brummie

I am now starting to get worried about us. Over the last month or so, we've lost 8-0, then 0-4 then 0-3 (to Wigan!), have lost at home to two relegation zone teams and scored against neither of them, gone to a fourth division team and got mullered, and we've just completed the donation of six points to Southampton. There are three positions we desperately need help in - LB, CB, DM - and we would improve beyond measure. Unfortunately, it is starting to look like the chairman doesn't want to spend any money, so week after week, we watch the youngsters get even more depressed and unconfident. Basically, if we don't get at least three decent, experienced heads in, we are gone.

It was clearly just a bad choice of words, but there's no way Owen should be used for BBC football punditry any more. Or Lineker, Hansen, Lawrenson, Savage, Shearer, Murray etc etc

I stand to be corrected, but I don't think I've ever seen a team with as many kids as this before. I mean, tonight they were looking to Agbonlahor for experience - one of the dimmest people in football. Just one experienced, clever leader in the middle of defense or midfield would make the world of difference. In several games this season, our oldest player has been Guzan, 28, and the next oldest 24. The other day, we started with a line up in which the player with the most PL appearances was Barry Bannan. It's a bold experiment, but what has happened is they've got the balance wrong - lots of the kids are decent, but that doesn't mean you can throw them all together and they'll all be decent, it's a totally different thing. Nathan Baker is an incredibly promising CB but raw. Ciaran Clark is a decent midfielder and an ok defender. Lowton looks good at RB. Bennett doesn't look good enough at LB. Throw them all together at the same time and they're going to struggle. The other thing is that a run of bad results, and kids lose morale quicker, they're harder to motivate. Tonight was about the same problem we've had all season. Lightweight midfield and shaky defence, and the former puts more pressure on the latter, plus some moments of awful defending.

that final was probably the most limpest performance I'd seen in 20 years at that point, madras.

Bet my house on Villa beating them in the second leg and going through. Oh yeah, definitely. But just being there and being in this position seems so distant right now. It's a double edged sword, really. We went to Wembley twice under Pubehead, and it was a nice day of boozing each time, but really, the two matches were dire. The Chelsea semi final was the most depressed I've been after a football match since the first day of the 86-7 season when I broke all world punting records by correctly assessing we were going down that season. ;-)

Bet my house on Villa beating them in the second leg and going through. Mine too. It isn't that I'm worried about, though, it's the league. Vital game on Saturday, try picking the spirits up after this evening.

Our season in a nutshell there, tonight. Played well in patches, created chances, didn't take them, unbelievably lightweight midfield then starts letting pressure get put on the defence, it all gets a bit wobbly, and is topped off by a display of utterly woeful defending. I like a lot of what Lambert is doing, and the fans have been behind him to an amazing degree, but I think tonight might have been a tipping point for a lot of people. If you look at our recent run of results, no matter what the bigger picture or mitigating circumstances, you've got to wonder what is going on. Oddly, we'll get past Bradford and into the final, but it won't really matter, as either Chelsea or Swansea would beat us the way we are at the moment. A few injuries, and we're a team mostly composed of kids. Some of those kids might turn out alright, some of them aren't good enough, but some of the ones who could be good enough are getting dragged down at the moment. if we don't get in some experience this window - a left back, a centre back (if at least Vlaar or Dunne aren't back very soon), a physical presence in midfield at the very least - then we are playing an awfully dangerous game.

That's the single most ridiculous piece of transfer tattle I have ever heard. First of all, the days of us paying 12m for a player aren't coming back for a few years yet. Secondly, Danny Graham? This seems to have come from that fat turd The Moose, the most clueless source in the media.

Honestly, when that has happened with us and one of our players in the recent past, I've just excommunicated the club in question from football existence. So, basically, Man City and Man United. I don't watch any of their matches, I don't pay any attention to their results, and I actively turn the television off when they come on. All because I know it'll make me miserable. I've genuinely not seen a second of a James Milner game for Man City, ever (unless they're playing us, obvs). It makes it much easier to handle.

James Nursey in the Mirror linking us with Lescott. I wouldn't normally pay any attention, but Nursey, strangely for a tabloid hack, is freakishly accurate on stories about us.

Chamakh has a face so utterly, utterly punchable, it's hard to believe he's managed to reach 28 without being beaten to death.

