changed really. 4 home games, 3 games we've not scored in (nor really looked like scoring when you consider we couldn't even manage a shot v Newcastle), does anyone really expect that to significantly improve over the season even when we play weaker teams?
I agree, pretty much.
We hardly manage a shot on goal, we pretty much never boss the possession, and we seem to have every fault of the last season bar - possibly - the worst of the defending.
I am not basing that on games against Man City and Arsenal, but on the previous games. We seem to be no better at keeping hold of the ball than we have been for a long time now. It is horrible to watch.
Sure, we'll continue to have matches like Liverpool away every now and then, but to me, barring being tighter at the back, I don't see much change at all.
Yes, Benteke being back will help us, but I do not expect him to contribute much to us passing or keeping the ball better. He played in plenty of matches for us last year when we failed to do both, and in many ways, he made things worse as we ended up lumping hopeful long balls at him.
Sorry, I know it sounds miserable, but I really don't see - beyond the defence - much of an improvement at all so far.
I appreciate we took four points from these two matches, but against Newcastle, as you said, we barely managed a shot and they had 60% possession. Against Hull, we hung on to win, but yet again, not many actual shots on target, and they had 55% possession.
No wonder the crowds are so poor, this is yet another season of not being able to keep hold of the ball with any regularity - near the bottom of all the stats re passes completed, possession, shots, shots on target etc.
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Lambert took off the one player who had looked anything like scoring ( Zog) and at the same time took off Richardson who was doing a steady job on the left,then City did exactly what Leyton fucking Orient did and scored later in the game.This recurring theme of getting beat at home helped by our manager's tactics is very frustrating.I don't agree that we should accept defeat because it's one of the Sky 5,I didn't think City were that great ,yes Toure is class Nd basically win it for them,but our negative tactics helped them,Lambert worries the shit out of me.
A word on the most classless and obnoxious bunch of fans who were not heard at all till they scored,the only fans who piss me off more with their arrogance bear the name of the same city,what a horrible bunch.
Touré was having a nightmare game until he scored. He's been pretty poor so far this season, good job we were on hand to give him the lift he needed.
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Sorry, I know it sounds miserable, but I really don't see - beyond the defence - much of an improvement at all so far.
You're not miserable Paulie - that is just the truth - we have a slightly improved (more solid) midfield and defence - it's a mere statement of fact.
There is no new forward or wide player/s so we go again...
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Lambert took off the one player who had looked anything like scoring ( Zog) and at the same time took off Richardson who was doing a steady job on the left,then City did exactly what Leyton fucking Orient did and scored later in the game.This recurring theme of getting beat at home helped by our manager's tactics is very frustrating.I don't agree that we should accept defeat because it's one of the Sky 5,I didn't think City were that great ,yes Toure is class Nd basically win it for them,but our negative tactics helped them,Lambert worries the shit out of me.
A word on the most classless and obnoxious bunch of fans who were not heard at all till they scored,the only fans who piss me off more with their arrogance bear the name of the same city,what a horrible bunch.
Touré was having a nightmare game until he scored. He's been pretty poor so far this season, good job we were on hand to give him the lift he needed.
Wish a few of our midfield could have a nightmare like that - the bugger hardly broke a sweat!
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I think the home form will improve. We won't play sides as bad as Hull everything, but by the same token we won't keep playing the likes of Arsenal or Man City.
Yes, Hull, who we ended up hanging on to three points against, and who still managed to see far more of the ball than we did. That's what worries me. I can live with losing to Arsenal and Man City, they're much, much better than us, it is as simple as that.
The problem is that we pretty much never manage to impose ourselves against the shit teams, either, and we haven't for several seasons now.
When does that improve?
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We have 7 points out of 9 against the 'shit' teams so far. We must be doing something right somewhere.
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I thought we were ok (albeit I have low expectations)
I'm not gonna read the rest of this thread tho given the sombre mood!
I thought n'zogbia wasn't brilliant but gives us the creative threat none of our other forwards do. I'd play him at Everton
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I think the home form will improve. We won't play sides as bad as Hull everything, but by the same token we won't keep playing the likes of Arsenal or Man City.
Yes, Hull, who we ended up hanging on to three points against, and who still managed to see far more of the ball than we did. That's what worries me. I can live with losing to Arsenal and Man City, they're much, much better than us, it is as simple as that.
The problem is that we pretty much never manage to impose ourselves against the shit teams, either, and we haven't for several seasons now.
When does that improve?
When Lambert resigns or gets sacked.
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I think the home form will improve. We won't play sides as bad as Hull everything, but by the same token we won't keep playing the likes of Arsenal or Man City.
Yes, Hull, who we ended up hanging on to three points against, and who still managed to see far more of the ball than we did. That's what worries me. I can live with losing to Arsenal and Man City, they're much, much better than us, it is as simple as that.
The problem is that we pretty much never manage to impose ourselves against the shit teams, either, and we haven't for several seasons now.
When does that improve?
So 2018 then.
When Lambert resigns or gets sacked.
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I thought we were ok (albeit I have low expectations)
I'm not gonna read the rest of this thread tho given the sombre mood!
I thought n'zogbia wasn't brilliant but gives us the creative threat none of our other forwards do. I'd play him at Everton
Creativity with no end product. I'd play him too though anyone but Bacuna.
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I don't think we hung on against Hull at all. I thought we looked completely comfortable that whole game.
I was more worried against Newcastle.
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Some of you wouldn't go if Randy laid on a limo with Spearmint Rhino girls either side of you. You would rather be on here are just being habitual whingers.
The atmosphere in the Holte was immense today, that's the reason supporters go down, our club needs support.
We beat Man City last season, we could have pulled it off again, we didn't.
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I think the home form will improve. We won't play sides as bad as Hull everything, but by the same token we won't keep playing the likes of Arsenal or Man City.
Yes, Hull, who we ended up hanging on to three points against, and who still managed to see far more of the ball than we did. That's what worries me. I can live with losing to Arsenal and Man City, they're much, much better than us, it is as simple as that.
The problem is that we pretty much never manage to impose ourselves against the shit teams, either, and we haven't for several seasons now.
When does that improve?
When Lambert resigns or gets sacked.
So 2018 then.
Imagine watching his shite till 2018. I wonder what will be the highlight this season or have we already had it? I'm not bothered about the tesco bags results but I really want us to stuff manure.
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I thought we were ok (albeit I have low expectations)
I'm not gonna read the rest of this thread tho given the sombre mood!
I thought n'zogbia wasn't brilliant but gives us the creative threat none of our other forwards do. I'd play him at Everton
Creativity with no end product. I'd play him too though anyone but Bacuna.
A couple of times Zoggy wasn't helped by pisspoor movement around him. But at least he had some kind of spark about him.
Delph's our best player in midfield by a long way but his passing and end product are all too frequently dire. He tends to get a rush of blood when he just needs to keep his composure. He's so close to being a top player.
That said if his end product was better he'd have buggered off to a bigger club by now.
Bacuna is out of his depth to be honest. He can't defend and he's not comfortable on the ball. Good athlete, poor footballer. He might score a freekick or two and can finish a chance, but we need better. Much better.
Westwood and Cleverley did ok today but they're both too similar.
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We beat in 45 minutes and say back. It was as easier game as we will have all season.
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Losing yet another player in the warm up was a blow.
I know a lot of people prefer Weimann playing through the middle and maybe just he's the better man to be there if the ball's bobbling around the box as we saw at Stoke but Gabby can stretch and move around defences in a way Andi simplay can't for all his effort.
Gabby's absence was I think a blow in us actually attempting to cross the halfway line tonight with Benteke not ready to start.
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I'm not buying this "look at the run of fixtures" defence. These teams may have cost 10 times the value of ours but they are only human, and they aren't invincible. Leicester managed a draw at home to Arsenal, possibly because they gave them a bit more to think about than how to get past a parked bus. And Stoke beat Man City away, possibly because they tried to. Even Chelsea had to work a lot harder to beat Swansea and Leicester than they did against us, because the latter two tried and succeeded in getting some goals themselves. It's that sense of "beaten before you've started" and damage limitation that I can't stand. It's pure McLeish and I thought/hoped we'd seen the back of that.
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Don't get the negativity. We tried to play today against the champions. Hoof ball seems to have gone away and we even have 3 midfielders who look for the ball. Sure we lacked creativity, but please someone tell me how many teams will out play city this year...Chelsea maybe Arsenal.
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Losing yet another player in the warm up was a blow.
I know a lot of people prefer Weimann playing through the middle and maybe just he's the better man to be there if the ball's bobbling around the box as we saw at Stoke but Gabby can stretch and move around defences in a way Andi simplay can't for all his effort.
Gabby's absence was I think a blow in us actually attempting to cross the halfway line tonight with Benteke not ready to start.
I like Andi's work ethic but honestly he's becoming a figurehead for where we are at the moment. He's not good enough to be playing week in, week out at this level. A squaddie at best. I don't think he's got the technical ability required at this level, nor any outstanding attribute, whereas you can say Gabby has outstanding pace.
I'm hoping Benteke is fit and raring to go in a couple of weeks. We've missed him. Playing 2 up front seems to be coming back into fashion a little more these days, so I'd like to see that. Gabby up top with Benteke. Zog to play a free role in midfield, or we go with a diamond. In defence Gabby can drop back into midfield.
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Having one fit striker (that we know was effected by the virus 2 weeks ago) probably didn't help today. And before anyone mentions fat Daz, I did say fit!
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Having one fit striker (that we know was effected by the virus 2 weeks ago) probably didn't help today. And before anyone mentions fat Daz, I did say fit!
I'd love to see us turn up in two weeks with a streamlined looking Bent, because actually, he could have a field day playing with Benteke. At least the fit and buzzing Bent of 2-3 years ago could. He looks absolutely done in though and as if he can't even be arsed to try and turn his career around. Its a shame. He's only 30, he should still be banging in 15-20 goals a season.
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I'm not buying this "look at the run of fixtures" defence. These teams may have cost 10 times the value of ours but they are only human, and they aren't invincible. Leicester managed a draw at home to Arsenal, possibly because they gave them a bit more to think about than how to get past a parked bus. And Stoke beat Man City away, possibly because they tried to. Even Chelsea had to work a lot harder to beat Swansea and Leicester than they did against us, because the latter two tried and succeeded in getting some goals themselves. It's that sense of "beaten before you've started" and damage limitation that I can't stand. It's pure McLeish and I thought/hoped we'd seen the back of that.
Maybe the players had a rocket put up em following those results and reacted accordingly.
More inclined to believe that we were undone today by a lack of striker power but heartened by the team defence and grit.
