Manager Paul Lambert

[CrackpotForeigner]

 

Lambert enjoyed a huge amount of support last season, something he has commented on several times despite some really really low points. Not once did the crowd turn on him, not once did they turn on the team this despite the two previous seasons being largely horrific.

 

 

Yep. "Paul Lambert's Claret-and-Blue Army" was ringing out from the Holte even when we were 3-0 down to Wigan. Something that the Holte should be proud of, and something that will hopefully count in our favour when other job offers come in for Lambert.

[Richard]

Another nice post Trent lots to read between the lines there

[briny_ear]

LOVED that post Trent.

We know that with Lambert at the helm we will never be bored at least!

Incidentally, I have a feeling we may have or first positive goal difference in the league since our 3-1 opening win against the Hammers under K-Mac 3 years ago. Am I correct?

Not entirely. 

 

We won 3-0 against West Ham under K-Mac, not 3-1. But we went into deficit the next match and didn't emerge from that all season.

 

In 2011-12, we had a positive goal difference until the 1st October. Then we went negative with a 4-1 defeat to Man C and never saw the sunny side again.

 

I think it is certainly true that this is the first time we have had a positive goal difference under Paul Lambert, so that is surely a moment to savour.

[briny_ear]

 

 

Trent's post is pretty good but I can't like it as I just don't agree with the last paragraph start. I am convinced lambert is the best manager we have had in 30 years

 

He isn't.

 

And I can see how people would think that,  he hasn't won anything,  hasn't been here long enough,  not finished as high in the league as some of the others, etc etc etc.

 

And it is just my opinion,  but I have never felt this positive or that there was just something about the quality of the man as I did with any of

 

Barton

Turner

Mcneill

Taylor

Venglos

Atkinson

Little

Gregory

Talyor

Oleary

Aitken

Oneill

Macdonald

Houllier

Mcallister

Mcleish

 

Crikey, Richard, if you didn't feel positive and excited in the early times of GT Mk1, Atkinson, Little and Gregory, I feel a bit sorry for you. You have missed out on some of the best times to be a Villa fan over the past 30 years. 

 

Obviously, as your list shows, there are lots of bad times to look back on; and Atkinson, Little and Gregory didn't really deliver as much as they promised in their early days.

 

But even so, if support for Lambert as a manager now requires the complete rewriting of our recent history, count me out until he has actually achieved something- better than a 15th place and abject surrender to two weaker sides in both domestic cups.

[Richard]

 

 

 

Trent's post is pretty good but I can't like it as I just don't agree with the last paragraph start. I am convinced lambert is the best manager we have had in 30 years

 

He isn't.

 

And I can see how people would think that,  he hasn't won anything,  hasn't been here long enough,  not finished as high in the league as some of the others, etc etc etc.

 

And it is just my opinion,  but I have never felt this positive or that there was just something about the quality of the man as I did with any of

 

Barton

Turner

Mcneill

Taylor

Venglos

Atkinson

Little

Gregory

Talyor

Oleary

Aitken

Oneill

Macdonald

Houllier

Mcallister

Mcleish

 

Crikey, Richard, if you didn't feel positive and excited in the early times of GT Mk1, Atkinson, Little and Gregory, I feel a bit sorry for you. You have missed out on some of the best times to be a Villa fan over the past 30 years. 

 

Obviously, as your list shows, there are lots of bad times to look back on; and Atkinson, Little and Gregory didn't really deliver as much as they promised in their early days.

 

But even so, if support for Lambert as a manager now requires the complete rewriting of our recent history, count me out until he has actually achieved something- better than a 15th place and abject surrender to two weaker sides in both domestic cups.

 

Not sure you have understood what I was saying there briny,  or if you've read my post correctly.  It may also be me not emphasising things properly.

 

Not saying I wasn't positive under those times,  I was.

Not saying we have to rewrite history either,  we dont.

 

Just saying that in my opinion he is the best one we have had since my mate Ron.

 

Also saying I am more positive about him than I have been about the rest,  doesn't mean I was not positive about some of the others.

[villa-revolution]

 

While savouring yesterdays win and enjoying the highlights one more time than was really necessary I couldn't help but think back to a game a couple of years ago when Norwich went to the Emirates. 

 

It was May 5th 2012, Norwich went to the Emirates and Lambert at the time said they were going there without fear and with a desire to take the game to Arsenal on their own patch. His team did exactly what he said they would, they gave it damn good go and went at Arsenal without fear and without too much respect which is so often what teams do when they go away to the Sky 4.

 

It was a belting match with Norwich coming away with a point in a thrilling 3-3 draw, the following day, we took on Spurs at home on what many fans labelled "McLeish out day".

 

We started that match with 6 defenders in the starting line up and Herd and Heskey up front on his own as we attempted to bore Spurs into submission. We got a fluke goal and then spent the rest of the game trying to cling on for dear life against an opposition with 10 men as we clinched our 17th draw of a simply horrific season.

