Manager Paul Lambert

[bannedfromHandV]

 

 

 

So we've had one of the toughest starts in the division, have improved results in pretty much every match and with a raft of injuries to key players.

 

And yet so far as I can see the running theme on VT is negative, just goes to show that some peeps really aren't ever happy.

This is what I can't understand. For all intents and purposes we're doing better than we ever have done so far under Lambert and yet the mood on here is so negative.

 

 

Well, "better than we ever have" is coming after a largely dismal season last season, but for me the football so far this season has mostly been drab and unappealing, and despite the results is a big step backwards from the tail end of last season where the green shoots of recovery were to be seen in terms of style of play.  A lot of the new players have been underwhelming so far, the football is basic and dull to watch, and we're 11th in the league, so lots to do yet.   I think Lambert would have been better using his £43m over two season on a smaller number of higher quality players, as Southampton have done.  That extra bit of quality is seeing them destroying lesser teams at the moment.  They'll end up falling away of course, but even so for a newly promoted team they've shown an amazing amount of improvement in a short time.

 

 

Any Idea where you got the 43Million figure from? Second point you say we should have done what Soton had done, Soton had a spine and a squad of players they could rely on to do them a job. Ask yourself this, out of the squad that Lambert had, could you honestly say we had a player with the same quality as Lallana, Shaw, Lambert, Schneiderlin? Instead he had Hutton, Ireland, N'Zogbia and Bent. Look how many injuries we have had, could you imagine how many kids would be sitting on our bench?

 

 

This is what's called the bigger picture

 

 

 

 

So we've had one of the toughest starts in the division, have improved results in pretty much every match and with a raft of injuries to key players.

 

And yet so far as I can see the running theme on VT is negative, just goes to show that some peeps really aren't ever happy.

This is what I can't understand. For all intents and purposes we're doing better than we ever have done so far under Lambert and yet the mood on here is so negative.

 

 

Well, "better than we ever have" is coming after a largely dismal season last season, but for me the football so far this season has mostly been drab and unappealing, and despite the results is a big step backwards from the tail end of last season where the green shoots of recovery were to be seen in terms of style of play.  A lot of the new players have been underwhelming so far, the football is basic and dull to watch, and we're 11th in the league, so lots to do yet.   I think Lambert would have been better using his £43m over two season on a smaller number of higher quality players, as Southampton have done.  That extra bit of quality is seeing them destroying lesser teams at the moment.  They'll end up falling away of course, but even so for a newly promoted team they've shown an amazing amount of improvement in a short time.

 

Wouldn't we then be left in a situation where if we picked up injuries we would be replying on academy players to fill the gaps?

 

 

And unlike Southampton (or at least seemingly so) our academy players are not good enough to fill the void.

 

 

 

This is 6 of the expected and current top 7 (with the exception of Southampton whom I firmly believe despite their good start will not finish top 7), we are not really competing with these teams over the course of the season and if you expected to win any of these games then I'm sorry but you're deluded, 

 

 

Let's hope this doesn't reflect in any way Paul Lambert's team talks.

 

I'm feeling sort of puzzled that I can't rejoice more that we are doing better than last season's dreadful performance.

 

I wouldn't have expected anything less, but i guess I'm just deluded.

 

 

So you expect us to beat the top 6 or 7 sides?

[Keyblade]

Honestly couldn't care less about possession, even when we keep it half of the ground are screaming for Villa to move it quicker and cannot stand us keeping the ball and moving it around. Phil Thompson, on Sky mentioned that though Cardiff had the possession they done sod all with it.

Which would be correct. Kind of like how Spurs have one of the highest average possession stats in the league if not the highest, yet rarely do anything of note with it and have scored less goals than us (!), and lost to Newcastle without scoring having 65% of the possession. Passing in front of teams won't get you anywhere. We're more direct this year and it's yielding results so I'm not complaining too much. Even last year while playing better football we were still very much direct and incisive. It's like we want to have our cake and eat it too. How about we first sort out our defence and results before we move on to the luxury of an attractive style of play? Something that I have no doubt Lambert is working on.

[Risso]

 

 

 

 

Any Idea where you got the 43Million figure from? Second point you say we should have done what Soton had done, Soton had a spine and a squad of players they could rely on to do them a job. Ask yourself this, out of the squad that Lambert had, could you honestly say we had a player with the same quality as Lallana, Shaw, Lambert, Schneiderlin? Instead he had Hutton, Ireland, N'Zogbia and Bent. Look how many injuries we have had, could you imagine how many kids would be sitting on our bench?

 

 

The £43m is what the major sites have disclosed that Lambert has spent over the last two years, give or take a million quid.  Paul Faulkner and Robin Russell then confirmed this figure to the Villa Trust at their recent meeting, and confirmed that Lambert was free to spend the budget as he wanted.

