Manager Paul Lambert

[PussEKatt]

So Mcleish is one of the worst managers we've ever had, a complete failure and needed to be sacked the minute the season ended but if Lambert does the same he deserves enormous credit. Where's the logic in that?

What is he getting credit for? Taking an awful defence and making it worse?

Taking an average attacking side and making it worse?

Getting less points?

Taking a team that played poor football and did little to improve it?

If we're not careful we'll end up as ridiculous as Liverpool fans when it came to king kenny.

How long are we going to give this guy ?

He has had 6 months

There are only 4 months left

[tomaspg]

if we stay up i think lambert should stay on, and be judged on the next seasons performance. This was always going to be a transitional season, weve had different managers trying to implement different strategies with different transfer policys. we are a mess and this season is about getting some basic coherence back.

[PieFacE]

I'm just sick to death of changing managers now. We need stability. Things are getting worse and worse every season we change manager. Lambert stays for me regardless.

I guess the main difference for me with McLeish and Lambert is that I do believe in what Lambert is doing and I think in the long run we will be much better for it. (I had similar feelings towards Houllier and would have loved to seen our team now had he stayed). With McLeish I don't think there was a long term plan or goal to achieve. We were going to effectively become another Stoke.

Survival this season is key mind.

[LondonLax]

if we stay up i think lambert should stay on, and be judged on the next seasons performance. This was always going to be a transitional season, weve had different managers trying to implement different strategies with different transfer policys. we are a mess and this season is about getting some basic coherence back.

I think most people would give him a second season if we stayed up. Would you keep him on if he took us down though?

[Kingfisher]

Where do you get the 5-3-2 from ?

Against WBA we lined up 3-4-3 and against Southampton we lined up 3-5-2

I have to watch our games on TV and the formation is on screen before the match, after that it is easy to see that the formations that are on screen are correct.

3-4-3 I meant in other words the generic wingback system however specifically lined up we are needs to be replaced with aback 4

[KjParton]

What I don't understand is how people can say its good for the club if we keep changing managers every single season? I don't get it? Stability is the most important thing and if it doesn't work after 2/3 seasons then i'm all for sacking him.

[VILLAMARV]

Lambert needs the fans behind him. Simple as.

He's had 33 weeks in the job so far, and from what i've seen he wants to build a squad that is going to make keeping possession a priority. he wants his teams to use the ball and after years of watching Mcleish, MON and O'leary getting it in the box early i respect the philosophy he brings. I kind of think its a bit like Arsenal deciding to go with Wenger and give him a chance after years of success with a different style under Graham.

After 6 months of working day in day out with the players you'd have thought he'd have got an idea now of what he can do with the players he's got. (And I think that has got alot to do with the fact that in the past few weeks we've seen us bypass the midfield more and more) about 75% of the senior squad was inherited (Along with their wages) and there's hardly a queue of suitors for the players he might want to get rid of.

Transfer wise I think he's done "fine"

Benteke, Vlaar and Lowton have hit the ground running, Westwood and El-Ahmadi have shown glimpses of promise and while Bowery hasn't really played much there's only Bennett who's looked a bit out of depth when he's confronted by good wingers running at him (Lennon at spurs springs to mind). Bennett still offers the club alot more than Habib Beye ever did and is probably alot cheaper!

The only bad transfer decision from Lambert I can see with the bonus of hindsight is letting Collins go to West Ham.

Dunne, Warnock, Lichaj and Marshall all have a matter of weeks left on their contracts so unless they get new deals they'll be available for free in June

From what I can see looking from the outside we're still in a mess since that fateful day the club took Ireland + cash instead of money from Man City for Milner and MON walked out on us. That started the rot. Houlliers reign was bold but brief and left us with Makoun (Yeah he's still officially a Villa player) and Bent on big money, Then Mcleish hammered a big bluenose inspired nail into the coffin by buying Hutton (still contracted till 2015 btw), blowing nearly 10m on Nzogbia and signing Given to a 5 year big money contract.

With the obvious exception of Bent has ANY of these players ever put in consistantly good performances for US that proves they are worth the money? And more importantly who on earth wants to sign any of them? It's unlikely if we manage to ship any of them out that they'll get a wage rise or even parity anywhere else so surely the club should be preparing to take a financial hit on all of them

I honestly believe that Lambert also has a good profile as a manger in the european tranfer market and has shown that by signing the likes of Vlaar and Benteke. While Henke is off to Germany to get back into coaching, Lambert's network on the continent is always going to be there (anyone who can chew the ear of Ottmar Hitzfeld has to be a good asset) and I have more faith in him unearthing a gem (like Benteke) than any other manager (with the exception of houllier) from the last 5 - 10 years.

The worrying thing in this window hasn't been the lack of links to good players, suggesting he's putting the feelers out in the right places, but the fact that if there is ANYONE else interested they seem to be more willing to put their clubs money where their mouths are and stump up the cash - Like QPR and Loic Remy they're rolling the dice to give it a go because the reported £60m windfall that will accompany survival. There is certainly no point in Lambert going out and buying squad players that other teams aren't interested in but everyone's got to come to terms with the fact that we're not that attractive an opportunity to the players all the prem teams will be sniffing around.

Personally I just hope and pray that Lerner understands how much this team needs a defensive midfield presence over the next 15 League games and whatever the financial restrictions in place at the club Lambert is allowed to go out and get his man, whoever that may be.

Injury wise we have certainly been unlucky as the experienced players namely Petrov (Get well soon Stan), Dunne, Vlaar, Agbonlahor have all had troubles and our centre backs keep dropping like flies. Herd, who can cerainly do a defensive midfield job has also been out and this has left us with the frailest midfield i can remember. There are times this season we've gone into games with Clark as our only recognised Centre back and he hasn't been able to pick a settled defence all season.

And so to Bent's much publicised omission.

Lets not beat around the bush here - consigning your highest profile player, who was your clubs top scorer last season, who is an England International, who is one of the Premierships most consistant goal scorers is certainly bold - and some will say suicidal. But how many of those people criticising this decision have actually watched bent play this season? He's a very different player to all our other strikers but might just be a luxury we cant afford.

On top of that he's stuck with Guzan after a difficult Xmas and I'm so glad he has, Guzan kept the score down to only 8 against chelsea and has easily been player of the season so far imo. He's earnt his place, though i'd love to see him coming out to get crosses like he was early on in the season as it just calms all the nerves at the back. Relegating Hutton and Warnock might seem harsh but just go back and remember them playing last year and i think its a great decision personally.

On the downside to his decision making so far is that he obviously has no idea what his best central midfield pairing is right now though again down to injuries, illness, form he is trying to plug square holes with round pegs at the moment.

My biggest criticism of him if i have any is the media side of things. We dont wanna hear everything is fine - thats what you tell the players - but i dont think since Big Ron or Gregory we've had a manger who has been altogether comfortable talking to the press. I miss their honesty disecting our performances. but not everyone has Ian Holloways personality i suppose.

I obviously hope we stay up, but if the unthinkable should happen again I hope we manage to keep hold of a man who has the experience of Lambert at so many different levels of football and i sincerely hope both the club and Mr Lambert honestly have a 3 or 5 year masterplan and have the balls to stick with it.

Wouldn't it be nice to see us give another manager a few years like MON so they can build us back to where we should be? And if the plan is to do that with a bit more common sense when it comes to the finances then all well and good but its got to be better than the chopping and changing of the last 2-3 years lumbering us with the likes of Given and Hutton for years to come on huge contracts - decisions made by managers needing to shore up the gaps at all costs?

I like him. I hope he gets given the time for us to truly judge his influence and i think the time to do that will be when the like of Given, Hutton, Ireland, Warnock, Makoun and Delfouneso are long gone and we see who he has replaced them with.

I'm not saying im happy with our set piece defending, or the majority of our second half performances this season but i do feel more than ever before we need to get off the managers case, accept that the players he inherited aren't world beaters and point our frustration towards the board because it's them that are the constant factor in ALL our troubles on the pitch, Mcleish and houliier for the transfers they made ( Ive already excepted Bent from this right, but what on earth is the whole makoun thing about??) over the last 2-3 years which have got us in this mess and left Lambert holding the baby. Lambert goes with youth is the constant headline but however low the average age of the team this season the average age of the players he signed is 24 with the like of Guzan (28) Vlaar (27) and KEA (27) being brought down by Bowery who is hopefully one for the future.

I like Lambert and what he wants to do I just hope he gets the chance to see it through.

IF we can beat Newcastle, West Ham, QPR, Fulham and Sunderland at home between now and May - and its a huge, huge IF unless we strengthen the midfield and get a fit again Dunne back (as if) in the next 2 weeks then that's 15 of the extra points we need leaving Reading, Stoke, Norwich and Wigan away with an extra 12 points there up for grabs.

