Aston Villa vs Swansea Pre-Match Thread

[eastie]

At least Westwood is back so we can drop the hapless KEA.

Is Westwood much better than El Ahmadi? Not in my eyes.

He isn't and against Swansea if we are to stand any chance, we will need an intense pressing game. Something KEA can offer whilst Westwood is the most pathetic off-the-ball player you'll likely to see.

KEA wasn't even that against Palace, certainly no worse then Delph. Yet he still got the usual scapegoating he always gets on here.

Delph was being slated where I was sitting all match harshly in my view.KEA he is tidy enough and he chases around well enough.But his tackling is pretty poor and his passing is tidy but unspectacular.Work's best in a 3 man midfield for me.Westwood off the ball I agree is poor
especially when defending.

I thought Delph was very poor against palace- his worst game of the season by a distance for me.

[claret and blue blood]

Nothing complicated , we need to get behind the team today, a bit like QPR last season.
Swansea need to feel they are up against us as we'll,to all those going today lets show them exactly who are the best fans in the land.

[silhillvilla]

Slight frost overnight in the Mids, minimal wind, patchy blue skies. Temperature hovering at 3c .

[baddowvillans]

Looks like the media have latched on to villa as the club " to drop like a stone"  The mail has an article on Villa and the Sun talks about how the crowd turned on the team.  BB is quoted as saying how hard it is to play with the crowd on your back and the piece implies we were like that during the game.  For me thsts bollocks.  Despite geing one of the worst displays I can remember the crowd were encouraging to the end.  No one should be allowed to blame the support for the inadequacies at the club!

[tom jennings III]

On Boxing Day the crowd finally turned on their side and there were reports that Andreas Weimann reacted to abuse. Barry Bannan, the former Villa player who excelled for Palace, said: “I played here and it’s hard to play your normal game when the fans get on your back. It takes big characters.”

Lambert hopes his team  has the courage to block out the jeers. “This is a big club, pressure goes with that,” he said. “I know what it’s like. I lost my first three games at Celtic, people were saying ‘go back to Dortmund’. That was 60,000 saying I was not good enough until I got a grip of it.

“So I know criticism, but this team are young, they need support. People talk about the bravery of going in for a tackle and blood, guts and thunder. Bravery is also taking a ball in front of 40,000 in an area where people just shy away from it. We are a million miles from where I want to be and the lads are edgy, but as long as they don’t hide I’ll never criticise them.”

All fair comments, except for the fact that the booing took place at the final whistle. I was in the Holte End and the support was largely positive, especially in the second half which took some doing after that first 45. So these comments are finding excuses where there is no need. The team are young and they need support, and they get it in spades week in week out despite horrible performances. I want them to do well but if Lambert can't see that it is our inability to pass and move that is killing us then he is not watching the same dross I am, and I'm still a believer in "project Lambert", just not sure why at the moment.

[baddowvillans]

Just to say I agree with comments about Delph being out of sorts against Palace.  Definitely his worst game for a long time and for me it wasn't so much that things werent going for him as his heart wasnt there like it so obviously has been.  More indication of dressing room problems?

[taylorsworkrate]

It's incredibly easy journalism though.

A team have been utter shit at home so the fans must be a reason for that.

Never mind the fact that despite said shitness, we have a very high average attendance and Lambert has had a lot of patience from the supporters. These things just get in the way of selling a few papers.

[taylorsworkrate]

On Boxing Day the crowd finally turned on their side and there were reports that Andreas Weimann reacted to abuse. Barry Bannan, the former Villa player who excelled for Palace, said: “I played here and it’s hard to play your normal game when the fans get on your back. It takes big characters.”

Lambert hopes his team  has the courage to block out the jeers. “This is a big club, pressure goes with that,” he said. “I know what it’s like. I lost my first three games at Celtic, people were saying ‘go back to Dortmund’. That was 60,000 saying I was not good enough until I got a grip of it.

“So I know criticism, but this team are young, they need support. People talk about the bravery of going in for a tackle and blood, guts and thunder. Bravery is also taking a ball in front of 40,000 in an area where people just shy away from it. We are a million miles from where I want to be and the lads are edgy, but as long as they don’t hide I’ll never criticise them.”

All fair comments, except for the fact that the booing took place at the final whistle. I was in the Holte End and the support was largely positive, especially in the second half which took some doing after that first 45. So these comments are finding excuses where there is no need. The team are young and they need support, and they get it in spades week in week out despite horrible performances. I want them to do well but if Lambert can't see that it is our inability to pass and move that is killing us then he is not watching the same dross I am, and I'm still a believer in "project Lambert", just not sure why at the moment.

Whilst the statement about a young team is true, I can't help but think this is being overplayed somewhat.

These "young" players are largely 23/24/25. It's not as if we've a team packed full of 18 year olds.

[Lastfootstamper]

Despite all the ensuing results, I've felt we've started brightly in our home games, albeit lasting on average about four minutes before we run out of ideas. We have to date failed to capitalize on this. Let's get clinical early on, and we'll get the three points. Don't, and it's hard to see anything other than a long, cold, miserable ninety minutes.

[eastie]

By Mike Walters | 27/12/13 

Paul Lambert will face the music if Aston Villa come a cropper at home again and he is serenaded by more orchestral manoeuvres in the dark.

For the first time in his ­managerial career, Lambert is on the verge of a crisis with fans’ patience exhausted by a glut of dreadful home performances.

