Turmoil

[Archbishop Herbert Cockthrottle]

I was always told as a child that 'a fox smells his own hole'.

[joe_c]

The media silence about Lambert's incompetence is something else. The Graun mentioned us in their Ten Things We Learned From The Weekend blog, to the effect merely that 1) Lambert might start to lose popularity and 2) maybe its our fault anyway, as the team plays with 'greater freedom' away from home. The idea that the general fan position on Lambert is anything other than overwhelmingly negative has failed to penetrate the general mediasphere, as have his amazing statistics accrued during his time here.

On Tom Fox, who knows, he might be the next Billy Beane or whatever, but coming from Arsenal doesn't necessarily suggest someone used to knowing when to fire a manager, or with experience of hiring a new one (though it might have left him with a certain minimum standard as to how modern top-flight football should be played, which would be something).

I don't think it is overwhelmingly negative though. The majority perhaps and a vocal one at that but I don't think the opposition is at pitchforks and blazing torches level yet. It was only very late against Burnley that the Lambert out chants began and the same was the case at West Ham. Any anger at the Spurs result was largely towards the officials though I can't comment on the Southampton game as I wasn't there but did it happen?  I accept that there will be an element of supporting the team first and foremost before turning your ire towards the manager at the end rather than let rip from the beginning.

Lambert for me is in a curious limboland where he's not good enough to do the job but not doing badly enough to warrant the sack. I can't bring myself to actively want us to lose to bring about his dismissal. I'd accept it if it happened, shrug my shoulders and say it's probably for the best but I would much rather we started winning.

[Monty]

I suppose what I mean is that, if you asked the fans if he should go, there'd probably be a large majority in favour of him going and going now. It's not as active as it was with McLeish, let alone DOL, but I think the consensus is there. I suppose the AVST survey will tell us.

[joe_c]

I was hoping Tom Fox was going to steady the ship a bit but it may have gone too far for a quick turnaround. He may be merely "rearranging the deckchairs on the Titanic".

Tom Fox's appointment isn't going to arrest a dire situation. The slide that set in during 2010 has gathered pace this season and will see the club finally relegated to the Championship. Two questions: Have we scored a single goal in the second half of any game this season? and, what was the last goal scored by a Villa player at the Holte End?

Sorry, but this is a complete and utter non statistic. The same was said last year about goals at the Witton End. There's not a lot of control we have over the toss and one won or lost the other way will mean goals at the opposite end. Granted that the goals scored total is pitiable but this is just looking for more stuff to moan about.

[RussellC]

Lambert for me is in a curious limboland where he's not good enough to do the job but not doing badly enough to warrant the sack. I can't bring myself to actively want us to lose to bring about his dismissal. I'd accept it if it happened, shrug my shoulders and say it's probably for the best but I would much rather we started winning.

Oh, don't get me wrong - if I could wave a magic wand it would be in order to get us playing well and winning under the current set-up (and I include Lerner in that). I just don't see how, after all of this time and the consistency of our poor footballing performances, anything other than a change of manager is going to make a difference.

[chrisw1]

It may not be as irrelevant as you think.  We tend to kick towards the Holt in the second half.  So, without doing the research I'd guess it means we very rarely score in the second half at home, which may be a pointer to one of our footballing / tactical problems?  Ie - get our noses in front, sit back, concede late, go home frustrated.

[Archbishop Herbert Cockthrottle]

Can we not use the phrase 'noses in front' please?
It makes me feel bilious.

[pauliewalnuts]

Lambert for me is in a curious limboland where he's not good enough to do the job but not doing badly enough to warrant the sack. I can't bring myself to actively want us to lose to bring about his dismissal. I'd accept it if it happened, shrug my shoulders and say it's probably for the best but I would much rather we started winning.

I agree with the second bit but not the first.

I reckon Lambert has had several times when he has put together periods like this which would have got just about any other manager the sack, I think he is very lucky (if that is the right word) to still be in a job. His record, even when compared to the mediocrity of lots of other Villa managers, is awful.

He has lost 49 of the 102 (or is it 103 now?) matches he has been our manager for.

But, despite all of that, I entirely agree with you on the wanting us to start winning thing. If it were up to me, I'd sack Lambert today. If I had the choice between that (which would mean all the usual wasting money on compensation) and us starting to be something even approaching acceptable in terms of results, I'd go for the latter.

