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

[PaulWinch again]

On Goals on Sunday, Ben Shepherd 'What's misfiring?' Steve Staunton 'where do you start?'. He's right there's no leadership, and also they're not that young.

[PaulWinch again]

Poyet said if he was manager he'd say it's a dive.

[PaulWinch again]

Didn't realise that Steven's appalling touch lead to the penalty problem as well.

[Rioch is King]

I'd be very disappointed if he got sacked - we have to get some stability and that means sticking with one man for a few seasons. The luck is against us at the moment but it will turn.

[PaulWinch again]

I'd be very disappointed if he got sacked - we have to get some stability and that means sticking with one man for a few seasons. The luck is against us at the moment but it will turn.

I don't think he should go, but it's not luck against us. It's purely appalling ownership of the club and some poor management and a poor squad that's causing our problems.

[villasjf]

He needs to look at his coaching staff especially the defensive coaches (if we have one) losing every week has drained the players of any confidence.

[supertom]

I don't think Lambert can keep us up. We look the worst side in the top flight at the minute. We certainly look the most poorly organised. Our side is very inexperienced and that's an excuse, but it's Lamberts own doing. Our squad is poor, made poorer by injuries. We're even worse than last season. Our defence was ill disciplined last season and not great. Seniors didn't perform as they should but it was mediocre, not absolutely abysmal like this season.
We're just as toothless as we were last season too, despite supposedly having let the shackles off. McLeish never showed any ambition whatsoever, Lambert is but is coming up even shorter.

I think we're in a position now where we're heading down. If we take the hit, and miss out on a lot of money next year and revenue, then Randy has to be prepared for that. I do think Lambert long term could do something here, but I don't think he'll ever turn us back to a top 8 club.
Can we afford to go down? From what we hear, maybe not.
I think he has to go now. No dillying because that almost cost us last season. McLeish should have gone with time enough for a new man to turn it around.
Get in some experience. Hopefully enough time for a new man to get 1-2 in who can help steer us away.
QPR took action. They've improved under Redknapp. It may be too little too late, but I think they'll escape to be honest.
We need someone in now. Not RDM. Maybe next season, with a clean slate, but for now, he's not got enough to turn it around.
I personally would take the punt in a new man. If we go down it makes no difference. We can't get any worse and the most telling thing of all is how poorly organised the side is. No one knows what they're doing. They're not good either.
If we have to fork out a bit for a big name manager with a track record for the interim, so be it.
Randy has to weigh the cost of sacking PL and hiring someone else. It's not gonna be as much as the hit of relegation plus the money we'd miss out on next season in the top flight.

[saunders_heroes]

He needs to look at his coaching staff especially the defensive coaches (if we have one) losing every week has drained the players of any confidence.

How can you coach defenders who just aren't up to it though? Clark, Baker and co just aren't PL material. Until the club realises that nothing will change.

[Risso]

As i said a few days ago, this season reminds me a lot of GH's season. GH had a long term plan and you could see what he was trying to do but in the short term he made a pigs ear of it, even if he did have an outrageous injury list to contend with.

Same with Lambert. You can see what his plan is long term but again he's making such hard work of it. Whether we're going down or not i don't know but sooner or later we're going to have to stick with a manager and give him two or three seasons. Whether that'll be Lambert remains to be seen.

Well, I agree that sticking with a manager for a period of time would be great, no doubt at all, but for the life of me I can't see what Lambert's long-term plan is. Or at least, if it's buying 'young, hungry' players from the lower leagues, then it isn't working by some distance.

I can't see a real reason for keeping him beyond the idea of some sort of continuity, but continuation if being shit is far from ideal.

As others have said, if there were signs that he was improving things, that players were getting better, that the tactics were capable of getting results, then great. But I don't think there is, so we might as well try something different. It almost certainly couldn't get worse, at worst it would just be as bad.

