Aston Villa vs Leicester City Post Match Thread

[Phil from the upper holte]

1st half shite, 2nd much better, Cleverly had his best match, however I thought Delph was poor. Sinclair goal lucky but if you buy a ticket you just might win the raffle, only my 3rd home game of the season and we won, won 2 lost one now, Think I need to go more often

[Phil from the upper holte]

No contest for me.
Brad first choice every time.

Me too

[Dr Butler]

I loved the 2nd half and especially when we were breaking forward as the midfield seemed to be racing each other to get in the box

Cleverley's best game so far....and what a save form Shay

UTV
The Doc

[peter w]

The second half, there was a period of where we were first to every loose ball, flew in to the tackle, won all the 50/50 challenges and completely dominated the middle of the park, I know it was against Leicester but I loved it, a definite re-awakening for some of them about what's required to grab hold of a game.

That's what I don't get about Lambert.

In his first year, we used to be like that frequently. If we didn't have the ball, we'd chase like fuck to get it back. Not unlike Dortmund's way of playing.

I think that's a good reason why after that first season he still had so much support. Last season and this, though, it just sort of disappeared. I never really understood why.

I remember reading a match report after we lost 2-1 at Chelsea after the Arsenal win. Whoever was the journalist said that Villa looked battled hardened after the previous season. We then lost at home against liverpool and have never looked the same since.

[robbo1874]

It's funny with the cup. I'd love a home draw against Blackburn or reading etc, but, as shit as the last few seasons have been (and they have been terrible) we have still managed to beat all of the top sides on occasion, with the exception of Utd. If we can avoid them til the final then fucking game on at wembley. We shouldn't fear anyone in the qtrs.

[mrastonvilla]

Much better 2nd half. Asking Delph to try and play that extra 10 yards further forward made an enormous difference to our play and drew Leicester out a little more.

Hope we can get a good (home) draw tonight.

[frankmosswasmyuncle]

One thing I really like about Bacuna is when the play is broken and we are attacking at pace he's a real threat and can beat a man and score a goal.

Westwood disappointed me yesterday and gave away 2/3 free kicks around the area. Sanchez, Westwood, Cleveley, Delph, Gil, Sinclair and Bacuna. There are options there.

I have become obsessed with us defending too deeply, especially when we go a goal up...we need to defend 10 yards further up the pitch. Had we done that Westwood would not need to make the clumsy, desperate tackles he did yesterday...or if he did, they wouldn't be in such dangerous positions.

[Hookeysmith]

I liked the analysis on MOTD last night where the graphic showed clearly in the 2nd half how we had our midfield getting into forward positions, at times there were up to 3 of them in the box when we attacked.
Intetesting how this was seen by TS from a seat in the stands. I have always thought how limiting it must be for Managers to watch from pitch level and am surprised that more dont view from on high.

Anyway 1st half was a bit sterile but still a tad better than last few games under PL. 2nd half their goal apart, which we should never allowed the cross great header or not, i thought we dominated

recorded as 17 attempts on goal, 7 on target

Much much better

[Boz]

Thought all our midfielders operated at about 75% today...that's an improvement for Cleverley, about average for Westwood and under par for Delph.

I look forward to Mr Sherwood getting a steady 90/95% out of them every game.

I'd hope when he sees them in training he'll be able to see who fits with the style of play he wants. Yesterday, in the second half it was great to see mid fielders breaking forward and pressing the defenders, haven't seen that very often this season.

[walsall villain]

I liked the analysis on MOTD last night where the graphic showed clearly in the 2nd half how we had our midfield getting into forward positions, at times there were up to 3 of them in the box when we attacked.
Intetesting how this was seen by TS from a seat in the stands. I have always thought how limiting it must be for Managers to watch from pitch level and am surprised that more dont view from on high.

Anyway 1st half was a bit sterile but still a tad better than last few games under PL. 2nd half their goal apart, which we should never allowed the cross great header or not, i thought we dominated

recorded as 17 attempts on goal, 7 on target

Much much better

I was encouraged by yesterday too but actually the game didn't pan out very differently from when we played them at home in December. Sterile first half then but Clark did get that well worked equaliser. Second half we went on to win and could have scored more. 16 shots, 7 on target. That second half under Lambert was as good as it got, normally the second half was as dull as the first.
One conclusion you can draw, Leicester are crap.

[Rudy Can't Fail]

One conclusion you can draw, Leicester are crap.

They weren't crap, at least in the part I saw the week before away against Palace. They really should have been out of sight by half time. There are loads of crap teams this season, ourselves included, so I wouldn't dismiss them completely. The big difference was we wanted to win it more (and we obviously have a far better team, not that you'd have it for most of this season).

[pauliewalnuts]

One conclusion you can draw, Leicester are crap.

They weren't crap, at least in the part I saw the week before away against Palace. They really should have been out of sight by half time. There are loads of crap teams this season, ourselves included, so I wouldn't dismiss them completely. The big difference was we wanted to win it more (and we obviously have a far better team, not that you'd have it for most of this season).

I think the two worst sides I've seen this season are Leicester and Hull. Of course, both teams who have beaten us this season.

That's our problem - losing to sides we should beat, frequently in matches where we have been better than them. Hull were a great example. They were utterly crap, truly shit, yet still managed to beat us.

I thought Leicester were truly awful yesterday. The difference was that, in the second half at least, we started to look like we were playing, if not at our best, much better than we have done for ages.

Although they were horrific to watch, it wasn't the likes of the recent defeat at Arsenal or even shipping eight goals at Chelsea that did for Lambert, it was the frequency with which we'd play awful teams (like that lot yesterday) and manage to come away with nothing.

That was why the "but he's not had much money" argument never really did it for me - too many poor, poor results against awful sides.

I said this the other day, but under Lambert we managed to be both "almost a really good team" and "pretty awful" at the same time as he could never dot the i's or cross the t's to get us looking more like the completed article.

For all the months and months of awful results, Sherwood is in a good position, as it really won't take much to massively improve this side, he just needs to identify the problem (ie the midfield issue, which, frankly, a one-eyed man on a galloping horse could spot) and fix it. The second half yesterday was a great example of how one not particularly mind blowing change can see us dispatching awful sides like Leicester, rather than making them look decent.

[Toronto Villa]

The midfield not getting forward enough, Benteke off form and lacking confidence plus two other forwards who haven't been great, using full backs as wingers are all major reasons as to why we have such a horrible goals total. By just getting wingers into the game, and encouraging the midfield to attack the box he'll have gone a long way to solving the problem. Get Benteke one goal and a bit of belief and all of sudden things look really different. Add in a fit Vlaar (insert joke here) to what is already a pretty good defence and keeper and we'll get out of this situation. Oh and a manager that is positive and confident. Important too.

[Chris Smith]

Sinclair was stripped ready to come on a minute before Bacuna scored but the sat down. Then when he did come on got the second. It was like the Gods were smiling on us for a change.

Much changed atmosphere in the Holte too, even during the sterile first half.

[Small Rodent]

I do like it that Vlaar carries the ball forward on occasion into the other half.