Submitted By: Terry Jones
Now where do I begin, another transfer window shut and yet; none of the problems we had last season have been addressed. So what does Paul Lambert do? He goes out and buys another striker not the much needed midfielder or defensive player BUT a striker. It seems as though we will end up with more strikers than Arthur Scaregill had during the miners strike. Now where does that leave us yet again having to score more goals than the opposition when we all know that Paul Lambet should have concentrated on the defense and midfield.
But no, it seems as though we are going to have to put up with a defense that is leakier than a bucket with no bottom in it. We all know whom our worst defesive players are. One concrete boots Vlaar and the other, Joe Bennett. So now the question is are we going to see the club standing still or moving forward as Paul Lambert has yet again failed to strengthen the team where it is most needed. Or are we going to have to wait until we find ourselfs in the same position as last year this Christmas before he wakes up and does something about it. Is he still going to blindly carry on buying strikers? Or maybe he is waiting until January’s window to do some panic buying hoping we just scrap home again.
Hope not as after keeping hold of {Benteke } expectations this year are a lot higher than they have for a long time don’t it as been as high as this since Randy Lerner first took over.So how do you think we are going to fair this season now all our transfer business as been completed. Are we going to move forward or stand still?
Sorry mate but at this point in time looking at the first 3 games Arsenal,Chelsea and Liverpool I have to disagree.We smashed Arsenal and only conceded once.The Chelsea game at their place we could of won and only concede twice.The Liverpool game first half I have to admit we where off the pace but came back 2nd half and could easily had 2or3.Personally I think we look in good shape and Libor Kozak is a good acquisition to any team.Lambert trusts his midfield and defence so should we.UTV sorry pal…
Since we now have 3 tall forward, I’m really curious to see if Lambert will give Albrighton a chance. Surely the use of wingers will only help get the best out of the height of both Kozak and Benteke
I am curious to see where Kozak fits in.Will Lambert change up and go 4-4-2 ?Or will it be 4-3-3 and squad rotation?Kozak could end up behind Benteke?Questions?
So plan a is to punt it to cb and plan b and c is to punt to helenius or Kojak!! Either that or he is building a world class basketball team!!
He likes big strikers, like Holt at Norwich. Most wouldn’t have considered them a “kick and run” like McLeish at Norwich.
I suspect
He will have gabby out wide a bit more lads his ball crossing had improved the end of last year and the start of this season
Thing is, people are getting to into the height thing!! All 3 are pretty good with their feet too. Helenius and Kozak also have the ability to play ‘in the hole’. We look to have a plan b and c with our squad. Which is something we’ve lacked. I’m happy with what we have. The defence will improve having played together for a while and our mid looks the same. Just because we didn’t spend 100 mil doesn’t mean we’re going down like some seem to think.
I’ve heard that Kozak is rather clumsy with the ball. But Helenius is very good on the ball. I thought that he’d end up playing behind the forward.
Maybe you’re right, we shouldn’t be so quick to judge Kozak nor Lambert’s plans. Let’s see what happens in the next 2 games, then we can judge 😉
Agree with helenius having good feet but not Kojak thou admittedly iv only seen him on u tube
Good post TJ, some good points made, but I think Lambert is building for the future.
The excitement of attacking football will spur on the players to support the midfield and defence, then next season he will look again at the weaknesses and rectify, I just hope we can keep it tight like the Liverpool game.
We are a long way from top6 but I think we will get there in 2 or 3 more seasons
I think its a bit harsh to say that none of the problems have been addressed. We have bought what look to be a top class centre back and a very promising left back for under 6m.
We have also brought in young, hungry squad players (Steer, Bacuna, Helenius…etc) to replace the overpaid dorss that were warming the bench before.
However, I really am surprised at us buying what must be a back-up striker for 6m-7m! Surely that money would have been better spent elsewhere.
TBF, I think the 7mil goes to show he’s preparing to lose Benteke after the world cup. At least we’ll have a replacement ready and not have to go round panic buying one.
