Aston Villa v Norwich City Post-Match Thread

[midnite]

So much sloppy passing and silly needless mistakes.

We played ok in patches and really dog awful in others. I have no problem with Bennett getting sent off. Already on a yellow, why he felt the need to check the Norwich player god only knows. I just wish there was consistency in the referee. Bent got body checked towards the end of the match and nothing given. There were numerous other occasions similar to that too.

Lambert is adement he wants to play a certain formation but players he uses just aren't good enough. Out midfield is rubbish. Herd should be in that midfield when not covering centre back for a start. There's just no shape in the middle of the park and the midfield often just goes missing. Albrighton seems afraid to take things on first time. A number of crosses and a shot in the second half were begging to be hit first time. Instead a first touch is taken and the chance has gone. Players surround him and he's tackled.

Guzan single handedly saved us from being beaten. Herd was great too. Bennett struggled all game.

Just too many times we gave away needless free kicks with fouls when the player is going away from goal and stupidly switching off for the corner that lead to their goal.

If lambert wants to continue with the formation he needs to change the players that are in it. A bench of Bent, N'Zogbia and Ireland is a wonderful thing to have if those players that are on te pitch are better and I don't think they are.

[Tom_Mc9?]

I'm definitely on the wobble as far as Lambert is concerned. Tactics and team selection not right for a little while now. Injuries don't help, but even so.

Oh come on now. It's October.

[PaulWinch again]

I think the idea of young and hungry players who want to play for Villa is admirable but naive. You can have a few, but you need to sign experienced quality to supplement this or you are completely doomed. Our left back position is proof of that.

[nornironvillain]

I think the idea of young and hungry players who want to play for Villa is admirable but naive. You can have a few, but you need to sign experienced quality to supplement this or you are completely doomed. Our left back position is proof of that.

the likes of Lowton trying to step up 2 levels is not niave its criminal in this league - the amount of money at stake in this league and we have decided to try and stay in the big money by doing it on the cheap

this season has disaster written all over it - unless, unless we have money to spend in January

[David_Nab]

Norwich had more league experience than us today ..says it all.

We need some proven players in the squad not just potential

[VillaAlways]

Many teams have gone down to 10 men,got organised and gone on to win the game.We just panicked and crumbled.No plan, just a ridiculous substition in Bent.I'm beginning to think Lambert is suffering with second season syndrome but unfortunately he's with us now

[ktvillan]

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.

The TV deal for the PL next season will make 16m look like small change.  I read somewhere even the team that finishes bottom will rake in 100m a year.   So with that  potential boost , the wages don't need to be slashed so drastically to get them down to 60% of turnover, and it would be worth investing 30-40m to ensure we stay in the fecking division.  We shouldn't need to sell our main source of goals to do it.  Of course this all assumes our owner and his pet lickspittle know their arses from their elbows and can see beyond the next 5 minutes.

[Rudy Can't Fail]

Lambert has to take responsibility for what I can only describe as an utterly shit performance over 90 minutes. Fortunately we managed to score from our only opportunity and the score line flatters us. Thank god Norwich were no real threat up front. Play like that against better teams and we will get seriously spanked.

I'm not going to blame the ref, Lerner or even the players. They like all players grow with confidence, no matter how young or experienced they are. Right now we're running on empty. Thankfully Benteke has his own supply.

Lambert has to focus on the midfield, despite all the players we have there he still hasn't found the right balance and if anything, it's getting worse by each game we play. Today was pathetic. Norwich took the ball off us when they needed to, normally we just gave it back to them. Lambert needs to sort it out and sort it out quick.

As others have mentioned, Guzan, Vlaar, Herd and Benteke can hold their heads up. The rest were shite.

[django]

The players we've brought in...

El Ahamedi looks ok. Could be ok with some better players around him.
Holman, good engine tries to make things happen, which we need, but desperately short of quality.
Bennet, looks a division or more above his level at the moment, but still young, might improve but this season may be too soon for him.
Benteke looks like he could be our most dangerous striker.
Vlaar looks the part.
Lowton looks decent to me, probably an improvement on last season.

With these sort of signings, you are risking very little, but the chances of improving the squad in the short term is pretty small too.

They're all decent signings but compared to last seasons squad, it's only really Vlaar who has really improved us by much.

Meanwhile, some of the players who looked poor last season haven't improved. Ireland, Nzogbia, Albrighton, Gabby, Delph. They've all had good spells in their careers but while in the summer I felt optimistic that the change of manager might lift them it's not looking like it will be that straightforward. Someone like Ireland started his career looking brilliant, that lasted a season and a half. Since then he has had how many years of not looking up to it? How long is it that you wait and think they'll come good again? Or do you start to think that maybe the good spell was the blip. It's worrying that the quality players we do have are so inconsistent.

[SoccerHQ]

Thank god we don't go down to 10 men that often as we are awful when it happens. Some of the subs look questionable to me, Gabby didn't do much again but surely when you're a man light you keep as much pace on the pitch as possible.

Gabby went off, Benteke went off and there was no chance of the ball sticking upfront, think I'd have taken either Albrighton or Holman off for Lichaj and moved Gabby to the left.

The naviety at this level was also shown by Bennett being a moron. For all his shiteness I don't think Warnock on a yellow would've comptemplated pulling back the player, he'd have just left him run on and cross the ball out of play.

Can't say I've been impressed with what I've seen of him so far, I do think Lowton is o.k though.

It's going to be a long winter.

[JUAN PABLO]

Norwich deserved to win 3-1

[Whiney MacWhineface]

I'm definitely on the wobble as far as Lambert is concerned. Tactics and team selection not right for a little while now. Injuries don't help, but even so.

Oh come on now. It's October.

I don't care if it's JUne or July. I have concerns about the way Lambert is sending the team out to play. OK?

[pauliewalnuts]

You do have to wonder if Delph is ever going to begin to look like justifying his fee.

[ez]

Who played that long hopefull ball to the forward when we had a good chance to break away? It was just before they scored. Annoyed me that did.

[SoccerHQ]

Ok, don't want to be all doom and gloom but bit worried by the substitutions today.

If you wanted one of our strikers to battle isolated up front, Bent would be my last choice. I'm not sure that Lambert's dealing very well with the options that he has up front. Bent shouldn't have come on today but i get the feeling he's trying to keep him sweet. Did he touch the ball today?

We looked better earlier in the season with Weimann playing, and an extra man in midfield.
We need to compensate for our poor midfield by putting an extra body in. I think NZogbia needs to be involved too so i'd put him in, Ireland in, maybe Bannan. I'm a  bit worried that Lambert hasn't learnt from what has and hasn't worked. What we saw today didn't work.

Ultimately we need to bring someone with some directness/composure in midfield and an experienced Centre back if Dunnes not going to be fit or we're in big trouble.

Agreed, where was N'zogbia today? Injured?

The promise of the Newcastle and Swansea games seem a very long time ago now.

On the bright side, I do think Vlaar is improving with each game and Herd also did well. I'd think about moving him back into midfield though.