Fulham v Aston Villa Post-Match Thread

[tarzansbrother]

Just type shyte brontebilly. Oh and Paul winch you have shit in your eyes.

Bit much.
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Just type shyte brontebilly. Oh and Paul winch you have shit in your eyes.

Bit much.

Not really, too many villa fans have shit in their eyes. We are a fuckin shambles with a novice manager. Our owner is a faceless fool. The capital one cup is our only glory, how fuckin enbarrassing.

[onje_villa]

Benteke and Nzogbia were a lot better when they came on but we are just piss poor really. Delph did alright but is just so limited on the ball it aint funny and Holman is worse than Delph with the ball.

Our lads with the exception of Bent tried hard but there was no way we deserved a clean sheet today. Some of the defending from our younger three lads bordered on the criminal at times. Vlaar was solid. I thought Kea was decent in midfield but he is never going to create a goal or anything. We really look like we wont score too many. This was the case last season too and I think is actually getting worse under Lambert. No-one from midfield getting beyond the forwards like Ian Taylor used do. Its something I thought Chris Herd had in his locker, Stephen Ireland once upon a time did it for City but prefers to tap around near the halfway line these days getting up his passing stats.

As for the solution, Bent particularly needs wide men. If you look at the goals when he first came they were pretty much all laid on by Walker, downing or Young. What we wouldnt do for players of that quality today. Lowton twice went forward today, Bennett cant remember him at all getting beyond the midfield with the ball. None of the players in midfield went out wide. The call will be to bring in Albrighton and Nzogbia for the next day but Albrighton bar having a decent cross has nothing else to his game. Nzogbia could well throw out a stinker of a performance again but until our full backs push forward more, it will be difficult for wide men anyway. If we play those 2 for example, we will likely be very light in the middle. Kea and Delph are far too defensive as a partnership and lack physical presence too.

guzan 6 - commanding enough but a modern goalkeeper needs to be able to kick the ball. he is shocking with the ball at his feet
lowton 6 - decent stint at centre back maybe bumps him up a rating. One decent cross at full back but some terrible positioning at times defensively
vlaar 7 - our best player probably. some good blocks, used the ball well. solid performance
baker 5 - very ropey start but had started to settle into it a bit before going off with a nasty enough injury
Holman 5 - sure he tries hard but plainly not of EPL quality I reckon. His first touch is so bad his second is a tackle
Kea 6 - decent enough display. only wishes to do the bare minimum with the ball though, the same as Delph which restricts our play badly
Delph 6 - maybe I was a bit harsh on the lad during the match thread as to be fair he wasnt all that bad. just a very limited player with the ball
Ireland 5 - one moment of quality at the start of the second half showed his quality. but for much of the rest he walked around like a lad who really hadnt the heart for it. when is he ever in the opposition box or actually coming up with an assist. he is given a free role in the side to get goals and assists and does neither despite nice touches
bent 3 - sure what is the point. if we dont play with width there is no point having him on. gabby and himself cant play together, end of
gabby 5 - tried hard but zero goal threat. started well but faded. difficult for our forwards though as they are dependent on supply and there was zilch coming through from our midfield and full backs. 25 games or so in the EPL without a goal is a pretty desperate stat. hard to believe this is the same players that was destroying arsenal at the emirates not too long ago or destroying vidic at old trafford. he looks a championship player at the moment

subs - nzogbia did ok and probably deserves a start. benteke offers more than gabby and bent at the moment I reckon. should have scored but was in the right position anyway and gives us a physical presence up there anyway. lichaj was piss poor in his cameo

I honestly think we are in huge trouble this season. Lambert's gamble on not bringing in experienced players doesnt seem like it will be pay off. we are so badly lacking in different areas, I think staying up will prove a serious stretch this season.

I'm with you on most of that mate.
I really think Benteke and Weimann would be an excellent partnership. Weimann along with Herd can feel hard done by not to be in the side.

[PaulWinch again]

Just type shyte brontebilly. Oh and Paul winch you have shit in your eyes.

Bit much.

And also in the last two games Ireland was brought off did we or did we not concede? 4 against Southampton and 1 today.

[PeterWithe]

I'm prepared to be patient, we are trying to play entertaing football and I appreciate the squad issues Lambert has.

We need experienced defender to be bought in Jan but overall I like what PL is doing with the tools, so the speak, that he has.

We may have fewer point than this time last season but I am far more confident.

Onward and upward, UTV.

[Yossarian]

If we could bring one top quality proven player in right now, would he play up front, in midfield or at the back?

