Aston Villa v Everton Post-Match Thread

[taylorsworkrate]

Tim Howard made some excellent saves yesterday. Not bad for a bloke who wears his head upside down.
What is that beard all about eh ?

I like it. Bald blokes don't look right clean shaven

[barrysleftfoot]

 Same as tou Mr Woo, i initially thought that Clark was at fault for the 1st goal but watch Westwood.He lets his man drift behind him, yet again.The goal is Westwoods fault.He can't play this defensive role, Sylla would'nt have been caught out.

[Matt Collins]

- Luna really is a terrible defender, I really think. His positioning is terrible
- Vlaar is looking good
- How about getting Lowton back in and have Bacuna as a right midfielder and Tonev on the left ? and then have Gabby and Benteke up front against West Ham. Meaning Weimann on the bench, he needs to be dropped/rested. Or Gabby on the left and then Sylla as an extra midfielder

I think something similar to your final bullet

[CJ]

Tim Howard made some excellent saves yesterday. Not bad for a bloke who wears his head upside down.
What is that beard all about eh ?

He looked like one of those drawings we did as kids on those plastic things with iron filings and a magnet. Think they were called Woolly Willy (stop sniggering at the back)

[pbavfckuwait]

Change tactics at home Managers job, rely on away form and were in trouble again, in PL we have trusted but he has to accept where he has gone wrong and adapt very very quickly, said it once already but the honey moon period is coming to an end and fickle we are not, but we will not stand for being made look mugs every other week at Villa Park, the options should be there as that was what he has spent on options, if they are not forth coming he is to blame full stop. Come on Villa

[Steve R]

We fell apart badly towards the end, but we at least had some glimpses of what the back end of last season so enjoyable.

To be fair a lot of things went against us yesterday -the penalty miss(and others), Luna getting injured and the red card McCarthy should have got - but like the previous week we were distinctly second best in midfield against a team who were not all that good themselves.

[olaftab]

Tim Howard made some excellent saves yesterday. Not bad for a bloke who wears his head upside down.
What is that beard all about eh ?

I understand he has applied to join Toxteth Taliban and is preparing for the interview.

[Nastylee]

Firstly, there's no point changing boss. We need to see it through. As for yesterday, I thought we were the better team until the goal. Should have had a couple early on and I thought Vlaar handled Lakaku very well and Delph proved he's the midfielder worth his salt. Tonev looked ok at times and perhaps needs a run. Midfield as a whole looks light though and Westwood is not anywhere near his form of a last season. I think Sylla's presence is required just to help us compete.

A few things swung it yesterday: the penalty of course, Luna going off changed the dynamic of our defence (Baker is no full back and Clark wasn't as aggressive as Baker had been at centre half). Everton hardly got out their half for the first 20 mins of the second half but goals change games and our inability to score from very good chances meant we were always vulnerable to the counter attack. Clark was slack for the first goal and I'm not sure how Barry found that much space for the second.

[hipkiss92]

Tim Howard made some excellent saves yesterday. Not bad for a bloke who wears his head upside down.
What is that beard all about eh ?

Who's Tim Howard? That was Hashim Amla in goal for Everton

[Fin Feds Dad]

It's all down to quality of bench.

Last week spurs brought on Dembele, Defoe and Lennon - 3 players who would start for most premier league sides

Yesterday they brought on Osman - who would definitely start for us.

Years of inept purchases have left us short.

Until we ship the big wage earners like Given, Hutton etc who are no longer required it will continue

[PaulWinch again]

It's all down to quality of bench.

Last week spurs brought on Dembele, Defoe and Lennon - 3 players who would start for most premier league sides

Yesterday they brought on Osman - who would definitely start for us.

Years of inept purchases have left us short.

Until we ship the big wage earners like Given, Hutton etc who are no longer required it will continue

It's partially that, but it's also the tactics that are adopted when the game needs to change.

[supertom]

It's the quality of many of our first 11 that worries me, never mind the bench. Our buying policy has to change now. We need first 11, proven quality from here on in. Notably midfield. Last season we had one of the worst midfields in the top flight. Wigans was better and they went down. We haven't addressed that either. It's still one of the poorest in terms of ability and technique. Delph's a one man army at the moment. I'd like to see him get some quality to play with him in Jan.

[django]

I think we'll see things more positively after the next few games, score a few goals, win a few games and hints wm look a bit rosier. The reality is we're a mid table team, with mid table players who will disappoint against better teams and be inconsistent against the others.

 Just glad we got he wins against Arsenal and Man City otherwise the wait for points could have killed us before we started. I still think the fixture list has been our biggest problem this season, it's hard for new players to bed in when they only get a couple of touches.

[Ads]

The really is only Man United who we could have played as well to compound how difficult our start has been. We've even had to go to a newly promoted side who defend very well, so much so, that Spurs needed a soft penalty to squeak past them and Everton the week previous had to have Barry try and break two of their players in half.

 

[andrew08]

The fact is after two decades of Sky money and the country's No1 rated academy our defenders aren't up to the upper levels of Premier League standard. We are currently a bottom six club but this is not representing yet our improvement from our summer purchases as the the fixture list has been unkind to us, so lets see where we are at Xmas.

It's a sad fact but in a 38 game season we need 40 points to stay up and 45 to show an improvement on last year. So we're at best only going to see another 10 wins or so and lose the majority of the rest.

Get used to it it's where we're at right now.