Newcastle United v Aston Villa Post-Match Thread

[Chipsticks]

Does anyone know anything about El Ahmadi's injury?

[Irish villain]

I think we will see quite a bit of squad rotation in midfield. Midfield has been my main worry since we lost Jimmy, Downing, Young and even Barry before that. I simply haven't been all that impressed with Bannan, Albrighton, N'Zogbia Delph, and think Ireland has been an enigma. Herd did well last year. For the most part, we were horrific in midfield last season. I just felt that we were very ordinary there despite having a lot of options. None seemed to stand out as the first choice midfield.

However, after yesterday I have a feeling that the management team will play to the strengths of what we have. That is Bannan will feature maybe in 15-20 league games, alternating with somebody who keeps it a bit more simple in tougher games. Likewise players like N'Zogbia and Holman will alternate depending on the opposition. If graft is needed, Holman will get the nod. I think Delph and Herd will get their chances to anchor the team alongside KEA in a fair number of away games.

I am confident that Lambert will use the squad, thereby getting the best out of what we have. Things are really looking up.

[Toronto Villa]

Listened to the game on Radio WM...very enthused by todays performance and the media seem to be very impressed with Holman in particular so not sure why hes been receiving a bit of criticism on here. Also nice to hear and see some of media pundits eating humble pie after the game.

It was refreshing to see us play good passing football and players grafting all over the pitch...the hunger and desire was definitely there. We now have 2 weeks for the new players to get settled so lets hope this positivity continues and we continue to improve whilst also keeping up the impressive work rate. Their seems to be a good team spirit building already which is very good to see.

It wouldn't surprise me if it's because he's a McLeish signing.

Holman has so far been very Kevin Richardson-esque. He does a lot of the unnoticed dirty work. Unlike Captain Kev he's capable of a lot more in attack which I believe we will see in the months ahead. Any criticism as nothing to do with the fact that he was really a TSM signing.

[Toronto Villa]

Does anyone know anything about El Ahmadi's injury?

Turned his ankle, nothing serious. Should be fine for Swansea. What a nice signing he is turning out to be.

[Percy McCarthy]

Saw Sky's extended highlights last night. As one of Bent's critics, I should mention how impressed I was with his performance. I would happily take a few less goals in return for the team play he delivered yesterday, much better than usual and he showed he can do it. Great to see Gabby putting the wind up them as well.

I think Holman was probably following instructions for the goal, channeling Arfa inside thinking he'd run with it into the congested area. He did that bit right but Arfa did well to get a great shot off so quickly.

We already look absolutely transformed in terms of confidence, technique and attacking intent from last season - think we've got ourselves a good 'un in Lambert.

Good performances all over the pitch, it really was a delight to watch.

[CJ]

There were rumours preceding Paul Lambert's arrival of the tactical nous of his backroom staff. That they took time to properly evaluate the opposition. Tactical evaluation also takes into consideration a deep knowledge of ones own weapons. As Lambert, Culverhouse and Karsa get to know our own players better they'll be that much more effective in game planning for our opponents. We saw the first glimpses of that yesterday. Newcastle is a tough place to go, and aside from a moment sheer brilliance from Ben Arfa they struggled to create too many clear cut chances.

I think that's the big difference we'll see with PL.  MON had a Plan A, and if that failed he'd play players out of position in Plan A; TSM just parked the bus and played to not lose (and invariably failed); but on MOTD last night I think they said PL used 7 or 8 different starting formations at Norwich - and if the starting formation didn't work he'd change it at half time. I'm looking forward to the football we'll be playing for the first time in ages as we stifle the strengths and exploit the weaknesses of the opposition, and I think we saw that especially in the first half yesterday

[Chipsticks]

Does anyone know anything about El Ahmadi's injury?

Turned his ankle, nothing serious. Should be fine for Swansea. What a nice signing he is turning out to be.

Good to hear.

And I completely agree, he looks like a perfect midfield general.

[Toronto Villa]

That's a good point CJ about changing tactics and formations. We are all armchair football managers and we all have our views on tactics, positions and line ups ups. What infuriates us is when we see something clearly not working and the manager not changing anything. Lambert will do that and while we might now all agree in unison about the change itself, we'll at least appreciate that his thinking and willing to try different things to win a game.

