Manager Paul Lambert

[VillaCas]

 

I'm kind of frustrated with lambert this season in his tactics. His transfer policy has been very good throughout his career, and even at VIlla personally I think he's done a great job, and it's very progressive and Dortmund like in how it's done. Obviously it's hard to replicate their success, but his philosophy and even the results have worked out very well over his career. He's also very good at getting the most out of players at his clubs. However, unlike the Norwegian manager I posted about in other football and the Klopps of the world, he's unwilling to maybe sacrifice a few results in the short term in order to develop players and really help the club in the long term. 

 

I'm still a big Lambert fan, and his Norwich side actually did play pretty decent football, not posession based but they were constantly attacking and were really thrilling to watch a lot of the time. He hasn't gotten that style at Villa yet, and I find that frustrating.

 

Is he great at getting the best out of his players?  I haven't seen much evidence of that so far at Villa.  Even if you take the likes of Bent out of the equation, lots of players like Weimann, Westwood and Gabby are having rotten seasons so far this year.

 

 

...and yet we are 4 points better off than the same fixtures last season - Go figure!!

 

[Keyblade]

 

Was reading on another site from a poster who thinks he's one of the worst managers we've had, that he has signed 17 players, spending £37mill. Now I disagree with all of it, but can anyone confirm that these are not facts and just ignorant bull??

 

He's spent more than that.  £22m in year 1, £20m this.  Other than Benteke, hard to point at a player who has been an out and out success, and he's spent a fair bit quite badly, e.g. £7m on Kozak.

 

 

Well, wow. Guzan? Lowton, Westwood, Sylla (based on last season's form)? And how can you say that he spent the Kozak money (which wasn't 7M btw) badly when he's played what, 4 games?

[VillanousOne]

The present frustrations are probably more down to the every day pitfalls of football than Lambert.

1) Gabby has not been fit or necessarily been played in the right position.

Solution - well it seems he is injured again so that takes care of itself

2) Lowton has been dropped due to lack of form

Solution - get him back in the team and firing on all cylinders - he is one of our best players and I would say sets a fair amount of our forward play that we now lack in motion. We miss him.
Bacuna is awesome but should be used in midfield.

3) All annoyed we signed Kozak instead of a creative midfielder

Solution - hope Kozak scores and starts looking a good buy or just puzzle as he warms the bench as we struggle

4) Helenius, Tonev???

Solution - perservere and give them more game time, Tonev at least has started to show glimmers of what he was bought for.

 

5) Westwood and Weimann

Solution: Drop and give other players a chance.

6) KEA

Solution: Well we look better with him than we do Westwood

7) Sylla

Solution: My opinion is we need Sylla to the middle donkey work if we expect Delph to have more impact

8) Tekkers

Solution: Hope he is match fit and starts playing well again

 

 

[PaulC]

6) I don't think we do actually but I agree Sylla should play

[1974Centenary]

 

 

I'm kind of frustrated with lambert this season in his tactics. His transfer policy has been very good throughout his career, and even at VIlla personally I think he's done a great job, and it's very progressive and Dortmund like in how it's done. Obviously it's hard to replicate their success, but his philosophy and even the results have worked out very well over his career. He's also very good at getting the most out of players at his clubs. However, unlike the Norwegian manager I posted about in other football and the Klopps of the world, he's unwilling to maybe sacrifice a few results in the short term in order to develop players and really help the club in the long term. 

 

I'm still a big Lambert fan, and his Norwich side actually did play pretty decent football, not posession based but they were constantly attacking and were really thrilling to watch a lot of the time. He hasn't gotten that style at Villa yet, and I find that frustrating.

 

Is he great at getting the best out of his players?  I haven't seen much evidence of that so far at Villa.  Even if you take the likes of Bent out of the equation, lots of players like Weimann, Westwood and Gabby are having rotten seasons so far this year.

 

 

...and yet we are 4 points better off than the same fixtures last season - Go figure!!

 

 

Ah yes the measure of a great club and its progression to greatness.

[Big_John_10]

I'm kind of frustrated with lambert this season in his tactics. His transfer policy has been very good throughout his career, and even at VIlla personally I think he's done a great job, and it's very progressive and Dortmund like in how it's done. Obviously it's hard to replicate their success, but his philosophy and even the results have worked out very well over his career. He's also very good at getting the most out of players at his clubs. However, unlike the Norwegian manager I posted about in other football and the Klopps of the world, he's unwilling to maybe sacrifice a few results in the short term in order to develop players and really help the club in the long term.

I'm still a big Lambert fan, and his Norwich side actually did play pretty decent football, not posession based but they were constantly attacking and were really thrilling to watch a lot of the time. He hasn't gotten that style at Villa yet, and I find that frustrating.

