The underlying problem...

[Toronto Villa]

Toronto, Our Jack was taken off today. Everybody can have a less than perfect game.

But Tim hasn't been able to pick an ideal team because of injuries. Next week, training granted, he will. It would be very helpful if they all did what we know they are capable of!

Lou every team has injuries. It's not an excuse for setting up not to concede from the off then trying to get back into games when the horse has often bolted. That's his approach now and when you do that players make mistakes trying not to make mistakes. I'd rather we went at teams and made them make errors because as we saw today as soon as we took it to Liverpool they began to buckle. The players in this side need to be told from the start they can win the game and they'll be playing to win. But we have such a meek, submissive mentality at the club. Something I honestly believed Sherwood would never become affected by and he has.

[Damo70]

Bad managerial appointments since MON walked out. Houllier had a history of health problems and had been out of hands on football management for a while. Followed by appointing a bloke who had just got Small Heath relegated and who would do a complete U turn on the way Houllier had tried to take the club. No arguments with Lambert's appointment but he should have been sacked sooner. Sherwood (and I'm still backing him to get things right) was undoubtably a gamble. Still, if the worst comes to the worst an experienced football administrator and former international coach would fit the bill. Step forward Sepp and Michel.

[claret and blue blood]

The underlying problem for this great club has always been the owner and I'm not just referring to Lerner as I can go back to Norman Smith and the "board must go" days.
Ellis took over then and it's fair to say I eventually hated him with a passion for continuously holding us back when we had opportunities to become a top club.
As much as I hated Ellis , Lerner has taken bad ownership to the level of criminal negligence as he has washed his hands of us and allowed us to slide into a bad joke of a club with an absolutely terrible defeatist DNA.

[oldtimernow]

and nobody seems to know what to do when we get a throw-in


been a problem for years

[preston28]

The underlying problem is that for the last 5 years we have been sh*t and only just managed to avoid being flushed away at the end of the season. We hung around like an irritating floatie until the start of the new season.

This season I fear we will go with the first flush into the championship cesspool.

[PeterWithe]

I fully understand the fear of relegation after so many years of hanging round the arse end of the table however, this is a stronger squad than we have had for quite a while and Sherwood can't continue to keep making mistakes, he will get tactically better. Won't he?

[PaulWinch again]

I am bored and absolutely sick to death of Aston Villa being terrible for nearly every week of the last five or six years. I know we haven't been relegated yet, but I find that pretty remarkable. We are largely joyless to watch and an embarrassment most of the time. It doesn't seem to matter who the manager is or who the players are it just seems written into the DNA of the club now.

[Clampy]

I fully understand the fear of relegation after so many years of hanging round the arse end of the table however, this is a stronger squad than we have had for quite a while and Sherwood can't continue to keep making mistakes, he will get tactically better. Won't he?

That's it for me. He was brave enough to overhaul the squad where another manager might have blown the whole budget on direct replacements for Benteke and Delph. I think we need to stick with it.

[OzVilla]

Where do you start with a question like this. There's a number of things you could say but to choose just one:

It's the losing culture that has permeated down from Lerner and his mismanagement of the playing side of the Club almost from the day he arrived.

 I sure he means well and I'm proud of some of our off field initiatives but as a Football Club it's been dreadful.

[Virgil Caine]

The underlying problem is that even if we thrash Stoke say 4-0 we would have absolutely no confidence that we could then beat Chelsea. The odd ray of hope is always followed by piss shower of reality. I just cannot fathom how we have fallen behind the likes of Leicester, Watford, Bournmouth, Stoke, Crystal Palace etc in regards to a fight and determination to be better. The air of superiority and complacency that exists even though survival is the sum of our ambitions is evidence of how low we have sunk. We have now completely lost touch we our peer group, we did successfully compete for many years and had a belief we could get positive results even if we played Chelsea one week and Liverpool the next.
I , like many of you, have tried to be positive but the constant wearing down of any optimism is having an effect. My one hope is that the confidence missing comes back and everyone starts to truly believe we are a good side.

