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

[saunders_heroes]

So what if he signed up for it? Perhaps he signed up on the basis that he knew we may go down, that he was building for the future and that the club was rotten from top to bottom.

Of course he thought he could keep us up, he wouldn't be worth his salt if he didn't, however, sometimes these things just don't work.

I'm not happy about the situation we're in, far from it, but the way things look right now, I'm please there at least seems to be a long-term strategy forming.

I agree with Jockey.

A long term plan? Christ on a bike! We're heading towards the championship with the worst team in generations and you're happy with the long term plan!

[Concrete John]

My concern is relegation would do more harm than the long term plan would do good.

[JUAN PABLO]

what depresses me is what a cracking strike force we have , probably the best I have seen at Villa for ages , we have been dying for a strike force like this for years but Lambert has no clue with the rest of the team including how to play Bent.

Two light weight inexperienced midfielders in every game and a defence who can not defend which he still has not sorted out yet .   

Depressed .

[mr underhill]

a huge number of people wanted no one but  Lambert to replace TSM. He was appointed and backed with funds. He's proved total shite and might take us down. With no real backing from  the owner in this transfer window he appears to be a man who  has lost the  owner's support but who won't be leaving until May at the earliest, possibly because  there are performance related clauses in his contract which limits, if not eliminates, the need for yet more compo payments.It's unremittingly bleak at the moment to be a Villa fan, but in some respects, Lerner can't win. The fans wanted Lambert, they got him, he was backed with cash and he has so far, fucked up. Lerner's a good man who has done his best, but he does not understand the game he claims to love. We need leadership, vision, and a strategy for both the footballing and commercial sies of the business more than just money and blind faith. We need people who genuinely understand  football and what it takes to run a club of Villa's size and pedigree in the dog eat dog world that is english football, EPL or Championship

[Drummond]

Of course he thought he could keep us up, he wouldn't be worth his salt if he didn't, however, sometimes these things just don't work.

So what are you saying exactly, that we may well go down, lose our Premier Status and a lot of TV money but hey, that's ok because we've got a long term plan?

I don't give a shit about the money and when football becomes all about money, it's pointless; do you really go to the match to see how high we'll finish because it's worth more?

I want us to play football, at a decent standard. With the way things have been for pretty much as long as I'd care to remember, we've not had a strategy, we've spent when we shouldn't' have done, haven't spent when we should but never really moved forward.

We tried under MON, but let's face it, he spent loads, saddled us with a huge wage bill and didn't achieve anything.

Sacking this manager, a few months in, is in my view short sighted. We need to sort out the wheat from the chaff in this squad, and he's doing it. Players that everyone thought were crap last season are, all of a sudden hailed as ones that could save us by some on here. I just don't get it. Warnock, Hutton and Collins were by all accounts not very good and/or caused problems, what's the point in replacing them with players who are of the same standard?

Shouldn't we try and find the decent young players that are out there, nurture and develop them and turn them into something better? Make a team rather than a bunch of money-grabbing, egocentric twats?

Of course we might get relegated (and it hasn't happened yet) and nobody wants that to happen but for the long-term health of the club we shouldn't deviate from the path we've chosen.

[Merv]

I can't argue that Lambert has done a good job, and I'd have to concede he's struggling but again, don't see why sacking him now would help. He's clearly working under limitations, he knew this when he took the job, he took it anyway, when others wouldn't. I do think he can work with the level of player we're obviously restricted to signing. Sacking him would at least make some feel Villa have taken action, but that action is only positively effective if his replacement is good enough to turn things around. It might have made sense at Christmas, with £10-£20m to spend, but it doesn't now. The new guy would be coming in in February, working with a young squad, trying to get them together, to get them over the line.

Whatever happens it's then another new manager, wanting to sign his own players and chop out the ones he doesn't, and the whole cycle starts again. The club have embarked down a tough road and we've got to see it out.

[PaulWinch again]

My concern is relegation would do more harm than the long term plan would do good.

