Aston Villa v Everton Post-Match Thread

[Mortimer's Bear]

I wonder if Robbie Savage has stopped pissing himself yet...

[luke25]

I wonder if Robbie Savage has stopped pissing himself yet...

Why do so many people care what Robbie Savage thinks?

[pestria]

It all changed after KEA scored that goal. We were more aggressive, we more making runs, we were taking on players, turning players. It was like watching a different team out there. The full-backs were getting forward, Weimann was finding space in behind and KEA was roaming through the centre of the park finding forward passes. This was all at 10 men too.

We just need that mentality that we had in the final 15 minutes to be the same for the entire of the match. We actually hounded Everton into giving us the ball and because we took them on, we started to break them down. Before that though we were like frightened sheep and only passed sideways or backwards and just let them walk all over us. We can't have that mentality going into a Premier League match.

In terms of players, Baker needs to go at CB. Guzan needs to start in goal. Weimann, Holman and Delph should be replacing Fonz, N'Zogbia and Bannan. Lichaj or a new player has to go at LB. Do that and get us going forward and we shall have no worries about relegation.

Bloody good post, agree with all but I noticed in the match thread you picked up on one very important point, Villa players running with the ball, something we see far too little of. It's all well and good passing it about but it doesn't put the opposition under any real pressure. On the rare occasion we put Everton on the back foot the space opened up. We need to do more of that.

Credit should also be given to Everton who are playing with both confidence and arrogance, such is their belief in their own individual and collective ability, something we seriously lack but whilst Lambert is still judging what he's got, it's not going to happen overnight.

The game was dead and Everton were relaxing having made multiple subs by the time we showed any sign of improvement.  On that basis it's hard to draw too many positives.

[PeterWithesShin]

Oh and Baker looks a far better CB than Clark. He's not a LB though. More and more I think Clark will be best back in midfield. Bannan continues to be achieve very little, quite how he got picked ahead of Delph and Ireland is beyond me. As for Zog, that run where he skinned 2 defenders and then promptly ran it out of play sums him up. Plenty of talent but too inconsistent especially with an end product.

[Mortimer's Bear]

I wonder if Robbie Savage has stopped pissing himself yet...

Why do so many people care what Robbie Savage thinks?

I care what anyone thinks about my club. In the same way I feel a sense of pride when somebody compliments us in the media (rare I know), when someone knocks us I get annoyed.

[pestria]

It's not hard to tell the story of randy's reign do far though is it?:

- initial excitement, great backing for the manager, if not superstar players
- in hindsight, too much financial control given to the manager, which basically meant unless we got into the champions league we'd be losing buckets of cash
- realised the error of his ways
- poor managerial choice x2
- period of very significant retrenchment as villa try to become "the Ajax of the midlands
" and do it all with homegrown players
- a good manager in now. But the retrenchment continues. I wonder if they thought lambert was ideal because he can do it without any cash

Perhaps lambert will turn it around. But I wouldn't be surprised if he decides within the next month that we're in trouble with this squad and tells the chairman that to his face

If I was Lambert I'd be giving Randy a call to tell him unless I had £20m to spend in the next week I'd be on my way out of here.  I certainly wouldn't risk  my burgeoning reputation on such an incompetent bunch of senior players and over rated youngsters.

[Chris Smith]

We were mostly awful for the first hour and kept giving away poor goals. We did though salvage something after the sending off and suggest that there might, with one or two additions, be the basis of a half decent team in there somewhere. Having Gabby, Dunne and Albrighton available will help but there's clearly work to be done, both in the transfer market and on the training ground.

[Mortimer's Bear]

It's not hard to tell the story of randy's reign do far though is it?:

- initial excitement, great backing for the manager, if not superstar players
- in hindsight, too much financial control given to the manager, which basically meant unless we got into the champions league we'd be losing buckets of cash
- realised the error of his ways
- poor managerial choice x2
- period of very significant retrenchment as villa try to become "the Ajax of the midlands
" and do it all with homegrown players
- a good manager in now. But the retrenchment continues. I wonder if they thought lambert was ideal because he can do it without any cash

Perhaps lambert will turn it around. But I wouldn't be surprised if he decides within the next month that we're in trouble with this squad and tells the chairman that to his face

If I was Lambert I'd be giving Randy a call to tell him unless I had £20m to spend in the next week I'd be on my way out of here.  I certainly wouldn't risk  my burgeoning reputation on such an incompetent bunch of senior players and over rated youngsters.

Can he really tell that from 2 games?

[andrew08]

Not a surprising result. Sometimes you have to accept that the opposition are better than you. I'm concerned that its borderline if there are three teams worse than us the way we are currently playing.

The encouraging thing is that the players that PL has purchased look good and so you would think that any additions he makes will improve the team. And that is the crux of it for me:add to the squad and we should be fine and will be able to use this season as a transitional one for a better future. If we don't we may get relegated.

[frankmosswasmyuncle]

Sorry if already mentioned but Everton fan on 5Live gave an excellent assessment of Villa today - gave Everton too much time and space, failed to close the opposition down and never looked liked scoring. He thought Everton played well but with a very big nod to our incompetence.
Couldn't have agreed more.

As ever, I live in hope that we will turn things around, but I doubt Bannan and Fonz will make a contribution to that.

[hawkeye]

Its about time we started with 11 and that means no Bent Bannan Nzogbia, make us hard to beat. we need to start somewhere.

[Lizz]

I haven't read all of this thread, my 2p's worth. Everton were very good. We looked seriously bad. There'll be games we can't make, own today's showing we won't be able to give the tickets away.

[brian green]

My younger son with whom I went to the game today has a friend who is very close to the movers and shakers at Norwich.   He says Paul Lambert comes down like a ton of bricks on anybody he thinks has let him down and that he is certain he will be in the faces of the board next week for money to sign new players.   I was impressed by the short shrift he gave Villa hater Pat Murphy in his post match interview.   Reminiscent of Ron Saunders at his growliest.

[Mortimer's Bear]

Its about time we started with 11 and that means no Bent Bannan Nzogbia, make us hard to beat. we need to start somewhere.

I'd add Given to that list.

[UK Redsox]

Oh and Baker looks a far better CB than Clark. He's not a LB though. More and more I think Clark will be best back in midfield. Bannan continues to be achieve very little, quite how he got picked ahead of Delph and Ireland is beyond me. As for Zog, that run where he skinned 2 defenders and then promptly ran it out of play sums him up. Plenty of talent but too inconsistent especially with an end product.

I think that Baker has a brighter future at Centre Half than Clark. To me, Clark is a Barry-esque player who will end up moving to left back and then central midfield.

Zog seems to have lost all interest in passing and shooting. He just keeps running with the ball until he bumps into someone or runs out of pitch.

Bannan played one great cross field ball in the firspickle, picking out the player perfectly. Unfortunately the player in question was Pienaar.

Weimann looked bright. I don't understand how PL could prefer Fonz