Fulham v Aston Villa Post-Match Thread

[Irish villain]

Who has said they are delighted with 10th? You don't half make some stuff up to help your point of view.

I'm not making anything up I was speaking for myself. I said as an Aston Villa fan when you see yourself being delighted with tenth you know something has gone wrong. I'm making a point that the expectations have shifted considerably and used myself as a source.

[Tuco Salamanca]

Bacuna is not a full back.

Herd is not a centre back (I dunno what is).

Baker is not a full back.

El-Ahmadi is not a premier league footballer.

Lambert made a mess of it today.

I'll take the above and add a 'this 4-3-3' obsession is no longer working. The midfield with 3 playing narrow is completely dire, and we're carrying a passenger in Weimann when he's picked this season.

Put Bacuna or Albrighton to the right of a midfield four, stick Lowton back where he should be (and he can push up as and when) and leave Gabby and Benteke loose up top. Hopefully the added width will help them out immensely.

And above all else, stop fucking hoofing it long. It's meat and drink to experienced central defenders and does none of our forwards any service at all.

I'm not sure it was 433 today to be honest. I think Weimann was supposed be playing on the hole in a diamond formation. KEA seemed to be our right-most midfielder.

Whatever it was, it was a mess. We're gonna be shambolic until Vlaar returns, that much is obvious

[caster troy]

I gave up watching at half time and it sounds like the team gave up playing too.

We've failed to score in 7 out of 15.  On average we only manage 3.4 shots on target per game, and on average we only have 43% possession....

Most worryingly 3 out of our next 4 are at home and we hardly ever score at Villa Park, let alone win. I know we're 10th and everything but if you can't score against the likes of Fulham and Sunderland that suggests you have big problems. We could easily get pulled into a relegation battle again and quite frankly that isn't good enough.

[danlanza]

We were shit. End ov.

[eastie]

We were shit. End ov.

Short , sweet and to the point sadly
Time to put this game behind us and look towards the utd clash , we are still 10th and need to hope that Vlaar may be back for that one .

[silhillvilla]

The walk from Hammersmith Broadway to the ground was the highlight of the day.

[l_mckay]

By far our worst performance this season,made a poor fulham team look decent. Need a couple of experienced players come January but I can't see lambert buying any. 

[eastie]

By far our worst performance this season,made a poor fulham team look decent. Need a couple of experienced players come January but I can't see lambert buying any. 

Neither can I , I expect similar age and inexperience at this level with potential , but we need players for now not the future.
I'd like to see an experienced defender on loan - interesting to see lambert mentioning Fulham the other day and saying how experienced they are and it guarantees nothing - well today the men gave the boys a bloody lesson .

[somec]

When is Vlaar coming back?

[ChicagoLion]

Lamberts major failing is allowing 2 seasons to start with the most ineffective and lightweight midfield I have seen at the Villa. Sidwell was better than all of our midfield today and he is totally shit.

He has had more than enough time to address this. So he buys Tonev who is just awful.

I am not ready to write Lambert off yet but he really does need to show that he has got some idea about how to assemble a team that is better than another relation flirt while playing dreadfull football

[AVFCRob]

Absolutely bang on. Remember Lambert thought we were outstanding against Soton and wasn't interested in the stats. We were lucky, very lucky, to win that game. We scored great goals yes but we can't delude ourselves that the performance deserved the win.

I can't see what Lambert is bringing to the table. If 18 months of management of Villa simply brings backs-to-the-wall counter attacking, lump it forward football then we have got to say that this isn't good enough. Where's the plan, the strategy, the progression?

Martinez at Everton and Pochettino at Soton have shown a desire to reshape the play of their teams and they look great.

We are are an opportunistic, nick a result team playing leaden football and there's nothing in what Lambert says to suggest that he's got a better vision than this. It's depressing.

Lets speak my mind a little more then. I found it depressing how many posters were glorying in the fact that we were so shite on the ball against Soton. I found it very depressing in fact, and all this 'there's no right way to play the game' etc. Anybody concerned about how bad we actually were got the whole 'we scored three times' thrown in their face.

Football of course is about points accumulated but over the course of a season, teams who struggle with the ball will generally be under pressure more and therefore concede more goals. You might get away with it six or seven times a season and that can push you into mid-table. But that shouldn't be enough. We should be striving to get back with the big boys and to that the whole culture of the club has got to change.

Fulham didn't let us 'smash and grab' and instead played us off the park.

I agree. It's why I always smile when people say it's a sign of a good team that they can play badly and still win and get three points. Yes, perhaps that's true for one or two of the top teams, but down at our level it usually means you're pretty poor, got away with it, and will get found out sooner or later. As tended to happen with MON as the season wore on...though tiredness due to lack of squad rotation was clearly a factor there

And that's another consequence. When you don't play with the ball you tire chasing the team that has it. Against Southampton we grabbed three goals and gave them over 70% possession. Is it any wonder we were tired today? There's a reason top sides play possession football so again, I feel the philosophy has to change. I'd rather watch us play football every week than marvel six or seven times a season at how we got a smash and grab.

