Apologies for not updating last night’s post.
The absolute truth is, I fell asleep and didn’t wake again until about one am.
I really need a cushier job.
Anyway, much has been said, with what I think are some salient points in the comments.
First off, I’ll re-emphasise how I felt about this result.
As I said previously, I was chuffed to bits. We won against a team with a very decent record up to now.
But let’s get it straight.
The reason I was so chuffed was because we were so lucky, not because of the way we played.
Of course, luck is a two way thing. Sometimes it’s good, sometimes it’s bad.
This time, we had good luck in spades.
How else can you describe 23% possession, 3 shots and 3 goals?
There’s a very good argument that says you make your own luck, but yesterday I don’t believe we did.
In my opinion, Kozac was awful and I was itching for him to be brought off just before he scored. To me, his touch is poor, he goes down like a sack of spuds at the slightest touch and to me, still needs to be given bit parts until he learns our game a bit more.
Imagine my dismay then, when having just scored a nice moral-boosting goal, Lambert subbed him straightaway. I really don’t understand that one.
Similar with Al Ahmedi. He was totally anonymous until he got his goal.
Whatever, the same old faults were there. Horrendous passing and giving away possession far too easily, which, have no doubt about it will cost us big time somewhere.
I remain convinced we’d have been moaning like crazy, had we lost this game, as I suspect many of us expected.
The biggest plus point?
How poor did the defence look without Vlaar?
Any doubters about Concrete Ron (you know who you are) must surely have been shown the error of their ways. And to fair, he has conceded such 😉
At the end of the day, you sometimes get very lucky and this was one of those days.
Pochettino said you’d expect to win that game 999 times in a thousand.
I love one in a thousand wins.
Lol Badger…go back to sleep again. KEA did NOT score 🙂
Duh, totally correct Langford.
I swear I’m losing the plot, sometimes.
Ok, I mean before his sweet cross then.
Langford you took the words out of my mouth, was going to say till I read what you had said, I’m still reading down the post, Badger never mind mate we all get that way as times goes on, Badger your right in what’s been said, make no mistakes its not over till the fat lady sings, we still have much to do in the club, still 3 points what more do we want.give it time now and we should get what we all want, A club to be proud of, not saying I’m not at the moment, I am.but not having to make excuse for bad play.
I’m very minded to agree Oohah, but the fact is we seem to be digging wins out while playing shite.
Let’s face it, Manure got away with that for ages and it didn’t do them much harm.
Having said all that badger don’t you wish we had got Martinez he’s going unbelievably well at Everton.
Take the Loanees out of the equation and do you think Everton would be doing so well? And seeing as you are such a staunch anti loan advocate should you really be singing Martinaz’s praises?
I always said I’d be happy to have Barry on loan I don’t agree with us having youngsters on loan that we groom for sky 4 teams. With an experienced pro like Barry or Robbie keane it’s different. As for lukaka in loan Wev got benteke so didn’t need him anyway. But I would not of been happy with him on loan ur right about that. Also bear in mind that Everton have a realistic chance of finishing fourth with these played and coukd well keep them if they do.
Lukaku’s a better player than Benteke.
And what about Gerard Deulofleu? To watch this kid play is worth the entrance fee alone, best I’ve seen since Gazza.
England will piss their WC group LOL.
I think the thread’s a bit mixed up somehow???
I don’t know what’s happened there.
Anyway, Italy and Uruguay in the WC, in the one place Hodgson didn’t fancy.
We’re fucked before we start, imo.
Not that I’m madly bothered, as I thought we were no hopers even with a good draw, anyway.
I disagree I think we will be ok. Engkand always do ok when they are not expected to and there will be no pressure in them. Also if we get out the group which we should do as secondly place is good enough we will play Ivory Coast or Japan a walkover game.
Italy and Uruguay are both better than England though, so England shouldn’t “do” anything. Nor is there a game team they could play maybe bar Australia and Costa Rica that will be a walkover for them.
What about Japan and Ivory Coast
Badger im just now waiting for the usual players bigging it up bollox leading up to the finals.not a fucking hope.
Yes, but then they made a change and now look at them? They look like shit and have a terrible team for being a so called “Large club”.
Too right ooh ahh man utd’s wins papered over the cracks for 20 years. now they are being found out big time
Do I detect a hint of sarcasm?
Badger does have a point, how many times have you seen Man U play totally shite and get a ropey pen or score in the 98th minute?
Macheda against us up at The Theatre of Schemes.
