Paul Lambert

[dudevillaisnice]

Ah well, we go again next December.

[Jimzk5]

I really want to ask him why he persists in playing a formation that doesn't suit us & definitely doesn't use the strengths of the players we have.

Because he's limited tactically and it's one of the main reasons why he's such a woeful football manager

It is clear to all and sundry that what were doing simply isn't working but instead of making changes he refuses to and "we go again" every weekend with the same old underperforming players

I doubt other teams even bother scouting us

Why would other teams bother scouting us. Every game we play the same formation and its not one that even suits us. He spent the last half of last season complaining that we needed a no 10, bizarrely he thought the answer was to sign an old relic with serious injury issues and to sign 2 more holding midfielders. If £Million was on the table to sign cleverley surely it would have been better spent on a proper attacking midfielder.

[VillanousOne]

I don't think there is anything new to this.

 

Lambert arrived realising we had no creativity or width in midfield.
 

His answer was bypass the midfield altogether and make Weimann and Gabby into the creators aswell as the scorers.

 

So the game plan was to hoof it to Benteke to hold up and release one of those, or get it to them on the break.

 

Teams got wise to that and neither Weimann or Gabby get the freedom to be affective anymore, or have the ability to sustain that.

 

Therefore as soon as the ball is played through the midfield, especially the centre - no-one has any idea what they are doing with it. Benteke has been dropping deeper and deeper to get the ball and there is no movement anywhere to make the tiny bit of possession count.

 

Now we all thought Cleverly, Sanchez and Richardson could add steel and composure to our midfield and Grealish, Zog and Cole would add some creativity. For some reason that has not happened and that for me smacks of poor management as these players on paper are good enough.

[foreveryoung]

if we are bottom 3 by christmas with the relatively easy run coming I will be shocked if he still has support from the few remaining fans, surely then Lerner will have no choice.

[Mantis]

I don't think it's support from a few fans that is stopping Lerner from sacking him.

[Dodgyknees]

if we are bottom 3 by christmas with the relatively easy run coming I will be shocked if he still has support from the few remaining fans, surely then Lerner will have no choice.

 

I think he'd still be supported if we went down.

[Jimzk5]

Of course it isn't the minority that still want him here that's keeping him in the job.. Whats keeping him here I the fact he's doing what Lerner wants. Keep us up without spending much money.

Edited November 9, 2014 by Jimzk5

[romavillan]

if we are bottom 3 by christmas with the relatively easy run coming I will be shocked if he still has support from the few remaining fans, surely then Lerner will have no choice.

 

I'm one of the few remaining who don't think we should give him the boot at this point. Even after the last 7 games.

If we don't get a few wins on the run we have coming up then I'll be very surprised. Southampton are flying so I doubt we're favourites there, then there's 4 or 5 games where if we can reproduce our form from the first 4 games we should get a lot of points.

 

If we average around or less than a point a game through that run (barring more injuries) then I'll start thinking we get someone else in who can do something in the Jan window. I'm confident we will get on a good run though and if we don't I really won't be looking forward to seeing the results of our manager search unless Lerner announces either new investment or new ownership. 

[CrackpotForeigner]

Of course it isn't the minority that still want him here that's keeping him in the job.. Whats keeping him here I the fact he's doing what Lerner wants. Keep us up without spending much money.

 

That's why the minority that still want him here still want him here. None of us is his boyfriend, or even his cousin. It's purely about the devil you know vs the devil you don't.

 

I doubt a single one of us thinks the results are "acceptable" (a silly choice of word, it's up to RL to decide what to accept and what not to, unfortunately) or the football exciting. It's grim. About as grim as you'd expect from the team that finished 15th and then spent the 19th most cash in the transfer window.

[DCJonah]

It's purely about the devil you know vs the devil you don't.

I'd rather risk relegation with a different approach than risk relegation watching the same awful football I've been watching for 2 and a half years.

It's purely about the devil you know vs the devil you don't.

I'd rather risk relegation with a different approach than risk relegation watching the same awful football I've been watching for 2 and a half years.

[markavfc40]

 

Of course it isn't the minority that still want him here that's keeping him in the job.. Whats keeping him here I the fact he's doing what Lerner wants. Keep us up without spending much money.

 

That's why the minority that still want him here still want him here. None of us is his boyfriend, or even his cousin. It's purely about the devil you know vs the devil you don't.

 

 

 

I can't agree with this. Its like throwing a dice. We have thrown a 2. Now do we throw again and maybe land a 3, 4 ,5 or 6 or do we stick with the 2 as we see throwing a 1 as a huge risk.

As much as it pains me to say it, and it really does as I like Lambert and desperately wanted him here, but we are no further forward than we were under McLeish. The football is just as dire, we still struggle to retain possession, still clueless when in possession, still struggle to create chances and still struggle to convert chances when they do come. If anything under Lambert we have though been worse defensively.

