How would you feel....

[hilts_coolerking]

In my view you don't get anywhere long term sacking managers after a bad run. If we want to achieve anything in the next few years we need to stick by a manager.

I disagree with this.  If we want to achieve things we have to stick by the right manager.  Otherwise we might as well have kept TSM.  I haven't seen or heard anything to convince me that Lambert is the right manager.  All I hear is that there's no-one better available and that they wouldn't come, neither of which says much about the level of faith in Lambert.

[supertom]

I'm in no way defending some of the performances this season as some of the play is about as bad as it gets but I would be disappointed if he got the bullet. In my view you don't get anywhere long term sacking managers after a bad run. If we want to achieve anything in the next few years we need to stick by a manager. Football is full of clubs that sack managers as soon as things start going slightly sour and all they do is end up never having a settled team, spunking a load of cash everytime they make a change and then repeating the process 2 seasons later.

This is the unfortunate reality of Premiership football. In my view, long term, Lambert isn't good enough by himself. He needs an experienced right hand man, or D.O.F to help him along until he's good enough.

[Jon Crofts]

I'd like to hear the reasons for keeping Lambert first, just for balance and i mean football reasons like what it is exactly he brings to Villa rather than the usual we can't keep changing managers line that gets trotted out time and again. 

[hilts_coolerking]

I'd like to hear the reasons for keeping Lambert first, just for balance and i mean football reasons like what it is exactly he brings to Villa rather than the usual we can't keep changing managers line that gets trotted out time and again.

Spot on.  I asked exactly this on the match thread and Dave Cooper quite rightly pointed out it was a discussion for a different thread.  Well, here we are.  Let's hear it.

[Billy Walker]

I'd be very disappointed if we sacked the manager because we desperately need continuity and stability at Villa Park.  If, by season's end, we have finished comfortably mid-table I will view that as good progress and a base upon which to build again.     Having said that, I can't hide behind my disappointment in the past couple of performances - we have been wretched.  We're in poor form and need to lift ourselves out of it.

[supertom]

In my view you don't get anywhere long term sacking managers after a bad run. If we want to achieve anything in the next few years we need to stick by a manager.

I disagree with this.  If we want to achieve things we have to stick by the right manager.  Otherwise we might as well have kept TSM.  I haven't seen or heard anything to convince me that Lambert is the right manager.  All I hear is that there's no-one better available and that they wouldn't come, neither of which says much about the level of faith in Lambert.

If we showed a bit of ambition we could tempt a decent foreign coach. If they come for the money, so be it. But there-in lies the problem. I think Randy wants a budget side with a budget manager. I actually think old Wax face could do a good job here. He inherits a young, hard working side, which suits him. Despite the friction between him and the Villa fans, if you flash some cash in front of him and his dog, he'll come. Not that I'd be a big fan of him coming, on account of him being a twonk, but for me, he would improve us. He's steadied the ship at QPR now and weeded out most of the mercs he inherited.

Maybe an appointment in the Houllier vein would be the next logical step. Someone experienced to come in for a year or two, build something to put in place for a good young manager, with a forward thinking mentality.

[eric woolban woolban]

I'd like to hear the reasons for keeping Lambert first, just for balance and i mean football reasons like what it is exactly he brings to Villa rather than the usual we can't keep changing managers line that gets trotted out time and again.

I can't think of any genuine reason to keep him.

[curiousorange]

It's a paradox: I want continuity, but I wouldn't be at all bothered if Lambert went.

[pauliewalnuts]

I'd like to hear the reasons for keeping Lambert first, just for balance and i mean football reasons like what it is exactly he brings to Villa rather than the usual we can't keep changing managers line that gets trotted out time and again. 

Last year we had a very particular set of circumstances which got him more credit when he started the job, and although we were utterly awful for long periods, people cut him some slack, because they understood that he was trying to get us to play football again.

The way he'd get us to chase and harry the opposition when we didn't have possession, and turn that into counter attacks was impressive, and almost like a poorly executed version of the way Dortmund play.

That was certainly my take on it.