Perhaps. I heard that Arsenal made an enquiry for Benteke yesterday.
But he did sign a new contract so technically if Lambert wants Benteke to stay, he will stay.
I’d really like Lerner to have one more big spending push in a season or two. I want to see how far Aston Villa can get under Lambert
Shows lack of ambition that we have already accepted him going and not trying to at least build a quality team around him. As for wages of we had to give him a £100k plus a year then so fuckin what Lerner can easily afford it now hes shifted some deadwood and £90m sky money due
“fans” have accepted it, but most fans tend too. Your supposed top 4 contender Liverpool fans, 99% of them accepted Suarez could have left this summer and is likely to leave next summer if they don’t get a top 4. We have no idea if Villa are planning on selling Benteke, especially as Kozak makes our 3rd out and out striker, 2nd if Helenius plays the spot he wants.
Difference is liverpool have actually become a better team without him and Sturridge signing was best bit of business last year after benteke and Michu. Plus if that had got £50m for him that money would have gone to br to spend whereas lambert would get a smack in the face with a wet kipper of Lerner
Uhm, they have? They’ve become a defensive team after they score in the first half. They were never a sit back, clear the ball and defend team when Suarez was around, they’ve become an O’Neill type team where you score and then defend the rest of the game.
You’re claiming they’d spend it, but you really don’t know if they would. They’d never replace him fully without CL football, even Alderwieled rejected them.
Chelsea are defensive but will prob wk. the league. Easier to score one goal and have the ability to defend that lead than score 3 goals and hope we get a draw what’s the point in that
I agree with okore and to a lesser extent Luna but the rest are a mixed bag who will be nothing more than average bench warmers IMO though admittedly cheap bench warmers
LOL and you’re basing this off what? Never actually EVER watching them play?
Can someone help me out please. Oohah and Terry Jones seem to moan and complain that our manager is only interested in building a team that out scores the opposition. Correct me if I’m wrong, but I’ve always believed that to be the object of the game, to out score your opponents. Have I been wrong all these years in believing this and infact the aim of the game is not to our score your opponents but to not concede goals? Any help on this would be much appreciated.
I thought the same but beginning to 2nd guess myself because these oracles of football knowledge keep telling me that. Apparently the way BigSam sets up his teams is the way to go. 10 man defence and long balls up top just to have them come back at us again.
Outscoring our opponents means that watching Aston Villa will guarantee goals! But if Lambert did want our team to outscore our opponents we wouldn’t be playing with an attacking midfielder.
Maybe against Newcastle, Lambert will play with go back to a 4-2-3-1 formation and play Helenius or Kozak behind Benteke.
B6 both are talking out of their arse, they will not let it go, ffs both all the time moan ,moan, go and be a Arsenel fan or a Man fan but leave Aston Villa alone. They seen to be the type that if they was in the same trench they get you killed.Terry why do you think you know more than Lambert and his staff, a change is about to happen in football let the the people that know do their jobs.
The same reason everyone on this site claimed to know more than mcclown
Fair point but more often than not we don’t put score our opponents because the defence leaks unecessary goals. Last season we had to score twice just to stand still. When was the last time we won 1.0 prob Sunderland away last year ffs
You lot are so F**king negative!
I’m more nervous then anything, it didn’t help that we’ve played only against the top teams. We’re not going to play again for another two weeks so our thoughts are going to be based on what we’ve seen over the last few games.
I completely agree Jimt. Signing Kozak may not make much sense right now, but what happens if the club are forced to sell Benteke in January? While I can’t see Lambert selling him, money does talk and if someone comes knocking with a 40m bid I would be very surprised if we didn’t accept it. Nevertheless, bringing Kozak in now as a potential replacement will only help the club transition into life after Benteke (when it does happen).
Personally, we can’t lose having him around. Sure I would have preferred another midfield option, but due to our dependance on Benteke it is great to see we have other options. At the very least Kozak makes Benteke work for his spot and/or a new partnership is formed. Plus maybe it is a sign that Lambert hopes to improve our home record? New formations perhaps?
