Who do you want as the next manager? New poll option.

[Brian Taylor]

Lambert 6-4/13-8,  Martinez 2-1/6-4, Benitez 8-1/9-1.
No one else in the frame.

I stuck a tenner on Ole at 16-1 last night. Already got Lambert at 7-2.

[pauliewalnuts]

I don't really have anything against Martinez, but where I see a weakness with him is his sides play nice stuff, but seem to lack a backbone. 

I'd agree with that - he seemed to have trouble organising a defence, as well.

Although, to be honest, we've just had a season of playing terrible stuff whilst lacking a back bone, so even Martinez's thing would be an improvement.

[danlanza]

Lambert 6-4/13-8,  Martinez 2-1/6-4, Benitez 8-1/9-1.
No one else in the frame.

I stuck a tenner on Ole at 16-1 last night. Already got Lambert at 7-2.

A tenner on Ole? Do you know something Brian? Will there be Norwegian style name changes again across this forum?

[not3bad]

I'd agree with that - he seemed to have trouble organising a defence, as well.

Although, to be honest, we've just had a season of playing terrible stuff whilst lacking a back bone, so even Martinez's thing would be an improvement.

At the same time Martinez's side, on their day, are capable of beating anyone, which would be a big change from the depressingly predictable dirge we've been seeing.

[Holy Trinity]

the problem comparing the current villa squad to the current wigan squad is that wigans wage bill is probably a quarter of ours and there transfer budget was around 4 million a season, i know they splashed out on a 9 million flop *cough heskey balaban savo sasa the djemba twins hutton collins dunne beye cough* wigan done have a 20 goal a season striker in there squad and a potential 13-20 goal a season striker in there squad(gabby please dont laugh) we also have the core of a great passing team that i for one would like to see this line up

                  given
lichaj  new cb   clarke  delph

           gardner  bannan
albrighton                   n'zogbia
                    holman
                     bent
for those who think the midfield is to light i say swap gardner for makoun and rotate him and bannan. delph gards bannan and clarke can all pass the ball very nicely gards will be a steve gerrard type of player as he is his idol and he actually wants to be like him, ireland and gabby can be rotated or subbed for bent and holman and i tougher games n'zogbia can push right holman left and switch albrighton for makoun/petrov(hopefully)/delph  to make a traditional 451. the beauty of having a modern manager is that he will see all the things i have just said and more, houllier would have been a great villa manager if he didnt have dunne, collins, warnock, carew, and ireland all playing the twat, however if we keep dunne & collins & warnock & any other dissenters then bob martin will also fail, martinez will only work with 20 million kitty if we have to shift dunne and warnock to fund part of that 20 million so be it. we could probably replace them with free transfers of the same quality anyway as its silly season this summer players all over the world are out of contract and begging for a shot in the prem. we need to push away from MON ball which mean no to lambert for me and move in to the modern era not be a throwback to the 80's like stoke and for me norwich

[N'ZMAV]

Delph at left back... not a bad idea I think... Although, his tackling is toss, then again... so is Warnock's...

[DeKuip]

Wigan struggled to score goals last season, so at the end and in order to stay up he bravely changed his system to 3-5-2 to give support to the strikers and it worked. Credit for that.

Of course if he employed a three centre back system at VP - it would mean the end of Hutton and Warnock. That cannot be a bad thing.

It wasn't 3-5-2, Wigan played 3-4-3 for the back end of the season.

Martinez: “The difference is the width that we get…before, we had to compromise a little bit, when you want to be very attack-minded, the full-backs have to push on, so you leave two players at the back. Now you’re still pushing the wing-backs on, but you’ve still got three players at the back, plus probably a midfielder. In the West Brom game, as Paul Scharner will tell you, we were attacking with seven, eight, nine players and they were surprised it, and that’s what the system gives you, without being weak at the back.

“It suits our players. When you’ve got a Jean Beausejour who is a specialist in that position, you take advantage of that. The back three gives you that. Then there’s the energy we’ve got in midfield, players who can play between lines like Shaun Maloney and Jordi Gomez. It’s so difficult to play against…there’s a few clubs playing it around Europe now, Napoli are one: they play it with Cavani, Hamsik and Lavezzi…this is the advantage of this system – it goes where the danger is…it’s not in defensive lines, it’s not working as a unit of four, it’s not man-marking.”

[JUAN PABLO]

I would imagine we could get Diame on a free If RM is the manager.

[Holy Trinity]

Delph at left back... not a bad idea I think... Although, his tackling is toss, then again... so is Warnock's...

well he reminds me of n'zogbia and the zog started life as a left back, delph has stacks of pace, is aggressive as hell, can pass and shoot and dare i say if we are having 65% possession he wont be getting pissed off and making silly tackles trying to retrieve the ball. also will save us a potential 3-8 million quid on bringing in a new guy and we still have steves clarke baker lichaj & n'zogbia who can/have all covered that position in the past

[danlanza]

Get a tenner on Gollum from Blackpool ! "Blackpool state that they will not stand in his way if a Premiership club wants him". Oh shite!!

[Concrete John]

Villa in a 4-4-3?

Given

Baker - Dunne - Clark
Herd - Makoun - Ireland - Delph
N'Zogbia - Bent - Gabby

[hartman_1982]

I think the two players that would benefit most from us switching to a 3-4-3 would be Clark and Delph.

[Merv]

I've decided I'm totally undecided on Martinez. There are things I like about him, things I don't: as impressive as Wigan were over the last ten games, they were awful for the first 20-odd; I'd be concerned about why it took him so long to start playing Maloney, for example, and the state of the defence during that time. Wigan were also pretty bereft going forward.

On the other hand, the turnaround was striking, and I like a coach who is willing to change formation to suit the players he has. I always felt we were crying out for something similar, but we had a manager who tried to press one or two into roles that didn't suit. I also like a three-man defence - I recall suggesting the same during the midway point of last season and being roundly mocked on here, but it may have suited us.

All things considered, I'd be happy with Martinez - I'd have my doubts but he'd still be a positive step up from McLeish.

PS Not sure Martinez would move from Diame, as Wigan seemed to improve rapidly once he'd been left out of the side and McCarthy and McArthur installed as the midfield pair.

[Jimbo]

Martinez - Meh-tinez.

[PaulTheVillan]

If McLeish couldn't take us down, then I think whoever we appoint next season will be better :-D