Grant Holt - confirmed on loan

[Concrete John]

I'd rather they try a long ball than pass it around forever if they're never going to get it through.  When we have it at the back their are so few options and lack of genuine movement.  The point being that if you have that step up in quality in midfield that would give us the forward passing options we badly lack right now, leading to less long balls.

That's not how it works though. Swansea have a worse midfield than Man United, but they move far more off the ball and keep it better. It can look blunt, but then it can work really well as the FA Cup win proves. The point is the training ground stuff really matters, and even when you have much, much better players if you do less work in training on passing, on movement, on learning where to go when someone else goes somewhere, difficult stuff - if you don't do that work, it'll show.

Case in point - the midfield we had under Martin O'Neill. There was some technique and ability there, and a midfield three of Petrov, Barry and Milner could have been a match for anyone. But a combination of a rigid and outdated formation and no evidence practicing pass-and-move led to us being a one-dimensional counterattacking team. You can have as good players as you want, but football is a team game.

I would never argue that the training ground isn't important.

Each team is different.  I would actully say that in terms of passing and movement Swansea have a better midfield than Man Utd, if not necessarily in terms of genuine creativity and goal scoring.  Plus Man Utd have better strikers, which adds to the movement element allowing forward passing options.

The MON team could and should have been better at this, but that was down mainly to tactics as we all know. 

But back to this Villa side; our midfield is poor, in particular in terms of the attacking side of the game.  I don't for one minute think this is ignored on the training ground, but we've obviously been unable to change it enough so far.  Given that, I believe we have a personnel issue and am reluctantly accepting that we'll have to use different tactics until a solution is found.

[Damo70]

Our movement is shit, and our players aren't very clever. That's about it really....

You would think I would be used to our lack of movement by now but every home game it manages to astound me all over again.

[Monty]

If that is the case then I accept your argument. However, three points: firstly I'm not convinced that player-for-player Swansea's midfield is better than United's but it is better as a unit of keepball, and that's entirely down to training, and that was my point; secondly, onto the Villa and I'm not convinced at all that a player like Westwood is incapable of Swanseaing, or Southamptoning, in punching above his weight off the ball, and so is Delph; finally (and perhaps as a result of point two), I'm not convinced that Lambert knows how to do that form of training, but if we do sign these more creative midfielders the proof will be in the pudding.

I don't really think the creative midfielder in the final third would actually change much, as plenty of teams have played a number ten who's meant to get lay-offs from the Big Man after a long ball. Like I say, if we were Swansea then maybe the number ten would solve everything, and God knows we haven't had a player like that in far too long, but our problems lie at the start of passing moves, never mind the end of them.

[Concrete John]

Everytime I see us hit it long I look at what other options the player on the ball has.  That's usually nothing or a square/backwards pass.  And that's pretty much where my argument comes from.
 

[LeeB]

I'm fully stoked by that youtube video, I think he's going to end up being my favourite player.

[paul_e]

I don't know how much training we do on passing and I don't know what focus we have on it but what I see everytime I watch us play is a midfield scared to play too high and not particularly wanting the ball.

I also don't know why that's the case but, importantly, I don't think we have a squad so terrible that we shouldn't expect more.  I think our midfield are playing with far too much fear.  A dynamic player in there who will buzz around and find space should help take that away and hopefully get us playing more like we want to.

[LeeB]

I don't know how much training we do on passing and I don't know what focus we have on it but what I see everytime I watch us play is a midfield scared to play too high and not particularly wanting the ball.

I also don't know why that's the case but, importantly, I don't think we have a squad so terrible that we shouldn't expect more.  I think our midfield are playing with far too much fear.  A dynamic player in there who will buzz around and find space should help take that away and hopefully get us playing more like we want to.

I agree with that mate, I think we saw last season the difference Sylla made when he found his feet, and despite the fact he's looked bloody hopeless this season I'd still give him the chance to find form again ahead of El Ahmadi, who frankly is a waste of a shirt.

[Monty]

Everytime I see us hit it long I look at what other options the player on the ball has.  That's usually nothing or a square/backwards pass.  And that's pretty much where my argument comes from.

That's my argument as well though. Laudrup said that you can't expect to train a player into Ronaldo or Messi, but you can make him move into space and pass five yards. The movement is the single most important thing, the thing which comes most from training, and the main reason I'm pessimistic about Lambert is that, if anything, we've got worse at this.

[KevinGage]

We haven't had a creative midfielder who actually wants the ball since Patrick Berger. 

Ash did, to an extent. But he's a winger.  And he still had to be picked out. 

I'm talking about a midfielder cheeky or confident enough to demand the ball. Before Berger, it was probably Merson.    Barry had undoubted talent, but he was more reserved than the above pair, and -even though he often started attacks for us- I wouldn't say he's creative in the true sense of the word.

[QBVILLA]

Have those knee injuries ruined Gary Gardner? Does anyone know why he hasn't been given a chance to show what he can do?

[mrfuse]

I see Liverpool haven't messed around

http://www.liverpoolfc.com/news/latest-news/153244-dunkin-sign-first-pl-partnership-with-lfc

[Toronto Villa]

I see Liverpool haven't messed around

http://www.liverpoolfc.com/news/latest-news/153244-dunkin-sign-first-pl-partnership-with-lfc

I don'ty see what the big deal is other than it seemingly achieves an objective of creating more fat scousers

[LeeS]

Official ice-cream provider? Because on a freezing cold February night, with your team losing to Stoke, all you want is a nice tub of raspberry ripple to warm you up.

[not3bad]

The return of Dunkin Doughnuts.  Just what Britain needs.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/10566705/Britains-obesity-epidemic-worse-than-feared.html

[Des Little]

If Holt scores in a win against the Albion, and gives that wankpot Olsen a smack in the trap, he'll do for me.