 

I remember at the time being envious of Norwich for having a manager with some balls, with the bravery to take a game to the opposition and not to simply try and nullify the opposition. Both sides got a point that weekend against similar strength opposition, only one did it in a way both they and their fans could be proud the other, well the other was simply shameful.

 

I was reminded of this on Friday when I saw Lambert's press conference and almost word for word he repeated the things he said back in 2012. Low and behold we went there on Saturday without fear, not trying to nullify the opposition and not simply trying to survive we took it to them and we got more than we could have ever expected.

 

So while peoples complaints about his sides questionable defensive qualities have some legitimacy I for one am not about to start grumbling too much. Yes we could be better defensively, I actually think we will improve in this regard but even if we don't I personally would take his approach over the gut wrenching awful alternative we had just 15 months ago.

 

And that is another really important factor, it is just 15 months ago that we were playing at home with 6 defenders in our team and we still couldn't keep a clean sheet against 10 men Spurs. Now we have a front three of Beneke, Weimann and Gabby and we are willing to try and go toe to toe with anyone on our patch or there's.

 

I will take that every time and that is just one of a number of reasons why I'm so firmly behind Lambert and what he is trying to do, in difficult circumstances and seemingly with very limited financial backing.

 

Lambert has balls, he makes tough decisions and he makes brave decisions for the good of the club in the long term no matter how much harder it makes his life in the short term.

 

There is so much to be admired about him and his approach, about both his approach to the job and to games like yesterday that I can live with us letting in a few too many goals along the way.

 

Is he the best manager we've had in 30 years? No probably not, certainly not yet but he could well go on to be. Regardless of if he does or not I'm just delighted we've got him, that we are actually having a go again and that days like 6th May 2012 seem like a life time ago not just 15 months.

 

 

Excellent post. One of the best I've read on here. There will be ups and downs and I do agree the defence could be better as well but the one thing Lambert's teams do is have a go at the opposition and he doesn't believe in boring the backside off of supporters in order to try and get a 0-0 draw.

 

The more time he has to turn the club around, the better it will get.

 

He is now in a much stronger position off the field. His own fitness guys are at the club, Petrov is now in the youth department and Scott Marshall has also joined his first-team staff so the guys he has worked with before know how he likes to do things.

 

Also, the players who didn't pull their weight are no longer involved. It's terribly tough taking over at a club where at lot of the highly paid players don't give a toss and when you try and get more out of them you face resistance. And when results go wrong it makes it even tougher! In fairness, I think the supporters deserve great credit for sticking by him when I think a lot of other fans at various clubs would have chased the manager out.

 

This year Lambert has complete control, he has his own people in the key positions and he now has a group of players he can trust to, if nothing else, give 100 per cent both in training and in games.

 

The team will do better this season and remember he has had less than £10m to spend - teams like Cardiff, Norwich City ect have spent more than than on two players. Southampton have been buying individual players for more than that.

 

So it is all moving along in the right direction!!!

 

 

Take note - When HH posts on VT the world & his dog sit up & take note in awe & recognition.

 

HH has spoken. In PL & HH we trust.

 

So be it.

[Risso]

 

 

Trent's post is pretty good but I can't like it as I just don't agree with the last paragraph start. I am convinced lambert is the best manager we have had in 30 years

 

He isn't.

 

And I can see how people would think that,  he hasn't won anything,  hasn't been here long enough,  not finished as high in the league as some of the others, etc etc etc.

 

And it is just my opinion,  but I have never felt this positive or that there was just something about the quality of the man as I did with any of

 

Barton

Turner

Mcneill

Taylor

Venglos

Atkinson

Little

Gregory

Talyor

Oleary

Aitken

Oneill

Macdonald

Houllier

Mcallister

Mcleish

 

 

Well, if he's your favourite manager out of that list, then nobody can argue with that.  Pretty hard to say he's the greatest though.  Hopefully his future with Villa will mark him out as such.

[Nigel]

It has a lot to do with age as to how good you rate a manager IMO!

 

If we had the ghosts of Paisley and Clough managing us, with Ferguson as their number 2, I wouldnt have the confidence I had in Ron Atkinson back in the day.

 

I honestly thought we were the best team in the world!

Edited August 19, 2013 by Nigel

[Stevo985]

 

Great win and a good way to start the season BUT I thought we passed the ball backwards too much and I thought our passing in general was crap.After saying that though I am not going to get on PL back, Let`s see how we play and our results after 5 games. 

 

It's called keeping possession of the ball, which we did well. No panicking, no hoofing it, if there is nothing on go back and start again, look for another pass, keep hold of the ball. Considering Tony Moon for example had 94% pass completion I think your crap passing statement is way off. We passed the ball out of danger calmly and knocked it about very well.

