Super Jonno

Nail on the head. A few months is not giving time. I appreciate if the manager is not good enough, its just not working out or if results are truly appalling then you have to call time. But with Lambert he had to deal with a huge amount of issues, coupled with him trying to play football with a team who lack experience, quality in a number of positions and importantly, the Villa players from the previous season had a season of playing completely different football ( if i can call it that ). If we go down, I wont shift the blame to much on Lambert. Certainly mistakes have been made hear and there which have cost us a few points but alot of the points thrown away he cant legislate for, its just our team panicking, put it down to experience put it down to the situation at the time, but I have always understood how were progressing under him and i can recognise where he wants to take us. For that reason, I am more than happy to give him time. 'Trying to play football with a team who lack experience' eh? Who purchased that lack of experience in the first place when there was already inexperience trying to break into the first team? "Progressing under him?" That progression has seen us battling relegation for the best part of the season and breaking records no manager would want on his CV. Did he have much choice considering the positions that needed filling ? Was it viable with the financial restrictions and wage reduction were going through at the moment to go and find a older player with more experience ? probably not, because they would want more money and if they didnt then Id question their quality. He brought in Westwood, Lowton, Bennet and Benteke who are young. Benteke is our player of the season and Lowton and Westwood have been good enough but both showing promise. Only Bennet can really questioned out of Lamberts "inexperienced" signings. The likes of Delph, Weimann, Bannan, Baker and Clarke were all at the club already and are hardly seasoned pro's. I dont like it when people make out he went crazy on youth when he didnt, but given the circumstances we found ourselves in, and the amount of players we needed to bring in players who perhaps lacked a little experience were likely to come in. Do you see everything so black and white ? It is undoubtedly clear that he is installing a philosophy of football in this club, of progressive football. Football that can push clubs on and ultimately be succesfull. We have gone from god awful football, that never wins you games to developing a style of play, which in time and with better players will put us in fantastic stead to push on. Thats progression. Anyone who thought we wouldnt be involved in a relegation scrap ( admiteddly not this much of one ) was naive. It takes more than a season to sort this pish out. He has made mistakes, I dont deny that but keeping a manager who installs belief and confidence in players like he does, coupled with the way he tries to play football is important. No i don't see everything black and white. In previous posts i have commended Lambert for actually changing the system and have been one of the very few posters lately who have continually stated that we would stay up if Lambert persisted with correct system. I also recognise that both manager and team may be finally showing signs of growing together in the right direction but that does not exclude Lambert from criticism, criticism which is warranted for his decisions on team selection and tactics for almost three quarters of the season which has resulted in a relegation dogfight that we're still not free from yet. You also cannot ignore the present state of our defence which has been rebuilt by Lambert. I have seen time and time again the excuse that he had limited funding which to replace outgoing players of experience. Did he have to get rid of both Collins and Cuellar immediately? Could there not have been a 'progression' of changing our defence over two to three seasons instead of introducing players without any Premiership experience to form a new defence. That alone invited problems and weaknesses which are still there. Someone posted that it was Lambert's decision to go with youth and thats why he got the job and i would tend to believe that as Lambert has previously stated that the chairman did make funding available for more established Premiership footballers before the season started. You remember the bid for Dempsey. He also had the opportunity to address our weakness at DM with the possible purchase of Diame on a free who went to West Ham. He purchased KEA and the less said about that the better. Just because we now have had a few decent results against some very poor teams shouldn't convince any fan of our club that Lambert has become a very good manager literally over night. He hasn't, but hopefully he will have learnt a lot this season from his mistakes and won't make the same again next season when hopefully we are still in the Premiership. You missed my point in regards to the black and white comment I think. With him, there is a clear philosophy of the kind of football we play, its one which doesnt have a low ceiling. That kind of football, will give you success. The better players we get in, the better that football becomes and so on. I was making a comment about the attacking / football philosophy of the coach rather than a specific formation he implements. I wouldnt dream of saying Lambert doesnt deserve criticism. That would be daft, and would make me look like a mug. I completely appreciate he has made mistakes, that being said I feel your being overly critical of him. He was trying to find a system, I cant knock him for trying 4-4-2 diamond and 3-5-2. Progressive thinkers should not be dashed aside, but i appreciate a few games were lost on those decisions. He who dares wins and all that, things change in football and I get the impression Lambert is one who likes to be infront of the pack rather than chasing and playing catch up. Alot of our losses / points thrown away have come down to silly individual errors, ones they shouldnt make and although Lambert has to take criticism for some games I dont think its fair to blame him for 3/4 poor performance. We have been playing well enough since January, could be so different if we didnt concede last minute against Swansea ( although we didnt deserve the win ) and held onto 2 goal leads against WBA and Everton. I know thats all IFS and BUTS, but the point remains I feel people have been overly critical of him. Collins yes, he did. He and the club want players who want to play for Villa, who have the right attitude and hunger to suceed. Things had gone sour with Collins and you have to recognise that. He was a disruptive influence on the team and that cannot be tolerated in high performance sport. Did Cuellars contract not expire ? Diame would of been lovely, its all very well in hindsight isnt it ( although I believe you mentioned it preseason ? ), but why didnt all the other clubs go for him ? How do you know we didnt. You make it sound simple. KEA hasnt been the player we all thought and hoped. He recognised the problem though and tried to address it, ultimately it didnt work out but you cant knock him to much as he tried to address it, and all managers have flops in their history. I have been saying this for longer than the last 5 games, I watched him closely at Norwich. He is a progressive manager who I want here long term.