[SikhInTrinity]

 

 

 

 

 

Any Idea where you got the 43Million figure from? Second point you say we should have done what Soton had done, Soton had a spine and a squad of players they could rely on to do them a job. Ask yourself this, out of the squad that Lambert had, could you honestly say we had a player with the same quality as Lallana, Shaw, Lambert, Schneiderlin? Instead he had Hutton, Ireland, N'Zogbia and Bent. Look how many injuries we have had, could you imagine how many kids would be sitting on our bench?

 

 

The £43m is what the major sites have disclosed that Lambert has spent over the last two years, give or take a million quid.  Paul Faulkner and Robin Russell then confirmed this figure to the Villa Trust at their recent meeting, and confirmed that Lambert was free to spend the budget as he wanted.

 

 

First you say the sites, then you say give or take a million, then you say PF and RR confirmed this figure? Okay then.

[Butterfingers]

ps-He spent £4.5 million on Kozac btw & what a good job we signed him with 2 of our regular front 3 unable to play on Saturday.

 

Link?

 

Here's one: http://www.villatalk.com/index.php/topic/9831-libor-kozák/page-19?hl=hairyhands

Ha ha, that's the most dubious link for authentification of a transfer fee posted on VT for at least 12 months.

 

Most sources say £7m. They must have got this figure from somewhere, maybe his agent, so the story on why it is wrong must surely include a little more than a link to a post by a self-appointed ITK?

Oh right-I've got you now.

If most sources say £7mil then they must be right because "they must have got the figure from somewhere"

You couldn't make it up

[Risso]

 

 

 

 

 

 

Any Idea where you got the 43Million figure from? Second point you say we should have done what Soton had done, Soton had a spine and a squad of players they could rely on to do them a job. Ask yourself this, out of the squad that Lambert had, could you honestly say we had a player with the same quality as Lallana, Shaw, Lambert, Schneiderlin? Instead he had Hutton, Ireland, N'Zogbia and Bent. Look how many injuries we have had, could you imagine how many kids would be sitting on our bench?

 

 

The £43m is what the major sites have disclosed that Lambert has spent over the last two years, give or take a million quid.  Paul Faulkner and Robin Russell then confirmed this figure to the Villa Trust at their recent meeting, and confirmed that Lambert was free to spend the budget as he wanted.

 

 

First you say the sites, then you say give or take a million, then you say PF and RR confirmed this figure? Okay then.

 

 

Paul Faulkner (Chief Executive) and Robin Russell (Chief Financial Officer) confirmed the figure spent over two years as £43m.  Last year's accounts confirm the amount spent last year as £21.7m.  Soccerbase says that we spent £19.7m this year.  So either £41.4m, or £43m.  Choose which one you want, the difference isn't a whole hill of beans.

[Butterfingers]

Swansea were booed off at half time yesterday-They've been pretty poor all season. Newcastle have spent a lot of money, pay big salaries & have some good players (loosing at home to them was not the catastrophe that the moaners on here make it out to be). They are still no more consistant than us & dish up some pretty dire stuff as well.

I sit near to some of these moaning morons-I hear some of the comments they come out with. It can be quite amusing at times but on other occasions, it winds me up & I feel like poking my fingers in their eyes. Watching Villa is a hobby/pastime for me, I enjoy going & enjoy meeting up with mates. I don't want it ruined by having to listen to some prat who has obviously never played football

Your original point was highlighted above and i see you've left out West Brom and excused Newcastle by spending more yet both teams are still playing better football than us. Swansea in their footballing philosophy are years ahead of us and have proven that so i'm not sure what your point is.

 

I see your now referring to Villa fans as 'moaning morons' and 'prat' for disagreeing with your opinion. Thats your prerogative but maybe those fans take their support of the team a little more seriously than a hobby/pastime?

I left out West Brom because I've no idea how they play although they've had some excellent results lately. I also said that Newcastle can dish up some dire stuff. I stand by my original statement-The way you & others go on, you'd think we were the leppers of free flowing football. I suppose you think KEA was subbed on Saturday for playing so many balls along the floor?

& as for Swansea being miles ahead of us, that is the most stupid comment of all. I doubt theres many, if any Swansea fans who wouldn't swap places with us given half a chance.

[Isa]

I take it there are no Southampton fans who would swap places with Chelsea then because they happen to be ahead of them in the table at this moment in time?

Edited November 11, 2013 by Isa

[Mantis]

I take it there are no Southampton fans who would swap places with Chelsea then because they happen to be ahead of them in the table at this moment in time?

So you're saying we're to Swansea what Southampton are to Chelsea?

[Zatman]

this thread is actually getting quite bizarre. actually most of on-topic is these days

[Isa]

I take it there are no Southampton fans who would swap places with Chelsea then because they happen to be ahead of them in the table at this moment in time?

So you're saying we're to Swansea what Southampton are to Chelsea?

