Aston Villa v Southampton Post-Match Thread

[onje_villa]

We dont need a new manager we need some decent players, preferably ones that can help organise the team and fill the obvious weakneses.

Organise the team? Isn't that the manager's job?

[Witton Warrior]

I have had me tea and two raspberry vodkas since getting back.
The family seem OK to approach me now although the cats are wary.
So I am trying to figure out what can be salvaged from today.

1/ We only lost by 1 (hahahahaaa - sorry had to be said)
2/ We repeatedly got into positive positions in the 2nd half but the final ball was always awry
3/ We had some shots
4/ Vlaar was on the bench and should start next week
5/ Delph didn't get booked and showed determination

A dedicated, skillful wide-player would have made a huge difference today - Weimann is not a winger but he tried and tried to put in the final ball.

Errrr... that's it

[Easyjet forever]

I don't blamd Lambert for the position we're in. It's been building for years. We've sold our best players to our (then) competitors at the top and replaced them with substandard players or well over priced players. These are our so-called experienced players who are going to save us. We're stuck with them now so can't generate any funds. Learner is to blame for this decline and if he dos'nt provide money we will surely go down.

[onje_villa]

Get a grip you bunch of tarts. Try looking at the game with a bit of objectively rather than an opportunity to air the usual rants.

Even in the first half where Southampton bullied and pushed us around and found space they barely threatened a goal. At half time we had 3 shots on target to their one. We contrived to be a goal down by virtue of hesitancy borne of low confidence and the kind of refereeing decision Halsey specialises in.

Second half we seemed to address the things that were going wrong. There was only one team in it for 45 minutes but again pressure led to players snatching at the kind of chances Southampton weren't close to creating.

It's a bery disappointing result, we are in a bad position. But it is not half as hopeless as some would make out. If we can build on the postive things we did today results will improve. If we can add a few players in crucial areas then better still. We have a big fight on our hands, but the position is far from hopeless.

The players need to get what happened over xmas out of their system. As at Swansea there are signs of it happening.

That's a very blinkered view of the match. We should have had a point but they had plenty of chances including hitting the post. And yes, we were at home. To Southampton. Do the maths, if you think we don't need points out of these games, you're going to get a huge surprise come May.

[bertlambshank]

I believe that Lambert will sleep on it overnight and if he knows already he's got very little money to play with and it appears reading between the lines that is the case he will tender his resignation.

Which doesnt help in any way at all because the incoming candidate will be in the same position and will find improving the team a thankless
task probably beyond him.

Whose fault?  Lambert's if Faulkner told him exactly what he could have in terms of finance when he accepted the position

or Lerners if he changed the goalposts(as Doug would have) as the season progressed.

The only hope we have of escaping relegation is that Darren Bent is selected and goes on a scoring run which he is quite capable of doing.

No other hope at all.

Why would he resign and lose a pay off ? Maybe mutual consent could be trotted out though I guess.I

Since when has resigning meant you don't get compensation ?

for ever

Somebody had better tell MON then.

He didnt resign, he walked out and claimed unfair dismissal, completely different.

Anybody can resign and claim unfair dismissal,so you are wrong.

[JJ-AV]

I think Lambert got it horribly wrong in the Summer. I do not think we should sack him - there is hardly any impact managers available and it's too late for someone else to bring someone in.

We need 2 experienced players (ideally at the back and in midfield - Dunne could be one of them) and a bit of creativity in the final third.

Get Dunne and Vlaar fit. Get Warnock back onside and we're 3/4's of the way there.

[pauliewalnuts]

Get a grip you bunch of tarts. Try looking at the game with a bit of objectively rather than an opportunity to air the usual rants.

Even in the first half where Southampton bullied and pushed us around and found space they barely threatened a goal. At half time we had 3 shots on target to their one. We contrived to be a goal down by virtue of hesitancy borne of low confidence and the kind of refereeing decision Halsey specialises in.

Second half we seemed to address the things that were going wrong. There was only one team in it for 45 minutes but again pressure led to players snatching at the kind of chances Southampton weren't close to creating.

It's a bery disappointing result, we are in a bad position. But it is not half as hopeless as some would make out. If we can build on the postive things we did today results will improve. If we can add a few players in crucial areas then better still. We have a big fight on our hands, but the position is far from hopeless.

The players need to get what happened over xmas out of their system. As at Swansea there are signs of it happening.

That's a very blinkered view of the match. We should have had a point but they had plenty of chances including hitting the post. And yes, we were at home. To Southampton. Do the maths, if you think we don't need points out of these games, you're going to get a huge surprise come May.

I agree, afraid

Firstly, yes, the penalty decision was wrong, but it wouldn't have been a decision to make had any of our defenders taken one of the four or five chances to clear the ball out of the area rather than bumbling around like something from a Benny Hill sketch.