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We beat in 45 minutes and say back. It was as easier game as we will have all season.
Assuming you're talking about Hull, that's not how I remember it. We looked like we were happy to see the final whistle.
But, even if you leave that to one side, here are some statistics from that game.
Pass success: Villa 76% Hull 86%
Possession: Villa 45% Hull 55%
Passes completed: Villa 342 Hull 463
Why is it that we never pass the ball more than the opposition? Why is it that we never seem to have more than 50% possession? We were playing at home to Hull. Yes, we won the game, but if you spend every match not having as much of the ball as your opponent, or failing to pass it properly, you are not going to achieve a great deal.
More stats, from the match against Newcastle.
Possession: Villa 40% Newcastle 60%
Pass success: Villa 77% Newcastle 83%
Shots on target: Villa 0 Newcastle 4.
Passes completed: Villa 266 Newcastle 439
It just looks as poor as last year and the year before that to me.
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Typically outclassed. Could have been 4 against easily. We had one chance wasted by Richardson. Seen Cleverley now play 4 (?) games and haven't seen anything to suggest he's a player that we should sign - even if it was a free transfer let alone £8m.
This was the first match in a very long time that I didn't attend when I could have. Watched in on TV - how sad. My 10 year old having seen virtually every home game for 6 years simply doesn't want to go to watch The Villa anymore and I cant blame him. I cant put forward a single argument to persuade him to go - can anybody help ?
Our home form is truly abysmal and doesn't look like improving. Is that 2 goals at home in 5 matches ? Wow -why are the attendances so high ?
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Having one fit striker (that we know was effected by the virus 2 weeks ago) probably didn't help today. And before anyone mentions fat Daz, I did say fit!
I'd love to see us turn up in two weeks with a streamlined looking Bent, because actually, he could have a field day playing with Benteke. At least the fit and buzzing Bent of 2-3 years ago could. He looks absolutely done in though and as if he can't even be arsed to try and turn his career around. Its a shame. He's only 30, he should still be banging in 15-20 goals a season.
Agreed. It makes me sad seeing him like this. I would love it if he could turn himself around.
Hutton reacted the right way to being bombed out, Darren has taken the easier path :(
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Why didn't we provide Benteke any support? We can't just sit back and gamble on world class players not being able to find a way through us.
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Having one fit striker (that we know was effected by the virus 2 weeks ago) probably didn't help today. And before anyone mentions fat Daz, I did say fit!
I'd love to see us turn up in two weeks with a streamlined looking Bent, because actually, he could have a field day playing with Benteke. At least the fit and buzzing Bent of 2-3 years ago could. He looks absolutely done in though and as if he can't even be arsed to try and turn his career around. Its a shame. He's only 30, he should still be banging in 15-20 goals a season.
Agreed. It makes me sad seeing him like this. I would love it if he could turn himself around.
Hutton reacted the right way to being bombed out, Darren has taken the easier path :(
Bent looks finished.
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Why didn't we provide Benteke any support? We can't just sit back and gamble on world class players not being able to find a way through us.
We'd probably had our best period of the game just before he came on. It was what bugged me more than anything actually, is that we brought on Benteke and then gave up trying to push forward. When we tried to pass it and push up to gain some forward territory we looked okay, without having any cutting edge or focal point in attack. To then finally bring on the one player we have who could offer us that, and then just fall back onto our own penalty box waiting for the inevitable was utterly pathetic.
We might as well not bother turning up if we do that.
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Countless times today we gave the ball away ending promising moves or positions and handing posession straight back to the likes if Silva,very frustrating.
One positive today was how well we got behind the team, it made we think just what it would be like if we were the team with the most posession ,shots on goal and even goals!
I haven't seen us score a goal at the Holte end so far this season.
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Lambert took off the one player who had looked anything like scoring ( Zog) and at the same time took off Richardson who was doing a steady job on the left,then City did exactly what Leyton fucking Orient did and scored later in the game.This recurring theme of getting beat at home helped by our manager's tactics is very frustrating.I don't agree that we should accept defeat because it's one of the Sky 5,I didn't think City were that great ,yes Toure is class Nd basically win it for them,but our negative tactics helped them,Lambert worries the shit out of me.
A word on the most classless and obnoxious bunch of fans who were not heard at all till they scored,the only fans who piss me off more with their arrogance bear the name of the same city,what a horrible bunch.
Touré was having a nightmare game until he scored. He's been pretty poor so far this season, good job we were on hand to give him the lift he needed.
Toure was having a nightmare until we decided to step back about 10 yards and give their midfield loads of time and space...after about 60 minutes. Until then I thought Tubby Yaya was a bit shit. Why do we insist on defending so deeply for so long in games? By letting the opposition come at us almost unchallenged until 25 yards out we are inviting them to play through us and have shots at will.
After about 81 minutes was actually thinking we'd get a point today!
Bollux!
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Ultimately, we were indecisive in attack.
Wouldn't shell out 7.5mil on cleverley.
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Having one fit striker (that we know was effected by the virus 2 weeks ago) probably didn't help today. And before anyone mentions fat Daz, I did say fit!
I'd love to see us turn up in two weeks with a streamlined looking Bent, because actually, he could have a field day playing with Benteke. At least the fit and buzzing Bent of 2-3 years ago could. He looks absolutely done in though and as if he can't even be arsed to try and turn his career around. Its a shame. He's only 30, he should still be banging in 15-20 goals a season.
Agreed. It makes me sad seeing him like this. I would love it if he could turn himself around.
Hutton reacted the right way to being bombed out, Darren has taken the easier path :(
Bent looks finished.
If the Villa was a documentary about a Zoo we'd be about coming up to a sad episode when the once mighty Bent beast is taken off in a van to a nearby veterinary surgeon, never to return.
If this were animal farm he'd be the horse getting carted off to the glue factory.
If this were secret eaters, we'd also know what happened to Grant Holt and why Bent suddenly looks a lot heavier.
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When that clearance at the end went into touch off of Zabaleta's (?) arm and it was given to ManCunty, I knew that was the end. Jammy gits get all the breaks.
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Cleverley just sat back and watched for their first goal, not good enough from him at all, that.
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At times it was like watching the Harlem Globetrotters dispatch a plucky, but inferior and ultimately irrelevant opponent. The thing is, you leave the house and pay money to watch the Harlem Globetrotters, and not the feckless, pointless opposition (which is who I paid to see). Altogether, a futile exercise and hugely depressing.
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Why didn't we provide Benteke any support? We can't just sit back and gamble on world class players not being able to find a way through us.
We'd probably had our best period of the game just before he came on. It was what bugged me more than anything actually, is that we brought on Benteke and then gave up trying to push forward. When we tried to pass it and push up to gain some forward territory we looked okay, without having any cutting edge or focal point in attack. To then finally bring on the one player we have who could offer us that, and then just fall back onto our own penalty box waiting for the inevitable was utterly pathetic.
We might as well not bother turning up if we do that.
Exactly.
We had them on the ropes at that point, the crowd was up for it, but then we just stopped trying. Frustrating.
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Just home from the game. I think the better team won. I think we played creditably for 75 minutes. We seemed to tire and they started to toy with us.
Things to remember about the game for me were Baker's continuing climb from whipping boy to solid central defender, Westwood also cementing his place in the side and continuing to improve. Cleverley remains too up his own arse and it results in serious losses of concentration. The substitutions apart from Benteke were typical Lambert changes for change's sake and did nothing to boost our chances. Charles N'Zogbia seems to be gripped with panic when a scoring chance falls to him. Grealish appears to have been massively overhyped and looked completely out of his depth at this level. We needed a Ron Vlaar or a properly functioning Sanchez to bite them when they started to take the piss in the last ten minutes.
Another home defeat and another long and silent drive home but I do believe that we will play worse than we did today and win games.
Oh yes and another thing I shall not forget is Foy looking at his watch at half time, putting his whistle to his lips but not blowing because City were in a very dangerous attacking position which once we cleared the ball he decided THEN it could be half time. Cheating bastard.
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The big change came when Fernando came on for them. Immediately both Lampard and Toure moved up and joined Aguerro. With Silva already playing almost upfront we were faced with a deluge of attacking onslaught. We helped by dropping back and Grealish and Bacuna became additional fullbacks leaving Benteke isolated in the centre circle. Totally relying on last ditch interventions and city being wasteful was not going to work so eventually something had to give.
The first crucial goal was shockingly well executed and rest is history.
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Why didn't we provide Benteke any support? We can't just sit back and gamble on world class players not being able to find a way through us.
We'd probably had our best period of the game just before he came on. It was what bugged me more than anything actually, is that we brought on Benteke and then gave up trying to push forward. When we tried to pass it and push up to gain some forward territory we looked okay, without having any cutting edge or focal point in attack. To then finally bring on the one player we have who could offer us that, and then just fall back onto our own penalty box waiting for the inevitable was utterly pathetic.
We might as well not bother turning up if we do that.
Exactly.
We had them on the ropes at that point, the crowd was up for it, but then we just stopped trying. Frustrating.
The game changed when they took Dzeko off and put Fernando on
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Brian - your analysis of the match is fair and I cant argue.
But - 2 home goals in 5 matches is not a cause for optimism. 4 years of shit home form and I'm losing the will to continue the blind faith i've had throughout for many many years. (Yes you could argue O'Neill at home was also shite).
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And Benteke coming on actually didn't help us as we no longer knew what to do!
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No shame in losing to Man City and recently Chelsea too.
Sounds like we tried to give them both a game. We lost.
Lets see what happens in the next few games. Go Go Go Villa
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Just had a look of the league table, even though we've lost three on the bounce we're still 7th.
O.k I know the league is rubbish apart from 6 or 7 teams but I think we'd have all signed up for that at 2.59pm on the day of the Stoke game so hopefully we can start getting points on the board again at Goodison.
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The game changed when they took Dzeko off and put Fernando on
That's true. It was a very good substitution by Pellegrini.
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Lky, I share your distress and quite honestly I am amazed that we got 33,000 to a game that was on television. It has been a shit four years and it is always three steps forward and two and three quarters steps back but there are some glimmers of hope.
I think the myth that we are for sale is on the point of being being binned, I think we do have a better defence, we have more experience and the overpaid divas and young-and-hungry deadwood are slowly but surely being exorcised from the club.
I am a Brummie so I am by nature a pessimist but things are getting a little bit better.
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Why didn't we provide Benteke any support? We can't just sit back and gamble on world class players not being able to find a way through us.
We'd probably had our best period of the game just before he came on. It was what bugged me more than anything actually, is that we brought on Benteke and then gave up trying to push forward. When we tried to pass it and push up to gain some forward territory we looked okay, without having any cutting edge or focal point in attack. To then finally bring on the one player we have who could offer us that, and then just fall back onto our own penalty box waiting for the inevitable was utterly pathetic.
