West Ham vs Aston Villa post match thread

[pooligan]

In all the years i have been following Villa,it is hard to remember any of our previous managers getting so excited about scraping a goal less draw .Listening to the match on radio,there was only one team likely to score and it certainly was not Villa.

[aj2k77]

An example of how we were managed and manipulated as Krulak came on this and other sites.

That patronising tosser with his ''be there through the thick and thin'' bullshit and ''we know what we are doing''. Crazy as batshit the pair of them.

He sucked the majority of us in. That  ''we know what we are doing'' quote is actually very disturbing in hindsight, when it's apparently clear that none of them seem to have a Scooby Do

I was sucked in too, I thought it was the beginning of something big and these guys were going to show us how the Americans run a pro sports team, unfortunately he was a bullshitter and a blagger and like Lerner gave up as soon as the going got tough because his heart wasn't in it.  Embarassing for him all the times he would leap at dissenters and give them the ''wouldn't want to fight in a trench with you'' speech.

[ktvillan]

Sometimes I wish the fans at the match would chant for the manager's head a bit more. I know we should be getting behind the team but Christ the more we sit there saying nothing the more the chairman thinks he can get away with employing such a disaster like Lambert.

Spot on.  The penny didn't seem to drop with Lerner that McLeish was not only useless but hated until people started protesting at, I think, the Bolton game.  Maybe Lerner is happy go keep going until it starts to get publicly, vocally, and visually embarrassing for him.   I cannot imagine fans of other clubs being so apathetic, and this excuse of affecting the team is a total red-herring.  It didn't stop the ManYoo fans hiring a plane to express their feelings about Moyes, and people understood why they did it.  And anyway, I doubt our lot could play any worse even if the entire crowd turned their backs, and remained silent in between bouts of "Lambert out Lerner out". 

[Chris Smith]

I love Guzan, he's been my favourite player for the last couple of seasons now,
he had a good game yesterday and never put a foot wrong apart from coming out for a ball in the first half and missing it fortunately the header went wide of the post

But he only had to make two proper saves, one of which was truly brilliant at the end of the game, he gained the point for us because of them, but he wasn't pulling off save after save yesterday, a lot of their chances went wide or straight into his arms

I sat with the West Ham supporters yesterday, there pick of our team was Sanchez, who looks like a decent signing, and would be a lot better I feel with a bit more quality around him

Home too late and hungry to post last night...
There's no doubt Guzan saved us the point yesterday, and some pretty resolute defending and blocking of shots kept the number of on-target attempts down to single figures.
Why the f**k can't we keep the ball? Lost count of the number of times N'Zog had the ball at his feet and it was suddenly with a WHam player, and some really poor passing early on by Westwood and Lowton. Thought Cleverley had his best game for us and at least showed a bit of grit that I hadn't seen in him before...and Sanchez looks the business in a pretty poor side. Still think Gabby can be more of a threat, esp against a hoofer like Collins, and too much pointless running/standing still waiting for the ball by Weimann.
Interesting() that most of their threat came from S Downing esq....other than Song (possibly Noble), without him they created very little. We created less, obviously. Obvious that Sam would refer to route 1 stuff with the big blokes available to him.
With a bit more composure both Gabby and Cleverley could have scored with the excellent chances they had.
Stopped the run of bad results and a valuable point but, call me Barbara, we've got a lot of work to do!
UTV!

I think a major reason we cannot keep the ball is that neither Gabby or Andi can play with their back to goal. That means we don't have the opportunity to get people forward in numbers and so our only option is to sit deep and try to break on teams, which worked in the first few games of the season. Yesterday, taken in isolation, could be seen as a slight return to that but on the back of a dreadful run it doesn't offer much cheer.

[RussellC]

The problem comes from our method of attack coming from our full backs only. There is so much room in front of them that you would hope to see a wide player occupy. Lowton did well I thought considering he has nobody in front of him.

Couldn't agree more with this. Lambert's omission to even have a winger on the bench is just baffling. Especially when you think that his 2 biggest signings have been 6ft 3" strikers. In yesterday's team, Lowton was effectively our best chance of someone providing an assist, and therefore our 'playmaker'. Shocking.

Things are so bad, I've actually spend most of the last week yearning for Tony Pulis.

[passport1]

I remember the cold chill than ran thru me when I heard  on Radio 5 Live that MON had resigned. I live in constant hope that I will hear the news that Lambert is gone. Infact I will do a dance of delight.

[Ron Manager]

The problem comes from our method of attack coming from our full backs only. There is so much room in front of them that you would hope to see a wide player occupy. Lowton did well I thought considering he has nobody in front of him.

Couldn't agree more with this. Lambert's omission to even have a winger on the bench is just baffling. Especially when you think that his 2 biggest signings have been 6ft 3" strikers. In yesterday's team, Lowton was effectively our best chance of someone providing an assist, and therefore our 'playmaker'. Shocking.

Things are so bad, I've actually spend most of the last week yearning for Tony Pulis.

Lambert thinks the idea of having a winger is lost in the realms of time. He has said so.Thinks they are outdated.Mr Lambert is a hive of free thinking ideas.

[mr underhill]

he  brings me out in hives every time I think about him

[richard moore]

the most depressing thing is nothing will change until we have a change of owner. I was clinging to the hope that seven or eight straight defeats would see this imposter off but I'm beginning to think that even relegation won't do it. The next four years will like listening to Leonard Cohen non-stop, on some continuous aural loop from hell whilst reading the Daily Mail.

An example of how we were managed and manipulated as Krulak came on this and other sites.