Is he great at getting the best out of his players? I haven't seen much evidence of that so far at Villa. Even if you take the likes of Bent out of the equation, lots of players like Weimann, Westwood and Gabby are having rotten seasons so far this year.

...and yet we are 4 points better off than the same fixtures last season - Go figure!!

I actually think this season will be better than last but you seem to change your criteria to fit your argument.

Last year you constantly compared the end of mcleish's season with the start of Lambert's. You refused to compare that start of one with the other.

Now rather than sticking with the same criteria you're now comparing like for like games.

Not really against your view as this year I agree with it more but shouldn't you be a bit more consistent with how you compare things?

[TRO]

Was reading on another site from a poster who thinks he's one of the worst managers we've had, that he has signed 17 players, spending £37mill. Now I disagree with all of it, but can anyone confirm that these are not facts and just ignorant bull??

 

He's spent more than that.  £22m in year 1, £20m this.  Other than Benteke, hard to point at a player who has been an out and out success, and he's spent a fair bit quite badly, e.g. £7m on Kozak.

 

By my reckoning he's bought 16 players in and shifted 18 players out, spending around £37m net. Around £2m a player - not much in modern terms. He's also cut the wage bill substainially

 

I think PL has bought extremely well given the constrictions imposed on him. Many of his signings I suspect are stop-gaps or prospects to get us through the short-term until PLs real targets begin to arrive (Benteke, Okore-type players). Now he has a foundation to build on I think he will start to bring in more player like Kiyotake who we were chasing in the summer. I also doubt we would lose any money on PLs transfer activity so far

 

There is much talk about what PL style of football is - I would say that he is employing one style now to maintain Premiership football in the short term but longer term we will see a completely different style appear as more talented players are available to him.

 

We improved as the year went on last year, we are 4 points better off this year than the same fixtures last year so decent progress. We will rid the club of the final high salary players this season and then can look forward to further progress. I'm expecting PL to get us near to Europa League positions next season and any progress after that will depend on Lerners ambition and support. As PL has said himself, patience is needed

 

 

Nice to see "fans" writing off Kozak in the same way Benteke was written off last year

good post that.

 

with regards to Kozak we can only say what we see.... its not our job to be a fortune teller.

He may come really good in which case he will get the plaudits he deserves....we are paying customers, its the mangers job to employ patience and judgement on a players progress...its our job to support the team and react to the action...good or bad ( I guess when its bad we hope the fans are lenient)

[TRO]

The present frustrations are probably more down to the every day pitfalls of football than Lambert.

1) Gabby has not been fit or necessarily been played in the right position.

Solution - well it seems he is injured again so that takes care of itself

2) Lowton has been dropped due to lack of form

Solution - get him back in the team and firing on all cylinders - he is one of our best players and I would say sets a fair amount of our forward play that we now lack in motion. We miss him.

Bacuna is awesome but should be used in midfield.

3) All annoyed we signed Kozak instead of a creative midfielder

Solution - hope Kozak scores and starts looking a good buy or just puzzle as he warms the bench as we struggle

4) Helenius, Tonev???

Solution - perservere and give them more game time, Tonev at least has started to show glimmers of what he was bought for.

 

5) Westwood and Weimann

Solution: Drop and give other players a chance.

6) KEA

Solution: Well we look better with him than we do Westwood

7) Sylla

Solution: My opinion is we need Sylla to the middle donkey work if we expect Delph to have more impact

8) Tekkers

Solution: Hope he is match fit and starts playing well again

Agree with just about all of that except Gabby playing out of position....that's an old chesnut I don't subscribe to....The good forwards would cut inside scores goals and prove that the manager is playing them in the wrong position.The injury yes, but not playing in the wrong position...if he was in midfield or defence it might have some credence. too many fans cover him in excuses.

[VillanousOne]

Agree with just about all of that except Gabby playing out of position....that's an old chesnut I don't subscribe to....The good forwards would cut inside scores goals and prove that the manager is playing them in the wrong position.The injury yes, but not playing in the wrong position...if he was in midfield or defence it might have some credence. too many fans cover him in excuses.

 

 

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Ok i get what you are saying but in recent weeks - he has seemed to play more central rather than on the wing and cutting in which he does quite well usually, it might be down to him how and where he plays rather than the manager, but Lambert definitely keeps switching Gabby, Weimann and Tonev around which i don't think helps.

 

[TRO]

Agree with just about all of that except Gabby playing out of position....that's an old chesnut I don't subscribe to....The good forwards would cut inside scores goals and prove that the manager is playing them in the wrong position.The injury yes, but not playing in the wrong position...if he was in midfield or defence it might have some credence. too many fans cover him in excuses.

