Everton v Aston Villa Post-Match Thread

[Surrey Villain]

Apart from the fact we scored with one breakaway the rest of the game was like watching kids playing 'shots in' in the park with a pair of coats as the only goal.
 

[LeeB]

I thought we looked tired in that second half, which isn't a surprise given the match we had on Wednesday night and given that our opposition hadn't bothered turning up for theirs on Tuesday.

Still, it's annoying that at some point over a year ago somebody replaced Ciaran Clarke's feet with a pair of sand wedges.

[frank]

Benteke may be able to bully mediocre centre halves (see WBA) but put him up against a decent pairing and he's not a major threat (albeit, not having Gabby around didn't help him).

Yesterday the Everton defence regularly beat Benteke to the ball from our hoofed clearances and when he did get his head to the ball neither Holt nor Weimann anticipated the flick-on. Against West Brom he missed very few in the air.

[JUAN PABLO]

People taking issue with him changing a winning side, it isn't the 80's. Also, was that not exactly what MON got slagged for? He picked a formation to stifle the opposition and for 65 minutes he got it spot on. We used the ball poorly but to me we looked shattered, maybe Wednesday night took it out of us?

I think that's the issue, he picked a formation to stifle their side, rather than to actually play football ourselves. I must admit for a while i thought it might just work, but with no real out ball and absolutely no midfield presence it became obvious the pressure and their massive possession were almost certainly going to pay off for them eventually.

we looked like when SHA were in the Prem to me .

[JUAN PABLO]

You are a half full man then

Look at the table. We are 5 points off the bottom three and have West Ham up next.

I wouldnt trust PL to spend any money

Its the manner of the performance and tactics that is so appalling

Yeah, we have West Ham at home. we'll beat them.

Games like Fulham away, Palace at home and Sunderland at home are the ones that really piss me off. Today was not one of those games. They were better, but we've played similar and came away with wins before (Southampton).

Obviously I don't want us to play like this every game but we have to do what we can to get points and up until 75 mins it was working.

sorry Smirker , I wouldnt bet anything we will beat west ham at home.

Its not going to be easy .

yes they are shite but this is not a home banker  , Villa dont do home bankers

[JUAN PABLO]

Does anyone enjoy watching how we play football? If we aren't competing to win anything and we aren't entertaining, what is the point?

This. No one can enjoy 90 minutes plus of backs to the wall football. It's torture.

I watch every game with a keen 100 % eye  but yesterday I was bored with it even chatting with a friend online while the game was on . Villa bored me. Soon as I saw the team I knew it.

[JUAN PABLO]

Why did he change to three centre backs after the last two games being, arguably, out best. Bizarre. Would like him to explain his changes.

exactly .  he makes a lot of awful decisions , never learns .   I thought we were good against poo and thou baggies was so entertaining , it could have gone either way , two poor teams to be fair , they were just a little shiter.

I think that the three centre backs formation is because Lamberts trying to cover for Spongey Ron being a constant injury risk and Baker/Clark can't be trusted as a pair.

should have bought one then . we know hes injury prone that why he will never play for a top club .  If he was always fit , he wouldnt be here .

[Irish villain]

And another thing, we have a world class striker in our team who will more than likely go on to win league titles and other honours in his career. And what have we done all season? Hoof the ball in his general direction. Our whole ethos is just wrong, wrong, wrong. Not only are we not utilising a truly great player properly, we are just sucking the life out of our fans.

The frustrating thing is that when we do try and play, we do very well as at Anfield and against West Brom.

[LTA]

Thought I'd allow the dust to settle and post a measured response to yesterday, and allow angry people to let off steam yesterday.

First half was OK I thought.  Yes we had one chance, but Everton didnt really carve out chance after chance.  Even with a weakened side, Everton were always going to come back strong in the second half, and we were under the cosh for the last 25-30 minutes.  However, last season we would probably have gone on to conceed 4 or 5 goals, so there is clearly a more resiliant manner about us.

Yes, by and large the performances have not been great this season, but when we play well, we're capable of getting a result against most sides in the league.  We are a mid-table side, doing by and large what mid-table sides do... not getting a consistent run of results.

We are 10th in the table.  Sure we might by only a handful of points ahead of the sides in the mix, but we have the points on the board.  The next two game are really good chances for us to really get some breathing space, but we need to find more performances like what we saw at Anfield.

I feel we need 4 more wins this season.  We stopped up on 41 last season.  Something tells me the total needed to survive won't be as high as that this time.

[martin o`who??]

I`m seriously beginning to wonder whether in years to come, the Lerner/Lambert combination will be looked on as an absolute catastrophe for Aston Villa football club, screw the "we`re better off than last year" argument, fact is, we are a piss poor side in a poor league, we`re bringing in sub-standard signings, investing less and less on the pitch and it shows, it`s just a matter of time before this disasterous policy catches up with us. In terms of quality of performance, we are going backwards. If things don`t improve, the gates will plunge next season, less revenue = even less investment and then what??....

With the wage bill having been slashed and the TV income up I think we must be very profitable at the moment.  Is Randy trousering the profit or saving it for the summer?  Or making what he can before he sells?

Part of me would really like to think so.

[Kingthing]

Just back to London after spending yesterday with a group of scousers, heavy day!! They couldn't believe we didn't rip them apart and, despite their pressure, felt lucky, with the team they had, to have beaten us. They were moaning about Neysmith something rotten before the game.

Villa fans were great throughout but I took a load of abuse for the "sign on" song when I got back to the pub( something I don't sing)

[PeterWithesShin]

Firstly, regarding the area around Goodison Park. Do they import Blues or are the canines of Everton particularly proficient crappers ?

Goodison is famous for the amount of dog shit on the streets around it. Up to the 80s and early 90s it was always white. Like everything else at Goodison.

[UK Redsox]

The word filter makes serious discussion bout canine excrement very difficult

[Billy Walker]

I thought we looked tired in that second half, which isn't a surprise given the match we had on Wednesday night and given that our opposition hadn't bothered turning up for theirs on Tuesday.

I was going to type exactly the same thing yesterday evening.  I thought all week we'd beat Everton by a couple of goals but the lads simply looked cream-crackered by the second half yesterday.  Hopefully we'll sort out squad depth and quality in the summer.

[Rudy65]

Just back to London after spending yesterday with a group of scousers, heavy day!! They couldn't believe we didn't rip them apart and, despite their pressure, felt lucky, with the team they had, to have beaten us. They were moaning about Neysmith something rotten before the game.

Villa fans were great throughout but I took a load of abuse for the "sign on" song when I got back to the pub( something I don't sing)

What was the Everton biew of our performance and tactics. Amazed they were so positive about us before KO