Negativity

[ozzjim]

He should be backed for 4 or 5 years. It is early, and we can moan and we will, but long term you can see what he is doing. He needs to trust his new men though. Helenius, tonev and Sylla should be pushing for starts.

[Small Rodent]

I fell very negative because of the following nightmare equation:

Benteke keeps scoring + we keep losing = bye bye in January

As I say, it's a nightmare scenario, but its the perfect storm.

[Dr Butler]

He should be backed for 4 or 5 years. It is early, and we can moan and we will, but long term you can see what he is doing. He needs to trust his new men though. Helenius, tonev and Sylla should be pushing for starts.

hopefully on Saturday.

[not3bad]

Just a question really; were we really that bad against Newcastle? A friend who went said he couldn't believe the negativity from fans because in his opinion Villa were trying to play a more patient, possession based game, rather than a more gung-ho approach. 

Perhaps but if that were the case why so many stray passes?  It looked to me at times like the midfield simply couldn't read each other.

[andrew08]

It's difficult not to feel negative or in my case just pxxxxd off.  The reality is though that to get to a safe position in this crapy league we have to win 13 times and draw twice. So in a 38 game season we are going to lose more often than we either win or draw. The way we play means most of those defeats are going to be at home.

You could probably say that we've already achieved our quota over the likely top 6 with the win at Arsenal so that is why Saturday was so disappointing. Newcastle was, for the me anyway, the first of the 26 fixtures that we should be confident of, at worst, not losing.

Oh well the the lifelong love/hate relationship goes on !

[Monty]

We were annoyed after another tame home defeat, where we saw all of the problems that we've had for many years and under several managers, and we saw them back with a vengeance. Criticising the manager does NOT mean not backing him or wanting him sacked. Lambert has, in my view, made a large mistake with the expensive signing of Kozak, a totally vestigial signing in my view, but he has also done brilliantly with signing Benteke (twice) and Okore, with whose injury he has been spectacularly unlucky, not to mention the bargains that Westwood and Lowton look, though off form, and revitalising the careers of Delph and Gabby. He has made a few mistakes, though, and these should be acknowledged.

[Legion]

Great word, vestigial.

[ozzjim]

I think it is about keeping that perspective. If we struggle this season again so be it considering the finance he has used. He has had to re-build an entire squad in 18 months, which now done will hopefully mean that over the next 3-4 windows we add 3-4 players who are much more about being first team players, with real quality in key positions. When Benteke goes next summer we need to carefully re-invest that back into the side to become more creative and less fragile. But none of that is possible when you are having to buy an entire squad of players due to the last lot being not good enough, over the hill, or simply not fancied. As fans we are impatient, and can moan and rightly point out when he goes badly wrong - Kozak may well be a mistake but I feel long term he will be a success personally - but we have to back someone long term, and Lambert is as good as anyone to do so.

[paul_e]

We were annoyed after another tame home defeat, where we saw all of the problems that we've had for many years and under several managers, and we saw them back with a vengeance. Criticising the manager does NOT mean not backing him or wanting him sacked. Lambert has, in my view, made a large mistake with the expensive signing of Kozak, a totally vestigial signing in my view, but he has also done brilliantly with signing Benteke (twice) and Okore, with whose injury he has been spectacularly unlucky, not to mention the bargains that Westwood and Lowton look, though off form, and revitalising the careers of Delph and Gabby. He has made a few mistakes, though, and these should be acknowledged.

There is a spectrum between being upset after a defeat and just being outright pessimistic about the entire club, a lot of people seem to have gone a long way towards the latter.  Of course no one is happy about defeat at home to Newcastle but it's only a few weeks since we beat Arsenal away, had Chelsea cheat us out of something at their place and deserved at least a point at home to an in form Liverpool.  As far as I'm concerned that's the 'real' Villa 13/14 and Newcastle was the blip, for a lot of others the other 3 are being treated as the blip.  I know you don't agree with the Kozak signingbut what would your thoughts be if it was Benteke out for the season not Okore?

[Monty]

There is a spectrum between being upset after a defeat and just being outright pessimistic about the entire club, a lot of people seem to have gone a long way towards the latter.  Of course no one is happy about defeat at home to Newcastle but it's only a few weeks since we beat Arsenal away, had Chelsea cheat us out of something at their place and deserved at least a point at home to an in form Liverpool.  As far as I'm concerned that's the 'real' Villa 13/14 and Newcastle was the blip, for a lot of others the other 3 are being treated as the blip.  I know you don't agree with the Kozak signingbut what would your thoughts be if it was Benteke out for the season not Okore?

The same people who would have gone downright pessimistic about the club after one match are the same who'd have thought we'll be top 8 with ease after the Arsenal match. Ozzjim is right - we just need to keep perspective.

As regards which is the 'real' Villa, they all were - the difference is, against Newcastle we had to force the issue more whereas in the other three games we could sit back and counter, which clearly suits us more. The other day we were very poor, but we still had a good spell in the second half before we went 4-2-4, where we looked like we could create chances against a massed defence. Not enough, however, and the lack of subtlety told in the end. It's a very familiar flaw for Villa teams to have recently.

Finally, on Kozak and Benteke. If Benteke had been injured for the rest of the season I'm not sure I'd like to throw Kozak in anyway - I'd rather play Gabby up front to be honest. Kozak would encourage the long balls like Benteke does, which is a poor part of our game, but the Beast is such a phenomenon that he makes a remarkably high percentage of long balls work out - whereas with Kozak, a normal human, it would just be lumping it up to a big man and it would work about as well as that tactic normally does, ie almost never.

My problem with the Kozak signing is not because it cost us cover in defence - on our budget, you can't legislate for an injury like Okore's - it's that it cost us something in midfield, in the first team, that we just don't have to begin with and haven't had for a very long time. We went for cover up front when we needed a starter in midfield, and that's hampered the team from the off in my view. But, like I say, even the best managers make mistakes, and that's fine. Kozak may even turn out to be a brilliant signing for us when Benteke leaves, I don't know - but it has definitely cost us this season, and we could have beaten Newcastle had we had it.

[Ads]

The difference between this season and last season is that he has players; Tonev, Bacuna, Helenius, Sylla, who he can bring in to change things.

I think we should be seeing the squad system put to work, especially at home where we need to be more flexible, both tactically and personnel wise. I don’t want to see the sledgehammer approach to chasing a game again.

[Dante Lavelli]

We are not as good as the Arsenal result and not as bad as the performance v Newcastle.  Anyone who chooses either extreme as our norm will be in for rough ride over the duration over the season. 

[sirlordbaltimore]

I'll back a manager for as long as i think he's doing a good job.

As i'm still 50/50 on Lambert, he has my backing for now until i feel things are getting worse. This is his team now, built by his hands with players that he wanted. So it's up to him to show that he knows what he's doing. A repeat of last season wont do, and neither will a season of scratching around the bottom third.

I want to see what tactical nous he has. Because we've been a disaster at home for pretty much his entire tenure thus far, and he needs to change something pronto. I assume that's why he brought a load of squad players to give him options. Personally i just wish he'd brought a few starters that were better than what we already have.

Lets see

[PaulWinch again]

I think we need to address a couple of things, we need to stop conceding so many goals and we need to work out a way of playing at home. A lot of those issues can be addressed on the training ground with adequate coaching, but some of it will need to be addressed in the transfer market. Lambert needs to sort out the defence as a major priority though because it's not acceptable to continue like we are.

[Fin Feds Dad]

Any negativity I feel is in direct proportion to the amount of times I see 'El Ahmadi' on the team sheet.