Neil Posted September 18, 2014 Share Posted September 18, 2014 It's quite funny reading about Paul Lambert on here, because it "feels" like the world outside of VT are dumbfounded that he got a new contract. For me, I’m very much on the fence of the whole thing. I can fully appreciate people who are disillusioned with the guy because in football terms we’ve been served 2 years of dross. The criticisms don’t go unfounded, seemingly bad tactical judgements…lack of changes, and just generally poor decisions leading into defeats. But, I don’t see the manager as the be all and end all for the problems we’ve had in footballing terms. I do believe this guy is trying to do the best job he can, given a pretty shitty set of constraints to work in. As bad as it sounds, I commend him for even staying on to do the job because it’s a job that no manager wants. And that leads me onto the point, that we also have to be thankful for having a manager who will give it a go under the conditions. We’ve seen so many stories during our manager hunt as to why they don’t want to come here. I would say, that now this new CEO has come in that has a wealth of past footballing experience… he probably isn’t concerned or phased about our for-sale status. The fox is just going to try to run the football club as a club, and maximise it’s potential as a football club. That can of course start by battening down the hatches on everything that seems as an asset to keeping the club running. No doubt seeing something quite new come to fruition this season, he’ll want to stabilise and build on that. He also came from the Arsenal background, where the manager has been there for years supporting him through the bad and good times. He probably see’s the new contract as a way to at least give Lambert a full 5 year tenure to see through his vision. Of course, like everyone else, I’m trying to second guess the rationale and I feel that the rationale is there and I’m not averse to Lambert being given a new contract. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Oaks Posted September 18, 2014 Share Posted September 18, 2014 (edited) At the end of the day you have to remember how bad we were the last 2 seasons without Benteke and Vlaar. In the 5 games over Christmas without Vlaar last season and the 7 games at the end of the season without Benteke and or Kozak we got 5 points in 12 games. That's 0.4 points per game in them periods. These first 4 games is a dramatic improvement on that, mainly due to improved defence, we are harder to beat, hence losing 20 games last season and 9 of them were in those periods. The squad is deeper, we've replaced Luna with Cissokho, Clark is now 5th choice centre back, when he started last season 2nd/3rd. We've replaced KEA, Sylla and Tonev with Sanchez, Cleverley and Richardson and now are relying on Premier League quality players with depth rather than a nobody from league 2. I'm sure Lambert always wanted experience, but cut his cloth appropriately. I think we've got through the worst of it. A time when other clubs like Leeds and Pompy failed and almost collapsed. It's not the time to look at stats like shots on target and possession, that time will be when we have a fully fit Benteke in the team. We showed in the first half against Hull what we could do on the front foot, but until then I'm happy to look solid and picking up points. Edited September 18, 2014 by Oaks Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chewie Posted September 19, 2014 Share Posted September 19, 2014 Arsenal Pre Match Interview.. Talks a little about Benteke, Kozak, the fans support etc Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
suttonpaul Posted September 19, 2014 Share Posted September 19, 2014 Not really sure where this debate is going. The fact is that the owner gave him a remit and one can only assume he has met it 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
KSV Posted September 19, 2014 Share Posted September 19, 2014 Like his beard. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BG_Villa_Fan Posted September 19, 2014 Share Posted September 19, 2014 Link Bring back the 'Are we the new Stoke' thread. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
romavillan Posted September 19, 2014 VT Supporter Share Posted September 19, 2014 Arsenal Pre Match Interview.. Talks a little about Benteke, Kozak, the fans support etc How the **** does Jack stay in work? I'm not even sure how he avoids just being pasted by everyone else in the room. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Villarocker Posted September 19, 2014 Share Posted September 19, 2014 Has any other Villa manager divided fan opinion like Paul Lambert does? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Villarocker Posted September 19, 2014 Share Posted September 19, 2014 Link Bring back the 'Are we the new Stoke' thread. I guess these stats show one thing - we are defending better! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Swerbs Posted September 19, 2014 Share Posted September 19, 2014 Has any other Villa manager divided fan opinion like Paul Lambert does? Houllier? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Folski Posted September 19, 2014 Share Posted September 19, 2014 Link Bring back the 'Are we the new Stoke' thread. For the corresponding fixtures last year our stats were as follows. Last seasons are first and this seasons second. Possession - 47.5% - 37.3% Pass Accuracy - 68.5% - 72.5% Shots per game - 12.75 - 8.25 Shots on target - 4.25 - 1.5 SOT conceded - 4.5 - 2.5 I'd argue that these stats are completely meaningless, the possession stat is extremely low due to our 2nd half possession in the Liverpool game. If they want to throw a stat out show how many touches in our box the opposition have had this year versus last year. The shots are a worry but you could also argue we have 6 shots on target and 4 goals, where would that rank us in the league in conversation rates? That's right number one. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TrentVilla Posted September 19, 2014 Moderator Share Posted September 19, 2014 Stats for show points for a pro. Stats are vanity points are sanity. Personally I couldn't give a toss about the stats, as long as we are picking up points and showing some gradual improvement as a team then I will be happy. 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