 

 

---------------

 

Ok i get what you are saying but in recent weeks - he has seemed to play more central rather than on the wing and cutting in which he does quite well usually, it might be down to him how and where he plays rather than the manager, but Lambert definitely keeps switching Gabby, Weimann and Tonev around which i don't think helps.

Villanous one

 

Its like what comes first the chicken or the egg, Gabby has been played to one side to play a player that can usually score goals every game( not just lately granted)

He has been played in his favoured position and consistently not scored hence the move to accommodate his natural pace.

[SikhInTrinity]

Gabby did play central against Everton. No point of playing Central if you can't finish from 6 yards and he's done that twice this year.

[Risso]

TRO - seriously fella, you only need to press the quote button once!

[BOF]

TRO - seriously fella, you only need to press the quote button once!

Fixed.

[Skruff]

 

 

Saying we could've spent our money better is just blind speculation.

 

 

 

 

 

 

I haven't written Kozak off, I just think that with the striking options we have, the money would have been better spent on our pathetic midfield.

You said it was spent badly, but 2)if Kozak turns out to be a good player then how can that be money badly spent?

 

 

1)Because we have better players in his position already, and relatively speaking the midfield is a lot weaker than the forward department.

 

Yes we do but that doesn't mean the money was spent badly exactly. 1)I agree about midfield but to be honest I think our midfield looks pretty solid with Sylla in it instead of Westwood/KEA. Probably my biggest gripe with Lambert right now is the lack of game time Sylla is getting.

 

(1) You agreed yourself that the midfield relatively speaking is a lot weaker then the forward department. Saying that the money on Kozak might have been spent better somewhere else(ie: on the midfield) / was poorly spent(ie: not spending them on the midfield) is more then fair in my opinion, looking at his preformance as per today. If you want to call that pure speculation, that's fine by me. But surely you should be able to see Rissos point seing that you agreed with him. (2)I think it's a weak argument to call something blind speculation when you're doing the exact same thing to make a point a few posts back. I'm sorry for getting at your back Mantis, but at times I feel we're just ending up arguing for the sake of arguing and it's not even remotely close to being a constructive discussion.

However this is all in hindsight, a backup for Benteke was needed. I agree with that, and Kozak looked the mark to be a backup for Benteke(Not a direct replacement). The fact that Kozak has had a few bad games doesn't mean we should write him off yet. He might turn out to be a very useful player to us. But I certainly understand why people feel that the money should have been spent elsewhere, if you look at his last few appearances. But t maybe his goal at Norwhich is what keeps us up this season, you'll never know. But that's just blind speculation

I believe we had a few targets of creative midfielders we wanted at the club, none of the transfer targets came thru. I think this is a position we want a player who can fit right in, and all ready got a certain quality over himself and also has a good all around game(not a luxury player). Therefore we're waiting untill the right quality is available at the right price, as it's obvious that theres some budget restrains and that Lambert is reluctant to overspend/being squeezed in the market. Lambert got a long term vision. He has enough faith in our current squad to believe they will keep us afloat until January or through the whole season. I have a feeling we might see something come in, in January though. We're building piece by piece, and I'm not expecting instant success and I don't think we'd get a successful creative midfielder for the price of 4.5-7.5million anyways. I got no quarrels with the signing of Kozak, but it doesn't look as good as signing as other signing Lambert has made so far. But you can't win them all!

I remain faithful, until January. At least. 

 

[Mantis]

(1) You agreed yourself that the midfield relatively speaking is a lot weaker then the forward department. Saying that the money on Kozak might have been spent better somewhere else(ie: on the midfield) / was poorly spent(ie: not spending them on the midfield) is more then fair in my opinion, looking at his preformance as per today. If you want to call that pure speculation, that's fine by me. But surely you should be able to see Rissos point seing that you agreed with him. (2)I think it's a weak argument to call something blind speculation when you're doing the exact same thing to make a point a few posts back. I'm sorry for getting at your back Mantis, but at times I feel we're just ending up arguing for the sake of arguing and it's not even remotely close to being a constructive discussion.

 

We have no idea who the money would've been spent on had we bought a midfielder with that money and we don't know how the player would've turned out.

[TRO]

TRO - seriously fella, you only need to press the quote button once!

 

TRO - seriously fella, you only need to press the quote button once!

Risso...I need some tuition

[VillaCas]

 

 

 

I'm kind of frustrated with lambert this season in his tactics. His transfer policy has been very good throughout his career, and even at VIlla personally I think he's done a great job, and it's very progressive and Dortmund like in how it's done. Obviously it's hard to replicate their success, but his philosophy and even the results have worked out very well over his career. He's also very good at getting the most out of players at his clubs. However, unlike the Norwegian manager I posted about in other football and the Klopps of the world, he's unwilling to maybe sacrifice a few results in the short term in order to develop players and really help the club in the long term.

