Aston Villa v Liverpool Post-Match Thread

[villan from luton]

Tuscans, I think 4-4-2 will be fine against most teams at home just didnt think Liverpool was the game to do it as they are so strong in that area

[Somniloquism]

Helenius might yet prove he can play in that position. With limited time today he produced that lovely flick on for Benteke that almost equalized it for us.

The BBC website thing mentioned "that 6'5" Helenius came on so guess what Villa will do for the last 10 mins".  They obviously do not realise he has more about him then just height. But as they said Nathan Lowton was going off I'm not that surprised.

[pauliewalnuts]

MON's team was all about wingers and width.

Lambert's team is not even remotely about wingers.

[Tuscans]

Has Paul Lambert been through the filing cabinet and stumbled upon MON blueprint of a team? I'm slowly seeing a very very similar side that MON assembled when he was working here and although I'm not saying that its a negative thing, does Paul Lambert have that plan B that MON didn't?

I have the utmost respect, admiration, love for what Paul Lambert is doing, but at the end of last season and this I feel like I'm almost watching a team I watched a few years back. The similarities are obvious so I won't go through them. My point is where MON struggled and become stubborn in his weaknesses, I hope Lambert doesn't and has the intelligence to see where we might be failing.

There are huge differences though, huge differences. MON would probably have never signed any of the players that Lambo has, and vice versa. If Lambo had MON's money I think he wouldn't have spent it better. Yes we played with similar problems to MON, but that was partially down to finance and partially down to Westwood playing much less well than he can. Also, we play modern formations - no outmoded, static 4-4-2s from Lambo as from MON.

Most importantly, Lambo will know that there's a problem - MON was blind to anything that couldn't be solved with 'peeyace and poworr'.

I wasn't saying its FACT, I was just putting it out there. I'm fully behind what Lambert does.

[Monty]

Has Paul Lambert been through the filing cabinet and stumbled upon MON blueprint of a team? I'm slowly seeing a very very similar side that MON assembled when he was working here and although I'm not saying that its a negative thing, does Paul Lambert have that plan B that MON didn't?

I have the utmost respect, admiration, love for what Paul Lambert is doing, but at the end of last season and this I feel like I'm almost watching a team I watched a few years back. The similarities are obvious so I won't go through them. My point is where MON struggled and become stubborn in his weaknesses, I hope Lambert doesn't and has the intelligence to see where we might be failing.

There are huge differences though, huge differences. MON would probably have never signed any of the players that Lambo has, and vice versa. If Lambo had MON's money I think he wouldn't have spent it better. Yes we played with similar problems to MON, but that was partially down to finance and partially down to Westwood playing much less well than he can. Also, we play modern formations - no outmoded, static 4-4-2s from Lambo as from MON.

Most importantly, Lambo will know that there's a problem - MON was blind to anything that couldn't be solved with 'peeyace and poworr'.

I wasn't saying its FACT, I was just putting it out there. I'm fully behind what Lambert does.

It was worth saying though, because we did have a lot of the same problems today. We need a creative player in midfield to make things happen in the final third against massed defences, that's without question.

[danno]

I'm not sure how many conclusions I want to draw from that.
Third game in seven days, a few new players still bedding in and the season has just started.

We lost our first home game against Wigan a couple of years ago and went on to have a decent season.

Was pretty frustrating today, but there were some positives:

Okore playing so well in his first start,
Delph and Luna had some very nice exchanges, with Gabby that side of the pitch looks like our strongest.
The bench had viable options on it instead of Mcleish leftovers and fast tracked youth players.
Thought KEA looked good when he came on, playing the ball quicker and generally being sharper than last year.

[pauliewalnuts]

Okore looks a confident young man who knows what he's doing.

[PeterWithesShin]

The big positive is we are still to have some players hit form, both Weimann and Westwood are way behind the standards they set last season for example, and yet after 3 matches where most pundits, and a fair few Villa fans, thought we'd struggle to get a point and keep the -GD in single numbers we have 3 points and it could easily be at least 5. And more importantly we as a club are disappointed it is only 3.

Onwards and upwards.

[mr woo]

MON's team was all about wingers and width.

Lambert's team is not even remotely about wingers.

It isn't - but I reckon if you stuck Ashley Young in that side today, we'd not only have scored, we'd have won.

[andyh]

The big positive for me is the defence. For the first time in 2-3 years we finally look like we have some composure along the back 4. And it's all down to Okore. Not only does he look some player, but he is helping Vlaar be the player we hoped he would.
A few more games together and I think we will be really solid.

[villan from luton]

danno, I agree with you about KEA, he moved the ball quicker than Westwood did today. Good options in the squad and am sure we will be fine, just hope we make one more signing that will see us top half IMO

[SamTheMouse]

Our midfield isn't doing the business, unfortunately. They're too deep most of the time and nobody looks to occupy that space between the opposition's defence and midfield. We need one player in there with a combination of balls-out arrogance and technical ability to really hurt the opposition, someone who can drift and pull defenders out of position.

The problem is that we are very predictable in our build-up and there's nothing like enough movement off the ball. Liverpool had a very fluid attacking formation that enabled them to retain possession, whereas we were much too rigid and nobody was making runs to commit Gerrard or Lucas. When El Ahmadi came on, we tried it and Lucas got booked within a couple of minutes. We should have started doing that much earlier, and Lambert should have had the courage to make the change even before half time.

[garyshawsknee]

Just one of those days really. They have one clear cut chance and take it, we have a lot of possession in the second half and dont really create too much,but considering how much they have spent and we have,there wasn't too much between us. Lots to look forward to i think UTV.

[PeterWithesShin]

As for Liverpool, am I the only one who thinks they are nothing special at all and not much ahead of us? No chance they will be top 4.

[villan from luton]

The big positive for me is the defence. For the first time in 2-3 years we finally look like we have some composure along the back 4. And it's all down to Okore. Not only does he look some player, but he is helping Vlaar be the player we hoped he would.
A few more games together and I think we will be really solid.

They were really good today IMHO. Luna impressed as well, love his attitude