I have to be happy with the final result, as in my opinion, it was about as much as we deserved.
Albion taught us a lesson in naviety in the first half.
While the first goal from Shane long was sublime, in the way he took the ball down to score, the second was ridiculous in the half-hearted way the ball was passed back from (I think) Bacuna.
Ok, we all make mistakes and that’s fair enough.
But just a few minutes later, Albion had a free kick on our left side.
The kicker was about 20-25 yards out, but Albion had a player free in our left back position, with no-one covering him and the ball was duly passed to him.
It came to nothing, but you really have to wonder what’s going on.
This is not basic for young 20 odd year old lads. It’s basic for 7 year old lads.
Suffice to say, I wasn’t happy with the way things were going.
Albion were better in every way.
They out-worked us, they hunted us down and looked like they had some idea of what they wanted to do.
The first part of that is what hurts the most, for me.
We’ve a team of young kids and our biggest strength ought to be our workrate. Today, it wasn’t.
Getting the negatives out of the way, if you don’t get the ball to Benteke, we look so much like a one man team, it’s crazy.
That said, I know many of you disagree.
We created nothing in the first half, apart from some speculative efforts from Tonev, who I agree with BWS, has the makings on the left, if he get’s a bit of luck.
He’ll bang one of them in soon.
Anyway, even Lambert could see it just wasn’t working and even though I always view 3 subs at the same time as a sign of desperation, this time it worked.
We looked totally revitalised and the added energy was obvious.
And so it was El Hamadi scooped one in and Westwood scored a very nice first goal.
You have to be happy at the result, but I just get this yearning to say that we played well.
It eluded me again.
I’m happy with the result in the end but the first half performance was shocking. Tonev was absolutely piss poor and should have been off before half time, I don’t see any improvement whatsoever.
Same result as last team only we came bk from 2 down v a very mediocre WBA team. I can’t see where the improvement is either except that vlaar has gone up at least 10 gears from last season and was our motm IMO as he saved us time and time again. I never thought I’d be saying that a few months ago but fair play he’s proved me wrong
In terms of quality that was a dreadful performance, i dont think I have ever seen us give the ball away that many time. However, in terms of commitment and passion, you cant fault the team. Coming back from 2-0 down is not easy, esp when you are not playing well. Good triple substitution from Lambert, changed the game.
I have to be honest though, i have no idea what formation we were playing today…it looked like 4-4-2 with Sylla right wing? Even with the three subs on , it was hard to figure out who was playing where.
Cracking goal by Westwood, but without Delph our midfield looked very weak tonight, think PL needs to address that in Jan.
All in all though, very pleased to get a point. Now 3 points off Sunderland and it will be a good week!
Don’t think it was a great substitution at all. We were all calling for at least 2 if those at half time and those three were no brainers as they were never going to be worse than the pile of shit he took off. If sessingon had put his chances away it would have been all over. Lambert should have made the subs after half at the very latest as it was obvious from the first 10 mins we were fycked if he didn’t change things. I watched with my mate an arsenal fan and even he said of should changed earlier and he knows fuck all about villa
As soon as I seen what team was put out my heart sunk, what the hell was he up to? We had no creativity from backs to forwards, lads we was lucky to come away with that draw, Kozak, Sylla, shit, we did not have a plan in the first half , Benteke was the only player with any idea, he will not want to be at Villa next year with lack of skillful players in our side, Make no mistake if it was not for worse teams out their we would be fighting for survival in that division.
Bill respect your opinion mate but I don’t get where coming from with Benteke.
I thought he was piss poor last night, don’t know if it’s because he’s still feeling the effects of his recent injury, been bubbled, suffering from second season syndrome or simply not interested but he looks a shadow of the player he was last season.
As he was so good last season defenses have had to resort to ganging up on him, and rightly so. SO…..how do we make use of him…..maybe take less than 60 mins to put a half decent ball into the box (seeing as we had 2 tall men up top, it should have been our game plan), or get midfielders who actually have an ounce of creativity to be able to put him in one on one. The runs are there, the creativity isn’t and I don’t blame the lad if he wants to part company in Jan. Far to good for what we are atm.
He’s a great player mate just seems a little off the boil at the moment (imo) the reasons for that may well be what as you say and perhaps this Saturday he’ll prove I’m chatting bubbles take Sunderland to the cleaners and get a hat trick (hopefully).
Basically like u say defenders double up on benteke and crowd him out. That’s fine but that should give other players more space to exploit and our strikers arnt doing it. Tonev and kozac wll never be more than bench players IMO. And just to piss everyone of further Benteke is starting to look like the new Heskey at last. Took him a while to get there though. 🙂
Haha, nah, Heskey had the likes of Downing, Young, Walker, Milner and Petrov amongst others feeding him and we were finishing 6th. Sadly, I wish we still had these players now
Morning Bill well he was on his own and did most of the work up front, kozac was shit and he was supposedly his partner up front, all in all Bill we was lucky on the night. I don’t think Benteke had chances to strike as he was tackling most of the time to lay off for others.
