Aston Villa v Southampton Post-Match Thread

[hawkeye]

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

Cheers

[MonsXI]

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 .

Has Stevens had enough of a chance? For me no I think with the right defenders alongside he might be good enough.

He was poor 1st half but a lot better in the 2nd 45. I thought he did really well against Utd as well.

[mal]

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.

I think you will find that you 'are wrong' as you cannot resign AND claim unfair dismissal as 'resign' and 'dismiss' are mutually exclusive terms. You may resign and claim constructive dismissal but that is a completely different thing.
You might try resigning from your mcjob and claiming unfair dismissal. I wish you luck.

[sirlordbaltimore]

I've been sensing it for a while, and today just about confirmed to me we are in fact going down.

Nothing i've seen this season has made me think we have the players or manager to turn it around.

[curiousorange]

"please can some one tell me what is the point of this.If I want to read a badly written match report there are lots of other options."

"Did you read it back to yourself before posting?
It's a bit of a mess."

At first, i thought you were winding me up, hawkeye. But now I know i'm writing for the edification of the poet laureate, i'll consider myself on notice. Not that it bothers me, but is it a jealousy thing? Not to blow my own trumpet, but that's not a badly written piece. I'm not sure i'd have picked up half the commissions i have over the years if i couldn't write. If you or Bert could enlighten me as to how it could be improved, please do so.

Until then, i'll give my view like anyone else until the mods boot me off. You give your opinions, as do I. I just happen to post them in more than one place.

[Rip Van We Go Again]

Come on, back Randy and Lambert, call yourself real fans, you make me sick yadayadda...bullshit, bollocks.

[bertlambshank]

"please can some one tell me what is the point of this.If I want to read a badly written match report there are lots of other options."

"Did you read it back to yourself before posting?
It's a bit of a mess."

At first, i thought you were winding me up, hawkeye. But now I know i'm writing for the edification of the poet laureate, i'll consider myself on notice. Not that it bothers me, but is it a jealousy thing? Not to blow my own trumpet, but that's not a badly written piece. I'm not sure i'd have picked up half the commissions i have over the years if i couldn't write. If you or Bert could enlighten me as to how it could be improved, please do so.

Until then, i'll give my view like anyone else until the mods boot me off. You give your opinions, as do I. I just happen to post them in more than one place.

Why ask for feedback and throw a hissy fit when you get it?

[danlanza]

Come on, back Randy and Lambert, call yourself real fans, you make me sick yadayadda...bullshit, bollocks.

I will back Lambert, but Lerner can go and do one as far as i am concerned, and Faulkner. Fucking waste of time.

[Oscar Arce]

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

correctamundo

[bertlambshank]

"please can some one tell me what is the point of this.If I want to read a badly written match report there are lots of other options."

"Did you read it back to yourself before posting?
It's a bit of a mess."

At first, i thought you were winding me up, hawkeye. But now I know i'm writing for the edification of the poet laureate, i'll consider myself on notice. Not that it bothers me, but is it a jealousy thing? Not to blow my own trumpet, but that's not a badly written piece. I'm not sure i'd have picked up half the commissions i have over the years if i couldn't write. If you or Bert could enlighten me as to how it could be improved, please do so.

Until then, i'll give my view like anyone else until the mods boot me off. You give your opinions, as do I. I just happen to post them in more than one place.

Not that it bothers me, but is it a jealousy thing? Not to blow my own trumpet, but that's not a badly written piece. I'm not sure i'd have picked up half the commissions i have over the years if i couldn't write.
Having a touch of the John Lerwell's there me thinks.

[Rip Van We Go Again]

You will find over the next new days that 'supporters'  will say that we have to stick with the plan and that Lerner is a genuine man who will see us through, the self same 'supporters' that go to Villa Park once in a solar eclipse, when it suits them. or they have a freebie.

We are Aston Villa, we are still a big club, we are still a big act, the retard who owns the club seems to have missed this fact and the 'Manager' who selects the team is totally out of his depth, but never forget the real culprit who dropped us in this mire - Blandy Lerner.

[silhillvilla]

Here's a link to my match report for today: http://pickourteam.com/premierleague/aston-villa/fansverdict/12-01-2013/aston-villa-vs-southampton. As it seems to wind some up when I don't post the text here, i've done that as well, but if I can ask all of you a favour - can you click on the link and rate the players via the site (you can rate the manager and the ref too) as Sean and I are getting good numbers and people from here have played a part in that.

