LondonLax Posted March 8, 2013 Share Posted March 8, 2013 Lets look at a couple of other managers:- Brendan Rogers Michael Laudrup Do we think either of those would have done better as villa manager, had they been appointed last June ? I can't believe I'm saying this but I honestly believe McLeish would be doing a better job. Not a great deal better at all, but a little bit better at least. This isn't to say I don't think he deserved to go at the end of last seaosn though. Yes I also think we would have more points now had McLeish stayed on last summer. Last season we were better off at this stage and Lambert has had a lot more money to spend than McLeish had. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
briny_ear Posted March 8, 2013 Share Posted March 8, 2013 Can't think what attendances would have been like if McDraw had stayed on, though. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AvfcTheObsession Posted March 8, 2013 Share Posted March 8, 2013 (edited) We were definitely better last season than this season, we managed to win at home against the poor teams from last campaign; Blackburn, Wigan, etc. This season we've been turned over at VP by the likes of Southampton, Wigan and dare I say Newcastle for their only away win all season. I put the above more down to the lack of experience and quality in the side this season than the quality of McLeish over Lambert. McLeish had Collins, Cuellar and also Petrov for 3/4 of the campaign. Edited March 8, 2013 by AvfcTheObsession Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LondonLax Posted March 8, 2013 Share Posted March 8, 2013 Yes the loss of Petrov was a big one. Our form dipped badly after he got sick last season. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BoroVillan Posted March 8, 2013 Share Posted March 8, 2013 I'm getting a little tired of seeing on my twitter feed of what Lambert believes the players are made of/how much confidence they've got...well please show us! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Morpheus Posted March 8, 2013 Share Posted March 8, 2013 horrible newspaper sorry, but PL job safe if we go down according to Neil Moxley If we go down this season then Lambert should suffer the same fate as William Wallace. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
KennyPowers Posted March 9, 2013 Share Posted March 9, 2013 Hi just registered. I have to admit I'm torn on Lambert. I was pleased with the appointment largely because I thought he would want to play positive football and in most games he has tried to although in retrospect exposing our horrid defence. I also had no problem with him bringing in younger players and favouring industriousness over creativity. It would be a tad hypocritical to criticise him too much for this because as I said I generally agreed with the approach. Having said that I was at the Man U game when I thought we played a 4-3-3 with Gabby and Weimann pushing up quickly to support Benteke. I came away thinking well at least we've found a formation that will keep us up. I was at the Southampton game when he went 4-4-2 at half time pushing Weimann up front with Benteke. I came away thinking at least he realises Benteke needs a strike partner to avoid him getting frustrated. He disastrously switched to 3-5-2 (other than one lucky result) and has now switched to 4-2-3-1. I have largely lost faith in his tactical nous. This stretch of 4-2-3-1 is about as consistent as he's been and you can see how the team has solidified just from a bit of tactical consistency. Eric Lichaj has played in 4 of our 5 league wins (2 the whole game and 2 the majority). Joe Bennett has played in none (other than 10 mins at Sunderland. How can you not factor that into selection? I've been thinking all season that he is extremely stubborn in his team selection. I'm starting to wonder though, is he dumb, is he unintelligent? He doesn't seem to learn any lessons from the previous game, his interviews are terrible, he provides zero insight. I've thought all season he has been deliberately beligerent with the media but maybe I was wrong, maybe he just has nothing worth saying. That might be a bit harsh and if this has been discussed already in this thread please say roughly where and I'll go find it. I'm not speculating on him being sacked because I'm very confident he'll be here next season. I would gladly take Nigel Adkins now though. Firstly, because he's an intelligent guy, that's very clear from his interviews and secondly the way he handled his exit from Southampton was incredibly dignified. Any views welcome. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
danceoftheshamen Posted March 9, 2013 Share Posted March 9, 2013 All that we hear pre match is hype & hot air... "We're gonna do this" & "we're gonna do that"...But they simply don't! I feel it's all just ticket selling speak now. I mean it's been the same bull we've been being fed for 3/4 of the season now & the team is no better now than at the start of the campaign. Don't know what to think anymore really about PL. Hope he turns it round i really do but i somehow doubt it. I do wonder whether they already know we are not good enough to stay up & it's just all flannel to keep the interest of the fans up as much as possible. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
KennyPowers Posted March 9, 2013 Share Posted March 9, 2013 Just to expand on a point I briefly touched on in my previous (lengthy) post regarding Lambert's intelligence. Lambert had a long and impressive playing career. I respect that but there's no reason to think a footballer is intelligent. Indeed, I would suggest the opposite, whilst people in other industries are studying for exams and professional qualifications footballers have no reason to. At the top level, footballers rarely even formulate a Plan B because of their earning potential. I'm starting to wonder why a big business (which premier league clubs are) would put their fate in the hands of a largely uneducated middle manager. It's slightly absurd. Look at the managers of the top clubs in the premier league now and there's only really Mancini who had a long and distinguished playing career. Look at the new breed of managers like Mourinho, Vilas Boas, Rodgers. These are guys with no real playing career. These are smart guys who could have gone into just about any industry they wanted. I can't help thinking the days of appointing a manager based partly on their long and impressive playing careers are dead. My favourite sports book is moneyball. I've read it multiple times. There's several managerial lessons in there. The most pertinent being that people inside the "club" (in this case football generally) lose their objectivity. They have been indoctrinated into the conventional wisdoms of the game, conventional wisdoms that you have to unlearn if you want to be successful (or perhaps more accurately objective). I can't help looking at Lambert and thinking now that he is part of the old school. An old school manager with old school ideas. We need someone with new ideas. Ideas that haven't been developed from their playing career because football has moved on, it has moved too fast over the past 20 years and there's no reason to think that pace will stop. Before anyone says it I agree that Ferguson is a major exception, Wenger is not as he is an extremely smart guy who more than anyone over the past 20 years changed English football with his new ideas and philosophy. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
