Aston Villa v Southampton Post-Match Thread

[Grande Pablo]

If I make a bad decision at work I'm disciplined.  I could be sued.  If we go down could we sue to FA?

Seriously, PL won't be sacked.  What's the alternative?  We'll survive, but by the skin of our teeth.

[tomd2103]

I don't even know I managed to do that, it's almost as if Stephens has an invisible extension onto his foot.

Flawless dive. What a c***.
[/quote

I was sat in the North Stand so couldn't really tell at the time, but that is an absolute shocker.  Saying that, the defending in the lead up to it was absolutely diabolical. 

[devilla]

If you don't want to relive the nightmare of that mad defensive shambles that led to the "penalty", please skip this post. I think I'm writing it as some kind of therapy.

I don't think I've ever seen such a comedy of errors from a top flight defence.

Delph, who is covering for Clark coming back from the corner, tries to clear, it cannons off Clark to Guzan, it comes out to Baker and Stevens, both of whom for reasons that are completely baffling, just stand still while the ball rolls past them then Stevens goes to challenge Rodriguez, makes no contact and Rodriguez dives.

Of course, it goes back to the corner before all this happens. If we were able to take corners properly and get the ball to one of our men from a corner more often, there would have been less likelihood of them breaking. But even when they did break, we had two full backs, a central defender and a covering midfielder who between them couldn't clear the ball, despite several opportunities to do so.

I would really like to know what they do at Bodymoor because this incident suggests that corners and defence don't seem to be very high on the agenda. If we can all see it, then why can't Lambert and his coaches?

We should have Ron back next week which will steady the ship to an extent and there are other positives for me; I thought Delph looked more like the player he should be and Bannan has gone some way to restoring my belief in him. But I don't think we will avoid relegation with the players we have and whilst we don't know what is happening behind closed transfer doors, Lambert's comments on this subject don't sound too promising although I appreciate the need to be very guarded about making comments on this subject. I hope to be pleasantly surprised over the next couple of weeks though.

UTV

[rob_bridge]

I don't think we shall have any young uns if we go down Ads.   We will put out a team of Huttons Dunnes and Collinss and attempt to batter our way back.

They will stick with Lambert until we are only half way up the Championship then they will dump him and engage a thud and blunder specialist.   The one thing you can bank on is that Villa executive decisions will always be the wrong ones.

Step forward Gary Megson

[PaulWinch again]

It was an utter shambles defensively before the pen.

[rob_bridge]

Divers should be executed.

I am thinking torn asunder by horses, pegged out in the desert or maybe flayed alive.

Send them to the Siberian camps along with the 'talented' leeches who work in the upper echelons of the financial services industry.

[ktvillan]

I think I'm beginning to accept that we are probably going down this year unless something changes very very quickly.  The last two home games have been must-win, should-win, six pointers, and we haven't looked remotely like winning either of them.   I'm reminded a bit of Newcastle the season they went down, should have been capable of better but somehow always managed to underwhelm, and just had relegation written all over them.  I hated McLeish but at the very least he could occasionally make the team hard to beat.  Lambert just looks lost at the moment.

[Des Little]

If Vlaar was fit enough for the bench, why couldn't he start? It's not as if the defence has been playing well. They've been fucking shite.

[Eurochamps82]

Remember:
When I was young my father said, Son I have something to say. He said Son you are a Villa fan and that's the way to stay. Happy to be a Villa fan until your dying day!

...........Never lose the faith!

[rob_bridge]

Am off alcohol for the long dark month of January - I woke up with hangover like symptoms on Wednesday and dare say will do so tomorrow.

Thoroughly deflating

As others have said Centre Back, one or two midfielders and a left back - that will give us a chance

Otherwise we are doomed and we'll be paying Ireland, Given, CNZ lots of money to sit on the bench in the Chumpionship

[jembob]

It was an utter shambles defensively before the pen.

It was an utter shambles all game, all over the pitch. I really don't think that the players know what they should be doing - it just seems such as mess. Why Lambert thinks that 4-2-4 is a suitable formation is beyond me. Why on earth bring Bannan on a put him on the left wing at a time when we couldn't string a couple of passes together.
I am so disappointed in Lambert. He seems out of his depth to me and it all looks so utterly clueless apart from the tactic of belting the ball up towards Benteke.

[PaulWinch again]

Yes 4-2-4 doesn't work or supply chances.

[ktvillan]

Bless my Son, he still wants a Villa shirt for his Birthday, he wants BENT on the back (his favourite player) but knowing he won't be here that much longer, i've persuaded him to have his own name on it.

The little monster has no idea what sort of contract with the devil he's getting into.

I hope my son will when he is old enough to choose for himself. At this rate he will probably choose Exeter City, his birth place, over us.

I am making zero attempt to interest my son or daughter in football or Villa.  If I were not so emotionally attached to the club, which started from the age of about 7, I wouldn't bother with modern football at all because it's gone to shit and all but about 5 clubs in England and about 10 in Europe are just making up the numbers now.

[brian green]

For a man whose family money has come from banking I find it mystifying that Randy Lerner cannot do the financial sums.   Give or take we have 20 weeks to save ourselves.   A million pounds a week would cost us less than we paid for Bent.  Surely for a million quid a week we could get in ten out of contract players who are capable of keeping us up?

The key is that we only need them for half a season, just enough to survive and let the core team recover from the trauma of the first half of the season then start again next August.   We don't need Givens and Heskeys on massive contracts, just a short term fix.

[dl9]

Bless my Son, he still wants a Villa shirt for his Birthday, he wants BENT on the back (his favourite player) but knowing he won't be here that much longer, i've persuaded him to have his own name on it.

The little monster has no idea what sort of contract with the devil he's getting into.

I hope my son will when he is old enough to choose for himself. At this rate he will probably choose Exeter City, his birth place, over us.

I am making zero attempt to interest my son or daughter in football or Villa.  If I were not so emotionally attached to the club, which started from the age of about 7, I wouldn't bother with modern football at all because it's gone to shit and all but about 5 clubs in England and about 10 in Europe are just making up the numbers now.

I've just tucked my son up into bed after telling him that me and his Uncle Des (Des Little) were worried about the Villa going down, his response was " am I the only one then who knows that we'll be alright Dad"? He's 9 yrs. we should stick him in charge instead of the tnuc Lambert who's doing all he can to make this a reality...