Little prick (sorry I mean Pea) with that hat trick at VP two of which the jammy little toss pot fluked.
Vidbitch not getting any card or penalty against him when he hauled Gabby down in the box up at their place?
Web cams dive.
And that just against us lets not mention the 2 ft over the line effort against the Spuds.
Not that I’m bitter and twisted or anything.
wot about vidic who never saw red in the final of the micky mouse cup. only man in the stadium thought it wasn’t a red card was the biased ref
Nice one Nath forgot that one.
Agree utd have has refs getting them out the shit since when the prem started and they scored 2 goals v Wednesday when about half hr if injury time had been put on to make sure they scored as no one in the media wanted us to win it. We drew that day but that was the day we lost the league from a psychological pov.
i am totally perplexed by this result, i did not see it coming,
I was very critical during the game of how little football we actually played. the possession stats speak for themselves.
Ray Houghton was harping on about how Villa make a mockery of possession football leading the game at the time he made his comment.
I agree. we laughed in the face of the notion that facing a technically superior team (based on both teams performances and approaches to games so far this season) we should match their tactics and lose with honour.
we decided not to try and outpass them and hit them on the break instead which we did 3 times from 3 chances.
to win the game.
I am still not completely comfortably with this approach. it seems somewhat negative and and i was becoming easily distracted by anything in my peripheral vision while watching the game such was the unattractive nature of the football. (Saints passing game aside)
But .. 3 points? again ..
it may look negative.. watching the other team play for 77% of the game is less than appealing on the whole. I want to see Villa play .. but 3 points again away from home.
For now
I am satisfied with this approach .. with the points its yielded against the teams that we have earned them against.
But .. i want to see us actively work on a different approach at home or against teams below or around us in the table. this approach is best deployed 3 times out 10.
and to be fair we did not play this type of game against sunderland last saturday. we kept possesion. we didn’t create a sniff and never looked like winning but still a different approach was on show. That gives me hope … for now.
As for luck … Pochetino said his team will win that game 999 times from a 1000.
its funny but i think pellegrini said after his man city lost an almost identical type of game that his team will win these games 9/10 times …
yet somehow villa have 2 of these games this season
there is a discrepancy somewhere!
how can a team win a 1 in 10 game or a 1 in 1000 game … twice?
the case for luck is weakening by half each time we win these games.
it was a deliberate approach with direct results .. if the name of the game is winning and points .. credit where credit is due to mr lambert.
ps i know a lot of people are critical of kozak and i agree he was barely in the game and lost the ball up front a lot. At the same time he didn’t have a lot of support. and when he had a decent chance to finish .. he did. I don’t think we can criticise a target man for the service he received during his 70 minutes when his team has the ball for 23% of time ..
if he had many chances and squandered possession where options were on i would be a bit more critical.
the lad has 3 goals in his first season from 10 appearances some as a sub and others while being subbed.
great post colonius, some really good points
I think the way we won is inevitable with a team lacking in style & flare so what else can you expect but scrappy wins.i can recall a match a few seasons ago at sunderland which we had 82% possesion they had 1 on target & beat us 1-0 in think bent scored i was well p’d off.we better get used to this as it will probably be the norm until quality arrives.it was a nice 3pter though.
My belated thoughts are we are very capable of beating top quality opposition.We knew this before we played Saints as we had already beaten Arse & Shitty.Saints had not lost at home massive victory.Also I did say we could beat them.I think it’s about time the doom mongers take a look at their silly comments before the game and as Lambert puts it get a bit of realism.We have 19 points and are just off a Europa spot.Whether we finish in a Europa spot or not we are on our way…..You have to believe……UTV….
playing pretty football with swagger and oozes or flare is alittle premature I feel, progress is being made even our mortal enemies would have 2 agree. clean sheets and points were most fans complaints last year and so far this year the boys and lamberts delivered.
as this group is developed and added 2, the style will come along with success
another point the 3 central midfielders av all been slated 4 lack of goals and creativity well all scored now delphs and westy goals were crackers, El Ahmadi also put in a great cross 4 kozak goal.
Possession football is all well and good if it has a final product, I’ve seen Hereford ping it around nicely at VP but not hurt us and hasn’t been statistically proven most goals that are scored within 5 passes of the ball?
At the 1994 FIFA World Cup the winning Brazil team scored the most goals from three or fewer passes, while the team to score from a move involving the most passes – the Republic of Ireland – were eliminated in the second round. (Wiki)
He don’t have the players to do a Barcelona or an Arsenal so if PL must cut his cloth to suit and do a bit of a Charlie Hughes and it works then so be it.