Secondly, the second half, only one team in it? Really? I thought the first ten minutes we were better, then we went to sleep until 5-10 mins before the end, when we finally started to show some urgency.

For too much of the match today, we showed no urgency in fighting to get the ball back. When we finally did, we created chances, but we left it way too late.

Either way, that's six points we've given Southampton this season, that's two home defeats against relegation strugglers in the last week or two, 4 goals conceded, none scored.

It's really not good enough. You can point at where we've been unlucky and created chances but not taken them, but we have 1 point from the last 15, a sequence of games which included Wigan and Southampton at home, and there hasn't been anything like enough shown to suggest we're going to be getting better any time soon.

[Ads]

We've been shit ever since Lerner and Faulkner had to make a decision.

Lambert doesn't do himself any favours, but the constant issue is Lerner and nothing will ever change till he's gone.

How we get rid of him, God knows, owners don't grow on trees.

As for today, we went from a corner to some of the biggest school boy defending you will ever see. Yes it was a dive and yes, the cheat should be pulled asunder by wild horses, but we had three chances to clear it.

It wasn't actually as bad as it has been and Benteke missed two sitters, but I didn't think we were going to score and as it stands I am not convinced we will win another game all season.

Something has to change. We can talk about managers or systems till we're blue in the face, but these players are not good enough and some never will be.

The situation is not set in stone, we can change it. Three or four quality first team players are needed, along with Vlaar and Bent. However, I get the impression Lerner is sleepwalking into relegation.

I have zero belief that we can turn it around because I dont think we will invest.

[SoccerHQ]

I think the experienced players thing is a bit of a red herring tbh, Vlaar certainly has to come back in next week at WBA but Dunne has not played since July so even if he is back at the end of the month his comical timing will be even worse so expect a few more penalties conceded and an own goal or two.

Hutton and Warnock? Remember both were fully fit and played all the games at the end of last season in youthful line ups, we won none of them.

Hutton is an incredibly poor footballer which people are forgetting as thankfully we haven't seen him for ages. Warnock is just as much a liability as Bennett is in defence but I do think as a niggly energetic presence he could be a solution in midfield.

Big concern for me is our experienced attacking players are fit and in 180 minutes we've scored 1 goal against Bradford and Southampton. That suggests to me whatever style of player we're attempting isn't working.

[silhillvilla]

I think the Left Back situation sums our club up in a nutshell. Piss poor planning and management over a number of years and today.
Lichaj - academy product nowhere near good enough for the premier league.
Stevens - signed by Lamberts predecessor from the Irish non league, nowhere near the standard required.
Bennett - a lambert signing for what £3 - 4 m ? Boro saw us coming, he looks woeful.
Warnock - car crash form so frozen out and sent on loan to Bolton who sent him back. Says it all.

What a shambles .

[mike]

Just home from yet another bad, bad game.

It is not at all complicated.   Our players are not good enough and have not been good enough for two and a half seasons.

Last season we deluded ourselves into thinking that the players coming through our youth academy were very much better than they really are.   That self deception and the comfort blanket of blaming McLeish for bad performances on the pitch week after week blinded us to the truth.   We desperately wanted Clark and Baker and Lichaj and Bannan and Albrighton and Herd and Weimann to be premiership class and with the possible exception of Weimann they are not.

Add to that self deception the self deception that Bennett and Lowton and Woodward and Stephens and Bowery and Holman and KEA and Vlaar and Benteke are all potentially good premiership players and the scene is set for the massive implosion we have seen this season.

As far as Lambert is concerned we deluded ourselves into thinking that he could do for us what he did for Norwich but he has not shown any sign whatsoever of achieving that in the time he has been in charge.   Our situation and the situation he faced at Norwich are very different.   With them he had time in the lower echelon to bed in young, cheap players and jell them into a team unit.   He had time.   Here he has been expected to hit the ground running and has applied the same formula of buying cheap young players but both the ones he has bought and the ones we already had do not possess sufficient ability or confidence to hack it at the top level and it shows, week after week.

Lambert is drinking in the last chance saloon but so are Lerner and Faulkner.   They have no choice but to tough it out.   Lambert will seek to shore up his position with the owner by assuring him that he can do the business with the squad of poor players he has (ignore their age, they are adult professional footballers on good wages relative to their abilities).   That will be music to Lerner's ears and Faulkner is only a Lerner yes-man so we will go into February with only the deckchairs on the Titanic rearranged.

That game and the Wigan game are the games which sealed our fate.

I shall continue to follow Villa wherever they are playing but it will be only from the habit of a lifetime not with any expectation WHATSOEVER of enjoyment or satisfaction.   They have become a Ship of Fools.

Yep.