We might as well not bother turning up if we do that.
Exactly.
We had them on the ropes at that point, the crowd was up for it, but then we just stopped trying. Frustrating.
I think we have to be realistic. We never had them on the ropes at any point, though we were on the ropes for huge periods of the match, and they could conceivably have scored four or five. We had a brief spell where we ventured out of our half for a bit in the second 45 but never troubled their goal significantly. We knew this would be the likely outcome before the match even started. It's highly likely to be the same next time we play them. It's the crushing inevitability of it that sticks in the craw.
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And Benteke coming on actually didn't help us as we no longer knew what to do!
The Tekkers substitution was a bit early for me but bringing on Grealish today was a bigger mistake. Richardson offers far more defensively and even though Villa had looked occasionally good on the break, today was a game that called for battening down the hatches and trying to hang on for a point.
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The sad thing is that our manager has accepted defeat before the team steps on the pitch before this and ALL games we play.
Are you telling me (an old bastard) that way back in 71 when we were in the league cup final on our way back from the dark days of division 3 that we charged up the leagues by playing negative football?
No
10 years later we were Champions - 11 years later European Champions. The reason no negative managers and the need to have an outlet. WIDTH.
Today we have a negative manager, narrow football. Shots on target says it all.
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No shame in losing to Man City and recently Chelsea too.
Sounds like we tried to give them both a game. We lost.
Lets see what happens in the next few games. Go Go Go Villa
This really. I mean there may have been faults in our performances over the last three games, but its not as if we didn't already know that we are miles behind Arsenal/City/Chelsea. Anything we get from those games was always going to be a bonus. We are still in a healthy position and if we finish mid-table that has to be viewed as a good season. Before the start I thought we may struggle again this year, and we still might, but there have been promising signs so far, so until there is any real reason to moan then lets stay positive.
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I think we have to be realistic. We never had them on the ropes at any point, though we were on the ropes for huge periods of the match, and they could conceivably have scored four or five. We had a brief spell where we ventured out of our half for a bit in the second 45 but never troubled their goal significantly. We knew this would be the likely outcome before the match even started. It's highly likely to be the same next time we play them. It's the crushing inevitability of it that sticks in the craw.
Maybe we didn't have them on the ropes, but we were genuinely causing them problems for about five minutes prior to Benteke coming on. Not sure why we reverted to our defensive style after that.
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We have been humiliated, not for losing, because it is normal to lose with Man. City, but for the way we lost.
We played only defensively.
We played the way teams played in Italy in the 60's of the last century.
I do not know since how many years we regularly have the worst possession percentage of the League.
We are Villa not Burnley.
We should at least try and play football, instead we play another sport.
I do not see any hopes as Lambert signed his new contract.
Which new owner could be interested in a club if he must respect a contract of a so said coach like Lambert?
It is sooooooooooo depressing.
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Having one fit striker (that we know was effected by the virus 2 weeks ago) probably didn't help today. And before anyone mentions fat Daz, I did say fit!
I'd love to see us turn up in two weeks with a streamlined looking Bent, because actually, he could have a field day playing with Benteke. At least the fit and buzzing Bent of 2-3 years ago could. He looks absolutely done in though and as if he can't even be arsed to try and turn his career around. Its a shame. He's only 30, he should still be banging in 15-20 goals a season.
Agreed. It makes me sad seeing him like this. I would love it if he could turn himself around.
Hutton reacted the right way to being bombed out, Darren has taken the easier path :(
Bent looks finished.
Maybe but the only time he's got on the pitch was against arsenal and Chelsea when the games were lost and we weren't looking to score.
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Reasons for optimism are these. Better defensively. Move the ball quicker in midfield. Senderos, Richardson, Cissokho have all improved us, Sanchez should improve us once he settles. Benteke and Kozak still to come back to fitness.
They've strengthened us but they were never going to turn us into Real Madrid.
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Maybe but the only time he's got on the pitch was against arsenal and Chelsea when the games were lost and we weren't looking to score.
And Leyton Orient. And Newcastle. As well as 5 or 10 mins against Hull.
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I thought we played ok, we did tire at the end but I wonder how much the after effects of the virus had on stamina.
My main gripe was the amount of misplaced balls, they might not be world class but they should be able to pass to each other on a consistent basis.
As others have said, we now just make up the numbers. Sad but its just the inevitable effect the Sky money has had the game.
Exactly how I feel. I actually thought we were OK today, I certainly was not expecting better. This was a performance at least as good as the Liverpool one but whereas that was claimed as a masterstroke of counter attacking play this is all doom and gloom. The truth is we are a mostly negative team who get points through running around a lot.
Today was frustrating though as at times we put together decent moves only for it all to fall down because the pass goes behind the man or a miscontrol. Do the basics better!
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Paul Lambert was anything but downbeat after the loss to Manchester City as he pointed to a positive performance from his players.
Lambert was pleased with the way his team went toe-to-toe with City, who have won two Barclays Premier League titles in three years.
Villa boss Lambert said Villa were "well in the game" up until the first goal late on - and he was also pleased with the defending of his team, the application on show - as well as the return of talismanic forward Christian Benteke.
He said: "I thought it was a big effort from us.
"We were well in the game for 82 minutes. It was going back and forth.
"We defended really strongly when we had to. But I thought it was a really good game.
"They have quality all over the pitch. The lads were dead on their feet towards the end.
"But that's what can happen when you play these type of teams, they can score at any moment.
"We had a great chance. Sergio Aguero hit the post and then we were up the other end and Kieran Richardson went through.
"They are the kind of chances you have to take. If you don't take them, then it's hard to see it through.
"We had one or two little chances. But they are right good side. In my opinion they will be first or second in the league.
"We have played the top four from last season - Champions League teams. I have never known a run to be quite as gruesome as that one. The fixtures have been pretty unkind to us.
"There's nothing to be ashamed of. I have told the lads 'you have given a right good account of yourselves - you've come up against teams who can win domestic and European honours.'
"But there were a lot of pluses there. Christian coming back is a plus. Ron will be back hopefully for the next game. We are still seventh after a gruelling four games."
Lambert was thrilled to see Benteke return to action - but bemoaned the absence of speed demon Gabby Agbonlahor, who was withdrawn just before kick-off.
He added: "Christian has had six months out. He played half an hour.
"It was great for the football club, great for his teammates and great for himself.
"There were little glimpses there that he will be back to his best soon.
"With Gabby, he felt lightheaded and had dizziness.
"It was in the warm-up. He came in and didn't feel well at all.
"The doctor has obviously seen him and sent him home.
"We will see how he is Monday. He didn't feel well at all.
"You run the risk if you play someone who is not well, particularly in that magnitude of game.
"It was a blow because his speed is a major point for us. But Andi came in and did well."
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No shame in losing to Man City and recently Chelsea too.
Sounds like we tried to give them both a game. We lost.
Lets see what happens in the next few games. Go Go Go Villa
This really. I mean there may have been faults in our performances over the last three games, but its not as if we didn't already know that we are miles behind Arsenal/City/Chelsea. Anything we get from those games was always going to be a bonus. We are still in a healthy position and if we finish mid-table that has to be viewed as a good season. Before the start I thought we may struggle again this year, and we still might, but there have been promising signs so far, so until there is any real reason to moan then lets stay positive.
Sometimes we beat Arsenal. Sometimes Villa beat Liverpool.
Villa are clearly a better team this season. Not brilliant but better.
Villa wont be troubled by relegation this season.
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Just watched the erm 'highlights' and that was pretty piss poor, in fact I would say that is the worse we played this season. At least last week we could hold our hands up and just say we were totally dominated by a class side at the top of their game. Today I don't even think we defended that well, its just that Guzan was in great form, City were wasteful, and we had a bit of luck. Anyway, the next few weeks will tell us more.
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Just watched the erm 'highlights' and that was pretty piss poor, in fact I would say that is the worse we played this season. At least last week we could hold our hands up and just say we were totally dominated by a class side at the top of their game. Today I don't even think we defended that well, its just that Guzan was in great form, City were wasteful, and we had a bit of luck. Anyway, the next few weeks will tell us more.
We defended well. Especially first half as I was sat bang in line with the Holte 6 yard line. Baker was excellent first half.
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To the rugby supporters in the Witton Lane stand; thank you once again for turning up, but a gentle reminder than when you're watching football, the game lasts for 90 minutes and then a few more on top.
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Every time Guzan made a great save, that fucking ****** Arlo White on NBC kept saying "City are kicking the ball straight at him."
Typical wankfest in the NBC studio - and for Vincent Cuntpany to say in the post match interview how well they played...fuck off.
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Whether Lambert makes us a weaker outfit is really neither here nor there..The plain fact is that football is a bit like horse racing. If a horse that cost £45m runs against a horse that cost £20k the former is going to win 99 times out of a hundred..that's where football is now..and who have been the owners that could afford the massive prices for top class horses in the last few years....The same sort of owners that man city have
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Haven't read through this thread but I thought we played well until the final 20 minutes when we seemed to invite City on to us and it was inevitable what was going to happen. Really impressed with Cleverley and Baker and great to see Benteke back.
A couple of things about the support, the bloke sat in front of me who did nothing but moan from kick off until leaving five minutes before the end was a cock who took some sort of perverse pleasure out of seeing Villa lose and the amount of people who left as soon as City scored was ridiculous.
At half time we realised Ron Vlaar was sat just behind us so my son was chuffed to bits to get an autograph and photo.
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We did as well as I thought we would. We worked hard. They pegged us back. Substitutions were wrong for me. City have class going forward. Villa will be ok this season but we'll still be bored shitless by Lamberts tactics.
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Whether Lambert makes us a weaker outfit is really neither here nor there..The plain fact is that football is a bit like horse racing. If a horse that cost £45m runs against a horse that cost £20k the former is going to win 99 times out of a hundred..that's where football is now..and who have been the owners that could afford the massive prices for top class horses in the last few years....The same sort of owners that man city have
I did not know that Leyton Orient had such expensive horses.
And, to be honest, we play defensively with every opponent. If you park the us in the box it is mathematical that 9 times out of 10 you lose.
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To put it into perspective, especially the state of mod£ern football, Citeh had players on the bench that cost more than our starting 11. Never mind the players in their starting 11 that also individually cost more than our 11. Ain't it grand.
