Hi everyone UTV
I have wanted to write this post since the Liverpool game but I thought I would leave it a little longer to see what developed as I was pro 4-3-3 but am now swaying away from that after Newcastle.
Now here it is my case for 4-4-2.
I was shocked in the first halves of the Liverpool and now Newcastle games.We seemed to have no get up and go and have been sloppy giving away possession.No penetration and no end product at the end of our attacks.Our CMs gave the ball away to cheaply and so did our full backs.
Our full backs have been bombing forward exposing the back 2 and also exposing space behind themselves.This leaves us wide open for pacey forwards and good counter attacking football.
We seem to be always conceding and never keeping a clean sheet and our home form is a no show IMPO.
I know Lambert seems to know what he is doing so I think if he can’t see it by now then we are in the mire.
I think 4-4-2 would be the right way to go at this point.We need shape,stability,organisation,width and less goals conceded.I feel the 4-4-2 formation would give our young firecrackers all of this plus giving much needed protection to our full backs and have 4 in midfield in front of our back four.
I know Lambert wants to play nice football but when you have young inexperienced players who come up against the Premier Leagues experienced finest an open formation can be football suicide.
I really feel a 4-4-2 of
Guzan,Lowton,Vlaar,Clark/Baker,Luna,Agbonlahor,Westwood,Delph,Albrighton,Kozak,Benteke(Weimann contesting striker position) would be better.
I think Nzogbia would have a part to play to contesting the LM position.Would Bacuna or Tonev fit into the LM or RM positions?.
I just think this would stabilise,give shape,width and protection a good starting block for the younger lions what are your opinions?
All the best UTV….
Guzan did save us quite a bit he has been a good keeper for us.Hes been exposed alot and did make some good saves against Newcastle.Could only parry the 2nd.I spose he kicks it Cuz Hes a goalie I spose mate Guzan likes to kick..Sometimes he rolls but most he kicks UTV
Well it just puts us under pressure. Benteke may win the ball but the opposition get the second and we are straight back under. if we played it on the ground which we can do against Noocastle and Noorwich, we will stop them from scoring. but first, Guzan must stop kicking it long.
I’m all for playing it out like you say.I also would love to see wingers crossing in to the two big UNS Tekkers n Kozak.I want to see them two bullying defences.UTV
I should imagine lamberk has told him to kick it long. He is a route 1 guy now especially at home. I’d go as far as to say his brand of football isn’t much better than Mckeish away yes but at home is completely clueless
Oohah off topic but we have all seen Lambert being lauded as one of the best young managers in Europe, well google it, he aint. In fact he don’t even make the the top 10.
Number 1 incidentally is Frank De Boer, who I suggested we go for after McClown was sacked (Randy I told you so).
http://outsideoftheboot.com/2013/07/18/top-10-young-football-managers-part-one/
http://outsideoftheboot.com/2013/07/21/top-10-young-managers-part-two/
Goodness me, a site that knows football manager’s. I’d have hoped Lambert wouldn’t make someone’s top 10. He’s got far more potential for a director than a Manager.
He has possibly got potential for his age as still a young manager but the Moore brothers had potential to and look where they ended up! We coukd do with a manager who actually understands tactics and isn’t stubborn enough not to to employ a defensive coach.
Watching the Marseille v Arsenal match and the Arsenal goal came from a cross from the left by-line. need you say more.
Reina’s supposedly a top keeper and that’s all he does is kick it long.
No doubt Guzan’s told too kick it long, as Lambert believes a big guy is going to bring it down, hold it comfortably every single time and bring players into the game.
I think the one thing that stops Guzan from being top class is his distribution, though ‘kick it long’ is probably an instruction from the management.
Anyway, Brad is the least of our problems. I hate having full backs that can’t defend and we don’t have a single capable one at the club.
I also dislike the narrow midfield, where’s the width and creativity to stretch teams. Its non-existant and yet we spent £7m on another tall striker we don’t need at a point in time when were crying out for midfielders and defenders.
I’m really struggling here, I have been behind the Lambert project from day one but I’m losing faith rapidly. Tactics are poor, strategy isn’t working, balance seems all wrong. I’m not seeing any progression on the pitch to indicate we are turning a corner as a club.
