Burnley vs Aston Villa Pre-Match Thread

[ChicagoLion]

He wont start Grealish, it will be Richardson, yawn.

I think we will win this and Lambert survives again. Probably get a contract extension.

[silhillvilla]

Agree, Lambert won't play Grealish . It will be Richardson and then he will take Sanchez off on 76 mins and bring Joe Cole on .

[devilla]

Yes, you're right about Richardson being preferred to Grealish unfortunately.

You'd think that while Delph was out it would be a good time to give the lad some game time. He seemed to be ready for it the last time he came on and he could cause Burnley a lot of problems.

[Pete3206]

0-0

[silhillvilla]

Wouldn't surprise me if Grealish isn't loaned out again before Saturday .

[devilla]

Wouldn't surprise me if Grealish isn't loaned out again before Saturday .

Depressingly, I wouldn't be surprised either. He really could be the spark we desperately need at the moment so of course that means he won't get a chance.

[silhillvilla]

It's all quite tragic, oh for the heady days of Robbie Keane on loan.

[Hillbilly]

We really should change the claret & blue to grey because 1. the current mob are an insult to the colours, and 2. they might as well go all out to match the cloud of misery hanging over us. I just can't see any ray of sunshine at the moment so a turgid defeat is my prediction.

[Steve67]

This is a must win game. Lose this and the knives will surely come out. Burnley winning three on the bounce, with their inconsistency? Surely not!!

[Comrade Blitz]

Can we have a teary-eyed Samir Nasri equivalent plea via the BBC/media for a Villa win vs the might Burnley?

"Oh...boo hoo us poor mercenaries might be told to fuck off if we don't succeed in the Champions League this year. Please fix it so a player is sent off early......"

[Malandro]

Given in goal and the goose up front please Lambert

[Gregorys Boy]

This will be tougher now than it might have been a month ago because of their two wins, and I think being at home they will target this as a winnable game, and their crowd should be really up for it.  Then again because our form is slowly improving (I did say SLOWLY!) then it might be a better time to play them.  The defence was much better the other night so if we can repeat that here and explict the pace of Gabby and get him and Weinmann into the game then this should be an away win.  Also, I would start Jack Grealish as I think this sort of game is just right for him.  We're against limited oppersition who may think they have our attack figured out, it'll be a cold northern afternoon and Grealish can just run the game for us and open things up for the strikers.  Then if things are going well after an hour maybe give him a rest.  Anyway, a hard fought 1-0 win with Weinmann to score the winner.

[silhillvilla]

No doubt N'Zogbia will start ahead of Jack and will run down every cul de sac in Lancashire. With his head down.

[paul_e]

This will be tougher now than it might have been a month ago because of their two wins, and I think being at home they will target this as a winnable game, and their crowd should be really up for it.  Then again because our form is slowly improving (I did say SLOWLY!) then it might be a better time to play them.  The defence was much better the other night so if we can repeat that here and explict the pace of Gabby and get him and Weinmann into the game then this should be an away win.  Also, I would start Jack Grealish as I think this sort of game is just right for him.  We're against limited oppersition who may think they have our attack figured out, it'll be a cold northern afternoon and Grealish can just run the game for us and open things up for the strikers.  Then if things are going well after an hour maybe give him a rest.  Anyway, a hard fought 1-0 win with Weinmann to score the winner.

See I disagree on our form improving, I think that's too broad a statement.  Our results are improving (when 2 consecutive draws counts as an upturn in form you have to be pretty worried), largely because we're playing against weaker sides, but the underlying problems are all still there and the performances haven't changed at all, the difference is that our mistakes aren't being so ruthlessly punished and the opposition are making more mistakes.

I've voted for a Villa win and I'm optimistic about the result but I think it'll be yet another backs to the wall hang on for the points game, we look like a badly coached team and that's not going to change any time soon but we've got enough in the squad to win games ugly and I think results will continue to improve but it'll be almost accidental rather than a result of anything we've worked on.  The Lambert "we've worked on using Gabby's pace" comment after a Clark tackle/clearance and Forster error gifted us a goal showed just how little interest he has in trying to coach the team to create chances.  Percentage based diagonal crosses to Benteke seems to be his only input to our playing style when we have the ball.

[Gregorys Boy]

Sorry only just seen the previous posts about Grealish.  I fear you guys might be right but was just saying what I would do, and I guess what anyone with half a clue would do