I attended this game with three grandsons and one of the son in laws in tow and it turned out a decent day, as the kids really enjoyed the family fun day. I’d highly recommend that, if anyone is contemplating taking their kids down a game.
And I certainly enjoyed it more than the game itself.
After a pretty bright start, things soon settled down into what was a game that just lacked any quality.
I mentioned the other evening that I was concerned about the state of our passing after the Albion game and we were just as poor in that area today. It amazes me that professional footballers can’t make simple passes, especially when they’re not under massive pressure. You can see the ideas are there and some of the through ball attempts would be great if the execution wasn’t constantly so poor.
As for formation, I still don’t see what we’re doing. We actually started off with five across the back, but it then quickly changed to a four. At one stage, it actually looked like we were playing four up front.
Sometimes we’re so narrow it’s crazy in my opinion, but I’m not the professional coach and you would expect Lambert knows what he’s doing.
My point is though, if I can’t see it stood high up in the Holte and am confused, it has to beg the question “do the players actually know what they’re doing?”.
Many of us had this down as a banker, including myself and ultimately this is a pretty poor result.
We were again limited to mostly speculative punts and rarely got the ball in the area to create decent chances.
Yes, we worked hard and I really can’t complain about anybody today as, erm, as per usual they all worked hard.
Except maybe Benteke.
For me he was incredibly poor and should have been hooked at half time. It seems he hardly wanted to get involved.
Perhaps I’m being harsh there, as it wouldn’t surprise me if he still hasn’t got over his injury.
That’s a few games in a row though, so he won’t be getting the benefit of the doubt for long.
If I’m honest, I think Sunderland possibly deserved it more than we did. I don’t know the chances stats, but I’d guess Sunderland might have edged it although the SIL thought we were the better team overall.
Don’t forget Sunderland at least had the ball in the net and hit the bar.
My eleven year old grandson summed it up for me as we were walking out. His opinion was that if we were playing first goal wins, we wouldn’t have seen a goal for ages. Pretty astute, I thought, as it did seem that the game had 0-0 written all over it with about ten to fifteen minutes to go.
Gabby got MOTM, a decision I can’t disagree with, as at least he offered something different with his pace, as opposed to the mediocrity everywhere else.
And regardless of the scoreline, the two (six year old twins, bless ’em) virgin attendees quite enjoyed it in the end.
They were even starting to sing along with myself (not the swearing songs of course).
I remembered attending a home Sunderland game in the late seventies, that was also pretty drab.
At that game, we sung to the tune of “give peace a chance”, “all we are saying is give us a goal”.
I was close to starting it again today, as it seemed incredibly apt and I wondered why we’d stopped singing it these days.
I bottled it in the end.
As the title says, at least we didn’t lose, but is a point at home against Sunderland a decent result?
Not for me. Just no way.
Not happy with the result, thought this was a guaranteed three points too but there isn’t such thing for Villa. Southampton then Fulham next week, we must beat the latter as they are truly awful at the moment. As for Saints I can’t see us getting anything off them, which is sad really.
I’m actually more worried about Fulham game tbh.
If we don’t beat them I may start agreeing with you. But that won’t happen, because we will win…I think.
Benteke does seem to have lost a bit of enthusiasm, I’m not entirely surprised considering the dire attempts at creating chances amongst the players – The phrase “Couldn’t open up a tin of beans” springs to mind.
In his defense, after such a top season teams have resorted to doubling up on him constantly, something they must work on all week…..Which begs the question, Why the heck don’t the lads use their brains and utilize the spare man we have…..???
IMO the worst team in the League bar Palace, Sunderland should have won… hit the bar, one disallowed and missed a sitter on the stroke of HT….We have already rode our luck numerous times this season (Playing Arsenal at the right time, City missing hat-fulls, Norwich peno miss, WBA missing sitters) but it won’t last forever and soon enough we will take a heavy hit…..!!
Gabby was the best of a poor bunch but all he did was run at them, as soon as he got his head up his distribution was woeful, same as the rest.
Our league position and another clean sheet papers over the cracks, I hate being negative but sometimes you have to wake up and see Villa for what they are….A relegation battling side who escape narrowly due to the other crap in the league and it won’t change unless we get in some quality.