4-4-2 is a dated strategy now. Plus we dont have any quality wide players (bar Nzogbia, and you cant reley on him!!)
There is nothing wrong with the formation we are playing, but you cant just play on the counter-attack r boot long balls all the time. We DESPERATELY needed a creative mid and we didnt get one. The problem in the last 2 games is that our attacking threat had always come from the front 3 and Gabby and Weimann were poor. This just showed our lack of attacking options. How many goals did our midfield get in total last year? 5 maybe…its not good enough, they have to be more involved in build up play.
Bacuna,Tonev,Nzogbia,Agbonlahor all play RM LM….4-4-2 is a bit dated but why,is it because it is not played maybe so obvious reasons but Newcastle exploited our fullbacks couldn’t we exploit other teams fullbacks with 4-4-2?
JD yesterday you suggested playing Benteke and Kojak upfront and I’ve been racking my brain (I know that don’t take much) to think of any other team that plays two big target men and I can’t come up with one. Even stoke only play one either Crouchy or kenwyne jones (correct me if I’m wrong) not both.
Can you give an example of any team employing this system and with to what degree of success?
What if we played Tonev on the right, Gabby on the left and Weimann and Benteke together? I know Lambert didn’t buy Kozak to sit on the bench, a waste of 7m Euros for a quality striker if true. Though to be fair to both, they’ve got more ability than both Crouch and Jones when the balls at their feet.
Bill I can ! Villa with disaster every time. 🙂
There are not any Premiership Clubs who play 2 big target men up front, as it simply does not work. Here is another one – name another premiership club who has flirted with relegation as long as we have without being relegated, hmmm lets wait till xmas until we make our judgement…..AGAIN! LOL
Coventry and look were they are now.
The similarities are frightening 1
Wigan I remember when people were celebrating Wigan going down last season at our expense, I thought to myself we are the new Wigan.
Like them, we don’t spend big on players or wages, our defense is woeful and we can’t win at home. They played with fire season in, season out and eventually it backfired. There’s a warning to AVFC, if your fighting relegation constantly soon enough the trap door will follow.
It’s got to happen eventually can’t keep getting away with it. This season coukd be the one and if benteke loses form or injured then its bye bye prem
The scary thing is, I believe whole heartedly that if we get relegated we’re gonna fall into the abyss like forest, coventry, leeds…we’re not cut out for the championship, it’s a fecking tough old league down there
You are spot on MD, we have flirted with relegation for far too long and its like playing Russian Roulette.
This is the fourth season we are being drip fed by the awful AV PR machine this transitional bullshit and buying on the cheap because we need to bring the wages down.
Lerner is far too stubborn, Lerner is not interested and Faulkner knows little about football, personally I think we need a director of football and quick, as I can see us playing in the Championship in the not too distant future.
The wages excuse is a joke, how much lower do they want the wage bill. Ultimately, we’re supposed to be a PL club, so we have to pay PL wages, whether the fans, lambert or lerner like it, that’s the nature of the game now.
It was bad enough seeing Spurs and Everton move well clear of us and now were seeing Swansea, Southampton and even Cardiff showing more ambition. We’re being left behind by clubs that on paper are much smaller than us.
Langord posted P&P and ‘we will not be relegated’ all last season and to be fair to him he was right and he would be posting it again this season but he’d be missing the point, which is we shouldn’t be in this state.
Exactly ok no one expects us to win the league but a club like villa should be top 8 at least
My thoughts too I think we will struggle in the lower divisions for years.
I agree totally BWS, the same players with none of the weaknesses of last season addressed, in the same position in the league, with us relying on other teams below us collecting less points, for a club the size of Villa its a Joke….
I watched the man utd and Bayern leverkussan, noticed their 2 fullbacks pushed rite up, as wingers when in possession. when they lost the ball utd had no problems engaging their 2 centre backs, I thought this was very similar 2 our problem,
wot worried me against Newcastle was how we switched from working through midfield and started hitting long balls which was easlier 4 toon 2 defend, thou we didn’t or wasn’t allowed 2 play first half we made enough and wasted golden chances, gabby 4 one should av scored
keep the faith ~ our boys will pick up 3 points against norwich
Lads like a broken record i will keep saying it.. it is our MIDFIELD.. it is shite..
