Confidence In The Manager

[dekko]

How difficult to make the players to play football with a proper passing game like Swansea/Barcelona/Spain instead of Counter attacking game. We could keep counter attacking as another option.

Very very hard, which is why comparatively few teams do it.  It requires supremely technically skilled players for starters, and they have to have an almost telepathic ability to understand and read each other's games.  Barcelona can do it because they have a) enough money to attract the world's best players and b) arguably the world's best footballing academy in La Masia (meaning that a lot of Barcelona's players have been playing together since they were literally 7 or 8 years old).

Swansea play a sort of low-rent tiki taka, and even then its taken them years and years of training and recruitment (not to mention continuity in mangerial styles) to play the way they do.

If you could get any old club and get them to play like that in a season everybody would be doing it.

[pauliewalnuts]

It's a chicken and egg situation with the club (or manager, if you prefer) and 20,000 empty seats pointing at each other and basically saying what Clamps said. Nobody except an ever-decreasing number of old school supporters are bothered about cups until there's a sniff of Wembley so I don't know why there's so much hysteria about Tuesday night.

Aren't you answering your own question, in a roundabout way, though. Because of Tuesday night there won't be any sniffs of Wembley.

[eastie]

It's a chicken and egg situation with the club (or manager, if you prefer) and 20,000 empty seats pointing at each other and basically saying what Clamps said. Nobody except an ever-decreasing number of old school supporters are bothered about cups until there's a sniff of Wembley so I don't know why there's so much hysteria about Tuesday night.

Hard to argue with that and how sad that the premier league has become the be all and end all in many ways - in the 70s and 80s i used to love the cup draws knowing the cups were exciting and many clubs had a chance , nowadays even the fa cup has lost its gloss and its sad to see.

[Clampy]

It's a chicken and egg situation with the club (or manager, if you prefer) and 20,000 empty seats pointing at each other and basically saying what Clamps said. Nobody except an ever-decreasing number of old school supporters are bothered about cups until there's a sniff of Wembley so I don't know why there's so much hysteria about Tuesday night.

Hard to argue with that and how sad that the premier league has become the be all and end all in many ways - in the 70s and 80s i used to love the cup draws knowing the cups were exciting and many clubs had a chance , nowadays even the fa cup has lost its gloss and its sad to see.

I think the F.A have played a massive part in the F.A Cup losing it's glamour.

[eastie]

Indeed they have clampy , indeed they have

[supertom]

There's not a hell of a lot now between the league cup and F.A Cup. They both feel almost equally unloved and unimportant. People win the F.A Cup now and there's almost a bit of indifference. All the seems to matter these days is the league and Champions League.

[Chris Smith]

It's a chicken and egg situation with the club (or manager, if you prefer) and 20,000 empty seats pointing at each other and basically saying what Clamps said. Nobody except an ever-decreasing number of old school supporters are bothered about cups until there's a sniff of Wembley so I don't know why there's so much hysteria about Tuesday night.

Aren't you answering your own question, in a roundabout way, though. Because of Tuesday night there won't be any sniffs of Wembley.

It's also the end of the month and we're at home again on Saturday, despite what Gideon and Co would have us believe money is still tight for many.

People also have other things to consider. For example with me it was a logistical issue as I was travelling back from Southend and was just not sufficiently motivated to get home, drop all my stuff off and then trek back out again.

[Colin B]

I sometimes wonder if some of our problems came from how we used the pre season games.

By that I mean most games we seemed to use one team for 45 mins, or 60 mins and then make wholesale substitutions and change the whole team. I think most of our team would only have played 1 or maybe 2 90 min games prior to the season starting.

It would also be interesting to know how other teams used their pre season games.

[Mister E]

How difficult to make the players to play football with a proper passing game like Swansea/Barcelona/Spain instead of Counter attacking game. We could keep counter attacking as another option.

Very very hard, which is why comparatively few teams do it.  It requires supremely technically skilled players for starters, and they have to have an almost telepathic ability to understand and read each other's games.  Barcelona can do it because they have a) enough money to attract the world's best players and b) arguably the world's best footballing academy in La Masia (meaning that a lot of Barcelona's players have been playing together since they were literally 7 or 8 years old).

Swansea play a sort of low-rent tiki taka, and even then its taken them years and years of training and recruitment (not to mention continuity in mangerial styles) to play the way they do.

If you could get any old club and get them to play like that in a season everybody would be doing it.

Let's bear in mind that we are capable of playing the passing / possession game, sometimes.
What people tend to overlook is the fact that Barcelona's strength is not simply in the passing / movement game; it's in the pressing game when not in possession.
We have let ouselves down against Barcodes and Spurrrrrrrrrrs in not pressurising their players in possession. Against Newcastle I firmly believe we'd have beaten thme if we'd been more tenacious without the ball; against Spurrrrs we may have done alot better.

