After yesterday’s game the one thing that struck me was the state of the defence.
For the second game running I sat in the North Stand Lower right behind the goal. The difference from my normal position is that you can see much more details on what goes on. A good example of this comparing and contrasting how Given and Guzan go on about things and how much vocal Guzan is.
What I noticed yesterday was quite apparent against average lower division forwards. In essence the gaps were massive, there was little communication and the defenders did not quite know who to pick up and when to close down. Baker gets a lot of credit for last ditch blocks but I see that as him having to recover all the time for being out of position.
We know from his Norwich days that Lambert frankly does not care for the defence. When you leave an inexperienced that wide open with no cover in front no wonder they struggle. Whether it was Wigan or Ipswich you can see the massive gaps in front of Clark and Baker. Now I think neither of them are as good as people thought they may be (especially in the case of Clark for me) but boy they are getting no help at all. Yesterday could have easily been another 3 against us and only a combination of poor finishing and two very good Given saves meant that was not the case.
I know in modern football the concept of decent (not even asking for class) defending has gone but I am old fashioned. I actually think you need a stable defence to build up on things. It is no good going into every game thinking you have to score three to win, especially when we create so little.
Until Lambert sorts this out (and I doubt he can) then we are destined for low table mediocrity.
Were conceding far to many goals pl should get his head out his arse & get it sorted, nows the time.it’s just not good enough,ive not got the stats but surely it must be a record for the amount of goals conceded at this stage of the season in history or near to.
nah were worse in the early years as like now defences tended to be shite and had mad scores. This is certainly the worse of my life time as a fan for defence even more than the 87 team.
Ha ha ha……it’s hilarious, another post and again no mention of how well N’Zogbia played, no mention of Bents well taken goal, no mention of Weimans excellent finish, no mention of “we’re in the hat for the next round” ( thought that was the idea) no mention of the chances we had to kill the game off, no mention of anything positive, just everything negative……………even when we win some folk can’t just enjoy it and give credit where it’s due, the aim of the game is to win. I personally, like others I guess, couldn’t give a toss if we missed half a dozen one on ones or half a dozen penalties…..the objective was to be in the hat for round 4…..and we are. To me that’s job done. UTV IPLIT.
no sorry lets just ignore the defence, FFS that was Ipswich, Nzogbia was OK, nothing more than that like most of the players, no one was really that bad nor good
Prior to Chelsea the defence kept 3 clean sheets in 5 games…..didn’t hear you saying it was shite then yet the personal was the same…..but now we’ve conceded against Ipswich that makes us shite? I’m not for a second implying our defence is quality, it hasn’t been since we lost Mellberg and Laursen,my point is every game, no matter who it’s against, people will critise but the bottom line is is its about winning…we won…….does it really matter how?
Totally agree Ian Nzog was just ok midfield and defence was just ok but we do have a good group of strikers and good too see aggy back,
We played Ipswich an should of been easily beat as for great saves Ipswich are in the lower half of the championship it shud of been easy pickings not nail biting
I’m glad zoggy did well he just needs a decent run of games to find his form and build confidence, but you have to look at the defence and honestly say any sort of through ball and the other team are in Behind us at the minute, it does cause for concern, we cannot allow that to happen against Southampton with lambert and Ramirez. But saying that the lads at the back need some support from the players infront of them.
Ian, I am with you about our defence. We have to improve in this departement. We need a new central defender and please quickly because Vlaar looks sidelined for a little bit longer. Don´t know who could be the answer but we need an improvement.
Atm we know we have to score 2or 3 goals at least to get something from our games because we can´t keep clean sheets. Thats not acceptable.
I am one of the positive guys in this blog but we have to sort this one out.
I bet if we won the CL final 4-1 against Barcelona the post would be about the goal we conceded!!!!
I reckon our defence would look a bit better if it had something resembling a midfield in front of it, to be fair.
