Heroes & Villains, the Aston Villa fanzine
Heroes & Villains => Match Threads & Player Ratings => Topic started by: Dave on December 02, 2014, 09:51:29 PM
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Phew.
But still absolutely horrendous tactically.
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Three points! That's eased the pressure on my turtles head.
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Awful to watch. But fucking delighted to win.
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4 unbeaten. What a manager!
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WE WINNED! WE WINNED A MATCH!
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Another four-year contract extension awaits, no doubt.
Oh well, a win is a win.
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Three points, due to Benteke's brilliance. Utter, utter shit, apart from that.
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Never had any doubt 😡😟
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I feel like I'm going to wake up soon and find we lost 3-0. Thank fook for that.
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Probably the worst we've played in the last 5 or 6 games by some distance, and it's the only one we've won. It's a funny old game.
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That could well rank as one of the most unimpressive wins we've mustered. Absolutely dreadful. A moment of class from Benteke but as soon as he scored, we sat back even deeper than before and he become more like a defensive striker.
He was the only good player on display. The rest are average at best.
Both sides were shit. Palace had all the game but created little thanks to horrific delivery.
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I'm glad we won. I'm glad we have Benteke. I'm glad we faced the two most harebrained wingers in the history of civilization tonight.
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3 points is 3 points and my oh my how we needed them. Did we really play that badly?
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You lucky sod Lambert.
Good to get a win, but same story week after week after week. Why go into retreat after taking the lead?
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Four more years ! Four more years!
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A win finally, but largely all down to a brilliant goal by Benteke. Okore did well as well. However we got lucky, because we got it tactically wrong as always in the second half. Westwood may well as not have been on the pitch in the second half, if he ever touched the ball he gave it away. It's a relief to get a win, but as is usual with Lambert's wins there is nothing to suggest we could go on a run of wins.
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Most important thing = three points. Second most important = Benteke scoring again.
However, Palace are utterly useless up front, but battered us for most of that game.
The same tactical nonsense from us, the same giving the ball away constantly, the same dropping deeper and deeper.
Great to have some points on the board, but nothing to suggest he's learning any lessons.
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12th and 5 points clear. Unbeaten for four games.
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Hutton was a colossus
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Once again awful tactics and a better side would have punished us.
Very welcome return for Benteke with a class goal.
The main reason we held out though is that I didn't post in the match thread. So I won't do that from now on.
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We won out of pure luck. The football was at a new level of horrendous for me, absolutely awful.
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Don't be fooled. One game closer I guess to getting some players back
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Great result but lets not kid ourselves, daylight robbery.Any other opposition tonight and we'd probably have been dead and buried by the final whistle. Despite the win Lambert has proved he is incapable of producing a Villa side that can build up a run of momentum, I predict the usual piss poor home performance and result at the weekend.
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That was almost physically painful to watch but three points are three points. Up to the dizzy heights of 12th!
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I thought Hutton and Clark were excellent.
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Four games without defeat. Lambert is a genius.
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Up to 12th. What a brilliant manager
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Ooh - twelfth place and 5 points above the drop zone with a fit again Benteke and the two most out of form sides in the league to play next? Yes please
Fucking horrible game though.We were very lucky today. I thought Palace were shit and we still had most of the best chances
And the nerves must have affected us of course. But the whole shape of the side looked crap to me. Hope we don't play that uber-narrow 442 against Leicester
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Hallafuckinlujah!
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Finally a win...clean sheet too.
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Sometimes, when you're as thick as pig shit, all you can do is dig in and fight. One moment of genius won it, the rest was just dim and dogged.
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A horrible, scrappy win, with a shit ref. yep, I'll take that. UTV!
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Again for me, Westwood, Cleverley are not premiership players....I don't care what anyone says, they offer nothing going forward or defensively.
One moment of class from the big guy, enjoy people, he won;t be here next season.
The back four and Brad....superb, just superb.
Now lets do Leicester.
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Most important thing = three points. Second most important = Benteke scoring again.
However, Palace are utterly useless up front, but battered us for most of that game.
The same tactical nonsense from us, the same giving the ball away constantly, the same dropping deeper and deeper.
Great to have some points on the board, but nothing to suggest he's learning any lessons.
Yep.
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We were utterly dire overall. I'll take the scraps.
Let's see if we can put our beloved bitter neighbours from the East Midlands to bed on Sunday.
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Hope we don't play that uber-narrow 442 against Leicester
No Weimann, so we'll be changing something.
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For once my pre-match prediction was right.
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Four games without defeat. Lambert is a genius.
Time for contract extension...maybe another 12 months on top?
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I thought Hutton and Clark were excellent.
Agreed and although Cissokho started well he deteriorated badly.
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Brilliant feeling to enjoy a bloody win at last. Manager still has to go. Can we sack off the ''front 3'' thing sometime soon?
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I thought we were excellent, can't wait to go again!
Sorry I've had too much Domestos!
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Dunno whether to laugh or cry.
No chance of getting rid of this moron now.
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Clark,Hutton and Benteke played very well. Cleverley put in an enormous shift. Sanchez finished the game. Zaha must be the worst crosser I have seen in years.
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Thank God for that, a few celebratory beers tonight.
Only 4 pts behind Arsenal. Beat Leicester and West Brom in what are winnable games and we could over take them.
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Dunno whether to laugh or cry.
No chance of getting rid of this moron now.
he's got another four years after tonight, no doubt.
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We are still awful. Defence played well, Guzan had a bit of a mare unusually for him. Benteke magic for his goal. Gabby, Weimann, cleverly and Lowton gave the ball away too much.
It reminded me of a cup game where we were the plucky underdogs, who came and defended the whole game, and got a goal against the run of play.
We play too narrow, and give the ball away too much.
Hutton MOTM for me.
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WE WINNED! WE WINNED A MATCH!
I think you will find the correct exclamation is "WE WONNED!" Monty ;-)
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8pts off Champions League.
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Loved the look on Warnock's face as lambert shook his hand.
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3 welcome points but we are stinking this league up.
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A win is always gratefully received, but that was tough to watch. Palace absolutely murdered us for most of the game. I'll echo everyone else who stated that better teams will just beat us pretty easily if we continue to play like that.
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Well, hopefully that will ease some of the relegation fears. We've now played successive games against dire opposition with a game against another poor team to on Saturday.
We are fucking awful, just not quite as awful as others.
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Benteke goal apart, the level of fight from the players was the only real positive.
Oh that and the 3 points, obviously.
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As pants a 1-0 win as you could see. Will take it.
Winning on Sunday is massive. No point winning if you can't get some momentum going too.
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Just relief, of course it's great actually winning a game but relief is all I'm feeling!
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Really looking forward to the Warnock post match interview!!
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Again for me, Westwood, Cleverley are not premiership players....I don't care what anyone says, they offer nothing going forward or defensively.
One moment of class from the big guy, enjoy people, he won;t be here next season.
The back four and Brad....superb, just superb.
Now lets do Leicester.
Here here. I am in complete agreement.
My dad, a huge Leicester (and Villa, due to me) fan said they were unlucky tonight, but their captain and best defender was sent off.
We'll beat them!
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A horrible, scrappy win, with a shit ref. yep, I'll take that. UTV!
A bit unfair on the ref. He didn't cave in to their appealing for penalties and the crowd baying for blood.
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Very pleased we won for all the fantastic fans who went. Better fans than me as this is a game I have always gone to and yet I just couldn't be bothered to give up six odd hours and a pile of money to watch the shit we serve up.
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That's a perfect night results wise.
Painful listening though. If I was a Palace supporter I'd be really pissed off with that. Haha
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I think the chairman should make a statement involving shunamites and the great sacrifices he has asked Paul to make.
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Happy with that....dont care about the quality of the game as stopping the rot from the Wet Sham game onwards has been not pretty....time for us to start believing that we can actually get something from games.
Enjoy tonight my fellow Villa fans.....
UTV
The Doc. :)
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Yes!
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I actually feel deflated - couldn't look at the match thread - checked at half-time and left it until FT.
This is no way to enjoy yourself
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I'm relieved and deflated at the same time. I will always want villa to win no matter what, but Benteke has kept Lambert in a job there. Can anyone tell me, what is our game plan? I'm not after hyperbole or lambert bashing I just want to know how are we supposed to be playing. Because for aprox 85mins of that match it was either boot it as far away as you can or keep passing the ball backwards till Guzan gets it and boots it as far as he can. We get deeper and deeper till around the 80th minute when we are camped on the edge of our own box and its backs to the wall, Alamo defending. Palace should have won that but we got lucky.
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We are still awful. Defence played well, Guzan had a bit of a mare unusually for him. Benteke magic for his goal. Gabby, Weimann, cleverly and Lowton gave the ball away too much.
It reminded me of a cup game where we were the plucky underdogs, who came and defended the whole game, and got a goal against the run of play.
We play too narrow, and give the ball away too much.
Hutton MOTM for me.
Did Lowton play? Or was he that bad that I didn't notice him?
It's Westwood who gets to me. A woeful set piece taker and all round general footballer.
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Hope we don't play that uber-narrow 442 against Leicester
No Weimann, so we'll be changing something.
Thank f*** for that. What was the point of having Weimann and Gabby on the pitch second half. They offer nothing when you are trying to play tight and hold onto the ball.
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We are still awful. Defence played well, Guzan had a bit of a mare unusually for him. Benteke magic for his goal. Gabby, Weimann, cleverly and Lowton gave the ball away too much.
It reminded me of a cup game where we were the plucky underdogs, who came and defended the whole game, and got a goal against the run of play.
We play too narrow, and give the ball away too much.
Hutton MOTM for me.
Did Lowton play? Or was he that bad that I didn't notice him?
It's Westwood who gets to me. A woeful set piece taker and all round general footballer.
Lowton didn't play.
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Again for me, Westwood, Cleverley are not premiership players....I don't care what anyone says, they offer nothing going forward or defensively.
One moment of class from the big guy, enjoy people, he won;t be here next season.
The back four and Brad....superb, just superb.
Now lets do Leicester.
Here here. I am in complete agreement.
My dad, a huge Leicester (and Villa, due to me) fan said they were unlucky tonight, but their captain and best defender was sent off.
We'll beat them!
I can't comprehend 2 wins on the trot...dreams!
But big bonus Morgan being sent off....that game will be crying out for a Benteke bullet header.
Roll on Sunday, we can't lose with this back four :)
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Again for me, Westwood, Cleverley are not premiership players....I don't care what anyone says, they offer nothing going forward or defensively.
One moment of class from the big guy, enjoy people, he won;t be here next season.
The back four and Brad....superb, just superb.
Now lets do Leicester.
Here here. I am in complete agreement.
My dad, a huge Leicester (and Villa, due to me) fan said they were unlucky tonight, but their captain and best defender was sent off.
We'll beat them!
Bloody hell AR you are doing well. Must be time to go to work?
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We are still awful. Defence played well, Guzan had a bit of a mare unusually for him. Benteke magic for his goal. Gabby, Weimann, cleverly and Lowton gave the ball away too much.
It reminded me of a cup game where we were the plucky underdogs, who came and defended the whole game, and got a goal against the run of play.
We play too narrow, and give the ball away too much.
Hutton MOTM for me.
Did Lowton play? Or was he that bad that I didn't notice him?
It's Westwood who gets to me. A woeful set piece taker and all round general footballer.
You're right I meant Westwood. I am all light headed after looking at the table.