Possesion does not win matched goals do. The history books will simply say saints 2 villa 3. It won’t say oh btw saints deserved to win because they had more possession.
I totally agree BWS lambert can only work with the tools he’s got mate.hopefully onwards & upwards however we do it.
KEA did bugger all for most of the match and I was asking why Sylla hand’t started when he went and crossed that ball in for Kozak. The main plus point is that our defence was great again, I’m even letting off Lowton for not being a central defender and Bacuna and Luna for being run ragged by repeated Saints attacks. We just need Andi and Benteke getting their confidence back and banging in goals every game again. I’m still remarkably positive about the match on Wednesday, ultimately Lambert gambled on the defence holding out and could we really have had three better goals?
Foxy you went to the game I’m thinking, so to me your in a possison to have witness the finer assessment of that game, KEA to me is just a waste of space, others say he covers the pitch more than anyone in the premier league, means nothing if its not productive, and he is not productive to the forwards. Kozak, do you think he will get there at some stage of his playing days? many are saying NO give me your take on him please. If you was at the game.
I was there Bill. I think KEA is up and down, sometimes he has a good game but at Saints he may as well not have been there apart from the assist. We were playing a very defensive game and while KEA does get himself around I reckon Sylla would have been a much better choice. Kozak I’m so-so about, his main weapon is his height and until we start getting wingers crossing in he’s only going to be covering for Benteke or whoever comes in next. I wonder if Kozak and Wiemann in the middle and Gabby playing more as a winger opposite Albrighton would be an interesting variation on a theme. Who knows, the way Lambert chops and changes formations we might see it. That was Gabby’s first goal of the season and it’s already December. Considering Benteke’s goal drought and both Andi and Gabby only having one apiece Kozak isn’t doing so badly. I haven’t a clue if Kozak will hit decent form, I hope so.
Cheers foxy its has I thought, Kea is unpredictable on the day, Kodak does need winger’s, its Lambert I never know what he setting out to play most times, if the true was know neither do other managers, that’s why we get games like Southampton.
the subbing kozac thing made sense to me, im guessing lambert was about to take him off prior to the goal anyway but as a team who has just gone one behind at home with 20 odd mins left Southampton were going to start throwing everything at us allowing cb’s to wander up pitch and so on. bringing on benteke would no doubt make them think twice about going all out and phycologically it was a good move.
as it goes it didn’t work coz they went n bloody scored anyway but it did make sense if you look at it that way.
I agree NM i just hope he sorts the home form out.
he is exciting to watch BWS! but its way to early to say if he will adapt yet. he is great in flashes but i think he needs a season of starts to see if he can get those tricky feet producing week in week out
You referring to Deulofleu COLONIUS? Pace, lovely balance, two great feet brave enough to run at defences and he appears to have a football head on him.
Just how good could he become?
no doubt everton are doing really well but they do have 3 players who are an integeral part of their team who wont be there next season or in the future and re team building that’s a problem.
Martinez done well considering, he needed those type of players and was never going to be able to sign that type of quality so a loan deal was the best option.
they may struggle next season if they don’t replace them adequately.
im with ooah on the loaning in of young players to groom for the ‘big’ clubs except for lukaku coz it seems that no matter how good he is Chelsea don’t want him coz he didn’t cost 60mil or whatever 😉 if everton were able to sell him back to Chelsea in jan for 50/60mil then they’d lap it up. 😉
I think benteke is as good as lukaku but form wise this season they are poles apart.
don’t know why this post came out here?
Agree NM. Though If Everton sneaked fourth they would be in a pisition to attract top replacements or keep best players. I’d love lukaka at the mo he us better than CB imo and will be their main striker in works cup barring injury. If we put a £100m on CB then Chelsea will buy him lol
Bollox to the World Cup and all this fixing with seeded groups. Its just money making bollox like the CL…..FFS just put the 32 names in a hat and draw 4 at a time for each of the 8 groups. Football, especially CL and world cup is just fucking shit now. Lets have a proper ‘fair’ and ‘equal’ draw….it would add to the excitement and get me interested again!
It was a fair and equal draw have u seen how easy England’s game is if they get out if group. Probably be Ivory Coast or Japan a walkover game for us
Btw the premier fixture list us fixed IMO how many super sundays of we get. Look at the easy run in ins utd get.
They’re much better than either Costa Rica or Australia, and won’t be a walk-over for too many Countries, if any at all. On talent, they’re not far off, if at all to the talent England has.