nick76

Of course some managers could do better just as some managers could do worse but what's the point? We have no money, no manager that's good enough will want to come with no money, Lambert would get a massive pay off so we'd have less money to spend, club will be further in turmoil and further transition and we aren't likely to be relegated. We are 13th in the league and that's us on terrible form, key players out with płayers with no confidence, fans starting to turn and no money to spend in January. So thus is bad BUT we are still 13th and in a bad place at the moment, if things turn only slightly ie Benteke comes back and hits a bit of form or we get a loan signing who gives us a bit of creativity in the middle of the park or something else happens then things will look better and we could be in the top half of the table. Agree things could get worse and we slide further down the table but going back to my first paragraph, changing managers is not going to guarantee we move up the league and play better football but what it does guarantee us is less money to spend and further turmoil/transition time

Having slept on yesterday's result I don't think we should sack Lambert. Bringing somebody in now will make no difference IMO. It's unfortunate that the level of quality that Lambert has been able to bring in with the number of positions and limited budget he's had to deal with, so I still stick with my original opinion that our problems still predominately lie with Lerner. Yes some tactical problems, yes some basic errors but a lot of the problems are lack of quality we have in the team and that's because Lerner has restricted Lambert's spending ability. You can argue that he's had a fair chunk of money to spend but in comparison to the number of positions he's had to fill it was very small and given the level of quality for those prices it's not surprising there are a few duds

I actually don't. Guzan is better than Given. Hutton is awful and no way better than Lowton. I love Bent but unless it's put on a plate in the box he won't score, if it's on a plate then there is no better player to score than him but because we aren't creating chances he's just a waste of a body on the field. Ireland has been useless at Villa and never delivered anything despite his talent, he's just a lazy sod. N'Zogbia is the only one possibly, and I keep thinking he could and then he disappoints but I'm still willing to give him a go because he has the talent and tries but he's not a given at all, we are just desparate.

Answer is all of them hence why they arent

Always been a Lambert fan but after just getting back from Villa Park I just don't know what to think. Have been blaming lack of investment from Lerner for ages and still very much believe that, still believe that contributes so much to today but it was more than that today......it was awful, no ideas, no drive, no tactics and at times lack of work ethic which is not acceptable........just so awful

I think 15th, I think we are currently higher in the league than our play suggests but we just, and I mean just, better than relegation type teams. Guzan is a great keeper We know Luna's weaknesses Baker and Clark aren't good enough Vlaar is good but picks up more than his fair share of injuries Lowton should be back at right back All midfield, is not dynamic or creative enough and doesn't protect the defence enough Benteke out of form and injured Gabby, doing ok this season Weimann, so out of form it's untrue Kozak, limited but doing well in his first season here Team doesn't inspire me but as always we keep going

I think he's looked average at best and shouldn't be in the first XI but currently we have no other options. Maybe he's looked good to you guys because the others around him like Baker and Luna have been awful at times

During pre-season the majority of people on here were calling Clark much worse, and hailing Baker and the best defender at the club. They are both terrible, and both a mistake waiting to happen in each and every game. Yes Okore was fourth choice, because he was injured for the majority of pre-season. We're now 17 games in. What relevance does what the majority of what people were saying then, have now? I'll tell you. Absolutely none. I also wrote Clark off at the beginning of the season and he was rightly 3rd choice going into the season but he's been very good this year. You know, because you can change your opinion based on what happens on the pitch? I was wrong and I'm glad he keeps proving me wrong. Clearly you don't watch games, or if you do, you're so intent on spouting negative view after negative view that you couldn't possibly change your mind. I still haven't been impressed with Clark this season, he's been ok but that's it. When Vlaar is out it has really showed Clark's weaknesses and for me he should not be a regular but in our position beggars can't be choosers

But taking the main strikers goals from each team would've affected their position, Liverpool wouldn't be top now without Suarez and no other player in their squad is that good at scoring

Wow that really is a poor XI from front to back. Fingers and toes crossed that we sneak a win.

Some of you guys are mad! If we can afford this then damn right we make it happen. He's much better than what we've got and that's even with him being not as good as he used to be. He's got great crossing ability that Benteke and Kozak would love. He had a great rapour with Gabby. It would increase our counter attacking speed. He has some creativity that would help us in home games to unlock defences that we currently don't have. He's a known quantity in the league, has experience and knows our club well. As like the Barry case which didn't happen, we would be mad not to get him back. Some of you guys expect miracles and great players to come to us. We have rebuilt, we are lacking a lot of quality and Young in the short term would give us a massive boost and not a risk like lower division players which we have a lot of, or foreign players who are always unknown quantity and generally need time to settle although there are always exceptions. If there is a chance and I doubt it because of money then I say bring him back......