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Whether Lambert makes us a weaker outfit is really neither here nor there..The plain fact is that football is a bit like horse racing. If a horse that cost £45m runs against a horse that cost £20k the former is going to win 99 times out of a hundred..that's where football is now..and who have been the owners that could afford the massive prices for top class horses in the last few years....The same sort of owners that man city have
Or you can assemble a squad at the same price he has wasted and have a 'go' rather than being a deluded manager and having to admit his 'young and hungry' policy failed. It really is beyond belief how he is our manager.
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To put it into perspective, especially the state of mod£ern football, Citeh had players on the bench that cost more than our starting 11. Never mind the players in their starting 11 that also individually cost more than our 11. Ain't it grand.
I make it 8 players in the Citeh match squad today that cost approx the same, or more, than our starting 11.
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I was genuinely excited when it was still 0-0 after 81 mins (especially after what Mancunter Cunty did to Wednesday on the League Cup) - I even thought of switching it off to avoid the inevitable......but the only other (non College football) option for sport at the time was Maria Sharapova ....
so I took a deep breath.....
FWIW - the club's start flattered Lambert IMHO - the contract extension was a mistake - and a healthy Benteke (and Gabby) will be enough to avoid relegation - but that's it.
Same old song.
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I thought we were ok today, we def pushed them into having to go through the gears, unlike the last two games where we were passengers.
Obviously the shot count is a concern but getting Benteke up to speed is key to that, Weimman being constantly on his heels was frustrating, he is no lone striker, he can probably do a job in a two but not on his todd.
Baker & Guzan excellent
The welcome back for Benteke was rocking
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Just back, thought we actually did ok today and the fans were excellent especially in the second half. Shame that Richardson couldn't put his chance away.
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Just home from the game. I think the better team won. I think we played creditably for 75 minutes. We seemed to tire and they started to toy with us.
Things to remember about the game for me were Baker's continuing climb from whipping boy to solid central defender, Westwood also cementing his place in the side and continuing to improve. Cleverley remains too up his own arse and it results in serious losses of concentration. The substitutions apart from Benteke were typical Lambert changes for change's sake and did nothing to boost our chances. Charles N'Zogbia seems to be gripped with panic when a scoring chance falls to him. Grealish appears to have been massively overhyped and looked completely out of his depth at this level. We needed a Ron Vlaar or a properly functioning Sanchez to bite them when they started to take the piss in the last ten minutes.
Another home defeat and another long and silent drive home but I do believe that we will play worse than we did today and win games.
Oh yes and another thing I shall not forget is Foy looking at his watch at half time, putting his whistle to his lips but not blowing because City were in a very dangerous attacking position which once we cleared the ball he decided THEN it could be half time. Cheating bastard.
Top post Brian - what did you reckon to the backing from the Holte?
Only 29K Villa but we made some noise...
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Excellent support today from all around the pitch and for once the Holte Enders were awake! The crescendo of noise that peaked just about after Benteke came on was really something to behold. Well done to us all there today.
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Getting annoyed with posters saying we should have had a go and attacked them because if thats the way we play against the top sides look forward to a fair bit of humiliation.
We are much improved in defence and the midfield is a little improved but Lamberts insistance in playing narrow pisses me off no end, if anyone wouid benefit from a couple of pacey wingers it would br Benteke.
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We did well for 80 minutes. They had the better chances until that point for sure but we were always in with a chance. To come away with a loss is disappointing but the performance was pretty good.
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We generally defended well, despite them scoring two and hitting the woodwork twice. Given their array of expensive talents I was not bitter at losing the way we did. Modern footbal is hard to swallow, but we were set up well defensively, kept our shape and were in a position to win the game after 65 minutes.
The real disappointment for me was that we squandered some decent opportunities to put real pressure on them when we were in good positions. Weimann took advantage of a cock up in the first half and failed to muster a shot, whilst Richardson seemed to be wearing lead boots when clean through in the second. We lost forward momentum for all but the first five minutes after Benteke came on, but a lot of that was due to their substitutions, allowing Toure and Lampard to move further forward ( and ultimately kill us).
Negatives - Guzan's kicking, Zog's inability to cross and some awful misplaced passing from good starting positions. We also looked one dimensional once Benteke came on. First time I have seen Cleverley and he needs to develop strength - but we generally looked like weedy kids versus men .
I was in the Holte Upper and atmosphere was deceent, literally couldn't hear City fans until they scored. Really disappointed at the mass exodus when they scored as I thought our lads deserved hearty applause for their efforts at the end.
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I don't have any issues with losing to these teams. However ask yourself how many of the other teams, against the skycumbubbles, will have more attempts at goal in those games than us? Answer is: all of them. It's not fact yet but it will be. Lambert is as inept as ever in my opinion. I remember hearing a lot about 'east games' last year not exactly being so 'easy'. I'm not remotely fearful for the season, just ... well ... bored.
I know Zog has had a little praise on the match thread, but not for me. I'm now decided on him (finally), i don't care how often he may be a little exciting, it's all insignificant when you are such a poor decision maker.
And Aly, going forward ... wow.
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I think the home form will improve. We won't play sides as bad as Hull everything, but by the same token we won't keep playing the likes of Arsenal or Man City.
Yes, Hull, who we ended up hanging on to three points against, and who still managed to see far more of the ball than we did. That's what worries me. I can live with losing to Arsenal and Man City, they're much, much better than us, it is as simple as that.
The problem is that we pretty much never manage to impose ourselves against the shit teams, either, and we haven't for several seasons now.
When does that improve?
When our best player is fit, perhaps?
We worked hard and played some decent stuff at times but when the only available striker is Weimann it is going to take a miracle to impose yourself against the Billionaire Boys Club.
The league is so totally skewed at the moment it is anti competive. It is easy to blame Sky but if wasn't them it would be some other broadcaster funding it to fuel the demand. The problem is more fundamental with the way that the game is structured but because Scudamore et al measure success in purely financial terms things are unlikely to change.
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Finally the horrible run of games are over.
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You are absolutely right Chris. The core problem for all of us who love sport is that those who run the sports are obsessed with money and unable to grasp the fundamental importance of the values of what they control. Wherever you look, horse racing, formula 1, cricket, athletics, rugby, the very essence of the sport is being bloated and devalued by marketing and the pointless spiral of money chasing more money.
The simplest comparison I can think of is that sport of all kinds has become like modern food, far too much of it, churned out off the back of saturation advertising and, compared to what went before, basically unsatisfying.
Why did the Tour de France attract such massive crowds in this country this year? Because it was free. You could turn up to the route and watch it and go home again. Why does the Epsom Derby which used to attract half a million spectators to the Downs now pull in a crowd little bigger than an evening meeting at Newmarket with Status Quo doing a turn after the last race?
Football has become a snake so greedy and so stupid it has started to eat its own tail.
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My theories held fast for 82mins..then went to pot.. Villa stil suffer from the eternal last minutes factor..Solve that and we be Champions!
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I would clarify my point about the Derby. When Derby Day was to all intents and purposes a Bank Holiday the viewing of the race from the Downs was free. Over the years the free element of the spectacle has been choked off and the financial opportunities of the world famous event exploited with ever increasing avarice. The result is the current Blue Riband of the Turf becoming a shadow of what it once was. The FA Cup treads the same dangerous path
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And the Darren Bent 1-0 3-4 seasons ago. We went for it that game too, it wasn't a backs to the wall job if I remember rightly.
It was basically the same performance but we scored and kept a clean sheet
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One frustration today was how often we had the opportunity to put it in a cross when we had players in the box and didn't.
I disagree. We had Weimann up front. I think he proved today he's no target man (I never understood why people wanted him to replace gabby there). Crosses into the box against Kompany and mangala would have been a complete waste unless there was space
I'm not going to suggest we're great. Or that I'm not concerned about our goal threat. But we had all three of our viable centre forward options unable to start and that was a real problem.
We're seventh after playing last season's top four consecutively in our first seven games. We won two and drew one of the other three. Benteke and vlaar have been out which in the spot has meant certain defeat. At the start of the season many of us thought we'd go down. Results have gone to form in the last three games and suddenly the tone of the comments would suggest we're bottom three. I'm not exactly surprised and I know people's patience is wearing thin after four years of this. But in what may be a difficult season I'm disappointed at how quickly people are slashing the wrists. I expect grealish to be written off if he has two more games like that too. Meh
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Nzogbia is a frustrating player but he was involved in some of our best moments and is the only player we have who can really penetrate in the final third. I'd play him v Everton as I reckon they're vulnerable at full back and pace wise.
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You are absolutely right Chris. The core problem for all of us who love sport is that those who run the sports are obsessed with money and unable to grasp the fundamental importance of the values of what they control. Wherever you look, horse racing, formula 1, cricket, athletics, rugby, the very essence of the sport is being bloated and devalued by marketing and the pointless spiral of money chasing more money.
The simplest comparison I can think of is that sport of all kinds has become like modern food, far too much of it, churned out off the back of saturation advertising and, compared to what went before, basically unsatisfying.
Why did the Tour de France attract such massive crowds in this country this year? Because it was free. You could turn up to the route and watch it and go home again. Why does the Epsom Derby which used to attract half a million spectators to the Downs now pull in a crowd little bigger than an evening meeting at Newmarket with Status Quo doing a turn after the last race?
Football has become a snake so greedy and so stupid it has started to eat its own tail.
Spot on
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We generally defended well, despite them scoring two and hitting the woodwork twice. Given their array of expensive talents I was not bitter at losing the way we did. Modern footbal is hard to swallow, but we were set up well defensively, kept our shape and were in a position to win the game after 65 minutes.
The real disappointment for me was that we squandered some decent opportunities to put real pressure on them when we were in good positions. Weimann took advantage of a cock up in the first half and failed to muster a shot, whilst Richardson seemed to be wearing lead boots when clean through in the second. We lost forward momentum for all but the first five minutes after Benteke came on, but a lot of that was due to their substitutions, allowing Toure and Lampard to move further forward ( and ultimately kill us).
Negatives - Guzan's kicking, Zog's inability to cross and some awful misplaced passing from good starting positions. We also looked one dimensional once Benteke came on. First time I have seen Cleverley and he needs to develop strength - but we generally looked like weedy kids versus men .
I was in the Holte Upper and atmosphere was deceent, literally couldn't hear City fans until they scored. Really disappointed at the mass exodus when they scored as I thought our lads deserved hearty applause for their efforts at the end.
Excellent post. And I hope the team didn't have the same pack up and go attitude as some supporters did at 1-0.
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From signing on fees to wages to sponsorships they could fund the NHS but they instead pay footballers to be better than us. They are the ultimate example of why football is rubbish. They could be Leicester or Fulham. It just happened that another bunch of arrogant mancs were up for grabs with a big souless stadium.
We did ok, we keep the ball at throw ins and can defend. When we play a team who have not bought a place up there we will be fine.
