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

[Dave Clark Five]

244 in and 246 out. Closest it has been since the Newcastle game. How will it be later this afternoon?

[rob_bridge]

4 wins and 4 draws might just about be enough. That may be achievable whereas 5/6 wins is a big, big ask.

That would give us 37 but with our goal difference being so bad i think we need to aim for more.

I think 39 with our current GD is needed.

[j66acd]

4 wins and 4 draws might just about be enough. That may be achievable whereas 5/6 wins is a big, big ask.

That would give us 37 but with our goal difference being so bad i think we need to aim for more.

I think 39 with our current GD is needed.

What about 12 draws and one win?

[Phil from the upper holte]

5 or 6 wins from 13 games is a lot to ask when we've only won 4 all season

[richtheholtender]

What we all need to remember is there is only a couple of pts between the bottom 4. So the other teams may require 5/6 wins as well. We may have only won 4 all season but Wigan and Reading have only won 5.

[eastie]

What we all need to remember is there is only a couple of pts between the bottom 4. So the other teams may require 5/6 wins as well. We may have only won 4 all season but Wigan and Reading have only won 5.

Reading have taken 10 points from the last 5 games and won 3 of them, we have only won 3 of our last 20 - we must turn it around starting today  .

[adrenachrome]

It's a dead heat! The fix is in: I declare shenanigans.

[Malandro]

just voted out. Changed my mind with the failure to sign a defender. In the world of football, are you telling me that there is not a 29-33 year old experienced centre back sitting on the bench or the club wanting to get off wage bill, even for just 6 months?

[ez]

I only voted in because its too late to change manager now. It's not a vote of confidence.

[old man villa fan]

It seems we have been doing this for how long - 10 years? That's a lot of different managers.

I don't think we're the only side in 10 years that have sat back and defended a lead when playing against teams of similar or superior ability. It's just the way the game works and the way humans work.

This. To carry on attacking when leading is nice in theory, but very often your ability to keep a lead depends on your ability to defend. I realise that a lot of this is about psychology and confidence, but I cannot help but think that the players would have been more confident in their defending in games if they received better coaching and clear instructions when training.

For years we have played counter-attacking football with the threat being when you break fast.  Opposition teams always have this in mind and do not over commit.  Some of the reasons for this are that we have not had quality creative midfield players who can put their foot on the ball and we compensate for average defenders by playing an extra central defender type of player at fullback or in midfield.

Once you stop looking to counter-attack you allow the opposition to throw everything at you.  In our case, it takes away our strength and exposes our weakness.  With the players we have, I think we need to keep on trying to attack from the first minute to the last to play the game away from our defence.  Also, as somebodey else commented, try and play the game further up the field.

[supertom]

If we lose today he should go immediately. We'd need a new man in sharpish. It might be too little too late, but I'd rather gamble on a new man than gamble on PL turning it around.
He should be playing for his job here today.

[rob_bridge]

If we lose today he should go immediately. We'd need a new man in sharpish. It might be too little too late, but I'd rather gamble on a new man than gamble on PL turning it around.
He should be playing for his job here today.

Who would you have as a replacement - realistically?

[supertom]

If we lose today he should go immediately. We'd need a new man in sharpish. It might be too little too late, but I'd rather gamble on a new man than gamble on PL turning it around.
He should be playing for his job here today.

Who would you have as a replacement - realistically?

If we spend the money we might be able to tempt a good foreign coach to be an interim. Or domestically I'd probably take Curbishly's experience at the moment. Not brilliant but he couldn't possibly do any worse, so I'd give it a try. Maybe even JG as well. I dunno. Are there any international managers who might, if price be right, be willing to split the job with ours for the next 3 months whilst there's not many qualification games to distract. Louis Van Gaal comes to mind. Sven will do anything for a few bob, maybe 3 months here could be worked out. Granted he's not covered himself in glory in recent years, but he's got a lot of knowledge and could organise us.
Like I say, things can't get worse and if they show no signs of improving under PL, then I'd move now. If we end up down it won't be because we switched managers.

[rob_bridge]

If we lose today he should go immediately. We'd need a new man in sharpish. It might be too little too late, but I'd rather gamble on a new man than gamble on PL turning it around.
He should be playing for his job here today.

Who would you have as a replacement - realistically?

If we spend the money we might be able to tempt a good foreign coach to be an interim. Or domestically I'd probably take Curbishly's experience at the moment. Not brilliant but he couldn't possibly do any worse, so I'd give it a try. Maybe even JG as well. I dunno. Are there any international managers who might, if price be right, be willing to split the job with ours for the next 3 months whilst there's not many qualification games to distract. Louis Van Gaal comes to mind. Sven will do anything for a few bob, maybe 3 months here could be worked out. Granted he's not covered himself in glory in recent years, but he's got a lot of knowledge and could organise us.
Like I say, things can't get worse and if they show no signs of improving under PL, then I'd move now. If we end up down it won't be because we switched managers.

Sven you must be fucking joking. JG the same.

Curbs maybe as an interim / caretaker I'll grant you.

LVG - I said realistically.

[supertom]

Job safe for now.
N'Zogbia is hitting form at the right time, and Benteke is on fire too. Players are hitting form at the right time for PL now. Defenisively we're still shambolic though. Not bad today but we almost still blew it.
We just look like we've got goals in us now, which might be enough to see us through. There's enough attacking talent in our side to pull us clear, hopefully, with games to spare.