Manager Paul Lambert

[smetrov]

Ridiculous to be judging him so soon. He's had one great season (with Norwich) and nine crap games with Villa. Impossible to write him off so quick.

i wouldn't say its 9 tbh - Decent at Newcastle Away, good v swansea , decent v WBA.

Dire against Southampton, and dire yesterday.

[Big_John_10]

Ridiculous to be judging him so soon. He's had one great season (with Norwich) and nine crap games with Villa. Impossible to write him off so quick.

No more ridiculous than the over hyping of his managerial ability after the Swansea game.

[ciggiesnbeer]

i wouldn't say its 9 tbh - Decent at Newcastle Away, good v swansea , decent v WBA.

Dire against Southampton, and dire yesterday.

I would actually add West Ham into that. Although we lost I felt West ham were lucky that day and we played well.

[Tomaszk]

Really like Lambert, and I agree with every decision he's made bar a few tactical subs. Bent rightly out of the side still, that takes real balls because he's a big star. Yes he has his use, but we're not good enough to be giving him the many chances he needs to be effective as a starter.

He's brought in mostly better players than were here, and we are trying to play football.

Yesterday was the first time this season I think we've looked awful throughout though. Southampton and WBA had hairy spells, but in all those there was some nice football played, yesterday was gash.

I'm concerned but I want the fans to stay onside and support our inexperienced team. It'll take a lot, but I think we can stay up.

[pacbuddies]

Bar the horrible second half at Southampton, the only other league game we've conceded more than 1 goal was at Spurs and they're scoring plenty of goals against everyone.

You don't count the Everton game then?

[Zatman]

As much as I rate Lambert the thing is the football really hasnt been that much better than last season

[BG]

He's made mistakes, think it was asking for trouble to buy Lowton, and Bennett, and ask both to step up and perform immediately.

Whether that is due to financial constraints i don't know. Vlaar and Benteke are good signings, at least we attack teams this season

even if the results have been worse than last season so far.

I don't think his job will be or probably should be on the line, even if the worst happens.

We've had too much instability over the last few seasons, changing the manager this season isn't going to fix that.

Its going to be a rough ride this season, but we need to be patient, and get reinforcements in January, particularly in midfield.

Its the same people who roll out the anti O Leary / Houlier / McL banners every season on the Holte, who were crying out for Lambert

to be our manager, so the next few months will be interesting.

[villan501]

He's made mistakes, think it was asking for trouble to buy Lowton, and Bennett, and ask both to step up and perform immediately.

Whether that is due to financial constraints i don't know. Vlaar and Benteke are good signings, at least we attack teams this season

even if the results have been worse than last season so far.

I don't think his job will be or probably should be on the line, even if the worst happens.

We've had too much instability over the last few seasons, changing the manager this season isn't going to fix that.

Its going to be a rough ride this season, but we need to be patient, and get reinforcements in January, particularly in midfield.

Its the same people who roll out the anti O Leary / Houlier / McL banners every season on the Holte, who were crying out for Lambert

to be our manager, so the next few months will be interesting.

So glad someone else thinks hes bought 2 rubbish players everytime I mention it im pissed , they are great potentially but no experience whatsoever. Lambert keeps saying about westwood hes played over 200 games yeah in a crap league, lambert needs to realise what he is doing because at the moment hes got no idea

[Tomaszk]

As much as I rate Lambert the thing is the football really hasnt been that much better than last season

Don't get this. What do you want to see when you watch us? Passing? Shots on goal? Pressing the opposition? It's been there in dribs and drabs and we've played some great football. Unfortunately it's been amongst a lot of rubbish, but last season rubbish was all we got.

[Jon]

Additionally, the developments in the Premier League have done us no good at all. With all the points you've made, plus Manchester City changing the landscape, Lambert has taken on a really tough situation. I find it irritating that so many are willing to turn on him inside ten games. He's not a miracle worker - he will lose games, and he will make mistakes. We need to think differently or we'll end up churning through managers and eventually we'll see someone turfed out of Villa who then succeeds elsewhere.

I believe he is a very good manager. I also believe we shoudl stick with him beyond this season, even if we go down, as is looking very possible. He's quite clearly looking longer term, so to bin him at season end if we go down would seem incredibly counter productive.

Let's stick with him. Let us, as fans, back the man the vast majority of us wanted and were happy to get. The guy's been in the job 5 minutes, and there have been some very good moments, and some very poor ones. Which was to be expected.

[dukes]

99% of everyone posting on here has said that warnock and hutton should never play for us again. to suggest that they are the answer is ludicrous.

not just lambert but a majority of posters on this site, again.

again something many on here have been calling for

Dunne is injured, Ireland coming back from injury, conspiracy theory now?

Seems to me lambert is dammed if he does and dammed if he doesn't.

again, we needed players all over the pitch not just two or three and his signings have shown great potential, including lowton who looks a real player. What do you expect him to do? Buy players and then not play them. This s largely a new team who have played less than 12 games, they are not going to full fill the potential by not playing together.

1. Warnock and Hutton are no worse than what we've seen of Lowton and Bennett until now, so they were unnecessary signings (although I accept that Lowton looks to have some promise, throwing him in expecting him to play every Premier League game is madness).

2. The team under Lambert has no creativity, N'Zogbia is just about our only option on the left, he hasn't just become a poor player overnight, he needs games, and can we really afford to write off £10M ?

