What's actually wrong with our team?

[john2710]

It's all very well blaming the constant changes in management but this doesn't excuse the seemingly total lack of tactics or playing within an understandably formation for more than 2 games in a row.

[Nastylee]

So, in summary we are buggered?

[PaulWinch again]

One of our major problems is that we have no flair or physical prowess. So we can't play it round the powerful teams and we can't try and out strength the skillful teams. We don't have any real attributes.

[sirlordbaltimore]

Where do you start ?

No leadership on the pitch
Very little actual quality on the pitch
No leadership on the sidelines
No tactical nous
Not getting the best out of what we have
Not strengthening with experience and quality

[Rip Van We Go Again]

So, in summary we are buggered?

Not quite, there is still 18 days left to get 3 or 4 decent players in.
Unlikely, but all relevant parties at the club have to give it their best shot.

[django]

I used to play a boxing game against my mate on the playstation (bear with me) it was pretty simple, a couple of buttons, mainly about timing, not really any skill involved. We'd play for money, and although we would win roughly the same number of games I would always end up owing him the money at the end of the night. When it came to it he just wanted to win more and it made the difference, he was a winner and I wasn't.

That's a big problem with Villa, we don't seem to have that competitive mentality. Simply, we have too many players who are losers rather than winners. If you planted a couple of the right players/personalities in among them it might change the culture, but we have a team of people who have grown together and somehow haven't developed a winners mentality. Into that we have added other young players who look short of fight, and all our senior players, Gabby, NZog, Bent, Ireland, Warnock, Given are, in current political parlance, shirkers rather than workers.

I know they will get annoyed when we lose, like it used to piss me off to lose money to my mate, but not in the same way it would matter to someone like Craig Bellamy or Steven Gerrard, irritating cocks as men but people where you can see a desire to win dragging them beyond what is expected of them. I see it in Weimann, but i'm not sure who else we have who has got it in them.

Our current battle is to make up ground and keep ahead of other teams who have limited players like we do, and QPR apart have limited resources like we do. What they do seem to have that we don't are players who are prepared to cheat and foul in order to stay up. Or are prepared to battle in ways that we don't.

It could be that none of the last 3 and 2 half (K and G Mac) managers we have had do any coaching/preparing the players, but it seems the common link is the players themselves and I've seen them all do enough good things to think the problem is as much mental as technical.

The only way I can see this changing is by bringing players in, or if we aren't able/willing to do that, then we have to hope beyond reasonable hope that Vlaar and or Dunne can return and bring a bit of that spirit with them. Otherwise we're doomed, doomed I tell ya!

[Rudy Can't Fail]

More than anything, it's Lambert's team selections and tactics that are the problem. Of course we were all tired of TSM's sefensive football but Lambert has gone to the other extreme with his gung-ho approach.

As has been mentioned on here by a few, it's like we play 6-0-4. We don't attack as a team, even with 4 up front we don't get enough players in the box. Yesterday was a classic example, a ball came in from the left, Benteke was in the box alone surrounded by 5 Southampton players, plus their keeper. He may be good but he's not that good.

We don't defend as a team. As others have mentioned, teams attack us at will, we have no midfield, so they simply walk through us. As we've seen, the better teams don't need two changes to put the ball away, they punish us time and time again.

Simply put, our tactical approach leaves us far too open and until Lambert learns that you have to win the midfield before you can win the game, we'll continue to struggle. Why the hell go head to head playing an open game against Chelsea, Spurs, even Wigan? yes, it's very entertaining for the neurtral but bloody painful if you're a Villa fan.

[Nastylee]

When you cannot manage a point against Wigan and Saints you have issues. I've just looked at the remaining fixtures and it gives me nightmares.  I can't see us getting past 30 let alone 40. With away games against arsenal, everton and united, plus home games against city, Liverpool and chelsea I can see a few more humiliations along the way meaning when we do play the winnable games we'll be in no mental state to do the business. We need to play ugly and by that I mean become hard to breakdown, park the bus and fight to put some points on the board. We are certainly not going to win many games giving teams, no matter how shit they are, a goal or two start.

[Rudy Can't Fail]

We need to play ugly and by that I mean become hard to breakdown, park the bus and fight to put some points on the board.

That's my point, Nasty. We only have one way of playing right now and that's an open game. Lambert doesn't seem to do 'caution'.

[onje_villa]

Tactical discipline. We're not playing with any width, we can't man mark, the back four don't know when to drop off and get pulled out of position too easily, the wingers don't help the full backs, the full backs don't help the wingers, the midfield play too deep with no defensive shield. Blah, blah, blah...

What upsets me, really really upsets me is that with a bit of formation, tactical and personal direction we could address all of these things with our current team, sure they aren't the greatest but at the very least we'd be harder to break down, not concede as many and maybe just maybe at the very least turn those loses into draws.

Completely agree.

[Eigentor]

We need to play ugly and by that I mean become hard to breakdown, park the bus and fight to put some points on the board.

That's my point, Nasty. We only have one way of playing right now and that's an open game. Lambert doesn't seem to do 'caution'.

Even if you want to play an attacking game, the team needs to be organised and a relatively compact unit. If there is to much space between the different parts of the team, then you are very vulnerable when the other team is attacking. Too often the team just look to be scattered all around the pitch without any sort of shape. That doesn't work whether you want to play cautiously or attackingly.

[Rudy Can't Fail]

We need to play ugly and by that I mean become hard to breakdown, park the bus and fight to put some points on the board.

That's my point, Nasty. We only have one way of playing right now and that's an open game. Lambert doesn't seem to do 'caution'.

Even if you want to play an attacking game, the team needs to be organised and a relatively compact unit. If there is to much space between the different parts of the team, then you are very vulnerable when the other team is attacking. Too often the team just look to be scattered all around the pitch without any sort of shape. That doesn't work whether you want to play cautiously or attackingly.

Indeed, Eig. Considering how far we are into the season and even taking into account the number of injuries we've suffered, there's next to no organisation about the team, something even Bradford managed to show. We look more and more disjointed with each and every match. His team selections play a big part in this.

[Eigentor]

We need to play ugly and by that I mean become hard to breakdown, park the bus and fight to put some points on the board.

That's my point, Nasty. We only have one way of playing right now and that's an open game. Lambert doesn't seem to do 'caution'.

Even if you want to play an attacking game, the team needs to be organised and a relatively compact unit. If there is to much space between the different parts of the team, then you are very vulnerable when the other team is attacking. Too often the team just look to be scattered all around the pitch without any sort of shape. That doesn't work whether you want to play cautiously or attackingly.

Indeed, Eig. Considering how far we are into the season and even taking into account the number of injuries we've suffered, there's next to no organisation about the team, something even Bradford managed to show. We look more and more disjointed with each and every match. His team selections play a big part in this.

Yup. Even though I still have some faith in Lambert, it is discouraging to see the players not even getting the mere basics right half a year into his reign. If he was a really good manager/coach, he would have accomplished that even if the players are sub-standard. However, I still feel that if we get in a decent central defender and a decent defensive midfielder (both with Premier League experience) we will manage to paper over the cracks made by our lack of tactical organisation sufficiently to stay up. Then, in the summer, Lambert needs to bring in a new defensive coach.

[brian green]

This page of this thread should be microsprayed on Lambert's eyeballs.  Every word of it.

[Fergal]

The squad does not contain enough quality or experience.