Could any manager do better.

[Big_John_10]

The defence has improved a great deal,

From before his time or from the worst villa defence I've ever seen that he assembled last year.

[VillanousOne]

Getting rid of Collins was an odd one, i mean was he really on that much money?

 

Also I know most of us disliked Hutton and his hospital tackles, but i really think he should have been kept as an option until sold. All Lambert has managed so far is pay a player the same high wages for doing nothing, same with Given until recently.

Making Bent captain and then suddenly deciding you don't like him and freezing him out in favour of Jordan Bowery is criminal. All Lambert has done is taken a player with some transfer value and reduce him to nothing. We can argue till we are all blue in the face about Bent not fitting our 'system of play' but my god Lambert changes that 'system of play' every damn week and love him or hate him Bent did score goals. If we had at least kept him involved we might have been able to actually sell him.

Not keeping Cuellar was also odd, i am sure if Lambert had played him more when he was here and offered him a short term deal on reduced wages he would have stayed.

Again with Ireland, Bannan and Nzogbia - when fit they all had very short stints in the team as Lambert chopped and changed every week, all were deemed not good enough. And I agree to some extent, Ireland has never been the player we hoped for, Bannan is average, Zog is frustrating. But he has never brought in better or even equivalent options.

Westwood and KEA as signings were ok, but in an ideal world KEA would have been a squad player and Westwood would have also been a back up player we would have brought through slowly. They are both low impact players who are mostly workhorses. They need someone with leadership round them.

Lowton and Bacuna aren't bad signings, both deserve to start or be on the bench. We've had far worse right backs than these two.

As for left back, yes Warnock was mostly shite - but i'd take him over Luna and Bennett.

We know Tekkers was a great signing, so was Vlaar (well eventually) and for the most part Lambert has got the best out of Gabby, Weimann, Delph, Clark and Guzan.

Kozak I still think is a good signing but maybe not the one we needed at the right time.

Tonev and Bowery are atrocious signings, whilst not playing Helenius remains a mystery.

Baker and Herd again are work horses with very little brain or defensive ability.

Great to see Albrighton back, but no idea when/if Lambert will gamble on Gardener or the generation below.

We never replaced Young, Milner, Downing or Petrov with anything remotely similar.
 

50% of our squad would have been deemed not good enough by the club/fans if you go back 5 years or more.

 

if we carry on getting injuries to our best players every week along with suspensions and total drops in player form - we will get relegated.

 

[Rovers13]

Lambert can neither build a good side, nor get them playing anything approaching good football. We had far less possession than Stoke today, which tells its own tale. Dreadful manager, who has assembled a dreadful team, who play dreadful football.

He does not have the funding to build a good side quickly Risso.

Other than £43m of course.

Look at where we signed the players from Risso? It is time to accept reality my friend, I have.

I have long accepted the reality that we have a useless manager, who does not appear to have the first clue as to coaching or tactics. The game(s) against Bradford last season should have shown you that.

I don't get these types of comments. Whether or not Lambert is the right manager for Villa is obviously debatable but to call him "useless" and state that he doesn't know anything about coaching or tactics is just completely wrong.

Where is the proof that he knows "anything about coaching or tactics"? I would suggest that his ability to buy players, coaching and tactics are more suspect than not. We have just been turned over by an absolutely shite Stoke, lost to a struggling Fulham and couldn't beat a shite bottom of the league sunderland. That you think Lambert is an able coach with tactical nous is frankly amazing.

For proof I believe you could check out Norwich city's finishing position in the prem in 2011-12, the championship in 2010-2011 and league one in 2009-2010.

[Big_John_10]

Lambert can neither build a good side, nor get them playing anything approaching good football. We had far less possession than Stoke today, which tells its own tale. Dreadful manager, who has assembled a dreadful team, who play dreadful football.

He does not have the funding to build a good side quickly Risso.

Other than £43m of course.

Look at where we signed the players from Risso? It is time to accept reality my friend, I have.

I have long accepted the reality that we have a useless manager, who does not appear to have the first clue as to coaching or tactics. The game(s) against Bradford last season should have shown you that.

I don't get these types of comments. Whether or not Lambert is the right manager for Villa is obviously debatable but to call him "useless" and state that he doesn't know anything about coaching or tactics is just completely wrong.

Where is the proof that he knows "anything about coaching or tactics"? I would suggest that his ability to buy players, coaching and tactics are more suspect than not. We have just been turned over by an absolutely shite Stoke, lost to a struggling Fulham and couldn't beat a shite bottom of the league sunderland. That you think Lambert is an able coach with tactical nous is frankly amazing.

For proof I believe you could check out Norwich city's finishing position in the prem in 2011-12, the championship in 2010-2011 and league one in 2009-2010.

If you want to go down that route you could see how McLeish did with blues. Not much proof if you ask me.

