Aston Villa v Newcastle United Post-Match Thread

[ROBBO]

Not suprised by that performance as Lambert has not improved the quality of the squad just bought more prospects.Luna, Westwood, Weiman, Kea all of them are not of Premiership standard. The insistance Lambert has in not playing genuine wingers is costing us badly in home games, we become far too narrow and deprives Benteke of decent service. We will struggle again this season.

[Louzie0]

Don't think another 'bad day at the office' post will really make a difference!

[eamonn]

I was on a promise if we won.
Bastards.

How do you figure that?

[tomd2103]

I am not bothered about Norwich. I just want PL to have a very good response to Newcastle -type moves in training.
Watching MOTD, every promising move started from Lowton. Cannot believe posts trashing him. Well done to Benteke as well.

Brad also seemed immense.

lowton was awful today I thought

Picked out on MOTD and mentioned positively in dispatches on the radio, mainly on the wing. He is doing something!
Ok, I wasn't there, but I like him, as a player I mean.

Every good midfielder has to learn his job.

That said, we need somebody creative in the middle, as well.

just kept giving the ball away ,could not do a simple ball . He wasnt the only one . I thought weimann was poor , should have been off so much earlier  and el ahmadi was rubbish . One positive was Delph to be fair . Lambert does take too long to do subs ;(  maybe because he cant do them

by all accounts Villa had a bit of a mare today.
Let's give them a bye/space to go, 'what the hell was that' and move on. I've had days like that.

Might have been the case in the last couple of seasons, but there are other options in the squad now and dropping a couple of players might keep others on their toes.  Unless he has a fitness or atttude problem, Sylla has to come in for KEA at Norwich and I would also consider starting Tonev instead of Weimann.  Lowton should get another chance, but any more performances like today and Bacuna could well take his place.

Forgot to say in my previous post that although I'm not a big fan of his, I thought Clark did pretty well when he came on for Okore.  No silly mistakes and he made a couple of good interceptions.     

[Percy McCarthy]

Yes, Clark did well.

[Isa]

Wow! I thought it was bad on VT but KEA really is this year's Bannan in terms of scapegoating on here.  Yes, he was poor yesterday (along with pretty-much everybody else) but people seem to forget that he was one of our best players in the Arsenal, Chelsea and Rotherham games. Was unduly dropped for Bacuna in the Liverpool game it should be pointed out.

If anybody is to be dropped for Sylla, it should be Westwood who has offered little in any of our games so far this season.

[Matt Collins]

On KEA, I agree I don't get all the 'why is he starting' comments. He started because he was fundamental to the way we played in our early good performances. But I agree he's the obvious candidate to drop out to improve something.

Not sure who would come in for Westwood though. I don't think Sylla could sit in front of the back two - he's better getting around the pitch.

[ozzjim]

In fairness, I would drop Westwood for Sylla and leave KEA in, at least he is looking mobile.

[supertom]

Westwood has been pretty dire, but he's really the only player suited to that Carrick sort of role. KEA couldn't play the deeper role, he'd struggle even more. I do worry that KEA will mirror last season. A promising few games early on, before disappearing into mediocrity. Personally I don't see what attributes the guy has to make him stand out at this level. He's fairly tidy on the ball ordinarily, but he really needs to stop dwelling sometimes. Yesterday his passing was way off. Even simple balls went astray, but again, he wasn't alone in that.

I felt sorry for Delphy to be honest. He was doing all the work in midfield. The other two were anonymous. I'll give Westy the benefit of doubt that he's just having a slow start, because last season he was very good indeed. As for KEA, unless he starts stamping his authority on games, he'll be back player at a lesser level within a year. You cannot go missing at this level and expect to stay.

[Isa]

Sylla played much deeper in pre-season and looked good so hopefully that is the position he will play more of this season. He is our only player who can occupy the DM role that we are desperately lacking in.

Westwood for me is simply too lightweight and defensively inept to play there. At least KEA showed against Arsenal that he can get stuck in. That he can tackle and impose himself on the opposition. Something Westwood never has and probably never will be able to do.

[Matt Collins]

I just think that if you played Sylla there our ball retention would be even worse.

But might be wrong.

[eastie]

Lose at Norwich and it is going to be a very, very long season.

At home, and you can all laugh if you want, I would give Joe Bennett a game, or a few run outs, on the left of the front 3 and shift Gabby to the right, with the purpose of getting the ball into the box. I genuinely think he has the talent to make things happen.

We really do need to win that game. Bennett offers a lot down the left and he was really improving towards the end of last season.

I think Bennett maybe would be better as a left sided midfielder than as a left back - worth giving him a try .
Certainly we cannot set up the same way at home as we do away as teams will come to villa park and stifle us - we need to change things at home and vary it a bit - lamberts comments that we only know one way to play worry me - teams should be able to adapt to different formations and styles - we have a few problems that he needs to address.

There is no doubt that sylla needs to be in midfield , i understand kea started the season well and was hard to leave out but now sylla must return .

Westwood , Weimann, and Lowton also need to get their game together fast - all three can have no complaints if dropped.

[Isa]

Westwood has been pretty dire, but he's really the only player suited to that Carrick sort of role.

Where does the 'Carrick role' fit into our team though? We are not a possession-based team so it is pretty pointless. Westwood offers nothing off the ball.

[supertom]

Westwood has been pretty dire, but he's really the only player suited to that Carrick sort of role.

Where does the 'Carrick role' fit into our team though? We are not a possession-based team so it is pretty pointless. Westwood offers nothing off the ball.

We're not a possession team no, but it's what Lambert sees us as long term. It's the ultimate goal, but we're technically too poor to play it. The other problem is, that we don't really have too many ball playing midfielders left. Westwood is our tidiest passing player (on his day) but currently lacks that incisive pass, that was beginning to find at the tail end of last season. KEA is okay passing 10 yards but not much more. Delph's game is more about his athleticism. I've no problem with Delph because his running in midfield is important.

I do think there was a balance to Delph, Westy and Sylla that we haven't seen from any other combination. Westwood was always available, while the energy and running of Sylla and Delph gave us some presence. KEA, even when hes played quite well, doesn't give us any presence.

[SamTheMouse]

Sylla played much deeper in pre-season and looked good so hopefully that is the position he will play more of this season. He is our only player who can occupy the DM role that we are desperately lacking in.

Westwood for me is simply too lightweight and defensively inept to play there. At least KEA showed against Arsenal that he can get stuck in. That he can tackle and impose himself on the opposition. Something Westwood never has and probably never will be able to do.

I agree. Sylla was fine when he came in towards the end of last season, and his arrival in the side just happened to coincide with an upturn in the team's fortunes. We started looking better as a unit and dominating the midfield more. He's not just physical - from what I saw, his distribution is fine too, but most importantly his movement was better. Last season, he didn't just sit deep, he frequently moved into space and was generally always available for a pass.

However, for me KEA has no impact whatsoever on the game. Seriously, if he got sent off, would anyone even notice? At least Westwood can produce a defence-splitting pass from time to time, although I agree that defensively he's crap.

Let's be honest, if we really want to do well, we need better players than we have in midfield. Which is why I can't understand Lambert blowing 7 million quid on a striker, when up front is the one area we actually have the requisite quality in.