Manager Paul Lambert

[VillaCas]

I think people often overlook how much of a negative effect the "we're Aston Villa and we won the European Cup therefore we deserve better" mentality of many of our fans has on the club.

We have arguably the worst squad in the Premier League bar Reading's and yet our players are expected to comfortably avoid relegation. Combine this with how draining it must be for their confidence when so many of our young players are denounced during games by the fans and afterwards in the media and it's no surprise to see how badly we're struggling. The results we've had recently are not acceptable, but they are worsened partially because the fans expect so much of the team when the reality is most are still new to top-level professional football and building their confidence yet in a very high-pressure situation - not a good combination.

Of course the manager is partially to blame too, but just how convincing can you be as a motivator when you have everybody else telling your players how appalling they are. Twitter, forums and the internet in general ensures that players are hardly going to be able to avoid what people are saying about them. We've gone through three managers now who have all been at least partially successful at their previous clubs and yet all have failed at Villa.

It's the expectation which isn't matched by a corresponding level of investment (and general competence) from the board which is more to blame for our plight than the players and even manager.

Our fans sarcastically applauding Bradford's attendance whilst 3-1 down sums up that we're clinging onto the this idea that we're still a big club, when in reality we're only as big as our current league position and ability to lure players, who quite frankly don't give a shit whether we won the European Cup thirty years ago or not.

This

People are approaching this with the wrong mindset - not only are we not the team we were 30 years ago, we are not even the team we were three years ago

PL will do well to avoid relegation with the resources available, anything more than that will be down to his abilities alone

If I was a young player I might be tempted to look at the thread with my name on it in Villa premier fan forum but let's hope they don't - some of the garbage posted on some of the threads is appalling

PL will turn this around - at the moment those of us backing him are in a minority. Stand up and be counted because it will be all the sweeter when he is succesful and we can say we were behind him all the time

[villan_007]

Of course there are alternatives to Lambert. It's a distinct possibility now we will get beaten by Southampton and then take a thumping at The Hawthorns. For me , Lamberts position is then untenable and has to go.

Looking at his demeanour and body language I'd say he's close to asking for a settlement .

hahahaha CI the body language expert!

[sne]

Funny how he took teams to back to back to back promotions and 12th in the league with tiny resources given he is so crap

You know far more about football than him - you should write to RL

Alex McLeish

[VillaCas]

Looking at his demeanour and body language I'd say he's close to asking for a settlement .

You sound quite the expert - it must be wonderful to have such amazing abilities

[Laivasse]

Funny how he took teams to back to back to back promotions and 12th in the league with tiny resources given he is so crap

You know far more about football than him - you should write to RL

McLeish probably knows more about football than the average fan, maybe we should have kept him on, since that's the only criteria for being beyond criticism in your job as manager? That and harking back to achievements in lower leagues.

We got rid of Collins and Cuellar. We got Vlaar in and have Clark and Baker, remember Dunne was originally only supposed to be out for 4-8 weeks. That's 4 Cb's with Lowton and Herd ( who admittedly isn't the best ) to cover.

Cuellar hasn't played well and I wouldn't want to watch Collins hoof it up to benteke every week, so no way I would take them back.

We had Clark and Baker last season when our defence was poor and they still weren't good enough for the top league. They weren't then and they aren't now. If Lowton and Herd are CBs then I'm an F1 driver. Cuellar might have had a shit season so far but it's a different tier of shit to what we have atm - he's not heading up the worst defence in the prem for a start. In any case I already said it's irrelevant how good he and Collins were. We needed to sufficiently replace outgoing players and we didn't.

As for hoofing, have you seen our games lately?

[VillaCas]

Alex McLeish

Pongo Waring

your turn

[villarule123]

I have been one of the people that had us down for relegation at the start of the season but I don't think we should sack Lambert now, or perhaps even the summer. We need a takeover to happen if we're to get anywhere now, this club is so **** and we have people running the club who have no idea how football works. You can't afford to postpone all future plans whilst you wait for half your team's big contracts to expire. There is no-one out there better than Lambert that is a proven manager, we'd have to take a risk on someone like OGS that could end disastrously (think of Wolves)

We have to come to terms with the situation and realise that we're either going to be fighting relegation for the next few years, or even worse get relegated this season.