Ill be there at Utd to watch us ride our luck some more and hopefully get a point
I think today proved we are no better than last year. Take away the fluke result v man city and the luck of playing arsenal before they had got into their rhythm and we’d be in big trouble now. Getting those unexpected 6 points have papered over the cracks but should be the difference of us staying up or going down.
Not looking forward to the trip to the south coast despite ooah’s optimism im wary.fulham next week if i said thats a 3pter id be lieing after todays shambolic display.
Another poor home performance. Same old really, no creativity in midfield to break the opposition down,
Benteke was terrible with a distinct lack of effort. Lambert needs to man up and drop him, Kozak must start against Soton, we cannot carry players that aren’t interested in playing for AVFC.
Problem is Kozac is crap but if he’s a 100% committed to villa which I’m sure he is then I’d start with him and play Benteke from the bench. Cb needs taking down a peg or 2 IMO
I just read an article from a fellow Villa site that said Puyet says we constantly switch systems.
One of the replies said that a minority of fans just can’t see it.
Which is fair enough.
Trouble is, I don’t think our players have the experience or the nous on the whole, to keep chopping and changing.
I particularly think this is why our defenders look total mugs at times, with no system whatsoever.
Ah shit, what do I know? Not a lot, I guess.
I do know one thing though and that is whatever we’re doing just doesn’t work at home.
To me badger we only have one system lump it up to Benteke and hope for the best! Last season we at least tried to play good football but wernt good enough to keep it up which is why we got hammered so often. This season the mantra is if we dont concede we can’t lose and we may nick one. Nothing wrong with that IMO as I’m a great believer of building from the back which lambert seems to be doing now. The problem is that has to be balanced with some sort of creativity going forward hence a midfielder like Barry that can link play between defence and attack. Unfortunately for us we haven’t the quality quality to do both. We can either go for broke lose 6.0 one week and 3.2 the next or we defend what we have and get lots of 0.0 draws and lose or win 1 or 2 nil. To guarantee staying up we have to do the latter.
Very poor performance today. Lucky to come away with a point…at hom…to Sunderland!
Lets be honest, we havent really outplayed anyone this season. We played well away at Arsenal and Chelsea and in the second half against Cardiif and Albion but that’s it.
We have no real formation. No width. Our midfield has no idea how to break down the other team. Benteke is isolated and if he doesnt play well, the whole team has a nightmare as our whole game plan involves him.
All in all, very disappointing but not that surprising. Its a good job Vlaar is playing so well and organizing the defence otherwose we would be down at the bottom.
Agree benno never thought I’d say this but oohah Ron vlaar lol. Another scary statistic is they had about 55% possesion and created the better chances. This is Sunderland Ffs not Barcelona !!
I understand why gabby and benteke drop back so deep now, as soon as delph or karim get the ball their immediate reaction is to turn back to goal. How often do we get the ball and pass sideways, maybe go slightly forward only to then pass it back to the defence, even if they have time to have a look around it’s like nah turn straight back to goal. There is no bale/ronaldo, that type of player that has a real attacking mentality to push forward from midfield and that’s what we need more than anything else imo.
That’s why I suggested that it looked like we played 4 up front at one stage. It’s down to the coaching Adam, plain and simple.
And it’s quite simply shite, at home, imo.
It’s a good point though.
Albrighton actually going past a defender shortly after he came on was the highlight of the game for me.
It was like a breath of fresh air after the tedious pass back to Guzan shite we always see.
Yes, it might be technically the best thing to do, but it’s why I hated much of European footy in the 80’s, especially Italian.
Lambert has ruined us as a home team, imo.
The beers are kicking in a bit now though, so I might be talking bollocks 🙂
Fair point badger but when was the last time we were that formidable at home anyway. Even under MON we were better away. I’m thinking of days under BFR when we were decent at home and before that under sir Ron when we won league and best home team ever IMO in the 1976-77 season when teams like arsenal and Liverpool were stuffed 5.1. Only lost once at home to tge scum of all teams. I went home in tears absolutely gutted after that game.
Oohah, tbh, I’m not sure we tried to play the route 1 to Benteke much today.
Guzan still kicks high left and I’m beginning to seriously question his distribution now.
Whereas you would think our young bunch of tryers with good workrate as their biggest advantage, would appreciate a quick ball out, it now seems to me that we’re taking a much more measured approach.
