Terry Jones gives his opinion about the team;
Moving on from my last submission, D-DAY has come and gone and we have a foot hold on the beach with three points against Norwich.
However, having watched the game twice now I am still not overly convinced that we have made the much needed improvement to take the club forward.
We are still reliant on one player, but now he is injured who is capable of stepping up to the mark?
Ok Kozak scored our goal but if it had not been for Gabby providing him with the chance I was fearing we were headed for a draw or even worse.
Guzan was outstanding and saved us time and time again and Gabby for me was excellent as usual.
The defence was still poor though and the mid-field not really up to the task.
The passing was shabby and we did not use the full width of the park by playing to narrow.
We give the ball away too easily and never seem to move forward as a unit. By bunching together in the middle of the park we are leaving the flanks wide open for the opposition to get round the back of them thus putting pressure on the defence.
Man City next up and if Guzan is not on the same form as yesterday we are in for a very rough ride and our celebrations may be short lived.
Can anyone honestly see us putting two wins together back to back? as this is what we need to do if we are to see a team that is improving.
Our style of play does not seem to give hope of ever stringing a winning run together and I still say we are not a mid-table team unless these players can get it together and play as a unit or we see a change in Lambert tactics.
Too true Terry needs more than a lucky win before im convinced im still seeing the same mistakes over and over again improvement to me will see us on a winning streak if we get thrashed by man city 4 or 5 nil im calling for Lambert head it will just prove to me that he cant take us forward sort iit out lambert
You’ll be calling for Lamberts head if we are thrashed by Man City?
You do realise how pathetic that statement actually is don’t you?
VILLA1996 mate people will always tend to go over the top and think we have turned the corner.But as you point out to show any signs of improvement must put a string of wins together and start by winning at home.VP should be a fortress where others fear to tread.
to be totally honest, im not overly convinced either, I will however point out the obvious in that we’ve had a very tough fixture list with the 1st 3 games and performed reasonably well over all those games, Newcastle was a disaster and the worst ive seen from villa since Bradford.
overall points and performance wise its quite positive(the loss of benteke is huge 🙁 ) however it was the manner in which we lost against Newcastle and the same old problems and mistakes still being made that concerned me the most and that goes for lambert as well as the team.
we got a good result yesterday no matter how many people say Norwich are shit their home record speaks for itself so we should be in all honesty looking on the positive side.
there is still the nagging doubts though watching last week I could have been watching the team that lost 4-1 to Southampton.
be we needed them to respond and respond they did, 3pts, clean sheet and a decent performance(what ever anyone else says)a 100% improvement on effort from last weekend too is something you cant really argue with is it?
Mate am not arguing that there was not an improvement on the Newcastle game.I don;t give a monkeys how we win as long as any improvement is significant to show we have a team that is capable of taking the club to the next level and does Lambert have the acumen to take the club to that next level by applying tactics that will see us not win one game and lose three.But put a string of wins together and most importantly WIN at home make VP the fortress it once was.Then a lot of people on here may have a pleasant surprise as to my views.
I’m still not a believer either. I thought apart from Brad,Gabby and Delph it still looked shoddy. At least it was 3 points,a change of luck and the monkey off our back with the lack of a clean sheet for ages finally addressed. At least the pressure is off going into the City game. We need to work out a better strategy for playing at home and keep beating the sides like Norwich. 6 points from 5 games not a bad return having played 3 of the top teams.
Calling for Lambert’s head does no good. A team needs consistent leadership to move forward. We’ve had a near total turnover of the squad and this is the first year in several that we’ve had continuity at manager from the previous year. 6 points in 5 matches is sound progress over last year. As the lads coalesce, it’s only up for Villa. That said, the defense still keeps me on the edge of my seat, and I’d love to see more width in the attack. But, I’m generally happy with the direction of things.
