How would you feel....

[Matt Collins]

Vlaar has been excellent this season and even last his return was fundamental to us stating up

[supertom]

He was awful on Thursday.

They were ALL awful except perhaps albrighton but even he consistently fails to ever find a villa player when he crosses.

As much down to piss poor movement from his teammates than his own delivery more often than not IMO.

[pauliewalnuts]

I think the Villa fans have been superb with their support.  Despite the dreadful home record over the last few seasons, the average attendance is still very good.   

There's no doubt Lambert has been shown an extraordinary amount of support from the fans. There aren't many clubs where he'd have had the support he had from us last season. OK, a lot of it was to do with what came before him, but even so, that support was there.

I struggle to think of many clubs where the manager, had he had a record like Lambert's last season, would have kept the support of both the fans and the chairman as he did.

[ozzjim]

If we lose the next 2, making it 6 straight defeats and 2 wins in what, 10 at home this season, it is impossible to see a way he could retain the faith of either. Incredibly I think he will, but how the home fans will react to that in say the home game with West Brom at the end of Jan will be scary. It could get messy this as Randy doesn't seem like the type to get rid especially with Lambert and he sharing a good relationship. God I hope we win tomorrow and at Sunderland and can see some light. I really hope this is bottom.

[Gareth]

I've said on other threads that my faith has gone in Lambert - I truly hope that today we get it together and relieve the pressure but I suspect by 5pm this place will be carnage with open season on Lambert Out!

Dealing with Lerner first, I'm not ready to blame everything on him, it is obvious he has made some stupid decisions ie giving Quitty the keys to the safe / Houllier (probably ill judged) / McLeish was never a go-er / not having anyone on the board with any knowledge of football etc etc but I still look at the Yeung's / Tan's / Sisu's and think we cannot risk letting our club end up with charlatans like those.

In terms of the cost cutting this Financial Fair Play thing interests me, I have no understanding of accounts or the like but the headline I remember is that you cannot post combined losses of more than £105m over a 3 yr period and the first year being the current one - didn't we used to post £50-60m losses per annum?? if that's the case then surely there is a regulatory reason for cutbacks??

Lerner needs someone on the board with football knowledge, someone who can both support and hold a manager to account.

Moving onto Lambert, his job has to live or die by his decisions - he & he alone has chosen to not buy any experienced players or leaders to try and help us through this mythical transition project, for 18 months he has had a free run at it and pretty much completed the job of moving on the old high earners but as we come towards a 4th transfer window some things seriously concern me;
- how in 3 previous windows as he failed to buy a single good midfielder
- at Villa or any previous club he has not proved he can manage a 'name'
- is he looking to invest in any proven quality or is he only about taking punts on cheap foreign squad fillers in the hope that it comes off
- why have all the players that got new contracts over the summer gone off the boil?

No disrespect to Norwich or the job he did there but whilst he was in charge it was a club with expectations that are way below ours, we expect to compete in the top half of the league, that is not arrogance it is a minimum expectation for a club that has been established in this league since Sky invented football - my question is whether he is capable to make the jump up from talented managerial prospect to be the real deal, like 95% of the players he has signed we still do not have a clue!?!

He has had a bit of bad luck with his best two centre halves being injured, most teams would struggle with numbers 3 and 4 at the heart of defence but you have to ask do they do any coaching with the pair of them as they make the same stupid mistakes that rookies can be forgiven for, these pair are no longer rookies and shouldn't be hiding behind a 'senior' defender anymore.

Every discussion I have on Lambert comes back to the midfield, you would hope an international quality midfielder would be able to spot one to buy - Delph is the only worthy of a shirt and he was inherited.  Punts on Jonny Averages' from a middle ranking Dutch league side are not acceptable, does he have it in him to find QUALITY? EXPERIENCE? LEADERS?

Everything comes back to those three words   QUALITY/EXPERIENCE/LEADERS....Benteke , re-signing Guzan yes - Vlaar & Okore maybe....cant see anything else that he has brought in that meet any of those three words.

What we have to remember is in any workplace most projects fail, sometimes success can be judged on knowing when to bail out of a project...is it time??

[London Villan]

After the two most embarrassing results in the club's 138 history he kept his job, so losing 6 on the bounce will be nothing to Lerner...

[old man villa fan]

He was awful on Thursday.

They were ALL awful except perhaps albrighton but even he consistently fails to ever find a villa player when he crosses.

As much down to piss poor movement from his teammates than his own delivery more often than not IMO.

He does not look to hit his players in the box or those coming in late, he just knocks it into the space where he thinks a player should be.  You compare him with someone like Valencia and he finds his players wherever they are in the box because he is aware of their positions before he gets in a position to cross and finally looks before he plays the ball.  Albrighton has not improved since he first broke into the team and the opposition have worked him out which means he is less effective.

[Matt Collins]

The problem with albrighton's crossing is that he gets his head down when he crosses a lot of the time. As per the post above he doesn't pick a man out directly too much

[rob_bridge]

The problem with albrighton's crossing is that he gets his head down when he crosses a lot of the time. As per the post above he doesn't pick a man out directly too much

One of a dozen or so in today's match day squad who are frankly not good enough

[eastie]

The problem with albrighton's crossing is that he gets his head down when he crosses a lot of the time. As per the post above he doesn't pick a man out directly too much

Hit and hope comes to mind.

[Clampy]

I think Albrighton's been one of the plus points in the last few games.

[andyh]

Great post above from Gareth.

As for Albrighton, he is just being Albrighton.
The odd flash of a bit of quality (Man U) and then absolute mediocrity. He is never a premier league player.
He did not suddenly become a top quality player whilst away on loan, and when he did go, most weren't too concerned to see him go.

[eastie]

I think Albrighton's been one of the plus points in the last few games.

Can't fault his effort or workrate but his final delivery needs to improve .

[garyshawsknee]

The passing and movement from the two or three early games this season seem like a lifetime ago now, how can all the players ( even KEA ) be at the top of their game together, then a few months down the line all be playing like strangers.

[richtheholtender]

I think Albrighton's been one of the plus points in the last few games.

Probably only playing for a contract like Andi.