The problem is, over two and a bit years, I just can't see anything like enough evidence to suggest he knows how to do that.

At various points he has pulled out a performance and a result that has been extremely impressive. unfortunately, he then tends to put together a run which is far, far worse than what came before, which makes the brief spark of improvement pretty worthless.

[silhillvilla]

There comes a point where something has to be done, before it's too late. My fear is the present board won't see this or don't want to see this point in time. Then it's too late. Not May teams survive the drop once you're in the bottom 3 around dec / jan time.

[Dave]

It may not be as irrelevant as you think.  We tend to kick towards the Holt in the second half.  So, without doing the research I'd guess it means we very rarely score in the second half at home, which may be a pointer to one of our footballing / tactical problems?  Ie - get our noses in front, sit back, concede late, go home frustrated.

Absolutely - and here is that research.

Since we played Cardiff at the start of November last year we've scored two goals in the second half of league matches at Villa Park (Benteke's consolation against Arsenal and Delph's winner against Chelsea). It goes up to a whopping three if we include Helenius' in the cup defeat to Sheffield Utd.

That can definitely put in the 'not good enough' file.

[UK Redsox]

Baker & Kelly - The University of Turmoil

http://www.internettreehouse.co.uk/audio/turmil.mp3

http://www.internettreehouse.co.uk/audio/turml.mp3

[mrastonvilla]

It may not be as irrelevant as you think.  We tend to kick towards the Holt in the second half.  So, without doing the research I'd guess it means we very rarely score in the second half at home, which may be a pointer to one of our footballing / tactical problems?  Ie - get our noses in front, sit back, concede late, go home frustrated.

Absolutely - and here is that research.

Since we played Cardiff at the start of November last year we've scored two goals in the second half of league matches at Villa Park (Benteke's consolation against Arsenal and Delph's winner against Chelsea). It goes up to a whopping three if we include Helenius' in the cup defeat to Sheffield Utd.

That can definitely put in the 'not good enough' file.

Grant Holt scored in front of the Holte in the second half of the match against Fulham. Doesn't make it much better though!

[Villa in Denmark]

Lambert for me is in a curious limboland where he's not good enough to do the job but not doing badly enough to warrant the sack. I can't bring myself to actively want us to lose to bring about his dismissal. I'd accept it if it happened, shrug my shoulders and say it's probably for the best but I would much rather we started winning.

I can't think of another club at any professional level, where the current run wouldn't have got him the sack.
Or the run at the end of last season.
Or the run over Christmas in his first season.
Or the accumulated picture that from around the time of the Chelsea game last year, results have got progressively worse and we're now in a nosedive.

I think that Christmas in his first season broke him. He kept doing the same thing as earlier in the season because he couldn't think what else to do (rabbit in headlights.)

He took stock that first summer, basically shit himself at how close we'd come, resolved that we'd be tighter defensively with the 18 months of banging heads against walls that have followed (rabbit in headlights again)

I think he could get us playing half decent stuff based on the odd glimpses we see and what we saw at Norwich.  Unfortunately he no longer trusts himself or his players.

[joe_c]

It may not be as irrelevant as you think.  We tend to kick towards the Holt in the second half.  So, without doing the research I'd guess it means we very rarely score in the second half at home, which may be a pointer to one of our footballing / tactical problems?  Ie - get our noses in front, sit back, concede late, go home frustrated.

Absolutely - and here is that research.

Since we played Cardiff at the start of November last year we've scored two goals in the second half of league matches at Villa Park (Benteke's consolation against Arsenal and Delph's winner against Chelsea). It goes up to a whopping three if we include Helenius' in the cup defeat to Sheffield Utd.

That can definitely put in the 'not good enough' file.

Now that *is* a proper statistic. And a damning one at that. My point was more that the end is irrelevant as it depends on the toss which end we play towards in each half. Looking through the rsults over the last year or so it occurred to me that the last Villa player to score at the Holte End might be Jordan Bowery before realising that it was in fact Aly Cissokho.

[WestleyArmsAV]

It also shows how teams perceive us these days, how they rarely make us play to the Holte first half, we have not surely won every toss over the last year.

UTV