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12th, how are we 12th... we were very fortunate tonight. Great to get a win and move up the table but it is just papering over the cracks. Positives were the clean sheet, Benteke, Hutton & Sanchez still running at the end and the fans but we hardly had a sniff in the second half and TSM2 continues providing us with this dross.
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We are still awful. Defence played well, Guzan had a bit of a mare unusually for him. Benteke magic for his goal. Gabby, Weimann, cleverly and Lowton gave the ball away too much.
It reminded me of a cup game where we were the plucky underdogs, who came and defended the whole game, and got a goal against the run of play.
We play too narrow, and give the ball away too much.
Hutton MOTM for me.
Did Lowton play? Or was he that bad that I didn't notice him?
It's Westwood who gets to me. A woeful set piece taker and all round general footballer.
Lowton didn't play.
Neither did Gabby or Westwood.
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12th, how are we 12th... we were very fortunate tonight. Great to get a win and move up the table but it is just papering over the cracks. Positives were the clean sheet, Benteke, Hutton & Sanchez still running at the end and the fans but we hardly had a sniff in the second half and TSM2 continues providing us with this dross.
I cant believe there are eight sides below us, I really cant.
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We are still awful. Defence played well, Guzan had a bit of a mare unusually for him. Benteke magic for his goal. Gabby, Weimann, cleverly and Lowton gave the ball away too much.
It reminded me of a cup game where we were the plucky underdogs, who came and defended the whole game, and got a goal against the run of play.
We play too narrow, and give the ball away too much.
Hutton MOTM for me.
Did Lowton play? Or was he that bad that I didn't notice him?
It's Westwood who gets to me. A woeful set piece taker and all round general footballer.
Lowton didn't play.
Neither did Gabby or Westwood.
or Weimann
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Happy with the win, but to be honest from what I saw of the game I am still not very pleased with the way we are playing.
Oh well.... UTV, we are SURGING up the table!
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I'm taking full credit for this as, for the first time ever, I voted for us to lose on the pre-match poll.
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Have we now got more points than goals or the other way about?
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Lambert just said "we like to try to pass it".
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It's mental to think, but if we'd held on against Burnley and Saints like we should have, and got a point from Spurs like we also should have, we'd currently be 7th. Shows how poor the division is these days.
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16 points, eight goals!
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I feel like I'm going to wake up soon and find we lost 3-0. Thank fook for that.
Done the opposite. 8 hours ahead where I am, just woke up from a vivid dream that we had lost 2-1 and I had lobbed my phone in anger at full time and broke it, great to see we actually WON and I still have a working phone
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I'm relieved and deflated at the same time. I will always want villa to win no matter what, but Benteke has kept Lambert in a job there. Can anyone tell me, what is our game plan? I'm not after hyperbole or lambert bashing I just want to know how are we supposed to be playing. Because for aprox 85mins of that match it was either boot it as far away as you can or keep passing the ball backwards till Guzan gets it and boots it as far as he can. We get deeper and deeper till around the 80th minute when we are camped on the edge of our own box and its backs to the wall, Alamo defending. Palace should have won that but we got lucky.
Exactly. We did not win because we are good, but because Palace did not take their chances. Glad we won, but at the same time not hoping that this will mean Lambert here next season as well. The football is terrible. Again, sitting far too deep second half. We do it game after game after game...
Clark and Hutton were very good. Cissokho exposed in the first half. I think Okore reads the game well and will only improve. His passing is also good. Cleverley and Weimann worked hard, but created nothing. Gabby offered nothing. Benteke´s goal was class. Regarding Westwood, wenn we sit so deep as usual second half, he finds it very hard. That "game plan" suits Sanchez better.
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As nice as it is to finally win unless we massively change our style of play we will be stuck in footballing purgatory for the foreseeable future.
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22 points from safety
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Lambert just said "we like to try to pass it".
well we do try........we just don't quite manage it! Lambert is surely on Domestos!
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Lambert just said "we like to try to pass it".
To be fair he did say we like to try to pass it, not that we actually do pass it ;)
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Lambert just said "we like to try to pass it".
Ha!
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Lambert just said "we like to try to pass it".
HA HA HA HA HA HA HA
The deluded cock
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Can't believe we're actually above 8 clubs.
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There has to be a freak game, when we play well, surely!
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Lambert just said "we like to try to pass it".
to the opposition.
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Our first win at Selhurst since a certain Mr Atkinson ran the length of the pitch and scored the goal of the season in 1992.
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Such an important win for us tonight. 3 points on Sunday and we can breath a bit.
Oh and thank god Benteke is back.
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Just got back.
Can't tell you anything about the game as I was watching through my fingers.
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As nice as it is to finally win unless we massively change our style of play we will be stuck in footballing purgatory for the foreseeable future.
Agree entirely.
Tonight was great to get the three points, but it was a perfect example of the weaknesses we suffer.
Inability to keep the ball, dropping deeper and deeper, Weimann and Gabby practically in a different post code to the rest of the players, all that stuff still in evidence.
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Our first win at Selhurst since a certain Mr Atkinson ran the length of the pitch and scored the goal of the season in 1992.
Nope I'm wrong, Savo and Alan Wright Wright Wright scored two blinders in a 2-0 in 1997 I do believe.
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Can't believe we're actually above 8 clubs.
Or,to put it another way, there's 8 clubs thinking 'how the fcuk are we below Villa'
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Hard to disagree with the other comments, a moment of brilliance in the midst of a truly disgraceful performance has probably kept Lambert in a job, I have no idea how we kept a clean sheet, palace were unbelievably shit in the final 3rd.
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Can't believe we're actually above 8 clubs.
Or,to put it another way, there's 8 clubs thinking 'how the fcuk are we below Villa'
Because they're worse than us maybe?
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Well that's simply delusional.
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Nice to win, but I still think we'll be relying on there being 3 clubs worse than us by the end of the season, and the football is still rancid.
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Think i'm in the majority that are thankful for the win but depressed that Lambert will be with us forever now.
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I think it was after Southampton away last season I said we should have been wearing masks. After that match I'll add stripy jumpers and a bag with 'swag' written on it. Still, 3 points is all that matters.
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Hard to disagree with the other comments, a moment of brilliance in the midst of a truly disgraceful performance has probably kept Lambert in a job, I have no idea how we kept a clean sheet, palace were unbelievably shit in the final 3rd.
Palace we absolutely brimming with energy and drive, but like you said, truly fucking awful in the final third, absolutely hopeless.
The fact we were so dreadful but managed to win there says a lot.
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Well we're four unbeaten, Benteke is on the score sheet, hopefully Ron and Senderos soon to be fit. If we can just bring in a decent coach to whip us into a footballing team and try and get us to play some football we might survive. If we keep doing this week in week out we wont. I don't mean the winning part but the backs to the wall shear panic and the hot potato for a football.
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Oh and I've only just realised we're above Albion. I was wondering why my phone was a bit quiet.
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Sanchez did well I thought.
Agbonlahor and Weimann didn't offer much.
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The last time we won at Palace (also 1-0) we went on to win the league.
Chesea only 17 pts ahead.
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The last time we won at Palace (also 1-0) we went on to win the league.
Chesea only 17 pts ahead.
cant believe we only 4 pts off Arsenal and Liverpool
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Sanchez did well I thought.
Agbonlahor and Weimann didn't offer much.
Sanchez looks like he has excellent technique, but frequently looks absolutely terrified. I think he's one of those who would improve significantly in a team with a bit of nous
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The last time we won at Palace (also 1-0) we went on to win the league.
Chesea only 17 pts ahead.
cant believe we only 4 pts off Arsenal and Liverpool
Maybe we're not always as bad as we think we are.
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How have we got 16 points by only scoring 8 goals so far?
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The last time we won at Palace (also 1-0) we went on to win the league.
Chesea only 17 pts ahead.
cant believe we only 4 pts off Arsenal and Liverpool
Maybe we're not always as bad as we think we are.
Oh Yes we are! (Well it is almost panto season)
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Warnock, for once, not being a twat with his post-match comments:
Crystal Palace manager Neil Warnock speaking to BBC Sport: "I think if we had Christian Benteke we would have won comfortably and that is what we are looking for in January. We are just missing that quality at the front.
"We do need that Benteke and they are hard to come by. Hopefully we can get one sooner rather than later.
"I can't fault the lads and now we have to do it the difficult way and get points at some tough places. We didn't create enough in the box.
"Sometimes you have to make your own luck and we didn't do that, although we huffed and puffed. We are shooting ourselves in the foot."
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The last time we won at Palace (also 1-0) we went on to win the league.
Chesea only 17 pts ahead.
cant believe we only 4 pts off Arsenal and Liverpool
Maybe we're not always as bad as we think we are.
Oh Yes we are! (Well it is almost panto season)
Make no mistake, we were terrible tonight. However, get a few players back there is a half-decent team in there somewhere if someone would produce some tactics for them to follow.
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Lambert just said "we like to try to pass it".
If kicking the ball as far as possible and hope somebody is near it is passing, then they do like to try to pass it. Must try harder to get a player nearer to where the ball lands!
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Lucky tonight but we've been unlucky in the past so I'll take it. Plenty of effort off the lads but the way he sets the team up to play is shocking.
On the plus side we have a few to come back but lambert just looks like little boy lost at the minute. Totally clueless when we are under the cosh, shows no real invention in order to change the game around.
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Lucky tonight but we've been unlucky in the past so I'll take it. Plenty of effort off the lads but the way he sets the team up to play is shocking.
On the plus side we have a few to come back but lambert just looks like little boy lost at the minute. Totally clueless when we are under the cosh, shows no real invention in order to change the game around.
What we need is a good tactician, if he comes in to work with TSM2 or has the job himself, we need adaptability.
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Warnock, for once, not being a twat with his post-match comments:
Crystal Palace manager Neil Warnock speaking to BBC Sport: "I think if we had Christian Benteke we would have won comfortably and that is what we are looking for in January. We are just missing that quality at the front.
"We do need that Benteke and they are hard to come by. Hopefully we can get one sooner rather than later.
"I can't fault the lads and now we have to do it the difficult way and get points at some tough places. We didn't create enough in the box.
"Sometimes you have to make your own luck and we didn't do that, although we huffed and puffed. We are shooting ourselves in the foot."
Fairplay to him. Two very similar quality sides, but one has a high quality forward and the other doesn't.
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On my way home, and haven't read the thread. Pleased with the win, but God do we lack ideas. Positives for me were Hutton's performance (my MOTM), another game for Okore to get up to speed (thought he did ok), and Benteke's goal. Otherwise it was pretty shit. Guzan's kicking, Clark's distribution, and a general lack of any kind of plan as to how to break the opposition down, were the main negatives for me.
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Lambert is lucky three times over tonight.
Lucky that Joe Cole's max 80 minutes in a calendar year contract meant that we had to bring on Sanchez (who I thought did well, especially considering whenever he won the ball there wad never anyone within 20 yards of him.)
Lucky that Benteke is a class above and still gives enough of a shit to work for his money (unlike someone like Balotelli)
Lucky that Palace had one of those nights where they could have played until midnight and not scored.
Plus points.
Hutton looks like a professional footballer and actually showed some of that mythical nous several times in the last 10 minutes.
Clark looks like the time out of the firing line has done him the world good based on the last 3 games. He might still have a career at this level.
Benteke has still got it.
Sanchez did well in a one man midfield.
