Tomaszk

He's so shaky on the ball. Needs to quicken it up a bit, because if he doesn't lose it himself he gives it to someone under loads of after he's messed around. Clearly got ability but still a lot of holes in his game for me.

Games like that another example of how important he is. Fair few times the defence had the ball and the whole team is hiding. All too scared to come and have the ball. Westwood will always offer an option.

Just hang onto the ball! You can tell when he doesn't fancy it because he suddenly decides flicks are the way to go and refuses to hold it. Oh man, that chance at the end...Christian...please...get your foot through it!

That that touch in the centre circle surrounded by no one Then the toe out of play under absolutely no pressure He's a shambles. He can't control the ball, and has never been able to. So much work to do.

Messi still has less career league goals than Alan Shearer. I like that. He'll be above him within three weekends maximum.

RAIDER NATION

He's been largely in form for the last 16 months. Excellent footballer, if he's out for a while we'll be struggling with no him or Delph.

He's got loads more ability than most of our squad but blows hot and cold. Has never been helped by out negative tactics under the last two managers. Has made a couple of goals for us already this season, and is worth having around.

Good shout! Would the 'tactics' have progressed beyond kicking it as far as you can and getting after it? That's got us to 12th so far. Or would you prefer us passing it around and being in 19th place? No, both isn't an option. Why? I prefer the former of course, if we're not going to win anything then I'd rather play shit football and finish mid table than be relegated. That's a bit of a loaded question. Why does the football shown have to be this bad for us to finish higher up the table? We've gotten the ball down and played a couple of times this season, early on in particular and we've gotten a couple of results from it and been unlucky against Spurs and Burnley. Must we revert to the turgid shite on display every other week? Is there really no other option? It's not an option for the purposes of this discussion because it was meant to be a loaded question i.e. would you rather this or this. Once we've established that it's universally preferable to stay up playing 'effective' football rather than be relegated keeping it on the ground we can at least say which side of the fence we're on if we have no other options. The other options is the debatable bit, which I was trying to stay away from because it's all a bit ambiguous. In fact, I'd argue that our type of football is the most effective available. It's so important these days to get behind a team because when defending in numbers it's nigh on impossible to break through. You have to find some way of drawing them out. If you can get the first goal, they will inevitably attack, leaving space behind which you can exploit. Our main problem recently has been that our finishing has been too poor to exploit the space. I've said it before and I'll say it again. I don't think there's such thing as bad or good football. There's just football. We just don't take a lot of risks which is absolutely the best policy when consolidating and attempting to stabilise the club. I agree with you here. It's no ones place to tell others what "good football" constitutes, but I can safely say that I don't enjoy watching Aston Villa under Paul Lambert. If he wants to play direct football, that's fine, but play it properly! Get some men in support of the hoofs. Have some set-plays that are effective. Do something that makes it look like we might win some games! He has no plan. He doesn't know how he wants his own teams to play. I'm using the last few, inconsistent years as the basis for my opinion here. He is relieving the pressure on Lerner he's so bad. Lerner is the one who deserves the brunt of fan frustration but we're so putrid on the pitch fans can't help but aim blame Lambert's direction.

Good shout! Would the 'tactics' have progressed beyond kicking it as far as you can and getting after it?

Who? Balaban, though in his defence he didnt play to much in his 2 years as he was that bad? I remember seeing him come on at home against...maybe....Southampton, can't remember. He couldn't stand up, kept slipping over. I think he hit the post with a toe poke! His impact was probably less than Bennett I agree. Regardless, he should not be at Aston Villa, doesn't belong in the top flight.

Who?

This is a key comparison to look at between those who think Lambert is worth giving more time and those who think him staying here is holding us back. For me, the instructions (or more likely, lack of instructions) and the directions he gives the team are far too similar to what McLeish had here. Others obviously feel different. There is no plan and no leadership coming from the bench any time soon and we are vile to watch.

He's doing such a terrible job it's deflecting from the awful chairman. Lambert is a good distraction for Lerner to have hanging around.

Palace are a real hard working team. I worry they'll bully us, and eventually roll us over scoring three.

Probably not in England. Surely not! At the moment, if it were to happen, they'd be missing more matches than Lee Cattermole. You're suspended for an increasing number of games depending on how many sets of five bookings you pick up, but the number could peak at 3 I'm not sure. Play in games 1-5 Out for 6 Play in 7-11 Out for 12 & 13 Play in 14-18 Out for 19-21 Play in 22-26 Out for 27-29/30 So it could happen, you've got eight or nine games spare to not get booked.

It was a better performance IMO, but Burnley missed two absolute sitters at the end and once again we finished a game clinging on. I'm not sure how much the players will take from it confidence-wise because of the nature of the way the game ended.

Indeed, he suits this Chelsea side and their pantomime villain manager so well. Not too many players about who suit their side better than he does Chelsea. Maybe Phil Bardsley at Stoke. Great, all round forward.

He'll be off to somewhere like Everton in the Summer. Great squaddie for them. With players like Westwood and him in the side there's no reason we can't play some decent football.

I'd start him ahead of Weimann every single day of the week.

Come on you monster, get in and get us some bloody wins!

The approach was wrong today and we should have won that game. There was too much looking to catch them on the break with aimless balls forward. Guzan was after a quick outlet every time he got it. Even with our limited confidence, when we held the ball and probed a bit they were not good enough to deal with us. I can't stand watching us, and I can't wait for Lambert to leave. God knows what league we'll be in when that happens.

He's slow and fast at the same time.

I heard they only registered 20 players for their PL squad and four of those goalkeepers! Got a load of players under 21 they can use but still crazy if correct.

He's managed to scrape two more points that I thought. Good for him.