Knee jerk thread,

[WookieD]

Villa have an atrocious squad, but that's nothing to do with Lambert. He should be able to keep them up though and next season we'll see what he's about.

Atrocious? What the hell are you talking about. What other bottom half teams can list players like N'Zogbia, Given, Bent, Agbonlahor, Dunne, Ireland, Hutton or Vlaar. Most relegation fodder can only dream of a squad like theirs, they shouldn't be anywhere near the bottom.

 

[Jordinho]

Atrocious? What the hell are you talking about. What other bottom half teams can list players like N'Zogbia, Given, Bent, Agbonlahor, Dunne, Ireland, Hutton or Vlaar. Most relegation fodder can only dream of a squad like theirs, they shouldn't be anywhere near the bottom.

N'Zogbia and Bent are complete passengers and Ireland only shows up 1 out of 3 games. Dunne is finished. Most of their squad is made up of youngsters that are nowhere near PL level.

 

[Gutter Boy]

Atrocious? What the hell are you talking about. What other bottom half teams can list players like N'Zogbia, Given, Bent, Agbonlahor, Dunne, Ireland, Hutton or Vlaar. Most relegation fodder can only dream of a squad like theirs, they shouldn't be anywhere near the bottom.

I wouldn't want any of those anywhere near our squad.

Teams that come up with a strong, aligned, championship squad often do better than declining teams made up of has-beens and average journeymen. The latter is what Saudi Sportswashing Machine and West Ham have gone down with in recent years

 

[Rossi22]

Are aliases not frowned upon on here?

 

[Hotshot-Tottenham]

I don't get why AVB keeps taking off Hudd when we're under pressure when the only player to bring on is Livermore.

Was watching Dortmund vs Real this midweek, the instant Dortmund scored their 2-1 goal their manager Klopp pointed to the technically very good Gundogan and brought him on for one of the two more traditional defensive midfielders they started the game with (Bender iirc). Logic being that you know you're going to be put under pressure, you need someone who is good on the ball so you can relieve some of that pressure, set up counter attacks and keep possession under pressure.

Taking off the best passer we had on the pitch just invites more pressure. We do miss Dembele rather desperately and if AVB can't trust Hudd more than he does then we have to bring in another central play maker in January.

All I can think of is Hudd isn't fit. But it could be that AVB simply doesn't rate him that much. He wanted to sell him earlier this season to Stoke. The subs today were bizarre though. You're under pressure and need an outball with pace so you take Defoe off and put Dempsey up top on his own? You are losing the midfield battle so you put on Sigurdsson who is powderpuff defensively. In the dying moments you take off your only forward and throw on a third central defender to play 5-5-0? I haven't seen this sort of strangeness since Ramos!

surely it's clearly because isn't fully fit?

what would be said if he left him on, he's blowing out of his arse and the opposition start waltzing past him for the last 10 minutes? damned if you do...

and also, he was only due to go to Stoke on loan, so I don't think AVB wanted to sell him at all.

what else can AVB do when a change has to be made? No Modric, no Dembele, no Parker... and let's be honest, Jake should be suited to come in and do a job. he's not really let us down before, and i can only think he's a little rusty. you really think Carroll is ready to come in on a day like today? maybe he is, but you'd have to concede that Jake is further along the line.

 

[Danishfurniturelover]

Sorry Chich, he is at a good club. Villa have much superior revenue to the majority of other Prem clubs and have a very good squad by bottom half standards, yet he has them on 6 points... Yet you'd prefer him over AVB? 6 points from 9 games suggests to me that Lambert isn't learning from his own mistakes.

Personally I think our football is an eye sore at the moment and AVB has a lot to put right, but some of your assertions are as bad as ones previously levelled at Redknapp. How are you going to blame AVB for not signing a striker when we had clear targets but Levy fudged about AGAIN and lost again, for example?

well i agree with you on most of that, i will wait to see with lambert at villa just like i will with avb at us, i do not know what mistakes he is making at villa becaause i do not watch them, if i did i would no doubt be very critical, it is in my nature as i strive to improve myself.

Also agree about levy, some have suggested avb did not want dempsey(WHY THE fudge WOULD HE) so i do not totally blame him on that front, but i do see enough to be concerned thata he is not learning from mistakes.

Levy is hte biggest problem at the club and he gets no more time from me, every transfer window is the same fudging thing, if we had to sign dempsey then go for him at the start of the window not leaving it to the end which looks like a panic buy.

If we had got in dempsey(shudders) aand adebayor at the start of the window then the squad would have had more time to get used to a change of style.

But i remain firm in my mind that so far avb has not learned from some mistakes, like leaving some sort of creative outlet on the field to keep a hold of the ball when we are under pressure, playing far to defensive and just frankly odd selections.

 

[Danishfurniturelover]

Atrocious? What the hell are you talking about. What other bottom half teams can list players like N'Zogbia, Given, Bent, Agbonlahor, Dunne, Ireland, Hutton or Vlaar. Most relegation fodder can only dream of a squad like theirs, they shouldn't be anywhere near the bottom.

hutton is like robbie keane was in his last season with us, finished. Same can be said for ireland. Think dunne is injured agbonlahor was always over rated, i like given and bent although limited gets goals.

 

[Gutter Boy]

Are aliases not frowned upon on here?

Dupe accounts are I think. You can change your name on request though, like Chich often does.

 

[WookieD]

hutton is like robbie keane was in his last season with us, finished. Same can be said for ireland. Think dunne is injured agbonlahor was always over rated, i like given and bent although limited gets goals.