Okore continues to show promise and good luck trying to muscle him off the ball.Don't know if 3 games in 8 days after 14 months out caught up with him, but a lot of his errors looked like the sort of mistakes you make when you're knackered.
Rest of it from pretty posh to bloody awful.
Sisokho. Another in a fine line of left backs who've started off OK and then gone downhill quicker than an olympic skier.
Cleverley. Please tell me the 8 million is paid in biscuit crumbs. Anything else is robbery.
Gabby and Weimann. Other than Andi running around a lot (I liked the dog running after a ball description on the match thread) what do they actually contribute to our attacking play?
The manager. Well he's bought himself and us a little breathing space, but bloody hell we're awful to watch. Tactics that make Sunday pub football look like a battle between tica taca and German power.
Here's hoping this 4 game unbeaten run doesn't unleash what the last one did.
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I don't think we were lucky to win. There's a reason why Palace were shit in the final third, it' because they're rather shit overall. We were crap to watch, but we deserved the win tonight.
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when will we get to the magical 20 point mark......perhaps at OT
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Lambert is lucky three times over tonight.
Lucky that Joe Cole's max 80 minutes in a calendar year contract meant that we had to bring on Sanchez (who I thought did well, especially considering whenever he won the ball there wad never anyone within 20 yards of him.)
Lucky that Benteke is a class above and still gives enough of a shit to work for his money (unlike someone like Balotelli)
Lucky that Palace had one of those nights where they could have played until midnight and not scored.
Plus points.
Hutton looks like a professional footballer and actually showed some of that mythical nous several times in the last 10 minutes.
Clark looks like the time out of the firing line has done him the world good based on the last 3 games. He might still have a career at this level.
Benteke has still got it.
Sanchez did well in a one man midfield.
Okore continues to show promise and good luck trying to muscle him off the ball.Don't know if 3 games in 8 days after 14 months out caught up with him, but a lot of his errors looked like the sort of mistakes you make when you're knackered.
Rest of it from pretty posh to bloody awful.
Sisokho. Another in a fine line of left backs who've started off OK and then gone downhill quicker than an olympic skier.
Cleverley. Please tell me the 8 million is paid in biscuit crumbs. Anything else is robbery.
Gabby and Weimann. Other than Andi running around a lot (I liked the dog running after a ball description on the match thread) what do they actually contribute to our attacking play?
The manager. Well he's bought himself and us a little breathing space, but bloody hell we're awful to watch. Tactics that make Sunday pub football look like a battle between tica taca and German power.
Here's hoping this 4 game unbeaten run doesn't unleash what the last one did.
As ive been saying since Jesus was a lad the front three dont work. Far better to have a creative player like jack or Richardson instead of gabby. Feel a bot sorry for Andi. He is striker being continually asked to play wide right just in front of Hutton. bonkers
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Our first win at Selhurst since a certain Mr Atkinson ran the length of the pitch and scored the goal of the season in 1992.
Sure we won there in 96/97 when Wimbledon played there
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I was there and I feel a lot more encouraged than many of you. We didn't capitulate as we did against Spurs and Burnley. We defended resolutely, with Guzan, Hutton, Clark and Okore all having good games. Westwood was effective in an unshowy way. Benteke was a handful and scored a fine goal. And we won at Palace, something I've only seen us do once or twice in 40 years. So I'm not moaning, I'm celebrating.
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Sanchez did well I thought.
Agbonlahor and Weimann didn't offer much.
Sanchez looks like he has excellent technique, but frequently looks absolutely terrified.
At least once a game, he get's the ball, goes on a run, seems to run out of ideas then loses it. Other than that, I really do like him. He looks a bargain at Ł4m.
As for the game, it's a good and much needed win. That said, we can't keep trying to catch teams on the break like we're doing because more often than not, we'll lose. We look a decent side when we've got the ball, but we don't keep it enough. It's annoying because there's something to work with there.
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We were second best for pretty much the whole game.
We got away with it and most times if you play like that you will deservedly get beat.
Love the win but hate the way this manager sets tis team up. Clueless
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....and home. I love Palace, such an easy place to get back from.
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Aston Villa manager Paul Lambert: "We are unbeaten in four and have won at a difficult place. Coming here [and winning] was a massive result, but I thought it was well deserved.
"I thought it was a big, big performance. I have played with some world class strikers and Christian Benteke, if he keeps progressing, could be one of the best. The performance was massive for us.
"We are up to 12th, we have had a lot of players out, so the progress is there. I understand the disappointment because Aston Villa are a huge, huge football club."
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After the run we've had, you just need to get a win. If that means winning a horrible game, so be it. I just hope the confidence we get from that allows to play better stuff in the next games.
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Our first win at Selhurst since a certain Mr Atkinson ran the length of the pitch and scored the goal of the season in 1992.
Sure we won there in 96/97 when Wimbledon played there
I thought the game in 92 was at Plough Lane.
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I'm a can of westwood but I thought he was poor. Sanchez did wel
The shape was really terrible though. There was normally at most one option for the man on the ball. You want two or three
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Our first win at Selhurst since a certain Mr Atkinson ran the length of the pitch and scored the goal of the season in 1992.
Sure we won there in 96/97 when Wimbledon played there
I thought the game in 92 was at Plough Lane.
Nah.
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To be honest lads, I can understand us sitting deeper in the second half. Both out full backs got destroyed in the first half so unfortunately leaving less space behind was probably the least worst option. Great shift put in by the players but we were reduced to aiming for spectators in the stand for most of the second half. We played a lot better at Burnley and I thought were in complete control before the penalty. Sometimes thats the way it goes, if Palace had a Danny Ings we would have been soundly beaten tonight. Bolasie is someone who would definitely improve us.
Tonight was more evidence that we are really going to struggle to score goals this season. Benteke created his two chances himself, was a decentish move for Weimann's chance. I thought Westwood's set pieces were good, Benteke was inches away from heading one of them in the second half that would have been a certain goal. But that is it. No threat out wide, no-one from midfield breaking forward, no decent shots from distance. No guile either, Cleverley and Westwood making five yard passes to each other without moving is where we tend to get stuck. Players are supposed to pass and move, ours just pass most of the time. Delph is badly missed in this regard.
Cleverley worked hard but added no quality on the ball. The game apart from the set pieces passed Westwood by. Gabby was anonymous. I said before the game that its pointless playing him up top with Benteke in a partnership and that was the way it turned out. Understand that we probably had to change things to get Weimann and Cleverley on the flanks supporting the full backs but Gabby really was hopeless. Cissokoho had a horror show first half but was far tighter after the break to Zaha, illegally so a lot of the time. Hutton struggled with Bolasie but again was much better second half. Okore did some good things but this was a game too far for him tonight. Positionally he was a bit of mess and made loads of poor decisions. Clark was by a mile our man of the match. Took some whack in the face early on to save a certain goal. Tough too, passed a fitness test and took a load of knocks on the night. Not sure if he is a long term option for us but fair play to him since he got back in the side. Deserves to stay in it for sure.
On Lambert, in hindsight starting Cole was asking for trouble but wouldnt hold it against him. Not starting Sanchez was daft but the early Cole injury helped us. Think switching to a flat 4 in midfield gave the fullbacks a bit more protection. Gabby was doing sweet fuck all when he was on the left. Definitely thought he should have brought on Richardson and Grealish around the 75 min mark. But not his worst night on the sideline imo.
Guzan 5, Hutton 6, Okore 5, Clark 8, Cissokho 4, Weimann 6, Westwood 5, Sanchez 6, Cleverley 5, Gabby 3, Benteke 8
Leicester at home at the weekend is another winnable one. Weimann and Cole out so changes needed. Time to release Grealish from the start. Would look at bringing Senderos or Vlaar back in for Okore if either are fit. Gabby simply has to be dropped, even if options are limited.
----------------------Guzan
Hutton, Vlaar/Senderos, Clark, Cissokho
Bacuna, Cleverley/Westwood, Sanchez, Richardson
---------------------Grealish---------------------
-------------------Benteke
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Get in there three points and a clean sheet a well needed win.
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I think some people on this site write their self serving ´reviews ´..if you can call them that, before the game . Me ? I,ll trust the pro,s to give me a fair assessment ...........UTV & glass half full .................Godzvilla !
Taken from from tomorrows Telegraph :
“ Nothing ever seems to happen very quickly at Villa these days, but Paul Lambert’s team are showing gradual signs of improvement. They are now unbeaten in four games, and even in Ron Vlaar’s absence, they defended with real guts and precision. There remain question marks over who will get their goals when Benteke does not, but put it this way: it is a dilemma Crystal Palace would love to have right now.
Benteke’s goal after half an hour was just reward for Villa’s dominance of the ball, although it came from the most opportunistic of openings. Scott Dann tried to dribble the ball past Benteke in the right-back position, got his pocket picked, and thereafter all he saw of Benteke was the number on the back of his shirt “
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To be honest lads, I can understand us sitting deeper in the second half. Both out full backs got destroyed in the first half so unfortunately leaving less space behind was probably the least worst option. Great shift put in by the players but we were reduced to aiming for spectators in the stand for most of the second half. We played a lot better at Burnley and I thought were in complete control before the penalty. Sometimes thats the way it goes, if Palace had a Danny Ings we would have been soundly beaten tonight. Bolasie is someone who would definitely improve us.
Tonight was more evidence that we are really going to struggle to score goals this season. Benteke created his two chances himself, was a decentish move for Weimann's chance. I thought Westwood's set pieces were good, Benteke was inches away from heading one of them in the second half that would have been a certain goal. But that is it. No threat out wide, no-one from midfield breaking forward, no decent shots from distance. No guile either, Cleverley and Westwood making five yard passes to each other without moving is where we tend to get stuck. Players are supposed to pass and move, ours just pass most of the time. Delph is badly missed in this regard.
Cleverley worked hard but added no quality on the ball. The game apart from the set pieces passed Westwood by. Gabby was anonymous. I said before the game that its pointless playing him up top with Benteke in a partnership and that was the way it turned out. Understand that we probably had to change things to get Weimann and Cleverley on the flanks supporting the full backs but Gabby really was hopeless. Cissokoho had a horror show first half but was far tighter after the break to Zaha, illegally so a lot of the time. Hutton struggled with Bolasie but again was much better second half. Okore did some good things but this was a game too far for him tonight. Positionally he was a bit of mess and made loads of poor decisions. Clark was by a mile our man of the match. Took some whack in the face early on to save a certain goal. Tough too, passed a fitness test and took a load of knocks on the night. Not sure if he is a long term option for us but fair play to him since he got back in the side. Deserves to stay in it for sure.
On Lambert, in hindsight starting Cole was asking for trouble but wouldnt hold it against him. Not starting Sanchez was daft but the early Cole injury helped us. Think switching to a flat 4 in midfield gave the fullbacks a bit more protection. Gabby was doing sweet fuck all when he was on the left. Definitely thought he should have brought on Richardson and Grealish around the 75 min mark. But not his worst night on the sideline imo.
Guzan 5, Hutton 6, Okore 5, Clark 8, Cissokho 4, Weimann 6, Westwood 5, Sanchez 6, Cleverley 5, Gabby 3, Benteke 8
Leicester at home at the weekend is another winnable one. Weimann and Cole out so changes needed. Time to release Grealish from the start. Would look at bringing Senderos or Vlaar back in for Okore if either are fit. Gabby simply has to be dropped, even if options are limited.