I'm still a big Lambert fan, and his Norwich side actually did play pretty decent football, not posession based but they were constantly attacking and were really thrilling to watch a lot of the time. He hasn't gotten that style at Villa yet, and I find that frustrating.

Is he great at getting the best out of his players? I haven't seen much evidence of that so far at Villa. Even if you take the likes of Bent out of the equation, lots of players like Weimann, Westwood and Gabby are having rotten seasons so far this year.

...and yet we are 4 points better off than the same fixtures last season - Go figure!!

I actually think this season will be better than last but you seem to change your criteria to fit your argument.

Last year you constantly compared the end of mcleish's season with the start of Lambert's. You refused to compare that start of one with the other.

Now rather than sticking with the same criteria you're now comparing like for like games.

Not really against your view as this year I agree with it more but shouldn't you be a bit more consistent with how you compare things?

 

 

Last year I compared the last half of McLeishs reign (in fact the whole of McL's season) with the first season of Lambert's reign and as you know, what it clearly showed was that under McL we got worse as his season progressed, and under Lambert we progressed steadily until Christmas, were very, very poor for a 5-6 game spell and then recovered to progress well towards the end of the season. Our form during 2013 was mid-table form

 

We don't have enough data to see a clear trend yet this year although what we do have shows that we have not been quite as successful, purely in points terms, as the end of last year. However, this in large part is probably due to the fact that we have played last years 2nd, 3rd, 4th, 5th, 6th and 7th place teams in our first 9 games, therefore a like for like comparison of fixtures seems to me to be a very fair comparison

 

Once we've played the next five games I think we will be in a position to see some kind of trend. If we are not progressing as we have done in the past I'll happily accept that - Although, I'm not expecting that our hoped-for progress will be a constant and steady rise up the league - very many factors, injury, loss of form etc etc will impact and whilst I expect us to progess in the meduim term, in the short term it will undoubtedly be up and down

 

I don't think we are playing as attractively as at the end of last year but to me we look more solid and have had a much better haul of points than I was expecting when the fixtures were announced

 

I don't think everything is perfect - for example, I too am waiting to see a little more from Kozak, however, unlike some others I'm conscious that, for a young player, in a new country, with a new team and in the most competitive league in the world, you might need more than 2 or 3 starts and a handful of substitute minutes to show your worth

 

I'm sticking with my 100% support for Lambert and for me he is taking us in the right direction. Obviously BJ you are welcome to provide any stats that you think prove whatever  point you are trying to make

Edited November 1, 2013 by VillaCas

[sne]

Iffy links to young defenders/Midfielder Pontus Jansson (Malmö FF) & Lewis Kidd (Celtic).

2 talented players but who can't be expected to improve our starting 11 for a couple of seasons.

 

Still not sure if Lerner & Lambert are building a team for the future or for the Championship.

 

Then again it's probaly nothing in the links and we hopefully have better players lined up to address the very obvious and glaring weaknesses in our team

[VillaCas]

Iffy links to young defenders/Midfielder Pontus Jansson (Malmö FF) & Lewis Kidd (Celtic).

2 talented players but who can't be expected to improve our starting 11 for a couple of seasons.

 

Still not sure if Lerner & Lambert are building a team for the future or for the Championship.

 

Then again it's probaly nothing in the links and we hopefully have better players lined up to address the very obvious and glaring weaknesses in our team

 

I'm not too unhappy with our squad - at the moment we are a lower-mid-table team and the squad reflects that.

 

Sadly, we've been in transition for four seasons but Lambert has only been at it for 12 months - he's already completely revamped the squad during tricky economic times and I'm looking forward to the gradual improvement to personnel as we move forward and see no reason why this shouldnt include promising youngsters alongside more experienced players

[KHV]

 

Iffy links to young defenders/Midfielder Pontus Jansson (Malmö FF) & Lewis Kidd (Celtic).

2 talented players but who can't be expected to improve our starting 11 for a couple of seasons.

 

Still not sure if Lerner & Lambert are building a team for the future or for the Championship.

 

Then again it's probaly nothing in the links and we hopefully have better players lined up to address the very obvious and glaring weaknesses in our team

 

I'm not too unhappy with our squad - at the moment we are a lower-mid-table team and the squad reflects that.

 

Sadly, we've been in transition for four seasons but Lambert has only been at it for 12 months - he's already completely revamped the squad during tricky economic times and I'm looking forward to the gradual improvement to personnel as we move forward and see no reason why this shouldnt include promising youngsters alongside more experienced players

 

I think the squad is dreadful. There are about 4/5 players of any quality and the rest are all very mediocre at best, we will really struggle when Benteke is sold on