Aston Villa v Tottenham Hotspur Post-Match Thread

[Fin Feds Dad]

Apparantly we have lost 4 in 13 , and those games were against the current top 4 sides.

We have also just suffered our record defeat - so figures can be played round with to spin what we want

But theres more to it - we all know we have a young,brittle side. We need experience throughout the spine of the team - and quickly. We need to do buiness early in the January window - its no use buggering about until 23.59 on 31st Jan MON style.

There are 4 league games to play in Jan - winnable ones too.

But who will we be able to get in ??

[bertlambshank]

When was the last time Randy was at VP?

[PaulWinch again]

There is no spine to this team at all, it capitulates every time the going gets tough. That more than anything needs to be addressed quickly. There last two games have been an utter disgrace, nothing short of that.

[NeilH]

Just back from VP after taking my lads to their first game (poor things). It was frightening to watch the heads drop after the second goal went in. All the self belief drained out of the players and herein lies the rub. The team is crying out for a little bit of quality in the middle. I hear lots of "he might be good in two years" but we need one player in the middle who is good now. This window could be a proper watershed for the club. Decide to follow the recent path of rookie and cheap and we will be right up shit creek without a paddle.
I despair at the way the club has sunk over the last couple of years.

[eamonn]

We gave away 15 corners today in the first half. That must be some kind of record from hell.

According to the BBC it's five short of the record for an entire match.

That can't be right.

[wombat]

You know when you played football at Primary School. There was always one school who were utter utter shit and took a pasting most weeks, well that's what we look like at the moment.

Special mention to El-Hamadi for the worst 45 minutes by any player this season for his first half. It really was a special effort in shitness, hats off.

[Toronto Villa]

I'm much more disappointed today than after Chelsea. For me, the response to a heavy defeat tells more about the minds of the players and where their confidence is. It looks shot, merely one week or so after such an apparent high. It really does not help one bit that every veteran player at the club is injured or in Stan's case out indefinitely. I'm all for kids but without older calmer heads we could spiral out of control very quickly. I hope the club has a few significant irons raging in the fire over the next few weeks to save the season.

[eastie]

We gave away 15 corners today in the first half. That must be some kind of record from hell.

According to the BBC it's five short of the record for an entire match.

That can't be right.

Apparently last season the record was 19 corners set by spurs against aston villa.

[eastie]

I'm much more disappointed today than after Chelsea. For me, the response to a heavy defeat tells more about the minds of the players and where their confidence is. It looks shot, merely one week or so after such an apparent high. It really does not help one bit that every veteran player at the club is injured or in Stan's case out indefinitely. I'm all for kids but without older calmer heads we could spiral out of control very quickly. I hope the club has a few significant irons raging in the fire over the next few weeks to save the season.

Me too, I expected a much better response today and feel far worse tonight than on Sunday.

[Witton Warrior]

I can only thank McGrath that when I go into work tomorrow neither the Olbiun not the Yoonited fan will be there.
There will however be well-meaning comments from the, otherwise lovely, admin workers along the lines of"what's happened to the Villa?"
I may go postal

[sam oskiewicz]

Can't see any self respecting player wanting to join us in January, even on loan. We are now a laughing stock due to this pathetic ultimately doomed experiment and relegation is now a very real prospect.

Were we a laughing stock 10 days ago after winning 3-1 at Liverpool and 4-1 at Norwich?

What an utterly bizarre question.  OJ Simpson was a respected sportsman and film star before he turned into a murderer and bank robber.  The fact that he is now a disgraced criminal can't be undone by saying "was he a criminal when he was making us all laugh in the Naked Gun films?"  So no, we weren't a laughing stock when we beat Norwich and Liverpool.  But now we've been absolutely battered 8-0 and 4-0, we are, because those sorts of results make you a laughing stock.

What an utterly bizarre analogy. Spurious and ridiculousextrapolation. Simpson will forever be a criminal, we won't always be a laughing stock.

[Mister E]

FWIW, I think that the aftermath of the Chelsea game was a real test for Lambert and may end up being a turning point for us: he screwed up the tactics at Chelsea and had the chance to do something about it today. It seems that he was both unlucky (with the injuries) and unable to get the heads or the tactics right and therefore failed to address the significant damage caused at SB - today's disaster compounds that situation.

It is now entirely possible that Wigan will come and turn us over as well. Which will mean we will be in a dogfight for the season.

I rate Lambert and was a champion for him becoming our manager. He now needs to do something he hasn't had to do as a manager recently: find the psychological and tactical answers to turn around a potenitally-disastrous situation, because there's no question this squad can win EPL games.

[andyh]

Why were we set up to be so bloody negative and defensive in the first half? Yes, we had come off the back off a drubbing, but to approach a game in that manner tells me that the team is running scared and does not have the confidence to take the game to the opposistion. It must have been 30 mins before we got into their half properly.
Don't we want to play with the big boys anymore?
It was every bit as bad as anything we had to endure last year, infact, given that they 'owed' us a response to Chelsea, it was probably worse.

[SashasGrandad]

There were times when it was like watching an u13 team play an u16 team. They will grow up eventually but need some help while they do.

[Matt Collins]

Looking on the bright side, if we can work our way to a win against Wigan - and despite all of the disappointments over the last week, it's still possible - then we'll be 6 points clear of the relegation zone and likely to be about 11 clear of 19th. We've actually done well in our must win games so far this season. But if we go with the squad who finished today's game I worry we'll lose it.