----------------------Guzan
Hutton, Vlaar/Senderos, Clark, Cissokho
Bacuna, Cleverley/Westwood, Sanchez, Richardson
---------------------Grealish---------------------
-------------------Benteke
Agreed, save as Okore to start on Sunday. You cant drop him.
Clark looked good, as did Baker when he is paired with some experience.
Gabby will def start Sunday as Andi out.
Horrible win, but three points is three points. No doubt, Lambert will be saying we played like Brazil 1970. We go again
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I think some people on this site write their self serving ´reviews ´..if you can call them that, before the game . Me ? I,ll trust the pro,s to give me a fair assessment ...........UTV & glass half full .................Godzvilla !
Taken from from tomorrows Telegraph :
“ Nothing ever seems to happen very quickly at Villa these days, but Paul Lambert’s team are showing gradual signs of improvement. They are now unbeaten in four games, and even in Ron Vlaar’s absence, they defended with real guts and precision. There remain question marks over who will get their goals when Benteke does not, but put it this way: it is a dilemma Crystal Palace would love to have right now.
Benteke’s goal after half an hour was just reward for Villa’s dominance of the ball, although it came from the most opportunistic of openings. Scott Dann tried to dribble the ball past Benteke in the right-back position, got his pocket picked, and thereafter all he saw of Benteke was the number on the back of his shirt “
Dominance of the ball, this bloke obviously did not watch the game. A Pro you say-meh
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Hard earned three points and yes we rode our luck at times but surely with the run of injuries, late goals and a sending off we have had we were due to have some come our way. One things is certain, the players put in a real hard shift tonight which shows that it does matter to them.
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I think some people on this site write their self serving ´reviews ´..if you can call them that, before the game . Me ? I,ll trust the pro,s to give me a fair assessment ...........UTV & glass half full .................Godzvilla !
Taken from from tomorrows Telegraph :
“ Nothing ever seems to happen very quickly at Villa these days, but Paul Lambert’s team are showing gradual signs of improvement. They are now unbeaten in four games, and even in Ron Vlaar’s absence, they defended with real guts and precision. There remain question marks over who will get their goals when Benteke does not, but put it this way: it is a dilemma Crystal Palace would love to have right now.
Benteke’s goal after half an hour was just reward for Villa’s dominance of the ball, although it came from the most opportunistic of openings. Scott Dann tried to dribble the ball past Benteke in the right-back position, got his pocket picked, and thereafter all he saw of Benteke was the number on the back of his shirt “
Dominance of the ball, this bloke obviously did not watch the game. A Pro you say-meh
Because he doesn't agree with your view that it must have been shit because it was Villa, not only is he wrong but he wasn't even at the game he was paid to report on.
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Get in there three points and a clean sheet a well needed win.
A bit OTT Darren...have you been smoking?
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I am just happy to read an article about Villa that is a bit more upbeat for a change. Thanks for the link Godsvilla(!).
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Just back from the game. Cracking away atmosphere, as ever.
Terrible tactics, second to every ball, clueless at times. But man alive, those three points could turn our season around. Get a bit of confidence into the team, bring back players from injury, and we'll pretend this blip never happened.
Nice to finally be looking onwards and upwards.
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Credit where it's due. Well done Villa and Lambert.
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Hard earned three points and yes we rode our luck at times but surely with the run of injuries, late goals and a sending off we have had we were due to have some come our way. One things is certain, the players put in a real hard shift tonight which shows that it does matter to them.
I don't think we rode our luck at all, to be honest. If there was any luck involved, it was that we were playing a team so utterly blunt up front. We defended resolutely, too.
I do think, though, that that game was yet another demonstration of our weakness - constantly giving the ball back to the opposition, dropping deeper and deeper, Weimann and Gabby effectively contributing nothing for far too much of the game, Westwood and Cleverly doing the same job, but not particularly well.
Great to get the points, and it wasn't flukey, but at the same time, we can't go on playing like that, because most teams will prove less rubbish up front than Palace.
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With Weiman missing and Cole injured I hope Grealish gets his chance on Sunday
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Hard earned three points and yes we rode our luck at times but surely with the run of injuries, late goals and a sending off we have had we were due to have some come our way. One things is certain, the players put in a real hard shift tonight which shows that it does matter to them.
I don't think we rode our luck at all, to be honest. If there was any luck involved, it was that we were playing a team so utterly blunt up front. We defended resolutely, too.
I do think, though, that that game was yet another demonstration of our weakness - constantly giving the ball back to the opposition, dropping deeper and deeper, Weimann and Gabby effectively contributing nothing for far too much of the game, Westwood and Cleverly doing the same job, but not particularly well.
Great to get the points, and it wasn't flukey, but at the same time, we can't go on playing like that, because most teams will prove less rubbish up front than Palace.
By luck I meant stuff like Guzan dropping almost everything and that low cross in the second half that seemed to go through about 8 players and missed them all. In recent weeks we seem to have punished for everything but tonight, for once, it went our way.
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Happiest I've felt in a while. Come on villa ! Let's kick on now !
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The last time we won at Palace (also 1-0) we went on to win the league.
Chesea only 17 pts ahead.
cant believe we only 4 pts off Arsenal and Liverpool
Liverpool are a very poor side that massively over performed last season purely because of Suarez. It's interesting that at the kick off both Villa and Palace had last won away at Anfield, when you see how awful a game it was that says everything you need to know about Liverpool right now.
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I think some people on this site write their self serving ´reviews ´..if you can call them that, before the game . Me ? I,ll trust the pro,s to give me a fair assessment ...........UTV & glass half full .................Godzvilla !
Taken from from tomorrows Telegraph :
“ Nothing ever seems to happen very quickly at Villa these days, but Paul Lambert’s team are showing gradual signs of improvement. They are now unbeaten in four games, and even in Ron Vlaar’s absence, they defended with real guts and precision. There remain question marks over who will get their goals when Benteke does not, but put it this way: it is a dilemma Crystal Palace would love to have right now.
Benteke’s goal after half an hour was just reward for Villa’s dominance of the ball, although it came from the most opportunistic of openings. Scott Dann tried to dribble the ball past Benteke in the right-back position, got his pocket picked, and thereafter all he saw of Benteke was the number on the back of his shirt “
Dominance of the ball, this bloke obviously did not watch the game. A Pro you say-meh
Because he doesn't agree with your view that it must have been shit because it was Villa, not only is he wrong but he wasn't even at the game he was paid to report on.
Villa 54% of possession tonight despite all of Palace's huff and puff. Still maintain Villa's fewer chances were far more threatening than their aimless whacks over the bar.
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A bit more discipline vs Tottenham, Southampton and Burnley, all games we led for a while and let go quite late and the season is massively different. Take the win and maybe, just maybe with the big man back we can start to rebuild a bit of confidence. Crazy how jammed up the league is through the middle. Despite this horrific run we are still in touching distance of teams that have spent so much more and who haven't had the results we have. Bizarre. The football is utterly abysmal, but tonight is about the points.
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Can't believe we're actually above 8 clubs.
Or,to put it another way, there's 8 clubs thinking 'how the fcuk are we below Villa'
Because they're worse than us maybe?
Remember the start of SGT's great run in 1989. I'm sure it started with a really scrappy win.
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Can't believe we're actually above 8 clubs.
Or,to put it another way, there's 8 clubs thinking 'how the fcuk are we below Villa'
Because they're worse than us maybe?
Remember the start of SGT's great run in 1989. I'm sure it started with a really scrappy win.
1-0 at home to Derby. Dean Saunders' best performance for us.
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I think some people on this site write their self serving ´reviews ´..if you can call them that, before the game . Me ? I,ll trust the pro,s to give me a fair assessment ...........UTV & glass half full .................Godzvilla !
Taken from from tomorrows Telegraph :
“ Nothing ever seems to happen very quickly at Villa these days, but Paul Lambert’s team are showing gradual signs of improvement. They are now unbeaten in four games, and even in Ron Vlaar’s absence, they defended with real guts and precision. There remain question marks over who will get their goals when Benteke does not, but put it this way: it is a dilemma Crystal Palace would love to have right now.
Benteke’s goal after half an hour was just reward for Villa’s dominance of the ball, although it came from the most opportunistic of openings. Scott Dann tried to dribble the ball past Benteke in the right-back position, got his pocket picked, and thereafter all he saw of Benteke was the number on the back of his shirt “
Dominance of the ball, this bloke obviously did not watch the game. A Pro you say-meh
Because he doesn't agree with your view that it must have been shit because it was Villa, not only is he wrong but he wasn't even at the game he was paid to report on.
Villa 54% of possession tonight despite all of Palace's huff and puff. Still maintain Villa's fewer chances were far more threatening than their aimless whacks over the bar.
I find that pretty shocking. After some of the comments on here tonight I was expecting about 40%. I can't believe we've had 2 games in a row where we've had more possession than the opposition.
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Watching the game again it is pretty outrageous how much pressure our defence was put under. Outside of Sanchez no other midfield player did much of anything to try and actually get and keep the ball.
It makes the performance of the defenders even more impressive that they kept a clean sheet under fairly constant pressure.
We absolutely need to sort our midfield. I don't care if we end up with just tekkers up front and flood it with Richardson and Grealish using Gabby and Andi's spots. We need a change though thats for sure. Its too much to ask the defenders to endure that every game.
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I think some people on this site write their self serving ´reviews ´..if you can call them that, before the game . Me ? I,ll trust the pro,s to give me a fair assessment ...........UTV & glass half full .................Godzvilla !
Taken from from tomorrows Telegraph :
“ Nothing ever seems to happen very quickly at Villa these days, but Paul Lambert’s team are showing gradual signs of improvement. They are now unbeaten in four games, and even in Ron Vlaar’s absence, they defended with real guts and precision. There remain question marks over who will get their goals when Benteke does not, but put it this way: it is a dilemma Crystal Palace would love to have right now.
Benteke’s goal after half an hour was just reward for Villa’s dominance of the ball, although it came from the most opportunistic of openings. Scott Dann tried to dribble the ball past Benteke in the right-back position, got his pocket picked, and thereafter all he saw of Benteke was the number on the back of his shirt “
Dominance of the ball, this bloke obviously did not watch the game. A Pro you say-meh
Because he doesn't agree with your view that it must have been shit because it was Villa, not only is he wrong but he wasn't even at the game he was paid to report on.
Villa 54% of possession tonight despite all of Palace's huff and puff. Still maintain Villa's fewer chances were far more threatening than their aimless whacks over the bar.
I find that pretty shocking. After some of the comments on here tonight I was expecting about 40%. I can't believe we've had 2 games in a row where we've had more possession than the opposition.
It was near 70% at half time, but most of it was in our own half
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A bit more discipline vs Tottenham, Southampton and Burnley, all games we led for a while and let go quite late and the season is massively different. Take the win and maybe, just maybe with the big man back we can start to rebuild a bit of confidence. Crazy how jammed up the league is through the middle. Despite this horrific run we are still in touching distance of teams that have spent so much more and who haven't had the results we have. Bizarre. The football is utterly abysmal, but tonight is about the points.
To be fair we never looked like getting a second goal against Spurs, Forster handed us the goal against Southampton, Burnley for all our dominance we didn't create too many genuine chances.
We are reasonably solid at the back this year but we are depending on clean sheets to help us win games at the moment. That isn't sustainable with the likes of Cissokho back there.
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Can't believe we're actually above 8 clubs.
Or,to put it another way, there's 8 clubs thinking 'how the fcuk are we below Villa'
Because they're worse than us maybe?