Agreed mate no muscle in there
I did make that point …
oh as for defending look at the Arse game now, abysmal stuff
According to the Birmingham Mail (Mel Eves)- (http://www.birminghammail.co.uk/sport/football/football-news/mel-eves-column-revealed—405230) Villa could do with buying a champion’s League winning defensive midfielder with the brain of a Premier League manager!
How pragmatic – presumably we could also pitch in for Pele and Jesus too?
how many teams actually have a decent DM ? Arsenaal for me have not had one for years and years and their results show it. maybe it is because tackling is not allowed any more than managers have forgotten the virtues of a quality DM in there ?
Our problem with the defence is coming from the midfield, i think once we get a very good DM in possibly 2 if he wants to play the 3-5-2 then we will always have problems at the back.
Vlaar has been missed he is a strong character and i think Clark and baker will learn a lot from him, we need another CB at least and then i think we will be safe and can start planning for an improvement next season.
I have posts this before…..I heard a chris Hughton interview in which he said his priority at Norwhich was to instill the basics when defending as a team!!!!!!!
Worrying statement
That was indeed a worrying statement APF.
I’ve posted before saying I didn’t know if it was the instructions, the tactics, the lack of coaching or the manager. I still don’t.
I’ve never seen such a contrast before, as we did between the festive season and the games before that.
What’s more worrying is that I tend to agree with Ian, in that I’m not convinced Lambert knows what to do about it.
That said, I believe Lambert has just taken over the coaching, hasn’t he?
So who was doing it before? Culverhouse?
I was looking as to where the common link was between our defence and Norwich’s under PL and expected to see the same defensive coach listed.
Am I correct in expressing surprise that we don’t even have a coach listed, let alone a defensive coach? (goalie coach doesn’t count and Cowans does the kids doesn’t he?).
http://www.avfc.co.uk/page/WhosWho
Am I missing something here?
no you are not, there is only Culverhouse and Lambert coaching and Karsa does the admin stuff, thats it …
What about Yann M’Vila??
A guy on a downward spiral with an attitude like Balotelli.
Shhhhh Benno, Ianrobo will smite you for he is the agent of Yann M’Villa and has stated for the last 3 years he is gonna sign for them but still has not managed to secure the deal.
As someone pointed out above, its the midfield in front of the defence that is the bigger worry. The lack of any DM in the squad is costing us badly. We desperately need a player like Diame or Nzonzi infront of the back 4, ironically both were available in the summer too. Now someone like Moussa Sissoko would be perfect for us.
you would be better advised spending your time looking at players in the lower divisions realllty
Or from Germany, Holland or even possibly the French league, ala Sissoko,
I tend to agree. Play a longish ball from anywhere near the halfway line for forwards to run onto and we’re in serious trouble straight away.
Surely PL can see that though?
And aren’t you pinning your hopes on one player in that sense?
Knowing our luck, we’d get one of the names you mention, then he’d be crocked for ages, which puts us back to square one.
I certainly wouldn’t want to be in PL’s shoes, as we need a whole new MF, imo.
And that isn’t going to happen. At least not in this window.
Which tells me he has to change something.
Taking Ian robo’s point about lower league shopping for defenders…
The problem with The Championship is that it can be hard to know whether there is a Premier league player playing with three deadbeats alongside him.
Scott Dann was terrific with Johnson at Birmingham. Both looked England class as defenders. Since Dann got injured just before the cup final, his career has never resumed on the successor to John Terry path which I thought it would. After Birmingham’s League cup final win Johnson just seemed to have taken early retirement, or some kind of job-share (only plays one half of each game).
Yet these two are young enough to still do it, if they can recapture the form,fitness, motivation they had in 2010 to January 2011 (when Dann was injured) in the Premier League.
They were a very very mean defence.
Dann is only 25 years old.
I was never sure about Lescott at Wolves. He was injured the one season they were in the Premiership under Dave Jones. I thought he might be ok for the bottom few clubs in the Premier, but he was a revelation at Everton and even more Man City and England. His fellow defenders at Wolves in The Championship really were that bad, he was dragged down by them.