3. Albrighton isn't even worth commenting on, he's been worse than crap for the last 2 seasons, and probably had one 10 game purple patch in his career.

4. Wasn't aware of the comments direct from Dunne, but don't expect to see him as a regular under Lambert. Ireland is coming back from injury, but surely filling the midfield would have been a better option for substitution when Holman was taken off for Weimann ?

5. Lowton looks promising, Benteke seems to be able to play, (but only at the expense of Bent in Lamberts system ?), El Ahmedhi seems to find passing forward difficult, Westwood has hardly played, Bennett is no better than Warnock, Bowery we've seen nothing of, Holman was signed by the previous manager, Vlaar looks to be the pick of the bunch. So basically, Vlaar and Lowton are probably the only two players that improve on what we already had. The jury is still out on the rest, but if Lambert only had £20M to spend he might have been better to buy 4 players at £5M each rather than the 6/7 that he ended up signing.

As i already said, I'm not anti Lambert, i just think he needs to shoulder a large portion of the blame for our current plight, and he doesn't help when after games like Saturday he mugs off the fans by telling us the team played well.

[Nabby]

I think he does have a long term plan however the price of failure is so great with relegation then if results continue I think his job will be under threat.

It's noticeable that the media are already on his back far earlier than Mcliesh got it though it doesn't help that alot of our issues lack of experience even Gobbie Cabbage

could see right out the bat.Everyone knows that MON's plans were flawed everything was in the now no long term plan ,yet currently I see PL as swinging too far the other

way he is building a team for future but at this present time looks like he dropped the ball on concerning himself with the present.

Despite his comments today THIS team will go down.He is saying everything to back the players in the press but it seems the defeat at Soton so heavily has effected the players.For me the biggest issue Saturday was lack of confidence thoughout the team even Vlaar who to this point as looked composed on the ball was jittery amd when you Captain is playing like that it doesn't help.We need some solid 30 + plus pro's to come in and help the younger players.

[islingtonclaret]

It's noticeable that the media are already on his back far earlier than Mcliesh got it

The media didn't get on McLeish's back. There have been about 2 articles (one good one from the Guardian IIRC) telling it like it is. Everybody else maintained and still maintain that he didn't have a chance here and it's the fans fault.

Looks like the media are less interested in us than they've been for years. Which is a good thing, let us get on with it under the parapet if we can.

[Jon]

We need some solid 30 + plus pro's to come in and help the younger players.

So hello to messrs Dunne, Warnock, Bent.

TBH though, I'm not sure any of that lot are what we really need. I don't think they're up to it.

[Friendly_canary]

When PL first took over at Norwich he rotated a lot.

Wes was in and out of the team. Our first choice keeper kept changing (until Fraser Forster came in from Newcastle on loan) and our system

kept changing until we found Wes's righ

position.

Thing is though, when he started here he had

[Friendly_canary]

Stupid iphone... now where was i?

When PL first came here he had time as lets face it we couldnt really go much lower. I'm not convinced Villa will give him time.

I also dont think our success was fully down to him. Momentum, fan and board backing for the team and starting in a shit league were all contributing factors.

League 1 meant he, IC and GK could afford to experiment with the team.

If PL had stayed here we would have backed him even if we'd gone down this year. Not so sure Villa will but that's the risk one takes when moving to a different club.

[Nabby]

I was thinking more in the Midfield area and new additions rather than those three though both Dunne and Bent could help the cause.

[mikeyp102]

Stupid iphone... now where was i?

When PL first came here he had time as lets face it we couldnt really go much lower. I'm not convinced Villa will give him time.

I also dont think our success was fully down to him. Momentum, fan and board backing for the team and starting in a shit league were all contributing factors.

League 1 meant he, IC and GK could afford to experiment with the team.

If PL had stayed here we would have backed him even if we'd gone down this year. Not so sure Villa will but that's the risk one takes when moving to a different club.

Canary quick question, did you play passing possession football? It was my thoughts that your main tactics last yr was to get the ball wide and cross it in (this is just from watching motd so apologies if wrong). It just seems this yr he is trying not to do that... For the record I can understand that for long term planning as possession football is the way forward, but at times the tactics should be adapted game by game, depending on how others are playing..

[HeyAnty]

I believe the slim chance we have of staying up lays with Richard Dunne. You can say what you like about him but lets face it he was defending along side one of the worst villa players i have ever seen in Collins. I've seen him time and time again stepping up and being counted and getting other ones around him organised. Obvs past his best and might be going off the rails a bit but we dont have much experience and voices in the team. He is going to be out of contract as well so its in his interest to put himself in the shop window. Think him and Vlarr would work well with Clark in left or right back.

On a similar topic I was talking to the legend Paul McGrath at Dublin airpot 2 weeks ago and suggested he come back for Ireland in CB. He laughed and said he didnt think it but would consider coming back for Villa . He wasnt impressed with our defensive predicament at present. I had already told him i was a villa fan. Not going to even start on what job our 2 Center Midfielders are suppose to be doing as i havent figured it out yet... got to start from the back.

Also looks as if Dunne might be back for tail end of Dec http://www.birminghammail.net/sport/football/football-news/aston-villa-defender-richard-dunne-270633

[Friendly_canary]

When he first started his tactics were 'get Wes on the ball, feed it into Holty or Chris Martin and they'd do the rest'.

If i recall Holty scored 30 odd goals in league 1 and as much as I **** love Grant Holt, Wes made lots of chances for him.

I really rate Wes, can you sense that? Haha.