Needless to say, feedback is appreciated:

Aston Villa Match Report: Aston Villa 0 Southampton 1

I'm sick of it. I'm sick of the same old tired themes. I'm impatient of shambolic defending, hacked off with unstructured midfield, dissatisfied with overcomplicated attacks and spitting fire with incompetent officials.

I hate having my weekends ruined following a team with no desire, management with no tactical ability and an owner who must have a long-hidden vendetta against the club that's finally too overwhelming to rein in.

Needless to say, Aston Villa lost again, and it was down to a combination of slapstick and the kind of luck you get when the world isn't finished with the joke. The situation's not even worrying: let's just assume we're going down, and hold a wake for the rest of the season.

Today was the ideal opportunity to punt ourselves slightly ahead of the relegation pack and the pressure was too much. A great start went unrewarded and settled the game down in Southampton's favour, leaving them to exploit the space left by Villa's narrow midfield. Saints' full-backs were excellent and Jason Puncheon was a constant menace, but this is nothing new: it was the same when they thrashed us at St Mary's. Jay Rodriguez deserves a ban for his dive, which he won't get, but that'll be a footnote seven days from now.

Villa did play energetically and saw a late flurry create a header for Nathan Baker that hit the bar, but for the majority of the game it was piecemeal and frustrating. In flashes there were pelting runs that excited the crowd but no end product.

The amount of corners we had that didn't beat the first man was horrific, and Southampton picked up where Bradford City left off in terms of luck: they waited for Villa to retreat into the dark cloud that envelops the club and earned a relatively easy win. The fact that they didn't have to work for their winner was a welcome bonus.

It was a better second-half performance but the same frailties are massively obvious: Villa are spirited yet limited. We're now back in the bottom three and 18 goals have been conceded in five league games. Somehow it feels like a script is being played out because all the elements are there: no confidence, no luck, little money for new players, no signings on the horizon, fans against the owner, people turning on the manager. This isn't Roy Of The Rovers, and in real life there are no eleventh hour heroes to come off the bench and save the day.

Mathematically, there's a way to go before Aston Villa are out of touch. But there are no signs our luck might be changing. The imminent returns of more experienced players might surprise us all, but currently we're sliding out of the league with a whimper.

Every corner Villa turn leads to a cul-de-sac, and if there were other options, the sack might be what Paul Lambert would get. But a key decision like that is no guarantee of a positive outcome, and results like today confirm when everything's against you, the only thing you get is nothing.

That's a decent summary albeit I'd have made more of Bentekes 2 glaring misses and I'd have mentioned the saints nr 4 who played well in central midfield

[The Villa Werewolf]

Can't see how the criticism of CuriousOrange's match report is in any way warranted, doesn't seem a bad piece at all to me.

[hawkeye]

"please can some one tell me what is the point of this.If I want to read a badly written match report there are lots of other options."

"Did you read it back to yourself before posting?
It's a bit of a mess."

At first, i thought you were winding me up, hawkeye. But now I know i'm writing for the edification of the poet laureate, i'll consider myself on notice. Not that it bothers me, but is it a jealousy thing? Not to blow my own trumpet, but that's not a badly written piece. I'm not sure i'd have picked up half the commissions i have over the years if i couldn't write. If you or Bert could enlighten me as to how it could be improved, please do so.

Until then, i'll give my view like anyone else until the mods boot me off. You give your opinions, as do I. I just happen to post them in more than one place.

people actually pay you to write? i would be more inclined to pay you not too.
You have no Idea if I have been published so a bit rich to suggest I might be jealous.

[OzVilla]

That Southampton player should be ashamed of himself! We're still pants though

To be fair, he looked as shocked as anyone when it was given.  Halsey has been incompetent for years so no surprise (Remember the Arsenal free kick routine).

Thought we were better today but when you have players that aren't good enough and also lack confidence and decisions lack that go against you it's going to be very difficult to get anything.

This isn't about today though, it's about mis management over a long period of time.  I feel sorry for the kids and have some sympathy for Lambert, this is Lerner's fuck up mostly.

I think we'll probably go down now.  Depressed.