[richard moore]

Shit again. Probably the  10th or so time this season already. Lambert is no good, I've said it since last Christmas and nothing has happened to change my mind. Most of his £43m quids worth of signings aren't worth a shiny shit either, he's hiding behind the Benteke gem.

Westwood
Bacuna
Tonev
Bennett
Sylla
Helenius
Bowery
El Ahamadi

All add nothing.

I'm sick of us being shit, don't kid yourself, we are shit right now. I'm sick of signing unheard of shit and im sick of making excuses up for why this week we wasn't any good, again.

We cannot pass the ball, we can barely control a ball. The better players all we already at the club and this scotch clown has frittered away the cash we had to spend. He can go fuck himself, the dour, boring, dull, unimaginative, excuse making twat.

I'm sick of them. And i'm sick of Lambore especially.

I'm in this camp. I said we were boring on the thread asking that question and I stick by that. I also agree with Irish Villain that sights now seem to have been set so low that 10th is some sort of success and 8th would be positively cracking! We are also a team that everyone now identifies as a good chance for 3 points. I'm sick and tired of it too, week after week, for the most part with the odd very unconvincing win thrown in. I didn't bother going to Fulham or Southampton, games I would always have gone to in the past. Yes, I had other things on, but in truth I could have gone if I'd really tried. However, I refuse to pay upwards of £50 for this sort of dross anymore. Oh, and sure, if I wait long enough, maybe some of these youngsters will come good and then one of the big teams can sign them. But, of course, I should be contented, because we are Aston Villa and we do things the right way and we're all real gentlemen and we discovered football blah blah blah. We're even too nice to contest shit penalty decisions any more, just a shrug of the shoulder. Next Sunday I'm in London for a Christmas day out with my family and I'm not really that bothered to be missing out on seeing the Man Utd game

[PaulWinch again]

See once again we've performed poorly, difference from Wednesday is we didn't get the goals. Our performances have been on the decline for a while now and it needs to be addressed, we don't carry much of a threat anymore. Equally worrying Vlaar has been out for a game and a half and we've conceded 4 goals.

[SoccerHQ]

If you devide the league teams into these categories:

Lucky if you get anything
Tricky
Winnable

Sadly we are now on everyone's winnable list

Who come the previous 5 teams we played couldn't beat us? O.k on balance of performance probably two of those should've won (Sunderland and WBA) but the reality is we're a mid table team.

A mid table team will win some, draw some and lose some more. We'll pick up enough points from those below us to not have any relegation battle this season but frustratingly just when we have a chance to kick on after a good result we play and lose like today.

I'd be happy with top 10 this season, it's looking like it will just be sneaking into 10th but still it's small progress. I do have my doubts with this current policy when we can really challenge the top 6 again (which Everton and Newcastle are doing). At some point we will have to sign some better players and shock horror these guys will be earning decent wages at the clubs they're at.

[eastie]

Shit again. Probably the  10th or so time this season already. Lambert is no good, I've said it since last Christmas and nothing has happened to change my mind. Most of his £43m quids worth of signings aren't worth a shiny shit either, he's hiding behind the Benteke gem.

Westwood
Bacuna
Tonev
Bennett
Sylla
Helenius
Bowery
El Ahamadi

All add nothing.

I'm sick of us being shit, don't kid yourself, we are shit right now. I'm sick of signing unheard of shit and im sick of making excuses up for why this week we wasn't any good, again.

We cannot pass the ball, we can barely control a ball. The better players all we already at the club and this scotch clown has frittered away the cash we had to spend. He can go fuck himself, the dour, boring, dull, unimaginative, excuse making twat.

I'm sick of them. And i'm sick of Lambore especially.

I'm in this camp. I said we were boring on the thread asking that question and I stick by that. I also agree with Irish Villain that sights now seem to have been set so low that 10th is some sort of success and 8th would be positively cracking! We are also a team that everyone now identifies as a good chance for 3 points. I'm sick and tired of it too, week after week, for the most part with the odd very unconvincing win thrown in. I didn't bother going to Fulham or Southampton, games I would always have gone to in the past. Yes, I had other things on, but in truth I could have gone if I'd really tried. However, I refuse to pay upwards of £50 for this sort of dross anymore. Oh, and sure, if I wait long enough, maybe some of these youngsters will come good and then one of the big teams can sign them. But, of course, I should be contented, because we are Aston Villa and we do things the right way and we're all real gentlemen and we discovered football blah blah blah. We're even too nice to contest shit penalty decisions any more, just a shrug of the shoulder. Next Sunday I'm in London for a Christmas day out with my family and I'm not really that bothered to be missing out on seeing the Man Utd game

I watched the way we ended the season and had high hopes we had turned the corner - however after a bright start we have in recent weeks played some awful turgid football - I think lambert has had a lot of goodwill and was lucky he followed Mcleish - i sense now the honeymoon is over and patience is wearing thin .

The next 2 months are huge!