Remember the start of SGT's great run in 1989. I'm sure it started with a really scrappy win.
1-0 at home to Derby. Dean Saunders' best performance for us.
That was where he missed loads of chances for them. Platt beat the keeper to it I think just before half time (Shilton)?
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A bit more discipline vs Tottenham, Southampton and Burnley, all games we led for a while and let go quite late and the season is massively different. Take the win and maybe, just maybe with the big man back we can start to rebuild a bit of confidence. Crazy how jammed up the league is through the middle. Despite this horrific run we are still in touching distance of teams that have spent so much more and who haven't had the results we have. Bizarre. The football is utterly abysmal, but tonight is about the points.
To be fair we never looked like getting a second goal against Spurs, Forster handed us the goal against Southampton, Burnley for all our dominance we didn't create too many genuine chances.
We are reasonably solid at the back this year but we are depending on clean sheets to help us win games at the moment. That isn't sustainable with the likes of Cissokho back there.
We barely went forward in any of those games outside of 20-25 minute first half spells vs Tottenham and Burnley. That said, we took the lead in all three games and for one reason or another threw them away. Even 5 points instead of 2 in those games would put us 2 points ahead of Everton tonight in 11th. And most would say they are a very decent side.
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Can't believe we're actually above 8 clubs.
Or,to put it another way, there's 8 clubs thinking 'how the fcuk are we below Villa'
Because they're worse than us maybe?
Remember the start of SGT's great run in 1989. I'm sure it started with a really scrappy win.
1-0 at home to Derby. Dean Saunders' best performance for us.
Derek Mountfield shooting himself in the head. And the girl screaming as Platt went round Shilton.
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"Dominance of the ball" is a fact. We had 67% possession in the first half and 54% overall.
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Good enough for what we need. Hopefully we can put a it of space between ourselves and the bottom on Sunday. But we never do.
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Fuck em, I'm drunk , happy and couldn't give a shit who played well.
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"Dominance of the ball" is a fact. We had 67% possession in the first half and 54% overall.
I saw the match and found that stat hard to believe, as Monty pointed out, though (via reference to another stat, admittedly of a type I had never heard of), almost all of it consisted of having the ball just inside our own half.
I am not having any suggestion that we were lucky tonight - we weren't. It wasn't like we were constantly clearing off the line, Palace had absolutely nothing to offer up front.
However, at the same time, I am not about to start pretending they didn't put us under immense pressure. They did. And what's more, we made it really easy for them to do so by constantly doing two things in particular - giving the ball straight back to them, and dropping too deep.
I am extremely relieved to get the three points, and happy we did, but let's not kid ourselves, until we sort that out, with the exception of the odd result like tonight, we are not going to improve with any longevity.
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Sanchez was brought as a DM yet he constanstly seems to be the only midfielder willing to be proactive with the ball.Cleverly and Westwood are far too similar , they run around a alot and play tidy pass's but neither can take control of a game.In an attacking sense they just don't drive the team on ..
However this is not helped by Gabby and Andi who are all energy but little footballing intelligence.Andi IMO is being completely wasted he is a striker who should be in and around the box but due to his high energy and willingness to run around his sent out wide the problem is he provides very little.He hasn't the ability to run at players or put a decent cross into the box
Great result tonight and maybe it will bring some confidence into the side and we will play a bit better going forward
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great shitd put in by the defence but in particular Clark who I think has started to look like a decent centre-half since the QPR game. never mind Vlaar going or not I think we're set fair with Okore, Baker, Clark and Senderos. Hutton played well but the two full-backs we have do not overlap enough or get any crosses in, means we have no outlet but the ball through the middle. Good turnout tonight also for a Tuesday night at Palace. And, finally, after 10 or 11 visits, I've finally witnessed a win at Selhurst.
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Our first win at Selhurst since a certain Mr Atkinson ran the length of the pitch and scored the goal of the season in 1992.
Sure we won there in 96/97 when Wimbledon played there
I thought the game in 92 was at Plough Lane.
Nah.
we did beat Wimbledon their. It was a nihht game and Savo scored the first, I remember cause I had 50p on him at a huge 3/1.
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"Dominance of the ball" is a fact. We had 67% possession in the first half and 54% overall.
I saw the match and found that stat hard to believe, as Monty pointed out, though (via reference to another stat, admittedly of a type I had never heard of), almost all of it consisted of having the ball just inside our own half.
I am not having any suggestion that we were lucky tonight - we weren't. It wasn't like we were constantly clearing off the line, Palace had absolutely nothing to offer up front.
However, at the same time, I am not about to start pretending they didn't put us under immense pressure. They did. And what's more, we made it really easy for them to do so by constantly doing two things in particular - giving the ball straight back to them, and dropping too deep.
I am extremely relieved to get the three points, and happy we did, but let's not kid ourselves, until we sort that out, with the exception of the odd result like tonight, we are not going to improve with any longevity.
It wasn't just dropping deep that was the problem. We stopped leaving any players up when defending corners, meaning that even when winning the first ball it was inevitably coming straight back. Our back 4 stopped offering Guzan short options for the ball, meaning that he had to kick long (and seemed to be aiming for the dugouts). We're just not very savvy as a team, and don't know how to adapt to different situations during a game. For example, what was Gabby's role in the second half? Surely his pace would have been best utilised on the shoulder of the last man or out wide, not in the hole where the game just bypasses him. He gets a lot of stick but I do wonder what's being asked of him by the manager.
On the plus side I thought Clark and Hutton were excellent. Clark's really bulked-up of late hasn't he? Starting to look like a Premiership centre-back at last.
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Same here, I can think of many ways to describe our performance tonight and "dominance of the ball" is not one of them.
If those are the stats so be it. Yes I did think we played shit and got away with it because Palace could not turn their attacks into decent chances, our central defence did very well and we have a Top Class centre forward.
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Palace were lucky and got away with it when their keeper made a great save from Benteke and when Andi shot straight at the keeper from close range. I just don't buy this we were lucky and got away with it stuff. We won because we deserved to. Just because we were crap doesn't mean Palace were any better than us or deserved a result. They didn't score because they weren't good enough to tonight. Our defence and keeper were better than theirs, our striker was better than theirs. So we won.
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Just back.
Horrendous traffic through north London and M40...
We won!
We got three points!
Don't care if Palace ran the second half...and failed to score!
We are 12th with a couple of 6 pointers coming up and I hope we're a little more confident after showing we can actually grind out a much-needed win when we need to.
UTV!
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It depends what you mean by luck. I certainly believe we were lucky that neither Bolasie nor Zaha managed to produce a single good cross all night, even though they were constantly allowed to get into positions to do so - but that's based on my assumption that they're usually capable of doing so.
And certainly, I'm of the belief that when you start sitting very deep, expunge yourself entirely of attacking ambition and invite the other team on you like we did, you subject yourself to luck - it doesn't matter how organised and solid defensively you are as a defense when you're maximising the possibility that a deflection or a mad scramble in the box results in a goal.
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Just got back from London and first off all... "[/i]CHRISTIAN BENTEKE! OH CHRISTIAN BENTEKE!"[/i] "VILLA, VILLLA, VILLA!"
And on to the match itself. First off all the travelling Villa supporters were fantastic tonight and a credit to the club. We started the match really slowly, and had a big slice of luck when Guzan made that early error and they had the goal disallowed (as odd as it sounds that early in the game, I just had a feeling that could prove a big moment). We then slowly got back into it, and too be honest its been awhile since I have watched us pass the ball like that, but the reason we had so much of the ball at least first half was because Palace let us have it in areas they knew we weren't doing any damage. Also, they were sure that we would make sloppy errors to let them back in and sure enough we did just let, but credit to the defence for holding tight and Guzan for redeeming himself, by looking sharp and making some fine saves. But once we were able to get Benteke into the game things changed, and oh that class flick! His goal was great and for awhile we were on top while still looking wide open and sloppy in midfield. Second half we were awful, but thanks to some wastefulness from Palace, some more fine Guzan saves, hard work and a bit of luck we held on for our most crucial win of the season to date. That we followed the pattern of the last two games, but this time managed to escape without dropping points should prove a warning to us for the future. One thing I can't fault is the work rate of the team, and that included the attacking players who really did their bit to track back and try and make something happen. It was the same sloppy errors, and poor tactics by Lambert which almost cost us. Benteke looked good on his return and earnt his money with the goal. He did fade second half, but that was partly because we hardly got the ball to him. Gabby was solid, working hard, and decent on the ball without making much from an attacking sense. Shancez put in maybe his best performance so far in a Villa shirt, and was easily the best of a poor midfield. But because of the quality of the saves, and their importance I think I would not for the first time give MOTM to Brad Guzan :D As for whether we were lucky or not? We were because if Palace were not so wasteful then they could have at least got a point even won the game, but fact is you need your luck when you have been on the run we have. It was important to win and ask questions later, besides once again we did look better at the back, and at least in one case had better quality up front. Now lets not fuck it up against the Foxes ;)
Player ratings
Guzan 8
Clark 6
Okore 5
Cissoko 6
Hutton 6
Westwood 4
Cleverly 3
Shachez 7
Weinmann 3
Gabby 6
Benteke 7
Cole and Richardson no rating.
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Palace were lucky and got away with it when their keeper made a great save from Benteke and when Andi shot straight at the keeper from close range. I just don't buy this we were lucky and got away with it stuff. We won because we deserved to. Just because we were crap doesn't mean Palace were any better than us or deserved a result. They didn't score because they weren't good enough to tonight. Our defence and keeper were better than theirs, our striker was better than theirs. So we won.
Agreed...in many ways.
But paulie gets it spot on, and probably in line with 90% of us who watch The Villa...we give possession away too easily and defend too deeply once we go one up. That's got to come from on high hasn't it? It makes no sense to me to play as well as we did at Burnley in the 1st half, to then go and stop doing it unless told to do so!
On Saturday...we were by far the better side for 75 minutes, 5 minutes even, Burnley looked good in the last 10. Did they deserve to win? No. Did we? Yes. Did we win? No.
Tonight...we had fewer, but better chances. If Palace didn't take theirs, tough.
Did they deserve to win? Not really. Did we? Sort of.
Thought we were a bit shit 2nd half - but weren't helped by giving the ball away far too easily, including Guzan, and hoofing it out rather than holding on to the ball as Hutton did several times...almost to show the rest of the team how it should be done! Nice that the Villa supporters acknowledged his display tonight.
As the kids up my end say: he was cool!
UTV!
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Just to clear things up this was our first win at Selhurst since 97, but actually the first time we have beaten Palace there since the 80s right?
I don't think we played half as bad as some of you drama queens are making out. It was a very flawed performances, but there were a few postives too, and luckily they were enough to get us the all important three points tonight.
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We are still awful. Defence played well, Guzan had a bit of a mare unusually for him. Benteke magic for his goal. Gabby, Weimann, cleverly and Lowton gave the ball away too much.
It reminded me of a cup game where we were the plucky underdogs, who came and defended the whole game, and got a goal against the run of play.
We play too narrow, and give the ball away too much.
Hutton MOTM for me.
Did Lowton play? Or was he that bad that I didn't notice him?
It's Westwood who gets to me. A woeful set piece taker and all round general footballer.
Lowton didn't play.
...but his brother was in the Prince George before the game.
My return at 03.06 hours has beaten my return from QPR by 94 minutes. :)
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Thank fcuk for that!!!! Now we have a platform to build on, come on Villa don't let us down!
