(courtesy of the Villablogger.com)
We can beat these, can’t we?
Can’t we?
I’m not so sure myself, but it seems many Villa fans are pretty confident, which is fair enough.
There has been much comment about how we need to win our next three games if we’re to have any chance of survival and although that seems a massive ask, we really do need to put some points on the board.
Looking at the form table, West ham haven’t won at all in their last six, but by the same token they’ve only lost one, having drawn five. Which of course means they’re hard to beat.
They don’t concede many either if you take their 4-1 drubbing at White Hart Lane out of the equation and that game apart, they’ve only conceded two goals against some stiff opposition.
Which is where I suspect we’re going to find things tough today.
If you assume we’re probably going to concede a goal, we’re going to have to score two to actually win the game.
I know I’m stating the obvious, but given our enduring lack of penetration in the final third, how likely is it that it’s going to happen against a good defensive side?
I don’t know is the simple answer, but the fact is we have to make it happen somehow.
If we don’t, I think even the most positive of us will have to start conceding that it’s all over; a position that many of us have already reached.
As for me, I think I’m still in a state of disbelief or even self-denial if you like.
But it’s beginning to dawn on me that if we don’t get the result today, we’ve simply had it.
Squad news then and West Ham have Diafra Sakho, Victor Moses, Winston Reid and Dimitri Payet all out.
Andy Carroll might make it, but is doubtful and it’s too soon for Manuel Lanzini, who have both had thigh problems.
The Villa are in pretty good shape, but have Micah Richards out again for his fourth consecutive game.
Joe Bennett and Aly Cissokho have been recalled, but can’t play until January.
So where’s this one going to go?
Garde was criticised last week for not going for it against Newcastle, but I can understand his thinking.
This week however, if we’re in a similar position, we really are going to have to attempt to win the game.
We have to get the three points, no ifs, no buts.
Looking at West Ham’s form, I’d suggest this has 0-0 or 1-1 written all over it.
But that isn’t going to be good enough and that same form suggests there will be a change, meaning one of the teams is going to get the three points.
Let’s hope it’s us.
UTV
Norwich looking SHITE mackems looking SHITE easy easy
There is Christmas cheer the SCUM losing
garde out now
anyone that leaves traore off for 83 mins and plays hutton westwood deserves sacking why not use either grealish \sinclair even try clark up front so much for new ideas he is worse than last 3 already forgot took vertout off as well sack GARDE NOW
ah calm down, Garde out, who would you have in Ancelotti is it?
The manager is here to stay, the owner is more than likely here to stay for a while,
the Squad will change somewhat,
get used to it,
At least we’re showing some fight. West Ham’s goal should have been a routine save for a good goalie – if only we had one. Guzan went down in installments.
Still unbeaten in 2 games running – the first time this season if I’m right. Not a great record I know but we are improving.
Now please Santa if you could send us a decent goalie and a striker in the January window would be nice.
Over 38k in attendance, with Fox telling him league position is not everything, Randy must be thinking everything is looking rosey….. When are people going to start demonstrating with their attendance…. Our club is the most poorly run in the premiership let’s start showing the board how we feel.
And if anyone says support the lads – the lads are on an average of 41k a week and don’t give a shit, and we have no chance of staying up !
can someone tell me how we are better under garde
still conceding stupid goals tick
still not scoring goals tick
still picking
guzan tick
hutton tick
westwood tick
gabby no tick
not playing
kozak tick
traore tick
no sign off
ilor tick
crespo tick
how many saves have opposition keepers had to make in garde 7 games not many
only consolation is when lerner eating cornflakes discovers wolves only worth 35/45m his beloved villa won t be worth his 64m initial investment
JVillan, I agree that the players you have ticks against are not good enough, having seen the goal again this morning as opposed to at VP yesterday, Guzan should’ve done better. What you are ignoring in my opinion, is that sadly, the players being left out are even worse. If we’re all in agreement that we were already doomed to relegation before RG came in then we can’t use the fact we now look doomed as a marker against him. I don’t think anybody can deny we look more organised under Garde (yes the defenders don’t have the ability) and I thought we played decent enough football yesterday and gave it a go. This clamour for Kozak to start baffles me, he’s been ignored by three managers now and they have all been desperate at some stage to get the team scoring yet none of them have turned to him? It’s like these fans that clamour for Gary Gardener to start. The longer he’s injured the better player he becomes in the eyes of the fans – has anyone actually seen him kick a ball in the prem? Pep could be manager now JV, and your tick list would still look the same. Years of financial incompetence have led us to this point and I’m afraid we’re seeing the result of this play out every Saturday.