Not even Mourinho given our finances could get us back into the top 6 but with this squad then I believe it is possible to get us to keep the ball better, get us creating chances, get us to have a spine and a bit of backbone that means going a goal down doesn't 99% of the time result in defeat. Most importantly though get us playing football and instill a strength of character that will keep us out of yet another relegation battle.

The attitude that things may be worse under someone else would have resulted in McLeish keeping his job. I don't see why now 2 and a half years down the line and zero improvement in results or performances means that we suddenly become adverse to striving for something better at the risk of things getting worse as quite frankly, as was the case 2 and half years ago, it don't get much worse than this.

Edited November 9, 2014 by markavfc40

[foreveryoung]

 

Of course it isn't the minority that still want him here that's keeping him in the job.. Whats keeping him here I the fact he's doing what Lerner wants. Keep us up without spending much money.

 

That's why the minority that still want him here still want him here. None of us is his boyfriend, or even his cousin. It's purely about the devil you know vs the devil you don't.

 

I doubt a single one of us thinks the results are "acceptable" (a silly choice of word, it's up to RL to decide what to accept and what not to, unfortunately) or the football exciting. It's grim. About as grim as you'd expect from the team that finished 15th and then spent the 19th most cash in the transfer window.

 

You seem to blame the team, like there is no quality here and Lambert is doing the best he can??? As I am repeatly saying on this forum, its consistancy not quality which is the biggest issue and this comes down to poor coaching and management. This team have beat all the top 4 and then lost to bottom of the league, or give out of form teams the win. Losing to lower league teams in the cup can only but give you the insight to Lamberts managerial ability. No fight, no desire and zero tactical ability!!!!

[Bunnski]

The players are still playing for him and we have played good in the last 3 games and are unlucky not to picked up more than a point in them 3 games.  I'm happy to give him til Xmas and see how things pan out when we have a slightly less forgiving set of fixtures.

[dudevillaisnice]

The players are still playing for him and we have played good in the last 3 games and are unlucky not to picked up more than a point in them 3 games.  I'm happy to give him til Xmas and see how things pan out when we have a slightly less forgiving set of fixtures.

 

Do you honestly think we deserved to win against West Ham? Not me.

[Bunnski]

I honestly believe we deserved a point vs West Ham due to how hard we battled and we defended well, I believe we deserved at least a point vs Spurs and most likely would of won if Benteke stayed on and I think we were unlucky to lose to Qpr as they basically took their only chance of the first half and we gifted them the second.

[DCJonah]

The attitude that things may be worse under someone else would have resulted in McLeish keeping his job. I don't see why now 2 and a half years down the line and zero improvement in results or performances means that we suddenly become adverse to striving for something better at the risk of things getting worse as quite frankly, as was the case 2 and half years ago, it don't get much worse than this.

Couldn't agree with this paragraph more. Is it just apathy? Is it the club being up for sale? We demanded better under McLeish I think we should demand the same now.

[AshVilla]

The players are still playing for him and we have played good in the last 3 games and are unlucky not to picked up more than a point in them 3 games.  I'm happy to give him til Xmas and see how things pan out when we have a slightly less forgiving set of fixtures.

 

Do you also think Barry Bannan is a champions league player by any chance?

[Dodgyknees]

QPR/Spurs scored goals, we didn't score enough.

We defended like shit.

We showed no urgency.

We offered little - apart from in 5/6 minute spells.

We invited pressure.

 

That is not 'unlucky', that is standard.

[foreveryoung]

I honestly believe we deserved a point vs West Ham due to how hard we battled and we defended well, I believe we deserved at least a point vs Spurs and most likely would of won if Benteke stayed on and I think we were unlucky to lose to Qpr as they basically took their only chance of the first half and we gifted them the second.

You could say this for every game we play. Maybe then we deserved a point in the Chelsea game. Your not making any sense in your defence of Lambert

Edited November 9, 2014 by foreveryoung

[HanoiVillan]

 

if we are bottom 3 by christmas with the relatively easy run coming I will be shocked if he still has support from the few remaining fans, surely then Lerner will have no choice.

 

I'm one of the few remaining who don't think we should give him the boot at this point. Even after the last 7 games.

If we don't get a few wins on the run we have coming up then I'll be very surprised. Southampton are flying so I doubt we're favourites there, then there's 4 or 5 games where if we can reproduce our form from the first 4 games we should get a lot of points.

 

If we average around or less than a point a game through that run (barring more injuries) then I'll start thinking we get someone else in who can do something in the Jan window. I'm confident we will get on a good run though and if we don't I really won't be looking forward to seeing the results of our manager search unless Lerner announces either new investment or new ownership. 

 

 

To be fair, if we're averaging a point or less than that through a run of games including Burnley, Leicester and Crystal Palace then we'll pretty much mathematically be bottom of the table, so I think things would be spiraling out of control at that point.