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Moyes has never, ever had a poor spell as Everton manager Moys has never ever nearly been relegated with Everton Moyes has never ever bought a dud Moyes has never ever had periods where his team played boring, negative, overly physical football Oh hang on, sorry, I made all that up, in fact all of these things are true, but the Everton fans and board arent fickle, impatient kids who think its all a computer game.

When I was drawing this up I considered Clark and Herd in that position, with KEA where ireland is (which is where i think he'll end up) but Herd doesnt seem to be in lamberts plans, and Clark Im a little unsure of in that spot, although I agree he could end up there in time

And, as for these fans allegedly laughing at Benteke in training, I have only this to say Shit support m'lord

Really? What was Harry Redknapp on about then, three years before he even pulled on a Villa shirt? How about his most famous moment to date, missing *that* chance against Croatia that would have put England into the Euros, or the more recent shocking miss against Switzerland? Are those Lambert's fault as well? Darren Bent throughout his whole career has been a striker with a patchy record of finishing. A phenomenal predator, with great positional sense, but a real tendency to scuff shots, his ratio of finishing off sitters really is only 1 in 3 or 4 as was said. As has also been said, thats why he's playing for us and not a top side. You might argue the same is true of benteke, and you might be right at this moment, but Benteke is younger (and so can learn) and does so much more for the team, is so much more of a threat.

Right there in the trenches with you I appreciate that some of these players may not still be here when things have turned around, but they're a start.

If we were relegated he'd have to go I think, all things considered

Welcome to "Deadly Doug ate my hamster". I hope you enjoy .... feel free to interact :-) So, I was watching Chelsea on the old telly box at the weekend, and I think I've seen the future, or the present, or something, of where Lambert wants to take Villa - and I notice Aston Villa Review agrees with me, although I'll need to listen to the podcast to find out why .. I am listening as I type, so will let you know..... Chelsea are, albeit at a very different level, going through the same kind of change we are. They are moving from being a physical, quite direct team that relied heavily on Drogba, to being a pass and move team playing "Wengerball", narrow 4-2-3-1,, without wingers, goals coming from all over the pitch. They've added 2 key players that make it work for them, Hazard and Oscar, who alongside the rejuvenated Juan Mata sit behind Torres and cause absolute mayhem against Premiership defences. These four sit in front of two hard running, hard tackling midfield holding players (at the weekend it was Mikel and Ramires) and the width in the team is provided by two very attack minded full backs, Ivanovic and Cole. I think this is the way forward, and I think Lambert has given a few hints that this is the template he wants Villa to follow. First, we are playing very narrow without wingers, and trying to play through teams. Second, he has hinted that he wants to play Benteke up front on his own, and the two full backs he has brought in are slowly gaining the confidence to push forward. it seems like the players who are thriving (if thats a word you can use under the circumstances) under Lambert are those who can fit this sort of system, whereas those who dont are being quietly (or otherwise) marginalised. I can see it working too in the long term, although we just dont have the players to make it work at the moment. If you look at the strongest team we could play in that formation you'll see a few glaring weaknesses: Guzan Lowton Vlaar Dunne, Bennett Delph, El Ahmadi Gabby, Ireland, Holmann Benteke Its just too lightweight isnt it? Especially in that holding midfield zone, Delph and El Ahmadi arent strong enough to hold it together. While they are both decent players, I think that Karim would be better further forward, and neither have the physical presence to dominate that part of the pitch. The other glaring weakness is that that three behind Benteke dont create enough, especially when compared to the Chelsea template. So thats where Lambert needs to do his work. People will say that we have wingers in the shape of Albrighton and NZogbia, but seriously, I think this way of playing with wide midfield players taking on full backs is gone, because you will get over run in midfield As for Benteke, if you are one of those currently giving the lad a hard time, you WILL eat your words. I hope you eat them with the lad still at Villa and not being driven out by the boo boys, but one day you will see that the lad is quality. Look what he does at the front of a serious Belgium team (who play 4-2-3-1). if he can hold his own in that company and score against the likes of Serbia and Holland, then he is easily good enough for us. He will score goals, as long as the fans dont crush him as they have done others before. What about Bent? What about him. We spent 75 minutes on Saturday playing with ten men. His time has gone, Let him go to QPR, Benteke is the better bet by far.. ***** My Swindon tickets arrived today in the post. Really looking forward to that! ********** Its possible to be both concerned about the current situation at Villa but optimistic for the future, thats where i am, I believe in what Lambert is doing in the same way as I believed in what Houllier was doing (on the pitch anyway). I think, in the long term, we'll be fine. but it will get worse before it gets better