[Jarpie]

I think the experienced players thing is a bit of a red herring tbh, Vlaar certainly has to come back in next week at WBA but Dunne has not played since July so even if he is back at the end of the month his comical timing will be even worse so expect a few more penalties conceded and an own goal or two.

Hutton and Warnock? Remember both were fully fit and played all the games at the end of last season in youthful line ups, we won none of them.

Hutton is an incredibly poor footballer which people are forgetting as thankfully we haven't seen him for ages. Warnock is just as much a liability as Bennett is in defence but I do think as a niggly energetic presence he could be a solution in midfield.

Big concern for me is our experienced attacking players are fit and in 180 minutes we've scored 1 goal against Bradford and Southampton. That suggests to me whatever style of player we're attempting isn't working.

We need good players who have enough experience to take charge and lead the midfield, our biggest problem is that we don't have anyone to take the responsibility to dictate the game and tempo. Delph and Westwood were (very) good today but they are not players like that, the problem is that Lambert is probably too stubborn and proud to admit his mistake not to buy player like that in summer.

[paul_e]

For me today was just a great example of football liking to kick you when you're down.  Over the 90minutes we were the better side and created the better chances.  The whole match hinged on 2 things:

They got a gift from a cretin of a referee who should be ashamed of himself when he watches the highlights.
We missed chances that a confident team would've taken.

we need some luck or a wonderstrike and, as others have said, a couple of new faces to give a bit of energy to the dressing room.

We're not a great side but we're definitely a better side than the run since Liverpool suggests.

Tactically our biggest flaw is we too easily get split in 2 into a 6-0-4.  I donnt think the plan is to hit long balls at Benteke but the big open space in the middle pretty much forces it on us.  This is why we need a big nasty bugger in there to bollock people and give the opposition something to worry about.  Someone to lead by example and get us closing down much better.

[danlanza]

Get a grip you bunch of tarts. Try looking at the game with a bit of objectively rather than an opportunity to air the usual rants.

Even in the first half where Southampton bullied and pushed us around and found space they barely threatened a goal. At half time we had 3 shots on target to their one. We contrived to be a goal down by virtue of hesitancy borne of low confidence and the kind of refereeing decision Halsey specialises in.

Second half we seemed to address the things that were going wrong. There was only one team in it for 45 minutes but again pressure led to players snatching at the kind of chances Southampton weren't close to creating.

It's a bery disappointing result, we are in a bad position. But it is not half as hopeless as some would make out. If we can build on the postive things we did today results will improve. If we can add a few players in crucial areas then better still. We have a big fight on our hands, but the position is far from hopeless.

The players need to get what happened over xmas out of their system. As at Swansea there are signs of it happening.

That's a very blinkered view of the match. We should have had a point but they had plenty of chances including hitting the post. And yes, we were at home. To Southampton. Do the maths, if you think we don't need points out of these games, you're going to get a huge surprise come May.

May i say, watching the game in my local over here with 8 other Villa boys , all on holiday, that the penalty decision was a fucking disgrace. How many times do we have to see somebody tricking the ref/ linesmen into these bloody awful decisions ? Video Ref should be in charge of these decisions. And before you go " That would take ages and ruin the game," just have a look. Within 5 seconds the penalty incident was replayed on Al Jazz, fucking no penalty, it was a con. How many times do we have to put up with this shit before we give technology a fucking go ? This is starting to become a joke within every other sporting fraternity. I was talking to a Munster rugby fan after our game today and he said we were robbed, and that he is glad for the video ref inside rugby union because it leaves no doubt. Surely with the amount of cash involved in football today we could implement this technology into our game ? This penalty today could send us down for fuck sake. Would it take a long time for a video ref to make a decision, no. Would the game be better if these diving, cheating twats were yellow carded after the video ref had made his decision, yes, in my view. What the fuck do proffesional players spend most of their time doing on the training ground ? How to cheat, how to dive, how to con the ref ? For fuck sake, i am sick of it and you see it in every fucking game, it's bollocks and it is spoiling our game and is very quickly making me feel anti football and i am 42, Villa fan since i was 14 and a season ticket holder from the age of 24 to the age of 38, never missed a fucking game, home and away, had two years off and then went back again for two years until i moved over here. I am bloody boiling at the way the game of football has turned into a fucking laughing stock, controlled by the Devil that is Sky and all the over paid twats who now call themselves "Premier League Football Players." Fucking joke, and i am fucking pissed off, proper.
Video refs now please, now. Now lets argue about that then, cause i am right up for one!! UT FUCKING V

[hawkeye]

We dont need a new manager we need some decent players, preferably ones that can help organise the team and fill the obvious weakneses.

Organise the team? Isn't that the manager's job?

on the field of play you need leadership, we dont have any