saintant

I've said it before, Ralph is scarred from the two 9 nils and other heavy defeats. He therefore sets up to contain the opposition at the expense of our attacking ambitions. Clear as day this tactic is going to lead to many defeats by one nil and we have already suffered 3 in 7 games.

Watching last night's tepid, inept performance one thing was blatantly obvious - boy do we miss Lavia. There was a gaping void in front of the back four where he patrols and amazingly nobody was designated to fill it. He is so good at sniffing out danger and snuffing it out. Also he is the glue that holds everything together, the link between the back four and midfield that was so clearly absent last night. Lavia is always available when we play out from the back, he'll comfortably receive the ball from Salisu or ABK in tight areas and move it on to begin attacking play. I lost count of the number of times our two central defenders looked forward for someone to pass to, saw nobody available and had to either launch it upfield or turn and go back to Bazunu who then had little option but to punt a long ball. Making matters worse we have absolutely not a single forward capable of winning the ball in the air. It is no surprise that since Lavia limped off against Chelsea we have barely put together a forward move worth the name nor created hardly a chance of note. He is that crucial to us and it is clear we were foolish to let Romeu leave as he is the nearest we have to Lavia. Maybe AMN is being groomed for the role and that is why Ralph stated he is not ready to start yet. Hopefully the international break gives Lavia time to recover but it was a mistake by those at the club to not have someone available who could do his job because injuries are part and parcel of the game and we are a nothing side without a player capable of covering the role in front of the back four. We were like a car stuck in neutral with no forward gears. It seems hard to believe we are so reliant on such a young player but last night showed that to be the case. Ralph and the coaching team need to do some serious work during this break because we look nailed on for relegation judging by that woeful performance.

What you mean the team in 1966 that had up front Ron Davies, Mick Channon, Terry Paine and John Sydenham? Different era but they would all walk into the current team.

Yes and currently he is part of the problem. A full England international needs to be offering far more than he has so far this season. I can only think he is playing with a slight knock which is hampering his mobility because sadly he is nowhere near up to speed.

The current midfield pairing of Diallo and JWP is not going to cut the mustard at this level - no pace or power in your engine room is a sure fire way to get over run by most teams at this level which means you'll win few matches. At the moment neither of them are playing anywhere near well enough to warrant holding down a place in midfield. We look very short of options without Lavia especially if Ralph feels AMN isn't ready to start which is basically what he's said.

Problem is, the way we are set up to be hard to beat negates a lot of our offensive options. I said before we will end up losing a lot of games 1-0 and that's already happened in 3 matches out of seven.

That should have been a picture taken after tonight's game.

When JWP plays like he has done for most of this season I'm afraid he is a liability. He is contributing very little and even his free kicks and corners have been pretty average. He's a passenger we can ill afford at the moment - not closing down, getting caught in possession and making poor passes unless they are five yards square or backwards. Not sure if he's carrying a knock but he's a yard off the pace and a player like him can't afford not to be right on his game. Unfortunately there's not much to put in his place but he must be running the risk of being rested although I'm sure Ralph wouldn't consider it. Tonight we passed the ball around the back until there was no other choice but to lump it upfield to a forward line that do not win headers. It was food and drink to the Vlla defence. Where was our pass and move or players taking up intelligent positions between the lines? It was a bunch of statues with zero movement. I look forward to hearing what spin Ralph puts on this. We may live to regret failing to get in a big, strong striker during the transfer window as we have no out ball. A better side than Villa would have filled their boots tonight.

Where on earth do you start with an analysis of how gut wrenchingly poor that tepid performance was from start to finish? Every person, manager, coach or player who contributed should hang their head in shame. Against a poor Villa side we managed the sum total of zero decent attempts on their goal. We lost every battle on the pitch, won precious little second ball and when we did we just gave it straight back to them. It wasn't the 4-0 of last season but must rank as just as bad a performance. Feel sorry for the poor sods who made the trip and were rewarded with that inept pile of shit and now have to make the journey home. They didn't even have to work hard to beat us as we resembled a bunch of strangers who'd never met or kicked a football - if that is the sort of performance our manager and coaches churn out then we must be staring down the barrel this season. There was not a single saving grace. A disgraceful display and nothing positive came out of it.

This is totally embarrassing.

We have only hopeful punts forward to nobody in particular to offer. Pathetic.

Set up too passive. Just happy to stay in the game, no desire or bravery on the ball and this against a very poor side. Have made it hard for ourselves now because of the timid first half. Very disappointing but no real surprise with the team selected. One bright spot was Djenepo who has done well. Not sure what has happened to JWP this season - he still hasn't got out of first gear. Changes needed at half time but doubt Ralph will have the balls.

Time for Diallo to step up to the plate and take the game by the scruff of the neck. He needs to come out of the shadows and show he is worthy of a place in the team. Too often he seems to be on the periphery, a bit of a shrinking violet.

Guess that's it.

Think we might get out played in midfield. Let's hope Ralph has a plan up his sleeve that most of us are not seeing.

What is the story with AMN? Surely he would be a certainty for the bench unless there is an issue we are not aware of.

I worry about Coutinho being given the freedom of the park again. Not sure we have anyone to shackle him.

If Coutinho plays we need to make sure we don't give him the freedom of the park like we did last season. Given time and space he'll destroy us so let's hope we've learned our lesson.

Not a gardener but is November a good time to be ripping up the pitch?

Difficult one to call but think we'll get at least a point. We seem to have a much tighter defence this season with the developing partnership of ABK and Salisu. This area needed to be addressed and we've certainly made progress from what we've seen in the early part of the season. However, without a more potent attack I can see us losing a lot of games 1-0. That's already happened in 2 out of 6 games so far. I don't see us keeping many clean sheets and unless we start taking our chances one nil defeats could become a bit of a trend. I like what we've done in terms of the transfer window and there are many positives. Just hope we can find a way to score more goals as this is going to be the key in my opinion and many others seem to agree.

They're a good side but Leeds defence was woeful yesterday - gave away some absolute gift goals.

Well there's nothing like opening your gob and dropping your nephew in the brown stuff is there 'Arry!

Actually, having watched it back he does thrust his head firmly at the ball but it looks as though he is so eager to put the ball in the net he rushes and misjudges the flight and it spins away from him. He is then left too far from the ball and hence doesn't make solid contact. A lethal striker would have waited a split second longer and got a solid head on it. As others have said the spin worked against Che but a Premier league striker should never miss a chance like that.

Might be wrong but I think any goal where there is a hint of handball is automatically chalked off. Feel a bit sorry for Che but there were probably fifty ways he could have legally put that ball in the net...unfortunately, he somehow managed to come up with the single way to score and have it disallowed. Looked as though he forgot to use his neck muscles to get any power behind his attempted header. Had he done so it would have gone in and not bobbled onto his arm.

Think we need to remember there are no easy games in this league. Often you need that little bit of luck which we didn't get today. We clearly missed the influence of Lavia. Have to take your chances at this level and today we didn't. I half expected this result after beating Chelsea.