Manager Paul Lambert

[Zatman]

so if you expected us to finish 16th so why are you moaning that we are not overachieving?

[darrenm]

I didn't think I'd gone as high as 6th, I thought I'd said 8th. That must be in another topic. In January I remember altering it to 12th based on Lambert getting some money to spend, but he didn't.

 

That said, I don't think 12th will be too far off from where we finish.

[sne]

so if you expected us to finish 16th so why are you moaning that we are not overachieving?

If you loo in the actal thread you'll find i said 16-18 depending on us strenghtening in january, that was rounded up to 16 by the poster who made the list as it had to be a specific number.

 

And why would i moan if i thought we were overachieving?

[AvfcTheObsession]

Looking back I went for 15th, so we haven't actually been too much worse than I expected.

 

Anything between 13-17th would be acceptable to me this season.

 

If we go down then serious questions have to be asked of Lambert.

[MagicMushroom]

 

 

 

 

If we go down then serious questions have to be asked of Lambert.

 

 

 

Aswell as the owner and players

[Stevo985]

What i find a bit strange is that many of those who expected us to finish high up in the league and therefore ought to be most dissapointed by Lambert and the team are still his most vocal supporters and are still fiercly protective when someone dare to suggest that Lambert might have a few chinks in his shiny armour.

 

 

If someone isn't doing as well as you expected, it doesn't necessarily mean they're doing a bad job.

[darrenm]

 

What i find a bit strange is that many of those who expected us to finish high up in the league and therefore ought to be most dissapointed by Lambert and the team are still his most vocal supporters and are still fiercly protective when someone dare to suggest that Lambert might have a few chinks in his shiny armour.

 

 

If someone isn't doing as well as you expected, it doesn't necessarily mean they're doing a bad job.

 

Or, if a collective entity of many individuals conspire to not do as well as you expected, it doesn't necessarily mean that a single part of that entity is doing a bad job.

[sne]

 

 

What i find a bit strange is that many of those who expected us to finish high up in the league and therefore ought to be most dissapointed by Lambert and the team are still his most vocal supporters and are still fiercly protective when someone dare to suggest that Lambert might have a few chinks in his shiny armour.

 

 

If someone isn't doing as well as you expected, it doesn't necessarily mean they're doing a bad job.

 

Or, if a collective entity of many individuals conspire to not do as well as you expected, it doesn't necessarily mean that a single part of that entity is doing a bad job.

 

Agreed.

But it does mean he, they or it isn't living up to your expectations. 

 

As i said i don't think Lambert is doing a bad job after his ability we are performing pretty much as i expected (or feared) under Lambert which is why i wasn't very excited about us hiring him in the first place.

Mind you i wasn't against him, i was just a tad apprehensive and thought there be better options. And i have no idea if they had worked out better or even worse

Edited April 17, 2013 by sne

[Stevo985]

 

 

 

What i find a bit strange is that many of those who expected us to finish high up in the league and therefore ought to be most dissapointed by Lambert and the team are still his most vocal supporters and are still fiercly protective when someone dare to suggest that Lambert might have a few chinks in his shiny armour.

 

 

If someone isn't doing as well as you expected, it doesn't necessarily mean they're doing a bad job.

 

Or, if a collective entity of many individuals conspire to not do as well as you expected, it doesn't necessarily mean that a single part of that entity is doing a bad job.

 

Agreed.

But it does mean he, they or it isn't living up to your expectations. 

 

 

 

And, again, that doesn't necessarily mean he's doing a bad job.

[sne]

Nope your right, i just hope someday in the future we aspire to be more than just not bad

[Stevo985]

That's a completely separate point.

[samjp26]

1 point off my 14th place prediction which I guess we could still achieve, Lambo is the man for us still IMO

[Mendi]

if we stay up, i want Lambert out, we cant go true this again.

[villan_007]

if we stay up, i want Lambert out, we cant go true this again.

 

Yep good thinking - sack another manager and rebuild again next season. What can go wrong? I can't work out why this rebuilding thing isn't working instantly hmmmmm

[StefanAVFC]

if we stay up, i want Lambert out, we cant go true this again.

 

Then what'll happen? We get a new manager, with new ideas and spend another season rebuilding? No, we need to cut that shit out, suck it up and stick with PL.