Maybe Roger Johnson is in the same situation now at Wolves.
Another lower league defender, Anthony Gerrard perplexes me. He was Cardiff’s best player (according to fans) then sent on loan to Hull for a year (and their best player according to fans’ official vote) then made Captain of Cardiff and their best player 12 months ago, then dropped for League Cup Final (and missed a penalty in the shoot-out), then sold like kicking out a puppy after Christmas to Huddersfield.
I know it is just a family name Gerrard – but who knows if he has it at Premier League level like Lescott clearly has (but many many many doubted it when at Wolves).
It just might be that Lescott (if they would pay wages) and Dann just might be the boys to solve the defensive problem.
Johnson might do a job as Defensive Midfield hardman ball winner.
I do not think that Birmingham, Huddersfield and Blackburn will charge the earth for these three – but of course their wage demands may be above Lerner’s rate even if half of Ireland’s take home pay.
Roger Johnson in midfield, have things really got that bad. Bring back djemba djemba.
With all this Sky money next season, i can see this being a very busy and exciting transfer window, I think we are going to see a lot of moves over the coming weeks and maybe a few surprises
With all clubs
there will be panic moves in those terms in trouble to protect themselves and the TV cash. It will start at some point of course once a big signing goes on ..
Here’s a thought for you Ian..Stay up,win the cup,back in Europe and get the sky cash.Heres the thing the buck stops at Lerner to foot the bill as he is the owner.UTV.A good transfer window and that will not be that far away.UTV
Ron Vlaar not back for a couple of weeks either, i hope he is back for game vs WBA. We definitely need added experience there, people like Heitinga or Samba would be ideal, i know there long shots but think there ‘gettable’.
I do agree that we need an experienced centre back in ASAP but Samba isn’t gettable at all, he is on huge wages at Anzhi.
Heitinga looks to out of sorts at Everton without Jagielka right next too him, however him and Vlaar would be interesting, Everton like to price their players like Spurs so I doubt we’d get him too cheap. Samba’s wages would be far too high for us.
Heitinga can play as a DM this is not a bad shout, at all
Ian Robbo is a negative fan but he has a point about the defence..
Some of the defending this season has been the poorest I have seen at Villa probably in my time as a Villa fan..
Some of the goals conceded have been shocking.. The thru ball for Routledge highlighted on MOTD showed all our back four in one straight line on one side of the pitch.. Which highlighted to me that we are by no means safe.. In fact we are in trouble.. And need to rectify this ASAP.. Vlaars return n a new CB would’ve helped and by now I would’ve thought we would have brought someone in..
I like PL and his long term plan but you can see how Norwich have improved defensively under Hughton and when u look at us defensively it’s a worry..
Talking about players.. Shocked we haven’t been linked to anyone today with anyone..
I think the jury is still out on Clark and Baker personally. We desperately need Vlaar back and I would even consider playing Dunne if we cannot shift him in January. I think Lowton is fine at RB, but Bennett and Stevens don’t look ready for top flight football yet. With Vlaar and Dunne back, I would consider either shifting Clark to LB or bringing in a solid LB on loan until the end of the season and assessing the situation again at that point.
Oh yeay, forgot to add that some papers were reporting that Olsson from the Albion has a £3m release clause in his contract. I think he’d be ideal for us and would be an absolute bargain at that price. The whining from Albion fans if that deal were to go through would be a joy to behold!!
Olsson would be a terrific buy.. not sure about Heitinga.. would want decent money too..
Also reports in France saying QPR have bid for M’VIlla.. we should be in for him!
Lambert is not know for his defensive tactics, nor attacking for that matter, he simply plays the % game. It is all about a single system of play, that if it breaks down we have no option, no outlets, no plan b, no restructure of team, no fluidity, no adaptability and no counters, hence the month of December 2012, where we were league 1 standards. We either accept that we will never be the truly entertaining but well structured team because of the dour nature of the manager or wait until he is removed!
And the proof is in the pudding…… No defence as was foretold