ciggiesnbeer

Well aware. But >I< care about Villa way ahead of any countries national side and frankly I think my views should trump everyone elses

no. It would be abused by the big teams as players would pick up the "injuries" that made them miss international duty. e.g. Liverpool are playing Palace this weekend could probably have Suarez and Gerrard "injured" and still win the game and then keep both away from international games the following week to keep fresh But thats good. We should do the same. I dont care about crappy international football, least of all some other countries. Besides it would end up being a positive, if top flight clubs started denying opportunities for their players to go waste time playing international football then national coaches could give those opportunities to lower league players. win/win

it says: there is still a chanse benteke wil be recovered for 1 of the 2 qualify match he will be joining the belgium squad on monday. No offense but I hope not. The only positive about his injury was that it coincided with the international break and so he would get extra rest. I know he loves playing for his country but his country can qualify without him

Why would you ruin our big day?

Well if he is a lucky player he goes well with lambert who is a lucky manager. You know how the Napoleon line goes...

I think a "push for Europe" thread is completely reasonable. We have been given the hardest start of any club in the league beat two of the most expensive teams and currently sit 9th. Oh and thats with a pretty bad set of injuries to our regular players. We have shown ourselves to have a good team ethic and talent within the squad. Why not look up instead of down?

A spurs friend of mine was at the game tonight. He messaged me saying we were utterly awful and we should be very worried with our crap team, aside from "that left back kid he looked really good." So if you care about the opinion of someone who supports the chicken heads there you go.

Agree with this. Agreed. That was where he played in the german pre season game as well where he looked good. For whatever reason I am increasingly optimistic about Tonev. Irrational I know but I just get that sense of a player who can spark something. I was excited to see him starting today and I enjoyed seeing him play.

He played decently against Stoke last season, errr , thats kind of it. I am surprised he didnt get a loan by now.

FFS someone lock this shit otherwise I will be forced to start a "Top six battle, 13-14" thread to piss off the doom and gloomers.

He is a Lambert style full back. More concerned with attacking than defending. I love him

I just rewatched the game. All the negatives are true BUT he had a nice little spell at the start of the second half in terms of tackles and trying to get a counter going. I watched him whenever he was on camera he really put in a shift work rate wise, he also has some very good pace. For those of us looking for positives, some hope there.

Lambert doesnt have much sympathy for injured players imho. I remember him looking very pissed off that Baker last season (who was clearly concussed) wanted to come off. He also made poor Luna who had been hobbling around for the last 10 minutes walk over to applaud the fans. Poor bastard

After predicting relegation last week and winning the league after the Arsenal game I am now taking the much more sensible prediction of 3rd.

Well said, he loves Villa, he wants to succeed. I am impressed Lambert is giving him another chance. To be honest I do not think he will make it, but good luck to him, I hope he does.

Eh, no it didn't. Yes it did. Kept a very good at home Norwich silent. I was very pleased with them. Nice to see the DM's drilled better as well. They only lost their shape in the last 10 mins or so and that was due to extra cover needed for the limping around Luna.

Solid. Actually our defence today looked...good? What madness is this?

He is getting used to the league and his position. Needs to work on his fitness though, became very static towards the end there. Terrible day for him today, but he can bounce back.

To be fair, how long is the long term? Do we have a plan to actually try and win things? Celebrating not being relegated gets a bit pathetic after three seasons in a row of it.

If you got the ticket prices up by an average of a fiver, and assuming we held an average of 37k, that would give you £3.5m to play with. Even if it was twenty quid, you're only talking £14m, which is probably the cost of Kozak for he fee and term of contract. Works for me. That kind of extra quality would be most welcome. I am in a bit of a negative mood but lets face the reality. The only way to compete in the premier league is money. You can still fail and spend money but overall the rule is you must spend a lot of money to have a chance at getting up the league. May I have a little moan? Ok then. I am just sick of year after year watching us bobble along. Sick of Villa park being a nice easy 3 points. Sick of playing in a league which is rigged so the rich get richer, the likes of us are here to make up the numbers, we can achieve nothing just like most of the teams. In short, football sucks.

I know this is an unpopular position but I think we should dramatically increase ticket prices. Take that money and help buy/pay for quality.

4-2-3-1 if its good enough for Klopp its good enough for us.

After we beat Arsenal I said we would win the league. After losing to Newcastle I predict we will come bottom.

I wouldnt worry. Old man Hodgson will be gone soon enough.

Yep, exactly what I was thinking. Yeah, lambert dropped a hint today he may play Kozak and Beneteke together. I think the only wrinkle maybe one or two of the international players maybe a bit tired and benched for a game. IMHO if you have to play a 2 man mid then Delph and KEA are a nose ahead right now.