briny_ear Posted March 9, 2013 Share Posted March 9, 2013 I guess Michael Laudrup is an exception to your "rule" as well (although I have to say your "rule" about what makes a good manager is a bit vague). Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Czechlad Posted March 9, 2013 Share Posted March 9, 2013 Personally I think Lambert messed up when he decided to go with youth over experience. Although our experienced players were not that great but I believe if he went with a few experienced players mixed in with the youth players, we would be higher up the table. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
KennyPowers Posted March 9, 2013 Share Posted March 9, 2013 I guess Michael Laudrup is an exception to your "rule" as well (although I have to say your "rule" about what makes a good manager is a bit vague). Well I don't consider Swansea a top club yet. Great season though. I don't think I've proposed any rules as such although perhaps I could suggest some if I think about it. It's not really a stretch to think that Laudrup who played in Denmark, Spain, Italy, Holland and Japan as well as managing in Denmark, Spain and Russia has a more cultured and worldly approach than Paul Lambert though. Paul Lambert who has spent 20 years of his career in Scotland, 6 in England and 1 in Germany. I guess I am mostly searching for reasons why he has failed this season. I'm not a person who thinks the squad is terrible, I think the squad is good enough to be comfortably lower mid-table. I do somewhat blame the fact that Lambert has tried to play progressive football without any clear idea of how to do it or what it involves. He certainly isn't a tactician, he doesn't appear to be much of a man motivator so what exactly is he. I'm starting to suspect he's a fraud. Maybe he got lucky with Norwich and maybe he didn't, I don't know I wasn't watching them. It wasn't exactly in retrospect much of a sample size to give him the Villa job though. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Shankslad Posted March 9, 2013 Share Posted March 9, 2013 I think Lamberts philosophy and methods probably work very well in the lower leagues but are being proven to not work at a higher level. Certainly not within the timescale that Villa requires Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MagicMushroom Posted March 9, 2013 Share Posted March 9, 2013 (edited) Yes the loss of Petrov was a big one. Our form dipped badly after he got sick last season. Would we have been any different though? Dont get me wrong, i think we do miss him, but not as much as we may think when you consider that we struggled almost as bad last term, and with far more experience in the side. Edited March 9, 2013 by MagicMushroom Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TRO Posted March 9, 2013 Share Posted March 9, 2013 (edited) Yes the loss of Petrov was a big one. Our form dipped badly after he got sick last season. Would we have been any different though? Dont get me wrong, i think we do miss him, but not as much as we may think when you consider that we struggled almost as bad last term, and with far more experience in the side. There is always the "straw that breaks the camels back" whether it was Petrov or some of the others, its anyone's call, petrov could at least keep the ball and buy a bit of time, but he was one of too many experienced players lost at the same time. You can always lose an influential player, when things are going reasonably well, because "momentum" will carry you on.... but one too many, tips you over the edge....and thats where I think we have gone. I also think in terms of technical ability we went down a few rungs, when Merse went, he was replaced by workers of limited ability. Yes the loss of Petrov was a big one. Our form dipped badly after he got sick last season. Would we have been any different though? Dont get me wrong, i think we do miss him, but not as much as we may think when you consider that we struggled almost as bad last term, and with far more experience in the side. There is always the "straw that breaks the camels back" whether it was Petrov or some of the others, its anyone's call, petrov could at least keep the ball and buy a bit of time, but he was one of too many experienced players dispensed with at the same time. You can always lose an influential player, when things are going reasonably well, because "momentum" will carry you on.... but one too many, tips you over the edge....and thats where I think we have gone. I also think in terms of technical ability we went down a few rungs, when Merse went, he was replaced by workers of limited ability. Edited March 9, 2013 by TRO Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Houlston Posted March 9, 2013 Share Posted March 9, 2013 I hate being negative and I'd love to have egg on my face come 5pm but the team selection is again strange, one I imagine few of us would have picked. Hey ho. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Houlston Posted March 9, 2013 Share Posted March 9, 2013 Egg on my face and it feels good, fair play Lambert. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mantis Posted March 9, 2013 Share Posted March 9, 2013 Fair play Paul. Keep it up please. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ryan. Posted March 9, 2013 Share Posted March 9, 2013 Absolutely loved his passion in the closing seconds, he was almost as tense as me!! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TRO Posted March 9, 2013 Share Posted March 9, 2013 .....have to keep crossing thos fingers , arms & legs Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts