andyh Posted December 29, 2012 Share Posted December 29, 2012 Lambert has been cut an incredible amount of slack purely on the basis that he is not McLeish. Any other manager, at any other time, would be being crucified by the fans by now. I have this sneaking feeling that the job is too big for him. Buying championship players, clearly stating that he worries about spending £7m on a singe player (Benteke), smacks of small time to me. I think the transfer window is the defining time for him. If he continues with his current buying policy of youth and inexperience, we and him are doomed. If he buys experience and quality, I think we will be ok, this season, and it will buy him time. If he does nothing, well, I feel freefall will follow. He needs to realise that this is Aston Villa, not some small town club. He needs to think big and demand the best he can get. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ads Posted December 29, 2012 Share Posted December 29, 2012 Lambert isn't being cut slack. He has the support of the majority with an acknowledgement that we know what he is trying to do and we can also see how hard a job he has got. We're normally incorrectly labelled in the press as an unforgiving bunch of fans, but we're showing what an astute lot we are down in B6. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
The_Lions_Roar Posted December 29, 2012 Share Posted December 29, 2012 oh dear oh dear unless you are suggesting he is not allowed to sign the players he wants , he signed the players he wanted to sign and was able to he stated already that he could sign who he wanted to but would rather spend the money how he wants unless of course he was also forced to say that? What kind of player do you think we can attract? Of course he's wanted to sign the players he has signed but he's also had to under the restrictions in place. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
VillaCas Posted December 29, 2012 Share Posted December 29, 2012 (edited) We've played 23, Youre only allowed to use cup games if we lose them. If we win them they are disallowed for comparision purposes, apparently And that's not very good either. And surely if you continue to score less and concede more than everyone else those things that do matter will continue to get worse. As we've clearly established though, things aren't getting worse, are they? Edited December 29, 2012 by VillaCas Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sne Posted December 29, 2012 Share Posted December 29, 2012 I think if you look at my first post then the wreckage and ashes Lambert inherrited is framed in a fair historical context that shows how large his task is. Spurs were a good side, Bolton eventually went down and Norwich should have walked their league which is what they did. We need to survive and build, build, build. So Lambert didn't really do anything except the bare minimum in his first season with Norwich? Now that makes we worried, if he can only work longtime we will get relegated before things gets better Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
andyh Posted December 29, 2012 Share Posted December 29, 2012 No, he is being cut a lot of slack, because he is not Mcleish. He may have majority support, but there are also many who think he is not up to the job. Had Mcleish stayed, had a clear out in the summer and then played a similar team to what is being played now, with the same results, he would be getting murdered. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ads Posted December 29, 2012 Share Posted December 29, 2012 McLeish got cut a lot of slack, it lasted until April before the majority had enough and the last ebb of hope seeped away. Lambert is getting support and rightly so. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
VillaCas Posted December 29, 2012 Share Posted December 29, 2012 Not if we finally choose the right one. That's true Redknapp should be sacked by QPR soon, so he could be available in the next few weeks Mark Hughes could then take over from him for the last few games of the season Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Morley_crosses_to_Withe Posted December 29, 2012 Share Posted December 29, 2012 McLeish got cut a lot of slack, it lasted until April before the majority had enough and the last ebb of hope seeped away. Yep, this is true. I do think Lambert will get more slack than McLeish, but who cares? McLeish was a word removed. That's not to say, though, that fans shouldn't be able to express their worry and question PL's decisions/the results etc. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Papillon Posted December 29, 2012 Share Posted December 29, 2012 Lambert is cut some slack, but rightly so in my opinion. Yes, he does get away with things since he is not McLeish, like any other manager would. Our expectations are extremely low this year, it was higher last season and even higher the season before that. It is like we couldn't see the weaknesses in our squad, quite like any other fan of any other club. Fans on the whole are not good at being objective towards their own club, which is only natural after all The main thing though is not that Lambert is any better than McLeish right about now, that is not why we cut him any slack. His results thus far in his career are basically a copy of McLeish in the Premier League. Did well with Norwich last season, a feat McLeish did with Birmingham too. Could win a cup this season with us and still relegate, even though I think we will just scrape through in the league and stay up. McLeish won the cup against Arsenal and they relegated, much to my joy. THE REASON why we stay with Lambert, even the pessimists among us, is that he is young and McLeish is old. McLeish is a finished chapter, you know exactly what you get with him and that is poor football, negative football, no risks and dodgy transfers. Lambert is 10 years younger and he is still developing his ideas, his policies and getting experience along the way. Somewhere in there I think there is a good manager, someone I would want here for many, many years. It is hard explaining this to people who do not support Villa and wonder who every player in our team is, but I am seeing the big picture even though it is tough sometimes. Alex McLeish Ability: 110 Potential ability: 120 Paul Lambert Ability: 125 Potential ability: 165 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
briny_ear Posted December 29, 2012 Share Posted December 29, 2012 I'm prepared to buy the line that Lambert's squad is weak and threadbare. But that means he should cut his coat according to his cloth and set the team up to play defensive, counterattacking football of the sort that was so successful against Liverpool. If he tries to get the side attacking and passing the ball around like they are Barcelona, the 0-8s, 0-4s, will continue because the players he has bought are nowhere near good enough to play like that in the premier league. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
danceoftheshamen Posted December 29, 2012 Share Posted December 29, 2012 He is being cut a lot of slack but for me that has little or nothing to do with McCleish. More so that we can see he has fresh idea's that this club has been in need of for a long time now. Also he wants us to play a good brand of football which is the polar opposite of McCleish, MON & most of the other incumbents we have endured here since the days of Ron Saunders & Tony Barton. I also think that we had a glimmer of the way this would go under the last man who attempted to get us playing the "right" way..... Houllier!!....It was a similar story with him in that it took 3/4 of a season for us to click but then we were winning some big games & stayed up quite comfortably at the end. Weirdly he also had to contend with this awful plague of injuries we seem to have been enduring for several seasons running now. For me most Villa fans myself included would rather us play an attractive brand especially after the rubbish of last season. Even under MON it was difficult to watch for the most part & whilst we were not battling relegation neither did we get in the top 5. So for me it is a much more long term thing than just being a kick back against AMC. I want us to modernise our playing style & develop the academy players. Yes it will take time & yes we simply have to make sure that whatever happens we stay in this division but other than that PL can have as much slack as he needs from me if it means eventually playing a good modern brand of attractive football & this gradually starts to bring more success & has us challenging for Europe again. Having said that we do need some signings pronto & why is it we always end up with the spine of the team injured? It's frankly bizarre.. again we have Vlaar, Gabby, Weimann, Dunne, Baker injured. Vlaar is part of the spine & Baker was his back up... both injured & even Dunne could be classed as one of the spine of the team prior to his injury. It.s the same upfront.. Gabby & his back up Weimann both injured! Lets just hope we get some in now. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
VillaCas Posted December 29, 2012 Share Posted December 29, 2012 I'm prepared to buy the line that Lambert's squad is weak and threadbare. But that means he should cut his coat according to his cloth and set the team up to play defensive, counterattacking football of the sort that was so successful against Liverpool. If he tries to get the side attacking and passing the ball around like they are Barcelona, the 0-8s, 0-4s, will continue because the players he has bought are nowhere near good enough to play like that in the premier league. I think that this is fair - although I imagine that the plan against Chelsea to contain them went out the window after we went one down in two minutes. As we opened up to get back in the game we got carved to pieces. Against Spurs, I think we did try to contain but just werent very good at it. I think that this is what you get with a young inexperienced team On the plus side, I think we have enough football in the team to beat those teams around us in the games that matter - I hope that that will be enough for survival this season. The other positive is that although we are not good enough to match teams like Spurs at the moment our young players will get better and in future seasons I think we will be a force to be reckoned with Let's hope that we start to prove