Fulham v Aston Villa Post-Match Thread

[eastie]

It's also worth pointing out we have a number of injuries, second highest in the Prem I think (?)

Not blaming injuries or the ref , lambert has spent £43m on players in the last 18 months - today's display was shocking and the players and staff must take a good look at themselves.

[andrew08]

Yes we played fairly shite, but the penalty made it worse. Reverse the two key penalty decisions and we may have got away with a draw.

The key moments though from our point of view was Benteke's two missed chances

[Irish villain]

Yes we played fairly shite, but the penalty made it worse. Reverse the two key penalty decisions and we may have got away with a draw.

The key moments though from our point of view was Benteke's two missed chances

That's the point. We always are looking to 'get away with it'. You can't do that for a season.

[villan1975]

Poor tactics and a poor side.

[PeterWithesShin]

It's also worth pointing out we have a number of injuries, second highest in the Prem I think (?)

Yet a concious policy of the manager/club to keep a very small squad of players leaves us horribly exposed, something many many people commented on in August.

The majority of clubs will struggle defensively without their 2 first choice CB, as well as being without both natural LB.

MF is where we are too weak, just not enough options in the center.

[saunders_heroes]

Well that was bloody horrible.

[Jimbo]

Abject horseshit. What more can I say? 2-0 really flattered us. The most depressing thing about it all is that it isn't going to end soon.

[Small Rodent]

5 minutes into Arsenal v Everton and there is more quality than the whole Villa game. Embarrassing.

[nigel]

What's Lowton got to do to get back in?
Surely it's time for him to be recalled!

[Matt Collins]

Yes it's depressing to see Everton knocking the ball around like this isn't it?

[Toronto Villa]

It's also worth pointing out we have a number of injuries, second highest in the Prem I think (?)

Yet a concious policy of the manager/club to keep a very small squad of players leaves us horribly exposed, something many many people commented on in August.

The majority of clubs will struggle defensively without their 2 first choice CB, as well as being without both natural LB.

MF is where we are too weak, just not enough options in the center.

The loss of Vlaar has essentially cost us 4 goals. We've improved a lot defensively and he is a big part of that. Not only his own play but his ability to help those around him. He is also a natural leader.

[hilts_coolerking]

We're not going backwards but there are some areas of our play, i.e. ball retention, creativity, movement off the ball, where we don't appear to have gone forwards either.  How many games has Lambert had now?  50-odd?  60?  You'd expect there to be some definable style to our play by now but all we seem to offer is Gabby's pace on the break (which we've always had) and hoofing it up to the big man (which we've been doing for some years).

Benteke is so off form that he's temporarily lost the ability to carve out chances for himself from nothing.  And on top of that no-one in the midfield or out wide looks like creating them for him on a regular basis.

We also look a very callow team, lots of very pale nervous-looking young boys.  Fulham may be where old pros go to die but that match experience a lot of them have can be priceless.  We desperately need some of that, particularly in midfield.

[Lizz]

Watched the game on Sky, but was very easily distracted. It seemed to me that a lot of our players fell over, but the Fulham players managed to remain on their feet ok.

[steamer]

Dire,
Banging the same drum as most others, midfield that cannot create anything.
New additions seem very poor, need some proven campaigners prepared to dig in come Jan or it could be a very long 2014.
This really was a relegation type performance.
With some exceptions, Herd, Gabby, Clarke, Delph very little fight or urgency, I have said give Lambert till this time next year before making hasty judgements, but this type of showing does not make it easy.

[Tuco Salamanca]

Poor tactics and a poor side.

I'm not even entirely sure what our tactics were first half. From where I was sat it looked like a diamond but I've no idea really where Weimann supposed to be playing. There was no width, no ideas.

Westwoods set pieces were appalling, why on earth did he keep on taking them?

Defence was utter shambles, we were wide open. Baker at left back was god awful, Herd likewise. Bizarre decision to pick the two of them in those positions.

We need a decent centre back and a creative midfielder minimum in Jan to avoid a relegation fight. And that won't happen.