It would and also I don't genuinely think there is a long term plan. They've talked about youth and all that but I think that's an attempt to placate the fans. The only plan seems to be cost cutting, and that will end nowhere but ruin.

[PaulWinch again]

One of Lambert's fatal flaws is his belief that wingers don't work in the modern game. They do, but it's a slightly different role. Look at Barcelona, they play two wing forwards most of the time. It's crucial that your team is able to exploit width.

[PaulWinch again]

Oh and also his inability throughout his career to organise a good defence. That may be his or his coaching staff's issue, but either way it's his responsibility.

[PaulWinch again]

Oh and Drummond there isn't really a cohesive and sensible plan. It's all about cost cutting otherwise they wouldn't be trying to do it so fast. Everyone knows that there's no way you can change a whole squad overnight and hope for young players to bed in on their own.

[maidstonevillain]

So what if he signed up for it? Perhaps he signed up on the basis that he knew we may go down, that he was building for the future and that the club was rotten from top to bottom.

Of course he thought he could keep us up, he wouldn't be worth his salt if he didn't, however, sometimes these things just don't work.

I'm not happy about the situation we're in, far from it, but the way things look right now, I'm please there at least seems to be a long-term strategy forming.

I agree with Jockey.

So what if he signed up for it? Perhaps he signed up on the basis that he knew we may go down, that he was building for the future and that the club was rotten from top to bottom.

Of course he thought he could keep us up, he wouldn't be worth his salt if he didn't, however, sometimes these things just don't work.

I'm not happy about the situation we're in, far from it, but the way things look right now, I'm please there at least seems to be a long-term strategy forming.

I agree with Jockey.

I would partially accept this view if I was persuaded that Lambert was doing the best he could with the resources he has avsailable. That is what a good manager should do. But in the last couple of months he has shown himself to be tactically incompetent, in my view, and to apparently lack any motivational skills. Even with the players we have a decent manager would have kept us out of  the relegation zone.

[PaulMcGrathsNo5Shirt]

Surely we could have signed Sharner, Upson and Dawkins all on loan for what we have just saved on the wage bill of Warnock and Hutton?

Desperate.

[JUAN PABLO]

One of Lambert's fatal flaws is his belief that wingers don't work in the modern game. They do, but it's a slightly different role. Look at Barcelona, they play two wing forwards most of the time. It's crucial that your team is able to exploit width.

does he not watch Fergie's team.

[paul_e]

One of Lambert's fatal flaws is his belief that wingers don't work in the modern game. They do, but it's a slightly different role. Look at Barcelona, they play two wing forwards most of the time. It's crucial that your team is able to exploit width.

It's not necessarily about width, it's about not letting teams decide how they're going to defend.  Our problem for a long time has been that we let a side line up a back 4 and a defensive midfielder and we don't make things uncomfortable for them.

Even under MON when we were doing well we couldn't break down teams that were determined to defend.  You need to move defenders out of their comfort zone.  Mess, Ronaldo, Zlatan, Rooney and most of the other top attacking players in the world are good because they make themselves hard to mark.

We're not doing that, we channel our play where teams want to defend against us.  Then we make things worse by letting them play where they want to.

Width will help but more importantly we need to move off the ball better, too often our movement involves running away from the player on the ball, in a straight line.

[mr woo]

To some extent I'd agree with those who say sacking Lambert would be pointless. Who would you replace him with? The likes of Benitez were (allegedly) turning us down the season just after we'd finished sixth - what chance do we have of attracting a proven talent now?

In fact, you could argue - assuming we are relegated as I expect - that a man with Lamberts credentials is exactly what we will need to get promotion at the first attempt on a tight budget.

As I've said before, Lambert would've been my choice too last summer and I really, really want him to succeed. I just wish he'd swallow his pride, admit his mistakes and go to work on correcting all the shortcomings that are so obvious to thousands of us.

I think we've been extraordinarily patient up to now, but I see a breaking point fast approaching where the crowd will turn, a la McLeish/Bolton and there will be no excuses Mr Lambert, you will have brought it all on yourself.