Aston Villa v Bournemouth .... FA Cup 4th round .... played 24/25th January.

I'm in the Lower Holte on Saturday, if anyone wants to sort it I'll help hand them out  :)

kimbo wrote:I'm in the Lower Holte on Saturday, if anyone wants to sort it I'll help hand them out  :)

Almost 13,500 capacity, so say 7k for a cup match? That's a lot of photocopying and smuggling in!

Its  amazing the germans with a sense of humour.  

Leeds beat Bournemouth last night, but can we beat them on Sunday?

villabromsgrove wrote:Leeds beat Bournemouth last night, but can we beat them on Sunday?

I suspect they fielded a weaker team so they are ready for us.

kimbo wrote:This is what I'd do on Sunday. Can't see it happening, mind.

Good call mate.

Of course we all know that in the real world the clueless one will bugger team selection and tactics up.

Regardless of Lambert's incompetence, we should win but then this is the Villa and when has things been easy!?


Up the Villa

Good choice Dek of Villa. Although Given is a top notch goal keeper I would have played Guzan.
You know the old belt and braces.
No Weimann or Gabby I see. Very wise.

I've just had a thought that I'm not particularly proud of .... Do we want to win on Sunday? This is not a Lambert out thought, it's a bit of pragmatism based on our league position, and the absolute necessity for a focussed team to battle it's way through our next sixteen league fixtures.

If we beat Bournemouth on Sunday and then win our next cup match, that would put us in the quarter finals of the FA cup!. See what I mean about total focus?

Look what happened to Wigan .... they won the FA cup and got relegated a few days later. Birmingham got to the Quarter Finals of the FA cup, won the League cup and got relegated the same season. We should have only one target for the rest of this season and that's Premier League survival. As much as I'd love a good cup run, I want to remain in the Premier League even more!

So back to my earlier question .... Do we want to win on Sunday?

villabromsgrove wrote:I've just had a thought that I'm not particularly proud of .... Do we want to win on Sunday? This is not a Lambert out thought, it's a bit of pragmatism based on our league position, and the absolute necessity for a focussed team to battle it's way through our next sixteen league fixtures.

If we beat Bournemouth on Sunday and then win our next cup match, that would put us in the quarter finals of the FA cup!. See what I mean about total focus?

Look what happened to Wigan .... they won the FA cup and got relegated a few days later. Birmingham got to the Quarter Finals of the FA cup, won the League cup and got relegated the same season. We should have only one target for the rest of this season and that's Premier League survival. As much as I'd love a good cup run, I want to remain in the Premier League even more!

So back to my earlier question .... Do we want to win on Sunday?

Yes, we do want to win. We need something to cheer about.

Are we going to win? Not a chance, unless Lambert completely rethinks his approach, based on the Liverpool match. We've not been able to score all season, Gil looked fantastic against Liverpool, as did having Delph in attack rather than defence, but I can't see Lambert sticking with that second half formation.

Having said that, this is the perfect opportunity to have a go. We'll find out what Lambert learned from the Liverpool match - usual defensive formation minus the fast counter-attack breaks in first half = nothing from us and one goal down versus attacking formation, lots of chances, unlucky not to score plus a mistake leading to goal in the second half. What we as fans learned from it is act scared, go defensive, know the current system isn't producing goals but stick stubbornly with it anyway, concede and get booed off or go on the offensive, play interesting football, get the crowd behind the players and making noise and go away feeling not so bad about losing than had it been defensive, low possession football for the whole 90 minutes.

What Lambert does next is going to give us an idea of how loud the chants against him will be in the next few matches.

villabromsgrove wrote:I've just had a thought that I'm not particularly proud of .... Do we want to win on Sunday? This is not a Lambert out thought, it's a bit of pragmatism based on our league position, and the absolute necessity for a focussed team to battle it's way through our next sixteen league fixtures.

If we beat Bournemouth on Sunday and then win our next cup match, that would put us in the quarter finals of the FA cup!. See what I mean about total focus?

Look what happened to Wigan .... they won the FA cup and got relegated a few days later. Birmingham got to the Quarter Finals of the FA cup, won the League cup and got relegated the same season. We should have only one target for the rest of this season and that's Premier League survival. As much as I'd love a good cup run, I want to remain in the Premier League even more!

So back to my earlier question .... Do we want to win on Sunday?

Yep. I want to win the cup.

I don't buy into this cup/league philosophy. If you go down, you deserve to go down.

kimbo wrote:

villabromsgrove wrote:I've just had a thought that I'm not particularly proud of .... Do we want to win on Sunday? This is not a Lambert out thought, it's a bit of pragmatism based on our league position, and the absolute necessity for a focussed team to battle it's way through our next sixteen league fixtures.

If we beat Bournemouth on Sunday and then win our next cup match, that would put us in the quarter finals of the FA cup!. See what I mean about total focus?

Look what happened to Wigan .... they won the FA cup and got relegated a few days later. Birmingham got to the Quarter Finals of the FA cup, won the League cup and got relegated the same season. We should have only one target for the rest of this season and that's Premier League survival. As much as I'd love a good cup run, I want to remain in the Premier League even more!