Why Shoukd we ever be forced to sell him he is on a 4 year contract end off
Fair play, forced is the wrong word… if the club decides to sell Benteke.
Lol no one’s forcing Villa to sell him. My god we have him for the entire season, can we RELAX a little bit? We’re 2 games in and it’s September 4th, we can all start worrying next May if Benteke is going to leave.
It’s a nailed on cert he will go next year unless injured
We’ll most likely sell him, I doubt it’s nailed on certain, but we probably will. Make an easy 30m profits and replace him while adding even more to the squad when the rest of the bomb squad leave.
Terry, Bennett is clearly the reserve (or possibly second reserve if Baker is fit) LB so that’s one position sorted. AFAIK neither Vlaar nor Bennett were offered new contracts when other players were (let’s just gloss over Clark’s new contract here!) so they both have to perform and show they’re good enough. Vlaar has some competition now in the form of Baker and possibly Clark, so if he doesn’t pull up his socks now he has decent players around him I can see Lambert buying in his replacement very soon. Lambert and Lerner have to rebuild the squad, and have to get everyone settled and working together, something we started to see from the upturn in January. Players not showing improvement are being given a chance by Lambert and if they don’t perform it’s very clear they’ll be shipped out (see Ireland and Bent). We absolutely need players working together and developing into a team, not just an assembly of individuals, and the difference in performance over the first three league matches compared to last season is huge. We have more new talent in and it might be there are one or two gems in among Bacuna/Tonev/Kojak/Helenius. I’m pretty sure Okore and Luna already are, and will keep improving.
There are so many positives and it’s the very start of the season, the toughest start for years too. Can’t we focus on Gabby’s upturn in form? He’s remained uninjured for a while now, I really hope he stays that way and we get to see what he can really do. Benteke isn’t doing it all on his own and his partnership with Wiemann could really take off this season. Delph is getting better and better, so many positives to talk about.
Oh and going back to Kojak, he does look like he could be Benteke’s replacement, plus if Helenius is earmarked to play in the hole, another back up isn’t a bad idea (out of interest, will Tonev slot in on the left if Gabby does get injured?). Why not spend the money on him now, get him out there in the cup runs and see what he can do. Very good business there, better to find out now and if he’s no good we sell him on next year at a loss of £3million or so. If he is good, we don’t have to go and spend even more on someone we have to drop into the squad from the word go, and we get a season to integrate him into the team.
Good post foxy though tbf Ireland was showing signs of improvement and lamberk dropped him for kae ffs. Hope Kojak isn’t replacement he looks a right clumsy got on u tube
I personally think we have strengthened our back four. It may not be as great as we would love but it is stronger than last season. Okore is by far our best defender now and much better than anything we had last season. Luna is much much better than Bennett in defence and even more so going forward. We now have Bacuna as a back up for Lowton and Baker to take Vlaars spot if need be. You can’t do it all in one transfer window.
The strike force remains strong, just now we have options everywhere, great if we have injuries or poor fixtures like our first week. Tonev can replace Gaby if needed, Kozak could slot in for Benteke.
Our midfield should have been strengthened, to me it seems we strengthened our bench for our mids with able replacements but not the first team, unless Tonev or Helenius can slot in to playing a CAM role. Even if that does work we are still in need of a quality DM though. Hopefully its something we can look at between now and January.
Overall we are in a better position than this time last year. And a better position than we finished last season off with a flurry of wins. This team can continue to gel and produce results with subtle buys to fix problems along the way. However it seems in our first 11 we have only fixed and or improved 2 positions and potentially adding one other but have adequate replacements for injuries and or extra fixtures (ie cups).