That patronising tosser with his ''be there through the thick and thin'' bullshit and ''we know what we are doing''. Crazy as batshit the pair of them.

He sucked the majority of us in. That  ''we know what we are doing'' quote is actually very disturbing in hindsight, when it's apparently clear that none of them seem to have a Scooby Do

Please stop reminding me guys how fucking gullible I was to be sucked in by this fraud. Jesus, how bloody naive was I to think this tosser had our best interests at heart when he was really just an ingratiating little shit

[SoccerHQ]

Sometimes I wish the fans at the match would chant for the manager's head a bit more. I know we should be getting behind the team but Christ the more we sit there saying nothing the more the chairman thinks he can get away with employing such a disaster like Lambert.

Spot on.  The penny didn't seem to drop with Lerner that McLeish was not only useless but hated until people started protesting at, I think, the Bolton game.  Maybe Lerner is happy go keep going until it starts to get publicly, vocally, and visually embarrassing for him.   I cannot imagine fans of other clubs being so apathetic, and this excuse of affecting the team is a total red-herring.  It didn't stop the ManYoo fans hiring a plane to express their feelings about Moyes, and people understood why they did it.  And anyway, I doubt our lot could play any worse even if the entire crowd turned their backs, and remained silent in between bouts of "Lambert out Lerner out". 

Wigan away was where the mutiny against McLeish started properly. A 0-0 draw against bottom of the league at the time IIRC.

[edgysatsuma89]

I got the party poppers out last night. Nice buffet, bunting out. Guzan, i will happily cup your balls.

[Jimbo]

The absolute worst thing in all this is the feeling that the chairman thinks everything is OK, and is one of a handful of people who still believe in this manager.

I can handle being shit over an extended period of time, if I at least feel there is hope for things to get better. There isn't, though. The crushing incompetence that led to Lerner giving Lambert that new deal hangs over us, no matter how much we think he deserves the sack, he is going nowhere.

We have a chairman who is either too stupid to realise how bad things are, or who doesn't care enough to do something about it.

The chairman has demonstrated his stupidity time and time again, but there's also the problem that nobody is advising him about how bad things are and what needs to be done to put them right. It would appear he's surrounded himself with yes men, who are well rewarded for their loyalty, irrespective of their suitability for the job in hand.

He's rarely at the match, but even if he was, the crowd has grown so apathetic that he'd fail to notice much was wrong. He bought himself plenty of goodwill at the club in his first few years, and the fans - who have repeatedly been told by the media that they are fickle - haven't got it in them to demand change from the very top down. Just as Lerner hasn't got the stomach to sack Lambert and embark on another manager search, the fans haven't got the stomach to protest.

Villa are such an irrelevance that the national media simply ignores our plight. It's as if it were almost expected of us, and that the fans should simply accept what and where the club is. If this were happening at Tottenham, it would be all over the back pages until the chairman was hounded out. But this is boring Villa; who cares?

So we have to look to the local press to call out Lerner's many failures, but they don't. I'm not quite sure why this is. Perhaps they'll be denied the few scraps of information and interviews they currently get for their sports pages / programmes? Perhaps they've enjoyed so much hospitality at the club, they feel guilty about criticising it?

The result of all this is that Lerner remains in a bubble. With no pressure from colleagues, fans or the media, he will continue to bounce along aimlessly until it bursts. And it will burst.

[Chris Smith]

The absolute worst thing in all this is the feeling that the chairman thinks everything is OK, and is one of a handful of people who still believe in this manager.

I can handle being shit over an extended period of time, if I at least feel there is hope for things to get better. There isn't, though. The crushing incompetence that led to Lerner giving Lambert that new deal hangs over us, no matter how much we think he deserves the sack, he is going nowhere.

We have a chairman who is either too stupid to realise how bad things are, or who doesn't care enough to do something about it.

The chairman has demonstrated his stupidity time and time again, but there's also the problem that nobody is advising him about how bad things are and what needs to be done to put them right. It would appear he's surrounded himself with yes men, who are well rewarded for their loyalty, irrespective of their suitability for the job in hand.

He's rarely at the match, but even if he was, the crowd has grown so apathetic that he'd fail to notice much was wrong. He bought himself plenty of goodwill at the club in his first few years, and the fans - who have repeatedly been told by the media that they are fickle - haven't got it in them to demand change from the very top down. Just as Lerner hasn't got the stomach to sack Lambert and embark on another manager search, the fans haven't got the stomach to protest.

Villa are such an irrelevance that the national media simply ignores our plight. It's as if it were almost expected of us, and that the fans should simply accept what and where the club is. If this were happening at Tottenham, it would be all over the back pages until the chairman was hounded out. But this is boring Villa; who cares?

So we have to look to the local press to call out Lerner's many failures, but they don't. I'm not quite sure why this is. Perhaps they'll be denied the few scraps of information and interviews they currently get for their sports pages / programmes? Perhaps they've enjoyed so much hospitality at the club, they feel guilty about criticising it?

The result of all this is that Lerner remains in a bubble. With no pressure from colleagues, fans or the media, he will continue to bounce along aimlessly until it bursts. And it will burst.

I am pretty the reason we are up for sale is that he has recognised his failings. We will bounce along until a buyer can be found.

[Jimbo]

I'm sure you are pretty, Chris, and I hope a buyer does come soon. But a buyer will be even less likely to materialise if the club is in a lower division than it is currently, and that is a distinct possibility with Lambert in charge. Only one man can change that.

[olaftab]

West Ham Villa next on Goals on Sunday. Let's see how bothered they are about any of these two clubs?