[LondonLax]

Funny how he took teams to back to back to back promotions and 12th in the league with tiny resources given he is so crap

You know far more about football than him - you should write to RL

Nigel Adkins has a simiar CV. Is Adkins also a special manager?

Perhaps they are both just young managers who had a good run with their respective sides?

[Dr_Pangloss]

Our lads just do not have the fight or ability to 'step up' when their backs are against the wall, it's not even a question of experience but rather a question of desire and having a set of balls. We have no leaders out there, it's as simple as that.

Lambert hasn't bought the character to the club and the players he has inherited are hardly made of the 'strong stuff' either.

[VillaCas]

If Lowton and Herd are CBs then I'm an F1 driver.

I imagine he played them because his 1st, 2nd, 3rd and 4th choices were all injured - who would you have played Bannan and Delph?

[gilbertoAVFC]

Nigel Adkins has a simiar CV. Is Adkins also a special manager?

Perhaps they are both just young managers who had a good run with their respective sides?

Well I'd say he's done very well with Southampton yes!

Are you serious? I genuinely can't tell. Equally, couldn't you say they are both good managers and one is going through a bad run because of a terrible set of circumstances? He's not covering himself in glory and has made a lot of mistakes, but perhaps these mistakes are exacerbated by the awful squad, relatively uncompetitive budget and excessively high expectations he has to deal with.

Edited January 9, 2013 by gilbertoAVFC

[VillaCas]

Nigel Adkins has a simiar CV. Is Adkins also a special manager?

Perhaps they are both just young managers who had a good run with their respective sides?

I never said Lambert was a "special" manager but I think he is a very decent one. In my opinion, one of the top ten managers working in the Premier League.

If Adkins can get Southampton up to mid-table I would think he was a decent manager too - although he has had slightly more resources than PL has had

[VillaForever1970]

I imagine he played them because his 1st, 2nd, 3rd and 4th choices were all injured - who would you have played Bannan and Delph?

Exactly.

Has anyone thought that the defending might be driving Lambert crazy as well, they plan all week and it goes out the window in 5 mins because the players just dont get it, cannot get it or dont have the ability or experience.

Lambert needs to find a way where the players 'get it' i imagine he is trying to figure this out. Unless he is some kind of spy actually trying to **** us over and doesnt give a monkeys if so we're defiantly ****.

[Laivasse]

I imagine he played them because his 1st, 2nd, 3rd and 4th choices were all injured - who would you have played Bannan and Delph?

No, he played them because he only bought one injury prone CB to replace two departures from an already threadbare defence.

Also you're responding to me without bothering to follow the argument of the person I was responding to. I wasn't criticising the idea of playing Herd and Lowton at CB, I was criticising the idea that they good enough for backup CBs therefore we had sufficient cover at the start of the season. And Lambert's '1st, 2nd, 3rd and 4th choices' have never been all injured; we don't know where Dunne falls in the pecking order atm but Clark has always been at least 3rd if not 2nd name on the teamsheet. Furthermore if you have injury problems at CB, probably one smart thing to do would be not to play 3 of them at once.

[VillaCas]

No, he played them because he only bought one injury prone CB to replace two departures from an already threadbare defence.

Also you're responding to me without bothering to follow the argument of the person I was responding to. I wasn't criticising the idea of playing Herd and Lowton at CB, I was criticising the idea that they good enough for backup CBs therefore we had sufficient cover at the start of the season. And Lambert's '1st, 2nd, 3rd and 4th choices' have never been all injured; we don't know where Dunne falls in the pecking order atm but Clark has always been at least 3rd if not 2nd name on the teamsheet. Furthermore if you have injury problems at CB, probably one smart thing to do would be not to play 3 of them at once.

They are not backup CBs they are emergency CBs

Dunne, Vlaar, Baker and Clark are the first four choices

We probably only afforded Vlaar because he was injury-prone. If he was not he would perhaps be a £10m CB. It's a gamble that PL was forced to take

If you can't work out why PL tried playing three together I'm not going to help you

I've gone over the reasons why I beleive Collins and Cuellar left a number of times

I'm guess PL may have signed a further, fifth CB if the funds had been available or if his target had been available or if he didn't think he had bigger priorities elsewhere

[LondonLax]

Exactly.

