GENTLEMAN

I doubt it.

Which style of football do people want us to play?

There were rumours that Lerner wanted Mark Hughes to replace MON. It was strange MON left the club shortly after Hughes joined Fulham a week or so before. Maybe not then. I like the bit in bold

It depends if you view a football game solely as entertainment and disregard the competitive aspects attached to the sport. Do not take this the wrong way but maybe you do not enjoy watching football as a highly competitive sport. We are all guilty of ignoring the opposition and only focusing on the qualities and inadequacies of our team but there is still another team competing against us. I have enjoyed the majority of our games this season and I do believe we try to win each match regardless of opposition (as is evident by the victories against Manchester City and Arsenal). People will find it hard to dispute that Lambert has not made us a competitive side or that we have made no progress this season. That is not to say that we cannot improve further. The majority of top flight matches this season can be considered "one dimensional and dire", it is not exclusive to Aston Villa. The best example has to be Manchester United vs Chelsea earlier this season. That was horrendous entertainment considering the players that were available to both teams and the so-called magnitude of the match. For me, a lot of teams this season have compromised style over substance, we certainly have adopted this mentality in an attempt to fix the glaring problems of last season and give us a competitive advantage.

You could argue we were unlucky against Everton and Tottenham. It is a pointless exercise.

No offense but Benteke has been the biggest culprit in losing possession and wasting chances when passed to.

We received £20 Million for Ashley Young when he had a bad season and one year left on his contract. That will not happen for obvious reasons.

And clubs have to be willing to part with that sort of cash for him.

It will take a massive fee to sign Benteke in January.

Who could realistically replace Lambert?

I disagree, I think Kozak is better based on recent matches and form. Kozak is really unlucky not to be starting games, though I understand why he does not. The same can be said of Benteke unfortunately.

If we had signed Barry (or similar) we would not have brought in the majority of players we did in the summer. I believe Lambert is trying to get the most out of his budget.

I think he has the potential to do so, I would not rule him out yet.

The board attracted Lambert to the club with the understanding that it was a long term project. I also think PL has been given decent funding and backing by the board. PL has been given the autonomy (within financial reason) to change the entire footballing side and build a team that supports his vision, I think this is quite rare for a premier league club and the board deserve some credit for taking the club in this direction. It will be interesting to see what transfer money will be given to PL and more importantly the type of player that will join us after this season. You can also assume that Lambert will spend more of the upcoming transfer funds on less players compared with the vast recruitment over the last few transfer windows, hopefully it will allow us to attract more established players. I do think we will be ready to show some ambition in the future. It would be illogical and a bad decision for Lambert to join a similar club; any vacancy would likely be vacated because of failure, Lambert would most likely have to start again under financial restrictions and rebuild another club. What is the point of him joining our club? Directly moving to a similar club would just prolong PL's career development and ruin what he has already started here. I do not see this occurring, I would be hugely shocked if it does happen. Lambert will leave for two reasons in my opinion. I can see Lambert leaving us, after a long tenure, for a perennial top four team with the resources to win major competitions, which would mean he has steadily transformed us into a successful outfit that is competing regularly at the top end of the league and for domestic trophies, similar to David Moyes' tenure at Everton. Or PL will be sacked or resign for failing with us. Which scenario is likely to transpire? We will begin to find out in the next eighteen months. I have faith PL can turn us around and get us back to where MON left us, maybe better than that.

A club that also works within a tight budget but one that wins a lot of trophies and takes part in the Champions League quite a lot - Celtic! That is not a long shot given the fact he played for them. If he really doesn't like working with big name players, and he got fed up of relegation battles year after year, he would be very well suited to Celtic. It would say a lot about Lambert's ambition if he went to Celtic in the near future, especially leaving a big premier league club to do so.

Which club could Lambert realistically join in the near future? I cannot seriously think of one.

He won't . I give him 18 months max. based on what? Based on lambert needing to protect his career. From what? Surely the objective is to build his reputation? He will not join a bigger club unless he achieves something remarkable in the next eighteen months.

You could also argue Ferguson-lite.

Who has blamed MON for the last three years?

They have made some mistakes. It is time to move on.

James Milner would be a better comparison. Watch this near-identical goal (like Bacuna's against Cardiff) - http://www.soccerclips.net/videos/aston-villa-2-3-everton-milner

...Yet we dealt with what they had to offer offensively and created the better chances.

I do not agree with that unfair assessment; I think the vast majority of teams in the Premier League and Europe have similar strikers and utilise them to their advantage, it is not a terrible characteristic and certainly should not be used to negatively judge Lambert. There has never been a club that has won the Premier League that has relied primarily on a possession based game, I do not understand the immediate clamor for us to start playing that way when success in our league is attained by a combination of styles, predominately by direct and physical/fast teams. I do not understand the term "effective football", could you elaborate further? I think Lambert shares similarities with MON but I would definitely say Lambert is far more modern and less stubborn; I also believe Lambert is on-par with the managers you have mentioned and has made tangible efforts to improve and progress the club. Interestingly, Rodgers has Liverpool playing a lot more conservative this season and does not seem to be promoting "possession" as much publicly. I also took time to visit an Everton forum recently and it seems Martinez is being criticised for not being direct enough. Possession is not the be-all and end-all, I would like us to strike a healthy balance in the future.

It is! We are primarily a Direct/Counter Attacking side, I have no issue with how we attempt to play the game. However, I know we can improve certain aspects though but I genuinely believe we will in the future. Ball retention is not the be all and end all. It is not an excuse, it is a creditable reason. Lambert did bulk up the squad and this is why we are coping and gaining points during an injury crisis; last season we struggled badly when we went through similar circumstances. I do seem to recall McLeish making a big deal out of injuries and burying the youngsters he had to play by default.

Improving the defense was imperative this season - it is slowly improving as we have seen recently and this also proves Lambert will look to improve weaker aspects of our game. I also believe it is difficult to address and improve the side a few months into a new season, especially when we have a large portion of players currently injured and have signed a lot of players in the summer who are adjusting. "Long term" surely must include improving and addressing issues/weaknesses that will obviously occur in a young team?