[PaulTheVillan]

Saw Sky's extended highlights last night. As one of Bent's critics, I should mention how impressed I was with his performance. I would happily take a few less goals in return for the team play he delivered yesterday, much better than usual and he showed he can do it. Great to see Gabby putting the wind up them as well.

I noticed that about Bent yesterday. Got involved more, dropped deeper and won a lot of headers. Whilst still getting in the box. I reckon he's had a bollocking and realised that with Gabby being fit and 2 new strikers coming in Lambert will drop if players are not pulling their weight or are making mistakes (Given).

[Mazrim]

I think it was clear that although he played well, Bent isn't fuilly match sharp yet. He took extra touches he wouldn't normally take. He could have had at least a couple yesterday if he was fully up to speed. It's an exciting prospect. As was Ireland's business and string pulling.
Ireland's return to form is why I wasn't too disheartened to lose out to Dempsey because I think he'll do a great job linking it all up in the final third and we have other goal threats. Speaking of which it was nice to see Gabby back in action and looking something like his old self. When he's fully up to speed he'll be awesome. Another weapon and dimension to scare the shit out of people. As will Benteke with his pace and power.

I have to say it's looking very encouraging. There will be more backwards steps to come but yesterday was a glimpse of a bright future. We went to a hard place to get anything, written off and with no league form at all and were very unlucky not to win.
Only rustiness in front of goal (a temporary problem) stopped us winning comfortably. Yes we could have lost it too but that would have been especially harsh.

[tom jennings III]

Villa now have genuine competition for starting places, that, and the style of football we played for large parts of the game against Newcastle, are the two things that excite me the most this season. 4 strikers vying for 1/2 places?! Wow. I still think we will have a few blips along the way and will probably finish bottom half this season but the atmosphere around Villa is changing, and changing for the better. I'm happy to accept that the next few months or even most of the season will be difficult as we bed players in and PL takes time to find the system(s) and players he is happiest with for any given game but we are sure as buggery going to have some fun along the way!

UTV

[onje_villa]

I think we will see quite a bit of squad rotation in midfield. Midfield has been my main worry since we lost Jimmy, Downing, Young and even Barry before that. I simply haven't been all that impressed with Bannan, Albrighton, N'Zogbia Delph, and think Ireland has been an enigma. Herd did well last year. For the most part, we were horrific in midfield last season. I just felt that we were very ordinary there despite having a lot of options. None seemed to stand out as the first choice midfield.

However, after yesterday I have a feeling that the management team will play to the strengths of what we have. That is Bannan will feature maybe in 15-20 league games, alternating with somebody who keeps it a bit more simple in tougher games. Likewise players like N'Zogbia and Holman will alternate depending on the opposition. If graft is needed, Holman will get the nod. I think Delph and Herd will get their chances to anchor the team alongside KEA in a fair number of away games.

I am confident that Lambert will use the squad, thereby getting the best out of what we have. Things are really looking up.

Very much like Ferguson does (or did when he had Fletcher and Park)

[dicedlam]

There were rumours preceding Paul Lambert's arrival of the tactical nous of his backroom staff. That they took time to properly evaluate the opposition. Tactical evaluation also takes into consideration a deep knowledge of ones own weapons. As Lambert, Culverhouse and Karsa get to know our own players better they'll be that much more effective in game planning for our opponents. We saw the first glimpses of that yesterday. Newcastle is a tough place to go, and aside from a moment sheer brilliance from Ben Arfa they struggled to create too many clear cut chances.

Good point about the backroom staff.
Lambert, Culverhouse and Karsa... our new Little, Gregory and Evans?

[PaulTheVillan]

The Sun have got our line up a little wrong.

[Jarpie]

I think players noticed pretty quickly after Everton and Tranmere matches that how much more enjoying it is for them to play for manager who does his job properly and actually gets them to play proper football.

I think first time in ages we've seen Villa players who actually looked happy to play and genuinely enjoyed playing.