West Bromwich Albion v Aston Villa Post-Match Thread

[Rudy Can't Fail]

2-0 up at half time and absolutely cruising.  How we ended up clinging desperately to a point 45 minutes later is a mystery.  I suppose it was a combination of them improving, us doing the one thing we absolutely didn't want to do at the beginning of the second half, and a couple of substitutions of which the very best you can say is that they were ineffectual. 

We keep finding new ways of shooting ourselves in the foot.

First half we played with a purpose. Everybody knew what they were doing.

What was our purpose in the 2nd half? A team of half arsed strangers who met in the pub at half time. No midfield, no challenges, backing off, getting caught out of position, getting bullied and absolutely no idea what to do with the ball when we rarely had it.

[Lamb_Stockmix]

People in forums are so fickle. Zog has been shit for us for nearly 2 seasons, he has 1 good game and people cry when he leaves the pitch and question the manager. A manager who over the last 2 years of his career has been nothing short of great.

[andyh]

Fuck settling for a point, we SHOULD have WON this game.

Positives

• Gabby back to his best
• THAT goal
• We appear to be seeing an in form Charles N'Zogbia for the first time in his Villa career
• The improved 1st half display - Confident, exciting, technically very good
• Bennett - Thought he played ok today. Made a couple of saving tackles, put some good crosses in. Just needs a bit of confidence which he should get playing alongside Ron

Negatives

• The lack of tactical nouse by Mr Lambert
• The introduction of Barry 'Hollywood' Bannan - Lacking in EVERY possible dept
• The introduction of Holman - Doing his best to impersonate one of the chickens from Chicken Run, running around the pitch, arms flailing everywhere
• Eric Lichaj - Bench at best - SHould not have come on as replacement for Baker
• Injury to Baker, who I think is our next best defender to Ron

...but, we pick ourselves up, we go again. Now I know how Bill fucking Murray feels! 'Sigh'

 

Bit harsh on Lichaj.

agreed.
Left on the coach,rather than the bench.

[nick harper]

I hope Delph is ok. He is the only presence we have in midfield.

[Legion]

Aston Villa. A team of two halves.

[Nastylee]

Lichaj - pivotal moment when he hit the keeper and could've made 3-0. Then all we had to do was keep it tight at the start of the 2nd half and they'd have run out of steam but no. Need someone who can tackle in midfield as we simply have no strength to protect the wobbly defence.

[The Situation]

it was so obvious we weren't going to hang on when they pulled one back.

[villan from luton]

Guzan fecked up for the second goal massively, took his eyes off the ball when Lukaku was coming towards him

[PeterWithesShin]

People in forums are so fickle. Zog has been shit for us for nearly 2 seasons, he has 1 good game and people cry when he leaves the pitch and question the manager. A manager who over the last 2 years of his career has been nothing short of great.

He's probably been our best player the last 4 games.

[Risso]

Ah well, it was a good game, and the good first half just about overshadowed the bad second, and we've moved out of the bottom three. 

[Dribbler]

We just can't win football games, and unfortunately I don't think anything other than a win was an option today if we are realistically going to stay up. That said, the point has moved us out of the bottom 3.

I must admit the first half really confounded my expectations, played really well, and N'Zogbia looked on fire. It's such a difference when he just gets his head up and passes the ball at the right moment, he could have had 3 assists or more today. Gabby was also on fire and cutting up their defence. That said I still thank that Gabby and N'Zogbia are still guilty of making some bad decisions at times, where we might have scored otherwise.

Delph was also looking good and keeping us solid in midfield, Bennett was looking good as a winger, but he's no defender, that is plain to see. I'm still far from convinced by Lowton too. Overall maybe one of the best halves of the season from us.

But, as the pundits favourite cliché goes, it's a game of two halves and as many of us feared, we were a different team in the second. The last thing we wanted to do was concede early and get West Brom's tails up, and put ourselves under pressure,so what do we do? Exactly that! Can't remember who, but it was just slack defending on our part, starting from midfield. From there on in I think we all knew it was unlikely we would win this.

Can't believe N'Zogbia was taken off, Bannan and Holman looked ineffective and we lacked the same penetration after that. To me it kind of signalled to West Brom that we were happy to try and sit on our lead, and we know what happens when we do that don't we!

Feels like we lost today, rather than got a draw. We must beat Newcastle now, if we don't i'm just not sure who there is we can beat any more.

[Hoppo]

Get a grip some of the abuse is shocking. Good away point.

[Lamb_Stockmix]

People in forums are so fickle. Zog has been shit for us for nearly 2 seasons, he has 1 good game and people cry when he leaves the pitch and question the manager. A manager who over the last 2 years of his career has been nothing short of great.

He's probably been our best player the last 4 games.

Not as good as today though. My point still stands in that his Villa career has hardly lived up to expectation.

[Mortimer's Bear]

Guzan fecked up for the second goal massively, took his eyes off the ball when Lukaku was coming towards him

I'm sure Bannan will still get the blame on here.

[barrysleftfoot]

  Benteke was magnificent tonight.He could play at the very top level.There 1st goal came from N'zog failing to lay the ball off to Eric overlapping.As good as N'Zog and Gabby played, their final ball is awful.Westwood played well again, but needs a more physical player alongside him, although Delph showed again he is an able stand in.Bannan and Holman, are too slow and too weak at this level.

 Bennett played well i thought, as did Vlaar and Guzan.Don't rate Clark, but thought he was ok, but looks like hes always got a mistake in him.Lowton, i'm not sure on tbh, needs a rest.I thought Eric was poor tonight.

 One good central midfielder, and we won have won that tonight.