 

It's something we've never done very well

 

And actually, watching the last few minutes against Arsenal I was shitting myself when we were just a goal up because obviously we'd usually throw that away.

But then with about 5 minutes to go, someone got the ball, I think it was Weimann on the edge of the box. I expected it to get hoofed towards the Arsenal end for us to set up against another onslaught.

 

But it didn't. He passed it to Luna, who passed it inside, a couple of little triangles later and we had possession in their half.

 

A weird wave of calm flowed over me and I thought "We're gonna win this"

[Ghost]

 

Great win and a good way to start the season BUT I thought we passed the ball backwards too much and I thought our passing in general was crap.After saying that though I am not going to get on PL back, Let`s see how we play and our results after 5 games. 

 

It's called keeping possession of the ball, which we did well. No panicking, no hoofing it, if there is nothing on go back and start again, look for another pass, keep hold of the ball. Considering Tony Moon for example had 94% pass completion I think your crap passing statement is way off. We passed the ball out of danger calmly and knocked it about very well.

 

Don't want to nit pick too much mate, but we did not keep possession well. We had 36% possession for the game at a passing accuracy of 70%.

What we did well though, is use what little possession we had, incredibly well. Quick, direct counters through the heart of their defence. We put away our chances, and Arsenal didn't.

The counter-attacking game plan is what Lambert set out to do against Arsenal and it worked a treat.

Against lesser opposition, we may play a possession based game, but it didn't happen against Arsenal.

[Rovers13]

Trent's post is pretty good but I can't like it as I just don't agree with the last paragraph start. I am convinced lambert is the best manager we have had in 30 years

He isn't.

I don't get how this can conclusively be said. Its not like Villa has been he's only job, he's succeeded everywhere he's been so far, and done it in a way that also helps the clubs long term. He's brought that to Villa. He may not turn out to be the best one, but there's also a chance he could be.

[samjp26]

 

 

Trent's post is pretty good but I can't like it as I just don't agree with the last paragraph start. I am convinced lambert is the best manager we have had in 30 years

He isn't.

I don't get how this can conclusively be said. Its not like Villa has been he's only job, he's succeeded everywhere he's been so far, and done it in a way that also helps the clubs long term. He's brought that to Villa. He may not turn out to be the best one, but there's also a chance he could be.

 

 

Very good point to be fair, Norwich were lucky/clever to replace him with a manager that was what I believe to be Blues only chance of fighting to get back to the top of the Championship. Funny that before joining Norwich, Lambert actually beat them 7-1 with Colchester.

 

Two manager of the year awards which were won alongside two successive promotions, a Capital One Cup semi-final in his first season with us, not to mention keeping us up with a very young squad whilst trying to overhaul our wage structure.

 

I think he has a bright future ahead of him and in turn a bright future awaits our club. I'm not going to come out and say he is our best manager ever, but I certainly have faith in him and I wouldn't choose anybody else ahead of him to manage our team.

[sne]

 

 

 

Trent's post is pretty good but I can't like it as I just don't agree with the last paragraph start. I am convinced lambert is the best manager we have had in 30 years

He isn't.

I don't get how this can conclusively be said. Its not like Villa has been he's only job, he's succeeded everywhere he's been so far, and done it in a way that also helps the clubs long term. He's brought that to Villa. He may not turn out to be the best one, but there's also a chance he could be.

 

 

Very good point to be fair, Norwich were lucky/clever to replace him with a manager that was what I believe to be Blues only chance of fighting to get back to the top of the Championship. Funny that before joining Norwich, Lambert actually beat them 7-1 with Colchester.

 

Two manager of the year awards which were won alongside two successive promotions, a Capital One Cup semi-final in his first season with us, not to mention keeping us up with a very young squad whilst trying to overhaul our wage structure.

 

I think he has a bright future ahead of him and in turn a bright future awaits our club. I'm not going to come out and say he is our best manager ever, but I certainly have faith in him and I wouldn't choose anybody else ahead of him to manage our team.

 

David O'Leary took Leeds to the Champions League semi finals before joining us but no one would claim he's the best Villa manager over the last 30 years

[StefanAVFC]

 

 

 

 

Trent's post is pretty good but I can't like it as I just don't agree with the last paragraph start. I am convinced lambert is the best manager we have had in 30 years

He isn't.

I don't get how this can conclusively be said. Its not like Villa has been he's only job, he's succeeded everywhere he's been so far, and done it in a way that also helps the clubs long term. He's brought that to Villa. He may not turn out to be the best one, but there's also a chance he could be.

 

 

Very good point to be fair, Norwich were lucky/clever to replace him with a manager that was what I believe to be Blues only chance of fighting to get back to the top of the Championship. Funny that before joining Norwich, Lambert actually beat them 7-1 with Colchester.

