I was supposed to be working today, which would have meant me missing the game.
Sod that, I thought. So I worked a grueller yesterday, with the idea being that I wouldn’t get so much of a rollicking tomorrow, for not turning in.
I wish I hadn’t bothered.
Let’s make no mistake about this; we were poor. Again. At home.
To think we were facing a Man Utd side that are as bad as I’ve seen them for around thirty years (although I’ve made my opinion clear that I haven’t thought of them as a good side for at least a couple of seasons) had me drooling at the prospect of us actually beating them at home for the first time since 1995.
They even call Villa Park their second ground, for goodness’ sake!
Never have I felt more confident that Man U were there for the taking.
I thought we started off quite brightly and were taking the game to them.
Albrighton looked well sharp and had a couple of early chances.
He was willing to go at the opposition, something I’ve sorely missed of late and have mentioned a few times.
I thought it was interesting though, that he seemed to run inside all the time and I was asking myself why?
Why didn’t he stay wide and try and get the ball in behind the defence?
I’m convinced this is down to Lambert, for what it’s worth.
Anyway, after a bright start, you could see what was coming.
Man U targetted our left hand side, same as the last home game against them and Rooney fired a couple of long balls to the same area today with very good effect.
Put simply, Valencia tore us a new one in that area, something that had me fuming.
I’ve deliberately laid off Luna up to now, as I think his best strength is going forward and that’s how Lambert sees him.
Fair enough.
But Luna is simply awful as a defender, it’s as simple as that.
As someone who believes that the full backs should be defenders first and attackers second, it seems my opinion was somewhat vindicated today.
He will never make a defensive LB in a million years.
Which places too much pressure on the centre backs in my opinion.
In fairness, Luna was hung out to dry, but surely Lambert knows he isn’t good enough?
This Left back problem has been a concern for longer than I care to remember.
Anyway, it seemed to me that Gabby, who had also looked up for it, was told to cover Luna, which meant he was taken out of the game for a good period.
The second goal came from our left and that was it for me, game over.
One of the commentators summed it all up in one sentence.
We played too much in front of the defence and never tried to get behind.
It’s something I’ve hinted at for weeks and truth be told, I’m sick of it.
How often were we having to resort to shooting from longish range, yet again?
Why bring Albrighton in and not tell him to get in behind?
I’m calling Lambert out today, as I think we lost this game because of his poor tactics.
Am I calling for his head?
No, I’m not.
To my mind, many of our players are simply not good enough.
And that’s quite simply down to the meagre budget any manager we might get in will have to work with.
How much did we miss Vlaar?
I’m totally fed up of playing the same record, but we just need some decent quality.
It’s just blatantly obvious.
No doubt “we’ll go again”.
I’m sick of that too.
Man of the match?
Albrighton, because he was the only one who looked to really go for it and looked better than the rest of the dross.
Here’s our next three games;
Premier League
Stoke V Aston Villa
Sat 21 Dec 15:00
Premier League
Aston Villa V Crystal Palace
Thu 26 Dec 15:00
Premier League
Aston Villa V Swansea
Sat 28 Dec 15:00
January 2014
How many points there?
