Fulham v Aston Villa Post-Match Thread

[brontebilly]

first half wasnt all that bad. threw in the towel at half time.

shameful performance.

Thought lowton and Albrighton showed a bit of heart when they came on.

guzan 5 - one great save but shares some of the blame for the first and joined in with the keystone cops act in the second half
bacuna 2 - to be honest, not sure he even deserved 2. shouldnt have played today after a few shocking performances lately. that he was left on was a bit cruel
herd 6 - won everything in the air but is a dirty player for sure. too rash to be a centre half but Id chance him in midfield for a few games ahead of the weaklings we have in there
clark 6 - couple of unbelievable interceptions at times but hoofed it continuously. fear for him in the next game
baker 3 - not a left back and  this was proven beyond doubt yet again.
westwood 4 - had an absolute shocker and was looking to be taken out of his misery long before the end
Kea 4 - an utterly shit player that Im sick of seeing playing for the club. doesnt have an ounce of quality
delph 7 - decent on the ball but forced to do too much at times due to no-one else playing in midfield with him. should be looking to move to a better club to be honest. How can a decent midfielder play in a side that just hoofs it constantly
weimann 2 - getting found out this season. desperately poor technically and now that he cant be arsed putting in a shift he looks woefully out of his depth
gabby 6 - poor in first half but was a reasonable threat in the second and did enough to have won that penalty.
Benteke 5 - missed sitter sums up his season. couple of decent shots but how can Gabby and himself be expected to thrive when the default mode of our players is to hoof the ball 50 yards?

Tonev 2 - oh dear

lambert - awful, just awful.

to be honest we have been riding our luck something terrible lately so inevitably it came back to bite us today. Ref rode us but we deserved nothing. Most of our players had zero courage, if you are playing at this level then you shouldnt treat the ball like a grenade.

If Lerner has any thoughts about putting a few quid into the club then I dont think Lambert is our man.

[Matt Collins]

We're a mediocre team in a mediocre mini league. There are worse sides than us and we're better than last year

I wish our form would improve though. There's not much difference between today's performance and our last two away games, except we missed vlaar - even though I thought herd and Clark did well individually.

But if we'd had an in form Lowton, vlaar Okore and luna we'd have surely done better today

I thought we were ok for spells of the first half. Not great, but ok considering our recent form

Second half the subs just didn't work at all.

 

[JUAN PABLO]

Im getting bored with Lambert

I wanted him , maybe the best we could get at the time  , I won a lot of money betting on him

I suppose I expected us to be like  Dortmund

but hes bought us a lot of players who are not good enough , a lot of poor players

our best players have been Guzan and Delph and Gabby has worked hard at times , two players he didnt sign.

He has lived off the Benteke signing but most of the rest have been poor signings bar a couple  and stop playing players out of form and position .

He has no tatical nous . It improved alot the second half of the season last but it was so dire , it had to and I expected us to push on a little
this season but hes going backwards . People will say but we are 10th , what do you want ? but by Mcgrath is absolute garbage at times .

He has disppointed me this season if I am being honest.

[TonyD]

It's hard to play any kind of passing game when you don't have a midfield. Delph is head and shoulders above many prem players but he can't do it on his own. The defence is makeshift mainly due to injuries and the lack of buying another CB in the summer.  So need to buy two good player next month and things could be very different.   We were utter rubbish today.

[DB]

Playing on the break looks great when teams pressure you up the pitch - but when that does not happen, we don't have a way of playing through teams, just hit long balls.

I saw Fulham pressing us very high on a number of occasions.  The midfield and defence just weren't controlled enough in possession to take advantage of the space left.

They sat back more than most do, it was like a home game. But yes, our midfield and forwards didn't keep hold of the ball or use it well.

[Villafirst]

We have gone backwards from the end of last season. Lambert settled on the trio of Westwood, Deiplh and Sylla at the end of last season and it looked good. Why has he ditched Sylla for KEA? The Lowton situation is also a joke. The longer Lowton and Sylla are left out the more it knocks their confidence which isn't helped by lack of match practice. Lambert has to buy in January, end of!

[CJ]

Shocking performance in a long line of shocking performances - Hull, Spurs, Wham, most of Cardiff, Albion, Sunderland, Soton and now Fulham. Don't think we've played well since the Man City game but we've got away with scraping results so we're safely ensconced in mid table - for now

I think the bottom line is that too many of the players simply aren't good enough at this level, and when you factor in injuries to key players (Okore and Vlaar), and lack of form from the likes of Benteke, there's simply insufficient quality in the wider squad. The puzzling thing is the same players played some good football in the latter stages of last season. Were the 'young, hungry' inexperienced players carried by adrenaline in their first season in the top flight and now they just can't compete at this level? Was Benteke a one-season wonder, or is he not fully fit, getting no service, and getting marked out of the game?

The acid test is how many of our players today would have got in any other top half team. Few, if any. If Lambert doesn't invest in quality and soon, I fear the worst. Palace and Fulham have got the 'new manager bounce', and, yes, we're 6 points above the drop zone,but carry on playing like we did today and sooner or later we'll be the new Wigan - hover above relegation for a few seasons but eventually fall through the trap door.

[Monty]

I suppose I might be one of the few people who's relatively ok with Lambert because I thought he'd be much worse when we appointed him.

[Irish villain]

Dortmund we certainly aren't. More like Big Sam's Bolton.

[Matt Collins]

Guzan -5
Bacuna - 4
Herd 7
Clark 7
Baker 5
Kea 5
Westwood 5
Delph 6
Weimann 3
Benteke 4
Gabby 6

Lowton na
Tonev 5
Albrighton na

[garyshawsknee]

Where do you start with a performance like that ? Seemed they felt like they just had to turn up today.

[JUAN PABLO]

my mind always feels like  Ive just done two days of VAT for my business when I watch the Villa.

mashed , tired and numb

[BoskoDjembaSalifou]

Clark and Benteke are the only two who get a pass from me. Maybe Delph too, he did try to get things going.

Been saying it for months but PLEASE take Westwood off set pieces.

[eastie]

Parker showed our midfield how to do it today.
Awful tactics, no movement, resulting in long balls.

I suspect that, if he persists with us playing long balls, the sizeable well of goodwill he still has is going to run dry very, very quickly.

Just wait until next weekend. It won't be pretty.

He's lucky he replaced Mcleish after some awful football - had he replaced houllier I think more would have turned on him by now.

[myf]

totally unbalanced formation. players out of position. passed off the park by a team of old cast offs. we'll be very lucky to avoid a dog fight again in 2014