Aston Villa v Everton Post-Match Thread

[damon loves JT]

Excuse me for butting in. I gather that we have been relegated already.

[The Situation]

It doesn't get any easier next week with a trip to "the toon". Are they playing their Europa League qualifer next Thursday?

[olaftab]

By my reckoning our current form is 1 win in our last 18 league games and 1 win in our last 14 home games. Scared yet?

No not scared at all. Stats are stats and this one is a bit like  team x hasn't  beaten team y for 40 years when they actually have not played each for 38 of those 40. Almost new team new coach new set up last season is history.

[tarzansbrother]

Excuse me for butting in. I gather that we have been relegated already.

Nearly, our current owner only needs to ship out 3 more highly paid players and rely on 2 inexperienced youth players replacing them.

[Matt Collins]

Pretty damn woeful overall. We showed in the last 20 minutes that we can at least play football when the intensity has gone out of the game. But it could have been 6 or 7 there.

The only positives for me were holman's movement second half, KEA second half and I thought baker looked decent. I'd also hope that's enough to convince that we desperately need a couple of quality players

Bent and cnz were really bad I thought.

Would probably play a first xi v tranmere to try and get some team play going. I reckon

Fuzzy - low ton vlaar baker lichaj - Holman kea delph cnz - bent Weimann

Agree, bar one player Matt.
How many more chances are we going to give cn'z?
I don't normally single out players, but the guy's a liability, mate. I'd bang in Carruthers.

I didn't know who else to think of! I subsequently remembered Ireland. He's who I'd probably play. It'd be a seriously narrow midfield though. But then Pienaar and Naismith were playing very tucked in, with Baines in particular fantastic as overlapping full back. I don't think their style is a bad model for us to follow. The problem is:
- Bent can't hold the ball up and play others in in the same way Jelavic does
- We don't really have a second fwd like Fellaini. Ireland and Bent doesn't work.

To be honest, I don't know really. There's so much to do.

[OzVilla]

Excuse me for butting in. I gather that we have been relegated already.

Not yet, but we'll know in a weeks time.

Over to you Randy.

[PeterWithesShin]

By my reckoning our current form is 1 win in our last 18 league games and 1 win in our last 14 home games. Scared yet?

No not scared at all. Stats are stats and this one is a bit like  team x hasn't  beaten team y for 40 years when they actually have not played each for 38 of those 40. Almost new team new coach new set up last season is history.

That would be valid but apart from this stat includes most of the same players that were involved in the form that started last season. And 4 new players isn't a nearly new team, and certainly isn't when part of a squad that is 20+ players.

[OzVilla]

I'm afraid the likes of Ireland, N'Zogbia and Fonz just epitomise us at the moment.

Lacking quality, confidence and application.

[SoccerHQ]

We're still far too slow moving the ball in central midfield through to the forwards, very often it will move at snail's pace and then because the opponents have got back, we then start passing sideways and eventually backwards.

Short term Ireland just has to start for me. I was amazed he didn't play today. Fair enough I can understand him being on the bench for some away games but a home game today I fully expected him to play today.

[Nastylee]

  Just got back, my pennys worth.

  Given.........Gone, at fault for the 1st 2 goals, probably should have done better on the 3rd.£60k per week, not worth it.

  Lowton....Ok, not too bad, would'nt have got in the team 3 years ago, now seems to be the kind of player we are buying.Looks ok, not slow, not bad on the ball, had a reasonable game against Pienaar.

  Vlaar..........steady, looks a good buy for £3m imho, probably should have closed the shot down for their 1st, but overall quite happy with him

  Clark.....never going to do it imho, we looked a far better defence when Baker went there.Clark is like LMoore, has a lot of ability, average to good at most things, but not good enough at anything to be a good player.

 Baker....is 19, and is going to make mistakes, but saved 3 goals today, and if we perservere with him will be an England player.One of the only bright sparks today.

 KEA.....again looks a good player, struggled with Bannan alongside him, looked better with Holman alongside him.Another bright spark.

  Bannan....as a footballer , i like him, but you have to indulge Bannan, and have a midfield built around him, we can't have that.We were a lot better when he went off.Swap him for Ince at Bpool.

 Herd....where was he supposed to be playing today.Waste of time, he did'nt have a clue, nor did I.A squad player, very poor today.

  N'Zog....for all his faults, he is our most creative player, and he created 3 chances today.If we don't play him , who else.I thought with Holman and KEA and Eric, he played well the last 20 mins.We have to persevere  with him.

 Delf........hard to judge, worked hard, one good cross, never got the ball.

 Bent......If we haven't got the money to buy, then i would be tempted to sell.Didn't do a great deal today, run around a bit, to be fair didn't have much service.

 Holman.....played well when he played in Bannans position, shit up until that.At least he moves off the ball, unlike Bannan.

