WBA v Aston Villa Post-Match Thread

[London Villan]

Our throws are great... player taking the throw normally flings the ball at the closest player so it hits them somewhere between the thigh and the neck... giving our limited footballers even less chance to control the thing...

[kippaxvilla2]

I'm not buying this Lambert is ok cos of the 3 subs.
It was a monumental fuck up on his part leaving those guys out + Lowton.
The guy is very very naive.

Don't you think he did well with the substitutions?

Regardless of you don't think he should have started with that line up, don't you reckon he did well to get us a point out of that? Given that we were two goals down after 11 minutes?

bloody Robbie Mustoe said exactly the three subs for the three players at HT to be changed , you didnt need to be no expert to make those changes .   

Gary Neville made what I thought was a very interesting point about this.  Lambert is managing confidence of very young, inexperienced players.  Neville's view point was that he probably decided to give it 10-15 minutes so as to show respect to those that started the game and not destroy their confidence because he said on the occasions he had been hauled off at Half Time it had severely impacted the confidence of him and the dressing room.

[kippaxvilla2]

Originally I was screaming at the TV about if the three are fit enough they should be starting but given the limited options available to us in the event one or all three go off injured again I soon changed my viewpoint and I thought it was exactly the right tactic and sensible management of them.  They made a huge difference of course but the player I was slagging off the most started and in fact pulled a goal back for us. And looking at that goal again I don't think he gets the credit he deserves for the quality of the finish that hung in the air for a while and KEA put it away very well.

[Pat McMahon]

Someone said we should have been five goals down at half time. They had one shot on target in the second half so from that I'm guessing some people would say 6-0 would have been the fair result.

And still we didn't manage to achieve the impossible and make Steve Clarke look even more miserable than usual.

A lot of people are saying shots on target as the only way to miss "sitters". Hitting the woodwork is counted as off-target which Kozak did, with Myhill stranded. While for them Sessegnon had two glorious chances - the miskick at the far post and the one he blazed over with the goal gaping. Both off-target but both complete sitters. One of Tonev's shots trickled through to Myhill. Just because it was on target doesn't suddenly elevate it to being a better chance than the ones abovementioned cos it wasn't.

I was going to make that point too Eamonn.

On a separate point I have a French mate staying here at the moment and he was amazed at the poor technical quality of British players. I had to point out to him that half the players he was laughing at weren't British and that Sylla was one of his own....

Westwood's goal gets better every time I see it. I truly didn't know he could shoot like that.

[john e]

I've got no problem with players on the bench who arnt 100% fit, we had 3 last night who it was probably best not to give them 90 minutes,

but when the lineup isn't working and you are 2 down in the first 10 minutes and looking like conceding more, then you have to act

Tonev looks like a fan that won a competition to play in with the big boys for a game, and just shoots all the time, why he was still playing at the start of the second half I have no idea

Sylla was just as bad, I've never agreed with this Sylla in for KEA (see the thread) he was hopeless, KEA is 10 times the better midfielder in my view
in fact Herd would be a far better option in midfield than Sylla

when the subs were made (to late in my view) you could see the lift it gave the team, why the fuck we were pissing about with a system that wasn't working for so long is anyones guess, bringing 3 unfit subs on to try and save the day is not the only option, but even those subs 20% fit will improve the side over Tonev and Sylla last night

i'm fully behind Lambert, and have been from the start,
 I have argued long and hard at times falling out with no end of people last season who wanted him out, so i'm not being hyper critical when I say Lambert has to see the mistakes earlier, it was plain for all to see, the starting line up should have been changed in some way after 15 minutes it was that bad

having said that, even at 2 down I always thought get one back and we could turn it round, which we eventually did, but not until the personnel on the pitch changed,
it was a good night overall, but I have some harbouring doubts creeping in as to Lamberts decisions at times

[Jimbo]

There is one more nagging point, and it's this: if we're going to split into factions of happy clappers and miserablists all over again, we're going to have to get Greg Nash back.

[eastie]

There is one more nagging point, and it's this: if we're going to split into factions of happy clappers and miserablists all over again, we're going to have to get Greg Nash back.

And a welcome addition to the forum he would be - may not have agreed with all he said but he seemed a decent enough chap.

[kippaxvilla2]

Correct. Then he did the stroppy three player sub which always means 'you lot are crap'. It was not tactical at all. The bloke had fucked up again and is another O'Neill with his stubborness.

DC5 you paid your money and are entitled to your opinion. You can see it the way you did or recognise it as game changer ploy. When Fergie did this sort of thing he was of course genius  however Lambert is stroppy and stubborn?

I hate to bring it up but I refer to the introduction of Van Nistlerooy with just 25 minutes left against us in the Cup all those horrible years ago.  Ferguson had no intention of bringing him on because he was trying to preserve him for the league but when they went 2-0 down on he came.  That was management genius - what Lambert did wasn't apparently.

[LeeB]

There is one more nagging point, and it's this: if we're going to split into factions of happy clappers and miserablists all over again, we're going to have to get Greg Nash back.

And a welcome addition to the forum he would be - may not have agreed with all he said but he seemed a decent enough chap.

He seemed like a bit of a twat to me, but each to their own.

[damon loves JT]

Greg Nash would be like a breath of fresh twat.

[Chipsticks]

Popped into the bookies en route to watching the game at the pub to put a quid on 2-2 based on a gut feeling. Tidy 15 quid to go towards my beer money for the month!

[eastie]

The left back position is still a worry to me - luna has been hit and miss and Bennett was similar last season , baker or Clark in the role doesn't fill me with confidence either .

I hope luna in time can make the position his but he has had a couple of real roastings already this season .

[eastie]

Popped into the bookies en route to watching the game at the pub to put a quid on 2-2 based on a gut feeling. Tidy 15 quid to go towards my beer money for the month!

Beer at your age ? You should be spending it all on that girlfriend of yours you naughty lad

[LeeB]

Can I just add that some of the criticism of the manager, his tactics and the line up are ridiculous, and indeed arrogant.

Most fools would follow conventional wisdom, ie. if he's fit enough for the bench, he's fit enough to start etc. but that is plainly one of those football truisms that's just bollocks.

Had they all started, then there's a good chance they would have faded, and in the back of their mind they'd be thinking of saving themselves a bit to go 90 minutes.

What we instead saw was them come on knowing they could go flat out for 30 mins against tiring legs.

It's a judgement call, but to pillory for him when he probably got it spot on is just crap

And also, he moved Delph out to left wing back, and that completely locked that side up when we were getting murdered down there, so kudos again.

[Chipsticks]

Popped into the bookies en route to watching the game at the pub to put a quid on 2-2 based on a gut feeling. Tidy 15 quid to go towards my beer money for the month!

Beer at your age ? You should be spending it all on that girlfriend of yours you naughty lad

She's demanded I take her out for a nandos after she found out. Living the high life.