[Rovers13]

Where is the proof that he knows "anything about coaching or tactics"? I would suggest that his ability to buy players, coaching and tactics are more suspect than not. We have just been turned over by an absolutely shite Stoke, lost to a struggling Fulham and couldn't beat a shite bottom of the league sunderland. That you think Lambert is an able coach with tactical nous is frankly amazing.

For proof I believe you could check out Norwich city's finishing position in the prem in 2011-12, the championship in 2010-2011 and league one in 2009-2010.

If you want to go down that route you could see how McLeish did with blues. Not much proof if you ask me.

[Mantis]

If you want to go down that route you could see how McLeish did with blues. Not much proof if you ask me.

2 relegations in 4 years and a reputation for horrible ultra-defensive football?

[Big_John_10]

Finished higher then Lambert has ever finished and won a cup.

[Rovers13]

Finished higher then Lambert has ever finished and won a cup.

So you honestly don't think what Lambert did with Norwich was way more impressive than what McLeish did with Brum? I find that really hard to believe.

[Mantis]

Finished higher then Lambert has ever finished and won a cup.

Haha

 

Also relegated not once but twice.

[StefanAVFC]

 

Finished higher then Lambert has ever finished and won a cup.

So you honestly don't think what Lambert did with Norwich was way more impressive than what McLeish did with Brum? I find that really hard to believe.

 

 

This. Lambert did a complete rebuilding job at Norwich and achieved consecutive promotions.

 

McLeish. Well. Remember in their cup run, they fluked the QF against us and then the final against Arsenal. The context matters when talking about Villa, but not when talking about other teams it seems.

[Rovers13]

I've been trying to think, other than Norwich, what other clubs have come up from the 3rd tier to the first tier in two years and then survived in the prem recently without big investment?

Obviously Southampton just did the back to back promotions and then survival bit, but their owner spent a boatload of cash to accomplish that. Lambert didn't have that type of money, and I'm just wondering what other clubs/managers have been able to accomplish what he did.

It really is impressive.

[briny_ear]

The fact that people are having to go back to Lambert's record with Norwich to defend him emphasises just how much he has failed to step up completely to the challenges of the Villa job.

[Rovers13]

The fact that people are having to go back to Lambert's record with Norwich to defend him emphasises just how much he has failed to step up completely to the challenges of the Villa job.

Or maybe it emphasizes how challenging the Villa job has been, and how he's done a good job given how tough it is.

[StefanAVFC]

The fact that people are having to go back to Lambert's record with Norwich to defend him emphasises just how much he has failed to step up completely to the challenges of the Villa job.

 

I don't think it's purely that. It's more that, if Lambert is capable of the job he did at Norwich, it shows he's not as limited as some would suggest.

[Mantis]

 

The fact that people are having to go back to Lambert's record with Norwich to defend him emphasises just how much he has failed to step up completely to the challenges of the Villa job.

 

I don't think it's purely that. It's more that, if Lambert is capable of the job he did at Norwich, it shows he's not as limited as some would suggest.

 

That and the fact that people are likely to be more reasonable and less biased when evaluating Lambert's job at Norwich as opposed to the job he's done so far at Villa.

[Rovers13]

The fact that people are having to go back to Lambert's record with Norwich to defend him emphasises just how much he has failed to step up completely to the challenges of the Villa job.

I don't think it's purely that. It's more that, if Lambert is capable of the job he did at Norwich, it shows he's not as limited as some would suggest.

Right. I originally brought it up because someone asked if there was any proof that he knew anything about tactics and coaching. I was just pointing out a manager clearly must know something to accomplish what he did.

[Isa]

As we all know though, what managers do in the lower-leagues and the first season in the Premier League with a newly-promoted club doesn't really prove anything. The countless examples that back this up are well know.

[Rovers13]

As we all know though, what managers do in the lower-leagues and the first season in the Premier League with a newly-promoted club doesn't really prove anything. The countless examples that back this up are well know.

Just a random question, who's record in their career is more impressive: paul lambert, or avb?

[DiegoD]

The answer is yes there are managers that could do better. But the real question is why would any of those managers want to come to Villa given the ridiculous financial restrictions in place. There are real problems with our squad both in terms of first 11 and depth but its pretty much impossible to fix this without having the funds to even loan in good players.

 

I can't help but think back a couple of seasons ago when Martinez rejected us. At the time I couldn't understand why someone who manages Wigan wouldn't jump at the chance to come to our club. But even a talented up and coming manger looked at us and the restrictions in place and said i'd rather risk relegation with my current club.

 

As much as its easy to blame the players and the manager the biggest problem is an owner who wants to have the team on a budget that will see us in constant relegation battles.

[Isa]

As we all know though, what managers do in the lower-leagues and the first season in the Premier League with a newly-promoted club doesn't really prove anything. The countless examples that back this up are well know.

Just a random question, who's record in their career is more impressive: paul lambert, or avb?

I'd say AVB. He won the quadruple at Porto and has managed at the highest level already.