So back to my earlier question .... Do we want to win on Sunday?

Yep. I want to win the cup.

I don't buy into this cup/league philosophy. If you go down, you deserve to go down.

I hope you and I aren't debating this point on the evening of Sunday May 24th, with tears streaming down our faces. I've just been looking at our last eight fixtures, and only two of them are what I would describe as winnable. We would be under dogs in the other six matches. That's why I think that the FA cup could be a distraction if we are still in it.

Winning breeds winning.

And this game is a weekend game the same as any league match, no reason to rest players.

Villa_Dan wrote:Winning breeds winning.

And this game is a weekend game the same as any league match, no reason to rest players.

I'm playing devil's advocate here, but what if Carles Gil or Fabien Delph or Christian Benteke pick up an injury on Sunday in what is likely to be a hard fought game? Each future cup match provides another opportunity for injuries to key players. Do we have the squad for it?

Countering that, what if Gil and Benteke combine to score 4 goals between them, get the confidence flowing and the crowd behind them?

Muggins here, within two weeks of swearing he wouldn't come to another match with Lambert in charge has gone and bought a ticket for this. My dear mother is driving (albeit collecting me five hours before kickoff for a two and a half hour drive!) and the promise of a curry in town afterwards has swung it.

villabromsgrove wrote:

kimbo wrote:

villabromsgrove wrote:I've just had a thought that I'm not particularly proud of .... Do we want to win on Sunday? This is not a Lambert out thought, it's a bit of pragmatism based on our league position, and the absolute necessity for a focussed team to battle it's way through our next sixteen league fixtures.

If we beat Bournemouth on Sunday and then win our next cup match, that would put us in the quarter finals of the FA cup!. See what I mean about total focus?

Look what happened to Wigan .... they won the FA cup and got relegated a few days later. Birmingham got to the Quarter Finals of the FA cup, won the League cup and got relegated the same season. We should have only one target for the rest of this season and that's Premier League survival. As much as I'd love a good cup run, I want to remain in the Premier League even more!

So back to my earlier question .... Do we want to win on Sunday?

Yep. I want to win the cup.

I don't buy into this cup/league philosophy. If you go down, you deserve to go down.

I hope you and I aren't debating this point on the evening of Sunday May 24th, with tears streaming down our faces. I've just been looking at our last eight fixtures, and only two of them are what I would describe as winnable. We would be under dogs in the other six matches. That's why I think that the FA cup could be a distraction if we are still in it.

Of course we won't. We'll be relegated long before then 

Enjoy your curry FoxyAV, its probably the only enjoyment you will get all day. :shock:

I'm with Dan on this. Winning can become a habit, just as loosing has for us. The tragedy is that Villa loosing at home to Bournemouth in the 4th round of the FA Cup is not thought of as being a shock.

I personally think we'll win. Since Bournemouth are being bigged up so much I think we won't take the game lightly and some personal pride will kick in with the players.

Dream of this headline lads....... "FA Cup Winners Aston Villa Takenover By Multi Billionaire"

I think the fact that Bournemouth are considered favourites by quite a few people - and the 'scored more goals than Villa in Birmingham' thing keeps getting floated about - should be all the motivation that the players need, and all that Paul Lambert needs in his team talk.

But then I think a lot of things about the players and Paul Lambert....! 

jeffvilla wrote:Enjoy your curry FoxyAV, its probably the only enjoyment you will get all day. :shock:

Thanks, I certainly will. We have an excellent local curry house in Winchester but the wife isn't interested in more than one curry every couple of months or so, one of the many things I should have taken into account before I married her. I'm very much looking forward to it.

I just read Robbie Savage's piece about Villa, I hadn't realised we were bottom goal scorers out of all top nine tiers!

" Villa have scored seven at home and only 11 in total in 22 matches.

That is not only the worst goals-per-game ratio in the top division of any of Europe's major leagues - England, Spain, Germany, France and Italy - but also the worst goals-per-game ratio by any of the 649 teams in the top nine tiers of the English football pyramid. "

Bearing in mind what Randy stands to lose if the club is relegated, both in continued income and loss of TV money and presumably wages of players like Gabby who presumably wouldn't go, I'm even more amazed Lambert hasn't gone. My only hope is that Lerner thinks the club is on the verge of being sold and he doesn't want the cost of sacking Lambert, especially if the new owner wants to attract a decent manager with the promise of decent money to spend, and doesn't want to have to sack Lambert's replacement.

Even if we lose now we won't be the biggest upset of the weekend!

mefromhere wrote:Even if we lose now we won't be the biggest upset of the weekend!

Having watched ManU scrape a draw against Cambridge United I have hope we can do the same against Bournemouth. On the plus side if we do I'm only 45 minutes away for the replay!

Finally some good news!!!

Gabby is doubtful for Sunday due to injury.

Its amazing  whenever there is a cup tie gabby is injured !!!!!!!!!
Its almost that a cup tie is beneath him.
I hope I am wrong but this is the second tie without him

Better without Gabby I reckon. The cup will never be easier to win than this year now!
I always thought that Bradford team were quite handy!