that in todays important game Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Big_John_10 Posted December 29, 2012 Share Posted December 29, 2012 This comparison to last season and "Mcleish never broke this record or that record, we are worse now" nonsense is just that for me, nonsense. You cannot compare the two. Mcleish as manager of this club never looked to progress or move us forward, he never had long term strategic thinking. He was basically looking to tread water and this s evidenced by his tactics basically playing 7 or 8 defenders or defensively minded players in some matches and defensive containing tactics which were incredibly regressive and depressing. Tactics that many fans said they never wanted to see again. The fact that we didn't get tonked more often and by bigger margins down to luck and his basically stifling approach which would never have progressed us as a club. Lambert has come in and is trying to progress the team and move us forward. Now people will say "but the goalscoring is shit too" . A change of tactics does not mean we will immediately win every game 5 nil or that it will happen overnight. It will also result in ups and downs and us getting well beaten in some games. It will, however, mean long term lasting changes to the team and the club and the way we play and that is something I have wanted since before mon came I'll forget last year for you. But looking at this year we average less than 1 point a game, score less goals than every other team in the league and have the worst goal difference. I just don't accept this view point that there's no other way of improving long term. I'm happy for lambert to have time and I like most of his signings but I still think he's done poorly and I expected to see more. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mikeyp102 Posted December 29, 2012 Share Posted December 29, 2012 So here's where I am... Was Lambert my first choice as manager - No Was I happy with the appointment - Yes I thought that he would get us mid table. I thought that initially we would see an immediate up turn in results as players would be trying to impress the new manager. Unfortunately, for some reason this did not happen. However, after this initial up turn in results, I thought things would plateau out and maybe even get worse as the young players struggled to maintain form.. I then expected the second half of the season (this obviously still could happen) to see a gradual improvement in terms of playing style and results. I didn't ever expect us to be the leagues lowest scorers nor did I expect us to get hammered once let alone a few times.. I think lambert has made mistakes, sticking with the diamond formation, playing kea and Delph together, not utilising bent's abilities for example. I also think that he hasn't performed or progressed us as much as we'd hoped. However, I do not want him to be sacked as this would just be another step backwards. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
brummybloke Posted December 29, 2012 Share Posted December 29, 2012 Great, so we could have a manager come in, take us to top half and get relegated the following season. Yes it can be done but under different circumstances. I'm not sure why you'd want that to happen. You've obviously missed the fact that we are pretty much rebuilding from scratch, except we're trying to do that by staying in the prem at the same time. you live in the world of make believe your now claiming i want villa to go up the table and then get relegated? stop sniffing glue it makes you look a fool Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Spoony Posted December 29, 2012 Share Posted December 29, 2012 His shitty pile of children are not good enough. His 'project' is going to get us relegated. He either changes it or he can jog on Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dudevillaisnice Posted December 29, 2012 Share Posted December 29, 2012 If we lose to Wigan I will lose any faith I have left in Lambert, I already do not trust his "kids" who are just not premier league level. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mendi Posted December 29, 2012 Share Posted December 29, 2012 (edited) Lambert Lambert Lambert Lambert Lambert Lambert out out out out out out out out shamble today. Edited December 29, 2012 by Mendi Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AshVilla Posted December 29, 2012 Share Posted December 29, 2012 (edited) Sorry but Lerner needs to go How can he let this football club fall so far Footballing records being broken week in week out.... Worst start to Premier league Season.... Biggest Defeat Ever... Surely we have not conceded this many goals in 3 consecutive games before Its a disgrace how shit we have become losing 3 - 0 at home to Wigan having 22% possession in the first 20 minutes... Abysmal.... I bet half the squad have to pinch themselves in the morning and ask themselves if they really are playing in the premier league half of them should be playing pub football and are not premier league standard Championship here we come Edited December 29, 2012 by AshVilla Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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