Sunderland v 'The Mighty' Aston Villa Match Thread

[Toronto Villa]

We're playing Sunderland who have a marginally better goal scored record than us. They are also crap at home and like us in many ways get nervous quickly in front of their home fans. We need to get into them, get the first goal and kill any little bit of belief they have. That line is fine and great to see Benteke in there.

[OCD]

Blimey, that's an attacking line-up.

[Monty]

Aren't Sunderland 4-3-1-2? Depends where Alvarez plays I suppose. If they have gone with that we should lose the midfield, but we can double-up on their full backs when breaking.

[Ron Manager]

Would have prefered to see Carlos Sanchez playing as defensive midfielder.....but we shall see how things pan out.

[Lastfootstamper]

Early goal, open the game up, smash 'em.

I'm downright refusing to entertain any other outcome from that team selection.

[CJ]

Very attacking line up  -  I'm just a bit worried that with both Sinclair & n'Zogbia in we don't have someone in midfield to break up play. I'd have had Sanchez in there instead of Cleverley. At least we won't have Westwood gently floating set pieces into the hands of their goalie or out of play

[PaulWinch again]

Win please Villa.

[berneboy]

We can't have it both ways. We have all been agitated about the lack of goals, negative thinking and lack of belief.

Sherwood is sorting all these. He's after a win!

[brontebilly]

Them:

Pantilimon, Reveillere, van Aanholt, Brown, O'Shea (c), Bridcutt, Larsson, Rodwell, Alvarez, Defoe, Fletcher.

subs: Jones, Wickham, Gomez, Graham, Coates, Vergini, Mannone.

They look pretty 4-4-2 as well.

thats a poor side to be honest. First goal will be crucial

[Dave]

Them:

Pantilimon, Reveillere, van Aanholt, Brown, O'Shea (c), Bridcutt, Larsson, Rodwell, Alvarez, Defoe, Fletcher.

subs: Jones, Wickham, Gomez, Graham, Coates, Vergini, Mannone.

They look pretty 4-4-2 as well.

thats a poor side to be honest. First goal will be crucial

Van Aanholt aside it's a very slow side. I'd hope that N'Zogbia, Sinclair and Gabby have been told to run at people wherever possible.

[OCD]

Defoe and Fletcher, with Wickham on the bench. They could be quite threatening. Looks like both teams are playing 4-4-2.

[pooligan]

When our defenders get injured they stay injured it seems.

[Rudy Can't Fail]

We're playing Sunderland who have a marginally better goal scored record than us. They are also crap at home and like us in many ways get nervous quickly in front of their home fans. We need to get into them, get the first goal and kill any little bit of belief they have. That line is fine and great to see Benteke in there.

Their home form may be crap but have you seen our away form? We absolutely need to "get into them" but as they play very narrow I worry Delph and Cleverly will be outnumbered in midfield.

[DrGonzo]

Cleverley could be outnumbered in binary.

[Toronto Villa]

We're playing Sunderland who have a marginally better goal scored record than us. They are also crap at home and like us in many ways get nervous quickly in front of their home fans. We need to get into them, get the first goal and kill any little bit of belief they have. That line is fine and great to see Benteke in there.

Their home form may be crap but have you seen our away form? We absolutely need to "get into them" but as they play very narrow I worry Delph and Cleverly will be outnumbered in midfield.

At the risk of sounding flippant, I am completely dismissing anything we "achieved" this season under Lambert. Yes our form home and away has been poor which is why we are where we are. But last weeks home performance was better than anything this season under Lambert and I expect the away form to improve too. That starts with pressing and not being afraid to attack.