 

Two manager of the year awards which were won alongside two successive promotions, a Capital One Cup semi-final in his first season with us, not to mention keeping us up with a very young squad whilst trying to overhaul our wage structure.

 

I think he has a bright future ahead of him and in turn a bright future awaits our club. I'm not going to come out and say he is our best manager ever, but I certainly have faith in him and I wouldn't choose anybody else ahead of him to manage our team.

 

David O'Leary took Leeds to the Champions League semi finals before joining us but no one would claim he's the best Villa manager over the last 30 years

 

 

So you're implying O'Leary and Lambert have done similar jobs for Villa currently? Cause that's how it reads.

[sne]

 

 

 

 

 

Trent's post is pretty good but I can't like it as I just don't agree with the last paragraph start. I am convinced lambert is the best manager we have had in 30 years

He isn't.

I don't get how this can conclusively be said. Its not like Villa has been he's only job, he's succeeded everywhere he's been so far, and done it in a way that also helps the clubs long term. He's brought that to Villa. He may not turn out to be the best one, but there's also a chance he could be.

 

 

Very good point to be fair, Norwich were lucky/clever to replace him with a manager that was what I believe to be Blues only chance of fighting to get back to the top of the Championship. Funny that before joining Norwich, Lambert actually beat them 7-1 with Colchester.

 

Two manager of the year awards which were won alongside two successive promotions, a Capital One Cup semi-final in his first season with us, not to mention keeping us up with a very young squad whilst trying to overhaul our wage structure.

 

I think he has a bright future ahead of him and in turn a bright future awaits our club. I'm not going to come out and say he is our best manager ever, but I certainly have faith in him and I wouldn't choose anybody else ahead of him to manage our team.

 

David O'Leary took Leeds to the Champions League semi finals before joining us but no one would claim he's the best Villa manager over the last 30 years

 

 

So you're implying O'Leary and Lambert have done similar jobs for Villa currently? Cause that's how it reads.

 

Does it really?

[StefanAVFC]

Lambert has combined his previous achievements while doing a good job here.

O'Leary did a good job at Leeds and a shocking job here.

 

The poster above wasn't purely saying that Lambert is a great manager based on his previous achievements but as a combination of the 2.

 

And to add to that, only one poster has said that he is the best manager we've had for 30 years, so your reply was inaccurately aimed at the wrong person.

 

Just seemed a completely pointless post tbh.

Edited August 19, 2013 by StefanAVFC

[sne]

Lambert has combined his previous achievements while doing a good job here.

O'Leary did a good job at Leeds and a shocking job here.

 

The poster above wasn't purely saying that Lambert is a great manager based on his previous achievements but as a combination of the 2.

 

And to add to that, only one poster has said that he is the best manager we've had for 30 years, so your reply was inaccurately aimed at the wrong person.

 

Just seemed a completely pointless post tbh.

If you say so

 

Cudos to Lambert for his work at Norwich, but leading us to a 15th place in the league and embarrasing exits in both cups doesn't make him a great coach for us, even thou we've been dire for parts of the last 30 years. 

I do think he has potential and with backing and luck he might become a very good manager for us.

[StefanAVFC]

 

Lambert has combined his previous achievements while doing a good job here.

O'Leary did a good job at Leeds and a shocking job here.

 

The poster above wasn't purely saying that Lambert is a great manager based on his previous achievements but as a combination of the 2.

 

And to add to that, only one poster has said that he is the best manager we've had for 30 years, so your reply was inaccurately aimed at the wrong person.

 

Just seemed a completely pointless post tbh.

If you say so

 

Cudos to Lambert for his work at Norwich, but leading us to a 15th place in the league and embarrasing exits in both cups doesn't make him a great coach for us, even thou we've been dire for parts of the last 30 years. 

 

 

Or you could look at last season with a bit of context and say that Lambert managed to get rid of the deadwood, while blooding potentially brilliant youngsters, making shrewd signings and yet managed to stay up and we're looking the healthiest, both financially and squad-wise going into a new season, that we've looked for years.

 

Or you could think that simplistically negative and think '15th place = bad season'

 

Your choice really.

Edited August 19, 2013 by StefanAVFC

[Risso]

O'Leary did a superb job in his first season.  It was only some poor refereeing decisions in the final game that stopped us qualifying for Europe, and we weren't far off the Champions League placings.

 

I should add at this point, that he was a pig-faced numpty and is my least favourite Villa manager ever.

Edited August 19, 2013 by Risso

[Condimentalist]

O'Leary did a superb job in his first season.  It was only some poor refereeing decisions in the final game that stopped us qualifying for Europe, and we weren't far off the Champions League placings.

 

I should add at this point, that he was a pig-faced numpty and is my least favourite Villa manager ever.

 

He may have been a pig-faced numpty, but he wasn't worse than McLeish.