The only player out of that lot that I really think could be in a better side is N'Zogbia. But looking at Gutterboy and Jordinho's appraisal of them I completely disagree. There SHOULD be a strong backbone there and there MUST be something salvageable in Stephen Ireland.

 

[Jordinho]

N'Zogbia doesn't put in the work, same with Bent. Happy to coast through their career on natural ability alone. They are making brickloads of money and are never gonna get into a top team, so in some ways it makes sense.

 

[WookieD]

But i remain firm in my mind that so far avb has not learned from some mistakes, like leaving some sort of creative outlet on the field to keep a hold of the ball when we are under pressure, playing far to defensive and just frankly odd selections.

I definitely think he needs to learn from his mistakes. There is some proof that he can, like reverting back to two strikers a few weeks ago instead of being stubborn on formation. But other times he really doesn't, like his negative tactics to hold a lead that put us under unnecessary pressure.

I also think we seem completely clueless, tactically in the final third. There doesn't seem to be any set of specific instructions on how to actually create chances and all becomes a bit lassaiz faire.

Anyway, time will tell.

 

[DHSF]

I definitely think he needs to learn from his mistakes. There is some proof that he can, like reverting back to two strikers a few weeks ago instead of being stubborn on formation. But other times he really doesn't, like his negative tactics to hold a draw that put us under unnecessary pressure.

I also think we seem completely clueless, tactically in the final third. There doesn't seem to be any set of specific instructions on how to actually create chances and all becomes a bit lassaiz faire.

Anyway, time will tell.

At home yes - away no. Away we seem fine. Home we seem fudgein clueless. We really need to distinguish between the two 'venues' so to speak.

 

[braineclipse]

surely it's clearly because isn't fully fit?

what would be said if he left him on, he's blowing out of his arse and the opposition start waltzing past him for the last 10 minutes? damned if you do...

and also, he was only due to go to Stoke on loan, so I don't think AVB wanted to sell him at all.

what else can AVB do when a change has to be made? No Modric, no Dembele, no Parker... and let's be honest, Jake should be suited to come in and do a job. he's not really let us down before, and i can only think he's a little rusty. you really think Carroll is ready to come in on a day like today? maybe he is, but you'd have to concede that Jake is further along the line.

I hope so, but I'm far from sure. Hudd didn't look like he was running out of steam.

There was a lot more than 10 minutes left, had the change been made in the 80th minute it would have made a lot more sense to me.

 

[WookieD]

At home yes - away no. Away we seem fine. Home we seem fudgein clueless. We really need to distinguish between the two 'venues' so to speak.

I disagree mate. I just see that in away matches we have more opportunity to counter and more space for Bale and Lennon to run. I'm going to do a little bit of a study on it soon, but our use of the central space, regardless of where we are playing, is a joke and at the moment it doesn't matter who plays AM, it is a wasted position. The amount of times I've seen one of out CMs holding the ball around the centre circle and no one to play forward to because all movement has gone too far forward or out wide is a joke.

 

[Jordinho]

I disagree mate. I just see that in away matches we have more opportunity to counter and more space for Bale and Lennon to run. I'm going to do a little bit of a study on it soon, but our use of the central space, regardless of where we are playing, is a joke and at the moment it doesn't matter who plays AM, it is a wasted position. The amount of times I've seen one of out CMs holding the ball around the centre circle and no one to play forward to because all movement has gone too far forward or out wide is a joke.

I agree that our triangle of CMs just isn't working, but we don't have the required player to get a real possession game going, so we rely on the pace of our wingers.

 

[WookieD]

Definitely, but at the moment it is exacerbated by the fact that the central option isn't available for better or worse as most of the time Defoe and the AM have pulled away too far and there is a gaping hole in the middle with no option on. Really basic mistake imo.

 

[Hotshot-Tottenham]

I don't get why AVB keeps taking off Hudd when we're under pressure when the only player to bring on is Livermore.

Was watching Dortmund vs Real this midweek, the instant Dortmund scored their 2-1 goal their manager Klopp pointed to the technically very good Gundogan and brought him on for one of the two more traditional defensive midfielders they started the game with (Bender iirc). Logic being that you know you're going to be put under pressure, you need someone who is good on the ball so you can relieve some of that pressure, set up counter attacks and keep possession under pressure.

Taking off the best passer we had on the pitch just invites more pressure. We do miss Dembele rather desperately and if AVB can't trust Hudd more than he does then we have to bring in another central play maker in January.

I hope so, but I'm far from sure. Hudd didn't look like he was running out of steam.

There was a lot more than 10 minutes left, had the change been made in the 80th minute it would have made a lot more sense to me.

oh, yes mate - i realise... was just making a point.

bear in mind Hudd did play on Thursday as well so that may have had an effect on either his performance and / or AVB's assessment of him.

as up and down as we are, i do think it's clear - today at least - that we were better with him on the pitch. i'm sure AVB can see that so i would think the change was made out of necessity.

 

[Gutter Boy]

At home yes - away no. Away we seem fine. Home we seem fudgein clueless. We really need to distinguish between the two 'venues' so to speak.

Im sure that's what Moutinho was crucial for - a ball retainer and ball player for when we need to dominate possession. We all know we've been fantastic on the break for years.

 

[Mumorn]

4th without Dembele, Kaboul, Ade, Benny, Parker; most of whom have not played at all or barely played. Good going

 

[glorygloryeze]

4th without Dembele, Kaboul, Ade, Benny, Parker; most of whom have not played at all or barely played. Good going

But is it a false position, based on the fact that we've had an easier run than say, Southampton?

Not complaining though, that's for sure!