Aston Villa v Norwich City Post-Match Thread

[hilts_coolerking]

Week after week we play two up front and get dominated by teams with bodies in midfield and between the lines. In fact, scrap that, year after year this has been happening. Lambert has made the best attempt to play two up front and still play good football but it's not worked, it can't work, it's over. Play the one up front and keep the ball with greater numbers in midfield. It is so unbelievably obvious and has been ever since MON bought Heskey so we could play 4-4-2 again and we started playing worse.

What about 3-5-2?

[Eigentor]

Bent is the biggest sellable asset we have and if he's just going to be sitting on the bench we might as well cash him in if the money would be made available to Lambert.

I keep reading that Bent is a luxury we can't afford, but my feeling is that not playing our most reliable goalscorer is a luxury we can't afford.

I wish there was more to his game, he's far from a complete player, but we will need his goals.

[PaulWinch again]

1 win 18 league games.

[WALTERS WARRIORS]

I dont know where to start. If Lambert is going to play Delph it has got to be as an attacking midfielder to try and push the team up , as a defensive MF he is always going to give away free kicks. Albrighton is championship player and Bennet is not ready for the first team. we need a minimum of four players 3 in mid and an experienced LB. I am always optimistic but today i was watching a bottom 3 side ........

[nornironvillain]

Can someone tell me what KEA actually does except pass the ball 5 yards back or sideways.
Cant tackle, cant shoot, cant head the ball, cant create and cant defend.
He is only marginally worse than the rest of that midfield.

you can actually add Delph and Holman in there

[JUAN PABLO]

just saw Albrighton for the corner . What was he doing?

[django]

The players who weren't involved today, Nzogbia, Ireland, Bannan, Dunne aren't without their (much discussed) faults so it's not like we're waiting for players who will definitely turn it round. I think its changing the system that is our best shot.

Difficult though because I feel Lamberts struggling to accommodate 4 strikers into 2 slots let alone 4 into one.

[ktvillan]

Let’s not kid ourselves, we were rubbish with 11 men, and very lucky to be a goal up.   

When I saw the team, with no Ireland, Bannan,  or Weimann, I knew we would struggle to create anything.  We created more in some games under TSM, which is about as damning as it gets.

Bennett is an idiot and so is Herd, who should also have had a second yellow.  We were lucky to finish with 10 men.

We defended well if a little desperately at times.

We have no midfield to speak of.

Albrighton is a waste of space.

Gabby offered virtually nothing except his part in the goal.

Guzan was immense and saved us from a thrashing by a mediocre team.

I lost count of the times Delph and KEA gave the ball away in dangerous areas.

After the Swansea game Lineker and co. said Lambert gave the impression of knowing what he was doing.  Anyone else starting to doubt that assertion?
I know he doesn’t have much to work with, but bringing Bent on with only 10 men made no sense,  we needed someone who could hold the ball up, or someone who could drop deep and pick the ball up and go at them (basically Weimann).

I fear we will be bottom by December.   The January window is huge for us and we need a minimum of two or three solid, experienced midfielders.

[hilts_coolerking]

I keep reading that Bent is a luxury we can't afford, but my feeling is that not playing our most reliable goalscorer is a luxury we can't afford.

I wish there was more to his game, he's far from a complete player, but we will need his goals.

He's not going to score that many from the bench though, only playing half an hour.  £16M is too much money to have wrapped up in someone who doesn't start.

[Tom_Mc9?]

Why can't any of our players pass the fecking ball?

[hilts_coolerking]

The players who weren't involved today, Nzogbia, Ireland, Bannan, Dunne aren't without their (much discussed) faults so it's not like we're waiting for players who will definitely turn it round. I think its changing the system that is our best shot.

Difficult though because I feel Lamberts struggling to accommodate 4 strikers into 2 slots let alone 4 into one.

Bent, Nzogbia and Ireland have been our biggest signings of the last two seasons (combined it must be something like £30M) but they're barely involved.

[richard moore]

Can someone tell me what KEA actually does except pass the ball 5 yards back or sideways.
Cant tackle, cant shoot, cant head the ball, cant create and cant defend.
He is only marginally worse than the rest of that midfield.

you can actually add Delph and Holman in there

I asked the same question after Fulham last week! He has zero impact for me. Being a holding midfielder isn't an excuse for doing nothing

[pauliewalnuts]

I honestly think the major problem is that the players aren't good enough.

Look at that squad objectively and pick out the quality. This was my main worry at the end of the transfer window, we largely bought average championship players.

Benteke and Vlaar look decent but two or three players of proven middling quality was never going to be enough.

It is really the culmination of three years of so of dreadful mismanagement / stewardship of the club.

I think it is unrealistic to expect the manager to work miracles, but it is equally unrealistic to pretend that "young and hungry" (and were we a cynical lot, we could add "cheap" to that) is going to be a magical solution to our increasing decline.

[oldtimernow]

If we are to play one up front then it's got to be Benteke.Nothing will ever stick to Bent , don't think he's up for it anyway.

Midfield is like a limp lettuce

[oldtimernow]

The players who weren't involved today, Nzogbia, Ireland, Bannan, Dunne aren't without their (much discussed) faults so it's not like we're waiting for players who will definitely turn it round. I think its changing the system that is our best shot.

Difficult though because I feel Lamberts struggling to accommodate 4 strikers into 2 slots let alone 4 into one.

Bent, Nzogbia and Ireland have been our biggest signings of the last two seasons (combined it must be something like £30M) but they're barely involved.

Could it be that they can't be arsed?