No but that's basically the logic of the original argument. To say we are in a better position to Swansea is ridiculous and none of their fans would actually want to 'swap places' with us just because we are a couple of points ahead of them.

[Mantis]

 

 

I take it there are no Southampton fans who would swap places with Chelsea then because they happen to be ahead of them in the table at this moment in time?

So you're saying we're to Swansea what Southampton are to Chelsea?

No but that's basically the logic of the original argument. To say we are in a better position to Swansea is ridiculous and none of their fans would actually want to 'swap places' with us just because we are a couple of points ahead of them.

 

It's a pretty odd comparison though. Chelsea are miles ahead of Southampton but it's debatable whether Swansea are even ahead of us let alone miles ahead.

[Butterfingers]

I take it there are no Southampton fans who would swap places with Chelsea then because they happen to be ahead of them in the table at this moment in time?

So you're saying we're to Swansea what Southampton are to Chelsea?

No but that's basically the logic of the original argument. To say we are in a better position to Swansea is ridiculous and none of their fans would actually want to 'swap places' with us just because we are a couple of points ahead of them.

The logic of the argument has nothing to do with league placings, please point me to any part of my post that suggested it was.

Grow up sonny & stop trying to be clever-You only serve to make yourself look silly.

[Isa]

I take it there are no Southampton fans who would swap places with Chelsea then because they happen to be ahead of them in the table at this moment in time?

So you're saying we're to Swansea what Southampton are to Chelsea?

No but that's basically the logic of the original argument. To say we are in a better position to Swansea is ridiculous and none of their fans would actually want to 'swap places' with us just because we are a couple of points ahead of them.

It's a pretty odd comparison though. Chelsea are miles ahead of Southampton but it's debatable whether Swansea are even ahead of us let alone miles ahead.

Debatable in your mind maybe...

[briny_ear]

 

 

 

 

ps-He spent £4.5 million on Kozac btw & what a good job we signed him with 2 of our regular front 3 unable to play on Saturday.

 

Link?

 

 

Here's one: http://www.villatalk.com/index.php/topic/9831-libor-kozák/page-19?hl=hairyhands

 

Ha ha, that's the most dubious link for authentification of a transfer fee posted on VT for at least 12 months.

 

Most sources say £7m. They must have got this figure from somewhere, maybe his agent, so the story on why it is wrong must surely include a little more than a link to a post by a self-appointed ITK?

 

Oh right-I've got you now.

If most sources say £7mil then they must be right because "they must have got the figure from somewhere"

You couldn't make it up

 

I wonder if you realise how unintentionally funny your posts are?

 

If you're arguing that there is no basis for the £7m, then in fact it MUST have been made up, so the conclusion is you definitely COULD make it up! 

 

Can you stop being so aggressive and angry on this site please?

[LordSepulchrave]

What do you guys think is a "better" brand of football? It's not clear from this discussion.

 

Bare in mind, the counter attacking Dortmund is Lambert's biggest influence, so do you have a problem with that style on the whole, or just the way we are doing it at the moment? Should he drop the style and try to do something more possession based or does it just need refining?

[Butterfingers]

ps-He spent £4.5 million on Kozac btw & what a good job we signed him with 2 of our regular front 3 unable to play on Saturday.

 

Link?

 

Here's one: http://www.villatalk.com/index.php/topic/9831-libor-kozák/page-19?hl=hairyhands

Ha ha, that's the most dubious link for authentification of a transfer fee posted on VT for at least 12 months.

 

Most sources say £7m. They must have got this figure from somewhere, maybe his agent, so the story on why it is wrong must surely include a little more than a link to a post by a self-appointed ITK?

Oh right-I've got you now.

If most sources say £7mil then they must be right because "they must have got the figure from somewhere"

You couldn't make it up

I wonder if you realise how unintentionally funny your posts are?

 

If you're arguing that there is no basis for the £7m, then in fact it MUST have been made up, so the conclusion is you definitely COULD make it up! 

 

Can you stop being so aggressive and angry on this site please?

It's the irony that you couldn't make up.

You dismiss the most reliable ITK this board has ever seen in one post & then post heresay as credible info in the next

Now if you think my posts are funny then surely to God you can see the funny side to that?

I'm not angry btw-It takes more than a few cranks to get me angry these days

[Isa]

What do you guys think is a "better" brand of football? It's not clear from this discussion.

 

Bare in mind, the counter attacking Dortmund is Lambert's biggest influence, so do you have a problem with that style on the whole, or just the way we are doing it at the moment? Should he drop the style and try to do something more possession based or does it just need refining?

Dortmund don't resort to hoofball every five minutes. Dortmund can still create chances when their opponents have numbers behind the ball. Dortmund also do still average majority possession. Other then the fact that we both counter a lot, I struggle to see any other similarity between our football and theirs.