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City played Hull and Villa away and won both games by a 2 goal margin. The difference being Hull after being 2 down gave it a go and equalised. Villa hardly threatened the goal throughout the 90 minutes and Hart did not have to make a save of note. Which fans went home the happier - Hull or Villa?
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Chris J, I agree regarding Cleverley. I think he played well too. He moves the ball on quickly and doesn't mind getting his shorts dirty. Once Benteke is back fully fit, I think he will benefit from having Cleverley playing behind him.
N'Zogbia is a frustrating as anything, best typified by him cutting City apart, beating four of them and then not producing anything at the end. I would have kept him on and I would play him more regularly still though, inspite of the indifferent delivery as I think he will work well with Benteke and is probably our most creative midfielder.
Regarding the comments about Lambert being inept because Man City had more chances, I am sorry but I find those comments bizarre. Man City are the champions of England and have bagged 80 odd points for the the past four seasons. That means they're winning 20-25 games a season, with the likes of Ya Ya Toure, Ageuro, Silva, I heart James Milner and Dzeko, who was crap, so they have the option of bringing on a midfielder that has scored 200 goals. They have more chances than just about everybody, with the exception of say Chelsea, who we had the misfortune of playing last. Chelsea incidentally played William, Hazard and Oscar, so £90 million worth of talent, who they added Fabregas too and a world class centre forward who was the difference in his side pipping Messi, Ronaldo and Bale to the title. They had more chances than us too.
We defended pretty well in both games, played some nice stuff up in midfield at times and had one or two chances and worked very hard, but ultimately succumbed, as will 85-90% of sides, to Russian and Gulf hydrocarbon fuelled fantasy football. I think anybody seriously criticising Lambert for the set up and the past two games lacks any sense of perspective. We are not playing the same sport as Chelsea and Man City. Or Arsenal as it happens, whose first goal scorer cost £44 million, 6.3 times our total summer spend. Nobody is suggesting you can't get a result or that you surrender. In the case of the former, that is possible, but as they're end of season points total indicates, it doesn't happen too often. In the case of the latter, anybody who watched the game will have seen how hard we worked. Chuck a fit Benteke, Vlaar and Gabby in and you increase your chances.
Against those lacking world class players, we look defensively very solid and more than capable of getting a result, as the statistic of 10 points from 12 shows.
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Well I'm just glad we have got these teams out of the way.
Sometimes I think Lambert's reign here is cursed. He loves it here, he seems to appreciate the size of the club, the fans etc. he comes across as such a decent and willing chap. You get the impression he is popular with the players. But since he's been here the task in hand has been thwarted with massive long term injuries, ill health, ridiculous wage cutting, which seems to have been managed somewhere very wrong, having his long term allies or friends even take the piss behind the scenes, It's been mental. He obviously agreed to the task of keeping us in the top flight on a budget, which he did, just. Then suddenly the premier league throws us a set of fixtures at the start of a new season which is just bloody crazy. I know we beat Liverpool but even there it was a team created by a spend of over 200 million pounds. We held out thank god and got the points, but to then face Arsenal, Chelsea and City has been a pain in the arse and just messed with all the optimism in the air.
Well hopefully now, we can start to get key players fit and ready to go. We can maybe play some games with a more fair standing. There has been enough glimpses of improvement this season for me to remain confident. Hopefully our attacking play will improve as we build confidence and be not just a solid and organised team.
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City played Hull and Villa away and won both games by a 2 goal margin. The difference being Hull after being 2 down gave it a go and equalised. Villa hardly threatened the goal throughout the 90 minutes and Hart did not have to make a save of note. Which fans went home the happier - Hull or Villa?
Is this the Trivial Pursuit thread
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I thought we played ok overall even if we did ride our luck at times. I'm not sure taking off two forward players at home was a good idea though because we caught them on the break a few times so in that respect, we really missed Gabby.
I know it's only his 3rd or 4th game but I can't see what Cleverley's role is supposed to be. I presume he's in there to give us some energy in the middle of the park but i've not been overly impressed so far.
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Thought Guzan, Baker and Westwood all played very well though yesterday and Delph was his usual dynamic self, just frustratingly lacking the final ball or shot.
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The academy director at Crewe must have felt pretty proud yesterday; from League One to captain of Aston Villa in just over two seasons.
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I thought we played ok overall even if we did ride our luck at times. I'm not sure taking off two forward players at home was a good idea though because we caught them on the break a few times so in that respect, we really missed Gabby.
I know it's only his 3rd or 4th game but I can't see what Cleverley's role is supposed to be. I presume he's in there to give us some energy in the middle of the park but i've not been overly impressed so far.
I agree. I think Cleverley does not have a high level of skill but an excellent work rate. You need more than that if we are to pay 8mil in Jan.
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weimann is out of his depth
Seconded. His selection for a premiership football club is the 8th wonder of the world. His control is woeful, he couldn't trap a bag of cement. His goal scoring record is pathetic and the only apparent asset is he runs around a lot but 20,000 season ticket holders could offer that free of charge. Still, he'll doubtless prove me wrong by ending another goal famine with one that bounces off his arse just before Christmas and run to the Holte cupping his ears at me. In two years time he'll be coming on as a sub for Charlton Athletic mark my words.
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Finally the horrible run of games are over.
Yes, thank God we've got Everton and Spurs next. Piece of piss.
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Getting annoyed with posters saying we should have had a go and attacked them because if thats the way we play against the top sides look forward to a fair bit of humiliation.
We are much improved in defence and the midfield is a little improved but Lamberts insistance in playing narrow pisses me off no end, if anyone wouid benefit from a couple of pacey wingers it would br Benteke.
One of which went on a free to Leicester. f in Leicester.
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I would never accuse Albrighton of being pacy. How is he getting on at Leicester anyway? I haven't heard much of him.
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Well I'm just glad we have got these teams out of the way.
Sometimes I think Lambert's reign here is cursed. He loves it here, he seems to appreciate the size of the club, the fans etc. he comes across as such a decent and willing chap. You get the impression he is popular with the players. But since he's been here the task in hand has been thwarted with massive long term injuries, ill health, ridiculous wage cutting, which seems to have been managed somewhere very wrong, having his long term allies or friends even take the piss behind the scenes, It's been mental. He obviously agreed to the task of keeping us in the top flight on a budget, which he did, just. Then suddenly the premier league throws us a set of fixtures at the start of a new season which is just bloody crazy. I know we beat Liverpool but even there it was a team created by a spend of over 200 million pounds. We held out thank god and got the points, but to then face Arsenal, Chelsea and City has been a pain in the arse and just messed with all the optimism in the air.
Well hopefully now, we can start to get key players fit and ready to go. We can maybe play some games with a more fair standing. There has been enough glimpses of improvement this season for me to remain confident. Hopefully our attacking play will improve as we build confidence and be not just a solid and organised team.
A good post but I think you are being too kind to PL.
Its the type of turgid football that fans really hate. Its defensive and boring and the possession stats against the teams outside the top 4 is still bad.
Before yesterdays game we had the worst, or the worst but one of possession, completed passes, shots on goal and shots on target. It would be interesting too see those stats over PL's two full seasons. I suspect we would be in the bottom quarter every time. Its not good enough and whilst this is a results business it would be nice to be entertained occasionally.
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I would never accuse Albrighton of being pacy. How is he getting on at Leicester anyway? I haven't heard much of him.
Albrighton was average and out of his depth. He was no loss. That doesn't mean we shouldn't have any width in the team though. This is the most narrow Villa team I've ever seen. One striker up front feeding off long diagonal balls. No wonder we struggle to find the back of the net.
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Well I'm just glad we have got these teams out of the way.
Sometimes I think Lambert's reign here is cursed. He loves it here, he seems to appreciate the size of the club, the fans etc. he comes across as such a decent and willing chap. You get the impression he is popular with the players. But since he's been here the task in hand has been thwarted with massive long term injuries, ill health, ridiculous wage cutting, which seems to have been managed somewhere very wrong, having his long term allies or friends even take the piss behind the scenes, It's been mental. He obviously agreed to the task of keeping us in the top flight on a budget, which he did, just. Then suddenly the premier league throws us a set of fixtures at the start of a new season which is just bloody crazy. I know we beat Liverpool but even there it was a team created by a spend of over 200 million pounds. We held out thank god and got the points, but to then face Arsenal, Chelsea and City has been a pain in the arse and just messed with all the optimism in the air.
Well hopefully now, we can start to get key players fit and ready to go. We can maybe play some games with a more fair standing. There has been enough glimpses of improvement this season for me to remain confident. Hopefully our attacking play will improve as we build confidence and be not just a solid and organised team.
A good post but I think you are being too kind to PL.
Its the type of turgid football that fans really hate. Its defensive and boring and the possession stats against the teams outside the top 4 is still bad.
Before yesterdays game we had the worst, or the worst but one of possession, completed passes, shots on goal and shots on target. It would be interesting too see those stats over PL's two full seasons. I suspect we would be in the bottom quarter every time. Its not good enough and whilst this is a results business it would be nice to be entertained occasionally.
But you could argue in his first season when we found some confidence we played some of most attacking football we have witnessed for a long while. Since then though I agree we are not a threat going forward. I still put this down to us last season basically being out of our depth. This due to the team being made up of too many players from lower leagues and players not ready to step up to the mark. This has made a massive impact on the way we have been set out to play.
I might yet be wrong, but with a fit Benteke we might be more of a threat. A lot of our problem is confidence going forward and with Benteke coming back that might just give us that boost and extra edge. These last four games have certainly taken its toll on on us and also with the current obsession with statistics you can view these last four games and think too much into it.
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Chris J, I agree regarding Cleverley. I think he played well too. He moves the ball on quickly and doesn't mind getting his shorts dirty. Once Benteke is back fully fit, I think he will benefit from having Cleverley playing behind him.
N'Zogbia is a frustrating as anything, best typified by him cutting City apart, beating four of them and then not producing anything at the end. I would have kept him on and I would play him more regularly still though, inspite of the indifferent delivery as I think he will work well with Benteke and is probably our most creative midfielder.
Regarding the comments about Lambert being inept because Man City had more chances, I am sorry but I find those comments bizarre. Man City are the champions of England and have bagged 80 odd points for the the past four seasons. That means they're winning 20-25 games a season, with the likes of Ya Ya Toure, Ageuro, Silva, I heart James Milner and Dzeko, who was crap, so they have the option of bringing on a midfielder that has scored 200 goals. They have more chances than just about everybody, with the exception of say Chelsea, who we had the misfortune of playing last. Chelsea incidentally played William, Hazard and Oscar, so £90 million worth of talent, who they added Fabregas too and a world class centre forward who was the difference in his side pipping Messi, Ronaldo and Bale to the title. They had more chances than us too.