NO GOALS and NO CREATIVITY.. get rolled over all the time.. we haven’t addressed it.. IF we had brought a DM and AM rather then Kozak Bacuna Helenuis etc we would be sorted..
This Kozak must be the business for us to sign him when other areas needed addressing..
Can’t believe some of you lot want to play 4-4-2 with two wingers.. one it doesn’t work and.. two we don’t have any classy wingers and three it will leave our middle two even more exposed..
Only formation i can see us playing with Benteke and Kozak.. is with Bacuna and Tonev wide but tucking in and helping Sylla and Delph who just sit.. not ideal IMO..
Esp considering Bacuna was pants against Liverpool..
Why the F Tonev didn’t start in the cup i have no idea..
So kinda like a 4-2-2-2? Helenius wants to play the AM spot, flabbergasted why he hasn’t gotten the chance. I don’t expect any changes against Norwich as the team suits away games.
Andrew yes it is like a 4-4-2.. i meant if we MUST play them two up top thats the only way i can think..
We needed a player like Mohamed Saleh who plays for Basle.. a winger who can score and create..
Our best hope is that Tonev turns out to be decent and so does Kozak and next summer we get in the AM and DM but instead of bargain buys it is two players who will push us into the top half of the tanble..
So you think we have no hope of any signings in January then? Popov’s still heavily, heavily linked with us and he’d be an immense signing, I do like the 4-2-2-2 option though. Gabby and Weimann not as true wingers but as AM’s that will run the flanks but also allow the fullbacks to run the wings and have Delph and Sylla actually covering them. That’s really all we need right now, is someone to cover the fullbacks runs.
Salah would have been a huge signing if we got him, though the way he’s played I wouldn’t be surprised if a CL team came in for him next summer, if not in January depending on how Basle do.
Andrew.. where in my post have a i said i have no hope for signings in Jan.. strange remark.. my first point was about 4-4-2 being not a great fit for us.. the second about next summer was the fact that this season it would be nice if couple of players become good and next summer we get the required players in AN and DM.. obv if we can get those players in jan.. even better 🙂
Lionheart I’ve given up saying we have no creative midfield players, one man deserves to be called a midfield man Delf, all they think of is trying to find Benteke, I don’t see a fat lot difference from last year to be honest, I’m just going to give that team 4 more games before I start firing off to get rid. I never thought I would see the day that we Aston Villa would end up being a joke.
WE are so far away from the top half of the table it is a joke we buy players not to fill gaps or improve our team, we buy players who we think will make Lerner money… its a fricking joke no Gareth Barry but lets buy a centre forward on deadline day….this post is not negative it is realist ….
You do know by making Lerner money the players will have to improve for him to make any sort of profit? Which ultimately suggests they will improve the team as a whole.
As for Barry, he had one good game so it may be too early to judge if he still has it. Lets see if he either keeps up the form and/or finishes the season without injury. Personally I doubt it.
Barry at 50% less than he used to be is still different class to what we have now
If the club was looking for a quick fix sure, but they are not. Although, I will admit most of my fears so far have been with our midfield. I expect changes for the Norwich game.
Big few games coming up for us…
Just watching the Swansea game and it got me thinking.
Michael Laudrup has been at Swansea exactly the same time as Lambert has been at Villa.
They look far more organised and have better players than Villa.
£40m Lambert has spent to get us where exactly?
Cue the critisim from the ‘young, hungry, vibrant and transional period’ brigade!
Lambert out.
Lambert out I am watching the game and its 442, as you said far more wanting and eager than us, good entertaining game.
lambert out
Swansea hadn’t been miss managed for years, so when laudrup walked in he hasn’t changed very much. cos Rodgers layed the foundations and Martinez added too.
where if u look at us we av been stop start since Oneil left ~ anyways 4 games gone and we are doomed again pity u lot never mentioned this pre season, I think we could find our nxt manager here on this site may OohAhPaulMcGrath he has great ideas so wasted on ere
Agree mate but I turned them down £50k a week for wasn’t enough lol
Its a fair point, Rodgers and Laudrup have both been in the job same time as Lambert. Both Liverpool and Swansea now have stronger squads and are improving, continuing to invest and build for the future. As for AVFC, we’re no better than 12 months ago, kidding ourselves that some magical turnaround is coming.
