Aston Villa vs Sunderland Post-Match Thread

[andyh]

Very much agree with the people pointing out Benteke's moaning and complaining.
Are we seeing the start of 'billy big bollox' syndrome with him being too good for everyone around him ? Much like I think we are starting to see with Delph.
 

[JUAN PABLO]

Hold on let's see the positives from this ( and please add on ) .
Clean sheet .
Spirited performance with ten outfield players.
Endeavour
Continued improvement in football style.
Possession based game carried out well.
Recycling of ball and passes made were good.
A number of players were solid and continued effort after tough away match on boxing day.
The substitutes were effective.
A point earned .

It's always good to look at what worked and the plkus sides of things.
No one can doubt the absolute effort 10 players put in.
Its a  match that Aston Villa may have lost in season past and in fact ( like man utd match) villa looked more likely to score a winner in the last minutes.
That really says something about this set of players and the character.
Players just need to add goals. :-)
Any other positives please add  its great to encourage positive comment !
Keep the faith !

 

You are VillaKicks I assume.I

Are you watching villa or Burnley

[leylandalbion]

Ads - same traffic for me - 4 hours to get from Leyland, 3 restless boys in the car and arrived at 3:35.  The catering staff took sympathy, didn't want to charge me for 3 balti pies and a carlsberg

[brian green]

Benteke could have had a hat trick of tap ins from Jack Grealish crosses, four if  Porcelain Ron had given Grealish the ball instead of  trying to knock my glasses off in Holte Lower.   The most telling chance for a bad tempered Benteke was his bottling out of the very late chance one on one with their keeper.   He seemed to hold back from the impact which is totally unlike him.
Perhaps it is Billy Big Bollocks creeping in or perhaps it is Milan Baros syndrome, that he wants to showcase himself and not sustain another injury.

[JUAN PABLO]

The sooner we replace ngz , cleverly and Weiman with better players to go straight in the first team the better and gabby isn't
Much better , he should be an impact sub.

We go on about Weiman out of position but when he gets in front of goal he has the brain and shot of Susan Boyle. He would be better to get him back on the bench before he loses all that potential
He once had and should not ever be starting.

Grealish was very good ,but nobody in the box for most of his balls in there.

Again Lambert picks the wrong team , pick grealish to start and even bacuna for weiman and nzg and decide either cleverly or gabby to start ,thou both are not good enough .

Sánchez was excellent.   Clark and guzan did their jobs . 

[Clampy]

A decent point overall I suppose considering that we played with 10 men for virtually the whole of the second half. He got the subs right as well although at the time I thought he'd brought on Grealish a bit too early. I'd start him for the next three games now though and see how he gets on. As for Sanchez, he was great again and you could say that he's held the midfield together in recent games.

[rob_bridge]

The sooner we replace ngz , cleverly and Weiman with better players to go straight in the first team the better and gabby isn't
Much better , he should be an impact sub.

We go on about Weiman out of position but when he gets in front of goal he has the brain and shot of Susan Boyle. He would be better to get him back on the bench before he loses all that potential
He once had and should not ever be starting.

Grealish was very good ,but nobody in the box for most of his balls in there.

Again Lambert picks the wrong team , pick grealish to start and even bacuna for weiman and nzg and decide either cleverly or gabby to start ,thou both are not good enough .

Sánchez was excellent.   Clark and guzan did their jobs .

Have to agree - though Weiman worked his arse off when we went down to 10 men.

Bacuna and Grealish to start on Thursday please.

We need better players on the bench than Richardson, Herd and Lowton.

Well done to Clark for turning it around - he has had a very good 6 weeks all told and I hope it continues.

[brian green]

Off topic but relevant.   Great sympathy for you both, Ads and Leyland regarding the traffic.   We did our standard crawl from the east and the A14 and M6 were worse than ever.   I don't know what caused the M6 southbound blockages but the northbound was a series of totally minor fender benders with drivers shouting and raging.  The usual driving too close and too fast on inadequately gritted and salted roads of winter holiday Britain.   Peace on earth goodwill to me? My arse.

[Dave]

I can guarantee that everybody who watched the game either in person had a better time of it than me, who missed the game, because it took 3.5 hours to go 20 miles down the M6. I abandoned my attempts to make it for the second half, when at half three and approaching J18 at 10mph, I was told that there were long delays around Stafford.

I was quite the angry man.

The were a couple of times during the match that I think being stuck in traffic would have been preferable to watching it.

[Taylor]

Not that bothered about Benteke's moaning to be honest. When Gabby misses a sitter he laughs it off, and consequently gets abuse on the match thread. I guess it's just down to different personalities, and the way they play the game.

The easiest way to cheer Benteke up is give him the ball in the right place so he can put in the bleedin' net!

[brian green]

And for Mr Benteke to be in the right place to receive the ball.

[tomd2103]

Hughes had an awful time at QPR and wasn't good enough for citeh but he's otherwise had a good managerial career and did well at fulham for nothing. There's also an incorrect feeling that he just builds thuggish sides. His Blackburn team was that to begin with but soon became very easy on the eye

Villa's defence and central midfield is now much much better than it was in lambert's first season.

It's the players in the final third who are the problem. As evidenced very well yesterday. Our signings in those positions behind the striker haven't worked out at all since Young and Downing left. We need to sign two players to play in those positions asap, even if GREALISH does come through

Totally agree Matt.  It has been blindingly obvious for a couple of seasons now that we need that player in the final third who can link things up and create.  To be fair Lambert probably thought Joe Cole could do that for us, but with all due respect, that looked like a flawed signing from the outset.   

[Ron Manager]

Benteke didnt go in with 100% conviction on that late chance. Not sure most of us would. But great Villa centre forwards such as Andy Gray and Tony Hateley would have taken on the goalie with full force despite the prospect of getting clattered.

[Walmley_Villa]

One thing I did notice yesterday with our 'new' style is that when our players receive the ball they are always facing our goal and thus the natural instinct is to pass back or sideways. Benteke, Weimann and Gabby are better running onto a ball, as such they probably aren't the right players for the system.

[supertom]

I do have some sympathy for Benteke in terms of his moaning. He doesn't always make the runs a CF should be making, but there have been occasions that we've got into positions and the delivery has been utterly wretched, or Weimann has taken on a shot that just isn't on.

Likewise Benteke's role seems to be all encompassing. He plays right up top, he plays out wide, he drops off and plays as a 10. It might be confusing him in as much as the runs he should be making to receive the ball. He's making a few late runs to the edge of the box that a 10 might, rather than making those runs along the 6 yard box trying to blindside one of the CH's.

It's all on him at the moment. Even for a player that good it's too much pressure. Take out Sanchez and no one bar the back line is even close to doing their job well enough. That can't be helping Benteke.