Aston Villa v Sunderland.

I'm wondering what Cleverly's job is? What instructions is he given that would make him play as he does? He plays like the ball is red hot, one touch and give it straight back to the player who passed it to him. Why?

Is it my imagination or has Benteke stopped running? He seems to have given up trying to make space for himself because he knows the ball won't reach him anyway.

Come on Villa, stop piddling about and attack the box as though we actually mean it!

Hooray! There's our red card, seconds after Delph is blocked but they're given the thrown in. Now we'll see if we're any better with 10. Three in four matches.

Next game, dont bother having a scoreline prediction. Lets have a "how many will be sent off" or "who will be sent off" or what minute will villas 1st sending off be in" poll instead!

What a complete joke this football club is .. can't believe after the last few games another of our braindead players gets himself sent off.

So another pathetic defeat upcoming no doubt....1 point from 12 in games against West Brom, Sunderland, Swansea and Man Utd.....Relegation form basically.... Just for a change..Thank the Lord i didn't waste my money and spend the afternoon at the Theatre of Disappointment.

Finally get some service to the box and the fucking forwards are no where to be seen, I am officially fed the fuck up of this tripe, tooth ache and I got out of bed for this bull shit. Thought I'd never say this but fuck the Villa. good night!

Sanchez is holding this team together. I have a crazy idea, let's try starting Bacuna and Grealish instead of N'Zogbia and Cleverley, and when Gabby is back he can play in the middle with Benteke. Okore and Vlaar. Clark has turned out to be a good defender but I think Okore is better. Who gets to play with Sanchez depends on who is a) fit and b) not banned.

Sanchez man of the match by a long way but Grealish has to start matches, without any question of a doubt.

The Utterer wrote:What a complete joke this football club is .. can't believe after the last few games another of our braindead players gets himself sent off.

So another pathetic defeat upcoming no doubt....1 point from 12 in games against West Brom, Sunderland, Swansea and Man Utd.....Relegation form basically.... Just for a change..Thank the Lord i didn't waste my money and spend the afternoon at the Theatre of Disappointment.

He didn't get himself sent off ... He mistimed a tackle slightly and the ref got it wrong by sending him off. Other than that Sunderland barely had a chance and we should have won it at the end but Benteke bottled it.

I don't think the ref got it wrong, the player is going nowhere Delph didn't need to make the tackle. If that tackle happened against a Villa player I would expect him to be sent off. I presume that Delph doesn't want to play for us again before he moves on in January?

Zog is a waste of space. So is Weimann. If Bacuna doesn't start ahead of one of them against Palace I might cry

If that's a red card no game will finish again this season

Just left the ground. That first 45 was utter garbage from both sets of players, Sunderland fans must be as bored as we are. Second half I don't think the red card was justified, another poor decision. Neither side did enough to win it but until the 60th minute Sunderland showed absolutely no ambition, they're a very poor side.

One positive was the performance of Carlos Sanchez, the bloke was a different class to the crap on the pitch around him, best player out of both teams by an absolute mile!

thegaffer6 wrote:Just left the ground. That first 45 was utter garbage from both sets of players, Sunderland fans must be as bored as we are. Second half I don't think the red card was justified, another poor decision. Neither side did enough to win it but until the 60th minute Sunderland showed absolutely no ambition, they're a very poor side.

One positive was the performance of Carlos Sanchez, the bloke was a different class to the crap on the pitch around him, best player out of both teams by an absolute mile!

Have another look at the red when home. It was deserved and rather silly imo. Another toothless performance. 11 goals at the halfway stage is shocking, We can dress it up, but we really are a poor side. Well done to the fans though, made a lot of noise when there was really little to cheer

thegaffer6 wrote:One positive was the performance of Carlos Sanchez, the bloke was a different class to the crap on the pitch around him, best player out of both teams by an absolute mile!

I thought it was just me! He's constantly finding space, constantly making himself available to receive the ball and makes some cracking passes. He can tackle, is great in posession, can run with the ball and rarely gives it away.

Weimann and N'Zogbia are a waste of time!

mefromhere wrote:

The Utterer wrote:What a complete joke this football club is .. can't believe after the last few games another of our braindead players gets himself sent off.

So another pathetic defeat upcoming no doubt....1 point from 12 in games against West Brom, Sunderland, Swansea and Man Utd.....Relegation form basically.... Just for a change..Thank the Lord i didn't waste my money and spend the afternoon at the Theatre of Disappointment.

He didn't get himself sent off ... He mistimed a tackle slightly and the ref got it wrong by sending him off. Other than that Sunderland barely had a chance and we should have won it at the end but Benteke bottled it.

It wasn't a red card for me .... but .... Villa players have to stop giving the Referee the chance to decide between a yellow and a red. It was an irresponsible knee jerk reaction by Delph to his previous poor touch that gave away the throw in!

We didn't miss Delph much when he went off because he's being played far too deep.