I take your point, but we're not quite playing the same way. We have dropped the outdated system of 4-4-2, big strong man alongside little fast man up front, 2 wingers, 2 holding players stuff. And quite right too, the top teams dont play this way any more. So we are asking our players to make accurate one touch pass and move stuff around the opposition box, and this is a really difficult technical skill. But if we crack it, we'll be able to take on anyone. We wont crack it straight off, it will take some time. We still need to change some players, but we have already really changed too much too fast. If Lambert is guilty of anything, then its this. As a littel side note, I'm told that Benteke cost us 2 points against West brom, another point at least against Spurs, and another point yesterday. Agreed? A team capable of beating WBA, Spurs away and drawing at Fulham is a really decent team. We are, apparently, Benteke finding his feet away from being a really decent team. Benteke WILL find his feet. A player doing what he does at international level wont struggle for long

I think I must have imagined thousands of Villa fans at Norwich last May making their feelings known on who they wanted as manager? Must be old age creeping up on me

Sometimes, just sometimes, someone needs to think further than planning for just the next game, or even for just the next season Dont you think its about time we got out of this silly knee jerk short termism rubbish which has led us to where we are?

It takes time. Patience is needed. Our players havent got it yet. We're asking players used to playing counter attack without the ball for long periods to suddenly start playing with the ball, its a totally different mentality and you're right, we arent there yet, but its still the right thing to do., the right thing to try. I said at the start we'd be bottom three at Christmas but comfortably safe by May, and I'd stand by that. Lambert is a winner, he has only ever been a winner as a player and as a manager, he knows what he wants to do, but it really isnt easy becasue he isnt working with players of the right quality, yet. But the more he works with them, coaches them, teaches them what they should be doing, the better they will get. One day, the penny will drop, and we'll be 100% better as a team, and the foundations will have built for a strong future We have a whole season, as long as we're relatively strong at home we'll stay up. We also dont really have quite the right personnel yet, we are short a couple of proper holding midfielders (as well as others, but thats the most glaring miss). I'd imagine he wants to play Benteke up front on his own, but to do that you need a couple of bulldogs in the middle protecting the back four, and we just dont have a player like that of the right kind of quality, so we're playing this sort of hybrid 4-4-2 thing which isnt quite working at the moment. Give it time, 8 games is nothing, a drop in the ocean, when compared to the scale of the job

Ive said this before, but I'll say it again anyway, because I like the sound of my own typing What has changed from last season is that we have a manager who has a plan, who knows what he is doing and how he wants to do it. We may not agree with the plan, or think it will work, but what is undeniable is that we have a plan that involves football. This is a major step in the right direction. Yes I'm worried, but Ive been worried for a long time, and have ot say Im less worried with lambert than I was with McLeish. why? We are trying to play progressive, modern football. Progressive football is hard to get right, especially if your players have been brought up playing a different way. Yeah, it would be easier to go Fat Sam stylee and buy a whole bunch of 'proven' premiership cloggers and spend a year or two humping around in mid table before those guys get old, cant be sold because of their lucrative contracts, and well, you know the rest as well as the fans of West ham and Bolton do. We've been down that route before, and it didnt work, because in order to break the top group you have to play the right way. It will take some time to get right, and its possible it may not work because if it was easy everyone would be doing it, but at least we are trying to break the mould, to get out of the rut. We have to give him time to get it right. it could take a while

Well, I just had this sense, and correct me if I'm wrong, that you were somehow trying to make the point that we'd be better off playing hoofball, as if that was the way forward instead of all this passing stuff. In fact, as I'm sure even martin O'Neill will tell you, the very worst thing a footballer can do is give the ball away. Why? Because when you're playing the better teams, you dont get it back for a long time. Lets take that statement apart. The better teams wont give it back The implication there is that the more you can keep the ball, the better you are, as a rule, as a team. Interesting. Does this mean that in order to build a good team you need to have players that dont give the ball away? Players like, oh I dont know, karim El Ahmadi?

Does it matter?

