Aston Villa v Sunderland Post-Match Thread

[aj2k77]

They were second best the entire match in what was probably the worst performance from a Villa team under Lambert.

Oh come on, remember Chelsea away and Spurs and Wigan at home last season? I'd take this game over those three travesties any time.

It was rubbish, yes, we're still a team in transition as well; I don't think Lambert knows his best formation and I don't think he's honest about our style of football. However, we are still building a team IMO; I'd like to think this is not the finished article.

With a manager like Lambert I fear there is no actual finished article, just endless talking amongst fans of plans and youth and nit picking amongst the bones for hope.

[bertlambshank]

This is all part if the nothing season the club has planned.I will take it,mid table finish after the past 3.I see it as very slow progress.

[andyh]

Sideways, backwards, sideways, forward, backwards, sideways,sideways, backwards, sideways,sideways, backwards, sideways, sideways,sideways,backwards,backwards WHACK!!

It's fucking easy to be a football manager.

[ktvillan]

Not sure how to read this one.  When I saw O'Shea and Brown were paired at CB for Sunderland I suspected we might struggle even more than usual to score - they may not seem all that individually but they were well schooled at Man Yoo and as a pair are probably pretty robust. 

That said Lambert does appear to have lost the plot somewhere along the line and it really is difficult to see any longer where he is trying to take us.  All that guff about the players he signed being even cheaper than reported smacks a bit of getting some excuses in for their under performance. 

I think he and Lerner are both very close to alienating the supporters once again.  A very decent January window is required I think, with some proven experience and quality need badly.

[supertom]

For Lambert to really succeed and turn this club into a footballing side rather than well intentioned, hard working headless chickens, he's either got to find some serious nous from somewhere, or we need to employ a tactician to work with him, be it a better number 2, or a D.O.F.
I really don't think he's got the nous to be honest. My worry too is that, though we're safe, we've seen how easily we can slip into a bad run in the last couple of seasons.

Again what he says he wants, and what he's purchased don't really match either. He's made a few astute signings, but still, most of them are questionnable as to whether they're Prem quality. He's got people who can run for 90 minutes and will work hard, mostly with good attitudes, but players with genuine quality? Aside from Benteke, I'm not sure.

Who had the better plan in terms of where the club was going, and who we had, and were going to sign, Houllier or Lambert? For me it was Houllier. It could have been a very interesting summer in 11 had he stayed.

[aj2k77]

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.

Bang on for me. Every point, no matter what is greeted by and large with a 'stop fucking moaning it's progress'. A 0-0 celebrated because the manager couldn't organise a side to keep a clean sheet last season.

Anything could happen and there will be an excuse from '' who can do better?'' to '' it's a goal better than last season''.

It's simply not good enough, we're aiming for the gutter.

[Ron Manager]

Cant think of anything positive to say about that performance.....but you can be sure Lambert will!

I was very cold and throughly demoralised by the end of the match. Most supporters would have picked the same starting eleven so what Lambert can do now I just dont know.

Luna was shocking even by his standards and our much lauded centre forward gave the impression that he was not exactly over doing it with the effort.

It a good job for us that there are so many clubs with poor forward lines this season.

[VinnieChase84]

We can't play Westwood and Kea in the same midfield at HOME. I've said this a million times. Lowton should have been RB with Bacuna on the right of a midfield 3. The lack of creativity is shocking and at home we should be having more of a go

[aj2k77]

We can't play Westwood and Kea in the same midfield at HOME. I've said this a million times. Lowton should have been RB with Bacuna on the right of a midfield 3. The lack of creativity is shocking and at home we should be having more of a go

To be fair Bacuna had a touch like a dinosaur today. I don't get him sometimes he looks one of our better technically adept players and othertimes like he's never touched a ball before.

[usav]

I think he and Lerner are both very close to alienating the supporters once again.  A very decent January window is required I think, with some proven experience and quality need badly.

I wouldn't hold your breath.   If it didn't happen last January, why would it happen this?

[caster troy]

So we've failed to score in 4 out of 7 home games now. Unbelievable.

In the three we have scored we have one from a corner, two Bacuna free kicks and just three goals from open play. Three in seven games. Horrific.

We are desperate for a number 10, an attacking midfielder with a bit of guile. Delph/El Ahmedi/Westwood at Villa Park is three players doing two jobs. It's been obvious for over a year now, how Lambert can't see it is beyond me.

[django]

I Think we need Lowton back in at right back, push bacuna further forward. If we stay with 3 up, put gabby left bacuna right andi on the bench. If we go with two up, play gabby just off benteke.

Tell Guzan to play it out from the back instead of whacking it. Put Bennett back in for Luna. Give one of the midfielders the job of sitting and keeping things simple, the other two need to link with the forwards, otherwise we are outnumbered.

[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.

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 !

Well, Eastie, I'm trying to look at the bigger picture and the job that I hope/think Lambert is trying to do.  If, in two/three years' time, we are playing awful football and we haven't progressed under Lambert, I would understand fan frustration.  I agree it was a stinker of a game from us but look at how Lambert is trying to build us up again and make us stable. We are taking - in my opinion - small, assured steps in the right direction.   Hitting tenth spot is not what a club like Villa should aspire to but, for the moment, I'll take it.  For the first time in three seasons I feel as though we are moving back on an upward curve.

[kippaxvilla2]

Lambert said: "It wasn't a good game. We didn't do enough to win but we will take a point.

"For every negative there is a positive and we have another clean sheet. That's also the first game some of my players have played for a month.

"We can't kid the supporters but we'll probably play worse and win but the way it went we'll take a point."

[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 !

Well, Eastie, I'm trying to look at the bigger picture and the job that I hope/think Lambert is trying to do.  If, in two/three years' time, we are playing awful football and we haven't progressed under Lambert, I would understand fan frustration.  I agree it was a stinker of a game from us but look at how Lambert is trying to build us up again and make us stable. We are taking - in my opinion - small, assured steps in the right direction.   Hitting tenth spot is not what a club like Villa should aspire to but, for the moment, I'll take it.  For the first time in three seasons I feel as though we are moving back on an upward curve.

Fair enough billy.