UTV
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Very nerve wracking but a great win. Not bothered if it wasn't pretty. 3 points is all that matters.
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I'm exhausted from watching that but of course a dearly, dearly needed and gratefully received win.
That said, there's surely got to be more to the game than this hit and hope Benteke can conjure something and then camp inside your own half isn't there? It's turgid stuff to watch. It's no wonder the defence (and tonight Guzan too) look shakey at times; we put them under unrelenting pressure for the vast majority of the game with no outlet and eventually they'll make mistakes. We don't learn.
Desperately need more some more strength in midfield too.
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You can't have it both ways. We did dominate possession even if it was in our own half. Keeping the ball gives you better options. Yes we did give it away but Palace's problem was that as soon as they had the ball they went gung ho attack often running into a blind ally and/or we scrambled it away. Therefore they kept the ball for less time and were ultimately defeated. Possession wherever on the pitch gives you better more considered options.
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What staggered me second half was the total lack of movement and complete panic on the ball. Hurried pass, Hurried pass, punt up field in sheer hope. No one in midfield said to themselves let's put our foot on it, get options and pass. It was so painful.
That brings me on to January. I would go and look for a couple of calm strong centre midfield players and a winger to replace Weimann who I still don't think is a premier league standard player.
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I'm just glad that Palace's attackers do not seem to have a brain cell between them - their decision making was awful most of the time.
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He'll be sitting there saying I knew if I did the same thing over and over eventually it'd work. Then pat himself on the back
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What staggered me second half was the total lack of movement and complete panic on the ball. Hurried pass, Hurried pass, punt up field in sheer hope. No one in midfield said to themselves let's put our foot on it, get options and pass. It was so painful.
That brings me on to January. I would go and look for a couple of calm strong centre midfield players and a winger to replace Weimann who I still don't think is a premier league standard player.
Problem is that in Lambert mind Weimann is undroppable
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E I E I O Up the football league we go. Three points, clean sheet, benteke scored, all at a ground where we have a horrendous history.
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Happiest I've felt in a while. Come on villa ! Let's kick on now !
And that's the thing, we've got to kick on from it. There's no point winning a game then losing the next two.
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Well, we should beat Leicester.
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What staggered me second half was the total lack of movement and complete panic on the ball. Hurried pass, Hurried pass, punt up field in sheer hope. No one in midfield said to themselves let's put our foot on it, get options and pass. It was so painful.
That brings me on to January. I would go and look for a couple of calm strong centre midfield players and a winger to replace Weimann who I still don't think is a premier league standard player.
Problem is that in Lambert mind Weimann is undroppable
Banned for Sunday though I believe (5 bookings).
So we'll see how an enforced change, changes things.
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At last I have some lucky pants and socks.
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hey there was a NIL involved AND IT WASNT AGAINST OUR NAME.
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I'd forgotten what it was like to win, it's been so long. Quite bizarrely we are only 1 point worse from being 6th place than we are from the relegation zone. It is a strange league this year.
Hopefully a win a having The Beast back will give the team a lift.
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Benteke's goal on Dailymotion (http://www.dailymotion.com/video/x2blmge_goal-32-benteke-c-crystal-palace-0-1-aston-villa-premier-league-12-02-2014_sport?start=46)
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Benteke's goal on Dailymotion (http://www.dailymotion.com/video/x2blmge_goal-32-benteke-c-crystal-palace-0-1-aston-villa-premier-league-12-02-2014_sport?start=46)
Great rob, great run, great precision shot - Great!
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A crash on the M40 left me at a standstill for well over an hour and twenty minutes, so it meant I didn’t get back to the frozen north until 3am, which means I am a little tired this morning. I don’t care though when you’ve won.
We made heavy weather of it again though. It’s as if Lambert is a particularly aggressive Australian cricket captain who gets a low second innings lead with only a couple of sessions left and then declares, as we routinely come out at the moment in the second half and say that is that. Well last night it worked at least.
Palace are another Championship side and they looked it. They had won means of attack, scoop it into the channels and see what happens, the answer being not a lot. If we weren’t so keen on sitting deep and recycling the ball, we could have pressed them and stopped it, giving ourselves a much easier ride. But that wouldn’t be our style would it?
Palace had a good two minute spell of chances just after we had scored where Guzan actually made a few saves, but never really created an actual goal threat beyond that in retrospect. In fact, Andi was the closest to scoring again and should have buried his chance in the second half.
Hutton was immense and had Bolasie in his pocket. He more than deserved the chant he got towards the end when he showed a cool head and ran the ball forty yards up the pitch. Okore showed some real composure too and used his strength to nullify Palace, while Clark did very well. In fact, from a defensive point of view, the whole back four played well.
The midfield seemed to get bypassed and we hurried the ball on unnecessarily and then at times, slowed up the peed with which we moved it. I guess when you haven’t won in 9 matches and you’ve conceded late chances in three of your last four games, the natural instinct is to retreat and in the end it didn’t matter.
I thought we would win before hand. I know some were fearful of Palace, but looking at their team, its garbage and despite the absolutely record breakingly (almost) horrendous run we had been on… they were still level on points with us. Well now they’re not and its important we build on that when we play another Championship side on Sunday, before another soon to be second division outfit the weekend after that.
Benteke is back and he has a touch of class about him that nobody else in the bottom half has. If we could marry that up with some of the more incisive play seen for the majority against Burnley then we may become a little more entertaining.
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Interesting reading this thread. I was impressed that Sanchez lasted the 90mins but as others have pointed out he is the most creative midfielder we have. Perhaps Cleverley, who does put in a most impressive shift, would be better up front with Benteke as he scored goals for Wigan. I have always seen Clark as a defensive midfielder and still reckon that is his true position but he has bulked up and is playing well at the back.In fact all our centre backs have played well at various times this season. Hutton, as we have come to expect, coped well
against a speedy winger. Okore again looked good without being totally convincing. Westwood doesnt offer much apart from hard work and
both Agbonlahor and Weimann should be rested. Guzan rode his luck a bit.
Expect much of the same fare against Leicester. You would think we could win this one but dont be surprised if we dont!
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Tweeted this last night!
At last #avfc
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The hard facts are with Benteke on the pitch we always have a chance, without him we struggle!
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Anyone seen the video's of all the lads singing the Benteke song ?
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Our away following were amazing last night. Proud to be a villa fan.
Got behind team.
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Then they searched throughout Israel for a beautiful young woman and found Abishag, a Shunammite, and brought her to the king.
In Context | Full Chapter | Other Translations
1 Kings 1:15
So Bathsheba went to see the aged king in his room, where Abishag the Shunammite was attending him.
In Context | Full Chapter | Other Translations
1 Kings 2:17
So he continued, ‘Please ask King Solomon – he will not refuse you – to give me Abishag the Shunammite as my wife.’
In Context | Full Chapter | Other Translations
1 Kings 2:21
So she said, ‘Let Abishag the Shunammite be given in marriage to your brother Adonijah.’
In Context | Full Chapter | Other Translations
1 Kings 2:22
King Solomon answered his mother, ‘Why do you request Abishag the Shunammite for Adonijah? You might as well request the kingdom for him – after all, he is my older brother – yes, for him and for Abiathar the priest and Joab son of Zeruiah!’
In Context | Full Chapter | Other Translations
2 Kings 4:8
[ The Shunammite’s son restored to life ] One day Elisha went to Shunem. And a well-to-do woman was there, who urged him to stay for a meal. So whenever he passed by, he stopped there to eat.
In Context | Full Chapter | Other Translations
2 Kings 4:12
He said to his servant Gehazi, ‘Call the Shunammite.’ So he called her, and she stood before him.
In Context | Full Chapter | Other Translations
2 Kings 4:25
So she set out and came to the man of God at Mount Carmel. When he saw her in the distance, the man of God said to his servant Gehazi, ‘Look! There’s the Shunammite!
In Context | Full Chapter | Other Translations
2 Kings 4:36
Elisha summoned Gehazi and said, ‘Call the Shunammite.’ And he did. When she came, he said, ‘Take your son.’
In Context | Full Chapter | Other Translations
2 Kings 8:1
[ The Shunammite’s land restored ] Now Elisha had said to the woman whose son he had restored to life, ‘Go away with your family and stay for a while wherever you can, because the Lord has decreed a famine in the land that will last seven years.’
All Shunammite references I could find in celebration of our great victory last night!
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Anyone seen the video's of all the lads singing the Benteke song ?
Which one?
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Our away following were amazing last night. Proud to be a villa fan.
Got behind team.
The away fans always do get behind the team so i'm not sure why you're making the point again.
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Is it not worth making an extra mention that on a cold Tuesday night before Xmas, we were outstanding?
Utv
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Is it not worth making an extra mention that on a cold Tuesday night before Xmas, we were outstanding?
Utv
Of course it is. It's just that your 'got behind team' line implied that we normally don't, and we do.
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Is it not worth making an extra mention that on a cold Tuesday night before Xmas, we were outstanding?
Utv
I you think that was 'outstanding' you've obviously not been watching the Villa for many years.
Sorry just realized you were talking about the support, yes it was very good again.
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It implied nothing other than its literal meaning. Enjoy your day.
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Interesting reading this thread. I was impressed that Sanchez lasted the 90mins but as others have pointed out he is the most creative midfielder we have. Perhaps Cleverley, who does put in a most impressive shift, would be better up front with Benteke as he scored goals for Wigan. I have always seen Clark as a defensive midfielder and still reckon that is his true position but he has bulked up and is playing well at the back.In fact all our centre backs have played well at various times this season. Hutton, as we have come to expect, coped well
against a speedy winger. Okore again looked good without being totally convincing. Westwood doesnt offer much apart from hard work and
both Agbonlahor and Weimann should be rested. Guzan rode his luck a bit.
Expect much of the same fare against Leicester. You would think we could win this one but dont be surprised if we dont!
To be fair Lamber tried him in that role in the second half at QPR and he didnt have any impact.
Have been disappointed in Cleverley so far. Cant fault his workrate and he is tidy in possession. But he isnt very dynamic, dont recall him getting into the opposition box in a Villa shirt, gets knocked off the ball easily and his passing is very passive. Maybe patience is needed with him.
Sanchez seems more incisive is his passing than Westwood or Cleverley. Nice reverse ball from him to Benteke for our first chance last night.
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It implied nothing other than its literal meaning. Enjoy your day.
Thank you, I will.
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(https://pbs.twimg.com/media/B36_ulgCMAI6VPE.jpg:large)
FourFourTweet @FourFourTweet 1h1 hour ago
The Crystals were in full flow prior to Crystal Palace's game against Aston Villa last nigh
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Interesting reading this thread. I was impressed that Sanchez lasted the 90mins but as others have pointed out he is the most creative midfielder we have. Perhaps Cleverley, who does put in a most impressive shift, would be better up front with Benteke as he scored goals for Wigan. I have always seen Clark as a defensive midfielder and still reckon that is his true position but he has bulked up and is playing well at the back.In fact all our centre backs have played well at various times this season. Hutton, as we have come to expect, coped well
against a speedy winger. Okore again looked good without being totally convincing. Westwood doesnt offer much apart from hard work and
both Agbonlahor and Weimann should be rested. Guzan rode his luck a bit.
Expect much of the same fare against Leicester. You would think we could win this one but dont be surprised if we dont!
To be fair Lamber tried him in that role in the second half at QPR and he didnt have any impact.