villaglint Posted September 19, 2014 Share Posted September 19, 2014 You don't need stats to tell you what your eyes can see. That is that we are much much better organised this year and tougher to break down. That means as long as you create something in a game you'll always have a chance of getting a decent result. Moyes did very well for about a decade at Everton with this formula. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Woodytom Posted September 19, 2014 Share Posted September 19, 2014 I find the stats quite interesting. And although, stats are misleading, if we carry on over the season averaging 2 shots per game on target then I believe the success we've seen so far will be short lived. It's great that we appear to have resolved the woeful defending, but I can only hope that lambert/keane are working on our transitional play and decision making in the final 3rd, as it remains pretty dire. Hopefully Benteke and Kozak will help out there...... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ArteSuave Posted September 19, 2014 Share Posted September 19, 2014 The stats are heavily skewed by the scoreline in the game at the time. We took the lead in the first 15 minutes in two of our wins and in the first 5 of the second half in the other, so you'd expect our possession and shot stats to be low. That's because we could afford them to be low because we were already winning. We wouldn't be averaging so few shots per game if we hadn't already scored. If we still get no shots in if we're ever losing a game then that would be more worrying. Hopefully we never find out if we do or not. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Stevo985 Posted September 19, 2014 VT Supporter Share Posted September 19, 2014 I find the stats quite interesting. And although, stats are misleading, if we carry on over the season averaging 2 shots per game on target then I believe the success we've seen so far will be short lived. 4 games is way to small of a sample though. It's comparing 38 games against 4 games. It doesn't work. If our 4 games were the easiest games we'll play all season then the stats would be skewed in the other direction. If you do take the stats at face value, then what it tells me is that the thing that needed improving the most form last season, the defence, has improved. But whilst we've got that improvement, we're missing some fire power going forward. And considering our best 2 strikers are injured then that's expected. WHat's encouraging is we've still picked up loads of points from those games where we've struggled going forward. But the sample is too small. Comparing this season to last season, stats wise, doesn't make much sense at this point, positively or negatively. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TrinityRoadSteps Posted September 19, 2014 Share Posted September 19, 2014 More Wibble about stats from Gobby Cabbage on the beeb http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/0/football/29262223 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Woodytom Posted September 19, 2014 Share Posted September 19, 2014 The stats are heavily skewed by the scoreline in the game at the time. We took the lead in the first 15 minutes in two of our wins and in the first 5 of the second half in the other, so you'd expect our possession and shot stats to be low. That's because we could afford them to be low because we were already winning. We wouldn't be averaging so few shots per game if we hadn't already scored. If we still get no shots in if we're ever losing a game then that would be more worrying. Hopefully we never find out if we do or not. Hmmm, not sure I agree here. I understand what your saying but if we're playing the game the way you describe it (which I don't believe that we are btw) then we are living a dangerous game. I'm all for being able to shut up shop and see the game out but that, for me, is for the final periods of the game. For me, bar the plop game (where I have zero complaints with the approach), we simply run out of ideas far too soon. The hull game not so much, but certainly the Newcastle game (which now looks a bad result), we looked completely clueless. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
villa89 Posted September 19, 2014 Share Posted September 19, 2014 Has any other Villa manager divided fan opinion like Paul Lambert does? Houllier? Did anyone think he was good? Lambert: Pro's: Honest, not a tosser like most premier league managers, players seem to like him, seems to be loyal to Villa. Con's: Style of play, too much of a company man. In reality I think he's as good a manager as we are going to get given our current funding levels. Good news that he seems committed to Villa. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ArteSuave Posted September 19, 2014 Share Posted September 19, 2014 Hmmm, not sure I agree here. I understand what your saying but if we're playing the game the way you describe it (which I don't believe that we are btw) then we are living a dangerous game. I'm all for being able to shut up shop and see the game out but that, for me, is for the final periods of the game. For me, bar the plop game (where I have zero complaints with the approach), we simply run out of ideas far too soon. The hull game not so much, but certainly the Newcastle game (which now looks a bad result), we looked completely clueless. It's not that I think we could have had loads of shots on target but our approach was specifically designed to have few attacks. We'd have had relatively few whether we were winning or losing, it's just that the stats have been skewed even further by the fact we've spent more time in the lead than not this season. I agree that the Newcastle game we didn't have enough attacking creativity but we are missing Kozak and Benteke. I'm sure most teams look crap going forward without their two best strikers. We're also still lacking a number ten (at least one that can accumulate enough fitness to play) in those kinds of games. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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