Formation

[Loxton01]

Last night PL showed his continued naivety when asked about the system saying that the formation and system of play was irrelevant!!!

He continually changes the formation from game to game and to me it is having a massive impact on performance! One minute Bennett is a fb then a wingback then a lm. These kids need reassurance and guidance not constant change!!

I have backed PL till last week but for me he is compounding issues by constantly changing team formation. Yesterday first half five defenders vs cisse was ridicolous and smacked of a manager who is unprepared and disorganised!!

For me it's back to basics stick to a formation work on it in training!! Ok qpr may not be winning but there hard to beat organised and no their roles!! Can we say that about us!!

We have to play the best formation for our players! That for me is 4-3-3! Guzan Lowton dunne vlaar and Clark at lb! I can dream about a solid dcm to sit in front but it ain't happening so Delph and Westwood! Nzog in front with gabby and weimann supporting Benteke!!

Then stick to the shape work on it stop changing it.

Weimann would be first name on the sheet for me. How he was left out yesterday was a disgrace on current form!!

Lambert has been under pressure re wages from above but to not play our few players in form and constantly keep changing things is making us worse! He has to take a long hard look at his errors and learn from them bloody quick

[PaulWinch again]

4-4-2 or 4-2-3-1. Either way it HAS to be 4 at the back.

[Ducksworthy]

I noted this as a concern from Norwich fans a while ago, but our dear Dave Woodhall shot me down saying that Paul's incessant tinkering and lack of consistency was a plus point. The times, they are a changin'!

EDIT: Just looked it up and it wasn't Dave but someone else. Dave replied to whoever was replying to me; memory playing tricks on me - apologies, Dave!

[PaulMcGrathsNo5Shirt]

After 5 minutes you could see Newcastle's strategy. Get their wide forwards to push up on Bennett and Lowton, thus stopping them from pushing forward. This meant, everytime Krul had the ball he could throw it out to the full back unchallenged. As soon as Bannan or Westwood went to close down a gap was left in the middle that was exposed. Lambert could have changed this after 5 minutes without even making a substitution.

He could have done two things:

Move Clark to LB, Bennett to LM and N'Zogbia to RM
Move Clark to CM/DM Bannan to LM and N'Zogbia to RM

He did nothing until a few moments before Newcastle's 2nd goal. He'd gone 4-4-2 but N'Zogbia wasn't in position to play RM, and was still standing in the position to support Bent in the middle of the pitch thus leaving the area where Cabaye scored Villa player free.

Credit to Lambert for changing it at half time, but he should have done it earlier. I would like to see our possession stats for the 1st half an hour. If we had the ball for more than 40% of the time I would be surprised. I understand the tension, the need for keeping it tight but the starting formation really didn't help us at all last night.

I think the players HAVE got the fight for the scrap, I just don't think they have the right degree of coaching, leadership and ability to see it through.   

[onje_villa]

Agree entirely OP. Play a proper formation, make us work hard and use width and we'd be a half decent side.

[Risso]

He will persist with that abomination of a 5-3-2, despite us being royally buggered just about every time we've played it.  Bennett last night was woeful beyond belief.

[paul_e]

4231 is how we should be playing.

Even without signings it is the best use of what  we have.

[richtheholtender]

The changes at half-time obviously helped, but I think more than anything else we got to the stage at 2-0 last night where we had to just go for it. That response should have come at the Wigan game. The lack of dithering around and playing with more intent helped more than the changes.

[TheMalandro]

formation, what formation?

The tactics last night appeared to be to try and confuse Newcastle, in the end it nearly worked.

Pardew was probably thinking, what the fuck is going on here?

[UK Redsox]

Lambert's interview with Pat Murphy on R5 was pretty bizarre.

[Irish villain]

There is a gaping hole in the middle of our team.

I wish Lambert and Lerner would just plug it.

It would ease the pressur eon our defence and solidy the whole unit.

[David_Nab]

He will persist with that abomination of a 5-3-2, despite us being royally buggered just about every time we've played it.  Bennett last night was woeful beyond belief.

Thing is its more a 5-2-1-2 approach.It's convoluted beyond belief.Brain Little on the coms mentioned how in second half things improved as the players knew what they were supposed to be doing.Lowton got forward more as he had someone in front of him to take a man away from him.

I thought TSM 4-4-2 with Hutton RM and Heskey LM was the worst formation I could see us play ...I was wrong

[Mazrim]

4-3-3  or 4-3-1-2 from now on please.

[ktvillan]

Lambert is making O'Neill and even TSM look like Guardiola or Mourinho in terms of tactical astuteness.  Not an easy task, but that's a measure of how bad he's been in the last 6 or 7 games at least.  It doesn't augur well for next season, whichever division we end up in.

[pedro25]

4231 with N'Zog, Weimann, Gabby and Benkeke, means only two midfielders, maybe 2 and a half, bit too offensive for my liking, I'd have Holman or Bannan instead of a forward and go 442.