We defended pretty well in both games, played some nice stuff up in midfield at times and had one or two chances and worked very hard, but ultimately succumbed, as will 85-90% of sides, to Russian and Gulf hydrocarbon fuelled fantasy football. I think anybody seriously criticising Lambert for the set up and the past two games lacks any sense of perspective. We are not playing the same sport as Chelsea and Man City. Or Arsenal as it happens, whose first goal scorer cost £44 million, 6.3 times our total summer spend. Nobody is suggesting you can't get a result or that you surrender. In the case of the former, that is possible, but as they're end of season points total indicates, it doesn't happen too often. In the case of the latter, anybody who watched the game will have seen how hard we worked. Chuck a fit Benteke, Vlaar and Gabby in and you increase your chances.
Against those lacking world class players, we look defensively very solid and more than capable of getting a result, as the statistic of 10 points from 12 shows.
Couldn't have summed it up better Ads, cracking post.
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Ads, agree with every word.
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Before the Liverpool game i'd have taken one point from the next four games. We got 3. If it had been three draws there would be a lot less negativity on here today. We played well for large parts yesterday and a nil-nil would have been a fair result but hey ho - nobody accused life of being fair. I wont say i'm pleased but I certainly am not as down as I was last season.
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Was it just me or did there look more than the official attendance announced?
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Well I'm just glad we have got these teams out of the way.
Sometimes I think Lambert's reign here is cursed. He loves it here, he seems to appreciate the size of the club, the fans etc. he comes across as such a decent and willing chap. You get the impression he is popular with the players. But since he's been here the task in hand has been thwarted with massive long term injuries, ill health, ridiculous wage cutting, which seems to have been managed somewhere very wrong, having his long term allies or friends even take the piss behind the scenes, It's been mental. He obviously agreed to the task of keeping us in the top flight on a budget, which he did, just. Then suddenly the premier league throws us a set of fixtures at the start of a new season which is just bloody crazy. I know we beat Liverpool but even there it was a team created by a spend of over 200 million pounds. We held out thank god and got the points, but to then face Arsenal, Chelsea and City has been a pain in the arse and just messed with all the optimism in the air.
Well hopefully now, we can start to get key players fit and ready to go. We can maybe play some games with a more fair standing. There has been enough glimpses of improvement this season for me to remain confident. Hopefully our attacking play will improve as we build confidence and be not just a solid and organised team.
A good post but I think you are being too kind to PL.
Its the type of turgid football that fans really hate. Its defensive and boring and the possession stats against the teams outside the top 4 is still bad.
Before yesterdays game we had the worst, or the worst but one of possession, completed passes, shots on goal and shots on target. It would be interesting too see those stats over PL's two full seasons. I suspect we would be in the bottom quarter every time. Its not good enough and whilst this is a results business it would be nice to be entertained occasionally.
I'm sure when he took over there was something said about bringing attacking football back to villa.
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I would never accuse Albrighton of being pacy. How is he getting on at Leicester anyway? I haven't heard much of him.
He is being rested so that he is fresh and ready for the Championship challenge next season.
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Was it just me or did there look more than the official attendance announced?
Very noisy but thousands of empty seats I am afraid.
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The academy director at Crewe must have felt pretty proud yesterday; from League One to captain of Aston Villa in just over two seasons.
They don't have directors at Crewe so it's the chap in charge of kids training and he is very proud.
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I would never accuse Albrighton of being pacy. How is he getting on at Leicester anyway? I haven't heard much of him.
I heard Pearson doesn't rate him. Pretty sure he doesn't handle transfers there now, so he probably didn't want him in the first place?
By the way, why was Westwood captain and not Delph?
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Was it just me or did there look more than the official attendance announced?
I thought the same as well, would have put my house on 35+. And be homeless.
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Well I'm just glad we have got these teams out of the way.
Sometimes I think Lambert's reign here is cursed. He loves it here, he seems to appreciate the size of the club, the fans etc. he comes across as such a decent and willing chap. You get the impression he is popular with the players. But since he's been here the task in hand has been thwarted with massive long term injuries, ill health, ridiculous wage cutting, which seems to have been managed somewhere very wrong, having his long term allies or friends even take the piss behind the scenes, It's been mental. He obviously agreed to the task of keeping us in the top flight on a budget, which he did, just. Then suddenly the premier league throws us a set of fixtures at the start of a new season which is just bloody crazy. I know we beat Liverpool but even there it was a team created by a spend of over 200 million pounds. We held out thank god and got the points, but to then face Arsenal, Chelsea and City has been a pain in the arse and just messed with all the optimism in the air.
Well hopefully now, we can start to get key players fit and ready to go. We can maybe play some games with a more fair standing. There has been enough glimpses of improvement this season for me to remain confident. Hopefully our attacking play will improve as we build confidence and be not just a solid and organised team.
A good post but I think you are being too kind to PL.
Its the type of turgid football that fans really hate. Its defensive and boring and the possession stats against the teams outside the top 4 is still bad.
Before yesterdays game we had the worst, or the worst but one of possession, completed passes, shots on goal and shots on target. It would be interesting too see those stats over PL's two full seasons. I suspect we would be in the bottom quarter every time. Its not good enough and whilst this is a results business it would be nice to be entertained occasionally.
I'm sure when he took over there was something said about bringing attacking football back to villa.
Yeah there was certainly an expectation of lots of high scoring games. As yet we've not seen too many from our point of view. It's very rare we score more than 1-2 in a game. We've dished out the all too rare tonking against sides like Sunderland and Norwich, but we tend to receive more batterings than we give out.
The notion of winning a load of games 3-2 and losing a few 3-2 is very distant. We seem very much defensive orientated now without much clue aside from running toward the opposition penalty area as fast as possible, in how to attack. And in all too many games there's been a frightening lack of even intent to try and create and score goals.
It's very much McLeish's style.
For 5 months in the end of his first season, Lambert teased us with the prospect of attacking, entertaining, almost gung-ho football. But last season was 95% wretched, and the lack of creativity and attacking drive this season isn't boding well, despite an initially good turn of results.
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I would never accuse Albrighton of being pacy. How is he getting on at Leicester anyway? I haven't heard much of him.
I heard Pearson doesn't rate him. Pretty sure he doesn't handle transfers there now, so he probably didn't want him in the first place?
By the way, why was Westwood captain and not Delph?
Not sure. Westwood has been captain of Crewe before though hasn't he?
I'd have thought Delphy though as he obviously leads by example and is quite vocal too. I'm sure Westy had the armband in pre-season for a game or two as well. He's certainly skilled at pointing. Maybe that's a key aspect of being a captain.
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By the way, why was Westwood captain and not Delph?
Ahhha I was waiting for this. Any self respecting Conspiracy Theorist would suggest because Delph is off in January/Summer!
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Was it just me or did there look more than the official attendance announced?
Very noisy but thousands of empty seats I am afraid.
I thought it was going to be lower than announced. Both Lower Holte & North had loads of empty seats, which is always an indicator of it being low.
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As soon as the attendance was announced, a senior steward next to me remarked 'we'll they told us 36000'.
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Bringing Benteke on for Weimann was right. Bringing off Zog who was having a fine game and our only attacking threat and then Richardson being replaced by Grealish just screwed up our shape. There was no need for that change. We were poorer for it.
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Bringing Benteke on for Weimann was right. Bringing off Zog who was having a fine game and our only attacking threat and then Richardson being replaced by Grealish just screwed up our shape. There was no need for that change. We were poorer for it.
We certainly did miss Richardons although in all honesty he looked absolutely shattered by the time he came off. Zogbia possibly was too and he's never generally been a player who can run his arse off for 90 minutes.
But yes, our shape was buggered after that and we lost all will to try and get forward.
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I would never accuse Albrighton of being pacy. How is he getting on at Leicester anyway? I haven't heard much of him.
I heard Pearson doesn't rate him. Pretty sure he doesn't handle transfers there now, so he probably didn't want him in the first place?
By the way, why was Westwood captain and not Delph?
Not sure. Westwood has been captain of Crewe before though hasn't he?
I'd have thought Delphy though as he obviously leads by example and is quite vocal too. I'm sure Westy had the armband in pre-season for a game or two as well. He's certainly skilled at pointing. Maybe that's a key aspect of being a captain.
There's no way you should be captain if you can't point, Tom.
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I hope Man City and Arsenal win the Champions league soon. I'm fed up with that European Cup song.
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Oh yes and another thing I shall not forget is Foy looking at his watch at half time, putting his whistle to his lips but not blowing because City were in a very dangerous attacking position which once we cleared the ball he decided THEN it could be half time. Cheating bastard.
Brian I wondered if I was the only one to see that. It was quite extraordinary behaviour really. He literally had the whistle in his mouth then took it out and started running with the attack. It was as if he wanted them to score.
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Oh yes and another thing I shall not forget is Foy looking at his watch at half time, putting his whistle to his lips but not blowing because City were in a very dangerous attacking position which once we cleared the ball he decided THEN it could be half time. Cheating bastard.
Brian I wondered if I was the only one to see that. It was quite extraordinary behaviour really. He literally had the whistle in his mouth then took it out and started running with the attack. It was as if he wanted them to score.
I think a lot of us spotted that. I bet he would have found time for a corner to be taken if it had gone off one of our players.
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I would never accuse Albrighton of being pacy. How is he getting on at Leicester anyway? I haven't heard much of him.
I heard Pearson doesn't rate him. Pretty sure he doesn't handle transfers there now, so he probably didn't want him in the first place?
By the way, why was Westwood captain and not Delph?
Not sure. Westwood has been captain of Crewe before though hasn't he?
I'd have thought Delphy though as he obviously leads by example and is quite vocal too. I'm sure Westy had the armband in pre-season for a game or two as well. He's certainly skilled at pointing. Maybe that's a key aspect of being a captain.
Lambert loves Westwood too. It's disappointing as Delph is perfect for the role of captain. When Weimann went off, Delph went over to give him a pat on the back, it was a nice touch.
Oh well, it's just an armband :D
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Oh yes and another thing I shall not forget is Foy looking at his watch at half time, putting his whistle to his lips but not blowing because City were in a very dangerous attacking position which once we cleared the ball he decided THEN it could be half time. Cheating bastard.
Brian I wondered if I was the only one to see that. It was quite extraordinary behaviour really. He literally had the whistle in his mouth then took it out and started running with the attack. It was as if he wanted them to score.
I used to think there was a rule (even if it was unwritten) that refs should allow teams on an attack to finish that attack. However, it seems that this is definitely not the case.
