Aston Villa v Newcastle United Post-Match Thread

[lovejoy]

Worst thing is Newcastle are rubbish.

[mr underhill]

lambert's shit. he's had enough time and enough money and apart from Benteke his signings have not been great. I know I will get slated for this but time to own up to the reality reality. Newcastle have spend fuck all in the summer and are a club riven by malcontent, yet have double our points tally. utterly disgraceful Villa.

[PaulWinch again]

If we play like that for the rest of season we'll be relegated, so it's critical we improve a lot. We desperately need guile in the midfield.

[Monty]

Some really, really predictable flaws in that team. Set up to counter attack against a competitor at home, surprisingly we lacked incision when we tried to play on the front foot. No playmaker, and when we sent the big man on and went to an aimless 4-2-4, we looked absolutely atrocious.

£7m, PL. £7m is a lot of money to go on the wrong player, or at best the right player at the wrong time. I didn't think it mattered before as I assumed we wouldn't be in a relegation scrap, but after that? We may well be.

[David_Nab]

So many problems

Target men with no wingers ..why
No width leaves the FB exposed time and time again
Lack of drive in midfield
No ability to keep a clean sheet

[Proposition Joe]

Some random thoughts:

1. Newcastle were first to every 50/50 and their players were always first to react
2. The number of times we gave the ball away from restarts (free kicks, throw ins) was unacceptable
3. The number of times we gave the ball away from simple passes, when the passer had time on the ball, was unacceptable

(1-3 suggests our players were not concentrating 100% - maybe they also saw this as an easy win?)

4. The number of times our players made bone-headed decisions (Luna not shooting, Gabby cutting in and running straight into a group of players, allowing Ben-Arfa to cut inside...) was unacceptable.

(4 suggests we lack "football brains" on the pitch)

5. Despite their league position last year, Newcastle have better players than us in most positions.

[Matt Collins]

lambert's shit. he's had enough time and enough money and apart from Benteke his signings have not been great. I know I will get slated for this but time to own up to the reality reality. Newcastle have spend fuck all in the summer and are a club riven by malcontent, yet have double our points tally. utterly disgraceful Villa.

Yay, I've missed the complete over reactions on the post match thread. I'll agree with this if we're bottom six around xmas.

[CT]

New contract = no hunger?

[ajclayton]

How many league games is that now without a clean sheet. 

[VillaAlways]

Absolutely unacceptable. Another season of struggle and Lambert and the team will not be afforded the amount of goodwill they had last season

[PeterWithesShin]

I can't remember the last time I  saw us give the ball away so much. Overall that was shit. Delph motm again. Got away from the ground quick mind.

[Nastylee]

Ball retention was awful with the midfield, Weimann and Luna guilty. First half was a waste of time then we then upped the tempo got on level terms but played into the away team's hand bu have 4 strikers on the pitch. A goal from a counter attack was always a threat and duly occurred. Poor tactics by PL today.

[Proposition Joe]

Some random thoughts:

(SNIP)

Another thought: we will win no more that 4 league games at home this season.

[django]

Really poor performance, as bad as anything from last season.

To be honest I don't think we've been that good in any of the games this season. Okore will be a big miss, even though I thought Clarke did ok.

Delph aside I thought every one was below par today. Both full backs were bad in both directions. Westwood, Weimann and goal apart Benteke wern't at the races. Gabby, Luna and Weimann all guilty of terrible misses.

There were moments when we looked all right when we got the tempo of our passing going but I'm not sure if we can carry on with thus line up if Weimann KEA and Westwoods form doesn't improve.

[Matt Collins]

There's definitely cause for concern, I agree. But I don't think we should discount the possibility that 3 weeks without a top flight game may have been a real factor so early in the season.

I do tend to agree that if we had c £7m to spend on one player, a more assertive and creative central midfielder would have seemed the more obvious choice.

You do wonder what Benteke thinks. He wasn't great today, but it doesn't sound like he had much service. All his international team-mates play for teams that are much better than us.