Mediocrity.

[eamonn]

BBC 5 Live said Pope pulled off five or six worldie saves. Doesn't sound like a lack of intensity, desire or even ability. Ironically the last two home games are the shitty 1-1 VP draws that I've been raised on as a fan for a lot of the last 30 years. We've rarely inspired.

[pauliewalnuts]

BBC 5 Live said Pope pulled off five or six worldie saves. Doesn't sound like a lack of intensity, desire or even ability. Ironically the last two home games are the shitty 1-1 VP draws that I've been raised on as a fan for a lot of the last 30 years. We've rarely inspired.

It's not about this evening, it's the entire season - and the last ten.

[Risso]

Too many ordinary players. Watkins, McGinn, Luiz, nowhere near good enough.

[pauliewalnuts]

Too many ordinary players. Watkins, McGinn, Luiz, nowhere near good enough.

If we get offered stupid money for those, I'd let all three go.

[pauliewalnuts]

I can't believe Spurs want McGinn, can't wait to see how they react to the pedestrian, casual giving away of the ball.

[PaulWinch again]

BBC 5 Live said Pope pulled off five or six worldie saves. Doesn't sound like a lack of intensity, desire or even ability. Ironically the last two home games are the shitty 1-1 VP draws that I've been raised on as a fan for a lot of the last 30 years. We've rarely inspired.

He did make some amazing saves. I actually have some hope that Gerrard’s mentality might help, but he needs a bit of time.

[eamonn]

BBC 5 Live said Pope pulled off five or six worldie saves. Doesn't sound like a lack of intensity, desire or even ability. Ironically the last two home games are the shitty 1-1 VP draws that I've been raised on as a fan for a lot of the last 30 years. We've rarely inspired.

It's not about this evening, it's the entire season - and the last ten.

I know, hence the last part of my post. Just rebutting the previous poster's comments as they didn't seem to pertain to tonight.

[Oklahoma]

Not his fault at all?

He's been Manager for nearly 3/4 of the season.

[KevinGage]

Such is the depth of the squad now we're in a situation where we can bring either Coutinho, Buendia or Ings off the bench. 

Yet we still look mostly laboured and short of ideas in midfield and attack.

At some stage the manager might need to cop the blame for how we're set up.

[Rudy65]

There are a lot of international players in the squad, so not too sure the mediocre ones are.

Martinez, Mings, Digne,Coutinho, Luiz, Ings, Watkins all have played at the highest level and for highly ranked nations.

Add Cash, McGinn, Ramsey (England U21) Olsen, Traore etc for lesser nations in the FIFA Rankings or U21, and I don’t see too many poor quality players.

Getting them to gel and play consistently together seems to be the issue rather than individual player quality.

So how much longer will you give them. Bang average most of them. I love Oli but he isn’t international quality

[Rudy65]

I can't believe Spurs want McGinn, can't wait to see how they react to the pedestrian, casual giving away of the ball.

Great assist but agree, cash in. The media love him

[Stu]

It sometimes feels like we're never getting away from it.

14th place, barring a miracle of miracles, how many of us would have fancied that at the start of the season (remember we were laughing at the idea of taking ESR from Arsenal?). A decade of not finishing in the top half of the premier league.

It isn't Gerrard's fault at all, but it's a mindset at the club that we need to struggle away from, and I am not sure how long it is going to take us to achieve that.

Or if we ever will.

I wonder if some of us are feeling our age a bit and getting impatient to see us do something before we shuffle off. I saw us win the League Cup in ‘94 and ‘96, when I was 13 and 15 years old respectively, and I’m 42 at my next birthday.

[Brazilian Villain]

I hate to say this, but being honest, we've been mediocre for way more than ten years. More like thirty.

Agreed, we've won one league title and one FA Cup in the last 100 years. It's hardly a recent development.

[OzVilla]

We're not clinical enough up top and prone to stupid errors at the back.  In between we can play some decent stuff and when we click we're a more than decent outfit.  Trouble is this describes pretty much every game we play.  End result, 14th finish.  Desperately need some physical presence in the side.   

[SoccerHQ]

I hate to say this, but being honest, we've been mediocre for way more than ten years. More like thirty. Not that I care, but I think the general public's consensus of Villa would be a middling, do-nothing club, because a whole generation has grown up with us being also-rans. I'm not sure how to change that.

Saying that, in this timeframe we've lost more cup finals than some clubs will see forth-rounds.

In the 90s we were generally a top 6 club. Made three cup finals, 2nd, 4th, 5th regularly in the prem/division one and had some good european runs.

Losing the 2000 cup final was the turning point as obviously in those days likes of Chelsea and Liverpool weren't miles clear of us and we were better than likes of Spurs and Newcastle.

Since then it has been mediocrity personified.

Only real point we've looked a genuinely top club at prem level was 18 months under O'Neill.

These owners and CEO mean well but ultimately we've started from a much lower base.

I'm not sure it's mentality per se. Martinez has the air of a winner and I really don't think Coutinho + Digne are going to be satisified with mid table but we are at the point now where we need to probably cull some more of the players who've helped establish us as a prem mid table team e.g. McGinn.

Bigger issue for me is I don't think the style of football is going to get us up at right end of the league anytime soon. Bar Buendia on the ball it was all very pedestrian tonight and already well structured teams have already nullified our style in games (Arsenal, Wolves, West Ham and Palace).