Sorry Terry I don’t give a shit what you think at the moment, and our assumptions mean nothing to me, I know from your days and mine times have changed, it has to and you know it. Stop knocking the club stop sitting in your little world thinking you know better than people that get paid to work, I bet you don’t work, I’m just as eager as you for my club to do well, what rials me is people like you that just sit on hear to get peoplle going, Terry, old an head here I know how your mind is going, leave it mate, this is my club you knock, I want change, and people like you don’t don’t matter, Aston Villa has to move on, its not the 60s no more, its the21st century get use to it like me, sorry to have a rant at you but all you are is a wind up merchant to get reactions, stop it, yes have your say, but stop knocking other people thinkings, your not god, Terry if you proove me wrong in time I’m the first to say sorry and pay for a drink or two, please stop knocking Villa and the manager till its obvious to all.
Sir terry talks a lot of sense though bill. Yes it was great to win yesterday and even more so with a clean sheet but to be fair we should never have gone that long not keeping clean sheet in first place.. There was so much wrong with the performance yesterday it’s untrue. Bear in mind it was Norwich and they dominated us and but for guzans heroics we would of lost. The new signings looked awful esp tonev. Kojak hasn’t got the pace and movement of benteke and pray he’s not going to be his replacement. Helenius shows good touches but that’s about it. Luna was appalling. Clarke has def improved though tbf.
Oohah, I don’t. Mind fair gripe but to use Aston Villa as a tool to moan is another thing, yes we was lucky and maybe we will get that luck again, hopefully, but he comes on here just to get people going, like yourself, Oohah I’m no fool mate you do it to get this site motivated, all I’m asking is please talk constructive, is, do you think that Clarke was hard done by, do you think that Cuzan played well , did 442 go down well looked more like 4411, that’s more of discussions not slagging, do you know what I’m saying, Oohah like the site and as I’ve said let’s get things in the right mode, we are Aston Villa through and through, don’t kick the club when things are down.we don’t need two people to play silly sods to get people going. Talk football please , yes say if when a player is not any good just don’t slag him.
OohAh, neither you nor Terry speak any sense at all, you make the odd valid point every now and again but then completely undo that with either wild speculation or just outright stupidity, you can call each other ‘Sir’ till you are blue in the face but at the end of the day, you are just a pair of idiots.
Some of the comments i see on here are outright stupid.
I have to agree with some of TJ’s comments, I am still nervous about the midfield support of the defence, however when Sylla come on it seemed to improve.
My biggest gripe was Tonev, 5 times he had a player to pass to who were on open goal shooting opportunity, and he went for the glory and missed not close but by miles, this is not a team player, and unless he improves the greed he should sit on the bench.
I do think Wieman will change his game now Benteke is not around.
Lastly do not expect us to win against Citeh, they will beat us but we need to control the damage limitation, this for me will be the improvement or the non improvement.
TDIV I agree we know things are not right, my gripe is constant knocking at the manager and club, I’ve watched 5 times that game, OK midfield and defence are crap, but do we need people reminding us of what we know and use that as a gun to our heads every time, Villa won, but no praise to the club on that, just still knocking and a normal discussions on who played well and who did not, no just a personal Vendeter at players, can we or just say I think so and so would have done better, thought Clarke was hard done by, Cusan was Brill, no just slagging of players every time, its wrong.
Bill, I agree we won and the team need the praise, and yes I give them that, I guess my issues were we could have had 4 more and still defended as we did .
I am for sure not calling for anyone’s head as Mat said we need consistency and stability. Plus there is no one who can take the job on.
Personally, I thought the defence handled themselves OK. It was the lack of midfield cover again that got the defence under pressure a lot and to be fair, they did a decent job. Gabby and Guzan were clearly standouts again and Delph was once again our only decent midfielder. Bacuna looked solid enough down back. I thought Helenius looked a good option when on the ball, I liked the look of him and he could play behind the striker, he has great feet. Tonev didn’t do much for me, but at least he had the balls to pull the trigger, we havn’t had that from a midfielder since Petrov has been gone.