Not sure If I can post a thread this early, or if what Im going to ask if allowed but I gotta try. Firstly, whose intending to go ? I reckon it would be a great game to go to, the experience could be simply amazing, admittedly if it did come down to the last day of the season and we went down it would be the worst thing ever. EVER. Wigan have given up to 6k before, they did that in the big relegation decider against West Ham a few years ago. West Ham lost (thanks to Zog) and couldnt mathematically stay up. Point is, they do give big allocations. Hoping we get one this time, but if we do and hears my main question. Are their any season ticket holders on here that arent intending to go ? If I was to pay for a ticket, Could it be booked under your name and transferred to me ? I have to go to this game and have a friend over from Italy whose second team is Villa and it would be great to take him. No problems if not, but if you dont ask, you dont get

It certainly does. I agree for now, depending on the opposition Zog could the man to do that. In the summer I feel if we get a good CAM in we will dee the best of Westwood. With Delp / Sylla alongside him and a player who specialises in creativity, Westwood could be a really important player in keeping possession and building / initiating our attacks from the middle Im hoping Carruthers gets a pop next season, along with a couple of others from the academy. Not chucking them in at the deep end but certainly blooding them..

Being from the midlands but having lived in the south and the north iv made friends with fans of alot of different clubs and horrendous banter aside, they want us to stay up.

Funny how picking the right formation made such a huge difference. Shame our manager needed so much TIME to figure this out. Maybe if he hadn't wasted TIME playing a diamond formation, then more TIME with 3 CB's we might all be having a better TIME as fans not worrying about relegation for the 3rd TIME in a row. Damn managers trying to develop progressive and new ways of playing Football. You cant blame him from trying to develop a new system which works for our team. He soon dropped 4-4-2 Diamond and only experimented with 3 at the back when we had a few injuries (Gabby being one of them ? ) also during that period of 3 at the back we did beat Liverpool (Did we ?) Like I said he has made mistakes but I feel your being slightly over critical of him and a little short sighted in regards the kind of philosophy he is installing at the club. One which is the foundation for success... to play good football. We need more quality undoubtedly but it takes time for things to work but you can see how he is trying to make us play cant you ?

No one has said he has done a brilliant job, people just believe he has had shit to put up with and is showing signs, or certainly the performances and the way we play football are showing signs of progression. If you cant see that, I dont know what to think. I think Lambert is a good manager doing a tough job, I wont say he has done brilliantly because he has made mistakes but to be honest I dont think loads of managers could of done much better. Plus with him there is a philosophy in place which can progress us to the next level and the next etc. All very well getting your middle of the road manager in, hoping he does ok and gets us that juicy 14th place finish. Managers like Lambert create a style of play, and if stuck with that progressive football can take you places the likes of most managers cannot.

Did i just read "abject failure of the manager". Lol. Id love to know where you think we should be.

Nail on the head. A few months is not giving time. I appreciate if the manager is not good enough, its just not working out or if results are truly appalling then you have to call time. But with Lambert he had to deal with a huge amount of issues, coupled with him trying to play football with a team who lack experience, quality in a number of positions and importantly, the Villa players from the previous season had a season of playing completely different football ( if i can call it that ). If we go down, I wont shift the blame to much on Lambert. Certainly mistakes have been made hear and there which have cost us a few points but alot of the points thrown away he cant legislate for, its just our team panicking, put it down to experience put it down to the situation at the time, but I have always understood how were progressing under him and i can recognise where he wants to take us. For that reason, I am more than happy to give him time. 'Trying to play football with a team who lack experience' eh? Who purchased that lack of experience in the first place when there was already inexperience trying to break into the first team? "Progressing under him?" That progression has seen us battling relegation for the best part of the season and breaking records no manager would want on his CV. Did he have much choice considering the positions that needed filling ? Was it viable with the financial restrictions and wage reduction were going through at the moment to go and find a older player with more experience ? probably not, because they would want more money and if they didnt then Id question their quality. He brought in Westwood, Lowton, Bennet and Benteke who are young. Benteke is our player of the season and Lowton and Westwood have been good enough but both showing promise. Only Bennet can really questioned out of Lamberts "inexperienced" signings. The likes of Delph, Weimann, Bannan, Baker and Clarke were all at the club already and are hardly seasoned pro's. I dont like it when people make out he went crazy on youth when he didnt, but given the circumstances we found ourselves in, and the amount of players we needed to bring in players who perhaps lacked a little experience were likely to come in. Do you see everything so black and white ? It is undoubtedly clear that he is installing a philosophy of football in this club, of progressive football. Football that can push clubs on and ultimately be succesfull. We have gone from god awful football, that never wins you games to developing a style of play, which in time and with better players will put us in fantastic stead to push on. Thats progression. Anyone who thought we wouldnt be involved in a relegation scrap ( admiteddly not this much of one ) was naive. It takes more than a season to sort this pish out. He has made mistakes, I dont deny that but keeping a manager who installs belief and confidence in players like he does, coupled with the way he tries to play football is important.

