Lambert in or out? Poll reset with majority 'in', 7th May

[not3bad]

How could we be worse if we sacked Lambert?  Could the defence get any worse?  Could we be more disorganised?  Could we score fewer goals?

We may - I pray - be sorting out signings right now. Some of them might be decent. Changing manager now would kybosh that for starters.

Put it this way, if we're not sorting out reinforcements, then I think we are fucked, whoever the manager.

I'd at least rather go down fighting than meekly giving up without a fight like we do under Lambert.  His idea to motivate people is to mutter something about "going again" and treating defeat and wins in the same way.  Does anybody imagine that Alex Ferguson treats his rare defeats in the same way he does a win?  I'm sorry, but Lambert is a small club manager in a similar style to Owen Coyle, who should have stayed where he was comfortable and left the big job to somebody else.  The only possible argument against getting rid of him is the thought of what that utter pair of cretins Lerner and Faulkner would try next.

You've no idea how Lambert reacts with the players. nor Ferguson for that matter (tea cup kicking episode aside).

I'm sick to death of the short-term thought process people are taking, more than I'm sick of being kicked every week.

We have to stick with someone that can take us forward, Lambert has been successful everywhere, as a player and manager.

I know it's difficult, christ, I'm in Birmingham today and it's not fun, that on top of the texts I received last night, however, we lost the first leg of a cup semi final. The time to judge is after the second leg at Villa Park. i.e. when the tie is over.

I know we've lost lots of other games badly, I'm not happy about that either, but I genuinely think we only need a couple of wisened heads in the mix to stop the rot and encourage the players. Anyone who thinks there is a quick fix for our club is in cloud cuckoo land.

This is my view.  I still believe Lambert will get it right.

[hilts_coolerking]

I appreciate the arguments about whether now is the right time to be changing manager (again) and whether there are any decent potential replacements out there currently.  But taking Lambert in isolation, it's very hard to make a case that he's doing a good job and is the only man for us.

It's not so much that he's the right man, more that the alternatives are even less appealing.  Which isn't a great endorsement to be honest.

[PaulWinch again]

This is the issue, I personally don't think he should be sacked(yet). We're not buried in the league and there's still time to turn it round. However he's not doing a good job and the overreliance on youth and inadequate players is killing us. This must be addressed.

[Concrete John]

This is the issue, I personally don't think he should be sacked(yet). We're not buried in the league and there's still time to turn it round. However he's not doing a good job and the overreliance on youth and inadequate players is killing us. This must be addressed.

But then do you blame the overreliance on kids on his transfer choices or injuries?  I still think if we had Vlaar and/or Dunne the sequence of results since Anfield would look quite a bit better.   

[lovejoy]

@JamesNursey: Ladbrokes: "PAUL LAMBERT is the hot favourite in the dreaded Premier League sack race market according to Ladbrokes.He's now the 11/10 "

Are they giving 10/11 on him not being the next manager sacked as well as i would pile in on this. If they are giving odds one way i'd suggest its an imperfect, distorted market.

[ozzjim]

If we had Westwood last night I am sure we would have looked better too. The issue for Lambert is the squad he inherited was way worse than he thought I think, and the 9 players he signed last summer are fine, 3-4 are great signings, but the rest of the side needed more depth too, such as centre half and central midfield.

Had we got 3 fit central defenders - genuine ones I would go back to 3 at the back, as they were looking much better until Chelsea.

[Ads]

If Randy wasn't willing to chop Houllier when we were bottom of the league going to Stamford Bridge in the January, McLeish when it was beyond a joke, then Lambert isn't going to get the sack, despite what I have predicted elsewhere.

Its staggering really. Southampton saw us collapse from a very comfortable position, as did Man City (although you feel with their quality they can do that to most sides), while four of the last six games have been catastrophic. You can take losing 1-0 at Fulham in a tight game or 2-0 at WHL when you've had some good chances yourself, because although you'll never enjoy losing, at least there was some competition. A few things falling differently would have seen 1 or 3 points.

But post Chelsea, the same frailties have been exposed time and time again and I am not convinced that we have the players within the club who are fit to do anything about it.

If Vlaar and Dunne had played, the regardless of how chronically weak our midfield is, we would not have conceded 8, 4, 3, and 3 respectively. We got away with it for 20 minutes at Swansea, and that’s great, as we were very even second half and got a point.