Villa were booed off after suffering a Boxing Day sucker punch in added time against struggling Crystal Palace – and the natives will be even more restless if they come unstuck against Swansea today.

Lambert’s job is NOT under imminent threat, but the facts read like a ransom note.

Villa have scored only six goals in nine home League games this season – half of them in one memorable fightback against Manchester City – the worst home scoring record in all four divisions.

They have lost four games on the bounce, last season’s talisman Christian Benteke is injured, they have failed to score in five of the last six at Villa Park and Lambert’s cushion against the drop zone is down to three points.

Twelve months ago, when Villa shipped 15 goals without reply in a bleak festive programme against Chelsea, Tottenham and Wigan, Lambert – assembling a young side – was cut some slack on the basis of his squad’s inexperience. But patience is wearing thin because early-season optimism, generated by a startling win at Arsenal, has evaporated amid a series of moribund displays at home, culminating in Lambert’s painful Boxing Day concerto from his flock.

Lambo said: “It’s a challenge and I’m not going to duck it.

“We are doing everything we can to keep building on last season, but we are a million miles short of what we are trying to do with the club.

“I’ve never wilted in the face of a challenge – you fight it, you don’t wilt or run away from it.

“There is so much pressure in football these days that if you haven’t won in two games, there’s a crisis. It seems to be getting shorter and shorter, and Swansea are on that same kind of run.

“I played with some big clubs as a footballer – I was not exempt from criticism then, and I’m not exempt from it now. I can remember my first few games at Celtic – I lost them and people were saying, ‘Go back to Dortmund, not good enough’ until I bedded myself in and got a grip of it.

“We can’t turn round and be critical of the crowd. They give us energy when we win, so they are entitled to voice an opinion when we lose. You have to be big enough to take it and you see it through.

“Some people talk about bravery as being going in for a tackle that’s 10ft high or blood, guts and thunder – but real bravery in football is taking the ball in front of 40,000 fans in an area where others would shy away from it.

“As long as these players don’t try to hide and run away, then I’ll never criticise them for trying to do the right things"

[brontebilly]

Just to say I agree with comments about Delph being out of sorts against Palace.  Definitely his worst game for a long time and for me it wasn't so much that things werent going for him as his heart wasnt there like it so obviously has been.  More indication of dressing room problems?

guilty of trying too hard I suspect. Confidence has evaporated in all the player with Delph no exception.

What I wont accept is the efforts some players put in against Fulham but particularly Stoke. A lot of our players disgraced themselves and the club with their fake hardman conduct at Stoke. Didnt see the Palace game but a manager in control of things doesnt allow things develop like that. It seems with a few of our players that they are unnecessarily sailing close to red cards, perhaps the pressure is getting to them.

[taylorsworkrate]

Just to say I agree with comments about Delph being out of sorts against Palace.  Definitely his worst game for a long time and for me it wasn't so much that things werent going for him as his heart wasnt there like it so obviously has been.  More indication of dressing room problems?

guilty of trying too hard I suspect. Confidence has evaporated in all the player with Delph no exception.

What I wont accept is the efforts some players put in against Fulham but particularly Stoke. A lot of our players disgraced themselves and the club with their fake hardman conduct at Stoke. Didnt see the Palace game but a manager in control of things doesnt allow things develop like that. It seems with a few of our players that they are unnecessarily sailing close to red cards, perhaps the pressure is getting to them.

It can't have been easy for Delph when his midfield support basically consisted of KEA.

[Ron Manager]

On Boxing Day the crowd finally turned on their side and there were reports that Andreas Weimann reacted to abuse. Barry Bannan, the former Villa player who excelled for Palace, said: “I played here and it’s hard to play your normal game when the fans get on your back. It takes big characters.”

Lambert hopes his team  has the courage to block out the jeers. “This is a big club, pressure goes with that,” he said. “I know what it’s like. I lost my first three games at Celtic, people were saying ‘go back to Dortmund’. That was 60,000 saying I was not good enough until I got a grip of it.

“So I know criticism, but this team are young, they need support. People talk about the bravery of going in for a tackle and blood, guts and thunder. Bravery is also taking a ball in front of 40,000 in an area where people just shy away from it. We are a million miles from where I want to be and the lads are edgy, but as long as they don’t hide I’ll never criticise them.”

All fair comments, except for the fact that the booing took place at the final whistle. I was in the Holte End and the support was largely positive, especially in the second half which took some doing after that first 45. So these comments are finding excuses where there is no need. The team are young and they need support, and they get it in spades week in week out despite horrible performances. I want them to do well but if Lambert can't see that it is our inability to pass and move that is killing us then he is not watching the same dross I am, and I'm still a believer in "project Lambert", just not sure why at the moment.

Whilst the statement about a young team is true, I can't help but think this is being overplayed somewhat.

These "young" players are largely 23/24/25. It's not as if we've a team packed full of 18 year olds.

If Ryan Giggs was playing for us he would be described as 'young' and maybe even 'hungry'!

[silhillvilla]

Just for the record aswell, whilst they were hopeless as a team it's KEA who gets easily turned over and loses possession for the palace breakaway and goal. It's something KEA is always vulnerable to as he is so weak on the ball and his touch and passing are very poor.

[ozzjim]

Delph was poor, but as I said on the match thread, playing in a 2, they did not act as a partnership in there at all, neither of them covered round for the other etc. Was very annoying to watch.