Concrete Ron

[UK Redsox]

It will mean we've had him including his wages for free in effect. Lambert deserves praise for the signing of Ron his challenge will be to find his replacement .

Where was Okore again today?

It's a mystery.

From now on lets call him Toyah.

[UK Redsox]

If we get £12m (or the equivalent if Cleverley is included) it would be up there with Andy Carroll and Shane Long for highway robbery.

Vlaar should not be offered a new contract unless he plays nearly all the games between now and January And plays a bloody sight better than he did today.

At the moment my view is that if he leaves, so be it.

[silhillvilla]

MON can FO, he spent millions on dodgy CB's after sidelining Cahill and selling him to Bolton. Fucking idiot.

[robbo1874]

Vlaar can fuck off too, if he wants.

No player or manager is bigger than this club.

If you don't get it, you don't belong here, end of story. We'll still be here long after you've gone.

[johnc]

MON can FO, he spent millions on dodgy CB's after sidelining Cahill and selling him to Bolton. Fucking idiot.

MON is our equivalent of the Treaty of Versailles in that he gets blamed for things that happened years after he left. Time we looked elsewhere for the events of 2014

[peter w]

MON can FO, he spent millions on dodgy CB's after sidelining Cahill and selling him to Bolton. Fucking idiot.

MON is our equivalent of the Treaty of Versailles in that he gets blamed for things that happened years after he left. Time we looked elsewhere for the events of 2014

True but history shows us that something happened to get to the current state of affiars. MON and Randy in the early years brought to the position we're in now. Poor decisions after MOn left have made the position worse but as the road to Waterloo began at Borodino, so the road to Villa 2014-15 began with MON.

[silhillvilla]

MON can FO, he spent millions on dodgy CB's after sidelining Cahill and selling him to Bolton. Fucking idiot.

MON is our equivalent of the Treaty of Versailles in that he gets blamed for things that happened years after he left. Time we looked elsewhere for the events of 2014

True but history shows us that something happened to get to the current state of affiars. MON and Randy in the early years brought to the position we're in now. Poor decisions after MOn left have made the position worse but as the road to Waterloo began at Borodino, so the road to Villa 2014-15 began with MON.

You could argue Moscow was the start of the fall and decline of avfc. That's if we want specifics.

[peter w]

Not really arguing that point again but MON's reign, or Lerner's reign has taken us to this point. Whichever way you look at it one of them has to go. Lerner won't sack him whilst he's in charge the 4 year contract guaranteed that. He won't fall on his sword so it'll only be catcalls from the fans that will change things.

[Ads]

If we get £12m (or the equivalent if Cleverley is included) it would be up there with Andy Carroll and Shane Long for highway robbery.

Vlaar should not be offered a new contract unless he plays nearly all the games between now and January And plays a bloody sight better than he did today.

At the moment my view is that if he leaves, so be it.

What did Vlaar do wrong yesterday? He chucked the ball back before the third granted, but he wasn't at fault for any of the goals.

[silhillvilla]

Hutton chucked the ball I think not vlaar .

[Ian.]

If we get £12m (or the equivalent if Cleverley is included) it would be up there with Andy Carroll and Shane Long for highway robbery.

Vlaar should not be offered a new contract unless he plays nearly all the games between now and January And plays a bloody sight better than he did today.

At the moment my view is that if he leaves, so be it.

What did Vlaar do wrong yesterday? He chucked the ball back before the third granted, but he wasn't at fault for any of the goals.

Not a lot at all. It's a bit harsh considering he has not played for a while.

The whole team does need to massively improve though as a unit. We need to get our confidence back, start defending better all round and start remembering how to get the best out of Benteke, Gabby and Weimann again. That run of games has certainly not helped our confidence levels.

I know its easy to look for excuses but our luck with injuries or ill health is unbelievable. When was the last time we had a week or even a warm up before KO without someone being ruled out. Every team from Junior, Senior, amateur or professional football has to deal with it but have you ever know a run of long term injuries/illnesses we have had?

These starting with Delph's first major injury

Delph
Petrov
Bent
Nzogbia
Okore
Benteke (second injury last year)
Kozak
Senderos
Delph

I think that's the lot? I'm not talking about niggles like Ron's which are frustrating and recurring but long term, career or as in Petrov's case life threatening. You could even say Bent's injury has completely ended his career as a top level player.

[Mister E]

The whole team does need to massively improve though as a unit.

Yes, and - IMO - the areas for improvement relate to being game-savvy, having more intensity, giving oppos something to think about, doing the unexpected ... all the things that the manager / coaching staff should be drilling into the players.
I don't think we have a particularly bad squad: we have a good blend of youth and experience and some of the players have played at a decent level. The challenge is the footballing style and ethos, which is completely absent.

[mal]

If you only play on the counter you could have a back four of Carlos Alberto, Baresi, McGrath and Maldini with Banks behind them and they'd still eventually concede goals.

It's not even the defence that is the problem - it is actually better than last season, on balance. It is the near total failure to carve out scoring chances, or to even get a shot on target.

When you are sent out with the philosophy of just soak up pressure then whack it fucking long to Benteke then how on earth is there going to be any real possession based build up or creativity? The entire system encourages speed on the break and if we don't win the ball back and do that then immediately we are on the back foot again. We are simply not good enough (better yes) at the back to absorb that level of constant pressure and certainly not against better sides. Today was a piece of piss for Everton because they never had to really, truly step up to get to our penalty box. We made it very easy for them to camp in our half. It's a ludicrous tactic.

Match stats:
shots: Everton 6/2 =8 (on/off =Total)  Villa 2/4=6
A very tight defensive game both ways. 60/40% possesion and 88%-81% passing percentages also against a team expected to be top 6 away from home.  What, in the real world, did you expect?

[Ads]

Most of the anger that has come from these four defeats is the perspective that people hold Aston Villa in; historically bigger and more successful than all but Arsenal out of those four, weighed up against the hopeless situation we now find ourselves in and he inescapable truth that we cannot compete at the top end.

[barrysleftfoot]

 Vlaar is 29, i wouldn't give him a 3/4 year contract tbh.

 Where we are now, its not worth it, we are going nowhere fast, so to tie an aging player on a long term contract, on high wages, with no sell on fee, i think is a poor business decision.I'd rather sell him, and try and buy someone like the guy at Celtic.

 He made a poor decision yday by going to Barkley, and leaving Lukaku to Cleverley.A Sanchez kind of player there instead of Cleverley, it would be no goal.

 I like Vlaar, but at the moment, we have too many aging players, on big wages, with no sell on fee.