So yesterday we only had Bacuna on that he signed in the summer. Apart from Benteke who has been any good that he signed?
Sylla - Hardly used, very average and would do well to become a championship players
Benteke - Very good despite his off form this season, needs better players and tactics around him
Westwood - Average so far
Bowery - Not involved, youth players should have been given his spot
Bennett - Been largely poor his entire time here due to not being able to defend, championship is his level
Vlaar - Overall been good in what has been a poor defence but too injury prone
Lowton - Solid first season but now gone completely to pot, strange one
KEA - Okay but offers little quality, runs around a lot
Kozak - Not what we needed to spend 7m on, waste of funds that were needed to be spent elsewhere and despite his goals his overall play is poor
Okore - Injured so cant comment
Tonev - A youth player should take his spot
Luna - Average is being kind, another defender signed who cant defend
Helenius - Not used at all yet makes the bench every week, could be good later on but funds could have been used elsewhere and a youth player done the exact same job so far
Bacuna - Could be good, inconsistent and hasn't played in his proper position much another one average at best though
Steer - Youth backup keeper, future.
24.5m first season & 17.5m this season for 42m spend on transfer fees alone.
So he is trying to build something here, well what? Because Luna, Tonev, Kozak, KEA, Bennett, Bowery, Sylla aren't the future. He could have spent 30m of this in buying some much more solid 6-8m players plus extra with whatever wages could have been saved and promoted players like Grealish, Gardner, Curruthers, throwing loads of youth players in isn't the answer but one or two of them can play if they have good players around them.
My ratings on Lambert overall from the 2 seasons he has been here
Transfer dealings 4/10 (without Benteke this would be close to 1)
Performances 2/10
Style of play/Tactics 1/10
Results 3/10 (Relegation battle last season and 4 points off the drop now despite there being some real poor teams like Fulham & Cardiff.)
If this was McLeish he would be out the door and the fans would be booing every week. Performances have been the worst I have ever seen at Villa Park and that is a lot down to tactics and the way we try to play. Over the last couple of season who have been our most important players? Benteke, Guzan, Delph, Gabby, Weimann & Vlaar. Fair enough he resigned Guzan but to be honest 4 of them were already here when he arrived.
I cant see anything he is doing right and using this budget as an excuse is poor, there are tons of teams who have spent similar to us. Id put up with good results for bad football, or bad results for good promising performances that might get us somewhere long term but hes doing neither.
How he is still in a job baffles me.