Aston Villa v Manchester United Post-Match Thread

[barrysleftfoot]

 Souness summed us up, play football in the wrong areas, and offer no threat in the final 1/3rd.The quality of the attack , and the midfield, for a team of our stature is very poor.For me, apart from CB, they should all be squad players.Delph should come him, and i think eventually Sylla will be ok, but the rest are average at the best.

[Matt C]

Some sound observations from Robbie Savage's ghost writer via the Beeb: http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/0/football/25393367

[john2710]

Helenius is a strange one, the kind of player we should be signing given his age, fee, wages and record, but then can't even get ahead of Bowery on the bench. Strange things are afoot at the Circle K.

How far away from being a Premiership player must Helenius be if Bowery sits on the bench ahead of him? We needed men & Lambert has bought boys, we've gone from one extreme to the other. Our performances won't improve until the lack of quality & experience is addressed. Without a reasonable level of experience in the team who are these young players supposed to learn from?

Eventually we will pay the price.

[villa `cross the mersey]

Helenius is a strange one, the kind of player we should be signing given his age, fee, wages and record, but then can't even get ahead of Bowery on the bench. Strange things are afoot at the Circle K.

How far away from being a Premiership player must Helenius be if Bowery sits on the bench ahead of him? We needed men & Lambert has bought boys, we've gone from one extreme to the other. Our performances won't improve until the lack of quality & experience is addressed. Without a reasonable level of experience in the team who are these young players supposed to learn from?

Eventually we will pay the price.

Agreed - keep buying Championship quality players and you will eventually end up there.............Lambert must get at least 3 experienced players in this next window - to shore up defence and midfield

[baddowvillans]

The posts here are all pretty clear about the number and type of signings we need to make in January. How realistic however do we really believe it is that a) Lambert agrees ans b) money will be made available?

The most worrying thing for me is that positions we most need to fill are all the same ones as we believed in Summer

[aj2k77]

The most worrying thing for me is that positions we most need to fill are all the same ones as we believed in Summer

Bang on. Centre mid and full back were discussed non stop through January's transfer window and in the summer he conjures up Luna from a relegated spannish side who shipped lots of goals and has already experienced relegation twice and Bacuna who ends up being ran ragged when shunted to right back, whilst most of our budget goes on a forward to sit and watch Benteke sulk. How do any of those transfers make sense?

[Monty]

Souness summed us up, play football in the wrong areas.

Perfectly true, but better than it has been where we played football in no areas.

[McGraths Dry Cleaning]

Only my third game of the season (missus pregnant) and one I always bring a classic Man Utd fan to - parents from Mauritius, born and lives in London.

I think its all been said really - v pi**ed off from a gutless home performance (again) but I'm still looking forward to taking my 2.5 year old lad to his first game in the future. I wish I could say I'm not going to go until we do X, Y, Z but even when we're shi* theres literally nowhere else I'd rather be than at VP on matchday.

[PeterWithe]

How far away from being a Premiership player must Helenius be if Bowery sits on the bench ahead of him?

I don't reckon Bowery is any great talent but PL trusts him to go on the field and do exactly as he is told, there was a game last year when the oppositions full back was causing us problems and Bowery went on and forced him backward playing a very discipline role.

[villa `cross the mersey]

Souness summed us up, play football in the wrong areas.

Perfectly true, but better than it has been where we played football in no areas.

Like Villa Park for instance

[Monty]

Souness summed us up, play football in the wrong areas.

Perfectly true, but better than it has been where we played football in no areas.

Like Villa Park for instance

Or anywhere in the post-industrial West.

[john e]

Souness summed us up, play football in the wrong areas.

Perfectly true, but better than it has been where we played football in no areas.

Like Villa Park for instance

Very good

[john2710]

Lambert needs to be wary, if the standard of football remains as shite as it has been then the fans will decide his fate at the end of the season. Despite what the press wants everyone to believe, with McCleish it was the quality of football that eventually made his position untenable not his connection with the noses. If there is no sign of improvement Lambert will eventually get the same treatment. Lambert MUST see what we see, so either he's hellbent on doing it this way or he's being restricted by Lerner. Personally I think it's the latter.

Our expectations have been well and truly lowered & the 5 year plan is dead and gone.

[Legion]

No such thing as a five-year plan. Never has been.

[Jon Crofts]

5 year plan?  We can't do 90 minute plans right now.