I have ALOT of time for this post.

I cant quite understand how someone would question our defense then want Huth. Apart from being big and a commanding presence in the air, he is a poor poor defender and would only continue to our defensive woes. His performances over the last 2 seasons have been declining and I feel his form was down to the way Stoke played, it suited his style. In a team which is trying to begin to play football Huth would be shocking, particuarly now that he isnt even on form and as others have suggested is past it. I think Vlaar hasnt been the sensational defender we all wanted, that being said the defense does look more organised with him in it. If we bring in a CB next season id be very happy, but please god not Huth. I dont think Lambert would sign a player like that anyway, forgetting my doubts about his ability, just the fact he is getting to the twilight of his career and Lambert wants hungry, motivated players.

Nail on the head. A few months is not giving time. I appreciate if the manager is not good enough, its just not working out or if results are truly appalling then you have to call time. But with Lambert he had to deal with a huge amount of issues, coupled with him trying to play football with a team who lack experience, quality in a number of positions and importantly, the Villa players from the previous season had a season of playing completely different football ( if i can call it that ). If we go down, I wont shift the blame to much on Lambert. Certainly mistakes have been made hear and there which have cost us a few points but alot of the points thrown away he cant legislate for, its just our team panicking, put it down to experience put it down to the situation at the time, but I have always understood how were progressing under him and i can recognise where he wants to take us. For that reason, I am more than happy to give him time.

Im not sure he was playing your conventional CAM role. I think Lambert was using him to press high up the pitch.

Didnt Gabby pick up a knock.

I always suspected we would be there or there abouts. Poor squad, loads of internal issues and Lambert tries to play football. Anyone who thought other wise was a little hopeful. Beating relegation (viewing it before the season) wouldnt be an achievement but it was the goal. Stay in the premiership then build. In light of how the seasons panning out staying up would be an achievement.

Yeah 19 for us, including Genk and Belgium he has scored 25 this season.

If we win next week...... we are putting ourselves in such a good position to stay up! COME ON

Worked a treat at as well. I was a little sceptical of what he could offer but apart from running the ball out of play once and not scoring that one opportunity I thought he had a very good game. Strong, decent touches, put pressure on stoke, decent movement. Long may it continue. Having a manager like Paul Lambert is refreshing and if we do go down I for one would like him to remain.

Its impressive that our academy has won the next gen, but until these players come through and show it in the premiership its nothing but nice and by no means demonstrates our ability as a top european academy. That being said it is promising, and great for the club. You hear and see every academy say that results are not important, and its development of players that is vital. A good academy is judged on the players it turns out, not the tournaments it wins. Its nice, its impressive but not the be all and end all. That being said I think we have a good academy, we certainly need to churn a couple of good ones out in the near future but we have some promising kids coming through. Fingers crossed they can make it

Keeping it recent too, Id go with: Laursen - Dominant in the area, threat of set pieces and a truly inspirational defender, and a leader. Would undoubtedly sharpen up our defense. James Milner - Hard working but with ability to back it up. Him in CM would be a god send. Ashley Young - Would offer some much needed width and has the ability to run at players and beat them, something we lack this year. I think no one drives often, or good enough with the ball. His crosses into tekkers would be amazing to.

God forbid a manager who tried to work with a new of formations in an attempt to play progressive football. Football isnt just about 4-4-2 or 4-2-3-1. Jesus christ.

I didnt make the table I merely copied it from a website. Interesting reading none the less. I cant imagine Lambert would be to far ahead of Benteke if at all.

How about Michu in there??? im hoping the top teams start fighting over him insted of Benteke... But its a long shot :\ Hardly your traditional target man though is he. I think thats why they excluded him. He would kill it other wise

http://www.eplindex.com/28046/Premier League-target-men-stats-compared-dzeko-benteke-holt-carroll-lukaku.html Forgot to mention the source. Good site to be fair. I never really wanted Holt, as much as i admired his performances last season he is the kind of player we need tom avoid. We need to build something.

Comes second behind Dzeko, however Tekkers has played far more minutes. Interesting little table.

I kind of understand what your getting fella, and in fairness I think we have changed philosophy on a number of occasions this season, and im not just talking about formations im talking individual roles of players in an attempt to try and get the best out of what we have. Because of the financial restrictions placed upon him, he is a poor manager because he cant bring in proven quality? Not really a great point. Judge him on performances / results ( your entitled to do so) but calling him a poor manager for bringing in players from lower leagues ( what 2 players ?? 3 if you include Sylla ) doesnt hold up with me. Especially as his signings have been as a collective by far the better performers this season (minus Bennet + KEA .. although KEA less so ).; Like i said I feel he has made mistakes on a number of occasions but that will not change my opinion that given time, god forbid a little more resources he will be good for us. Nor does it change my opinion of him, I think he is a top coach.