Have been disappointed in Cleverley so far. Cant fault his workrate and he is tidy in possession. But he isnt very dynamic, dont recall him getting into the opposition box in a Villa shirt, gets knocked off the ball easily and his passing is very passive. Maybe patience is needed with him.
Sanchez seems more incisive is his passing than Westwood or Cleverley. Nice reverse ball from him to Benteke for our first chance last night.
I reckon that could similarly be attributed to our general narrowness and the lack of movement up front by Gabby and Andi - especially since Cleverley is clearly not blessed with the close control/spatial awareness that all the top no. 10s have.
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I'd like to cut the manager and players some slack. When you haven't won since whenever, it's about getting that monkey off your back, and they've done that at a place we never get a result so fair play to them.
It wasn't pretty, but you can't fault their effort, and despite his faults he at least appears capable of getting that out of them.
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An extremely sensible and reasonable post.
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The players are giving everything at the moment. This was a hard fought and ugly win, for that I'm delighted. The team just isn't set up right though. Our midfield three last night [once Sanchez came on] were flat and deep. Weimann and Gabby should be 15 yards further up the pitch, they look like second full-backs at times.
As a result when the ball breaks, we don't have an option other than a long straight ball. Cleverley and Westwood shouldn't be in the same team, they are too similar, very sideways and have a phobia of the box. At least Sanchez for all his flaws looks forward and tries to take responsibility [lovely run and ball leading to a Benteke shot in the first half].
I just think if we had a more forward thinking manager, who tried to get us further up the pitch and utilise the players, we'd be comfortably mid-table. At the moment you can't see anything other than the same re-run in the forthcoming games. Very low-scoring with not too much created. I hope this win gives them all the boost to be more positive and attack minded.
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I'm not getting carried away, but if (and its a big if) we beat Leicester you can say undefeated in 5 games with 9 points and that sounds positive. Build on it a bit and pick up another 6 or 7 points from the 4 games after Leicester would take us to 22 / 23 points by the mid season stage and could be considered acceptable considering the injuries.
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Benteke's goal on Dailymotion (http://www.dailymotion.com/video/x2blmge_goal-32-benteke-c-crystal-palace-0-1-aston-villa-premier-league-12-02-2014_sport?start=46)
Thanks for that, had been unable to find the goal myself.
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Someone touched on this last night I think but Sanchez coming on in place of Cole was arguably a blessing in disguise. I thought he did really well again.
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I'd agree with that. Sanchez shores the middle nicely and adds structure and shape to the team.
Let's hope confidence begins to return now and we can get some form going.
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Someone touched on this last night I think but Sanchez coming on in place of Cole was arguably a blessing in disguise. I thought he did really well again.
I thought that too. It allowed us to to becomea little stronger in the middle and more balanced as we looked very top heavy to start.
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I like Sanchez he looks promising.
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I like him but thought the game bypassed him a bit in the 2nd half
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I like him but thought the game bypassed him a bit in the 2nd half
I would imagine he tired a little to be fair. It was a hard old slog and he's still struggling with the rigors of this league. He had to do a whole 83 minutes, and generally he still wavors around 60-70.
He'll get there though. He's got ability.
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I agree Tom, I think he needs to up the gradient on the treadmill.
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The poor Crystals, they'll catch their death in this weather.......
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The players are giving everything at the moment. This was a hard fought and ugly win, for that I'm delighted. The team just isn't set up right though. Our midfield three last night [once Sanchez came on] were flat and deep. Weimann and Gabby should be 15 yards further up the pitch, they look like second full-backs at times.
As a result when the ball breaks, we don't have an option other than a long straight ball. Cleverley and Westwood shouldn't be in the same team, they are too similar, very sideways and have a phobia of the box. At least Sanchez for all his flaws looks forward and tries to take responsibility [lovely run and ball leading to a Benteke shot in the first half].
I just think if we had a more forward thinking manager, who tried to get us further up the pitch and utilise the players, we'd be comfortably mid-table. At the moment you can't see anything other than the same re-run in the forthcoming games. Very low-scoring with not too much created. I hope this win gives them all the boost to be more positive and attack minded.
Couldn't agree more lukey - astute observations and a good post mate!
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^This is the thing for me. Last night, I saw a team of talented, decent premiership footballers giving their all for the shirt. But I saw no shape, no attacking intent, no desire to keep the ball, no passing and moving, no real decent build up play. 2 out of our last 3 goals have come from individual abilities ie Gabbys pace and Bentekes well...beastishness. Neither Westley nor any of the other Lambo drum bangers could currently convince me lambert is getting the best out of this squad, we are much better than the fayre we are producing. He wont be going anytime soon so again, im happy to be proved wrong, but there have been so many false dawns that one smash and grab at Selhurst Park has done little to change my mind.
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Claret shorts and win!
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^This is the thing for me. Last night, I saw a team of talented, decent premiership footballers giving their all for the shirt. But I saw no shape, no attacking intent, no desire to keep the ball, no passing and moving, no real decent build up play. 2 out of our last 3 goals have come from individual abilities ie Gabbys pace and Bentekes well...beastishness. Neither Westley nor any of the other Lambo drum bangers could currently convince me lambert is getting the best out of this squad, we are much better than the fayre we are producing. He wont be going anytime soon so again, im happy to be proved wrong, but there have been so many false dawns that one smash and grab at Selhurst Park has done little to change my mind.
To be honest I think Mourinho would struggle to improve the likes of Cissokho, Westwood, Gabby and Weimann. Maybe a bit harsh on Westwood but typically for the other three, their second touch is a tackle. Sanchez and Cleverley should improve but wouldnt have much faith in the other four.
Thought we kept the ball pretty well in the second quarter but apart from that it was hit and hope in Benteke's general direction. But I can understand why we defended deeper in the second half to contain the threat of their widemen.
To be fair, Lambert has tried every formation going and nearly every player has been given a chance so far this season, Bacuna aside.
I think we are guilty of over rating the players in our squad. Take our back four last night for example. In the summer, Clark, Cissokho and Hutton's careers were in no mans land while Okore was recovering from serious injury. As a unit they have been relatively solid recently and that is to the manager's credit to be fair. I'm not sure how many different centre back partnerships we have had this year so Lambert has had a lot to deal with there.
Its going forward that is where the issue is. 8 EPL goals is a shocking statistic at this stage of the season. We need to rectify that with attacking quality in Jan and reduce the dependency on the likes of Gabby and Weimann to be first team regulars. Also with Delph back Id like to see a midfield trio of Sanchez, Cleverley and Delph given a few games. Think there is potential there for a decent midfield trio.
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Maybe if Weimann wasn't being asked to play in a deep-right-lying midfield role, he'd score more goals. As for Gabby, it's time to start bringing him off the bench on 70.
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Weimann is a striker and after the Beast the best finisher at the club. A bit old fashioned but I'd like to see him and Benteke in a 2 up front or even with Andy in the no 10 position as they have linked up very well in the past.
On Sunday no doubt CNZ will unfortunately be in for Andy - I keep hoping he will prove me wrong and that there is a footballer there but Charles lets me down each every time...
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Weimann is a striker and after the Beast the best finisher at the club. A bit old fashioned but I'd like to see him and Benteke in a 2 up front or even with Andy in the no 10 position as they have linked up very well in the past.
On Sunday no doubt CNZ will unfortunately be in for Andy - I keep hoping he will prove me wrong and that there is a footballer there but Charles lets me down each every time...
where is the evidence to support that? He isnt a particularly sure striker of the ball and butchered his chance v Southampton and last night too. Was he prolific as youth level? He gets in good positions I'll give him that but really lacks technical ability imo
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Weimann is a striker and after the Beast the best finisher at the club. A bit old fashioned but I'd like to see him and Benteke in a 2 up front or even with Andy in the no 10 position as they have linked up very well in the past.
On Sunday no doubt CNZ will unfortunately be in for Andy - I keep hoping he will prove me wrong and that there is a footballer there but Charles lets me down each every time...
where is the evidence to support that? He isnt a particularly sure striker of the ball and butchered his chance v Southampton and last night too. Was he prolific as youth level? He gets in good positions I'll give him that but really lacks technical ability imo
Isn't it the case that, with us not having many good finishers at the club, it doesn't really mean that much ;-)
He has shown good finishing at times. His goal against Man United last season, his goal against Sunderland was taken very well.
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The Crystals were actually all quite fit, usually there are some uggos in any cheer leading group - but all of them met with my approval.
As for the game that was the worst performance that has ended with a win since Saints last year
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They've got bloody good fans at Selhurst these days but having cheerleaders at football is just weird.
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Weimann is a striker and after the Beast the best finisher at the club. A bit old fashioned but I'd like to see him and Benteke in a 2 up front or even with Andy in the no 10 position as they have linked up very well in the past.
On Sunday no doubt CNZ will unfortunately be in for Andy - I keep hoping he will prove me wrong and that there is a footballer there but Charles lets me down each every time...
where is the evidence to support that? He isnt a particularly sure striker of the ball and butchered his chance v Southampton and last night too. Was he prolific as youth level? He gets in good positions I'll give him that but really lacks technical ability imo
I happen to agree that he is the second best finisher, and the chance against Saints you refer to, Borontebilly, was one that I remember thinking at the time that of all the players on the pitch, he was the one i was glad it fell to. My opinion granted.
I said though at the time that that miss cost us the three points, but found it hard to criticise Weimann. It was poor technically, granted, but it was also the mark of a player who had spent 70 odd minutes chasing shadows around a pitch. He ran his loblocks off all night, and did a job in that wide position. I wonder if he wasn't so knackered tracking the opposition full back for most of the game when chances come his way, he'd finish more of them. I would say similar for Gabby. Up top alongside Benteke I think would see both benefit.
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His finish against Spurs was pretty instinctive. I like Weimann, but he is a striker being flogged out wide at the moment.
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The Guardian did a preview of how they expected teams to set up and play.
Villa's said we had one way of playing and if that didn't work we didn't win.
We have played exactly the same every game I have watched and sometimes we win, sometimes we lose and sometimes we draw.
But it has always been horrible to watch. Last night we won.
I did thoroughly enjoy CB's goal however - how I have longed for us to score a real quality goal worthy of note and comment.
Well done to the defence again and Man of the Season so far Alan Hutton
Can you please sort the midfield and front runners now Lambo...
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Thanks for that, had been unable to find the goal myself.
Much like our strikers for most of the season so far.
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. I was impressed that Sanchez lasted the 90mins
He didn't. Came on for Cole half way.....well half way through first quarter😊
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You can't have it both ways. We did dominate possession even if it was in our own half. Keeping the ball gives you better options. Yes we did give it away but Palace's problem was that as soon as they had the ball they went gung ho attack often running into a blind ally and/or we scrambled it away. Therefore they kept the ball for less time and were ultimately defeated. Possession wherever on the pitch gives you better more considered options.
Sure, but part of our problem this season has been how nagetive we have been, and the way we passed the ball at times last night seems to go back to that. It was just too slow, and there were too many side ways or backwards passes. Yes it was good see more prosession, but at the same time it is easy to do that when it is not in their final third, and when there is almost no pressure on the ball. As the first half progressed, the game opened up and there was more pace to our game. Its nick picking maybe, but its just that the result was better than the performance was at times.
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This is a team that hadn't won in 9, players lacking in confidence tend not to take risks. That is exactly what we saw last night.
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Actually, I think it comes more from the manager. Don't get me wrong I am delighted with the win, and actually have been one of the more postive ones on here concerning the performance, but we did play a dangeous game at times. Also, by inviting them on to us we actually did the oppisite of taking no chances.
