KennyPowers

Quite right. With less than 1/4 of the season to go we are a Wigan win (with their game in hand) away from the relegation zone. Some people on here must have had incredibly low expectations this season to think Lambert has done a good job.

I don't really get this argument that some players had to leave because of their 'attitude'. I mean do people really care what players are like off the pitch, how well they train or how unprofessional they are? Obviously within reason, I don't want to be supporting criminals or players who deliberately try to sabotage the club (or undermine the manager). I don't really care who they are or what they do though as long as they perform on the pitch.

I think we have a better squad than Wigan, Reading, Norwich and Southampton. There are a couple of other teams who are debatable. I thought we'd finish somewhere from 12th-15th this year, we might still do. The biggest problem is we seem to be trying to build a side for three years down the line and none of the other teams near the bottom are. They are either using the teams they mostly got promoted with and hence have some momentum/togetherness or a team such as Wigan who are using experienced players.

Why Not Lichaj and Stevens? Why don't they get a chance to have a run in the side. I dislike the way Lowton, Bennett and Westwood have been shoved down our throats this year. Can't argue with Benteke although lets not pretend he hasn't had games where he's looked disinterested and should have been subbed. Lowton, by all accounts, had a bad game on Saturday. What are the chances of him being dropped. Yet Bent comes in, gets 45 mins, plays badly and we don't see him for a month. Baker has been our best CB the last 2 months. Yet when Vlaar comes back from injury it is Baker who is shunted to left back rather than Clark. Ireland gets sent to train with the youth team when he is by far the most suited to play in the hole in a 4-2-3-1. All fans criticise tactics and team selection, that's just how it is. I'm far more baffled this season than most though.

But you're ignoring the fact that we had to lower the wage bill. I'm sorry but that is absolutely key to everything. I don't know what else to say. Big John has destroyed your argument's one by one, I don't need to. Cuellar and Heskey were out of contract, fine, we let them go and lowered the wage bill. We bought Lowton, Bennett and Westwood when we could have been playing Hutton, Warnock and Ireland who we have paid up until January and are mostly STILL paying. That's not lowering the wage bill. You're giving Lambert credit for removing Cuellar and Heskey but he didn't sell them. He sold Collins and replaced him with Vlaar which is close to financially neutral. He has not lowered the wage bill at all.

Mambo you should read Big John's comments. I respect that you're trying to be positive about the team but you're just tying yourself in knots. The best explanation I have for Lambert's decisions this year is that he is a manager who relies on team spirit. He's not a tactician or a man motivator, he's a guy who relies on building a team spirit, a shared mentality throughout the team. He has removed experienced players who wouldn't buy into this and favoured young players who are easier to control. It's not an absurd strategy, it's somewhat clever but it has largely failed.

£53 million losses. Adding to debts already over £100 million. All those players are on high wages, don't offer nearly enough, and have no future at the club. It's ALL ABOUT THE MONEY! If we lose £20 million on wages for these players that is just another £20 million that could have been invested in the team going to players totally unworthy of what they are on. We didn't sell Warnock. We haven't sold Hutton or Ireland though. That destroys your point. We gave Warnock away, presumably paid him off. We are paying Hutton to play elsewehere and paying Ireland not to play.

I'd be more inclined to cut Lambert some slack if I knew exactly why he bombed out Hutton, Warnock, Ireland and is seemingly trying to embarrass Bent. I'm no huge fan of Hutton, Warnock or Ireland but to think you can buy youngsters from League Two (Westwood), League One (Lowton), and the Championship Bennett) as part of your first XI who will be immediately successful appears to me to be extremely arrogant (well, stupid) to be fair.

There seems to be a lot of love recently for Delph. I have to admit, I don't buy it. Players that run around a lot and kick people tend to be crowd favourites and that is basically what Delph does. I think he could be a solid player if he becomes more disciplined and focuses on keeping things simple. I don't think he has much of an eye for a pass and his forays forward are frequently embarrassing. I've seen enough of him trying to dribble from midfield and then over-running the ball with a heavy touch this year to conclude that his future is not as a box-to-box midfielder. He's 23 now, he's not going to develop much technically from here on in, I'd like to see him limit his ambition going forward and work on his defensive qualities. I'll be very interested to watch Sylla next week, hopefully he can be a medium-term solution to the central midfield along with Westwood who in fairness does have an eye for a pass.

The worrying thing about Bennett is I think of him as a 'kid' but he's 23 this month. I just don't think he is going to develop physically enough to be a top-flight defender. I think he either needs to bulk up (a summer in the gym and supplements etc) or try to make it as a left winger/left midfielder. Certainly, there are teams who can get away with very slight full-backs but they tend to be very attacking teams who dominate play e.g. Brazil. Teams fighting at the bottom of the premier league can't afford full-backs like this, any manager with a brain will just tell their striker(s) to pull onto him for crosses and long balls e.g. goal kicks and he becomes a liability.

Hi, I've just registered on here but I'm a big American sports fan. NFL mainly but I watch a fair amount of baseball, occasionally basketball. If I had to pick a team I support it would be the Giants. I went to watch them the season before last. I'd be lying if my favourite player to watch wasn't RG3 now though.

Their team today looks so attacking on paper I'd be surprised if they play the same way next week. It would be a bit suicidal to start like that away from home. Redknapp has always been a gutsy manager though, I have a grudging respect for him despite him being a lying, thieving, lowlife. I wouldn't be surprised to see them go 4-3-3 bringing Granero or Jenas back in the side probably for Townsend and moving Remy out onto wide to attack one of our full-backs, probably Lowton if they have a copy of today's game. I would guess we stick with the same side so a 4-3-3 as well. If I was making a prediction, I would say we end up cancelling each other out. It could be a game that comes down to the last 20 minutes and who makes the best substitutions. I agree with the poster above, I could see it going 1-0 either way.

