Aston Villa v Norwich- Pre Match Thread

[TonyD]

It's going to a turkey shoot. 

[Chris Smith]

This game is taking on a significance beyond the 3 points on offer. A win should settle things down a little and allow us to see a way though to the end of the season with some degree of confidence; lose or even draw and I think a lot of frustration will come to the boil.

 

[Dr_Fegg]

I know we traditionally like to moan about our defence but after Sundays game PL needs to badly sort out the front men. Excluding the madness of the West Brom game we've only scored 6 goals since the turn of the year (we scored 5 in December but that included 3 at Southampton).

I guess to oppose my argument is that we can score goals when we setup right - Southampton & Liverpool prove that but unless he sorts this out soon that will be what takes us down.  Score first and we might have got something out of Fulham, Palace, West Ham, Cardiff, Newcastle instead we scraped 1 point from a realistic return of say 7-10.

So before we start pointing the finger at Lowton / Vlaar / Baker / This weeks LB (and clark) lets look at where the real problem lies - teams that dont score never win......

(and yes in my playing days I was centre half .....  )

[supertom]

I know we traditionally like to moan about our defence but after Sundays game PL needs to badly sort out the front men. Excluding the madness of the West Brom game we've only scored 6 goals since the turn of the year (we scored 5 in December but that included 3 at Southampton).

I guess to oppose my argument is that we can score goals when we setup right - Southampton & Liverpool prove that but unless he sorts this out soon that will be what takes us down.  Score first and we might have got something out of Fulham, Palace, West Ham, Cardiff, Newcastle instead we scraped 1 point from a realistic return of say 7-10.

So before we start pointing the finger at Lowton / Vlaar / Baker / This weeks LB (and clark) lets look at where the real problem lies - teams that dont score never win......

(and yes in my playing days I was centre half .....  )

Aboslutely. I'd like to see us go a little gung ho to be honest. And I don't mean in a Lambert 4-2-4 punt and hope kind of way. But it would be nice to really try and set the tempo and really push the opposition, particularly in our home games against dross in the bottom 10. We're so negative too often.
We need to attack, try and make use of our talented attackers. Spread the play, use a bit of width too. Get Albrighton in there to pelt some crosses in. Lets try harder to win matches, and we might just start winning against teams we should be beating.

[Rudy Can't Fail]

It's going to be a much tougher game than you imagine, Supertom. Norwich have seen what hard work can bring them and the win against Spurs will given them a much needed boost of confidence. They will try and push us and give us little time on the ball so it's up to us to respond by matching them. An early goal will force them to come at us and hopefully leave space to counter attack but with them likely to play 5 through the midfield, we need to be a lot more clever with the ball.

I'm still confident we can beat them and go on to score a few but it will be a battle to begin with. As Chris pointed out, it's a massive game, especially for us, possibly the biggest of the season to date. Norwich will be happy with a point. We need all 3 not only for our own survival but to go into the rest of the month with a bit of much needed confidence. The last two games have really demonstrated how low the confidence is and we urgently need to address it.

Anything but a win isn't worth considering. Fail to and things could turn very ugly.

[supertom]

This just feels like "the" game of the season for us right now. A win puts us on 31 and well on the way to safety. A draw does little and a defeat not only pushes a rival up ahead of us but keeps us down in the duldrums. It feels almost like the Stoke game of last season before Lowton pulled that blinder out the bag. For me that volley was possibly the key moment in keeping us up. We'd seemingly thrown the game away against a frankly fucking wretched Stoke side. They were appalling, probably the worst side we'd played that season in terms of performance. We didn't look like winning after they'd equalised. We looked as if we'd given up but Matty turned it around and in the end the scoreline looked impressive after ending with a flourish.
For me this Norwich game is similar. Such an important time. Coming into March and we're right in the mire again.

We've got to dictate the game and we've got to win. Lose it and we're by no means dead and buried, of course not, but it may be the first nailed hammered into the coffin. Win and a lot of pressure gets lifted. I think 3 more wins and a couple of draws keeps us up comfortably.

[Dribbler]

With Stoke looking like they are going to win Today we will be down to 14th, and a loss tomorrow would have us down to 15th. Crystal Palace and Sunderland both have a game in hand on us too. We really need to go for broke tomorrow and get a win to push us back up the table a little and maybe instill a wee bit of confidence. As it that 'comfortable mid table 10th' that some people seemed to think meant too many teams were between us and the relegation zone, isn't looking so comfortable and week by week we are dropping down the table.

If we lose then Lambert should be given his marching orders.

Just hope to see some nice football and a win!

[David_Nab]

Going to be a very nervy match.Lose and we in a really bad way the 3 games after that are awful TBH

[pauliewalnuts]

I hadn't realised just how close it has become at the bottom.

We've absolutely got to start to win some games very soon, and this looks the obvious point at which to start. 31 points and we'd be 11th. Lose and we could quite easily be 16th, three points ahead of Albion who would have a game in hand, and only four points ahead of Sunderland in the first relegation place, who would have two games in hand.

Fuck. We just need to start winning some games. A draw tomorrow is not good enough, and I agree with Chris, anything other than three points and we'll see some real anger

[VancouverLion]

I hadn't realised just how close it has become at the bottom.

We've absolutely got to start to win some games very soon, and this looks the obvious point at which to start. 31 points and we'd be 11th. Lose and we could quite easily be 16th, three points ahead of Albion who would have a game in hand, and only four points ahead of Sunderland in the first relegation place, who would have two games in hand.

Fuck. We just need to start winning some games. A draw tomorrow is not good enough, and I agree with Chris, anything other than three points and we'll see some real anger

This, it's a game we just have to win, no excuses.

[Witton Warrior]

Ran through the last 11 matches with the two fellas in the office (RedManc and a Boggie) and we got 9 (me!), 10 and 11 points for us - we have a pretty good record of forecasting. We had a W/D/L forecast for this!

[N'ZMAV]

Remember all those other winnable games so far this season?......

[Steve67]

I can't help feeling that Norwich will outbattle us and will fancy their chances, especially if they read this thread!!  A win, no excuses, is required from Villa.  We simply HAVE to start winning at home.

[SoccerHQ]

Even if we win it's not likely we're going to go on some great run given the fixtures we have forthcoming.

To me beating west Brom was crucial as that got us to 27 points by the end of January and yet we've miserably failed to kick on from that so I don't see a win tomorrow, as crucial as it would be, being any different.

[Clampy]

Even if we win it's not likely we're going to go on some great run given the fixtures we have forthcoming.

That's been our main problem. Apart from November (I think), we haven't really gone on a run of any sort. That's held us back.