Darren so you think like me, we are now in a better place than we was last year, some understanding the game more than other, the best form of defence is to attack and we now have that, I would have liked a CD but will go along with what we have.I just want people to stop knocking the Villa and Lambert and let them get on with it.
lambert is clueless, yeah right that’s we are sat with arguably the best signing of last season in our squad, a player who has at least quadrupled his 7m value and a player whom everybody said last year Christian who?
terry is complaining we didn’t concentrate on defence, erm so luna and okore aren’t defenders then? wtf?
and the other complaint seems to be we’ve bought another striker even though we’ve shipped bent, we hvent bought another CB even though we have vlarr, baker, okore, clark, how many more should we have? and before anyone starts saying they are shit I seem to remember the biggest issue we wanted sorted was a CB and an LB in, an improvement on Bennett and we got what looks like a great CB in okore(admittedly he didn’t cost 20mil 0n 150k a week which is just clueless of lambert)and we’ve got in out n out LB luna who is clearly an improvement on Bennett………..
terry and ooah im struggling to see what the problem is.
No problem with Okore he is a very good signing. Luna thou is only a fraction better than Bennett vlaar is shit no one will convince me otherwise, baker is injury prone and Clark has improved but he still picks vlaar thou I appreciate Clark is injured as well. We still have no decent dm we still need an am the midfield is as weak as piss except for delph. Westwood looking out of his depth, kae has improved but lacks quality bacuna very average sylla very average tonev average. Benteke of course was a master stroke and so was signing Okore and bringing back Guzan but bottom line we are still shit at home as we don’t have a creative midfielder which lamberk should of addressed we still Havnt kept a clean sheet for nearly a year another unwanted record we suffered a record defeat we will never be more than an average prem team under this regime and long term injuries to Okore delph or benteke then we are fucked
The issue is that we’re not ManU, ManC, Chelsea or Arsenal. They all have impenetrable defences, managers who know what they’re doing, owners who (with the exception of Arsenal) have put the clubs in massive amounts of debt or shored them up with massive loans the likes of Lerner couldn’t afford and they have all the benefits of being the Sky4, which include the adulation of a certain OOHAH and a pile of extra cash that will immediately run out when their rich sugar daddies leave. Except for Arsenal, who are a bloody good football club.
Oohah mate looks like this post as put the cat amongst the pigeons don;t it we as usual are getting flak like it mate keep it going.
I don’t really see how you can say that luna is only slightly better than Bennett based on 4 games, the same goes for calling tonev, bacuna and sylla ‘very average’ based on a handful of appearences, for all any of us know they might turn out to be very good players, equally they might turn out to be crap but you’re making a statement as if its true based on what? a handful of competitive minutes play.
Don’t know about you lot but i can’t wait for the Newcastle game.. really looking forward to it.. to see how we play..
Also i think our squad is set now.. next summer it will be 2 or 3 rather then 7 coming in and probably a spend of 30M-40M esp if Benteke is off.. also i think PL will bring another stiker in if Benteke makes way.. no matter who Kojak gets on..
Looking fwd to it to really pisses me me off when boring international break up the more imp club football. The manager has more time with players but England are still shit anyway
Esp with the transfer window shutting and then all of a sudden no more transfer talk speculation and have to wait two weeks for a game..!!
My only other concern is that with English players being hugely over priced and lack of talent around we will end up with only a couple in our team.. right now we do have Westy Lowton and Gabby but it would be nice to have at least 3 0r 4 in the team as regular starters..
Don’t find it much of a concern, those 3 are going to start, Delph will start, Gardner and Johnson will eventually fight for a starting spot, Baker’s fighting for a starting spot. Steer’s our back up goal keeper, then there’s the likes of Bennett, Bowery and Albrighton. The oldest one is also only 26, in Gabby. We have a host of young English players and a fair few are going to start, Lambert seems to like English players despite the amount of foreign players brought in still. Then there’s the likes of Webb, Drennan, Robinson, in the U-21’s and still 15 English players in the U-18’s. We’re still going to produce English players, and if a team like Southampton or Sheffield continue, we’ll probably try signing a couple of there’s as well.
You forgot Delph, Lionheart.