Is this what transition looks like?

[eastie]

Tactics are, it's true, mainly defensive, or at least formations are. Bu if you're set up to create conditions of chaos for the oppo, then that's how chaos leads to goals. If you have chaos in attack, it's simple for defenders.

This is the piece that supports what Liveprool and Newcastle have done well this season: maintaining an energetic and pressing game all over the pitch, and moving the ball quickly to mobile receivers. We are not doing enough pressing and do not move the ball swiftly enough (which means we get closed down and the ball ends up back with the two worst distributors in the team, Guzan and Baker).

As an aside, Petrov was a very good pass-and-move player: didn't dally on the ball much at all.

The best pressing team for me is southampton - and they are reaping the rewards.

You may well be right, Eastie.
My point was that it's a combination of both the pressing game and the slick / fast movement of ball and players when in possession. The games I've seen this season have had too many Villa players wanting too many touches and too much time, without colleagues making the runs for them.

I agree with that , movement is poor and gabby and Weimann are both examples of that as well as our midfield - only Delph has really impressed of our midfield and benteke of our forwards with their movement this season.

[SoccerHQ]

I think a top half placing is realistic enough this season. We win on Saturday and there's a very good chance we'll be in the top 10 and that's after a poor run of form. If we do finish there that's progress so I'd say it would be worth giving him a 2 year extension on top of the year he would have left next summer.

I remain behind Lambert although like others the regression of the quality of football from the run in last season is concering me. We have a decent run of games now between now and the new year so hopefully with a win or two things will pick up. I would be very disappointed if we're involved in another relegation battle this season, we're better than that and the results so far indicate that.

The biggest test for Paul Lambert will be the day Benteke leaves. Things could regress very quickly if he doesn't get that right as we've seen with previous key players leaving. And no the answer isn't Kozak.

[pauliewalnuts]

All this leads me to believe that Lambert knows we need that player and actively wants to recruit for that position but no one was available for a fee he was happy to pay during the summer.  If I'm right, whilst it is disappointing we didn't get the player we need, I'm happier with this approach than signing the wrong player or paying the wrong fee out of panic, very few panic buys work out well.

Whilst by and large I agree with what you're saying, why does the alternative to getting the player he really wants have to be signing the wrong player or panic buying?

I find it hard to believe he just has "target number 1" and no back up options for his transfer moves. In fact, I would imagine a few of the players we have bought over the last year or two will not have been his first choice - that's just the way it is, pretty much at every club.

I never suggested there was 1 target he was willing to wait for, I said no one {he wanted} was available for a fee he was willing to pay.  We know of enquiries about at least 1, and almost certainly 2, what we don't know is if that's everyone we looked at or not.  Part of getting a full appraisal of a player is that you need to commit a lot of time to it, if all of the attacking midfielders he was sure of were unavailable for a sensible fee we'd have either pay over the odds for one of them or we'd have signed someone he hadn't scouted to a level he was happy with, which is what I meant by the 'wrong player'.  Signing a player you've not really scouted because you need to fill a gap is a panic buy, and generally they don't turn out all that well.

Out of interest, who are the players we know he enquired about?

Kiyotake - for sure, an enquiry was confirmed by both FCN and us, but both sides insisted nothing more happened, I seem to remember the club replying exactly that in a one of the online fan forum things when someone posed the question with the name 'JulieB'.

The 2nd that's less sure is Belhanda with his club stating we'd enquired but we never confirmed or denied that one as far as I recall.  There was a lot of noise around us enquiring for Coutinho as well before he went to Liverpool.  Both of these could be a case of the agents stirring things up to generate a bit of interest which is why we can't say they're definite enquiries.

I remember him saying we hadn't spoken about Belhanda - seem to recall Woodhall got it from the horse's mouth, too.

[pauliewalnuts]

My biggest issue with Lambert is the way he reverts to the 'Bradford' tactics.

Has that actually happened?  Other than Bradford itself, of course.

Against Newcastle there was more than a whiff of the 'loads of strikers, that way' tactic.

No where near it for me, but fair enough it's a valid opinion.

It ended up as it, I think. Against Bradford, that tactic went on for a good half-hour, whereas against Newcastle it was more like ten minutes. Still, it looked a little desperate and very unimaginative.

The thing I didn't get about Bradford was *why* he did it when he did.

For a start, in the first half, it was absolutely men against boys, they could barely touch the ball - it looked like an exhibition match against a local league team, it was that easy for us.

Right up to when they scored, I remember sitting there thinking there was no way we weren't going to Wembley, we were so on top.

Even after they scored, all we had to do was keep our heads and do what we did for most of the first half, and we'd have come through.

I just don't understand why he panicked and went so stupidly gung ho.

[TYLER DURDEN]

The concern is though during last season's run in we played some terrific football (the Sunderland game especially) and we all hoped that progression would continue but rather than even stagnating, our style of football has regressed to something that a previous manager would be proud of.
 
However, it's a good point to make concerning the timing of our improvement last season but it really doesn't explain or excuse why we haven't maintained that throughout the start of this season.
 
One of the reasons put forward for that lack of continuity is the quality of teams we've played so far having to play less expansive football to tighten our defence but we are already set up to be a counter attacking team so that argument holds little weight for me.
 