Not totally true on two fronts. First - His blueprint is for the club to be self sufficient, if a players cost fits within the clubs affordability he’ll be bought irrespective of fee. The other “condition” is that he has resale value, that does not have to be more than he was bought for, just more than his value “on the books” at the time of sale (due to amortisation). Second – “competitive wages” are paid already (daft wages are not) and will continue to be so, so long as it fits with the % of turnover for wages that’s been laid down. It really is quite simple, players will be bought if it fits the model. If they don’t they won’t. In hindsight, he made a mistake in the summer, there was a case for a little speculate to accumulate, especially given the explosion in PL dosh next season. Hopefully he’s learned from that, but it doesn’t need a daft or never ending splash of cash. In fact if we hadn’t had so many injuries (way more than you could possibly reasonably expect) the apparent summer non-spend likely wouldn’t have been a factor. And you're not the only club operating on that basis at the moment, we are trying (after having been at the other end of the scale), and I'd have thought a club like Spurs, who always seem to manage to lose their best players, but replace them well, and also to move on fringe players at the top of their value, are an even better example.

Villa, Reading, and QPR are though. You could say that a lot depends upon Villa's injured players coming back, ,and what both they and QPR do in the window, but Cabaye and Steve Taylor are just around the corner. We have had a torrid run of three results until today, but other than that, we are nowhere near as bad as those results suggest. You'd better tell the wife. She's asking me about all the new places she can see matches next year (Peterborough, Doncaster, Huddersfield etc etc.). You need to tell the Mrs to man up, Leffe. No offence, like.

No he won't. He didn't score goals in our team last year. Not enough, anyway. The Bent style striker, a player who does literally nothing but apply the final touch, is increasingly an anachronism these days. We look a much better, more rounded side without him. We're not going to go down. We're nothing like poor enough. We've had a really sticky spell, but that's the risk playing lots of kids. Before that, we'd started to put together a decent run of form. Right now, we're struggling with injuries, and lifting young players after a couple of drubbings, but that won't last forever. They've got a cup semi final coming up to lift their spirits, too. I've seen plenty of shit Villa sides, i really have, and there are fans who don't see what Lambert is trying to do, but the vast marjotiy see it, and are behind him, and that's not something I've seen with managers of poor Villa sides in the past.

Villa, Reading, and QPR are though. You could say that a lot depends upon Villa's injured players coming back, ,and what both they and QPR do in the window, but Cabaye and Steve Taylor are just around the corner. We have had a torrid run of three results until today, but other than that, we are nowhere near as bad as those results suggest.

Also, another excellent first touch goal from Andi Weimann today. He's coming on very well.

Nah, that's an important point for us. We were awful in the first half, but way, way better in the second. We now have cup matches against Ipswich at home, and then Bradford away, before we play Southampton in the league at home. The confidence from a point at a difficult place will help us hugely. Plus, Vlaar and Agbonlahor should be back, and we've got time to get some experience in. Oldest outfield player in starting line up today was 24. Way, way too young.

Injured, except CNZ who may have been fit the other day. Dunne is never going to be fit again. Had another op recently. When i say "op" he was probably getting his stomach stapled to stop him eating, the fat bastard.

Struggling to think of a worse performance from Villa than Wigan on Saturday. Truly dreadful. However, despite the flow of fans to the exit with almost 30 minutes left, the level of support for the manager is still very encouraging indeed. We need to buy in some experience. A centre half, a left back, and a physical presence in midfield.

Its about how he motivates them to recover from the last two games, really. He needs to be backed in the January market. I don't know a single Villa fan who doesn't appreciate what he is trying to do, and how he is going about it, but this season was always going to be about mental, supercharged swings and roundabouts. He's at least trying to get us play the game properly. I see McLeish's doomish, negative face washing up at Forest, and remember how it is 1000 times worse when your manager has an approach to the game that you find nauseating.

I've had a truly excruciating football Christmas. Still backing Lambert, though. He just needs to get some experience in in January as using kids and blooding academy products is great, but you'll not get through a whole season that way. Despite being twatted 4-0 after an 8-0 reverse, despite there being some isolated booing, at the end of the game, encouraging to see the support still there for the manager and the team. As I said after our win at Anfield, it's a long, long season still, and our results are going to be massively volatile.

And hopefully you'll see us at Wembley, too

Although in 180 mins of football (CCF and FAC semi) I reckon we had two shots. I fancy Lambert's chances of beating either of Chelsea or Swansea. He'll at least be a bit flexible and have a tactical approach rather than just do the same thing we always did, which is what MON did.

Third.

Fucking magnificent draw for us. Firstly, we got Bradford. Secondly, we are at home for the second leg. Thirdly, Swansea have the second leg at home against Chelsea. Other than Leeds beating Chelsea, that's the best possible outcome for us. We've had a couple of hard ties in this cup, away at Man City, away at Norwich, and scored 4 goals in both of them, so we've at least put in a shift to get this far.