Morning BP, as I posted yesterday I’m enjoying the ride (I must be a masochist).
Fair enough footballs about opinions we all see it differently and the end of the day we ground out a result, came away with a point with a way below par performance (Man U have been getting away with that for years).
Good to see the midfield chipping in with a couple of goals and Westwood breaking his duck with a stunning goal, so happy days mate.
Actually Bill i think Benteke suffered from playing the deeper role rather than being the target man, and in fact, Kozak was one of the only players to get a shot on target, which hit the top of the bar, i don’t actually remember Benteke having a shot.
Hi Guest how are you mate?Where have you been lately?
You’re probably right but if that is the case it’s a bit of a strange one, playing your most prolific and clinical finisher in a withdrawn role? For all his attributes Beneteke aint no Wayne Rooney.
Very poor first half. TV analysis spot on . Two players at full back who can’t play there. Can’t see the point of starting with two up front who are similar. Benteke looks really out of sorts. The subs revitalised us so fair play there. I thought we were going to get slaughtered with only 10 mins gone so it was a relief to get back in it, but we are well short of where we need to be. Weak at full back, short of both bite and guile in midfield, attack misfiring.
Bang on with the two up front, can’t think for the life of me any top class team that as or does play to big fellas up front, far to similar. Going to make the same runs and go for the same balls (against Cardiff at one point they actually challenged each other for an header).
No can not see how it’s ever going to work, play either Benteke or kovak perhaps with Helenius (although another big forward seems to be a different type, more technical) but not together.
Our midfield other than delph has to be the worst midfield in the prem bar none.
Ermm you sure about that? Crystal Palace, Hull, Cardiff? I don’t think so.
I challenge anyone to post a worse midfield at the club in living memory. To leave Delph on the bench when Olbyun destroyed us first half was imbecilic. Whilst I celbrated as loudly as the next Villan yesterday, please don’t forget that Lamberk sent us out with a piss weak midfield yesterday and left Gabby, who loves a derby, on the bench for an hour. Let not the result cloud the facts. UTV
Agree wev had a weak midfield for years now. Delph is the best of a truly awful bunch if dross midfielders. Worse midfield in the prem IMO Shoukd have got Barry ffs
What can you say….Albion deserved to win. A 3rd goal would surely have killed us off! Fair play coming back though with 2 very good goals. We are actually getting midfield scorers, dont remember too many last year. I am also baffled by the 2 up front formstion. I have a hunch that its because Benteke is not quite 100% fit and that Kozak is picked to take a little pressure off him. Big game Saturday. If we win it will be a very satisfying week points wise.
Really can’t see anything but a villa home win this week Langford. I’d be stunned if we lost that. Not expecting 6.1 again but comfortable 2.0 to us.
Point away regardless of opposition.This is football teams go 2 down shows character to come back from 2 down and draw could of even won it.Lambert made the right substitutions and it came good.Game of two halves.3 points Saturday…..UTV
JD talking about coming back from losing positions Villa have done that 7 times this season, more than any other team (courtesy of Talk shite).
But Wev also gone behind in first 5-10 of every away game do far. Even Norwich away they had a pen. So why is this happening virtually every away game. Why do we still only seem to okay well for one half and not the other.
Oohah last 6 away games we’ve won 2, drawn 3 and lost 1. That aint bad form in anybody’s book mate.
Hull & West Ham were 0-0, do you wonder why people think that you talk utter bollocks ?
This is true BWS we have come back which throws up a point of concern for early on defensive errors from oohhas favourites.But this also shows our team is a team full of determination,fight and a will to try and win..Get some more clean sheets we will be ok…UTV
Start with the positive, fantastic comeback last night. Some great finishing on display too, from both sides.
Not sure I agree with the “Fantastic substitutions from Lambert” statements though. I, and I reckon many many others were screaming for it to happen too, does that make me Prem management material??
Sylla is a tough tackling, play breaking CM’er, not a winger where he spent a lot of he evening, we have 2 big guys up top yet take 60 mins to put a decent cross into the box (although I don’t think it was meant for the Weimann flick on) and Tonev needs to understand there’s other players on the pitch. The setup/tactics were dire and we were extremely lucky Sessengon left his scoring boots at home.
Happy we have Sunderland next…Although they will be no pushovers this time out.
what we lack at the minute is genuine width, tonev is not ready for me, the obvious formation to play, which I think happened after the subs last night is 4-3-3, a narrow midfield and attack hoping weinmen and gabby can latch onto flick on and through balls from bentekkers…
I thought kozak was quality actually, ran around, held the ball up and had that lovely shot on the half volley which skimmed the cross bar, vlaar was immense
Cracking comeback last night, and once again, the away following show that we’re one of the best in the league.
