The Paul Lambert thread - poll reset after our capitulation to Hull

[JUAN PABLO]

Then you went on to talk about league places and points gained as "just in isolation." They're the most important things in football.

They might be the most important things in football in the grand scheme of things, but in my opinion the home form of a team will influence season ticket sales beyond just those things. Putting it in extremely simplistic terms, if we won every away game but lost every home game, we'd have more points than last season but you'd have a hard job asking some fans to put their hands in their pockets again after having gone a whole season without seeing a win.

That's why i said you shouldn't look at those things in isolation. I don't think people get the renewal forms and look at just the points on the board, I think they look back over the season and think 'did I enjoy that?' 'how many times did I see us win?' and recall the highs that made the expense, time and energy worth it. If there aren't many of those highs I think it affects people. Not everyone of course but I'm sure 6 out of 10 home games without scoring must affect some people surely?

It looks like we are becoming  Tony Pullis's Stoke .  As long as we stay in the prem , does not matter If the football is poor and awful to watch most of the time.    Is this what Aston Villa has become ?

It's like a Victorian melodrama on here sometimes. Oh woe is us! How low have we sunk? However did it come to this?

Im just interested to see season ticket sales in the summer  .  Unless we get 3/4 top players in , probably on Bentekes money , a few fans might not want to spend their cash on watching what we have seen at home this season .     

I expect to see a  bit of decent football sometimes , I just dont see enough of this at the moment  and maybe a go in the cups.

[Ads]

Season ticket sales will be like they have always been. We'll still get a solid 21-23,000 turning up, wind, rain or shine.

We could sign Lionel Blair or we could sign Lionel Messi and they will remain unchanged. Supply will always outstrip demand. The only hope of altering it, is when the North is knocked down.

[dave.woodhall]

Then you went on to talk about league places and points gained as "just in isolation." They're the most important things in football.

They might be the most important things in football in the grand scheme of things, but in my opinion the home form of a team will influence season ticket sales beyond just those things. Putting it in extremely simplistic terms, if we won every away game but lost every home game, we'd have more points than last season but you'd have a hard job asking some fans to put their hands in their pockets again after having gone a whole season without seeing a win.

That's why i said you shouldn't look at those things in isolation. I don't think people get the renewal forms and look at just the points on the board, I think they look back over the season and think 'did I enjoy that?' 'how many times did I see us win?' and recall the highs that made the expense, time and energy worth it. If there aren't many of those highs I think it affects people. Not everyone of course but I'm sure 6 out of 10 home games without scoring must affect some people surely?

It looks like we are becoming  Tony Pullis's Stoke .  As long as we stay in the prem , does not matter If the football is poor and awful to watch most of the time.    Is this what Aston Villa has become ?

It's like a Victorian melodrama on here sometimes. Oh woe is us! How low have we sunk? However did it come to this?

Im just interested to see season ticket sales in the summer  .  Unless we get 3/4 top players in , probably on Bentekes money , a few fans might not want to spend their cash on watching what we have seen at home this season .     

I expect to see a  bit of decent football sometimes , I just dont see enough of this at the moment  and maybe a go in the cups.

Nobody has said we want to play like Stoke. Nobody has said we're doomed to hang onto survival forever.

[Monty]

I don't think I'd ever put points about everything else.

Above all, because it puts you very close indeed to the sort of thing Stoke City fans would have said when Pulis put that horrible team together, and played even more horrible football. Or Allardyce justifying his brand of gamesmanship mixed with awful, prehistoric hoofing.

I want Villa to win every match we play, too, but ultimately, it is a hobby, it's meant to be fun, and there are plenty of ways of playing football which are nothing like fun to watch, especially when you pay 40 plus quid for the pleasure.

I'm not sure I'd ever want us to play as horribly as Stoke, but if we were winning the league I could probably find a way to swallow my pride on this. The facts are twofold, though: firstly, the longball game, the original 'percentages' game, is never going to win you anything more than enough games to survive; secondly (and following on from the previous point), assuming there's no real difference in league table position, then you should go for not just entertainment, but a bit of class - it's small time to think and play as clubs like Stoke and West Ham do. Even if we're not threatening the top end of the league, we're still Aston Villa - we should be better than that.

[Ads]

Nobody wants us to play like Stoke or any of the Fat Yammer's sides.

[fbriai]

It's like a Victorian melodrama on here sometimes. Oh woe is us! How low have we sunk? However did it come to this?

Brilliant, Dave! Brilliant!

[Monty]

Nobody wants us to play like Stoke or any of the Fat Yammer's sides.

We're not as vile and we mean much better, but the entertainment result is not so dissimilar.

[pauliewalnuts]

Nobody wants us to play like Stoke or any of the Fat Yammer's sides.

No, but it's a similar reasoning for putting up with it (points on board, etc etc).

[JUAN PABLO]

Im just saying the football stoke used to play was awful and I felt sorry for fans who had to watch that week in , week out .

Like I feel when I go down Villa at home sometimes .

[Concrete John]

We don't play like Stoke or a Fat Sam side, but the main reason why I wouldn't want us to and thing we hate about them, is the constant fouling, cheating and niggley stuff that winds us up. 

[JUAN PABLO]

we dont play like Stoke , its not the point ,they actually got results at home , but I feel the same way after a Villa game at home as when I watched Stoke on TV.

I just dont enjoy it.  Stoke were happy to just stay in the Prem and that awful style worked for them.

But If we are happy to finish 10th , which actually I am , I just want a few more games at home where I feel on  a right high and come away buzzing with out drinking red bull.

[dave.woodhall]

When our tactics consist of playing for throw-ins, treating them with the due deference of a last-minute penalty and committing so many fouls so often that the referee gives up trying to spot them, that's when we can be likened to Stoke under Pulis.

[Ads]

Nobody wants us to play like Stoke or any of the Fat Yammer's sides.

No, but it's a similar reasoning for putting up with it (points on board, etc etc).

Aren't we all universally agreed that the home form needs to improve? There seems to be a common agreement to that its the way we're setting up at home, i.e. playing without tempo through the middle, knocking it long too often etc, that is causing us to drop points.

We played with pace and intent against the Albion and won the game. We need to maintain that.

[Damo70]

When our tactics consist of playing for throw-ins, treating them with the due deference of a last-minute penalty and committing so many fouls so often that the referee gives up trying to spot them, that's when we can be likened to Stoke under Pulis.

I think possibly the only thing 100% of people on here would agree on would be that we definitely should not play for throw-ins.
 

[bob]

if we carry on as we have been I will view this season as a bigger disappointment than last, because Lambert has had time now

He has had one season and a half.

I'll admit that is time, but it's not a lot of time.