[Morpheus]

 

 

 

 

This is the way I see this season as having gone so far (in terms of results), being able to digest this will involve you having to remove the C&B tinted specs because whether we won the European Cup 30 years ago or not doesn't define us, where we are right now defines us:

 

We've taken 6 points in total off (in brackets results this season vs last):

 

Arsenal (a) (3-1 vs 1-2)

Chelsea (a) (1-2 vs 0-8)

Liverpool (h) (0-1 vs 1-2)

Manchester City (h) (3-2 vs 0-1)

Tottenham (h) (0-2 vs 0-4)

Everton (h) (0-2 vs 1-3)

 

This is 6 of the expected and current top 7 (with the exception of Southampton whom I firmly believe despite their good start will not finish top 7), we are not really competing with these teams over the course of the season and if you expected to win any of these games then I'm sorry but you're deluded, personally I would have taken draws at home to Spurs, Everton and Liverpool and we were fully in all three of those games (whereas last year we were pretty much played off the park by all) and deserved a draw against both Everton and Liverpool.

 

Of the remaining five and winnable games:

 

Newcastle (h) (1-2 vs 1-2)

Norwich (a) (2-1 vs 1-0)

Hull (a) (0-0 vs *)

West Ham (a) (0-1 vs 0-0)

Cardiff (h) (2-0 vs *)

 

Now the telling thing for me here is, taking out the Newcastle match we haven't even conceded a goal against teams in and around us (i.e. outside of the top 7) winning two and drawing two, if we were to follow a similar pattern for the remainder of the season we'll probably finish up as the best of the rest, perhaps aside from Newcastle who are extremely unpredictable and as shown with wins against Chelsea and Spurs recently are able to beat anyone on their day, equally, losing at home to Hull illustrates that they can just as easily be beaten, personally, whilst you should be targetting a win against them I don't think you can expect a win in the same way that you might playing Cardiff at home.

 

 

Looking at the results and comparing against last year you can already see a marked difference, we've improved on every comparable result so far this season aside from Newcastle and Everton where is has essentially remained the same as last year though, and in particular in the case of the latter the performance was much much better.

 

Football is about opinions and they will always differ but this is cold hard fact, there's no interpretation one way or another, the results are improving and seemingly, in particular against teams around us they seem to be improving greatly.

 

We are recording clean sheets and are scoring a few more goals than last year without Benteke (certainly without an in-form Benteke of late anyway).

 

Oh, and Lambert changed the match on the weekend with a tactical switch putting Bacuna into midfield which paid instant dividends, for all you tactic lovers out there.

I had a wee chuckle at the bolded part of the post.

 

I noted these type of stats being put forward last season and earlier this season by posters substantiating their reasons for concern and although those stats were indicative of our form and couldn't be interpreted any other way several posters did however forward excuse after excuse to try and explain them. 

 

 

the phrase "if you have nothing constructive to add then add nothing at all" springs to mind.....

 

You might also think about patronization.

 

 

No patronisation there Morpheus, that would involve some form of subtlety, this is an outright statement.

 

So basically what your saying is that unless you deem a post constructive then no-one is entitled to an opinion. 

[Morpheus]

 

 

 

 

 

Swansea were booed off at half time yesterday-They've been pretty poor all season. Newcastle have spent a lot of money, pay big salaries & have some good players (loosing at home to them was not the catastrophe that the moaners on here make it out to be). They are still no more consistant than us & dish up some pretty dire stuff as well.

I sit near to some of these moaning morons-I hear some of the comments they come out with. It can be quite amusing at times but on other occasions, it winds me up & I feel like poking my fingers in their eyes. Watching Villa is a hobby/pastime for me, I enjoy going & enjoy meeting up with mates. I don't want it ruined by having to listen to some prat who has obviously never played football

 

Your original point was highlighted above and i see you've left out West Brom and excused Newcastle by spending more yet both teams are still playing better football than us. Swansea in their footballing philosophy are years ahead of us and have proven that so i'm not sure what your point is.

 

I see your now referring to Villa fans as 'moaning morons' and 'prat' for disagreeing with your opinion. Thats your prerogative but maybe those fans take their support of the team a little more seriously than a hobby/pastime? 

 

 

 

No, he's calling a few idiots who sit near to him morons and prats, if you believe he's aiming this at you then you must be bearing some modicum of guilt toward the statement, I for example do not take offence to this as I know I'm not being categorised by him.

 

If you now want to believe that there aren't a healthy amount of idiots inside VP on a matchday then I'd argue that you haven't been there, certainly not recently anyway.

 

Interesting summation of his post considering that i haven't stated that i have taken his comments personally. I have however implied that everyone is entitled to an opinion and i would rather that opinion be considered especially coming from Villa fans than being dismissed as moronic.

 

 

So what you're saying is even morons have opinions?

 

It would seem so.