How Come Lambert ...

[AVFCforever1991]

The positive for me is when we do score ,now we will be able to hold onto the ball which should eliminate the back to the walls sieges we have endured for years

I only remember this under he who shall not be named :?

[ozvillafan]

The positive for me is when we do score ,now we will be able to hold onto the ball which should eliminate the back to the walls sieges we have endured for years

I only remember this under he who shall not be named :?

MON was just as guilty. His only ever substitution was Sidwell for Petrov and the team would always fade in the last 20 minutes.

[AVFCforever1991]

MON was just as guilty. His only ever substitution was Sidwell for Petrov and the team would always fade in the last 20 minutes.

True, Apart from This

[beasley14]

Trying to get us passing the ball and moving better is being pragmatic. It's the way the game is played at the top level nowadays. People need to accept this. Kick and rush is dead.

Well, if you look at the results on Saturday & Sunday, some of the best results were achieved by superb counterattacking play based on soaking up pressure coupled with pace of attack, so if that's what you mean by "Kick and rush", I think you need to think again. As I keep trying to point out, Wigan, who are crap and fight relegation every season, play a passing game and often dominate the possession so I suggest there is no guaranteed link between this style of football and success.

That's one weeks results. Wait until the end of any season and see which teams end up at the top. Usually ones who are very good at keeping the ball.

[SikhInTrinity]

I think we can also be a very good counter-attacking side, the problem with West Ham, is they park 2 buses then it's hard and you need width.

[StanBalaban]

A better end to the thread title , in terms of giving people something to think about, would be "joined our club"

Pay rise ?

Lambert at Norwich took a team and got successive promotions into the Premier League and managed to keep them in there - the guy's stock was obviously high in the summer. If he was just looking for a pay rise I'm sure a whole host of teams would've been happy to offer it.

Even if teams weren't actively recruiting over the summer, we all know what the managerial merry go round is like, so I think it's fair to assume that his salary wasn't the only consideration in joining Aston Villa.

I believe the signs would point to controlling an overhaul of the club and

building a team capable of European football over the next couple of years.

A new playing style is part of that, along with a (no doubt highly paid), highly prominent European head scout and a promise of financial backing to match his ambitions.

Without that, he'd be better spent staying at Norwich, where the expectation would be lower and another team would come knocking with an open cheque book pretty soon.

If Lambert isn't going to get money to build his new team over a time frame

that was suitable enough to accept the job, why else would he join the

Villa?

(that's not a rhetorical question btw, why would PL join our club if he's not getting money to spend?)

[avfc1982]

Both sets of Fans, are the most fickle in the PL

I'm 100% sure Lambert will succeed here, No worries at all!!

Oh give over. All football fans are fickle. Villa and Liverpool are no different to fans at any other club in the country.

[AVFCforever1991]

Both sets of Fans, are the most fickle in the PL

I'm 100% sure Lambert will succeed here, No worries at all!!

Oh give over. All football fans are fickle. Villa and Liverpool are no different to fans at any other club in the country.

I agree, but I still maintain some fans are more fickle than others.

[Mantis]

The positive for me is when we do score ,now we will be able to hold onto the ball which should eliminate the back to the walls sieges we have endured for years

I only remember this under he who shall not be named :?

MON was just as guilty. His only ever substitution was Sidwell for Petrov and the team would always fade in the last 20 minutes.

Agreed. Always used to happen under MON, we were just more effective at keeping the opposition out.

Will be a very strange feeling to see us close out a win calmly.

[KHV]

Trying to get us passing the ball and moving better is being pragmatic. It's the way the game is played at the top level nowadays. People need to accept this. Kick and rush is dead.

did mot see much nice passing and keep ball from everton tonight. they were physical and very direct and might i add excellent. direct football isnt totally dead. chelsea also won the champions league with direct smash and grab football by hitting drogba and playing off him.

[itdoesntmatterwhatthissay]

Lacked width and an attempt at taking a man on, that was mostly it.

Plus N'Zog spent too much time drawing players in and letting Wet Spam get back.

Work in progress, plus we changed tactic in the second half and had a better balance.

[Mantis]

Trying to get us passing the ball and moving better is being pragmatic. It's the way the game is played at the top level nowadays. People need to accept this. Kick and rush is dead.

did mot see much nice passing and keep ball from everton tonight. they were physical and very direct and might i add excellent. direct football isnt totally dead. chelsea also won the champions league with direct smash and grab football by hitting drogba and playing off him.