 Weimann.....every time I see him, he looks like scoring.Unlucky today, would have made a very interesting last 5 mins.

  Lambert.......made a balls up with the starting line up, and we was 3-0 down by H/T.At least he made some admission of guilt by making subs.

 We looked a lot better when Bannan and Herd went off, and Clark going off was a blessing.Unless we make 2/3 signings now, we are going to struggle.

I also think N'Zogbia wasn't as bad as some are making out. Today, he was one of few players that at least tried to make something happen. He had one cracking run in the first half but delayed crossing due to the lack of options in the box. Basically, a large proportion of fans have made their mind up that 'he's shit and doesn't try' that they don't actually see things. At one moment today he was crowded out by three Everton players in the second half, obviously lost out and I then heard the bloke behind shout that he doesn't want to know. It's laughable sometimes just how stupid people are.

[tarzansbrother]

  Just got back, my pennys worth.

  Given.........Gone, at fault for the 1st 2 goals, probably should have done better on the 3rd.£60k per week, not worth it.

  Lowton....Ok, not too bad, would'nt have got in the team 3 years ago, now seems to be the kind of player we are buying.Looks ok, not slow, not bad on the ball, had a reasonable game against Pienaar.

  Vlaar..........steady, looks a good buy for £3m imho, probably should have closed the shot down for their 1st, but overall quite happy with him

  Clark.....never going to do it imho, we looked a far better defence when Baker went there.Clark is like LMoore, has a lot of ability, average to good at most things, but not good enough at anything to be a good player.

 Baker....is 19, and is going to make mistakes, but saved 3 goals today, and if we perservere with him will be an England player.One of the only bright sparks today.

 KEA.....again looks a good player, struggled with Bannan alongside him, looked better with Holman alongside him.Another bright spark.

  Bannan....as a footballer , i like him, but you have to indulge Bannan, and have a midfield built around him, we can't have that.We were a lot better when he went off.Swap him for Ince at Bpool.

 Herd....where was he supposed to be playing today.Waste of time, he did'nt have a clue, nor did I.A squad player, very poor today.

  N'Zog....for all his faults, he is our most creative player, and he created 3 chances today.If we don't play him , who else.I thought with Holman and KEA and Eric, he played well the last 20 mins.We have to persevere  with him.

 Delf........hard to judge, worked hard, one good cross, never got the ball.

 Bent......If we haven't got the money to buy, then i would be tempted to sell.Didn't do a great deal today, run around a bit, to be fair didn't have much service.

 Holman.....played well when he played in Bannans position, shit up until that.At least he moves off the ball, unlike Bannan.

 Weimann.....every time I see him, he looks like scoring.Unlucky today, would have made a very interesting last 5 mins.

  Lambert.......made a balls up with the starting line up, and we was 3-0 down by H/T.At least he made some admission of guilt by making subs.

 We looked a lot better when Bannan and Herd went off, and Clark going off was a blessing.Unless we make 2/3 signings now, we are going to struggle.

I also think N'Zogbia wasn't as bad as some are making out. Today, he was one of few players that at least tried to make something happen. He had one cracking run in the first half but delayed crossing due to the lack of options in the box. Basically, a large proportion of fans have made their mind up that 'he's shit and doesn't try' that they don't actually see things. At one moment today he was crowded out by three Everton players in the second half, obviously lost out and I then heard the bloke behind shout that he doesn't want to know. It's laughable sometimes just how stupid people are.

£10m fee and £50k a week is laughable and stupid.

[Nastylee]

£10m is nothing these days. I'm not saying he was great just that he is no worse than a lot of players that appear to get away with it. What we actually have is a squad that has absolutely no confidence. They see a club that is being managed to oblivion, seeing it's best players sold and not replaced and there's little to be positive about on or off the pitch. If you've ever worked in a place where morale has taken a hit you'll know negativity is infectious and needs a lot of work to turn round. What is doesn't mean is that all the staff are shit, simply misguided. Take the last two years at VP into account and I think many of the squad probably don't know if they're coming or going. Remember since MON they have had KMc, GH, GMc, AMc and PL all with their own ideas, tactics, etc. It's been ridiculous really when you think about it.
 
Also, talk of Bent is stupid simply because unless we're going to take a big loss (which would be lauaghable and stupid) then no one is going to bid anything close to what we purchased him for.

[Seb_AVFC]

Id like to see cnz getting a run in
the 2nd striker role like he did at wigan. He's not a winger, is he

[Nastylee]

PL doesn't appear to want wingers in his team. A bit of mistake in my mind simply because it starves us of crosiing opportunities (something Bent needs) and allows opposition full backs to run riot as happened today. All we can hope it that a 2-4 faces appear next week but I'm not hopeful.

[damon loves JT]

I think I shall open a dry cleaner's, specialising in brown trousers. It will surely make my fortune.