LordSepulchrave

Dunno, it'd totally fit Moyes's turbulent start if they lost to us whilst we'd forgotten what a goal is.

Lambert has tactics? Of course he doesn't, the fact that the players end up in 4-3-3 or 5-3-2 is purely coincidence. I'm sure Lambert wasn't involved at any stage of the process.

For all we know that is a man-management strategy though, so it may even be a shrewd move?

He was just happy to be developing and training in a premier league team but wasn't expecting to actually be playing yet. Yes but I'm not really sure still why Lambert went for him if he didn't believe he was anywhere near ready for the Premier League. We already have Jordan Bowery for that. Because he believes he'll be a great asset when he is ready?

Whilst I'd like to see him get more game time too, I feel like condemning his willingness to be patient is ridiculous. For one thing if he's rushed out before he is ready and isn't up to the pace, everyone on here will decide he's a dud and proclaim him a lost cause.

Surprised, if that was going to be the case, we didn't just loan him back to his old club? Or maybe someone in League One or the Championship. Get him used to more physical football at a lower level. I guess we wanted our coaches to do some conditioning work with him in our club, people who know what sort of the player they want him to be, but it's never encouraging to see players not getting competitive football.

It does seem like Lambert teams thrive on having nothing to lose. When he took Norwich up, no one expected them to even put up that much of fight before going back down. But he got his team playing well and winning games and finishing in a respectable league position. Last season we hit terrific form when, for all intents and purposes, we looked doomed. We had nothing to lose, really, save for going for it. This would also account for weaker showings at home, where we are meant to be the ones in charge, and struggles against Newcastle, Hull and West Ham.

Good news. I've taken him out of my fantasy football team, so he's bound to start scoring again.

Hopefully he returns with his finishing touch back. Beginning to worry me a little.

Same - there is a danger in getting too comfortable with relying on one player.

The context has everything to do with it because that is the post you decided to reply to. Regardless of whether you don't think possession statistics count for much, that doesn't change the validy of my original reply to a poster who believed we had better possession statistics last season under Lambert then we did under McLeish when this isn't the case. As I've said already, judgements on playing style are subjective. I don't see much improvement with the football played at home under Lambert, you clearly do. Regarding Kozak, it isn't speculation at all. From the mouth of Paul Lambert: So firstly he is seen as the same type of player by the manager and secondly he has been brought in to 'take the burden' off Benteke (i.e. be his understudy). Now considering that we already had quite a few strikers here, why would we desperately (we had been chasing him all summer according to Lambert) need an understudy for Benteke? The only reason, as many have alluded to, is to be able to play the same system in Benteke's absence. Thus the fact that Lambert feels he can only play with a 'target-man' in the team is a pointer of tactical limitation. Finally, my views on Kozak as a player are well known and you can check them out in his thread if you wish. I stand by everything I've said about him. Hopefully I'll be proved wrong. Not sure that's true - when you have a winning system, you can use that system as a foundation to build others off of. When building a house, you don't destroy the foundation first: you make sure it is strong as possible. Making sure we have a replacement for Benteke in is sure our most successful formula remains an option for us to use, something the players and manager are already comfortable with and know how to work. It doesn't mean that that is the only way we can play. For all his time has been limited so far, surely the acquisition of Helenius, who offers us something none of our other strikers do, suggests Lambert is keen to have a number of options open to him?

I'm curious as to why you think there is going to be a rel. battle? We've come through a tough set of fixtures with a pretty neutral GD and an improved point total from the same fixtures last year.

I don't think we can expect more than 5-6 points from the next four games - the Premier League is just one of those crazy leagues where pretty much every game has the opportunity to hurt you. The only two outright bad teams so far have been Sunderland and Palace, and Sunderland might have just turned the corner in terms of form. It does the other teams around us something of a disservice to so roundly dismiss them. Doesn't stop me hoping for twelve points though.

I'd suggest that we need another winger more than we need a creative playmaker in midfield. The way we play at the moment, the ability to play with width would be another great option, whereas a more central playmaker may be more difficult to slot into the team without big changes.

This seems a bit silly - it looks like we've went from being relegation scrappers to midtable mediocrity. This is an improvement. If people want Lambert to be a figure who'll turn us into a team capable of challenging for Europe then they might as well start campaigning for his dismissal now. Perhaps also start figuring out, whilst they are at it, how to be oust the next man. Lambert has built a team that can definitely get better - look at Clarke, Delph, El Ahmadhi and so on. Even without Okore, who looked to be an important player for us early on, our defense is very much improved. Last seasons, our defense let in goals for fun. The fact that he has been trying to vary formation - and bringing back 5-3-2 was a very brave thing to do - show he is still trying to learn tactically and get the players used to changing it up. He's still got plenty to improve upon as a manager, but it does seem like he is trying to improve himself as much as he is trying to improve a young team. It seems like football fans are way too quick to write-off people for making mistakes rather than allowing for the fact that that's how you learn.

I'm more pleased by his potential than what he is actually bringing to the team at the moment - he's becoming isolated and giving the ball away more than he is drawing fouls. Saying that, I don't feel like he's that far away from being as good as people want to say he is already though. Just needs to link to the strikers and his fellow midfielders a bit more and maybe chip in a few goals.

Needed more help against Townsend really, constantly battling him whilst bombing up to aid our attack wore him into the ground. Didn't help that we became more open after the introduction of Benteke. Impressive player - it looks like full back is our strongest position at the moment.

I feel like Delph's performance on Sun wasn't nearly as good as some are making out - as much as his dribbling skills are impressive, all it seemed to achieve was alienate him in the opponent's half. There's clearly a lot of potential there, but at the moment he's not a player that is really doing that much better than others. For me el Ahmadi was the star of the midfield, always making interceptions and tackles and staying tidy in possession. For all the fuss is being made about how weak our midfield is, however, I reckon it's actually our attack that has been letting the side down - when you play three strikers, you need to be scoring a lot of goals. Gabs started the season like a man on fire but has flagged since and Weimann has been struggling to produce anything more than admirable endeavor. That said, this performance wasn't terrible and with Benteke on the field we even looked like a point or three was in our grasp. Tottenham scored when they needed to and are a top team. So yeah, overall a meh performance. Certainly nothing worth prophecies of doom.

Heyo folks, Been a bit of a lurker 'round these parts for a while, since this place seems to be the fastest place to stay on top of news during transfer windows and seeing other people's opinions is always cool (if not at times infuriating). I'm still a fairly new Villa fan, last season was probably my first season really as a fan. There's a lot to be excited about when it comes to Villa: there's a strong bias towards youngsters and the promise of seeing them get better as a team. There's also the unpredictability there too, which is both a great and terrible, terrible thing. The high drama of the Prem has been demanding that I just settle on a team, so Villa is - for better or worse - the colours I'm wearing now. Principally I'm a fan of Hearts, so it's nice to be rooting for a team that isn't stuck well into negative points. Villa is a good team for glory hunters. ...right?