Lets wait for the start of next season, has quickly become lets wait until Christmas, and will become wait to the end of the season. And repeat again next season, thats if we still have our PL status.
Even Steve Clarke had a better year at WBA ffs
Agree mate it’s appalling and even worse is there is fuck al we can do about it. People buy st far to early as club heavily promotes we ought to buy a week before season next year and see who’s come in or not in our case
Norwich (A), Spurs (Cup), Man City (H), Hull (A), Spurs (H), Everton (H)
Personally, Norwich and Hull should be wins given our away form and opposition. Spurs will be a true test for Lambert and the squad in both games, although I do wonder if the Europa games will cause them issues in the League or Cup. Man City and Everton could easily end up a draw, but the team will have to shake their fear of playing at home first.
I like look of our November – December fixtures though. Unlike last year, I think we could all use something to cheer about come the holidays.
^ Sorry that was for Lionheart’s last comment.
“I like the look of our…”
I agree that Benteke/Weiman would make a nice partnership, but if we play 4-2-3-1 with Benteke up top, Weimann right, Gabby left and Tonev just in behind, we are basically playing that front 4 anyway…
Surprised some are questioning Guzan kicking it long all the time.
That’s blatantly down to Lambert’s instruction.
A fairly young goalie would quickly see that it doesn’t work.
Whereas a set in his ways manager wouldn’t.
I’ve no doubt where the problem lies re that one.
I’ve thought about this a lot and while I’ve never really been a Lambert fan, I’ve always tried to give him the benefit of the doubt.
But I’m getting this impression that he isn’t going to be our messiah.
He’s doing a reasonably good job, given the crap resources he’s having to work with, but I just can’t get away from that old saying “you pay peanuts, you get monkeys”.
While I like the look of some of our players, I see very few that have signs of consistency.
Are inconsistent players good enough in the Prem?
I have serious doubts.
Delph (as much as I’ve always rated him) was looked on by many as garbage a while back.
Has he really improved that much, or is it just that the average player around him makes him look better, for example?
I think the biggest single problem for me is the schoolboy tactics, when we’re struggling.
It’s just embarrassing, imo.
A fluid 4-2-3-1, for me, but not with our current players.
When the wide backs can’t defend, you’ve no hope.
Hence 4-4-2 has a slight appeal in that we could play 2 lbs and 2 rbs.
Trouble is, we’d still get pissed on in those areas.
Only joking chaps.
Just a bit frustrated atm.
Badger123, frustrated or not a lot of sence in what you said, I totally agree on what you’re saying on Delf, I never thought at one stage he would stick out a mile as being man of the match in any games, so is it saying the rest are under average? and the manager is under par in football knowledge in the game, I’ve always wonder what do the coaching staff know because they are the people that teach, and a manager puts it altogether, have you and I ever heard of a manager sacking his staff because of bad results? I don’t think I have, Aston Villa should not be like they are in England’s second city, something is totally wrong when it comes to Villa. As I’ve said I’m giving it 4-5 more games then the knives will come out on Lambert’s ideas in the game. Frustrated Bill.
Morning Bill, l was in the Trinity last Saturday and hearing a lot of comments at half time I think the crowd is already starting to turn and as you say give it another 4 to 5 games with no sign of improvement and Lamberts going to be right in trouble.
An owner that sanctions transfers only if they are cheap and he can make a few quid = selling club, a Manager with no plan B and a CEO with no clue of football… Recipe for eventual relegation, but as we are in transition I will wait till Xmas to make my judgement LOL
Morning BWS, your the same as me , I just cannot see where the hell we’re going , its as somebody said the other day, I’ll give it till the end of the season, I’ll give it till xmas , I’ll give it 10 games, its got to stop somewhere ffs, I’m mistified to what’s going on.
Nothing is going on Bill thats the problem, we are the most stagnant club in the premiership. My Italian mate asked me the other day ‘whats going on at Aston Villa’ and I just couldn’t answer him… so sad !
Sad fact is we havnt just stood still wev gone backwards
Worst Villa team I’ve ever seen we’re a bag of shite