Of course the loss of Benteke and Okore are huge, but Benteke will be back and Kozak can clearly score in his absence and maybe Weimann will pull his head out now he isn’t playing in Bentekes shadow.
I don’t see how people can say we havnt improved on the same time last year when we clearly have. Maybe not as much as we wanted, but we have and a continue steady improvement may see us finish the season off strong and climb the table late.
I don’t think we are worse than last season but midfield and defence is very week compared to other prem teams. Other than delph Wev no quality in midfield the midfielders can’t string 2 passes together and this is Norwich not utd Ffs. I admit that we are starting to look more solid in defence now and defending set pieces better mainly as Clarke has improved a lot. But on the flanks we are very weak still
Give the new players time to gel together, as Lambert hasn’t given them decent game time until now its hard to expect them at their age to just walk in and be able to read each other like a book. I think Bacuna deserves to keep his spot as in my opinion looked a lot better than Lowton has of recent too. I think the defence has improved.
KEA is shit. Id like Sylla to start, although he is technically very average he at least gives the defence some cover and tries his ass off. However I do see the only improvement we have made in the middle is the fact Delph just continues to get better. And dare I say it, If Delph gets injured, I feel it’d be a bigger loss than losing Benteke and Okore, at least we have some cover in those positions. Who the hell could possibly do Delphs role!
What do you think of Helenius? I like the look of him and think he will be excellent in time. Great on the ball and was able to keep control and move around defenders like we havnt had for a while.
The flanks are “weak”, I guess you can say, however it showed why. They don’t get cover. There’s a reason why Bacuna defended so well and Luna had trouble, Snodgrass, Martin and Van Wolfswinkel were triple teaming him all game, no cover from Delph and no cover from Weimann. We wouldn’t be weak on the flanks if they were covered. Bacuna didn’t have much trouble with that as they didn’t triple team him and he was covered better if they had more than 1 trying to take him on. Luna did as well as most LB’s would in such a situation, no he’s no Cole or Baines, but the flanks aren’t bad if they were properly covered by the DM and winger for the left side.
We didnt play that well yesterday, but we did manage to keep a clean sheet and pick up 3 points. That is what we can take away. Guzan was superb as was Delph again, and our defence held out. Kozak is no Benteke, but he will replace him well enough when needed.
We all know that we need to play a lot better next week…and 36% possession against Man City will mean a heavy loss. For me, tonev needs to be dropped and Sylla come into the middle. Westwood should come back in for KEA if he is fit too.
Now you can see the demise of M utd its come at last, and have to say many more will struggle this year. 3-0 after 48 minutes . Well.
Ok, stop it now, stop saying we need a winning run to prove we have improved. You know we have Man City coming up next, seriously is anyone expecting us to win? City are 3:0 up against Man U ffs. What we can see is how Lambert is managing his squad and focusing each player on his role in the team. Lowton, bad match against Newcastle,dropped.Westwood, dropped. KEA playing well, keeps his place. Bennett dropped. At last we have a big enough squad to allow this to happen. So in the scheme of things, 3 points yesterday was a job well done and we should celebrate! UTV
Much rather do it the man city way tbh who wouldn’t want the players they’ve got to watch week in week out. Wev got vlaar and kae they’ve got kompany and toure. Yes they can afford it etc and we can’t but at the end of the day we will never have a team like theirs in a million years shopping in pound land and selling our Harrods luxuries
Westwood wasn’t dropped, he’s injured.
And I’m not sure you can say KEA played well against Newcastle!
As much as I hate too I agree with this post. My posistivity is slowly seeping away. Yes we beat norwich and it was a good result and it looks like the decision to buy kozak has been fully justified, however I honestly think we are playing worse football then last year, I know, go figure. We now play long ball, why I don’t know since january to the end of last season we were playing slick passing and playing out from the back (even guzan) but that seems to have completely disspeared. Every team we have played this season has utterly outplayed us bar the second half against liverpool when we looked somewhat in control. Other than that I can’t think of a good spell of complete possession in any of the other games. I’m in real need of convincing at the moment. UTV
For me, it Sylla, Delph and Westwood should be first choice in the middle, if all fit.
