Aston Villa v Tottenham Hotspur Post-Match Thread

[supertom]

Delph constantly getting MOTM is damning him with faint praise for me. Our midfield is useless and he's the best of a bad bunch.

Delph is a very good footballer.

He is indeed. He's the only one I can say with any assurance in our midfield, is good enough at this level.
Sylla I fancy will be.
Westwood and KEA I'm not too sure. Both immobile, both tidy but unspectacular (though the tidy part is evading them both lately). KEA has been a disappointment. Something of a non-entity, seemingly destined to be one of those players in about 10 years where we have a "remember him?" discussion.

Westy hasn't kicked on from last season. He seems to have regressed, as if he'd peaked already. He's got to add more to his game, be it goals, more assists and most certainly better set pieces. Again, he can emulate someone like Petrov, or he can by another Gavin McCann. Someone who started well be filling a gap efficiently, offering something we were lacking, but ultimately wasn't good enough long term.

[Legion]

I think most of us saw last season we were lacking experienced defensive cover and a creative midfielder and both of these problems still remain in my view.

Yep. I actually think today we missed Clarky.
Baker for me is a liability. I think he broke into the side for want of more options to be honest. I don't see him last beyond another couple of years. He's a championship player.
Clark has the potential and he had a bad season last year, but he's started well this season and may well become a long term player for us.

An experienced guy in there helping the defence would be useful.

I agree Clark has been really good this year and is looking like the player I hoped he would be. Baker just isn't very good at all.

I think Baker is OK. Clark is better, though.

[eastie]

I think most of us saw last season we were lacking experienced defensive cover and a creative midfielder and both of these problems still remain in my view.

Yep. I actually think today we missed Clarky.
Baker for me is a liability. I think he broke into the side for want of more options to be honest. I don't see him last beyond another couple of years. He's a championship player.
Clark has the potential and he had a bad season last year, but he's started well this season and may well become a long term player for us.

An experienced guy in there helping the defence would be useful.

I agree Clark has been really good this year and is looking like the player I hoped he would be. Baker just isn't very good at all.

I think Baker is OK. Clark is better, though.

The problem will come if Vlaar gets injured and we are again left with Clark and baker together which is worrying.

[Shrek]

Baker is our best defender

[ozzjim]

Delph did well

We unsurprisingly looked totally different up top when a £30 million striker came on.

We will miss him badly when he has gone.

As TV says, next summer will come the hard conversation for me. Are we in it just to be 10-15th each season, or does Lambert get £25 million to spend on 3 really decent players instead of 8 to pad out the squad. I hope for the latter. I fear the former. We shall see.

[Mister E]

Well, today I thought we were poor, albeit against a good side.
Luna was mullered today.
Kozak - what actually does he offer? He has no pace and his first touch is Gabby-esque. and he won very little in the air.
Why was the ball pushed back to Guzan so much? - from 100% possession to 50% in one easy pass ... spot the illogic.
Weimann: I feel for the lad; he's miss-firing and it hurts to see it.

Delph: improving by the game.
Bacuna: raw but very promising.
Gabby: got better after a slow start.

Lambert's problem: he had nothing on the bench to change the game (other than the Beast that is CB) - we need options, and we do not have them currently. He needs to put some options on the bench (not Bowery!).
The biggest absence: a midfield maestro (not the car: a playmaker).

[usav]

Oh, and what's the story with the new camera angle at Villa Park? Felt like I was standing on the sideline.

It was like the old one pre-Doug Ellis Stand days.

The NBC feed here was normal, I think.

[barrysleftfoot]

 I think Bake3r will be a better defender than Clark.

 The problems today was no creativity up front.You could argue swap Gabby and Townsend, and we would have won.Its that fine a line.

[eastie]

Baker is our best defender

Holy Moses , that whiskey must be strong

[silhillvilla]

Think we need to go 451 and play with width and a " nr 10" . We are good away from home as a counter attacking force but at home we are so ineffective. I'm worried about how we will be able to trouble Everton and even Cardiff. We are sitting ducks at home .

[eastie]

Delph did well

We unsurprisingly looked totally different up top when a £30 million striker came on.

We will miss him badly when he has gone.

As TV says, next summer will come the hard conversation for me. Are we in it just to be 10-15th each season, or does Lambert get £25 million to spend on 3 really decent players instead of 8 to pad out the squad. I hope for the latter. I fear the former. We shall see.

The problem is £25m will not take us into the top 6 and if we go from say 12th to 8th on the back of spending £25m on 3 players then we will have spent £25m to earn an extra £4m or so in prize money , I'm not sure randy would see that as being progress.

[Toronto Villa]

Oh, and what's the story with the new camera angle at Villa Park? Felt like I was standing on the sideline.

It was like the old one pre-Doug Ellis Stand days.

The NBC feed here was normal, I think.

I had the one with Pleat commentating and the first thing I noticed other than him being wanker was the lower camera position. It all felt very Witton Lane back in the day.

[steffo]

Heavens above is it not plain to see?

We need width.

Sort it.

[eastie]

@friedel_b: Just need to say what a great club Villa is.  Obviously happy with Spurs win but great to see so many friendly faces!!!

@MatKendrick: Ciaran Clark was missing today because of a sickness bug #avfc

[PaulWinch again]

Delph did well

We unsurprisingly looked totally different up top when a £30 million striker came on.

We will miss him badly when he has gone.

As TV says, next summer will come the hard conversation for me. Are we in it just to be 10-15th each season, or does Lambert get £25 million to spend on 3 really decent players instead of 8 to pad out the squad. I hope for the latter. I fear the former. We shall see.

I agree, Delph is starting to make some really good runs from midfield and if other players move off the ball we'll be in business. We really need £25 million(more dependent on Benteke's departure) to make 3 or 4 quality additions to the squad and to bring us on a level. Look at Spurs, it's extreme but they made £85 million from Bale and spent £100 million on building an excellent squad. We could do that on a smaller scale.