This year, we seem to be qualitatively worse than the same time last year. Not only that, but we also appear to have stopped trying to play football. Our only real tactic in matches is to sit back and lump it long. That is truly abysmal to watch.

His big mistake was to go out in the summer and spend all that money on players of largely the same level to what we already had. I don't really know why, for example, we bought Bowery (last season), Helenius and Kozak, for example, rather than use the transfer fee and wages freed up to improve the high quality points of the squad - ie go out and buy one player from a level above what we have now.

Not a single one of his signings in the summer looked that way.

I also appreciate the injuries, but it's not as if we're the only team that has them. We lost Okore which was unfortunate, but I'd personally like to see more evidence of what he can do than that CL performance against Chelsea last year before I start to curse his absence as the major influencing factor.

Lambert needs to sort it out, and quickly. That also means he's going to have to buy in January, and it needs to be someone appreciably better than what we have now, not yet another punt on some cheap, unproven player, because we have a squad full of those.

If - if - we move closer to the relegation spots over the next few weeks, then he's going to need support again if he wants to keep people on board, and it's hard to see him getting as much as he did last season given the abysmal, Stoke-esque style of play we appear to have taken on this term.

[PaulWinch again]

It's like I've said previously, Villa are like the England cricket team. We've been limping along for a while playing poorly but still getting results, unfortunately sooner or later you don't get those results and you're left with very little. People ignore a lot of issues when you're winning, because they can rationalised away. However once you start losing, then those issues become very apparent. Villa have issues all over the field, one defender away from defensive catastrophe, midfield that doesn't influence or control, attack that produces nothing. 

[hilts_coolerking]

Continuity is meaningless, and quite possibly counter-productive, if the man in possession of the job isn't the right man.

[MarkM]

I think he is out of his depth and its time to make the change

People seem to think that with a bit more time suddenly things will click and all will be well.

I just don't see that as a reality

We are a poor footballing team that has dished up some turgid stuff

He should have got the bullet after last December

PL is just not upto managing a club the size of and with the expectation of Aston Villa

[sirlordbaltimore]

Relieved.

[curiousorange]

A lot of people (mainly fans of other local teams, admittedly) have repeatedly told me they don't rate Lambert as a manager. From the outside looking in, I think they've probably got a point.

[PaulWinch again]

I'd like to hear the reasons for keeping Lambert first, just for balance and i mean football reasons like what it is exactly he brings to Villa rather than the usual we can't keep changing managers line that gets trotted out time and again. 

Last year we had a very particular set of circumstances which got him more credit when he started the job, and although we were utterly awful for long periods, people cut him some slack, because they understood that he was trying to get us to play football again.

The way he'd get us to chase and harry the opposition when we didn't have possession, and turn that into counter attacks was impressive, and almost like a poorly executed version of the way Dortmund play.

That was certainly my take on it.

This year, we seem to be qualitatively worse than the same time last year. Not only that, but we also appear to have stopped trying to play football. Our only real tactic in matches is to sit back and lump it long. That is truly abysmal to watch.

His big mistake was to go out in the summer and spend all that money on players of largely the same level to what we already had. I don't really know why, for example, we bought Bowery (last season), Helenius and Kozak, for example, rather than use the transfer fee and wages freed up to improve the high quality points of the squad - ie go out and buy one player from a level above what we have now.

Not a single one of his signings in the summer looked that way.

I also appreciate the injuries, but it's not as if we're the only team that has them. We lost Okore which was unfortunate, but I'd personally like to see more evidence of what he can do than that CL performance against Chelsea last year before I start to curse his absence as the major influencing factor.

Lambert needs to sort it out, and quickly. That also means he's going to have to buy in January, and it needs to be someone appreciably better than what we have now, not yet another punt on some cheap, unproven player, because we have a squad full of those.

If - if - we move closer to the relegation spots over the next few weeks, then he's going to need support again if he wants to keep people on board, and it's hard to see him getting as much as he did last season given the abysmal, Stoke-esque style of play we appear to have taken on this term.

I think that's it, all we seem to be doing is filling up the squad with players who aren't good enough. We need a player in every area of the pitch who costs more and is of better quality.