Come on some people can’t agree with this!!! He says we are a 1 man team then goes on to say gabby and guzan are playing brilliant that’s 3 men isn’t it? Not to mention Delph makes 4 very good players! Before the norwich match he was sayin we will have to get clean sheets and 1-0s to see we hav improved, well we did it but now its win 2 games in a row! It will never end it will be 3 games in a row, score 3 goals a game, never concede a goal! Always moaning moaning moaning and not very often with any sense or logic! Players are improving but i have to say the play is not, our midfield is clearly lacking in movement off the ball, creativity, passing and goals, bacuna, helenius and kozak look decent enough so far luna i tink will come good with time which they all need but tonev has looked awful so far. There are negatives nobody can deny that but 6 points 5 games and 3 of those teams bein possible top 4 teams is a decent return im staying hopeful and positive at the moment, November is when we can really judge.
If we had a tough first 3 games, we have an equally tough next 5 in all competitions! Spurs flying high with a ridiculously strengthened squad. Why oh why could we not be playing Utd instead of city after the result today ffs! Got spurs again! Hull away won’t be easy though we are more capable away from home. Everton are the only unbeaten team in PL and they have plenty of quality players who are on form currently. I am very nervous about our next 5 games……
Dosnt always work like that city won’t sit back like most teams do at vp so we can prob get away with playing like the away team. I think we will get a draw tbh. Up until today city havnt looked that good.
Think it’ll depend on how hard we try to push Spurs in the cup game. If we go strong against them, I wouldn’t expect anything against City.
Delighted with the 3 points, victory and most of all clean sheet. However, you could see in the last few minutes we couldn’t keep the ball and kept giving it away, which against a good side would have cost us or if Guzan wasn’t in such top form.
Indeed, our next 5 games are tough, and we all know we can’t break teams down at home because we don’t have a decent AM or playmaker. Was pinning my hopes on Tonev but the lad looks way out of his depth, constantly shooting miles off target.
Hope Westwood and Lowton don’t get back in now, neither deserve to.
First manager sacked, not surprising is Di Canio.
Great……that has everything to do with Aston Villa doesn’t it? You should submit a post about it.
It’s an interesting thread, this.
I read Terry’s submission and was loathe to put it up, in all honesty, as I thought it somewhat negative. Of course, I did put it up, because I’m a firm believer in hearing both sides of any debate.
And I’m glad I did, as it’s been a bit of an eye-opener.
I’m very surprised at the overall negativity I’m reading on here.
Come on lads, as has been said, 5 points in 5 games, having played 3 of the probable top 6 isn’t too shabby!
Things aren’t too bad, imo.
We could be Sunderland, who’ve sacked Di Canio
6 points in 5 games. I don’t subscribe to the negativity, but maybe that’s because I don’t expect much. This is a long haul, and steady improvement is probably all we can expect to see. I think the squad is stronger than last season and I expect we will finish comfortable mid table. It’s not much for our club I admit, but that would be a definite improvement on the last few seasons, and if we can continue to improve then progress is being made. IMHO it is just too early to make a judgement on where we are on the journey.
This post is pathetic, as per usual, basically we rode our luck a little, it was always going to be a nervy performance from us, given the difficult start we have had and the awful result last week, the performance reminded me of the 1-0 win against Reading last season when Benteke scored the winner, the performance was awful but the pressure on the team to win , mainly from so called fans like yourselves who turn up and boo at half time, was immense and the performance reflected that.
We have pretty much always been a confidence team, so when the team is constantly knocked it shows in our results.
This is now just a forum for the same conversation every single day, it’s pathetic, i thought we would have moved on by now.
Agree guest I’d rather have a shit performance and a one nil win than play brilliantly like we did at home to utd and have have the unlucky losers tag. It’s called winning ugly !