Aston Villa v Sunderland Post-Match Thread

[supertom]

Dear any Arab with a few bob...

Good club with solid history, big ground,  wants a bit of the Man City treatment.

Sincerely,

Aston Villa F.C

[curlytailavfc]

woeful boring crap

[pooligan]

No doubt Lambert will be over the moon about another clean sheet and telling us he is not worried about Benteke or the failure to win at home yet again .

[avfcpg]

Dear any Arab with a few bob...

Good club with solid history, big ground,  wants a bit of the Man City treatment.

Sincerely,

Aston Villa F.C

Sunderland 1 - 0 Man City Zillionaires
Funny old game innit ;-)

[Billy Walker]

We're in tenth spot and the ship is being steadied after a couple of years of serious turmoil. Lambert is doing a fine job in my view.

[eastie]

Well prince William chose a stinker of a game for his first ever visit to villa park - as someone said earlier he could have had so much more fun at home with the delicious kate!

[SoccerHQ]

I wouldn't have begrudged Sunderland that win at all, had a goal offside, missed a sitter and hit the bar in the 2nd half. That's a decent enough claim to win the game right there. They were better than expected after the opening 15 mins when we were on top, passed it quite well in tight areas and got forward well in numbers, much better than Cardiff the other week.

Good do we need a number 10 or someone who has some idea of how to pass forward in the final third of the pitch. Gabby did well today in fairness but if you're relying on someone who hasn't scored yet this season to break the deadlock it's a bit of an ask. Weimann is infuriating me, we can't say it's just the early weeks of the season now, it's December in a few hours and he has 1 league goal. He takes up some intelligent positions on the pitch but his touch just isn't good enough on a consistant basis and too many attacks break down with him.

Benteke? I believe it's a case of just bad form. It happens. You can't say he hasn't looked interested this season when he started with 4 goals in the first 5 league games. Looks like the injury at Norwich took 10% out of him. He'll start scoring again soon so I'm not worrying about him.

Vlaar was excellent again, our defence isn't an issue now playing against bottom half teams. Ultimately though a poor performance and missed opportunity but as ever with us let's see what these two away games bring as that's where the good performances and results occur.

[eastie]

We're in tenth spot and the ship is being steadied after a couple of years of serious turmoil. Lambert is doing a fine job in my view.

If you are happy to watch that sort of drivel then fair play to you - it was crap and yet you think he's doing a fine job ?
Words fail me !

[Mister E]

Everton have been harder pressed for cash than us over the past decade but they look outside bets for the Champion's League places because they invested properly and had a coherent strategy to management etc.

We have been a feckin shambles. In fact, Everton post Moyes did exactly what we should have done. Got in an ambitious manager and backed him. I still trace our problems to the dithering of Randy after MON went. The right appointment there and we could have got to where MON was unable to take us. Since that our finances have gone to pot because of bad business/bad league positioning.

Since you brought up the comparison, what Everton have done is mix youth and experience in their purchases. They have some gnarled CB and an experienced MF string-puller.
Lambert has - in contrast - steadfastly committed to inexpensive youngsters and unknowns. It's a singleminded strategy which ain't delivering as yet.

[Rudy Can't Fail]

No doubt Lambert will be over the moon about another clean sheet..

Paul Lambert: "It is another clean sheet and we had some lads back from injury who got some match time under their belts."

[aj2k77]

People losing faith a third of the way into the second season shows how predictably fickle it all is.

Not defending the display, but if those of you who have lost faith can suggest a better replacement in the circumstances I would love to hear it.

Heard this all before. There are more managers out there than the 20 in the Premier league. We haven't become such a sad state that we can't attract better managers than dire Blues or Norwich ones. Use a bit of imaginative thinking for once.

[Fernando Partridge]

We're in tenth spot and the ship is being steadied after a couple of years of serious turmoil. Lambert is doing a fine job in my view.

That is a great point. I agree in scheme of things as Lambert made an excellent point of only being here 18 months so it is a work in progress. If we beat Southampton on wednesday 4points would be a great return. I would like to see a few loan signings in Jan de bruyne and essien of chelsea to come in my calls.

[Jimbo]

Yes, we have young, technically crude, inexperienced players and a youngish, tactically naive, moderately experienced manager. But in my opinion, we have a bigger problem. There's no expectation and no pressure. The manager knows it'll take something of a catastrophe to get sacked. The players know they will get picked because, well, who else is going to take their place? We've downgraded our expectations sufficiently, so that a mid table finish will be considered a success. Who busts a gut for mid table? Nobody.

The result is a dreary, uninspiring outfit festering in a culture of complacency and mediocrity.

[KRS]

We are so painful to watch that its almost embarrassing to say that that these are professional footballers playing for Aston Villa.

I've stopped going down Villa Park because I simply can't justify the cost and time going to watch these displays week in week out (and full respect to those of you that still do but I notice this may have been our lower attendance so far this season?)...and even watching this online feels like I've been ripped off and wasted yet another afternoon.

Its hard to say who's to blame...it can't be the players fault if they've been signed and simply aren't good enough, so do you blame Lambert and his back room staff for bringing in cheap sub-standard players, do you blame Lambert and his back room staff for failings with tactics or coaching...or do you blame Lerner for mismanagement of the club under previous managers and subsequently enforcing financial restraints on Lambert.

There's so much thats wrong both on and off the pitch that its hard to know where to start.

On a positive note...our results have largely improved from last season (but it seems even Lambert can polish a turd).

 

[KevinGage]

We need to improve, that much is obvious. 

Benteke looks to be playing within himself, I wonder whether it's concern about his recent injury just before a WC year, or whether he's been tapped up. But he's key to our frontline functioning, when he's off colour, we look short of ideas. 

The midfield is pish, and has been for a while.  Though I thought Westwood was better today.

It's another clean sheet (despite them having the better chances) so whilst I'm not blown away by Lambert's tactical brilliance, talk of throwing him overboard does seem premature. He does seem to learn, based on our improvement in the second half of last season and our defensive resolve this.

We are short of quality in a number of key areas though, and that needs to be addressed.  He's signed two left backs and I don't particularly rate either.  We could do with at least one new CM in Jan and an attacking mid/ second striker to play in between the lines, someone with a bit of guile.

Failure to get the last two could mean more games at home like that today.  And I wouldn't wish that on my worst enemy.