We actually looked much more dangerous when Cleverly went off because at last we had a player on the pitch who was too good for a static Sunderland defence .... Grealish!!!! If Lambert buys Cleverly after being shown close up that he's nowhere near as good as Grealish or even Bacuna then something's wrong. Grealish and Bacuna attack the box as a natural instinct, where as Cleverly treats the opposition box like sacred ground and never goes near it!

Lambert has to sort out the team selection and on the pitch discipline as a matter of some urgency.

The speed at which Carlos Sanchez has adapted and now looks a very good player in the Premier League is very impressive.

Also puts any potential Tom Cleverley signing into perspective. We paid £4 million for Sanchez and he looks three times the player.

Obviously he is an older player who is now at his career peak.

We have to many similar players in the middle of the park, that why it was so refreshing when Joe Cole played always looking to hit the frontman quickly. I know Joe can't be relied on so it must be a priority to buy a good AM and also an out and out winger.

mefromhere wrote:

The Utterer wrote:What a complete joke this football club is .. can't believe after the last few games another of our braindead players gets himself sent off.

So another pathetic defeat upcoming no doubt....1 point from 12 in games against West Brom, Sunderland, Swansea and Man Utd.....Relegation form basically.... Just for a change..Thank the Lord i didn't waste my money and spend the afternoon at the Theatre of Disappointment.

He didn't get himself sent off ... He mistimed a tackle slightly and the ref got it wrong by sending him off. Other than that Sunderland barely had a chance and we should have won it at the end but Benteke bottled it.

I can guarantee you that one won't be rescinded. It was a silly silly needless tackle. Foot off the ground and studs up. Always going to given the ref a chance to show you a red in those situations. Personally thought we were better with 10. We are essentially a pressing side, not designed to retain possession and 10 men resulted in us reverting to type. I think it would have ended 0-0 regardless. That kind of game for me.

worst 45 minutes since the Houllier Season - sideways passing at walking pace - and then the utter surprise when it fails to create to anything. Has someone told Lambert this is a good idea - because we can play that weekin - week out - we won't score goals basic stuff.

In a weird way the sending off may have helped us - we forgot the aimless passing the ball - got the ball wide - passed faster - and made a decent fist off it - got lucky when they hit the post late on.

I don't mind passing football - but it has to be done with some purpose - passing for the sake of passing isn't helping anyone. Hence the boos at half time

His foot is off the ground because the ball is off the ground!

He doesn't make contact until both feet are on the floor and all he does is stand on his foot. Why quite so many people agree this is a red is beyond me. If it's a red card to stand on somebody's foot very few games would even reach half time before being abandoned

I just don't get it. With 11 goals in 19 games, Lambert still has his supporters.

How, why? I genuinely want to know - then I can form a judgement over what kind of deluded idiot you are.

FoxyAV wrote:

smetro wrote:I cant believe so many people are impressed with us in the last few games. To me we lack any sort of punch up front....and tippy tappy from the back doesn't make that ok. Today I think this will come home to roost... 1-2 away win

Hit-and-hope 4-3-3 was too predictable and when we did get a brief amount of time in possession we gave the ball away or did nothing with it. The 4-3-3 formation still has its uses and will come back again but it's good to see one or more of 3/5/2, 5/3/3 or 4/5/1 used in a match. The manager is trying different things and while we're not going on a huge winning streak it's a sign of improvement and gives us options while making us harder to read when the opposition manager is setting up his team against us. We have the January window ahead of us so we'll see where we are in a month's time.

Really ? - I doubt Gus Poyet will have an easier 45 than that first half today.

Hope your right about then Jan Window - however even if he has funds to buy players - slowly passing the ball back and forth, will be still be unproductive. Benteke is a very highly rated striker, I doubt we will get much better - but if the ball is farting about on the half way line, it doesn't really matter who the players are. .....and I will be very surprised if Lambert has significant funds next month anyway

Thinman wrote:I just don't get it. With 11 goals in 19 games, Lambert still has his supporters.

How, why? I genuinely want to know - then I can form a judgement over what kind of deluded idiot you are.

I think its fear of the unknown in replacing him.

Ive long supported him - but the last few games have done it for me. It really isn't difficult to see why we aren't scoring. 35,000 froze there nuts of today - to see the ball passed back forth without ever looking like doing anything with it. ....

Any other manager - would get the ball down, get it out wide, crosses and runs towards the byline (like what a 19 year old Jack Grealish tried to do !)

Delph was poor even before his sending off. His the midfielder in our team who can drive forwards with the ball, look to create space for other people by drawing in defenders, but today he just seemed to be moving sideways with it. The movement in general today was poor, Hutton and Cissokho we're moving in the final 3rd more than Zog or Weimann

Thinman wrote:I just don't get it. With 11 goals in 19 games, Lambert still has his supporters.

How, why? I genuinely want to know - then I can form a judgement over what kind of deluded idiot you are.

I backed Lambo for a long, long time. Even this summer and the start of the season. Burnley away did it for me, I walked out of that game feeling totally dejected with him in charge