If we manage to get the extra 20 or so points we'll need from those games we wont need to have to hope about getting results against Everton, Arsenal, Liverpool, Man Utd, Man City and Chelsea.

It's all in our hands and we've seen them play well this season. They just need to do it over 90 or 120 minutes and not just in the first half of games or fits and starts like we've seen so far.

[Eames]

Massive post is massive.

[VILLAMARV]

It just came out

[VillaForever1970]

McLeish kept us up, so I'd expect Lambert to keep us up. Practically the same players.

'Practically'

Laughable.

[AVFCforever1991]

'Practically'

Laughable.

Elaborate

[Con]

I honestly believe that Lambert also has a good profile as a manger in the european tranfer market and has shown that by signing the likes of Vlaar and Benteke. While Henke is off to Germany to get back into coaching, Lambert's network on the continent is always going to be there (anyone who can chew the ear of Ottmar Hitzfeld has to be a good asset) and I have more faith in him unearthing a gem (like Benteke) than any other manager (with the exception of houllier) from the last 5 - 10 years.

After MON this is the one thing that I would be worried about by sacking Lambert... our scouting seems to have undergone a revolution from 'non-existent' to potentially world class.

On the playing side, he has made multiple bizarre tactical decisions in game and team selections that threaten to cost us our place in the Premier League.

One would like to believe the latter is because he is a young manager making mistakes he won't make again.

We know he has some good qualities. Do we have time to let him learn on the job to iron out his failures?

[Big_John_10]

No real issue with people wanting stability and believing the future could be bright under lambert.

But does he deserve enormous credit and praise if we stay up? That's the argument i don't get.

Edited January 22, 2013 by Big_John_10

[KjParton]

No real issue with people wanting stability and believing the future could be bright under lambert.

But does he deserve enormous credit and praise if we stay up? That's the argument i don't get.

I wouldn't praise him. I'd think it would be great for the club to stay up as Lambert hasn't got the best of squads, so it would be a well done from me. I wouldn't be hailing him as the Messiah. I would then EXPECT him to put in a FAR better performance next season (if we stay up).

[Zatman]

Lambert needs to drop the 5-3-2, it's not working. That's his decision and his fault. Don't get me wrong I think he had a great record and fully support his appointment, and actually like him. But he's not above criticism here.

We need Dunne back, a simple back 4. We need to take pressure of the young lads at WB by making them orthodox FB's. We need KEA back, I gather he is in the Africa for a while which is a shame, big player for us, should never have been dropped. Put 3/5 in CM and 3/1 up front. (4-3-3/4-5-1)

in fairness 5-3-2 was mainly used to add numbers at back when experience was needed but now that Vlaar (and Dunne in few weeks) are back I expect it to go back to 4 at back. Think was only played on Saturday as Vlaar 1st game back and maybe they didnt expect him to last the whole game

[tomaspg]

I think most people would give him a second season if we stayed up. Would you keep him on if he took us down though?

i probably would, maybe not though, depends on the manner in which we would go down i suppose.

lambert said a while ago that no business was to be done before the bradford game, so my worry is that lerner might be ready to ship lambert out already, giving him today to prove himself and in that way saving the funds for the new manager if he cocks up. all speculation of course.

[1974Centenary]

i probably would, maybe not though, depends on the manner in which we would go down i suppose.

lambert said a while ago that no business was to be done before the bradford game, so my worry is that lerner might be ready to ship lambert out already, giving him today to prove himself and in that way saving the funds for the new manager if he cocks up. all speculation of course.

If lambert was sacked after the Bradford game i bet we woudnt see a new manager until AFTER the transfer window closes.

[VILLAMARV]

if we didnt keep shelling out for new managers there might be some money left to bring some players in!

and IF we stay up then yeah id give him some praise because it means he'll have found a way of getting 6 or 7 wins out of this lot between now and the end of the season and at the moment that looks like it would be a remarkable thing!

[Richard]

If lambert was sacked after the Bradford game i bet we woudnt see a new manager until AFTER the transfer window closes.

if we didnt keep shelling out for new managers there might be some money left to bring some players in!

and IF we stay up then yeah id give him some praise because it means he'll have found a way of getting 6 or 7 wins out of this lot between now and the end of the season and at the moment that looks like it would be a remarkable thing!

agree with both of these

[Big_John_10]

It looks like it would be a remarkable thing because of how shit we've been under lambert so far.