[Louzie0]

I'm right behind the manager and the way we are trying to re-build at Villa Park.  Not only did we have the youngest team in the Premier League last season but I read the other day that we had the youngest team in the whole of the top five leagues in Europe: what we are trying to do would be a tough ask for any manager, I feel.  We'll get one or two more awful results along the way but these are the inevitable growing pains.

Why do I want Lambert as our manager?  I'll list the reasons as they come into my head: On arriving into Villa Park he seemed to know exactly what needed to be done, who needed to be dropped, who needed to be blooded and so on - he had done his homework; he clearly respects the club and supporters; he is a man who clearly does his homework on players before he signs them and I just get the sense that he knows what he is doing.  For the first time in a long time it seems as though we have a guy with a long-term strategy and vision for the club.  He's strong minded and sticks to his guns which is, for me, part of great leadership.  He's not afraid to drop players no matter what their reputation is...and I'll even go so far as to say I think he is the best talent spotter we have had since Sir Graham Taylor.

Hear, hear.

[Dave]

I sometimes wonder if some of our problems came from how we used the pre season games.

By that I mean most games we seemed to use one team for 45 mins, or 60 mins and then make wholesale substitutions and change the whole team. I think most of our team would only have played 1 or maybe 2 90 min games prior to the season starting.

It would also be interesting to know how other teams used their pre season games.

I think what we do is pretty common.

Those games are really just to re-ingratiate the players into a match situation.

If what we wanted was to get a hypothetical first XI working out how to play together, you could just as easily arrange a first XI versus second XI game every day for two weeks than do it in a friendly.

[dave.woodhall]

It's a chicken and egg situation with the club (or manager, if you prefer) and 20,000 empty seats pointing at each other and basically saying what Clamps said. Nobody except an ever-decreasing number of old school supporters are bothered about cups until there's a sniff of Wembley so I don't know why there's so much hysteria about Tuesday night.

Aren't you answering your own question, in a roundabout way, though. Because of Tuesday night there won't be any sniffs of Wembley.

I'm not answering it at all. it was the least important game we've played all season, as evinced by the crowd, yet it's unleashed a wave of hysteria on a par with Gabby clattering him out of One Direction.

[Can Gana Be Bettered!?!?]

How difficult to make the players to play football with a proper passing game like Swansea/Barcelona/Spain instead of Counter attacking game. We could keep counter attacking as another option.

If Brendan Rogers had come to Villa, he'd be sacked by now. I can only imagine the "GET IT FOOKIN' FORWARD!!!" by the (many) fans who love nothing more than to shout that after 2 passes. It always amazes me when I hear that. One guy I used to sit by (and partly moved because of him) used to shout this for the reason that "if they (the opposition) have got it in their half they can't score against us". So, by that definition, he'd rather the opposing team kept the ball all match in their own half.

[Ian.]

I'm right behind the manager and the way we are trying to re-build at Villa Park.  Not only did we have the youngest team in the Premier League last season but I read the other day that we had the youngest team in the whole of the top five leagues in Europe: what we are trying to do would be a tough ask for any manager, I feel.  We'll get one or two more awful results along the way but these are the inevitable growing pains.

Why do I want Lambert as our manager?  I'll list the reasons as they come into my head: On arriving into Villa Park he seemed to know exactly what needed to be done, who needed to be dropped, who needed to be blooded and so on - he had done his homework; he clearly respects the club and supporters; he is a man who clearly does his homework on players before he signs them and I just get the sense that he knows what he is doing.  For the first time in a long time it seems as though we have a guy with a long-term strategy and vision for the club.  He's strong minded and sticks to his guns which is, for me, part of great leadership.  He's not afraid to drop players no matter what their reputation is...and I'll even go so far as to say I think he is the best talent spotter we have had since Sir Graham Taylor.

Hear, hear.

Yep, me to, hear hear.

[VancouverLion]

I'm right behind the manager and the way we are trying to re-build at Villa Park.  Not only did we have the youngest team in the Premier League last season but I read the other day that we had the youngest team in the whole of the top five leagues in Europe: what we are trying to do would be a tough ask for any manager, I feel.  We'll get one or two more awful results along the way but these are the inevitable growing pains.

Why do I want Lambert as our manager?  I'll list the reasons as they come into my head: On arriving into Villa Park he seemed to know exactly what needed to be done, who needed to be dropped, who needed to be blooded and so on - he had done his homework; he clearly respects the club and supporters; he is a man who clearly does his homework on players before he signs them and I just get the sense that he knows what he is doing.  For the first time in a long time it seems as though we have a guy with a long-term strategy and vision for the club.  He's strong minded and sticks to his guns which is, for me, part of great leadership.  He's not afraid to drop players no matter what their reputation is...and I'll even go so far as to say I think he is the best talent spotter we have had since Sir Graham Taylor.

Hear, hear.

Yep, me to, hear hear.

My sentiments entirely.