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I thought we were poor, but rode our luck and got a valuable three points. With other results going our way, for a change, it made for a relatively pleasant aftermath.
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This is a team that hadn't won in 9, players lacking in confidence tend not to take risks. That is exactly what we saw last night.
This. Sense.
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Actually, I think it comes more from the manager. Don't get me wrong I am delighted with the win, and actually have been one of the more postive ones on here concerning the performance, but we did play a dangeous game at times.
It must do.
It's been a feature of our play over the last few seasons, more so latterly...get a goal then camp on the edge of our own box and "dare" the opposition to attack...again and again, which they do...and usually score.
v Spuds, Soton, Burnley.
So glad we held out last night, but the tactic was the same!
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Actually, I think it comes more from the manager. Don't get me wrong I am delighted with the win, and actually have been one of the more postive ones on here concerning the performance, but we did play a dangeous game at times.
It must do.
It's been a feature of our play over the last few seasons, more so latterly...get a goal then camp on the edge of our own box and "dare" the opposition to attack...again and again, which they do...and usually score.
v Spuds, Soton, Burnley.
So glad we held out last night, but the tactic was the same!
And that is why the players do deserve most of the credit for last nights win IMO.
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I think away from home we are more likely to defend a lead due to the persona of the fans, far.more positive and vocal. Look at our home form over thelast couple of years. IMO
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I think away from home we are more likely to defend a lead due to the persona of the fans, far.more positive and vocal.
I'm sorry, but i've never read such rubbish.
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Look at the facts, you love Lambert breakers.
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Look at the facts, you love Lambert breakers.
What?
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I think away from home we are more likely to defend a lead due to the persona of the fans, far.more positive and vocal. Look at our home form over thelast couple of years. IMO
Most clubs playing at home would expect to show more attacking intent than we do though. Away from home it's more understandable that you spend more time defending than attacking.
Our problem at home has little to do with the fans. The 12th man effect isn't that big in reality. No matter the opposition we do the same. We shut up shop and park the bus after scoring a goal.
Leicester are bottom of the league. They come to us at the weekend. But do I think we'll dominate them? No, we'll probably treat them like every other club from Chelsea right down to themselves. Which is to hope to nick a goal and then hold onto it. If we go behind we'll try to nick a goal, then we'll hold onto it. If we go two down, then it's damage limitation.
Leicester is currently a club that we should look at and really take to the sword. We should be all over them, we should be bullying them. They're fragile. But as per normal under Lambert, I expect little more than 20 minutes of being on the front foot in the game.
When we approach our home games with more positive tactics, then the fans will respond more positively. Why should we fake it? We pay our money to be entertained.
I'm all for grinding out results but hanging on for dear life against sides like Burnley and Palace is a bit pathetic really. That's not a footballing existence that should be pleasing any of us. I expect no different in the Leicester game.
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I think away from home we are more likely to defend a lead due to the persona of the fans, far.more positive and vocal. Look at our home form over thelast couple of years. IMO
But we play the same at home as we do away.
I like to think the fans do influence the spirit and heart of the players, but I don't honestly think they influence the style we play...that's dictated by the manager...and I see very little difference in the way we play at home or away.
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4 points from 2 straight.away games versus teams in form..
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I think away from home we are more likely to defend a lead due to the persona of the fans, far.more positive and vocal. Look at our home form over thelast couple of years. IMO
Most clubs playing at home would expect to show more attacking intent than we do though. Away from home it's more understandable that you spend more time defending than attacking.
Our problem at home has little to do with the fans. The 12th man effect isn't that big in reality. No matter the opposition we do the same. We shut up shop and park the bus after scoring a goal.
Leicester are bottom of the league. They come to us at the weekend. But do I think we'll dominate them? No, we'll probably treat them like every other club from Chelsea right down to themselves. Which is to hope to nick a goal and then hold onto it. If we go behind we'll try to nick a goal, then we'll hold onto it. If we go two down, then it's damage limitation.
Leicester is currently a club that we should look at and really take to the sword. We should be all over them, we should be bullying them. They're fragile. But as per normal under Lambert, I expect little more than 20 minutes of being on the front foot in the game.
When we approach our home games with more positive tactics, then the fans will respond more positively. Why should we fake it? We pay our money to be entertained.
I'm all for grinding out results but hanging on for dear life against sides like Burnley and Palace is a bit pathetic really. That's not a footballing existence that should be pleasing any of us. I expect no different in the Leicester game.
This.
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Again more predicting, how many said we would lose to soton and palace. Read perdition thread.
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4 points from 2 straight.away games versus teams in form..
It should've been 6 points...we chucked 2 points away on Saturday at Burnley and it was nearly all 3.
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Again more predicting, how many said we would lose to soton and palace. Read perdition thread.
Not me.
Either game.
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Nearly? Did you really just say that.
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Nearly? Did you really just say that.
They did it the post in the last two minutes.
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Again more predicting, how many said we would lose to soton and palace. Read perdition thread.
I'm not predicting a result, I'm predicting a style of play that we've adopted every single game this season to varying degrees. Likewise we spent most of last season defending.
As for Lambert he's a manager who came in promising attacking football, but we're a side even more dour and defensive minded than McLeish's side now. That's plain to see on the pitch. What that's got us in the last two seasons is averaging less than a goal a game. Which is problematic. The attacking talent is there. We should be scoring a lot more.
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Nearly? Did you really just say that.
I didn't "nearly" say anything.
You can't "nearly" predict a result.
I put us down for a win - both games!
Really!
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Look at the facts, you love Lambert breakers.
What?
It really is bollocks.
Westley, why have you taken the position that everyone is against you on this subject and that everyone who is disappointed at Villa hates Lambert? That really is such an irrational position to have taken on your part. Maybe, just maybe people like him as an individual, but think he has not performed to a certain standard, reflected in our results over the past two years. You seem to be on a crusade to prove how much you support him and after 1 win 9 or whatever it is you are particularly glib today. We are all happy (or relieved) we won. Just leave it at that as opposed to bragging like you knew all along he'd come good. It's one win, and quite frankly if he keeps his job and does somehow come good we will all be happy.
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4 points from 2 straight.away games versus teams in form..
You need to make your obvious trolling a bit less obvious.
Burnley 11th and Palace 16th in the current form table.
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Look at the facts, you love Lambert breakers.
What?
It really is bollocks.
Westley, why have you taken the position that everyone is against you on this subject and that everyone who is disappointed at Villa hates Lambert? That really is such an irrational position to have taken on your part. Maybe, just maybe people like him as an individual, but think he has not performed to a certain standard, reflected in our results over the past two years. You seem to be on a crusade to prove how much you support him and after 1 win 9 or whatever it is you are particularly glib today. We are all happy (or relieved) we won. Just leave it at that as opposed to bragging like you knew all along he'd come good. It's one win, and quite frankly if he keeps his job and does somehow come good we will all be happy.
I like Lambert the man, I'm not so keen on Lambert the manager. I'm happy we won, I'm happy for him, but I'm not happy with the way we play.
And I'm not prepared to start thinking it's OK to approach games the way we do, that we should just accept what's being played in front of us because it's the team we support. I don't want to watch games in a state of trepidation. It's small-time thinking and if that culture starts to prevail at the club, from the stands to the bench, we're only heading one way.
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I was really pleased to hear about the win on emerging from an extended rehearsal session in the community hall last night and just hope that the team might have got some confidence back to do the same against Leicester. About time some of the appalling stats were improved and Benteke has returned with a wonderful goal that shows his quality.
Coincidence that Keano had just gone?
Either way, the next assistant manager needs to be an inspired appointment to keep the momentum going and get players to show how good they really are every week.
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I was really pleased to hear about the win on emerging from an extended rehearsal session in the community hall last night and just hope that the team might have got some confidence back to do the same against Leicester. About time some of the appalling stats were improved and Benteke has returned with a wonderful goal that shows his quality.
Coincidence that Keano had just gone?
Either way, the next assistant manager needs to be an inspired appointment to keep the momentum going and get players to show how good they really are every week.
Thanks for getting the thread back on track Lou! Some fine points too.
As for the assistent manager I would like to see it sorted quickly one way or the other. I guess while the team is playing reasonably well and getting reults it shouldn't matter too much.
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Nearly? Did you really just say that.
I'll say it and I was there, which obviously makes me an ace fan, not like those yobbos chanting loudly at Burnley that they wanted Lambert out. We nearly blew the point as they hit the post and put a fairly simple header wide.
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I was really pleased to hear about the win on emerging from an extended rehearsal session in the community hall last night and just hope that the team might have got some confidence back to do the same against Leicester. About time some of the appalling stats were improved and Benteke has returned with a wonderful goal that shows his quality.
Coincidence that Keano had just gone?
Either way, the next assistant manager needs to be an inspired appointment to keep the momentum going and get players to show how good they really are every week.
Thanks for getting the thread back on track Lou! Some fine points too.
As for the assistent manager I would like to see it sorted quickly one way or the other. I guess while the team is playing reasonably well and getting reults it shouldn't matter too much.
You know, GBoy, maybe it's counter intuitive but to take up your point about it being unimportant, what if there wasn't one at all? Just a cone of specialist coaches, nobody as Assistant manager.
The team have come back from the disappearance of 'seconds' to PL who apparently weren't that brilliant at inspiring them, twice this year. Perhaps PL works better alone, but the team seemed to have rediscovered their mojo for the last 2 matches. Better last night, of course.
As for momentum, well, ...LLDDW..and hopefully WWWWand W to infinity would do me! Whatever works.
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I was really pleased to hear about the win on emerging from an extended rehearsal session in the community hall last night and just hope that the team might have got some confidence back to do the same against Leicester. About time some of the appalling stats were improved and Benteke has returned with a wonderful goal that shows his quality.
Coincidence that Keano had just gone?
Either way, the next assistant manager needs to be an inspired appointment to keep the momentum going and get players to show how good they really are every week.
Thanks for getting the thread back on track Lou! Some fine points too.
As for the assistent manager I would like to see it sorted quickly one way or the other. I guess while the team is playing reasonably well and getting reults it shouldn't matter too much.
You know, GBoy, maybe it's counter intuitive but to take up your point about it being unimportant, what if there wasn't one at all? Just a cone of specialist coaches, nobody as Assistant manager.
The team have come back from the disappearance of 'seconds' to PL who apparently weren't that brilliant at inspiring them, twice this year. Perhaps PL works better alone, but the team seemed to have rediscovered their mojo for the last 2 matches. Better last night, of course.
As for momentum, well, ...LLDDW..and hopefully WWWWand W to infinity would do me! Whatever works.
It is important, but I think for awhile at least if things are going well on the pitch then it shouldn't affect things too much. Thing is I don't think Keane made that much postitive difference during his time at the club, so like wise him suddenly not being around is not going to shatter us. It doesn't help either, but with the form being decent right now then it affords us a bit of time to make the right appointment. I agree with your postive statements though. Some can't seem to get over their Lambert bias to enjoy last night's win and performance.
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Just watched The Goal on MOTD and it's still great to see CB get stuck in and then do a Tony Daley run in to score.
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Maybe if Weimann wasn't being asked to play in a deep-right-lying midfield role, he'd score more goals. As for Gabby, it's time to start bringing him off the bench on 70.
That's the thing, Weimann is a centre forward being asked to play a wide midfield role. After 18 months of this you'd think lambert would fathom it isn't working.