Why do people always use individual results to prove a point? Anyway, Everton may have been direct tonight but they are much better on the ball than we are, which is my whole point.

[briny_ear]

Why do people always use individual results to prove a point?

Puzzling, isn't it? I think it has something to do with a word called "evidence". Doubt if it will catch on here. :winkold:

[AVFC-Prideofbrum]

I'm not sure if it's been pointed out but Norwich didn't play passing football last year? Doesn't seem right to me? Maybe not every game of the season did they pass the ball very well as theyd vary the way the played throughout the season with either 5 in midfield, a normal flat 4 or a diamond so different players, different formations are going to change the way and help/or not help the way the ball is kept.

They may have been more direct in the way they attacked than what we saw vs West Ham which also is probably down to the personal but on plenty occasions last year they had the better of the ball, even against Man United they registered 52% possession and probably more impressively they amassed 53% away at Swansea which was more than what Man City, Man United and Arsenal achieved so I imagine they'd have had to move the ball around very well in that game in order to have such a high possession stat given the opposition.

For a team like us, there isn't really a right and wrong way of playing. Everton mix it up all the time, some games they move the ball around very well and play really nice football and other games, they are horrible, nasty, aggressive and in your face. You could argue we were the same in later years under O'Neill, although maybe more counter attacking than 'aggressive'. Newcastle passed the ball well but were very direct in getting the ball into their forwards feet and playing off them, they didn't waste their time moving the ball regularly around the back. I do think Lambert's approach will be highly beneficial to us and also successful in the future. Pressing high was always my biggest gripe last year, we didn't do it anywhere near enough and allowed ourselves to be dominated and penned back in games. Thankfully that does seem to be changing and keeping the ball will be important, right now we are lacking a cutting edge and end product to our game but the basic principle of keeping the ball, moving and making angles will stand us in a good position in the future and hopefully add more dimension to our play.

I think doing what we are doing right now is the hardest part of the game, getting players to press high up the pitch and work as a team within that as well then being able to keep hold of the ball, certainly far more difficult than organizing a side to sit back and hit on the break or even move the ball wide quickly and delivering cross after cross. Maybe at this moment in time we could play in a way that suits our players more although given our lack of success recently and players at our disposal, we're not exactly blessed with many options. I'm really confident though that we'll be successful under Lambert, the players are still developing as a team and ideas that may take longer than others given the level of intelligence required as a Unit and the amount of changes we've seen to the squad over recent times but everything we do will be for a purpose and 9 months down the line, I think we'll all appreciate the ideas and what we've been working on in the early parts of this season.

Keep positive.

[TracksuitManager]

Surely anyone who saw Swansea come and turn us over at VP last season can appreciate the value of retaining possession? They were brilliant, and i'd say most people couldn't have named their starting 11 til they got promoted, let alone suggest they'd be able to play in a fluid attacking side capable of beating Man City.

It's all about being comfortable in a system, give the manager a chance to put a system in place, and the players more than one game to learn it, and get the best out of themselves in it.

[Pilchard]

Surely anyone who saw Swansea come and turn us over at VP last season can appreciate the value of retaining possession? They were brilliant, and i'd say most people couldn't have named their starting 11 til they got promoted, let alone suggest they'd be able to play in a fluid attacking side capable of beating Man City.

Definately. But on the other side of the coin you need the players that are comfortable playing that system. What players you have - especially when you are not backed by your board to buy players - should dictate the system not the other way around. People like Delph, Dunne and N'Zogbia can't pass a ball and Bent can't play up front on his own....

and the players more than one game to learn it

Isn't this what pre-season is for?

[onje_villa]

MON was just as guilty. His only ever substitution was Sidwell for Petrov and the team would always fade in the last 20 minutes.

True, Apart from This

Best moment of the last few years?

This is similarly class:

Back on point, under McLeish and O'Neill it was always backs to the wall, retreating into out own 6-yard box, sometimes still in the first half!

Difference was, under O'Neill at least we were normally winning! McLeish would do it 1-0 down...

[TracksuitManager]

Surely anyone who saw Swansea come and turn us over at VP last season can appreciate the value of retaining possession? They were brilliant, and i'd say most people couldn't have named their starting 11 til they got promoted, let alone suggest they'd be able to play in a fluid attacking side capable of beating Man City.