[Jockey Randall]

We've had several managers over the last few years trying different tactics, formations and ways to try and stop the rot and improve. None of which have had any success. To me it's seem obvious there's one stinking great problem throughout this period and it's that most of the teams in the league have a better overall squad than we do. We carry too many guys that simply don't cut it. Westwood, Hutton, Bacuna, Gabby etc are just not up to the level we require to progress. Buy a better quality of player than the likes of Stoke, Swansea etc and get a manager and coaching staff that help them play as a team and we might start climbing out of this mess. I agree with others that the standard of the squad is better this season but the problem for us is that it appears the rest of the also rans have improved as well and raised the bar. West Ham signing players like Payet just sets us further behind the likes of them. You really do need to spend just to stand still in this league.

[olaftab]

The underlying problem is that even if we thrash Stoke say 4-0 we would have absolutely no confidence that we could then beat Chelsea. The odd ray of hope is always followed by piss shower of reality. I just cannot fathom how we have fallen behind the likes of Leicester, Watford, Bournmouth, Stoke, Crystal Palace etc

Let's get a win against Stoke and I will worry about Chelsea afterwards. But I hear what you are saying. We just want a competitive team that wins as many as it loses at the moment nothing more.

[Ron Manager]

The underlying problem is that even if we thrash Stoke say 4-0 we would have absolutely no confidence that we could then beat Chelsea. The odd ray of hope is always followed by piss shower of reality. I just cannot fathom how we have fallen behind the likes of Leicester, Watford, Bournmouth, Stoke, Crystal Palace etc in regards to a fight and determination to be better. The air of superiority and complacency that exists even though survival is the sum of our ambitions is evidence of how low we have sunk. We have now completely lost touch we our peer group, we did successfully compete for many years and had a belief we could get positive results even if we played Chelsea one week and Liverpool the next.
I , like many of you, have tried to be positive but the constant wearing down of any optimism is having an effect. My one hope is that the confidence missing comes back and everyone starts to truly believe we are a good side.

Unfortunately that is the problem. We are not a good side. We are indecisive in central defence,poor at right back and disjointed further forward. If Agbonlahor had been fit yesterday Sherwood would have played him which would would not have proved helpful.

Both Lambert and Sherwood can obviously spot a player but neither have a clue how to set up a team or make the right tactical changes when the time comes. Why,for instance did Ayew not make an appearance yesterday? It just does not make sense.

Gerard Houllier was our best chance after MON left but for reasons discussed many times it didn't work out.

We need a proffessional manager someone who can forge a tight working unit from a set of mainly talented players

Perhaps we should look at Nigel Pearson, who upsets a lot of people, but got nine wins out of eleven to keep Leicester up. Or offer Sir Alex
a two year contract to come out of retirement and sort the playing side of the club out as only he could.

As The Stranglers said, 'Something Better Change'....and quickly!

[aj2k77]

If you employ the following

Semi retired manager with health problems
Relegation merchant with no balls who is terrified of losing games
Guy with 12 months experience in top flight football at a small club with backroom staff who's his mate and brother in law
Bloke who's never managed a season in the top flight and has no other experience at all

Then you are going to keep getting fucked, unless one of your 1000/1 gambles pays off. Nowadays that's all we do though, gamble on young unproven players to become gems, gamble on managers from non entity clubs to make the step up, gamble on inexperienced managers to miraculously learn quick on the job and not end up broken. Everything is a gamble.

Even Fox has had to make a huge step up from his previous job to what he is doing now. I think they're all seriously out of their depth, unqualified people from top to bottom making desperate decisions on things they don't have a grasp on.

I cannot wait until Lerner fucks off elsewhere and takes every last one of his clueless cronies with him.

[passport1]

But surely we as fans need to do more than moan on forums.