West Bromwich Albion v Aston Villa Post Match Thread

[LTA]

Like constantly telling us how brilliant the performances are and getting the hump when anyone dares to question him.  He's as bad as O'Leary for it.

The man is an out and out liar

complete cobblers.

Fair enough he's never slagged the club off but his excuses for yet another defeat are usually monumental bullshit. In that respect he is a liar.

Exactly.  He obviously thinks everythings fine, and that people are stupid enough to believe it,  so in that respect he does treat the club with contempt

I don't think he realises how hated he is at Villa Park

[LeeB]

Like constantly telling us how brilliant the performances are and getting the hump when anyone dares to question him.  He's as bad as O'Leary for it.

The man is an out and out liar

complete cobblers.

Fair enough he's never slagged the club off but his excuses for yet another defeat are usually monumental bullshit. In that respect he is a liar.

Exactly.  He obviously thinks everythings fine, and that people are stupid enough to believe it,  so in that respect he does treat the club with contempt

I don't think he realises how hated he is at Villa Park

I think the majority of reasonable people would reserve their hate for those that deserve it, not struggling football managers.

[Tom_Mc9?]

I think you're barking up the wrong tree. Lots want him out, because we haven't been getting the results. It's not uncommon for a manager to say performances are better than they appear - Mourinho does it, Ferguson did it, Wenger does it. It's patyly to protect themselves (who wouldn't?) but mostly to protect the players. Those who want him out generally don't hate him - they'd probably have wanted him to succeed as he's a nice bloke - they just want him to resign.

I think some people get so wrapped up in their frustration that they exaggerate to suit their argument. Lambert's a man who's got the biggest job he'll probably ever get, has somewhat limited funds and is struggling both with that and the expectations of the fans. He's not a prick or an arsehole or a contempt-filled, lying egomaniac.

[PaulWinch again]

I thought we were very good for the first half. Our possession was good and if we'd retained 11 men then that would have led to chances, as they would have tired. It was a much more encouraging display.

[mattjpa]

My thoughts from the game:
For 20mins we were the better team and looked comfortable but didn't create alot. This may well have come though.
The red was deserved. Even if it wasn't a definate red, if you ask that question of Mike dean you know what the answer will be.
I still think nzog is getting more stick than he deserves. Gabby had 2-3 chances to run at his man and sidewards passed them all. Nzog went straight for his man and continued to push them back although he did get dispossessed a couple of times.
Lambert made the right call with the Delph substitution but left it too late to change it when we were getting panned at about 70mins. It's always bloody reactionary isn't it?
The negative mindset that sees us concede possession, go further and further back and give up on attacking is costing us dearly. Every game it is the same - this has to be down to the manager.
We should have nicked a point but Benteke was woefully off form, these things happen.
My final point is this new thing in training. To me it seems we are now playing it out of the back and trying to build. This in itself is a step in the right direction and what I've been asking for. But this is easy, teams are fine with us having possession back there. As soon as we hit the halfway line it goes flat. No movement, very few incisive balls, no creativity generally. If we are keeping Lambert  this is what he needs to address

[Stu]

Got to be honest and say we've been done by a better side today and a better run club. It's embarrassing what we've become, and to cap it all Gardner goes and gets the winner, he's loving it, laughing at us like the laughing stock we've become. It's no wonder we've 15000 empty seats every week, who would want to pay to go and watch those jokers turn up and do that, Richardson he must think he still plays for Sandwell.

Livid.

Lambert out. Lerner out. Krulak out.

UTV.

Man, one day I hope we can get 22k at Villa Park for a local derby. You're on dodgy ground taking the piss out of attendances, yum saft yammer.

[richard moore]

Very unlike Gabby to be so flat / poor in a derby game. He usually makes an appearance for such fixtures.

Its hardly a surprised the players don't care when they're managed by a guy who shows nothing but contempt for the club and its fans.

Oh dear, I've read some shit on here in my time.

Contempt is clearly too strong. Utter incompetence is perhaps more accurate. I don't know why people defend this manager over semantics when he's plainly just shit at his job no matter how you phrase it.

No, nor me. I often wonder, in fact very often wonder, just how shit he has to be and how much of a reputation we have to garner as an utterly boring irrelevance, for people to say enough is enough

[Richard E]

I think a lot of the negative reactions are because we lost to THEM. If we'd ended a 5 match unbeaten run with a 1-0 defeat when we played for 70 + minutes with ten men against, say, Stoke or Swansea I think the reaction would be a lot more muted.

Still gutted, mind.

[OzVilla]

AVFCKEV is deffinetley a Bitter. Ignore him, he's won his Cup Final.

As for Lambert, tactically he's a buffoon who never, ever seems to learn. We're not good enough to just sit back and soak up pressure yet he seems to believe its the way to go time and again.

Depressing but predictable.

[Stu]

I think a lot of the negative reactions are because we lost to THEM. If we'd ended a 5 match unbeaten run with a 1-0 defeat when we played for 70 + minutes with ten men against, say, Stoke or Swansea I think the reaction would be a lot more muted.

Still gutted, mind.

Well, yeah. That and the fact that Albion are a crap side with horrible, sanctimonious fans.

[OzVilla]

Sanctimonious, it's almost like the word was invented to describe their support.

[Ads]

Agreed. I am struggling to blame the manager here, as I don't think too many sides of our level would have done too much different with 10 men for so long. The front players were poor which didn't help, but although we sat back to a a degree, the pressure wasn't overwhelming. Clark and Okore were excellent and apart from the goal they skied a volley and that was it.

One really stupid moment from Richardson has cost us the game. You can only speculate, but with the control we exerted in the first twenty minutes, extrapolate that across the remaining seventy and I couldn't see us losing. Whether we would have turned that dominance into chances is hard to say.

[PaulWinch again]

I prefer to think of it more long term. Yesterday there were real signs of progress and short of a stupid challenge and a normally great player having a shocker we would have won. Yes they won one game, but long term they're going to struggle because they're atrocious.

[PaulWinch again]

Oh and I never really had a problem with Gardner, but after what he tweeted he really is a muppet.

[OzVilla]

Agreed. I am struggling to blame the manager here, as I don't think too many sides of our level would have done too much different with 10 men for so long. The front players were poor which didn't help, but although we sat back to a a degree, the pressure wasn't overwhelming.

Maybe, but the fact that we employ this tactic time and again in pretty much all circumstances means I find it hard to give him the benefit of the doubt.