ozvillafan

He protects nothing. A "deep lying playmaker" that doesn't tackle, eh? Thought we offloaded one of those to Crystal Palace last summer..... ... and, tbh, he'd do no worse than Westwood.

I honestly believe Lambert thought KEA was the experience/leader we needed in midfield. Hasn't turned out that way, sadly. Back to Vlaar - so important for us. Provides more to the team than just being a good defender and, as such, is rightly wearing the captain's armband.

Thoroughly agree.

I'm not overly concerned about possession stats - they don't show the full picture. (Not picking on your post - just used it as an example) We could spend the majority of the game passing the ball around the back 4 and keeper. That would definitely make our possession stat higher - but so what? We would have created nothing with that extra possession. What matters is effective possession. That is, possession compared to the number of chances/shots. That, imo, is a better indicator of a teams performance in any given game. By all accounts we could have had more goals against Sunderland, so our effective possession was good - especially compared to recent home performances.

Lot of bitching in this thread, which kinda gets away from the point. - Yes, we are aware there is a 5 year plan. - Yes, we understand that Lambert needs more time to bring the plan to fruition. - Yes, we know that we no longer need to shift people nor fill holes and can focus on a couple of "quality", experienced players. I think the fans have been pretty accommodating to all this. What is getting us riled up is the performances. We expect to see improvements in how we play our football, not necessarily in our results. That would give us some confidence that Lambert can deliver on the 5 year plan. But we are not. As mentioned, our performances are dreadful - I'd call it the worst in the league. At this point, adding the 2 quality players we are planning for wont make any difference. They will have as much impact as our "saviours" of previous seasons (see N'Zogbia, Ireland for reference) since they will slot into a side that simply cannot do the basics of movement, ball retention and shape.

Must start over Westwood. At least KEA actually tackles and can produce a decent pass (albeit not as often as I'd like)

Horrid. He is reminding me more and more of Kinsella. Busy pointing at where he thinks his fullbacks should be while he occupies his position just outside the 'D' watching the opposition midfield pass around him. He needs dropping for a Delph/KEA central midfield - which doesn't overly thrill me, but it's the best we have imo.

I'm not convinced by Lambert. The plan has to include our players learning to play the type of football we want them playing in the future, not gaining experience in "surviving on scraps" waiting for the miracle 1 or 2 new "quality" players that will magically turns things around. Lambert and his "5 year plan" should know this, surely. What do they do at training? Laps?

There is a difference between selling at a price and looking to offload. If the former, then you set a price at which you would be willing to walk away. If the latter, it's market rates. 250m sounds like the former. That means 2 things: - You wont get it for a penny less (see Barry, Benteke for reference) - If you really want the club and can afford 250m, then it's not a barrier to ownership (that is, you obviously have a lot more money). So we are basically up for sale to owners like Chelsea and Man City.

It's easy to manage a football side when it is full of quality and experience. When you have a bunch of young guys, you actually have to know how to manage. They need to be taught just about everything - including formations, tactics, positioning, dead ball situations, movement. None of it comes automatically and it needs to be drilled into them so it becomes second nature. From what I am seeing currently, it looks like Lambert has the entire first team squad doing nothing but laps. We are that bad.

This sums it up for me. As hard as it was to watch this time last year, there was always the hope that they would get better, that Lambert would turn it around and we would come good. And we did. I expected Lambert to build on that - but we are playing exactly the same way. What, exactly, do they do at training each week? What kind of style is Lambert trying to build? Based on that game today, we ARE the worst team in the league..... ... and, even at this stage in our rebuilding, that is simply not good enough.

So Faulkner tells fans that books are balanced and we are now compliant with FFP rules but the manager makes it sound like what we're currently doing is the plan for a few years. What does that say about future ambition then? For me that adds more weight to the idea Lerner is looking to sell after a few years of surviving on the cheap. That's certainly 1 way to look at it. Another is that the few years of hard work is a result of the original decision to "strip back wages" and flesh out the squad - not due to an ongoing policy.

Saviour? No. Better than Clark (who, to be fair, has improved) and Baker? Absolutely. Why buy him otherwise? Does that make him first choice, despite his lack of experience? Yes.

Define "badly run"

And?

Good point. If I was lambert, I'd instruct my forwards to run the ball to the edge of the box and then draw more fouls.

Villa scored 7 goals from corners last year, around 5th in the league. They also had the fifth fewest corners. So villa were one of the most effective sides at converting corners. From memory, we have also scored twice from set plays this season (Bacuna twice from freekicks). If I was Lambert.... ... I'd be instructing my forwards to draw more fouls around the edge of the box.

It also shows that people have short memories.

It's hard to deny his heart lies elsewhere. Even the worst of the Premier League owners manages to watch their team sometimes. That being the case, it gives weight to the rumour that he is looking to sell.

What I saw against ManUre was better than what I saw against Fulham. We really need Benteke firing. We have built our attack strategy around him and he's struggling. And when was the last time we beat ManUre at home? 15 years ago?

I'm a fan of Lambert and like the way he is trying to go about things..... ... but I can't disagree with Isa here. I did something in that game against Fulham that I have only done once before (in the game last season against Wigan at home) since I started watching Villa in the 90's - I switched the broadcast off at the hour mark and went to bed (it's early morning for these games down here). We were horrid. End of.

Disappointing against Fulham. He used to drop deeper to help Bacuna/Lowton and link up - he didn't even do that yesterday. He hasn't been in great form all season and his injury layoff hasn't helped. I think he needs a rest - even Tonev provides more.

He's allowed a bad day...... .... but I have yet to see him deliver a good dead ball in the time he has played for us. Surely somebody else can deliver a decent ball? Bacuna? KEA? Delph?

The players really play for Lambert. They have the desire to win and are willing to work for the shirt. It stands to reason, then, that they are executing exactly what they are taught throughout the week. There are a couple of glaring things that do my head in: - We defend zonally and do not press or track, hoping to hit on the counter. - We play extremely narrow with Wiemann and Agbonlahor too advanced. - We play what we see, not what we know The last one is difficult to explain, so let me use an example from yesterday. Herd slides in a good tackle and the ball breaks for KEA who is running towards his own goal to retain possession. He immediately passes 20 yards to Herd who is still getting off the ground, who has no choice but to hoof as he is off balance and surrounded. KEA's playing what he sees (Herd), not what he knows (their forwards are advanced, he has room to trap and turn or hold up and draw a foul). We do this too much in a game. We aren't very creative so doing this just makes us predictable and easy to defend.

We simply do not close down. Our 3 central defenders sit back with our back line in a defensive formation on our penalty area and give the opposition time and room in the hope that a mistake leads to a counter. If you didn't know better, you'd think we were the team of 32+ year old players and Fulham the young hungry side, such was the lack of movement and energy. Horrid.