Guzan really does mess about in getting the ball out sometimes.
I’ve mentioned it before, but I wish he’d roll the ball out much quicker to one of the backs more often and keep the tempo up, rather than kick it.
Simple question here;
When was the last time we seriously outworked the opposition?
I don’t remember, but it must have been a few games back.
I’m not sure if the slower, more measured approach is down to the team or Lambert.
I suspect the latter, which has me even more concerned, especially at home.
As I said, I just don’t know anymore.
I agree badger it’s a more cautious team now. It’s almost as if we just want to keep the ball in no mans land between midfield and forwards so nearly everyone is behind the ball to protect clean sheet and to scared to go forward as they’ve no confidence in creating anything or havnt the ability to anyway. Iv a feeling that lambert want to try and get to around 30 plus points asap then when we are pretty safe with mid 30s total with a few months to spare will take the shackles of and have us bombing forward again. It’s definitely safety first which I do t blame him with the dearth of quality in the team. Having said that we could so easily have lost today so rode our luck yet again. But luck will run out eventually.
Sunderland defended very well and i take my hat off to gus Poyet who done his homework. Today was a shocking game of football and if we are honest we are lucky to have not lost by a two or three goal margin. Westwood and Gabby were fantastic i also have to say we looked composed when passing in parts in the second half but overall we were not great and lack that bit of creative genius.
Benteke looks out of sorts and Kozack should have been on at half time, Delph looked half a yard away from anything which is so unlike him. I also dont understand why KEA gets a game he is good at putting opposing players under pressure but does seem to lose the ball a lot.
We lack width in every game this season i have not seen anyone in front of bacuna and he only makes it to three quarters of the way down the pitch, not his fault as our centre midfielders at times look to be tripping over each others feet and not moving into space. Another clean sheet is a plus but these players do not look hungry and a lot of the time the football looks like a hot potatoe to a lot of our first team regulars
Morgan, strangely enough, I thought Poyet hadn’t done his homework and commented on such during the game, in that most of their wide play came down our right.
If I was the opposition, I’d be piling the pressure on our left, the same as Man U did last time we played them at home. We’re just crap in that area, imo.
And if that doesn’t work, keep switching it, which will pull our defence to shreds.
Thank god for Vlaar, who’s starting to look a really decent defender now and is beginning to really read the game, imo.
Totally agree about the mids being too tight.
This again imo is down to the coaching.
And I don’t like it mate, tbh.
Just seen motd highlights. They could of had a pen, missed an open goal and hit tge bat. Ffs this is Sunderland at home and our defence is playing better yet they still could of easily won. We didn’t create one decent chance just a couple of half chances appalling
Poyets tactics were simple, get men behind the ball quickly and Villa wont be able to break us down. He was right, we had no idea how to get in behind them. We dont have anyone with the ability to beat a player or make a clever pass.
If we play 3 in midfield, one of them has to be a creative player. Right now we have 3 defensive mids, plus another one on the bench.
a great article badger, really nicely written btw.
some real food for thought in the comments today and I got to say there isn’t much id disagree with at all.
we’ve gone from one extreme to another, our improvements defence wise seem to be at the expense of our one time feared attacking threat, hopefully we will find a balance at some point but no doubt we as we all know are missing that attacking midfielder at least. ive said before that delph, westwood and kea are essentially the same player they are that similar in style.
add to that benteke has been woeful since his return from injury, with the best will in the world there’s no denying it, its not the fact he hasn’t scored its the fact he looks totally uninvolved and doesn’t look like he’s trying too hard to get involved. maybe a bit harsh considering everthing, i.e his injury and the service he gets, I hope he comes good soon.
i still think we’ve got the makings of a decent team and a good and positive ethos going on at villa but I hope we’ve got an eye on bringing in some attacking creativity in midfield at some point, if we can see the issues then so must lambert and villa
Ah cheers Naughtius, that’s decent of you to say that.
I don’t profess to be a good writer though; I just say things as I see them without going overboard either way, I hope.
Perhaps it’s why I don’t get as much stick as Ooah 🙂
Truth be told, I suspect that if you read between the lines, where I concentrated more on the kids having a good day, you’ll see that I was very much underwhelmed.