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I used to think there was a rule (even if it was unwritten) that refs should allow teams on an attack to finish that attack. However, it seems that this is definitely not the case.
I've always assumed it's an unofficial rule. We'll benefit from it at some stage*
*Assuming we ever have an attack
/baddumtish
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I was hoping for a Clive Thomas moment
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I would never accuse Albrighton of being pacy. How is he getting on at Leicester anyway? I haven't heard much of him.
Albrighton was average and out of his depth. He was no loss. That doesn't mean we shouldn't have any width in the team though. This is the most narrow Villa team I've ever seen. One striker up front feeding off long diagonal balls. No wonder we struggle to find the back of the net.
He was our most creative player when he played last season.
He isnt a top player but decent enough for where we are now.
We let him go and give gabby a 4 year deal. Bonkers
Would rather the have him than zog or bacuna or richardson
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For 15 minutes of the second half we played in the right way. It probably wouldn't have made much difference in this game, but we desperately need to get more creativity in the team.
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I would never accuse Albrighton of being pacy. How is he getting on at Leicester anyway? I haven't heard much of him.
Albrighton was average and out of his depth. He was no loss. That doesn't mean we shouldn't have any width in the team though. This is the most narrow Villa team I've ever seen. One striker up front feeding off long diagonal balls. No wonder we struggle to find the back of the net.
He was our most creative player when he played last season.
He isnt a top player but decent enough for where we are now.
We let him go and give gabby a 4 year deal. Bonkers
Would rather the have him than zog or bacuna or richardson
Gabby's a better player than Albrighton that's why he got another contract. I wasn't too fussed when he left and I don't remember many protests when he was shipped out loan last season either.
We need width in the team, but better than Albrighton.
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I would never accuse Albrighton of being pacy. How is he getting on at Leicester anyway? I haven't heard much of him.
Albrighton was average and out of his depth. He was no loss. That doesn't mean we shouldn't have any width in the team though. This is the most narrow Villa team I've ever seen. One striker up front feeding off long diagonal balls. No wonder we struggle to find the back of the net.
He was our most creative player when he played last season.
He isnt a top player but decent enough for where we are now.
We let him go and give gabby a 4 year deal. Bonkers
Would rather the have him than zog or bacuna or richardson
Not on £30k a week I wouldn't. Fair play to him getting that deal but he's never worth it. He's had five good games in three years.
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Finally the horrible run of games are over.
Yes, thank God we've got Everton and Spurs next. Piece of piss.
Everton have won one game this season. I reckon we can get a result there if we have a proper forward line.
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Bringing Benteke on for Weimann was right. Bringing off Zog who was having a fine game and our only attacking threat and then Richardson being replaced by Grealish just screwed up our shape. There was no need for that change. We were poorer for it.
We certainly did miss Richardons although in all honesty he looked absolutely shattered by the time he came off. Zogbia possibly was too and he's never generally been a player who can run his arse off for 90 minutes.
But yes, our shape was buggered after that and we lost all will to try and get forward.
To be honest, I'm not sure he is going to be too effective as a wide player and is more suited to being one of the midfield three.
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To be honest where we were sat in the Family stand I didn't hear the Holte End much at all in the first half but could hear the City fans, second half especially when Benteke came on the volume went up but hearing 'You only sing when you're winning' was strange as the City fans did make a noise! There were thousands of empty seats clearly visible including a few in the City end.
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Just checked and we only got 34,063 for Ci£y last season and that was a non televised Saturday 3pm game .
Just shows the nouvea rich classless wankers aren't the draw they think they are.
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Bringing Benteke on for Weimann was right. Bringing off Zog who was having a fine game and our only attacking threat and then Richardson being replaced by Grealish just screwed up our shape. There was no need for that change. We were poorer for it.
We certainly did miss Richardons although in all honesty he looked absolutely shattered by the time he came off. Zogbia possibly was too and he's never generally been a player who can run his arse off for 90 minutes.
But yes, our shape was buggered after that and we lost all will to try and get forward.
To be honest, I'm not sure he is going to be too effective as a wide player and is more suited to being one of the midfield three.
I agree. I think he was better for us early season when he played more a holding role. TC and Westwood have been very tidy on the ball but I think we have to sacrifice one for the sake of balance. They're too similar. Both very much modelled after Carrick. Have Rico sitting and allow one of Westwood or Cleverely to try and dictate things from further forward. Alternatively play the diamond and have TC at the tip, in which case you can have both he and Westwood in the side but more onus on Cleverley to try and do something a little different.
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I think Cleverley will prove to be far more than a sitting player
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Richardson sitting? It's not Kevin Richardson!
I do agree though that for the lower league teams, especially at home, we need more creativity. The problem is that there's not much in the way of options. That's why I'd err on the side of playing n'zogbia. He's the only player we have who can penetrate between the lines, unless you're gonna count cole or grealish
I'd still try to get one or maybe two creative players in January though. A proper winger and a number ten would be ideal. Really not sure who though. Ki or sigurdsson would have been perfect
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I think Cleverley will prove to be far more than a sitting player
I'd like to see us push him forward a bit more, as Wigan did when he was there. Right now we've got both he and Westwood keeping it simple and tidy but not doing anything remotely penetrative. TC has a good eye for a pass, but we've got to get him into a playmakers position. Lord knows Joe Coles not gonna provide that from the treatment table.
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I think Cleverley is more attack minded than Westwood.
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I think Cleverley will prove to be far more than a sitting player
I'd like to see us push him forward a bit more, as Wigan did when he was there. Right now we've got both he and Westwood keeping it simple and tidy but not doing anything remotely penetrative. TC has a good eye for a pass, but we've got to get him into a playmakers position. Lord knows Joe Coles not gonna provide that from the treatment table.
Should have put some viagra in the half time cup of tea.
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I think in the coming games Cleverley will play a more advanced role, I certainly hope so. I think we are trying to change the style of play we certainly need to. I can accept being sec ond best against the top teams, but want us competing and being attacking against the rest and that is starting against Everton. They have lost Stones for a month today and we have to go after their defence
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I think Cleverley will prove to be far more than a sitting player
I'd like to see us push him forward a bit more, as Wigan did when he was there. Right now we've got both he and Westwood keeping it simple and tidy but not doing anything remotely penetrative. TC has a good eye for a pass, but we've got to get him into a playmakers position. Lord knows Joe Coles not gonna provide that from the treatment table.
Should have put some viagra in the half time cup of tea.
(http://imalbum.aufeminin.com/album/D20081006/475761_LSDXI248RSE7TXBYNL7UG8J7HZQAD8_300px-kennethwilliams_H020213_L.jpg)
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Hopefully when the playing field is more fair and we're not playing these super rich clubs every week we might push TC further forward.
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Finally the horrible run of games are over.
Yes, thank God we've got Everton and Spurs next. Piece of piss.
Everton and QPR.
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I think we can compete against Everton and Spurs anyway
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We've left Goodison with at least a point 8 of our last 10 visits.
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We've left Goodison with at least a point 8 of our last 10 visits.
Positive bastard, everybody knows it's only 1 win in 10.
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A smash and grab on merseyside seems more likely than opening the London aristocrats back door in Witton. 4 points v them two would be good but isn't it the shepherds bush boutique outfit sandwiched inbetween the pair?
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It wasn't a bad performance yesterday but seemed to lack confidence in pushing players forward and losing their shape. For the final quarter of the match we seemed too happy to string five across the field just in front of the back four. The problem with this is that the midfield sat 10-15 yards off their back four/holding midfield players allowing them to pick passes through us and eventually made it count. Also, it left Benteke very isolated up front or he was having to come very deep to receive the ball. It was also a little unfair on Grealish to ask him to effectively mark Milner and Zabaleta. If Lambert is going to bring him on he has to let him have a free role at the head of the midfield or his confidence will dip dramatically.
If we are only going to play one up front, we cannot afford to string the five midfield players across the field as in effect just another line of defence. It either has to be tight 2 and 3 or 3 and 2 holding. As effective as our defence has been at the start of the season, we have to do more than just try and defend games. As Cleverley showed last season at Man Utd, he is no good playing deep and has to be allowed to play further forward linking play with the forward(s). If Gabby can show some of his better performances over the next 3 months, we should look far better with Benteke back but if not, we are going to have to go out and buy a forward with pace that can drift out wide. I do not think we should go back to playing 4-3-3 with the current players we have.
I was disappointed with Delph for their first goal as he just seemed to give up on Toure and allowed him to go past. Baker looked a bit more assured but he was constantly losing his player when Man City were putting the ball in from wide. It is also a bit disconcerting as a central defender that he cannot seem to get good contact on the ball when he is heading it. I would like to see Hutton being a bit more positive when he gets past the half way line. He is falling into his old ways of going forward and then stopping and turning to look for a pass.
In the coming games we have got to show more going forward, otherwise at PL level even the weaker sides have the ability to work chances.
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Totally dsagree re Baker, thought he was superb tbh
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Baker is an easy target for criticism. He got dogs abuse last season much of it unwarranted.
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Baker is an easy target for criticism. He got dogs abuse last season much of it unwarranted.
No, entirely warranted. His regularly got himself into trouble due to his poor positioning, rash tackles and awful distribution. Fair play to him he has tightened up this season but let's not try to pretend he is something he isn't.
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Totally dsagree re Baker, thought he was superb tbh
Is that superb as in putting everything into the game and throwing himself in to get to the ball first or superb in a controlling the game at the back and doing more in possession of the ball. To me a superb performance is the latter. There is no doubt that having Senderos alongside him has helped him but his positioning needs to be worked on a lot.
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He was criticised last season because he was at times, shit. He has been much improved this season and is receiving praise. The way it should be. The criticism last season and the praise this one are both warranted.
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I'm not saying he hasn't improved because he has but there is a long way to go to be good enough as a regular first team player.
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Baker did very well yesterday, but he has to build on that.
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He does that safety first, clearance out of play when not under pressure far too much, needlessly conceding possession.
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Only just got back... via a half marathon today in Derbyshire.
I thought we did ok first half, but defended too deep for most of the second half and there was only going to be one winner. Just surprised it took as long as it did for City to score.
There were some positives: the main one being that the run of games against the teams in the Champions League is over!
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I'll take safety first over fannying around on the ball. It's not ideal but when you aren't the most skillful ballplayer around safety first works for me.
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At least Baker is a stalwart and rarely injured. He also had a run of very good games last season which is easily overlooked.
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At least Baker is a stalwart and rarely injured. He also had a run of very good games last season which is easily overlooked.
Eh? Baker has been injured several times over the last two seasons.