I also read many posters last season (before becoming a member) explaining our flirtation with relegation as a young team taking time to gel and that we would be much better this season when those young players had a Premiership season under their belts. That may still happen and its still a little premature to judge but that excitement we all felt in last season's run in that we might actually have the makings of a good team being built which plays entertaining football has certainly been dampened this season and thats why some of us are more vocal in our disappointment than others.   

[supertom]

The concern is though during last season's run in we played some terrific football (the Sunderland game especially) and we all hoped that progression would continue but rather than even stagnating, our style of football has regressed to something that a previous manager would be proud of.
 
However, it's a good point to make concerning the timing of our improvement last season but it really doesn't explain or excuse why we haven't maintained that throughout the start of this season.
 
One of the reasons put forward for that lack of continuity is the quality of teams we've played so far having to play less expansive football to tighten our defence but we are already set up to be a counter attacking team so that argument holds little weight for me.
 
I also read many posters last season (before becoming a member) explaining our flirtation with relegation as a young team taking time to gel and that we would be much better this season when those young players had a Premiership season under their belts. That may still happen and its still a little premature to judge but that excitement we all felt in last season's run in that we might actually have the makings of a good team being built which plays entertaining football has certainly been dampened this season and thats why some of us are more vocal in our disappointment than others.   

Well put sir.

If we can win two out the next three and build a bit of confidence I'm hoping some of the better football we saw tail end of last season will come back. I certainly think that fitness problems and injuries haven't helped this term.

My main worry is that Lambert and some of the players in interviews seem to be happy with the football we're playing and the amount of chances we're creating. Now that might just be sugar coating for the press but I really hope they're not. We need to keep the ball far better and we need to create more chances. Far more.

[ChicagoLion]

If you compare the end of last season to the beginning of this one.
Wieman Lowton Westwood have got worse

Gabby Benteke started well but got injured.

Vlaar and Delph have improved
Sila who was excellent has been dropped.

KEA is still crap.

The only new signing that had a positive impact is Okore and he got injured.

[paul_e]

If you compare the end of last season to the beginning of this one.
Wieman Lowton Westwood have got worse

Gabby Benteke started well but got injured.

Vlaar and Delph have improved
Sila who was excellent has been dropped.

KEA is still crap.

The only new signing that had a positive impact is Okore and he got injured.

Bacuna?

[Ads]

 What people forget about the run in at the end of last season is that we were more than capable of beating the sides around us; QPR, Reading, Sunderland etc, but in all the games against the “top” sides, Arsenal, Chelsea, Liverpool etc on that run, we got beat.

That for me is one of the biggest changes, in that we have been far more competitive against teams at the top, winning two and unfortunate not the beat both Chelsea and Everton.

I think there has perhaps been a change in mentality given the start to lean towards a more functional approach so that when we come out the other end, as we have done, we’re in a respectable position and have not suffered a relapse similar to last December.

It is key that we take the same approach, attacking wise, we had against Everton into the next games, as it will yield points against the likes of Cardiff, West Brom, Sunderland and Fulham.

[Clampy]

Ad's is right. We could (and probably should) have been 3 up before Everton scored. The two chances Benteke had last week, he would have put away at least one of them before his injury. He's just feeling his way back now. If we can just get Gabby and Weimann back to the form they showed during the second half of last season and we'll be fine.

[Concrete John]

Our issues last season were shit defending and not being able to pick up points when not playing well.  Whilst I'm still not overly happy with us at the back, that has improved.  And probably would have improved greater had Okore not gotten injured.  And we can dig in now and get something without being at our best.  It's not the bright sparkly side of football than puts bums on seats, but it is an important part of the game and represents progress for me.

The more fluid attacking we saw at the end of last season has been there, but more sporadically.  Benteke's injury and Weimann's lack of form are really key reasons for this, so I'm both hopeful and expectant that we'll see better as the season settles down.

[not3bad]

I'd settle for 45 points at the end of the season.  Slow progress yes but progress all the same.

[Damo70]

I'd settle for 45 points at the end of the season.  Slow progress yes but progress all the same.

I've been scarred by the recent relegation battles. I was pleased when we got to 10 points and looked forward to reaching 20 as soon as possible. Then 30 and 40. I never used to think like that. I have also started supporting the likes of United and Chelsea against PL underdogs from the start of the season rather than wait until we are in a relegation battle against those kind of teams.

[Dante Lavelli]

If you compare the end of last season to the beginning of this one.
Wieman Lowton Westwood have got worse

Gabby Benteke started well but got injured.

Vlaar and Delph have improved
Sila who was excellent has been dropped.

KEA is still crap.

The only new signing that had a positive impact is Okore and he got injured.

Bacuna?

Bacuna has been a big plus for me, but he's replace Lowton so the net gain is minimal.  As a minimum I think we can say we do not need to buy a right-back anymore whereas that was on most people's shopping list last summer.

Somehow I'd like to see both of them playing.  I think a combination of the two would be industrious, pacy and not lacking in skill.  Guile and vision and that scoring nous might be missing however but that's possibly unfair on Bacuna as we've not really seen him in midfield or Weimann's role much yet.

[Mister E]

Our issues last season were shit defending ...  The more fluid attacking we saw at the end of last season has been there, but more sporadically.  Benteke's injury and Weimann's lack of form are really key reasons for this, so I'm both hopeful and expectant that we'll see better as the season settles down.

The more fluid attackng came when we moved the ball more quickly; now, we seem to working at half-speed all the time, making our game very predictable. Injuries to Benteke and Gabby hav enot helped, nor has Weimann's poor form, as you say.