Aston Villa v Wigan Athletic Post-Match Thread

[eamonn]

Playing a match every three bastard days is not helping things. Our poor form at the busiest period of the season and questionable fitness levels are exacerbated as well as losing more to injuries in the treatment room. No doubt in March we'll have everyone back but we'll be out of all cups (or have won/lost one of them) and in need of regular games to keep us ticking along. It really is a perfect storm at the mo. Well, more of a shit-storm really.

[eastie]

Where is clampy tonight with his mini- crisis and pro Lerner comments- maybe the rose tinted specs have cracked?

Turn it in.

He is a Villa fan, same as you. Why take pleasure in our plight?

No pleasure at all, but last week I was lambasted for daring to criticise Lerner , the man Is to blame more than anyone for the mess.

[Legion]

Just got home from the game.   I posted in the pre match thread that this game would show us if the Chelsea game broke our young side and the very painful truth is that clearly it did.

That is a very simplistic view because the manager and his staff should have taken every step open to them to get them through that humiliating beating at Stamford Bridge but if they did, it obviously did not work.   You could tell as soon as they came on he pitch for the Spurs game by their body language and the first minute or two of play they believed the next goal would make it  9-0 and the same again today. They began like a team of schoolboys and once the first goal went in they played as though the score was 13-0.   It looks clear to me that nobody has sat those players down and attempted to get the previous game out of their system.   

Lambert went for 5 across the back for the third game in a row having shipped twelve goals against and none for in the previous two games.

All of that is mere detail.   The dots which have to be joined up to make the picture.

The picture is now there for us all to see and it hurts.

Our young players are not as good as we believed them to be and Paul Lambert is not as good a manager as we (myself included) believed him to be.

In defence of our young players who have come through the academy the use McLeish made of them week after week last season has damaged them possibly beyond repair.   Good young players must be bedded into a team and learn their trade.   What we saw on the pitch against Chelsea, Spurs and today is that they have not learned the trade of being professional football players at the highest level.   They are like a classroom full of kids trying to educate themselves.

The club and Paul Lambert's career both stand at a crossroads.   If Lambert remains mulishly stubborn and as stupid as throwing everything into attack against Chelsea when we were three goals down the same will happen to him and the club as happened to the Light Brigade when they went for glory and charged the Russian guns.   He and we will be wiped out.

He has thrown away so many points this season that he now has no choice but to buy some strong, experienced players and hope to scrape enough points to survive in the Premiership.

It would all have been so much easier if the manager and his staff had got away with 4-0 at Chelsea and 2-0 against Spurs.   People like me could have clung to the ethos of youth and enthusiasm and team spirit over thud and blunder but that display today did not show that the confidence of the young team had been broken, it has been vapourized.

I have seen some falls from grace over my years of following Villa but I have never seen one like the last three games I have had the agony of being at.   Their collapse is total.

I shall be giving H and V a rest for the foreseeable future.   It is all too painful and tragic to read and write about.

That's a real shame as I love reading your posts, insights and observations. You can articulate things far better that I can.

[silhillvilla]

Scoring goals has been our problem since lambert arrived so what did he do ? Freeze bent out ?? Madness
We have scored 1 in our last 5 PL games FFS !!

[john2710]

Not easy to get things in perspective after today but the following points needs to be made:
Vlar, Gabby, Bent, Dunne, N'Zogbia would make a big difference to our current performances, if they were available. Take 5 or 6 players out of any team & they would struggle. Our problem is that when these are out, we only have the likes of Herd, Lichaj, Albrighton, Weimann or inexperienced Benteke, Westwood, Lowton, Bennett to rely on. The very average Holman or useless KEA & Ireland add very little to any team.

Sorry John, but I'm not sure any of those four would make much of a difference, N'Zogbia in particular.

I put money on them doing better than those currently in the team.

[eastie]

Scoring goals has been our problem since lambert arrived so what did he do ? Freeze bent out ?? Madness
We have scored 1 in our last 5 PL games FFS !!

Was Liverpool all a dream then?

[barrysleftfoot]

  Went to the game, my points for what they are worth.

  Physically and mentally too weak.Badly miss Vlaar and Baker and probably Dunne as well.Clark , Herd and Lowton are too weak and inexperienced to play together.None of them anticipate or expect danger.The 1st goal was bad enough, the 2nd was worse.

 Midfield......Bannan looks busy, and tries hard, but doesn't possess enough of anything to be a top player.Still probably our best midfielder today though.

 Eric.......felt sorry for him today.Completely out of his depth as a wing back, he was our outlet in the 1st half, Maloney was marking him, and never once did he try to attack him.

 Bennett........in and out, has some ability, but then gives the ball away stupidly.Put the only decent crosses in today.

 Ireland.......does he contribute £65k per weeks amount of ability.Done nothing today, didn't create, didn't look like scoring, didn't chase back, didn't care . Hes done it for me now.

 To win games you need someone to take a player on, and create chances either for himself, or for others.There is nobody atm who can do that, and probably only one at the club, in N'Zog.

 We need Vlaar, Baker,Bent,  N'Zog and probably Gabby as well , back asap.And if we have the money, at least 2/3 quality players on top of that.

 I think we will spend money this Jan.We spent in the summer, we have reduced the excessive wage bill, we have reduced the average age of the team.We also voted against curbs on team spending at the recent PL meeting, so i think we will spend money......we bloody well need to.

[eastie]

Surprised Carruthers didn't get a chance today.

[Witton Warrior]

Ireland's lack of ability to pass to a man open on the left time after time in the second half started to look like a man punishing us for not loving him.

We did start to play into the box when the subs came on - the fact that the only direct shot was greeted with a gale of ironic cheering was indictive if the lack of real shots. Albrighton tried his best.

No Premiership experienced older heads in January? I shall practice looking dignified for the cameras when we are relegated...

[Somniloquism]

Scoring goals has been our problem since lambert arrived so what did he do ? Freeze bent out ?? Madness
We have scored 1 in our last 5 PL games FFS !!

Well he couldn't play Bent now anyway. (obviously skipping the Pool match.)

[The Left Side]

I'm glad Lerner was there to see that!

[hilts_coolerking]

We need Vlaar, Baker,Bent,  N'Zog and probably Gabby as well , back asap.And if we have the money, at least 2/3 quality players on top of that.

I agree with Vlaar and Baker but I just don't see what the other three are going to add.  Zog has never done anything for us, let alone anything to suggest he's the man to help us out of a crisis.  Gabby is a trier but these poses almost zero goal threat and Bent is not the man for a team that struggles to create chances.

Our squad - even if you include the currently injured players - is almost uniquely unsuitable for a relegation scrap: kids and has-beens.

[Rip Van We Go Again]

As I suspected.
Lambert has no plans to bring experienced players in.

Bye-bye Premiership.

I'll also be more than happy if I never see Holman in a Villa shirt again.

[Rip Van We Go Again]

I'm glad Lerner was there to see that!

Really?
What do you expect the stupid bastard to do about it?

[Rip Van We Go Again]

The only thing that keeps me hanging on by my finger tips is my son's attitude.
Singing 'Don't you wish your striker was Benteke' at the top of his voice coming out of the ground.