[Billy Walker]

As far as I can see we lost a game that could have gone either way 1-0.  We weren't outclassed or thrashed - such are the fine margins.  Yep, it's not great to lose again, and we have to start chalking up the wins soon but we do look a lot better than the team we were last season.  Back the manager, back the team and we'll climb the table.  At the moment it isn't going our way but we are nowhere near as bad as people are suggesting here.  We do need wins desperately, though,and we ain't gonna get them with wrist-slitting negativity.  Villa Park, next game, we've got to lift the lads and shift up that table.  When MON took over we had a similar kind of run where things looked shaky but we all showed plenty of patience.  Lambert needs exactly the same, as does the team. 

[PeterWithesShin]

Anybody else get the impression lambert didn't realise how bad we were and thought he could come in and get the best out of what we had and simply had to add a few bright sparks for the future.

Seems plausible. I think most people thought we had a half-decent team hidden under McLeish's cloud of despair.

Count me among those. I thought we underachieved by about four to five places last season. Not so sure now.

I think we did, but only 3 of the starters today were regular starters last season. Plus Delph and Guzan. Maybe Lambert has tried to change too much too soon?

[pooligan]

Very depressing .Just so predictable that sooner or later Fulham would score and that would be it. Someone earlier mentioned that Gabby has now gone 27 premier games without scoring,how does the guy start in front of Weimann or Benteke ?

[onje_villa]

I'm prepared to be patient, we are trying to play entertaing football and I appreciate the squad issues Lambert has.

We need experienced defender to be bought in Jan but overall I like what PL is doing with the tools, so the speak, that he has.

We may have fewer point than this time last season but I am far more confident.

Onward and upward, UTV.

Fucking hell mate, I was with you on that a few weeks ago but even the good football bit has disappeared in the last few games. No way was any of our football good today, whereas it was against West Ham, Newcastle and especially Swansea.

[onje_villa]

As far as I can see we lost a game that could have gone either way 1-0.  We weren't outclassed or thrashed - such are the fine margins.  Yep, it's not great to lose again, and we have to start chalking up the wins soon but we do look a lot better than the team we were last season.  Back the manager, back the team and we'll climb the table.  At the moment it isn't going our way but we are nowhere near as bad as people are suggesting here.  We do need wins desperately, though,and we ain't gonna get them with wrist-slitting negativity.  Villa Park, next game, we've got to lift the lads and shift up that table.  When MON took over we had a similar kind of run where things looked shaky but we all showed plenty of patience.  Lambert needs exactly the same, as does the team.

Did you see the game? It may have been 1-0 but we were never in it until the last 10 minutes.
Fair enough about the patience bit though but I think we are right to be concerned.

[nick harper]

If we could bring one top quality proven player in right now, would he play up front, in midfield or at the back?

We haven't replaced Stan and that, to me, is where things are going wrong. We lack a steadying influence in midfield. A talker and a leader, and someone who will sit in front of the back four and give licence for our creative players to push on.

At the moment we lack any of that. It was a bad mistake to not address it in the summer.

[olaftab]

Anybody else get the impression lambert didn't realise how bad we were and thought he could come in and get the best out of what we had and simply had to add a few bright sparks for the future.

No really. Lambert knew how shit we were and had changed the team as best as he could. Today there were 6 players on the pitch he has signed. He needs time to improve the players  or more money to sign quality however both things may not happen to save us.

[PeterWithe]

We didn't get enough crosses in from decent positions, if I've a criticism of PL its that his system needs the width to come from the full backs and neither of them are up to it at this stage in their careers.

In answer to the question posed above if we were to spend big money on a player in Jan I'd spend it on a full back with captaincy qualities.

[Apyadg]

As far as I can see we lost a game that could have gone either way 1-0.  We weren't outclassed or thrashed - such are the fine margins.  Yep, it's not great to lose again, and we have to start chalking up the wins soon but we do look a lot better than the team we were last season.  Back the manager, back the team and we'll climb the table.  At the moment it isn't going our way but we are nowhere near as bad as people are suggesting here.  We do need wins desperately, though,and we ain't gonna get them with wrist-slitting negativity.  Villa Park, next game, we've got to lift the lads and shift up that table.  When MON took over we had a similar kind of run where things looked shaky but we all showed plenty of patience.  Lambert needs exactly the same, as does the team. 

When O'Neill took over, we weren't on a downward slump after consistently selling our best players, and we had reason to believe all of that proud history bright future bollocks.

I don't think many people are turning on Lambert, it's our absentee owner who's at fault, but you can't expect us all to sit around being patient and cautiously optimistic when we've won 3 league games all year.

[Percy McCarthy]

Randy's got a $billion dollars coming from the sale of the Cleveland Browns.................We need a big chunk of that spent on Villa please Mr Lerner

Not happening, Faulkner said as much a couple of months back or whenever it was.

Yes, because if it was he'd tell us.