Definately. But on the other side of the coin you need the players that are comfortable playing that system. What players you have - especially when you are not backed by your board to buy players - should dictate the system not the other way around. People like Delph, Dunne and N'Zogbia can't pass a ball and Bent can't play up front on his own....

and the players more than one game to learn it

Isn't this what pre-season is for?

I disagree on Delph, when fit I think he's a decent passer of the ball, against Man U a few years a go, he looked great in the centre of the park passing the ball, admittedly that was a while back, but injuries haven't helped him.

Dunne, can't play this system i agree, and N'Zogbia has been dreadful considering his price. Some players have to go, and these maybe some of them, some will come in, the team was never going to be built in one window, especially one with 10 days still to go...

For me pre season is about fitness primarily, there's only so much you can learn tactically in non-competitive games i think.

[El-Reacho]

Surely anyone who saw Swansea come and turn us over at VP last season can appreciate the value of retaining possession? They were brilliant, and i'd say most people couldn't have named their starting 11 til they got promoted, let alone suggest they'd be able to play in a fluid attacking side capable of beating Man City.

Definately. But on the other side of the coin you need the players that are comfortable playing that system. What players you have - especially when you are not backed by your board to buy players - should dictate the system not the other way around. People like Delph, Dunne and N'Zogbia can't pass a ball and Bent can't play up front on his own....

and the players more than one game to learn it

Isn't this what pre-season is for?

Those four players you mentioned would have got into that Swansea side no problem. That was a side that also had Luke Moore and Wayne Routledge in it IIRC?

It's about having a side that's been drilled with how to play a certain way. Rodgers had had that side for a couple of years before that match, and Swansea have played that type of football since before he arrived.

The coach has to make that way of playing fluent among the players and after last season it's completely alien to most of them. They're PL players - of course they're capable of keeping the ball, regardless of what 'type' of player they are.

There will however have to be a serious bullet biting period until we get there though, Lambert can't alter the mindset of the players in one pre-season.

[GarethRDR]

I'm not sure if it's been pointed out but Norwich didn't play passing football last year? Doesn't seem right to me? Maybe not every game of the season did they pass the ball very well as theyd vary the way the played throughout the season with either 5 in midfield, a normal flat 4 or a diamond so different players, different formations are going to change the way and help/or not help the way the ball is kept.

They may have been more direct in the way they attacked than what we saw vs West Ham which also is probably down to the personal but on plenty occasions last year they had the better of the ball, even against Man United they registered 52% possession and probably more impressively they amassed 53% away at Swansea which was more than what Man City, Man United and Arsenal achieved so I imagine they'd have had to move the ball around very well in that game in order to have such a high possession stat given the opposition.

For a team like us, there isn't really a right and wrong way of playing. Everton mix it up all the time, some games they move the ball around very well and play really nice football and other games, they are horrible, nasty, aggressive and in your face. You could argue we were the same in later years under O'Neill, although maybe more counter attacking than 'aggressive'. Newcastle passed the ball well but were very direct in getting the ball into their forwards feet and playing off them, they didn't waste their time moving the ball regularly around the back. I do think Lambert's approach will be highly beneficial to us and also successful in the future. Pressing high was always my biggest gripe last year, we didn't do it anywhere near enough and allowed ourselves to be dominated and penned back in games. Thankfully that does seem to be changing and keeping the ball will be important, right now we are lacking a cutting edge and end product to our game but the basic principle of keeping the ball, moving and making angles will stand us in a good position in the future and hopefully add more dimension to our play.

I think doing what we are doing right now is the hardest part of the game, getting players to press high up the pitch and work as a team within that as well then being able to keep hold of the ball, certainly far more difficult than organizing a side to sit back and hit on the break or even move the ball wide quickly and delivering cross after cross. Maybe at this moment in time we could play in a way that suits our players more although given our lack of success recently and players at our disposal, we're not exactly blessed with many options. I'm really confident though that we'll be successful under Lambert, the players are still developing as a team and ideas that may take longer than others given the level of intelligence required as a Unit and the amount of changes we've seen to the squad over recent times but everything we do will be for a purpose and 9 months down the line, I think we'll all appreciate the ideas and what we've been working on in the early parts of this season.

Keep positive.

Damn it POB, that gave me a hard-on.