West Ham vs Aston Villa post match thread

[footyskillz]

Stopping West Ham scoring and gaining a deserved  point translates some finding of form into points. Last time out v Spurs competed well in the match up until the Benteke decision and were leading and comfortable. Today again reasonably comfortable till the final few minutes which we held out and saw a world class save by Brad Guzan to inspire to the end. Keeping a clean sheet today shows ability and character and that's something that can be appreciated by all of us.

[john e]

There is no doubt in my mind that if we had had Benteke and Delph on the pitch and we could have kept hold of Milner, Barry, Young and Bannan

We would have won that game

[rougegorge]

Lambert unsurprisingly thinks we were excellent today

And there you go, that is the whole problem, in a nutshell.

He's come away from 3-0 defeats thinking we were good. The guys a clown.
The sadder reality of today is, he's probably bought himself another half a dozen games with that result.

That's the problem. I hate us being awful and losing, but you're right, getting a point today gives him the opportunity to produce some other unwanted records before the year is out.

[caster troy]

Ugh, another depressing post match interview then. I'd much rather hear something like this from Lambert:

'First of all the fans were incredible today, you wouldn't think we'd lost six games in a row. I am sorry we didn't manage to win the game for them but I hope they at least appreciate the determination from the players to make sure we didn't lose again. I am disappointed that we failed to score  and this is something we have to have to urgently put right, you can't always rely on your keeper making world class saves every game, although I wouldn't put it past Brad as he is first class. I accept that there is still room for improvement but today gives us a platform to build on.....'

[john e]

You just know that Lambert can't take this team any further forward, I reckon even he knows it, the whole thing is in a gigantic rut of which there is no escape while Lambert remains

[Toronto Villa]

What I hate most is that we don't look like we are trying to win. We look like we are trying to get out with a point and if we get a win so be itX it isn't part of the plan. Even though other teams might lose more games they all seem to try and create chances and try to score goals. We don't and we got very lucky today that they were both wasteful and came up against a keeper in top form.

[hilts_coolerking]

I'm not sure anyone under the current ownership could take us forward.  But that doesn't mean we shouldn't try.

[aj2k77]

Today was a particularly sad day for me today as I found myself missing Stewart Downing. It's been the first time since he left and I don't like the feeling. He didn't even have the best game particularly but he was their creative focal point and kept creating space for himself and trying to create chances. We've got nobody in the side who does that, who'll keep on plugging away and finding space and trying to make things happen.

Are we as a club that far gone that we can't find another Stewart Fucking chinless wonder Downing? He was doing exactly the sort of thing you'd want a playmaker to do. Lamberts had five windows and hasn't rectified a problem he identified the day he arrived. Pathetic.

Tom it's taken him 5 windows to partially solve the fullback problem, with a player that we already had. Don't ask too much from him.

[footyskillz]

I personally cannot think of any reason why we should buy Cleverley. He has played quite a few games for us now without showing anything
other than an excellent workrate. No goal threat,no through balls of class. The stark fact is that he is (like Westwood) an average Championship midfielder. Which means of course Lambert will tell us 'He's absolutely excellent Tom' when we can see with our own eyes he is very far from that.

Possibly a bit early to judge that  wouldnt benefit especially as team is looking to find form. TC is an established premier league player and adds experience as well as energy to the midfield. Delph has developed and Cleverly can continue to . He certainly shows signs of being capable in the premier league before so considering current situation at the Villa having a title winner and some one who has represented England is an additional plus to the squad. By Tom own admission there was a pressure on him at Man Utd which he struggled with . I certainly don't think the negativity towards him from the Utd fans helped his development. He's pretty single minded and made it clear he plays for the manager here so hopefully can get fans onside too. From what I've seen he gives 100% effort and is very happy of the opportunity to be playing top level football at a top level club.

[Gregorys Boy]

You just know that Lambert can't take this team any further forward, I reckon even he knows it, the whole thing is in a gigantic rut of which there is no escape while Lambert remains

What is the point in this kind of post after a decent performance and result today?  There are lots of other general threads for those comments.

A draw was about right tonight.  West Ham were the better team in the first half, but didn't really create much.  We did well to stay in the game and slowly grew in confidence and played better football second half but again didn't create enough to deserve a win.  We had our luck at the end, but deserved it and got a decent point.  The last two games we have played better.  Lets hope we can build on this result with hopefully four points from the next two.

[passport1]

He (Lambert) like so many others in the game is coining it despite being very mediocre at his job.If a result of wining promotion from league one and the championship you can end up with tens of millions if pounds in the bank he will keep on talking bollocks for as long as anyone is daft enough to employ him.

[saunders_heroes]

I think the most worrying part about Villa under Lerner/Lambert is that we go into games without a single intention of trying to win. Instead we surrender possesion from the off, sit back and defend for our lives and hope we hit them on the break at some point. That's why whenever we're not losing a game we're on tenterhooks waiting for the final whistle.
It's absolutely dreadful to watch and depressing to think this is Aston Villa under Randy Lerner and Paul Lambert. It can't end quick enough for me.

[LeeB]

I think the most worrying part about Villa under Lerner/Lambert is that we go into games without a single intention of trying to win. Instead we surrender possesion from the off, sit back and defend for our lives and hope we hit them on the break at some point. That's why whenever we're not losing a game we're on tenterhooks waiting for the final whistle.
It's absolutely dreadful to watch and depressing to think this is Aston Villa under Randy Lerner and Paul Lambert. It can't end quick enough for me.

Couldn't agree more.

We're sub-McLeisian in our lack of ambition.

[Gregorys Boy]

I think the most worrying part about Villa under Lerner/Lambert is that we go into games without a single intention of trying to win. Instead we surrender possesion from the off, sit back and defend for our lives and hope we hit them on the break at some point. That's why whenever we're not losing a game we're on tenterhooks waiting for the final whistle.
It's absolutely dreadful to watch and depressing to think this is Aston Villa under Randy Lerner and Paul Lambert. It can't end quick enough for me.

But isn't the point that today given the run we have been on than it was important to be hard to beat and then see anything else as a bonus.  I agree that Lambert is too negative, but today it was important to try and scrap for at least a point and we did that, and even played decent football in spells so why not talk about that?

[saunders_heroes]

I think the most worrying part about Villa under Lerner/Lambert is that we go into games without a single intention of trying to win. Instead we surrender possesion from the off, sit back and defend for our lives and hope we hit them on the break at some point. That's why whenever we're not losing a game we're on tenterhooks waiting for the final whistle.
It's absolutely dreadful to watch and depressing to think this is Aston Villa under Randy Lerner and Paul Lambert. It can't end quick enough for me.

But isn't the point that today given the run we have been on than it was important to be hard to beat and then see anything else as a bonus.  I agree that Lambert is too negative, but today it was important to try and scrap for at least a point and we did that, and even played decent football in spells so why not talk about that?

The point is welcome of course, but feck me how horrible was it to watch, and what about the backs to the wall stuff that we always seem to do whenever we're not losing? Is this the Villa you want to see and do you truly honestly think we'll ever get any better under Lambert?
It's bloody soul destroying.