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At least Baker is a stalwart and rarely injured. He also had a run of very good games last season which is easily overlooked.
Eh? Baker has been injured several times over the last two seasons.
He's missed the odd game or two rather than being sidelined for weeks and months .
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Baker is an easy target for criticism. He got dogs abuse last season much of it unwarranted.
No, entirely warranted. His regularly got himself into trouble due to his poor positioning, rash tackles and awful distribution. Fair play to him he has tightened up this season but let's not try to pretend he is something he isn't.
I really don't understand why this position on Baker is so difficult to accept. He was at times last season simply awful. And he has absolutely improved this season, and good on him for that. Long may it continue.
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I see much improvement in Baker and all credit to him and his coaches.
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It's because he has grown a beard.
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It's because he has grown a beard.
I think he had one last year. What is clear to me is that his beard has had a frank conversation with Keane's. It is the only explanation I can come up with for the sudden improvement in his form.
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Baker was superb IMO yesterday and he does seem to have improved from last season. As for his passing, Ken McNaught and Allan Evans were not the most elegant of passers, but were ok for me
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The only purpose of yesterday's fixture imo is to see who looked comfortable in that company , as it is a non starter as a competitive football fixture,
Those that looked ok/comfortable:
Senderos
Baker
Cleverly
Delph
N'Zogbia
Those out of their depth
Weimann
Bacuna
Grealish
The jury is out on the rest.
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The only purpose of yesterday's fixture imo is to see who looked comfortable in that company , as it is a non starter as a competitive football fixture,
Those that looked ok/comfortable:
Senderos
Baker
Cleverly
Delph
N'Zogbia
Those out of their depth
Weimann
Bacuna
Grealish
The jury is out on the rest.
I thought our keeper and full-backs looked okay too.
I've read a lot more sense in the last few pages of this thread than in the first few.
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Guzan played well, thought Cissokho was very good, Hutton was shattered but did well. You forgot Westwood by the way, he was excellent. Personally I thought N'Zog did well
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The beard makes Baker look like Mellberg that must be the key to his improvement right? ;)
I will admit I have only seen the highlights from yesterday, but from what I have seen I don't know if he did defend that well. It seem more a case of Guzan being in great form, City wasting chances, and a little bit of luck on our part why we almost got a point. Mostly, I blame Lambert for being too negative. A big reason why we beat them last season was because of how we pressed them in midfield, while still counter attacking effectively. Yesterday we got that balance wrong.
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The reason we lost wasn't Baker so not sure why we're crossing swords over a player who played well yesterday.
Funny how fans of other clubs saw it yesterday. 6 ot 7 different people couldn't wait to give their judgement yesterday and all were saying that they thought we played well yesterday. When you're too close to the emotive side of football it's easy to miss the bigger picture as we just want one side to win.
As it is for next week I'd drop Weimann and Richardson. I have been disappointed with Richardson as I haven't seen what he delivers apart from huff and puff. I'd also drop NZogbia. If Gabby's fit I'd start him wide, maybe give Sanchez a start and put Cleverley further upfield.
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I cant understand the criticism of Cleverley earlier in the thread, I thought that was by far his best performance for us so far.
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The beard makes Baker look like Mellberg that must be the key to his improvement right? ;)
I will admit I have only seen the highlights from yesterday, but from what I have seen I don't know if he did defend that well. It seem more a case of Guzan being in great form, City wasting chances, and a little bit of luck on our part why we almost got a point. Mostly, I blame Lambert for being too negative. A big reason why we beat them last season was because of how we pressed them in midfield, while still counter attacking effectively. Yesterday we got that balance wrong.
Trust me, you are totally wrong.
As for people having a dig at Cleverley, not read that, just concerns he is too similar to Westwood which I personally dont agree with as totally different players
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The only purpose of yesterday's fixture imo is to see who looked comfortable in that company , as it is a non starter as a competitive football fixture,
Those that looked ok/comfortable:
Senderos
Baker
Cleverly
Delph
N'Zogbia
Those out of their depth
Weimann
Bacuna
Grealish
The jury is out on the rest.
Harsh to be saying a 19-year old who has only played a handful of games and only got a few minutes in the game is out of his depth. It would be nice if players were given a decent chance before being written off rather than expecting instant, overwhelming success and anything otherwise is failure.
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The beard makes Baker look like Mellberg that must be the key to his improvement right? ;)
I will admit I have only seen the highlights from yesterday, but from what I have seen I don't know if he did defend that well. It seem more a case of Guzan being in great form, City wasting chances, and a little bit of luck on our part why we almost got a point. Mostly, I blame Lambert for being too negative. A big reason why we beat them last season was because of how we pressed them in midfield, while still counter attacking effectively. Yesterday we got that balance wrong.
Yesterday we did well, pressing them in midfield like last season until about 60 minutes when we seemed to suddenly drop back 10 yards. That was when Toure started to come into the game - he'd done NOTHING until then - all of a sudden it was like a game of shots-in, Ci£y doing whatever they liked. Ironic that when Benteke came on to give us a boost, we resorted to hoofball! Either shit instructions from the bench or a collective decision by the team to surrender!
I was honestly embarrassed by the Toure goal - his "dummy" was spotted 5 minutes earlier by most of the Upper Holte.
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More likely that we tried to get the ball up to him quickly so that it could stick. We had no other out ball.
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We can't really judge Grealish on saturday. He's not a fullback and he essentially had to play as a second left back. Which made his inclusion pretty pointless because his game should be about influencing things in the final third.
Lets give him a start against QPR or Everton and see how he does in games we SHOULD be looking at attacking more. If we're just gonna sit 10 men behind the ball for 90% of both games then we might as well just play a backline of Lowton, Hutton, Okore, Vlaar, Senderos, Baker, Clark, Cissokho and Stevens and then play Benteke up front on his own. Or failing that turn off all the lights, board up all the windows and lock all the gates at Villa park and leave a sign written on cardboad hanging over the gates saying "Closed for business."
Then leave all our players in the carpark hanging out the boots of their cars waiting to be snapped up on the cheap by opportunistic managers. Redknapp would undoubtedly be first to show up, rubbing his hands with glee at the prospect of getting a 30 year old as well travelled as Kieren Richardson and subsequently offer him an 80k a week contract for 6 years.
I can just about understand being so negative against the cheating bastards like Chelsea and City, but if we don't try and compete as an attacking force against the likes of Everton and especially QPR, then we might as well pack it in. No football fan wants to see relentlessly negative and dour football. We want attack, goals, we want liquid football. We want to see the opposition goalkeeper with football pie all over his face.
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I don't think the plan was to be negative on Saturday. They've obviously had Man City watched and noticed that they could be caught on the break, hence the reason maybe why Gabby and N'Zogbia were down to start. I said during the summer I would have liked us to bring in another speedy forward player for when Gabby's not around and we could have done with that at the weekend because apart from N'Zogbia, there's no-one else with pace.
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Agree about Grealish. What was the point of bringing him on and playing him as a defensive wide player? We would have been better off bringing Clark on and pushing Cissokho (sp) a bit further forward.
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I think it was a mistake too and would have kept Richardson on.
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Watching motd this morning. We just let toure run with it before he scored , Delph seemed to run along the side of him instead of towards him and blocking him. Very poor
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Watching motd this morning. We just let toure run with it before he scored , Delph seemed to run along the side of him instead of towards him and blocking him. Very poor
Toure had been pretty poor up to that point. Not particularly interested and way off the marauding beast who absolutely mullered us at the Etihad last season. He almost seemed to jog forward with the ball very easily and it was poor defending on our point. I don't think he broke sweat all game. Maybe he's still waiting for his birthday cake.
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Watching motd this morning. We just let toure run with it before he scored , Delph seemed to run along the side of him instead of towards him and blocking him. Very poor
Toure had been pretty poor up to that point. Not particularly interested and way off the marauding beast who absolutely mullered us at the Etihad last season. He almost seemed to jog forward with the ball very easily and it was poor defending on our point. I don't think he broke sweat all game. Maybe he's still waiting for his birthday cake.
He also ran away from the city fans after the goal rather than celebrate with them, the big sulky baby.
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Watching motd this morning. We just let toure run with it before he scored , Delph seemed to run along the side of him instead of towards him and blocking him. Very poor
Toure had been pretty poor up to that point. Not particularly interested and way off the marauding beast who absolutely mullered us at the Etihad last season. He almost seemed to jog forward with the ball very easily and it was poor defending on our point. I don't think he broke sweat all game. Maybe he's still waiting for his birthday cake.
He also ran away from the city fans after the goal rather than celebrate with them, the big sulky baby.
Could we need leave a trail of birthday cakes from the Etihad to Villa Park in January? And we'll make sure we get him a card and pressie every year.
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I hope City get relegated.
I am a bad loser
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Think the International break should work in our favour this time as the likes of Benteke will have the chance to get fit. The next few weeks should prove important in deciding what position of the table we will be competing in this season.
Agree about the long ball and Benteke. If we were already losing when he came on then I could understand it a bit more, but with it being 0-0 then I might have gone for something a little more precise.
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Benteke, Gabby and Vlaar coming back in and being fit will be a big boost for us ahead of Everton.
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Watching motd this morning. We just let toure run with it before he scored , Delph seemed to run along the side of him instead of towards him and blocking him. Very poor
Toure had been pretty poor up to that point. Not particularly interested and way off the marauding beast who absolutely mullered us at the Etihad last season. He almost seemed to jog forward with the ball very easily and it was poor defending on our point. I don't think he broke sweat all game. Maybe he's still waiting for his birthday cake.
He also ran away from the city fans after the goal rather than celebrate with them, the big sulky baby.
My Mrs and lad were in the family stand, she reckons when he ran over he was shouting f**k off at the Villa fans!
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Agree about Grealish. What was the point of bringing him on and playing him as a defensive wide player? We would have been better off bringing Clark on and pushing Cissokho (sp) a bit further forward.
Turn it round though, he tried to have a go with a more attacking player. Had he made the substitution you suggest and we still went on to lose the game (more than likely), he'd have got stick for being too negative and not 'having a go'. He can't win.
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I know no-one wants to hear it or will probably even read it but their team that started against us costs more than it would to buy Aston Villa Football Club lock stock and barrel. So no point in moaning about it, last season proved every now and then we'll get a result but 9/10 they'll beat us.
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I know no-one wants to hear it or will probably even read it but their team that started against us costs more than it would to buy Aston Villa Football Club lock stock and barrel. So no point in moaning about it, last season proved every now and then we'll get a result but 9/10 they'll beat us.
Blimey, never thought of it like that but you're absolutely right. Really puts it into perspective...."too much f**king perspective!". Name that rockumentery............