But again, Swansea exposed the same mental weakness, lack of defensive cohesion and organisation, lack of on field leadership, lack of midfield strength and physical presence, with a touch of quality going either way.

Lambert has to realise this and I am sure he does, so I am perplexed at why he isn’t doing anything about it. He may be working on signings now, but we needed them yesterday. In fact we needed them in the summer.

I will bite a bullet myself and despite me disliking him as a player, I would take Warnock and put him in the middle. At least he has a bit of nouce, a bit of experience and is not the pushover Bannan is.

We have an opportunity to stay up and it involves improving entirely the base and centre of the spine. Baker is a decent centre half. Clarke is not up to it, as its not just Torres who find it so easy to spin off him, its also dire 4th division nobodies too.

Bannan is physically and mentally weak. His style of play is atrocious. Delph, bless him, for all his deficiencies at least drops the shoulder once in a while and pushes the game forward. Neither are the answer.

The full backs are equally undercooked, Bennett especially, but it doesn’t help when the manager sets the team up in such a way that they get no cover.

Four players and 22 days to get them, that is the only way Lambert can keep us up.

The club needs a lift and a new signing before the week end will do that.

It sickens me to talk with any kind of defeatism and I hate talking up the opposition, especially one as diabolical as Southampton, but I am desperately worries about what they may well do to us this weekend, especially from set pieces.

Lambert needs to shake off some of his own tactical naivety and get them organised. The amount of times runners spin off their markers against us is appalling. The lack of cohesion when one centre half pushes up and the other drops in is equally as worrying. I don’t think these things come down to quality, more concentration and somebody to organise them.

Managers can only do so much and that’s why we need leaders on the pitch. Losing Stan has had a massive effect and is just as damaging as being without Dunne and Vlaar.

We were bumbling up and down up until December. There was plenty of bad, but some smattering of good. We have since collapsed and are retreating rapidly.

This situation can be rectified, but it must be addressed now.

[Apyadg]

If we had Westwood last night I am sure we would have looked better too. The issue for Lambert is the squad he inherited was way worse than he thought I think

I think that's pretty fair. The impression I have is most people thought we had a fairly okay squad, being held back by a very poor manager last season. It seems that wasn't necessarily accurate.

Hopefully he's learned a lot about what areas of the squad need to be reinforced, urgently. Some decent signings to shore up the midfield and defence, and I think he should  be given another summer to make the squad his own. I can forgive how terrible the season has been so far, as long as he shows he's learned from it.

[onje_villa]

If Randy wasn't willing to chop Houllier when we were bottom of the league going to Stamford Bridge in the January, McLeish when it was beyond a joke, then Lambert isn't going to get the sack, despite what I have predicted elsewhere.

Its staggering really. Southampton saw us collapse from a very comfortable position, as did Man City (although you feel with their quality they can do that to most sides), while four of the last six games have been catastrophic. You can take losing 1-0 at Fulham in a tight game or 2-0 at WHL when you've had some good chances yourself, because although you'll never enjoy losing, at least there was some competition. A few things falling differently would have seen 1 or 3 points.

But post Chelsea, the same frailties have been exposed time and time again and I am not convinced that we have the players within the club who are fit to do anything about it.

If Vlaar and Dunne had played, the regardless of how chronically weak our midfield is, we would not have conceded 8, 4, 3, and 3 respectively. We got away with it for 20 minutes at Swansea, and that’s great, as we were very even second half and got a point.

But again, Swansea exposed the same mental weakness, lack of defensive cohesion and organisation, lack of on field leadership, lack of midfield strength and physical presence, with a touch of quality going either way.

Lambert has to realise this and I am sure he does, so I am perplexed at why he isn’t doing anything about it. He may be working on signings now, but we needed them yesterday. In fact we needed them in the summer.

I will bite a bullet myself and despite me disliking him as a player, I would take Warnock and put him in the middle. At least he has a bit of nouce, a bit of experience and is not the pushover Bannan is.

We have an opportunity to stay up and it involves improving entirely the base and centre of the spine. Baker is a decent centre half. Clarke is not up to it, as its not just Torres who find it so easy to spin off him, its also dire 4th division nobodies too.

Bannan is physically and mentally weak. His style of play is atrocious. Delph, bless him, for all his deficiencies at least drops the shoulder once in a while and pushes the game forward. Neither are the answer.

The full backs are equally undercooked, Bennett especially, but it doesn’t help when the manager sets the team up in such a way that they get no cover.