Bloody hell, is that boring ONeill debate still going on? I was actually talking about last season, you know something relevant? O'Neill has been gone for 2 years, he isnt coming back. Im sure everyone is bored to death of the same old boring arguments being bandied back and forth. They just dont hold any relevance to the current situation.. Time to move on now I'd have thought But just for the record, I dont think we used that style of play under ONeill. interesting that you feel we did.

I think its about his intentions. he came to the club and pumped in shed loads of his own money to try and improve things. The amount of money he threw in *should* have been enough to make a lasting impact, but because of some errors on his part with regard to personnel and control of the purse strings it didnt pan out that way, and now he appears to want out. All of which is a massive improvement on the previous owner. I think he deserves a bit of gratitude for having a go. He is severely out of pocket on the deal, and I'm sure really pretty hacked off about the whole thing and the people who have let him down.

The alternative was to spend similar sorts of money on a 'proven' player like Kevin Davies, Chamakh or Carlton Cole.

He gets the ball, he passes it to someone in the same coloured shirt, over and over and over again. And these arent all simple sideways passes either, some of them are very clever ambitious little reverse passes. Possession. If we have the ball all the time, we cant lose. if only we had more players with the ability to keep the ball. Did you prefer it when our full backs hoofed it 50 yards?

Nowhere near as much as he lost a) in the credit crunch and as he spent trying to revive the fortunes of a formerly decent English football club Having shed all his cash, hundreds of millions of it on their club, these fans are now showing their ingratitude. I'm sure as fans we used to be all about class. Different era I guess.

I dont think this si true any more. The days when your star player could laze about on the half way line in a deckchair with a cigar are gone,or at least at the top level they are. Its not about running around aimlessly, its about contributing to the team, its about making things happen, its about having the ability to change the game if its going away from you. Darren Bent has none of these abilities, he is the kind of player that is rapidly going out of fashion because he isnt good enough technically. As for his finishing seriously you guys must be kidding? Yes, all strikers miss big chances from time to time (which is why the criticism of a very young benteke is massively unfair) but the reason bent doesnt play for United or Arsenal or Chelsea and never will is partly because he misses way too many big chances. You know as well as I do, if he was as talented as people make out the big clubs would be banging our door down with as much cash as we could carry off. The big clubs pay top dollar for top goalscorers, why arent they after Bent? They arent after him because at the very top level, in the really big games you only get very few chances, and you need to convert them. They dont trust Bent to deliver. He is useful to have about mind you. If we could afford to keep him great, but we arent in the kind of position where we can have £10m sat on the bench.

He appears to be keeping some really decent players out of one of the strongest national teams in Europe, so someone sees the talent in him that you dont. He reminds me a bit of Savo when he first came. Scored a few, missed a few. Obvious technical ability, just a bit rough and ready. He's only a kid like Savo was back then. He will be fine, he is a threat. Give him a year to settle in maybe?

I dont agree at all, I think he is a very decent player, my favourite of the Lambert signings. He needs to develop a bit of stamina as he tends to fade after 60 minutes, but otherwise no complaints and he will be missed if he is out for a period. .

yes he did, because Darren Bent is as famous for his misses as he is his goals. A great finisher he is not, but he is great positionally which is why he scores goals. Hes not a top 8 player because I dont think he has ever been a regular starter for a top 8 team. For a guy rapidly approaching 29 thats a pretty mediocre record. he has scored alot of goals for not very good sides, but never, ever been picked up by a decent team, and as has been observed kicked out of Spurs as almost the first thing Harry did. Why? Why do the decent coaches (and I think lambert is just the latest in a long line) not rate him? Benteke misses chances too, but has already shown he has much more to offer in the long term, if fans are patient with him.

This is exactly spot on. I cant recall bent ever taking a player on, beating his man and smashing it in the top corner. He doesnt make his own chances in the way decent strikers do, he needs to be fed. Villa is about his level, he will never play top level football, and never has done for exactly this reason.- the top clubs need strikers who can create. bent cant. if Villa arent playing well he is useless, he isnt a game changing player .

This strikes me as being all a bit pointless. Lerner owns the club, he doesnt have pots of money any more, Should he sell? Sure, but who to? There are so many sharks out there, weird little tin pot club owners who may have more cash than Lerner but cant necessarily be trusted to run the club any better I think wishing for a new owner in the current climate is a risky thing, as you may get what you wish for