I think creative midfielder is key as a start. Our defenders and current midfield dont know what to do with the ball when they have it and that leaves our strikers isolated upfront our midfielders passing backwards and then our defenders hoofing it forward which leads to little possession by us and the other team attacking us again. I think the creative midfielder can at least connect the team to the strikers and a) hopefully create some chances and will relieve the pressure on our brittle defence. I still think number two player to get in would be a central defender as shown today when Vlaar is out we are all over the place. You have to have two great central defenders in your team, we have Vlaar and then some youngsters

Who picked Weimann for MOM, forgot he was even playing in the first half

Benteke has been awful today, no great service but still

Unsworth, that was just a quality deal

Here are the heat maps for Delph over the last three Premier League games. Let last one (vs Liverpool) has been flipped to make it the same side as the two away games. I think it's fair to say this heat map is not of an attacking center midfielder. So far he's been playing left center mid, left center defensive mid. I wouldn't be against giving Delph licence to get forward if he doesn't have that already. to be fair though that's where I think our midfielders will always be on a heat map against bigger teams for three reasons 1) we are a counter attacking team who stay deep and then counter attack 2) we aren't a long possession, passing team and 3) we are also playing with 3 strikers so to have another central player so far up the pitch for long periods of the game would leave us exposed against the three teams we have played and included in these heat maps. Against smaller teams we are likely to be further up the pitch especially if we get that creative midfielder we are all talking about

Yeah because it's been so easy for us to sell Bannan never mind anybody else trying to sell him in a years time after one season with them when as from your scenario that they are relegated.

Sometimes you have to hit rock bottom before you can rebuild - and also, he did this whilst getting rid of the players left over from the previous regimes, who were not giving the performances they should have been for their wage. How often did Collins, Dunne, Cueller and others cost us? So, we start from scratch and this will always be hard, it was a bloody hard season where young players (and players who came from league 1 and 2) were learning as they went along - and the fruits were starting to show from March onward. Have some faith. It's not that I don't have some faith in him. The performance against Sunderland last season when we needed a win was the best performance I'd seen from a Villa side for many a year. It's just that I'm trying to show some perspective in amongst the euphoria of yesterday's result and the subsequent over the top comments concerning our manager. I can nevertheless understand such comments which I feel are based on the frustrations of the last 3-4 seasons but those comments whilst maybe having the correct foresight are nevertheless at the moment very premature and I certainly do not want to suffer another false dawn by setting my hopes too high at this moment in time. I was in the car with my mate about four or five hours before the game and he's a Man U fan. He was talking about that he still wasnt sure about Moyes but came to the conclusion that he probably wouldn't have been totally happy with anybody after Ferguson. He said that he didn't think anybody in the premiership really was that expectional in regards to management and I had to agree with him. I said to though that I believed we had somebody special, that Lambert had something I hadn't seen for a very long time and I couldn't put my finger on it. He still has masses to learn but in some ways I believe he is the managerial version of Benteke....he's young, will make mistakes but there is enormous potential there to be great. I really believe that.....

Heard he was rested so as not to put in doubt his transfer to Man Utd if he got injured. Also seems this is the reason that Man U didn't put a third bid in for Fabregas when they knew they could get Bannan. My sources suggests that Barcelona are interested and if they out bid Man U for Bannan then Barc will let Fabregas go to Man Utd. Moyes not happy, he thought the Bannan deal was locked in and had pencilled him in for his starting XI this weekend

Ridiculous. You can only field 11 Darren Bents at any one time. you'd only field 10 though, I heard he's not a great goalkeeper

I think the subtle difference is not that "we can't keep" it's the fact that Lambert "doesn't want to keep". I'm not sure it matters how good or not good the kids are, Lambert has still gone out and brought other midfielders and this surely shows he has no faith in Bannan even as an alternative to his signings or change in tactics during games.

I also took a significant pay cut and a career level decrease to move countries for a better life. It also gave me a challenge to get back to the level I was at and more so back to the level I wanted to be at a certain age which I achieved. I took that decision at 27 and now aged 36 I have a better quality life in Australia and I have through very hard work worked back up the career ladder very quickly to be where I thought I would be at this age if I had stayed in Birmingham. The old phrase of one step back to take two steps forward....maybe better for Bannan as well

Does he feel with the additions and new coaching staff that we reduce the major defensive frailties we had last season?

think Cardiff bid is for a midfielder with a similar name to the guy who we are apparently looking at whose a defender

All a little boring, when we were kids we pinched our dads dirty mags and vids, nowadays kids know or crack filter passwords that parents tried and hide, future kids will find other ways..... Don't care either way as I don't have kids it just seems pointless. Good parents is what is needed not government intervention, just like good parenting needed to make kids behave better, do less crime, take less drugs blah blah....it won't solve all problems with kids but government should concentrate on real issues....