We're Aston Villa, we're passing the ball

[Jockey Randall]

So it's been just over 2 months since Lambert's jolly to Bayern Munich after which he remarked "I think what I saw there should probably stay in my own head." I think it's pretty obvious that it seeped out of his own head and that we're now watching a completely different style of play. Obviously it's tough to pin point the actual date of the shift in play but if we take the Leicester game from the 7th December (as Lambert went to Bayern that week) as a rough guide the effects of Lambert's experiment make pretty poor reading.

The stats in the league from the Leicester game onwards read:
Played - 11
Points won - 6
Times Villa had more possession than the opposition - 8/11 games

The stats before the Leicester game read:
Played - 14
Points won - 16
Times Villa had more possession than the opposition - 3/14 games

Now I'm not saying I was a massive fan of the way we played previously but you could argue it did at least get us the results that would probably not have us in the mess we're in. I also can't get my head around changing the way we play mid season? It just seems total madness and you could argue we're currently getting what we deserve by taking such a massive gamble. As far as I can see, going forward we have no where near the quality of player to be able to play the way we are and teams are happy to sit deep and let us control the game without ever causing the opposition any damage.

Assuming the club are consistent with the vibes coming out about backing Lambert to the hilt and he stays, can we really continue playing this way?

[Monty]

Lambert has never really understood possession football. It's probably a better starting strategy than his previous reactionary one, but it is actually hard and quite complicated to do well. It involves not just movement off the ball, but the right players moving in the right ways at the right times, and it lasts for 90 minutes plus. You can't just try, like, passing it a bit - it's got to be part of a larger plan.

The fact is that we can't really go back to our old reactive ways, because now we have to win games and force the issue. We don't even have the luxury of playing defensively anymore.

[Jimbo]

Lambert has never really understood football.

Fixed.

[not3bad]

The good news is that Lambert said we would no longer go down the "pretty" root from now on.

[FranzBiberkopf]

I'm all for flexibility in tactics, when they fall within the remit/guidelines of a larger consistent plan. What baffles me about Lambert is why the fcuk completely change the style, seemingly on a whim, halfway through a season? Bizarre. Truly, truly bizarre.

[passitsideways]

The problem is that Lambert has no fucking clue how to take the next step in turning possession into actually creating chances in the final third. Everyone just sort of mills around in front of the back four: basically nobody tries to make a run in behind, or makes forward runs from midfield into space, which makes it piss-easy for any defence to marshall, because all they have to do is stay in position, knowing that they don't have to worry about being dragged out of shape to cover an overload, or to pick up a loose midfielder.

I just think of Andi's goal against Hull (link:

), where Richardson makes a calculated gamble to break from his position, which gets him the ball in space in a dangerous position. Or Cole's goal at Burnley, where again, he picks the right time to move beyond where he normally should be. None of our midfielders do it constantly enough, and I suspect it's because they're shit-scared of being caught out of position in case we fuck it up.

[LeeB]

It struck me watching it last night, that we appeared to be expending much more energy pointlessly moving the ball across pitch than Hull were keeping us out, and were then woefully exposed to the counter.

Had Hull been a decent team, it could have been a big score last night. Fortunately they were an absolute meat-and-potatoes outfit content to sit deep and toss a few high balls down the channels. Still enough to completely outwit us mind.

[PeterWithesShin]

[UK Redsox]

Let's go back to this



It was a maximum of two passes and then they either shot and scored or shot and missed.

[Boz]

I'm sick of Lambert's trite comments on the Villa OS. Cliche after cliche when I'm sure he doesn't even understand what they mean. The latest win ugly is a real classic, given we've hardly been playing great footballing team at anytime this season and any sort of win would do. But to achieve a win requires goals, a rare commidity at B6  or anywhere these days and Lambert is incapable of getting this team playing with any enthusiasm.

If last night doesn't generate action from Lerner, then all the Premiership riches are due to be lost, probably forever, while Lambert remains manager.

[alanclare]

I took my grandson to watch Villa play Chelsea. We came away quite pleased with what we had witnessed, including a fine goal right in front of us in the Lower Holte.
Then last night happened.
I had an email this morning: "Thanks Grandad for taking me to watch the Villa game. It may be some time before we get the chance to see Chelsea at Villa Park again."
Out of the mouths.....