[Zatman]

if we stay up, i want Lambert out, we cant go true this again.

 

and what type of manager could we attract that would mean we wont go through this again? Mourinho

[MagicMushroom]

if we stay up, i want Lambert out, we cant go true this again.

 

 

Its your opinion so fair play. But there are many other problems at our club than the manager. Our problems started well before Lambert.

[Condimentalist]

Some people in this thread are so myopic that they are unable to comprehend that it's possible to back the manager despite the league position being slightly lower than had been anticipated. For these binary individuals, for whom nuance is a foreign concept, allow me to elaborate - using my own experience - how this might be possible. 

 

I predicted us to finish 11th-14th this season. We still might, by the way, but (without wishing to tempt fate) it looks more likely that we'll finish up around 16th. I expected us to be in the bottom three at Christmas but to improve as the side got used to playing together, in this league, for this manager, and to pull clear over the latter half of the campaign. This HAS happened - but not as quickly as I'd hoped. The reason for that is the Chelsea game and the damage that this did over the Christmas/NY schedule - when so many points are up for grabs. I really think if we'd just got turned over 2-1 or 2-0 in that game we'd be about 12th at the moment. And we'd quite possible have won our first trophy in 17 years. 

 

But that's all speculation. The point is over that 90 minutes at the Bridge we embarrassed ourselves and derailed our season, losing crucial and winnable games in the proceeding weeks and getting done by Bradford in the cup. Lambert takes his share of the blame for that (although he must, too, take a good deal of credit for getting us to the semi in the first place). 

 

So after those dark few weeks, the important thing was not to get sucked down, to keep the players heads up in tough circumstances and get them playing. And he's done that. It's taken a while, but it's quite obviously happened. This is in spite of not receiving the backing that most of us, and certainly me, expected him to get in January. We still look shaky at the back, but we play some good stuff going forward and keep the ball better than any Villa side in years - and this is with a group of kids. Quite clearly there's reason for optimism next season - if people can't see that then I give up, frankly.

 

I don't think anybody would claim that Lambert is perfect, but he, too, is a young manager and learning. There's definitely been more good than bad, despite the darkness of December/January. In vague terms:

 

BAD:

Tactical naivety at times, especially persisting with 5-3-2, and some odd substitutions

Hasn't managed to improve our general defending enough, although he has sorted us out from set-pieces.

Alienated a good player in Darren Bent

 

GOOD:

Good eye for a player. Some absolute gems in there and no expensive flops.

Nice style to watch.

Upward trajectory of performances.

Long-term plan for how to grow the club. 

Has succeeded in getting the best out of the likes of Delph and N'Zogbia who looked like they might be heading for the scrapheap but are now important players.

 

I'm really looking forward to the next few years - I just hope we stay up.

[KennyPowers]

Some people in this thread are so myopic that they are unable to comprehend that it's possible to back the manager despite the league position being slightly lower than had been anticipated. For these binary individuals, for whom nuance is a foreign concept, allow me to elaborate - using my own experience - how this might be possible. 

 

 

Crowds are up, support is pretty good right now. What exactly are you looking for? 

 

We'll have to do better than 17th (possibly 18th after tonight) and knocked out of both cups by lower league opposition for some of us to be convinced of Lambert's divinity. There's nothing traiterous about that. 

 

We don't have a crop of young players like Man U did in 1995 and this isn't football manager, it's not as simple as buying youngsters and then being patient. 

[StefanAVFC]

 

Some people in this thread are so myopic that they are unable to comprehend that it's possible to back the manager despite the league position being slightly lower than had been anticipated. For these binary individuals, for whom nuance is a foreign concept, allow me to elaborate - using my own experience - how this might be possible. 

 

 

Crowds are up, support is pretty good right now. What exactly are you looking for? 

 

We'll have to do better than 17th (possibly 18th after tonight) and knocked out of both cups by lower league opposition for some of us to be convinced of Lambert's divinity. There's nothing traiterous about that. 

 

We don't have a crop of young players like Man U did in 1995 and this isn't football manager, it's not as simple as buying youngsters and then being patient. 

 

 

How can you possibly say that? It's too early to make distinctions either way and may I remind you, they just won the NextGen?