Four players and 22 days to get them, that is the only way Lambert can keep us up.

The club needs a lift and a new signing before the week end will do that.

It sickens me to talk with any kind of defeatism and I hate talking up the opposition, especially one as diabolical as Southampton, but I am desperately worries about what they may well do to us this weekend, especially from set pieces.

Lambert needs to shake off some of his own tactical naivety and get them organised. The amount of times runners spin off their markers against us is appalling. The lack of cohesion when one centre half pushes up and the other drops in is equally as worrying. I don’t think these things come down to quality, more concentration and somebody to organise them.

Managers can only do so much and that’s why we need leaders on the pitch. Losing Stan has had a massive effect and is just as damaging as being without Dunne and Vlaar.

We were bumbling up and down up until December. There was plenty of bad, but some smattering of good. We have since collapsed and are retreating rapidly.

This situation can be rectified, but it must be addressed now.

Well said sir.
For as much as I like the sound of the long-term plan and injuries have devastated us, Lambert must carry the can for the appalling lack of organisation in that team.
I think what some people don't yet grasp is that it isn't the cup defeat or the league defeats that hurt, it's the manner of them.

A fair few of us thought we'd be in a scrap this season but we've had a decade's worth of humiliations in half a season. I think if we get one more in the next couple of games, Lambert will be off.

As much as I don't want to look short-term, I do actually believe that if it came to it, an experienced manager can get a team well-drilled and win enough points to keep them up. Lambert could get us so much farther than an Allardyce but the risk is that much greater.

[eastie]

If lambert is to be sacked then it has to be now while there is time for a new man to bring in 3 or 4 new players during the window , there would be no point sacking him in 2 or 3 weeks time when the deadline has passed .

Also if he was to be sacked we would need a new man to come in straight away as was the case with wolves .

I think personally that a Wigan like defeat at home to the saints would possibly see randy wield the axe , but it's a sad position we find ourselves in .

The body language of lambert last night was so unlike the man we have seen jumping about in the past - almost a realisation that the game is up. One things for sure though if he does bite the bullet then we can hardly blame randy for appointing him as most of us were clamouring for him to get the job.

I could never have imagined the situation would be quite so bad as this - truly sad times indeed.

[ozzjim]

I think Christmas fixtures followed with Swansea and Bradford so quickly at the start of Jan can mitigate against there being no one in yet, b ut the club surely should have said to him name the 4 bodies you need to shore us up at the back and we will get them.

[VillaAlways]

If Randy wasn't willing to chop Houllier when we were bottom of the league going to Stamford Bridge in the January, McLeish when it was beyond a joke, then Lambert isn't going to get the sack, despite what I have predicted elsewhere.

Not so sure about this.We weren't getting trounced heavily on a regular basis and losing to 4th division sides under either of these managers.I think Southampton may be the tipping point should we lose

[Toronto Villa]

He's not getting fired. I don't want him fired. I want him to do what we all thought he'd do, and I still believe he is capable of doing. Fix the fucking problem and rid us of this dark cloud that has lingered over the club for three years. I realise fully that football managers by nature can be stubborn bastards, but if he hasn't yet realised he has a serious issue, then he better and quick. He has 23 days to bring in players that not only will rescue the current season but provide a platform for seasons to come. Not an easy task I grant you, but that's what he is paid to do along with the scouts and Chief Executive. Just fucking do it so we can move past what feels like Groundhog Day around here.

[PaulWinch again]

As I say I wouldn't get rid of Lambert, but he has to sign quality experience to go into this side immeadiately. The youth experiment is not working at all.

[Rico]

My own opinion at the time that we appointed Lambert was that it was a gamble. I made a comment a few years back when our managerial merry go round started that Aston Villa are a massive club, and as such require a strong character to be successful. I.e. Saunders, Taylor and Atkinson. I really believe that people outside of Birmingham do not fully understand the size of the club, or the pressures involved in running it. Too many times over the years we have gambled with inexperienced managers, when we really need an old fashioned task master in charge. My own choice at the time would have been Hoddle. A man used to the pressure of managing at the top level. I know he wouldn't have been universally popular, but it's irrelevant now anyway. I don't think now is the time to sack Lambert, but if we are ever looking for a new manager again experience at the highest level is a must. Just got to hope for the best now. That team last night is finished! The only thing premier league about it is the name. We need some old heads in that team, and we need them sooner rather than later.

UTV