Aston Villa v Everton Post-Match Thread

[OzVilla]

Last i heard General Krulak was working on improving the enrolments at some Ole Miss style University in some southern State - using the strap line 'Proud history, bright future'.  I'm not kidding either!

[Phil from the upper holte]

Moyes has had 10 years at Everton Lambert has had 10 weeks. I'm not making excuses however. Lambo needs money that much is clear. Fonz, Bannan are not good enough, with the exception of Bent we haven't had decenct investment since Mon was here. Sold Downing for £20m brought Charles for £9.5 etc etc, we've got rid of 4 brought 4 new unknowns in, they can't be expected to step up straight away. Randy has 5 days to back Lambert or we are in deep deep shit, he may as well have left tsm in charge

[brian green]

Oz Villa's summary was exactly right.   Our home grown players have been thrown into the deep end week after week.   A more stable club would have been able to blood them patiently but we have had so many idlers and divas on long contracts at vastly inflated wages the younger players have been demoralized and played out of position.   They now have the additional disadvantage of having a silent introvert as captain.

I do not doubt that Bannan and Fonz and Albrighton and Herd and others will be shipped out and more experienced, mentally stronger players brought in to shore us up but you can be sure that at least one of the players we ship out once relieved of the losing siege mentality we have at the club at the moment will turn out to be a Peter Whittingham or a Craig Gardner or a Gary Cahill for their new clubs.   On the face of it the evidence appears to be that the younger players we have expected so much from are not good enough but circumstances under which they have been trying to prove themselves could not have been worse for them.

It all goes back to the administrative car crash which was our handling of the O'Neill exit and the two catastrophic managerial appointments which followed.   It will be a long and painful haul back.   Yesterday was just the beginning of the pain.

[Rancid custard]

Oz Villa's summary was exactly right.   Our home grown players have been thrown into the deep end week after week.   A more stable club would have been able to blood them patiently but we have had so many idlers and divas on long contracts at vastly inflated wages the younger players have been demoralized and played out of position.   They now have the additional disadvantage of having a silent introvert as captain.

Spot on Brian. I've always wondered, why even when every player is available to play, the boss of the time has always seemed to stick 2 or 3 of the youth in rather than a gradual one at a time mentality.

[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.

Can he really tell that from 2 games?

If he can't then he needs medical as well as football advice.

[Legion]

MotD highlights

[Witton Warrior]

Lets be honest, if you are 3-0 down at home at half time, would you expect a standing ovation? Who is Mac by the way?

It's the idiots who don't boo that make me sick - complete lack of passion...

;-) Can you see what I did there?

[Clampy]

The only positives to take out of yesterday were Nathan Baker who i thought was very good and us looking a bit more threatning when Weimann came on. Overall it was poor though. We might as well sell Bent if we're not going to play with any wingers who can put crosses into the box.

[Big Dick Edwards]

That was the most inept performance I've seen from a Villa side at home for many a season. At least McLeish's dour teams made themselves difficult to beat more often than not. We were a disorganised shambles in every area of the pitch. We looked likely to concede at any given moment and never looked like scoring ourselves. The midfield was non existent with no plan on how to construct offensive moves. I at least expected to see some evidence of our new passing style. I didn't. It goes without saying that without major investment this week we are in serious trouble this season. The prospect of Newcastle away next with their attacking threat followed by the very impressive Swansea at home doesn't fill me with much optimism.

Searching vainly for positives, the players at least didn't capitulate when the team went down to ten men, and I thought Baker and Lowton showed promise, as did Holman when he came on.

[darren woolley]

We where awful in the first half we did slightly better in the second apart from Baker, KEA, Lowton, and Weimann who didn't play too bad the rest were shocking we need to bring some more players this week fingers crossed we will do.

[Rip Van We Go Again]

Let's hope Mr Personality opens the cheque book and allows Lambert to purchase 3 quailty players.
I won't hold my breath though.

And please, let's not give Prat Murphy the oxygen of publicity.

[Ad@m]

It's probably already been said but the major cock up yesterday was the tactics in the first half, which is a slight worry given Lambert's been portrayed as a tactical genius.

Everton's main (only?) asset is that they have one of the best midfields in the league.  Our inexperienced midfield was always going to struggle so playing 442 against their 451 meant that they could absolutely dominate us.  The amount of time and space they had while our lads chased shadows was ridiculous.

Lambert saw it but only made the change at half time, by which point the horse had well and truly bolted.

However, I don't think you can write off a season based on yesterday.  We met an in-form Everton team and got our tactics completely wrong.  I still believe that this squad (as long as key players stay fit) can be comfortably mid-table.  Lambert needs a bit of time to get them playing the way he wants them to and we'll certainly win many more games than last season.

I just hope he can get more out of them, and picks the right tactics for the Swansea game as the form they're in at the moment could give a similar result to yesterday if we get it wrong.

[Rip Van We Go Again]

Last i heard General Krulak was working on improving the enrolments at some Ole Miss style University in some southern State - using the strap line 'Proud history, bright future'.  I'm not kidding either!

Probably the most pathetic Marketing strap line in the history of our club.

[danlanza]

MotD highlights

Not going to put myself through it again Legion. Cheers anyway.

[Risso]

Last i heard General Krulak was working on improving the enrolments at some Ole Miss style University in some southern State - using the strap line 'Proud history, bright future'.  I'm not kidding either!

Probably the most pathetic Marketing strap line in the history of our club.

I love the fact that the General uses that at his college in America.  If anything sums up the cynical, marketing led bollocks that was a feature of the first five year of Lerner's ownership, it's that.  Spin, bluster, and downright lies.