Agree SEB Lerner has been lucky in past few seasons and if it wasn’t for bent then benteke we would be down years ago. Our only hope is to try and get Austin in winter but it’s unlikely he will come as he is out of contract in Sumer and can negotiate a good deal for himself. Plus would he come to a club with one foot in the championship. He is also injury prone so would he be available for enough games
What would be the point of signing a forward to stay in the prem to be in exactly the same position next year? It is pointless. Whoever we sign we will only sell to line Lerners pockets. We can’t even compete with the likes of Palace, Swansea, Newcastle and Leicester so what’s the point of staying in the division to get laughed at every week.
Just back from the game and I couldn’t fault the effort at all. We’re just not good enough. West Ham were poor and ravaged by injuries and we still couldn’t beat them. We had the best of the first half and were undone by a quick break. West Ham were organised at the back and we weren’t. Simple. Even Gil, who many see as the saviour, looks average. Gestede gave his all and never gave up but had two or three chances that benteke would’ve buried – again, he’s not good enough. It’s not his fault but there it is. I can’t see where a win is coming from so talk of the great escape is just a fantasy.
No quality in team our only hope is to try and get to 6 points adrift in next few games and make decent signings in Jan but even that might not be enough now
Point here point there ain’t good enough 2 mega important fixtures next all I can see is 2 points.
Well done Cleverly last minute goal against Newcastle..
About time he did something right. Good header tbf
Can’t believe some people are still clinging on to that slight hope we won’t go down.I was resigned to the fact against Leicester.Going down I’m sorry to say done N dusted.All I hope is that Lerner gets stung for a few million in the process VTID
Have you ever heard SOTC, its not all over till the fat lady sings, I’m still in hope mate, join the club and be happy.
Bill mate lerners been stripping the club of money for years now so he gets back some reasonable amount on what he’s spent.If we win another game we will be ????. Maybe a clear out is what we need.We can all see its our turn this year.We don’t deserve to stay in the league as we’ve spent poorly since O’Neil left and have been rinsed dry.Our players are just not good enough I’m sorry Bill but a turd is a turd and you can’t Polish one of those can you and at the moment Villa is one massive pile of steaming turd from top to bottom breaks my heart m8 really does.
SOTC, i agree about a turd a turd, but its been going on for years stripping clubs, If fans did what they supposedly should do we would end up as a block of flats, guts is what we want , thats not in todays world ? Is it, you can see that in todays problems. And I mean in life today.but we are Villa fans.
She may not be singing Bill but she’s on stage and the pianist is three bars into the introduction. We’re gone mate we’ve not won for over four months so talk of ten wins is madness.
I’ll bow to your wisdom Sir Earl, but I live in hope, hey Man utd thought they could win the league this year, Chelsea did, so did we all., its not over till they shoot that pianist Sir Earl, got a gun.
I’ve lent my gun to bacuna bill so the bullet could go anywhere pal!!
Lerner by any chance,? Sir Earl.
30 points from 60 to play for required to stay up. Need to start winning soon. Couldn’t argue with the effort today but a lot of the team are not premier league standard. Expecting us to be relegated but you just have to hold onto some glimmer of hope or what is the point in supporting the team. IF we can win next two it sets us up for at least an outside chance of pulling it off with the right additions (loan signings welcome). Loose and it’s curtains for sure.
Even 30 points may not be enough. Today was our most winnable game for ages and even though we played well we still didn’t win. It’s all about trying to win ugly a flukey you 1.0 win here and there.
Welcome to our leader Oohah, where you been ? must have had two draws for a comment, Stay positive Oohah time will tell.
Lol
Another 30 points!!!! I think I’ve just wet myself laughing…..
This comment might have got lost in the last thread,but I bumped into a senior member of the Villa a couple of days ago. I won’t mention the name so the person doesn’t get it in the neck but we ALL know this person. They simply said the club is rotten. From top to bottom and it’s only going to get worse were. The words…Pretty much what we all think…Sad days indeed…
…get worse, were the words…
The conspiracy theorist in me is starting to think this is deliberate because Lerner doesn’t want to financially support a PL side anymore
But he will lose 90 m in tv money at least plus the club will be worth less
We know that anyway. I think we will be relegated next year to
You were right oohah, a foreign manager was what we needed. What’s that, 7 games zero wins, 4 draws, 3 defeats, 5 goals scored and 12 conceded. Not to mention his inability to go for the win instead of playing for a draw. Does Garde remind you of anybody you constantly used to slag off for being the same?
