Aston Villa vs Everton Post-Match Thread

[richard moore]

I came to the conclusion a long time ago that Lerner isn't very bright at all, and that is putting it politely. He's the american equivalent of 'nice but dim Tim' from the Harry Enfield sketches. I also think he conned us with a lot of his comments about the club and the rather superficial and/or unsustainable improvements he made when he took over.

[supertom]

Next game I would be tempted to play Grealish and Cole. Two players who never look rushed or frightened of the ball. We need to instil as much composure in the side as we can. I'd put Cole behind Benteke, Grealish on the left, then Gabby or Weimann on the right. Have Westwood and Cleverley sitting and allow them to cover the fullbacks, rather than having Grealish and Gabby camped on the edge of their own box.

[django]

Ellis and Lerner. It's like finally getting rid of Thatcher and finding out after a few years what Tony Blair was really like. All that hope dashed. I think that's one of the reasons for the apathy. The feeling that we're rotten from the top but whatever happens I can't see someone else coming in and fixing it.

We've got massive problems in the way we're run, but footballs so rotten beyond us that I don't have a massive amount of hope whatever happens to us. Even if s new owner came in and threw his money around like early days Lerner, I don't think we'd have any dreams of finishing in the top 4. So what's the point?

Looking at Southampton now, wow they must be having a great time, good manager, stumbled on a great team. Will they finish top 4? No. Top 6. No I don't think so. Will all those players be there next year. No. Will the manager? Probably not. They then have to hope beyond all hope that their next roll of the dice turns up 6's again, because what's happening now is as good as it gets. Not even finishing top 6 is as good as it gets. No wonder people are apathetic.

[richard moore]

Great post django, never has following one's team seemed so pointless or indeed, football in general. I was away all of last week working and found myself not knowing one single international score, not even England's. I just don't care anymore. The day is not long off when I fear I won't know who Villa are playing on Saturday. It's a short hop from there to not knowing the score. And I'll have become a kinda reverse Chelsea fan. Instead of being completely ignorant about my very successful team, I'll be completely ignorant about my very shit one 

[mr underhill]

the score thing is actually quite easy. we don't tend to score and the opposition do - either three or four and on a good day only two. Maybe Randy was in town to invite Dave Moyes to a secret meeting in a restaurant with  an underground car park?

[Des Little]

Who is this Cole that people speak of?

[not3bad]

Does Lerner look at Koeman and think, fuck me, now that's how to manage.
Would he even know who Koeman is ?

Koeman was someone without Premier League experience before he came to Southampton so obviously he would have been completely unsuitable.

[DB]

Yeah good post Django. Unless football is made a more level playing field then what can a club such as ours actually do? Until that happens, then we are hoping for Man City type takeover.....

Who are competing the for title? Chelsea and City, how exciting.

[richard moore]

Yeah good post Django. Unless football is made a more level playing field then what can a club such as ours actually do? Until that happens, then we are hoping for Man City type takeover.....

Who are competing the for title? Chelsea and City, how exciting.

And yet thickies like Michael Owen, Micky Quinn, Robbie Savage and Steve Claridge can make a living every week spending hours debating it through endless hours of more and more media coverage. Cocks like Savage actually think they've discovered something we didn't all know when they tell us the classless chavs will win the league. And they never ever actually debate the real issues, which is perhaps just as well . To hear Alan Brazil on Talkshite in the summer trying to debate the negative impacts of the World Cup for most Brazilian people was to witness some of the most embarrassing radio going.

[Ads]

I would keep Gabby in for QPR and bring Grealish and Sanchez in for N'Zogbia and Richardson. Play a narrow diamond, as neither N'Zogbia or Gabby offered much wide anyway, with the delivery coming from Hutton. I think Westwood and his range of passing further up the pitch will be useful, especially with Gabby central and Grealish at the tip.

Movement, movement, movement. A bit of that up front yesterday and that good passing would have lead to more chances. It was good to see us not just lumping it to Benteke and trying to work it up to the Everton box. I think somebody like Grealish just offers a bit more nous and guile and a focal point for the midfield behind him and is likely more capable of linking the midfield to the forwards. Benteke too has to drop deep behind at times; Lukaku did that well yesterday.

[Chris Smith]

Ellis and Lerner. It's like finally getting rid of Thatcher and finding out after a few years what Tony Blair was really like. All that hope dashed. I think that's one of the reasons for the apathy. The feeling that we're rotten from the top but whatever happens I can't see someone else coming in and fixing it.

We've got massive problems in the way we're run, but footballs so rotten beyond us that I don't have a massive amount of hope whatever happens to us. Even if s new owner came in and threw his money around like early days Lerner, I don't think we'd have any dreams of finishing in the top 4. So what's the point?

Looking at Southampton now, wow they must be having a great time, good manager, stumbled on a great team. Will they finish top 4? No. Top 6. No I don't think so. Will all those players be there next year. No. Will the manager? Probably not. They then have to hope beyond all hope that their next roll of the dice turns up 6's again, because what's happening now is as good as it gets. Not even finishing top 6 is as good as it gets. No wonder people are apathetic.

Spot on. The game is so skewed in favour of those with the deepest pockets that even wealthy clubs like Liverpool struggle to keep up. I think the only way for us to go is for a sort of steady as she goes type improvement, with the aim of flirting with the top 6 every now and then. Unfortunately it isn't very exciting and when that is what we were doing we wanted more but couldn't afford it.

As for yesterday we played some reasonable football in the first half without ever looking like scoring but then Guzan's uncharacteristic cock up did for us. We seem, on paper, to have a reasonable squad but are clearly too reliant on one or two key players. If others do not step up soon it is going to be another depressing season spent looking down instead of up.

[DB]

Even with the current state of football in this country and our club, the manager should be making progress after the passed few years. It doesn't look like it and another gamble with the bottom 3 beckons.

[django]

As you say Chris even some of those top teams that are out of our reach, find themselves unable to compete. I watched Spurs yesterday, a team that has cost a fortune, lots of good players, absolutely nowhere near winning anything. Arsenal will finish higher, a couple of World Cup winners from the summer, spent a fortune, no chance of winning the league.

The longer this goes on the worse it gets. I work with kids quite a bit, they all support the top 4 sides. Most of them don't know the results of the last game, let alone who they are playing next. This is the end result of the Premier Leagues endless quest for 'new markets'. More exposure to more people, who care less and less. The 50,000 capacity stadiums are only able to be filled if people care enough to go every week, and when they die out other people are ready to replace them. It won't effect the top teams, it might have less impact at the teams who have always expected to just hang on in there, but the middle ranking teams, Newcastle, Spurs, Everton etc and probably Arsenal will start to get fed up of this if there's no sign of it changing.

[pauliewalnuts]

The clubs that really suffer in the premier league are those like us who have traditions of winning stuff from time to time but now find themselves priced out of competing or playing in the champions league.

You have the top four or five, then the teams just glad to be here - Hull, Swansea, Burnley, there are lots of these, then the likes of us, who in the past have been competitive but now find things like winning the league unthinkable.

[DB]

Hopefully with the fans starting to speak up it may change. Money talks though.