Long took his first brilliantly from what was no more than a hoof up field from Brunt. For Bacuna to feed him for the second was soft, and they had subsequent chances to kill us off.
However, at no point did we look out of the game, and we had our own chances that just didn’t quite go in from Tonev, Kozak and Weimann.
When we got the first goal, I was certain that we would win as the Baggies looked terrified and we were cutting through them with attack after attack.
Gift a side a two goal lead in the first ten minutes away from home, and you have your work cut out. Unbeaten again though, this side shows a real backbone and a never say die spirit. Each of these results can only be adding to that, and it’s up to Lambert to improve individual ability and collective performance at BH.
Happy with a point in the end, it’s what most of us forecast prior to the match, so I don’t know why the abuse is pouring out from some after a point was gained.
Got to sing ‘Two nil and you f**ked it up’ to the Baggie fans too, a great night lol !
Vaze…. Agree completely with your summing up (that shocks you) ! Whatever you say about the fisrt half it still takes courage and bottle to come back from 2-0 down against your local rivals. Lambert has clearly give the team lots of heart. I dont recall heads dropping too often since Lambert took over. And that is to be commended. As for the fans, absolutely amazing. Must be the best away following in the PL.
west brom started the game well up for it and it took the villa team by surprise, we were lucky not to be out of it by the end of the 1st half, we looked a bit shell shocked at the back aside from vlarr who held it together.
people shouldn’t underestimate what it took for us to get back into that game against a west brom side who haven’t lost at home since the 1st of sept and have lost only 1 game in their last 9 and away in a very, very intense atmosphere.
for me tonev and kozac looked decent enough, the changes had to happen it was a no brainer really but could have easily gone 4-0 so it was brave, McLeish would’ve held on for
2-0 and to be honest so would MON.
bentekke is concerning, his attitude more than anything, he seemed to spent the whole game walking about while kozac and tonev were at least working and trying to get involved. tkkers has been this way since he come back from injury which im hoping is just coz he’s not 100% fit but a part of me suspects that maybe he’s been tapped up for the jan transfer window and is trying not to get injured, last night he made bent look like a work horse and has done since his return.
kozac on the other hand is working hard.
oh and by the way, some villans need to stop shouting ‘lambert out!’ everytime a team scores against us! you sound like man united fans, ‘oh no the opposition have scored, we’re shit, our managers shit, every body out! boo hoo!’
its football!!!!!
Not sure about benteke comments as he needs to play well to get a move and be in World Cup squad so not in his interests not to try. I think he has been sussed and defenders know how to play against him now where last year they didn’t
yeah possibly ooah, its just a nasty suspicion that’s been growing the last few games for me only because of his work rate, watching him lately he looks, well like I said he’s making Darren bent look like a work horse. I understand he’s not getting the breaks or the service for the most part and partnership with kozac seems a bit miss matched but I do see kozac trying, running, hassling and getting involved where as everytime I see tekkers lately he’s looking half hearted.
no doubt lukaku has been sussed too but its not stopping him at the moment.
Fair point maybe if right. Lukaka tbf does get better service at Everton and plays in a much better and confident team than us and is arguably a better player than cb.
yeah vaze villans coming through loud n clear on the tv last night 🙂
Dont get me wrong, Lambert got the team wrong, but making a triple substitution after 60 mins is a gamble and it paid off. Still, even with those players on we had no cohesion, we just piled the pressure on west brom.
How was it a gamble when we were 2.0 down with half an hour left and getting hammered and the players he took of were doing fuck all anyway. The subs were a no brainer and any poster on here with half a brain would of called at least 2 of those subs. Personally I would have done it after half hour.
Well Benno….I am happy to pile the pressure on any team?
the starting line up was due to necessity, gabby, wiemann and delph were only back in training on Friday so 90 mins would be a bit of an ask and going with the team that won the other week made sense we just got caught cold and west brom came out the blocks closing and harring faster and with determination and we gifted them the 2nd. just one of those things.
all thngs considered I think we played well last night come the 2nd half and under the conditions, 2 nil down in a very intense atmosphere at hawthorns.
It is a gamble because we get an injury and we are down to ten and the game is over.
Langford, what i mean by piling on the pressure was that we hoofed balls up to the front 3, 2 of them with fresh legs who just chased everything. Most of the time that wont work. We need to figure out a formation that suits the players that we have as right now we are all over the place.
Benno… I agree mate. I hate too much long ball shit. Its boring and ugly to watch. Prefer to play through the midfield or the flanks, but fear that we aint got too many who can play that way…how I wished we had got Barry on loan!