I always try to underplay the bad side of things, but it hasn’t been easy over the last few years and ultimately, I will always call a spade, erm, a spade.
Hopefully, you wouldn’t want it any other way, as we have the OS to do that 🙂
Bring on the saints.lol
If I was Lambert id go for Micah Richards to solve our RB problem. Wants out of city and still only 25.
The football at VP atm really is grim, constant hoofing the ball to Benteke, who looks completely disinterested, same uncreative midfield, etc. This is my biggest gripe as Lambert is making us really boring.and predictable.
On the other hand, the defence has shown a marked improvement, mainly down to the form of Vlaar, who has been excellent this last month in particular.
We really have to buy a quality creative midfielder in Jan, but after the non-event of last Jan, I’m expecting zero movement in the transfer market.
I’d echo the calls to drop Benteke, we need commitment and good attitudes on the pitch and Kozak will give us that at very least. Might make Benteke more hungry to come back as well as Lukaku is surely going to take his place in Belgian team the way things are going
Quite right Richie that’s the way I see it, basically we have almost solved central defence next is right back, I’m not sure of aluna he seemed t be out of possison most times by going forward and being caught out, Bacuna would be better suited in that roll to me, Benteke was a great disappointing player, as many have said he lacked enthusiasm to me, half tackles, not showing wanting, if it was not for Abonglahor determination god knows where we would have been , not tenth, more like worrying what the f.,’.king hell do we do now. I still think a old head in that Central midfield is the call in January, that’s a must to me.
Adam is richards young & hungry plus come on the cheap mate?
Yep iv rated him for years can play anywhere in back 4 to. His wages would be massive though
Im afraid to say he’s not a bargain basement/budget player which the club want to attract mate.
Our home form is really worrying now. It’s bad enough that we play a boring predictable style of football at home but it’s even more worrying that Lambert can’t adapt or have a plan b when it’s not working! Every manager plays a different style but you earn your corn as a manager for how you make changes and subs and set up to get the better of the opposition and Lambert is failing in everyone of those areas. We can see it’s not working so why does he persist with same formation and style of play at home! Also needs to stop being so loyal to players like benteke and drop him when not performing and recall someone like lowton even though theres obviously a problem there! He’s so stubborn! Today should have been 3 points as I can’t see us getting anything at saints and maybe no more than a point vs Fulham
after sitting through Monday night and then again yesterday you get the picture of what lambert means by the phrase ‘we are better than last season’ what I think he means is in terms of what he wants to see, hunger, work rate and determination.
There is no way we are a better footballing team than last season, no way… I remember watching us attack last year thinking that we do look dangerous in most games but lacked a little quality and composure in front of goal.
Last year we would of lost both games I feel but this year we have earned 2 draws.
there is a fine line though, in my opinion, what do us fans want? we were poor in both games but are unbeaten of would we have rather played more aggressive open tactics which could of ending up us winning or possibly losing?
personally for me being unbeaten in 4 is cool…. but watching teams in and around us playing decent football, going for results is saddening,
I remember watching Norwich games with lambert in charge asking myself why cant we have a manager like that??????
I guess what im trying to say here is, Lamberts style is starting to work, we work hard, hugry and determined… but the question asked is… do I want to see the club I love playing percentage long ball football?
My glimmer of hope is……. this 4-3-3 formation we play, its a perfect formation for having god wide men who attack full backs and supply crosses… maybe a very small maybe I am thinking Lambert has Grealish and Graham in his thoughts? get the rest of the team settled in playing the formation, the 3 narrow midfieders (a must for us) to over lapping full backs and the danger on the flanks?
Like I said, its probably 99% wrong that idea but its the glimmer of hope im holding onto
I disagree being unbeaten for 4 games means nothing if it’s draws. I’d rather we lost 2 and won 2 them we would have 6 points instead of 4.
Blimey hull beating Liverpool 3.1 now with a few minutes left. Great result for them I’d have predicted that scoreline the opposite way round!,
We were draw specialists under McLeish and that nearly got us relegated. The same will happen this season unless we start playing with a bit more urgency. Feel we definitely need a playmaker in the January window. Our current midfielders are seriously lacking any creativity. Not surprised Benteke can’t be bothered – he’s got nothing to work with!