People might scoff at, say, Allardyce, but I honestly think that if he were in charge of our team right now, we'd be doing better than we are (and for what it's worth, I really don't care about football 'being played the right way', whatever that means). Drilling the defence, parking the bus, whatever, doesn't have to mean McLeish style football - it means concentrating on the basics, and finding a way to win. Going 'toe-to-toe' with Chelsea, Spurs etc was madness, doubly so given the quality of players we have right now. And bizarrely, when we probably could have outplayed someone (Bradford), the tactic seemed to be 'lump it'.

It's a shame, and I'd be as disappointed as anyone about further upheaval, but I just think we have to halt the current slide - Hell, even just changing the press and the mood about the club at the moment could help.

Spot on.  Even Staunton on Sky just now stated how ridiculous it was at Chelsea to carry on trying to play them at their own game once we were 4-0 down.  Lambert has done not a single thing this season to prove that he can hack it at Villa.

[eastie]

In. He was the right manager when we appointed him, he still is the right manager.

How is he?

Well 3,000 sang his name at Carrow Road last May so if Lerner has got it wrong, then so did 3,000 others.

I still think there's a a decent manager there, he proved it at Norwich but i can't argue with the fact that we look bloody woeful at the moment.

Lerner cannot be blamed for appointing lambert , I also thought it was the best appointment but the situation is so bad now that I think Lerner needs to act now to halt the slide, it's not just injuries or transfers, the tactics, formation and team selections have been baffling at times and I whilst I agree we need to stick with a manager for 3 or 4 years I do believe only if it is the right manager.

For whatever reason this hasn't worked out and the time to act is now while we still have time left in the transfer window.

[PaulMcGrathsNo5Shirt]

If Lambert has been told in the summer of 2012 he can only bring in players on a certain salary then that would explain why he hasn't got the experienced players we desperately need. It may well be that Lambert assessed the squad and thought he needed a fair few players, and the only option was to sign the Westwoods and Lowtons, rather than the Scott Parkers of this world.
Lambert was very quick to get rid of Hutton, he's no fool if he had the choice of Bannan or Scott Parker in midfield do people really think he'd pick Bannan?
I'm not denying he's made some mistakes, but give the guy some credit, he's clearly working with his hands tied behind his back

[eastie]

If Lambert has been told in the summer of 2012 he can only bring in players on a certain salary then that would explain why he hasn't got the expereinced players we desperately need. It may well be that Lambert assessed the squad and thought he needed a fair few players, and the only option was to sign the Westwoods and Lowtons, rather than the Scott Parkers of this would.
Lambert was very quick to get rid of Hutton, he's no fool if he had the choice of Bannan or Scott Parker in midfield do people really think he'd pick Bannan?
I'm not denying he's made some mistakes, but give the guy some credit, he's clearly working with his hands tied behind his back

Lambert has said often its his decision to go for young hungry players , experience guarantees nothing he said.

[saunders_heroes]

If Lambert has been told in the summer of 2012 he can only bring in players on a certain salary then that would explain why he hasn't got the expereinced players we desperately need. It may well be that Lambert assessed the squad and thought he needed a fair few players, and the only option was to sign the Westwoods and Lowtons, rather than the Scott Parkers of this would.
Lambert was very quick to get rid of Hutton, he's no fool if he had the choice of Bannan or Scott Parker in midfield do people really think he'd pick Bannan?
I'm not denying he's made some mistakes, but give the guy some credit, he's clearly working with his hands tied behind his back

Lambert has said often its his decision to go for young hungry players , experience guarantees nothing he said.

Well he would say that. He took on the job under Lerner's conditions. He's towing the party line and all that.

[Clampy]

What do you mean by 'towing the party line'?

[supertom]

Whatever happens behind the scenes and whatever agreements he made with Lerner, can't excuse how piss poorly organised we've been on the pitch. I really want Lambert to succeed and really want him to pull it round but as for us putting out sides looking clueless in every area and making bad on the field decisions, he's been the undisputed champion. Not even O Leary or McLeish have been as consistently bad, and that's saying something.
I know we're attempting to place football the right way but there's most of the other sides in the top flight, bar 2-3, want to get the ball down and play primarily. Most of them are doing far more effectively than us.