Doesn’t matter if they are English, French or Pakistani we are going down.
Credit should be given to our previous managers who actually kept this shower of shit in the Premier League.
Lambo will be passing himself laughing
Pissing
He’s still bitter about being sacked u can’t shut the mumbling fuck up at the moment. Shane he didn’t show the same passion when he was our manager
I still think Garde is a good manager but whoever came in would of struggled. I said Sherwood would struggle long term and he should of been sacked after FA cup final. I think foreign managers are overall better but let’s see what happens. Next 2 away games Norwich and Sunderland will determine fate either way. We simply have to win them both if we do we have a punchers chance as we can spend in Jan if we don’t that really is it
stubs
if you count spurs match as well he was appointed before my run down on them
spurs guzan beat near post clark left on arse hutton done his usual disappearing act for first goal gabby think gary neville said enough
MAN CITY lucky draw hutton had nightmare gifted city men 3 sitters
EVERTON hammered shocking performances from richardson clark guzan werent good either
WATFORD only match think we should got something but again HUTTON 1 OWN GOAL PLUS ASSIST FOR 3guzan clark really poor performances leading to goals
SOTON lucky point soton missed round them,sanchez shocker for goal
ARESNAL most woeful performance think i ever watched from my side no effort skill fight nothing and again HUTTON PENALTY and awol most of match
NEWCASTLE nearly as bad as gunners match just improved second half still newcastle missed at least 3 great chances LESCOTT REALLY POOR FOR GOAL
WEST HAM didn t see first half but every one blaming HUTTON for goal .second half didn tget close enough to rudi,free kicks nobody attacking them,hutton had free kick in injury time brutal ,then guzan hit one in which west ham got free on edge of our box
only good thing to come from garde is dropping of gaby and playing of ayew vertout
Problem is defence is crap we have lost so many games through our own doing. Dosn’t matter who manager is or how good or bad players are if you keep plotting ur own downfall
ooh ah
agree defence are total cocks, but guzan and hutton have gifted that many goals yet remain first choice what the fuck are mcdonald cowans and rest reserve coaches doing, time to red the whole lot out, and richards is turning in to sicknote 2lambert sold collins for 1.5m yet i bet you he has played more games than vlar richards put together same period
hope randy watching his family investment go down toilet new years day could be interesting when they see what its worth
Hutton is in team more for his attacking than defending. He does put a lot of crosses on tbf. Lescott has cost us many times too and so has Sanchez. We actually looked a better team when Sanchez went off. Hutton very nearly scored winner yesterday. Who would u replace Hutton with who is any better. Only Richards and he’s injured and dosnt want to play there. The whole squad is not good enough the only players that looks premier class is Ayew and perhaps Veretout who is improving. That’s about it
You’re right, we looked better when Sanchez went off. It allowed for Hutton to have no one covering him and opened up a hell of a lot of space for us to concede. But you keep telling yourself Sanchez was causing us problems. I swear you don’t actually watch us play at all.
Oohah
Hutton puts in one decent cross out of 15 but as I watched motd he gave goal away today plus another good chance plus showed Newcastle game de jonk miss was gifted by him so in 8 matches garde been involved his player has scored or missed sitters in 6 of them what other teams use full backs as winger definitely none at the bottom to win matches we have to keep clean sheets not likely when you have guzan Hutton lescott starting that why our reserves are a joke too if not better than them 3 clowns
Garde is doing the right thing by trying to play the same team. they are gradually gelling and getting better. probably too late but fingers crossed.
Sorry Steve I don’t see that in the case of Hutton, Cuzan, if I guess right them two will be replaced shortly, Hutton cannot defend, JVillan has it right both have helped to relegate us up till now.yes again Hutton didn’t go at that defender, just put his arms close to the body and slightly turned from the shot.he’s not a defender, he can go forward and its cost us.
i agree. but for now hutton and guzan are our own real options.
I think Ayew, okore and veretout are really benefitting from game time. Also gestede if he keeps getting in position will start to score a few.
Steve
How can they be options when they keep making errors when something is wrong doesn’t matter how many times you do it it will still be wrong
all i am saying is at this point in time with richards injured who is there to play right back and in goal. come 1st of january it might be different.
Hutton is good going forward but I like to see defenders defend first.
Father bloody Christmas would be a better option than Guzan!!! Or is it Cuzan?
And Elfie Hutton.
