Aston Villa v Manchester City post match thread

[clash city rocker]

Whether Lambert makes us a weaker outfit is really neither here nor there..The plain fact is that football is a bit like horse racing. If a horse that cost £45m runs against a horse that cost £20k the former is going to win 99 times out of a hundred..that's where football is now..and who have been the owners that could afford the massive prices for top class horses in the last few years....The same sort of owners that man city have

[Chris Jameson]

Haven't read through this thread but I thought we played well until the final 20 minutes when we seemed to invite City on to us and it was inevitable what was going to happen. Really impressed with Cleverley and Baker and great to see Benteke back.

A couple of things about the support, the bloke sat in front of me who did nothing but moan from kick off until leaving five minutes before the end was a cock who took some sort of perverse pleasure out of seeing Villa lose and the amount of people who left as soon as City scored was ridiculous.

At half time we realised Ron Vlaar was sat just behind us so my son was chuffed to bits to get an autograph and photo.

[Steve67]

We did as well as I thought we would. We worked hard. They pegged us back. Substitutions were wrong for me. City have class going forward. Villa will be ok this season but we'll still be bored shitless by Lamberts tactics.

[Archie]

Whether Lambert makes us a weaker outfit is really neither here nor there..The plain fact is that football is a bit like horse racing. If a horse that cost £45m runs against a horse that cost £20k the former is going to win 99 times out of a hundred..that's where football is now..and who have been the owners that could afford the massive prices for top class horses in the last few years....The same sort of owners that man city have

I did not know that Leyton Orient had such expensive horses.
And, to be honest, we play defensively with every opponent. If you park the us in the box it is mathematical that 9 times out of 10 you lose.

[PeterWithesShin]

To put it into perspective, especially the state of mod£ern football, Citeh had players on the bench that cost more than our starting 11. Never mind the players in their starting 11 that also individually cost more than our 11. Ain't it grand.

[steffo]

Whether Lambert makes us a weaker outfit is really neither here nor there..The plain fact is that football is a bit like horse racing. If a horse that cost £45m runs against a horse that cost £20k the former is going to win 99 times out of a hundred..that's where football is now..and who have been the owners that could afford the massive prices for top class horses in the last few years....The same sort of owners that man city have

Or you can assemble a squad at the same price he has wasted and have a 'go' rather than being a deluded manager and having to admit his 'young and hungry' policy failed. It really is beyond belief how he is our manager.

[PeterWithesShin]

To put it into perspective, especially the state of mod£ern football, Citeh had players on the bench that cost more than our starting 11. Never mind the players in their starting 11 that also individually cost more than our 11. Ain't it grand.

I make it 8 players in the Citeh match squad today that cost approx the same, or more, than our starting 11.

[Comrade Blitz]

I was genuinely excited when it was still 0-0 after 81 mins (especially after what Mancunter Cunty did to Wednesday on the League Cup) - I even thought of switching it off to avoid the inevitable......but the only other (non College football) option for sport at the time was Maria Sharapova ....

so I took a deep breath.....

FWIW - the club's start flattered Lambert IMHO - the contract extension was a mistake - and a healthy Benteke (and Gabby) will be enough to avoid relegation - but that's it.

Same old song.

[Gareth]

I thought we were ok today, we def pushed them into having to go through the gears, unlike the last two games where we were passengers.

Obviously the shot count is a concern but getting Benteke up to speed is key to that, Weimman being constantly on his heels was frustrating, he is no lone striker, he can probably do a job in a two but not on his todd.

Baker & Guzan excellent

The welcome back for Benteke was rocking

[mrastonvilla]

Just back, thought we actually did ok today and the fans were excellent especially in the second half. Shame that Richardson couldn't put his chance away.

[Witton Warrior]

Just home from the game.   I think the better team won.    I think we played creditably for 75 minutes.   We seemed to tire and they started to toy with us.

Things to remember about the game for me were Baker's continuing climb from whipping boy to solid central defender, Westwood also cementing his place in the side and continuing to improve.   Cleverley remains too up his own arse and it results in serious losses of concentration.   The substitutions apart from Benteke  were typical Lambert changes for change's sake and did nothing to boost our chances.   Charles N'Zogbia seems to be gripped with panic when a scoring chance falls to him.   Grealish appears to have been massively overhyped and looked completely out of his depth at this level.   We needed a Ron Vlaar or a properly functioning Sanchez to bite them when they started to take the piss in the last ten minutes.

Another home defeat and another long and silent drive home but I do believe that we will play worse than we did today and win games.

Oh yes and another thing I shall not forget is Foy looking at his watch at half time, putting his whistle to his lips but not blowing because City were in a very dangerous attacking position which once we cleared the ball he decided THEN it could be half time.   Cheating bastard.

Top post Brian - what did you reckon to the backing from the Holte?
Only 29K Villa but we made some noise...

[olaftab]

Excellent support today from all around the pitch and for once the Holte Enders were awake! The crescendo of noise that peaked just about after Benteke came on was really something to behold. Well done to us all there today.

[ROBBO]

Getting annoyed with posters saying we should have had a go and attacked them because if thats the way we play against the top sides look forward to a fair bit of humiliation.
We are much improved in defence and the midfield is a little improved but Lamberts insistance in playing narrow pisses me off no end, if anyone wouid benefit from a couple of pacey wingers it would br Benteke.

[N'Zimidy]

We did well for 80 minutes. They had the better chances until that point for sure but we were always in with a chance. To come away with a loss is disappointing but the performance was pretty good.

[Pat McMahon]

We generally defended well, despite them scoring two and hitting the woodwork twice. Given their array of expensive talents I was not bitter at losing the way we did. Modern footbal is hard to swallow, but we were set up well defensively, kept our shape and were in a position to win the game after 65 minutes.

The real disappointment for me was that we squandered some decent opportunities to put real pressure on them when we were in good positions. Weimann took advantage of a cock up in the first half and failed to muster a shot, whilst Richardson seemed to be wearing lead boots when clean through in the second. We lost forward momentum for all but the first five minutes after Benteke came on, but a lot of that was due to their substitutions, allowing Toure and Lampard to move further forward ( and ultimately kill us).

Negatives - Guzan's  kicking, Zog's inability to cross and some awful misplaced passing from good starting positions.  We also looked one dimensional once Benteke came on. First time I have seen Cleverley and he needs to develop strength - but we generally looked like weedy kids versus men .

I was in the Holte Upper and atmosphere was deceent, literally couldn't hear City fans until they scored. Really disappointed at the mass exodus when they scored as I thought our lads deserved hearty applause for their efforts at the end.