Aston Villa v Everton Post-Match Thread

[David_Nab]

We're now saying 'they have better players than us' about Everton.  When will be making that excuse up about Southampton, Smethwick, Stoke, Wet Spam?  When we play them at home I guess?

Southampton have a very good squad ,which has set them back a few quid.

[avfcpg]

Well, that's a real kick in the nuts for the confidence having at least played better at home.
We've now played Arsenal, Man City, Liverpool, Spurs, Chelsea & Everton...tough, but home form is appalling.
From now until the end of the year we have West Ham, Cardiff, West Brom, Sunderland, Saints, Fulham, Man Utd, Stoke, Palace and Swansea. Let's see how far we have come, if at all, after them.

Not pushing the panic button just yet, but last season after xmas, we were beating teams outside the top 6....now we have a chance to put a decent run together and build confidence.
 

[KevinGage]

A club like Everton shouldn't be ahead of us, but they are, at present. 

Due to a combination of factors. 

It's pish, but these are not the games we can say should be a nailed on three points. 

Depends what your expectations are/ were for this season.  If you thought that Paul Lambert was in fact Ron Saunders MKII and that we'd cut a swathe through the division due to our end of season form last year, you're now seeing that that might have been a tad unrealistic.

If you were looking at small, but not insignificant progress, that's still on the table.  We've now got a fair chunk of the worst home games out of the way.  We should be able to claim at least 5/6 victories with the likes of Palarse, Cardiff, Hull, Olbiyun, Fulham, Stoke, Southampton, Swansea and Norwich all still to play.

6/7 home wins in total by the close of the campaign, and a continuation of our decent away form would see us improve on last years placing.    That might not be enough for some, but our business in the summer didn't look like the sort to put us back in the running for Europe and so forth.   

[PaulWinch again]

It's plainly obvious that we need Lerner to put some money towards a couple of quality players, a creative midfielder and a wide forward. We desperately need quality and pressure on Gabby and Weimann.

[Villafirst]

No Sylla again? The trio of Westwood, Delph & Sylla worked a treat at the end of last season....why has Lambert not played this formation at all so far?

[eastie]

It's plainly obvious that we need Lerner to put some money towards a couple of quality players, a creative midfielder and a wide forward. We desperately need quality and pressure on Gabby and Weimann.

Lerner has put the money there - it's the manager who decides who to buy and how to spend it.

[mal]

Both Everton and Liverpool will be pushing for top 4 finishes this season. We have lost at home to both in games we probably shouldn't have lost might well have won and in the end didn't deserve to get something out of because we failed to take our chances. Liverpool who are the better team offered nothing against us and got lucky with a piece of individual brilliance. Everton at least played and so did we.  I see nothing to be upset about apart from the defeat. Oh and in 10 years time Westwood will BE Barry.

Not a cat in hells chance of everton pushing for a top 4 finish this season.

Appear to be third at the moment.

And if saints beat Fulham tonight they will be 3rd with as much chance of finishing top 4 as everton .

The top 6 will be arsenal, Chelsea, city, spurs , utd and Liverpool though maybe not in that order .
 Everton will finish 7th at best .

a bit of the Mark Lawrenson scholl of football punditry, perhaps?

No sir , but I don't believe everton are anywhere near as good as the 6 I've mentioned and a couple of injuries will screw them up - i don't think many on here would say everton will finish top 4 but if they do I will take my hat off to you mal;)

Was not what I said, Eastie.  I said they would be pushing for top 4.  Given I believe Arsenal will be Champions behind them one of Liverpool/Chelsea/Man City then Spurs/Manure/Everton and as usual there will be a chase for the 4th Champions league slot. Everton have two points more this season than they did last from 9 games. But that's what you said pretty much.

[Phil from the upper holte]

With the exception of Bacuna I don't think anyone that's been signed has improved us at all

[PaulWinch again]

It's plainly obvious that we need Lerner to put some money towards a couple of quality players, a creative midfielder and a wide forward. We desperately need quality and pressure on Gabby and Weimann.

Lerner has put the money there - it's the manager who decides who to buy and how to spend it.

Not exactly, we needed to boost the squad a lot in numbers so the money had to spread quite thin. We need another injection on a couple of players to improved the quality.

[martin o`who??]

Right now, as it stands, Aston Villa is a club in decline, we either get a serious cash injection from somewhere or we do a Wolves.

[JUAN PABLO]

I honestly thought the Man shitty game would be the turning point for home results

How wrong I was

I know we fluked it but I thought it might change us mentally but I would say Lambeert has not a clue how to do subs

[PaulWinch again]

With the exception of Bacuna I don't think anyone that's been signed has improved us at all

Not obviously no, I think Okore would have.

[JUAN PABLO]

With the exception of Bacuna I don't think anyone that's been signed has improved us at all

agree   -  Luna's positioning again was awful . Okore would have been ok but the others . meh

[mal]

Right now, as it stands, Aston Villa is a club in decline, we either get a serious cash injection from somewhere or we do a Wolves.

That's true - it's been all downhill since 1897. If Lambert doesn't win a treble next year I'm not renewing.

[mr woo]

It's a cut n paste post-match post from me.

Same problems still unaddressed so hardly worth repeating.

Width non existent. Support from the midfield non existant.
The space allowed to Lukaku for their first should never happen in a game at this level, yet we seem to endeavor to present opportunities like it in every match.

Positives? Erm.....bright early 15 minutes in which we should have and desperately needed to score. We lost confidence when we didn't.

At last we have dropped one of the central midfield passengers, as suggested weeks ago, I dont think we looked any weaker in the centre of the park for it. Would still play Sylla over Westwood personally, although I thought he was ok today.

You could argue it's a fine line between victory and defeat because of the chances both sides created,  but they looked the more composed side to me and deserved the win.

Martinez is a smarter manager than I gave him credit for, he bought well in the summer and organized his line up in a superior manner to Lambert.
How I wish we would stop taking punts of a million here and 2 million there when what we need is proven quality. I said to my pal that the introduction of Osman would turn the game in their favour - a very clever and under rated player, and exactly the kind of signing I would much rather we be making.