Has anyone thought that the defending might be driving Lambert crazy as well, they plan all week and it goes out the window in 5 mins because the players just dont get it, cannot get it or dont have the ability or experience.

Lambert needs to find a way where the players 'get it' i imagine he is trying to figure this out. Unless he is some kind of spy actually trying to **** us over and doesnt give a monkeys if so we're defiantly ****.

I think we all agree he is trying, but even McLeish was trying last season. The question is whether the task is beyond him or not.

[LondonLax]

Dunne, Vlaar, Baker and Clark are the first four choices

I suspect Dunne would have gotten the same treatment as Collins, Cuellar, Hutton and Warnock had he been fit. There is no way to know for sure but I suspect Dunne was never in the managers plans.

Lambert went into the season with 1 senior CB (who has a career history of injuries) and two young players with very little experience between them. It seemed reckless at the time but has proved catastrophic for our season.

[Big_John_10]

PL will turn this around - at the moment those of us backing him are in a minority. Stand up and be counted because it will be all the sweeter when he is succesful and we can say we were behind him all the time

Well if you want to show blind faith so you can possibly one day in the future say 'I told you so' then that's fine. But having a go at people who are actually basing their opinions on what they see and the facts in front of them is absolutely ridiculous.

You're basing your whole argument on his time at Norwich as a reason to blindly back him now. There are plenty of people in football, both managers and players, that have a few good years and then stall or drop completely. There is no guarantee that Lambert will be a success here so stop claiming it like its some sort of obvious truth.

I said in the summer the backing he received was not enough, my main issue at this club is the owner but surely you can't ignore how we've actually become worse than last year in pretty much every aspect.

Defending is much worse, he signed 3 defenders and we now have the worst defence in the league. As an attacking team we have been absolutely piss poor and we're on course to set a new historic low in terms of goals scored. The football we play on the whole has been abysmal and the fight and confidence in the team is pathetically low. Can't believe someone tried to excuse lambert for this and blame twitter and forums like this.

I'm seeing no improvement in the players through working with Lambert and his tactics have looked awful at times. Starting and sticking with the diamond midfield didn't make sense and his 3 defenders at the back experiment was unbelievably bad.

In the last 6 games we have conceded 21 goals and scored 4. I'm sorry but how on earth can you make excuses for the manager for that? How can you blame everyone but him?

[Laivasse]

They are not backup CBs they are emergency CBs

Dunne, Vlaar, Baker and Clark are the first four choices

We probably only afforded Vlaar because he was injury-prone. If he was not he would perhaps be a £10m CB. It's a gamble that PL was forced to take

If you can't work out why PL tried playing three together I'm not going to help you

I've gone over the reasons why I beleive Collins and Cuellar left a number of times

I'm guess PL may have signed a further, fifth CB if the funds had been available or if his target had been available or if he didn't think he had bigger priorities elsewhere

Baker and Clark should be our emergency CBs, because they are not good enough to play week in week out. Herd and Lowton are one level even below that as CB choices. Even if Dunne hadn't been injured, he's been nearing the end of his top flight career for a while. If Lambert was seriously counting on Dunne coming back and saving our season (which actually I doubt he was) then that's just another mark against him as far as I'm concerned. Thinking 'he had bigger priorities elsewhere' was part of Lambert's whole problem: buying 2-3 players who we'll need to wait years to see the best of, in positions where we already have players as good bad as they are, does NOT constitute a bigger priority than ensuring we have more than 1 serviceable CB.

I know why Lambert played 3 at the back - because he's tactically inept. He wants to play dynamic passing football, but he did it while deploying a deep-lying counterattacking formation. That left us shorthanded in midfield in order to fill our back line with players who can't defend. It also meant he played our only fit natural CBs along with one 'emergency' CB and the inevitable happened - we conceded a shitload and our defensive injury problems worsened. It's all on Lambert.

[Didiersix]

I think we all agree he is trying, but even McLeish was trying last season. The question is whether the task is beyond him or not.

Well we have to give him time to find out. To be honest, I am with him all the way - I don't really see any alternative.

In fact, I am behind him even if we get relegated, to give him the chance to 'burn it clean', get rid of all the deadwood and start again.

People talk about the extra £20 million TV money - well, we've got god knows how many millions of pounds being wasted on overpaid, undermotivated players. Let's clean it all up and start again.