Huge game. Tough game as well. I'm looking forward to it. Barring injuries, I would say just play the same team. I'm looking forward especially to see Sylla play, I liked what I saw from the highlights today.

Big win today. I wasn't at the game but sounds like a 4-3-3. I'm a little surprised he changed the formation again but I can't argue with the decision to drop the Zog. I really, really hope he sticks with the same team for the QPR game now. It will be a huge game, I'm looking forward to it. I also wouldn't go too over the top. I look at the Reading team today and say to myself, 'wow, they don't have a single premier league player'. By which I mean, if they go down, which they will, I can't see any of their players attracting bids from premier league teams.

Well I don't consider Swansea a top club yet. Great season though. I don't think I've proposed any rules as such although perhaps I could suggest some if I think about it. It's not really a stretch to think that Laudrup who played in Denmark, Spain, Italy, Holland and Japan as well as managing in Denmark, Spain and Russia has a more cultured and worldly approach than Paul Lambert though. Paul Lambert who has spent 20 years of his career in Scotland, 6 in England and 1 in Germany. I guess I am mostly searching for reasons why he has failed this season. I'm not a person who thinks the squad is terrible, I think the squad is good enough to be comfortably lower mid-table. I do somewhat blame the fact that Lambert has tried to play progressive football without any clear idea of how to do it or what it involves. He certainly isn't a tactician, he doesn't appear to be much of a man motivator so what exactly is he. I'm starting to suspect he's a fraud. Maybe he got lucky with Norwich and maybe he didn't, I don't know I wasn't watching them. It wasn't exactly in retrospect much of a sample size to give him the Villa job though.

Just to expand on a point I briefly touched on in my previous (lengthy) post regarding Lambert's intelligence. Lambert had a long and impressive playing career. I respect that but there's no reason to think a footballer is intelligent. Indeed, I would suggest the opposite, whilst people in other industries are studying for exams and professional qualifications footballers have no reason to. At the top level, footballers rarely even formulate a Plan B because of their earning potential. I'm starting to wonder why a big business (which premier league clubs are) would put their fate in the hands of a largely uneducated middle manager. It's slightly absurd. Look at the managers of the top clubs in the premier league now and there's only really Mancini who had a long and distinguished playing career. Look at the new breed of managers like Mourinho, Vilas Boas, Rodgers. These are guys with no real playing career. These are smart guys who could have gone into just about any industry they wanted. I can't help thinking the days of appointing a manager based partly on their long and impressive playing careers are dead. My favourite sports book is moneyball. I've read it multiple times. There's several managerial lessons in there. The most pertinent being that people inside the "club" (in this case football generally) lose their objectivity. They have been indoctrinated into the conventional wisdoms of the game, conventional wisdoms that you have to unlearn if you want to be successful (or perhaps more accurately objective). I can't help looking at Lambert and thinking now that he is part of the old school. An old school manager with old school ideas. We need someone with new ideas. Ideas that haven't been developed from their playing career because football has moved on, it has moved too fast over the past 20 years and there's no reason to think that pace will stop. Before anyone says it I agree that Ferguson is a major exception, Wenger is not as he is an extremely smart guy who more than anyone over the past 20 years changed English football with his new ideas and philosophy.

Hi just registered. I have to admit I'm torn on Lambert. I was pleased with the appointment largely because I thought he would want to play positive football and in most games he has tried to although in retrospect exposing our horrid defence. I also had no problem with him bringing in younger players and favouring industriousness over creativity. It would be a tad hypocritical to criticise him too much for this because as I said I generally agreed with the approach. Having said that I was at the Man U game when I thought we played a 4-3-3 with Gabby and Weimann pushing up quickly to support Benteke. I came away thinking well at least we've found a formation that will keep us up. I was at the Southampton game when he went 4-4-2 at half time pushing Weimann up front with Benteke. I came away thinking at least he realises Benteke needs a strike partner to avoid him getting frustrated. He disastrously switched to 3-5-2 (other than one lucky result) and has now switched to 4-2-3-1. I have largely lost faith in his tactical nous. This stretch of 4-2-3-1 is about as consistent as he's been and you can see how the team has solidified just from a bit of tactical consistency. Eric Lichaj has played in 4 of our 5 league wins (2 the whole game and 2 the majority). Joe Bennett has played in none (other than 10 mins at Sunderland. How can you not factor that into selection? I've been thinking all season that he is extremely stubborn in his team selection. I'm starting to wonder though, is he dumb, is he unintelligent? He doesn't seem to learn any lessons from the previous game, his interviews are terrible, he provides zero insight. I've thought all season he has been deliberately beligerent with the media but maybe I was wrong, maybe he just has nothing worth saying. That might be a bit harsh and if this has been discussed already in this thread please say roughly where and I'll go find it. I'm not speculating on him being sacked because I'm very confident he'll be here next season. I would gladly take Nigel Adkins now though. Firstly, because he's an intelligent guy, that's very clear from his interviews and secondly the way he handled his exit from Southampton was incredibly dignified. Any views welcome.

Hi I've just registered. I applaud the effort. If I am honest with you I dislike the individual errors argument. Every goal is preventable if managers are a) critical enough and roll the tape back far enough. I always feel it is a catch-all excuse. Great effort though and I wouldn't dispute the results based on what I've seen this season.

You know I've been meaning to register for a few seasons and I've finally bit the bullet. I have to admit it's taken me a long time because I am wary of getting into arguments on the internet (especially with fans who don't attend games, sorry if that's a tad offensive but that's my honest view). It's gotten a bit silly though, writing comments on other forums that don't get any replies. I usually check the comments after games to see if I agree so it's about time I registered and posted a bit.