Aston Villa v Manchester City post match thread

[Clampy]

Was it just me or did there look more than the official attendance announced?

[ez]

Well I'm just glad we have got these teams out of the way.

Sometimes I think Lambert's reign here is cursed. He loves it here, he seems to appreciate the size of the club, the fans etc. he comes across as such a decent and willing chap. You get the impression he is popular with the players. But since he's been here the task in hand has been thwarted with massive long term injuries, ill health, ridiculous wage cutting, which seems to have been managed somewhere very wrong, having his long term allies or friends even take the piss behind the scenes, It's been mental. He obviously agreed to the task of keeping us in the top flight on a budget, which he did, just. Then suddenly the premier league throws us a set of fixtures at the start of a new season which is just bloody crazy. I know we beat Liverpool but even there it was a team created by a spend of over 200 million pounds. We held out thank god and got the points, but to then face Arsenal, Chelsea and City has been a pain in the arse and just messed with all the optimism in the air.

Well hopefully now, we can start to get key players fit and ready to go. We can maybe play some games with a more fair standing. There has been enough glimpses of improvement this season for me to remain confident. Hopefully our attacking play will improve as we build confidence and be not just a solid and organised team.

A good post but I think you are being too kind to PL.

Its the type of turgid football that fans really hate. Its defensive and boring and the possession stats against the teams outside the top 4 is still bad.

Before yesterdays game we had the worst, or the worst but one of possession, completed passes, shots on goal and shots on target. It would be interesting too see those stats over PL's two full seasons. I suspect we would be in the bottom quarter every time. Its not good enough and whilst this is a results business it would be nice to be entertained occasionally.

I'm sure when he took over there was something said about bringing attacking football back to villa.

[olaftab]

I would never accuse Albrighton of being pacy. How is he getting on at Leicester anyway? I haven't heard much of him.

He is being rested so that he is fresh and ready for the Championship challenge next season.

[olaftab]

Was it just me or did there look more than the official attendance announced?

Very noisy but  thousands of empty seats I am afraid.

[olaftab]

The academy director at Crewe must have felt pretty proud yesterday; from League One to captain of Aston Villa in just over two seasons.

They don't have directors at Crewe so it's the chap in charge of kids training and he is very proud.

[BoskoDjembaSalifou]

I would never accuse Albrighton of being pacy. How is he getting on at Leicester anyway? I haven't heard much of him.

I heard Pearson doesn't rate him. Pretty sure he doesn't handle transfers there now, so he probably didn't want him in the first place?

By the way, why was Westwood captain and not Delph?

[edgysatsuma89]

Was it just me or did there look more than the official attendance announced?

I thought the same as well, would have put my house on 35+. And be homeless.

[supertom]

Well I'm just glad we have got these teams out of the way.

Sometimes I think Lambert's reign here is cursed. He loves it here, he seems to appreciate the size of the club, the fans etc. he comes across as such a decent and willing chap. You get the impression he is popular with the players. But since he's been here the task in hand has been thwarted with massive long term injuries, ill health, ridiculous wage cutting, which seems to have been managed somewhere very wrong, having his long term allies or friends even take the piss behind the scenes, It's been mental. He obviously agreed to the task of keeping us in the top flight on a budget, which he did, just. Then suddenly the premier league throws us a set of fixtures at the start of a new season which is just bloody crazy. I know we beat Liverpool but even there it was a team created by a spend of over 200 million pounds. We held out thank god and got the points, but to then face Arsenal, Chelsea and City has been a pain in the arse and just messed with all the optimism in the air.

Well hopefully now, we can start to get key players fit and ready to go. We can maybe play some games with a more fair standing. There has been enough glimpses of improvement this season for me to remain confident. Hopefully our attacking play will improve as we build confidence and be not just a solid and organised team.

A good post but I think you are being too kind to PL.

Its the type of turgid football that fans really hate. Its defensive and boring and the possession stats against the teams outside the top 4 is still bad.

Before yesterdays game we had the worst, or the worst but one of possession, completed passes, shots on goal and shots on target. It would be interesting too see those stats over PL's two full seasons. I suspect we would be in the bottom quarter every time. Its not good enough and whilst this is a results business it would be nice to be entertained occasionally.

I'm sure when he took over there was something said about bringing attacking football back to villa.

Yeah there was certainly an expectation of lots of high scoring games. As yet we've not seen too many from our point of view. It's very rare we score more than 1-2 in a game. We've dished out the all too rare tonking against sides like Sunderland and Norwich, but we tend to receive more batterings than we give out.
The notion of winning a load of games 3-2 and losing a few 3-2 is very distant. We seem very much defensive orientated now without much clue aside from running toward the opposition penalty area as fast as possible, in how to attack. And in all too many games there's been a frightening lack of even intent to try and create and score goals.
It's very much McLeish's style.
For 5 months in the end of his first season, Lambert teased us with the prospect of attacking, entertaining,  almost gung-ho football. But last season was 95% wretched, and the lack of creativity and attacking drive this season isn't boding well, despite an initially good turn of results.

[supertom]

I would never accuse Albrighton of being pacy. How is he getting on at Leicester anyway? I haven't heard much of him.

I heard Pearson doesn't rate him. Pretty sure he doesn't handle transfers there now, so he probably didn't want him in the first place?

By the way, why was Westwood captain and not Delph?

Not sure. Westwood has been captain of Crewe before though hasn't he?
I'd have thought Delphy though as he obviously leads by example and is quite vocal too. I'm sure Westy had the armband in pre-season for a game or two as well. He's certainly skilled at pointing. Maybe that's a key aspect of being a captain.

[olaftab]

By the way, why was Westwood captain and not Delph?

Ahhha I was waiting for this.  Any self respecting Conspiracy Theorist would suggest because Delph is off in January/Summer!

[PeterWithesShin]

Was it just me or did there look more than the official attendance announced?

Very noisy but  thousands of empty seats I am afraid.

I thought it was going to be lower than announced. Both Lower Holte & North had loads of empty seats, which is always an indicator of it being low.

[Hoppo]

As soon as the attendance was announced, a senior steward next to me remarked 'we'll they told us 36000'.

[Brend'Watkins]

Bringing Benteke on for Weimann was right. Bringing off Zog who was having a fine game and our only attacking threat and then Richardson being replaced by Grealish just screwed up our shape. There was no need for that change. We were poorer for it.

[supertom]

Bringing Benteke on for Weimann was right. Bringing off Zog who was having a fine game and our only attacking threat and then Richardson being replaced by Grealish just screwed up our shape. There was no need for that change. We were poorer for it.

We certainly did miss Richardons although in all honesty he looked absolutely shattered by the time he came off. Zogbia possibly was too and he's never generally been a player who can run his arse off for 90 minutes.
But yes, our shape was buggered after that and we lost all will to try and get forward.

[nigel]

I would never accuse Albrighton of being pacy. How is he getting on at Leicester anyway? I haven't heard much of him.

I heard Pearson doesn't rate him. Pretty sure he doesn't handle transfers there now, so he probably didn't want him in the first place?

By the way, why was Westwood captain and not Delph?

Not sure. Westwood has been captain of Crewe before though hasn't he?
I'd have thought Delphy though as he obviously leads by example and is quite vocal too. I'm sure Westy had the armband in pre-season for a game or two as well. He's certainly skilled at pointing. Maybe that's a key aspect of being a captain.

There's no way you should be captain if you can't point, Tom.