Just watched goals on Sunday it showed different versions of West Ham match they should had 2 clear pens, garde has two matches left for me and has to get 6 points from them
Go for strong defence
Bacuna lescott okore Clark square pegs in square holes
Traore gana vertout ayew
Gil or grealish
Rudi
The old players are the biggest problems
And give kozak few mins to show us he is done cause the ones playing aren’t doing it any how
I understand your frustration JVillan but not the logic of your solution which appears to be change the manager so he can pick those players you seem to prefer. How is that going to make a jot of difference?
MacLeish warned us, Lambert warned us and so has Sherwood in his own ‘up himself’ way. It’s about time we listened rather than trotting out the same ‘it’s the managers fault’.
As a club we are in terminal meltdown because we have an incompetent owner who can do what the hell he likes! Perhaps he needs some big tax losses in the UK to offset gains in the U.S. – who knows. Personally, I still think he wants out – his restructuring of debt for equity was a big sign of that for me.
Strangely, we will, I think, be a more attractive purchase out of the PL if Lerner is prepared to cut his cloth. Wouldn’t surprise me to see a new Chairman coming having bought a majority share in the club leaving Lerner in at (say) 35 – 45% with a view to taking an upside on disposal in 2-3 years time with the club back in the PL. it would be a similar deal to his disposal of the Browns.
Just speculating but you never know….
Hitchens, I agree with the first part of your post – where has changing the manager every season got us? I certainly wouldn’t call Lerner incompetent but I think he has been naive to the point of recklessness. He’s obviously no fool as he has managed successful businesses but has no idea how to run a football club. Worse than that and perhaps most bafflingly, he’s trusted a string of utter dopes who also have no idea how to run a football club with watching over his investment – I can tell you if I’d put in the dough I’d be keen to keep an eye on what was going on and not be thousands of miles away with people phoning me up and checking the scores on ceefax!! I think he’ll be able to get rid in the championship but who to? The last thing we need is a group of Chinese chancers who make us even worse.
Good points SEB – like you I’m particularly concerned at who he might sell to that is why I’m hoping he will repeat the Browns model and stay invested as a minority shareholder.
On the otheroint like you I’ve tended to think f Lerner as naive but I think your argument might also support incompetence – even with the best senior managers how can you run a business from 3,000 miles away – that smacks of either complete disinterest or incompetence in my book. Either way we should all be very concerned for the future of our club.
On a different point, I see that a group of Americans are (allegedly) interested in Everton – should we warn the fans?
*other point
If you won’t call Lerner incompetent, I jolly well will.
Both of you share same view that been obvious to some fans over the time Lerner came to Villa Park, remember me saying how he purchased property in Whitacre heath, how he had problematic issues in his marriage, at that same time we was being told from fans in the state’s he was clueless in running a football club.I’d better say alleged by fans of Cleveland Brown. Yes he fell into a trap of incompetence easy money grabbers, I’ve drank in his company and seems a nice guy at first with him giving fans free trips to games and showing us his eagle tattooing on his back, he’s should not own a football club like our’s he hasn’t a clue.
I make you right Bill, maybe he did have a “plan” and the divorce put pay to that. All of a sudden your wealth is halved? I think he’s had enough and we should be easier to sell in the old second division as we will be the ‘biggest’ team the league’s ever seen, no doubt about that. The potential, for a well run club is massive. Like many of have said though, the ‘fit and proper’ test seems to be a bit of a joke which means we could end in the hands of any old joker who can prove they’ve got a few quid.
That SEB is without doubt the biggest fear – that he sells out to anyone who can pay without caring where the money comes from and you’re right – the fit and proper test is about as well thought through as the FFP rules.
Hi Hitch,
That’s a fear most of us think about, he’s a Yank and they couldn’t give a Shiite when it comes down to money. Getting back to today, I forgot its a bank holiday and Villa play today, Norwich big game this Sanchez out , Mical Richards hopefully back today and Garde having meetings with the players yesterday expressing his concern. I’d like to know why we have players taking a long time to get back into a game, swinging the lead me thinks.
Hi Bill, hope you had a good Christmas. Another good point – are there players not willing to put themselves on the line? Garde is upset over something that’s for sure – Gabby and N’Zog? Quicker they are gone the better. I’ll go for a win today by a lucky goal scored off Gestede’s bum! 🙂
So if Lerner’s divorce screwed up his spending plans for the Villa, does that mean we blame his willy for our current predicament? Struth!!
He seemed happily married when he was ruining the Browns, so I’d still stick him in the useless, rather than skint bracket in my opinion.
Another draw today I think which once again won’t be enough.
We WILL be relegated.