The Paul Lambert thread - poll reset after our capitulation to Hull

[eastie]

Exactly, that was point I was making., swings and roundabouts - we've gained and lost points in comparison to the same games last season .

[PeterWithesShin]

Which is what I would imagine most of us were expecting this season, along with being mid-table.

[olaftab]

Exactly, that was point I was making., swings and roundabouts -

What about Slides and Seesaws?

[Clampy]

Exactly, that was point I was making., swings and roundabouts -

What about Slides and Seesaws?

Snakes and ladders?

[eastie]

Exactly, that was point I was making., swings and roundabouts -

What about Slides and Seesaws?

Oh affers , you do make me smile

[Clampy]

Exactly, that was point I was making., swings and roundabouts -

What about Slides and Seesaws?

Oh affers!

[Dante Lavelli]

What I find most annoying about Lambert is the constant resort to the long ball anytime things aren't going well. It was totally frustrating to see us hoof the ball up the pitch when every Stoke player seemed to be at least 6ft 5. It was food and drink for them, and quite pathetic from us.

I don't think that is by instruction though, at Least not by Lambert.  I feel the hoofball is more a symptom of having a young and mentally fragile team i.e. it's is the easier option than trying to pass the ball (to often hiding players). 

I think it is 100% instruction from Lambert. It happens far too frequently for it to be anything else. He may well tell the young and fragile to hoof it if there aren't any options, far better than being caught and dispossessed a la Clark on the half way line but the frequency of Guzan hoofing it is probably the most distinctive feature of Lambert's tactics this season.

The question I hope Lambert is asking himself is how he can reverse that.  The simplest solution is to buy experience however with limited funds the experience may not come with adequate footballing quality to improve the team.  Anotherr option, if you believe what Team SKY (and others) have said, is that this confidence and mental toughness can be acquired through the use of good sports psychologists.  I'd like to think that this can be explored as the team and individually the players have shown flashes of brilliance.

I heard at the weekend the players have been training on the Villa Park pitch before home games which I thought was a great idea, despite what the groundsman may think. The more comfortable they are at home the better. Every avenue should be explored to see if it helps the players but in the end only one man is responsible and can decide how we play. A bit of coaching might help too.

I would hope that the training pitches is the exact same size as VP (and another changed to mimic any away matches, or is that a bit too revolutionary?  I don't know.

Regardless using Villa Park is a good idea as I remember Terry Henry saying after the more from Highbury that the new stadium was harder to play at.  He said that sub-consciously he recognised parts of Highbury and therefore knew where he was on the pitch and what pace he's need to put on the ball etc whereas in the new ground everything was more foreign. 

It's a small alteration to the normal but I'm pleased that Lambert is trying different things.

Apologies for quoting myself and bringing this back up again, but there an interview with Strurridge on Sky at the moment and he is singing the praises of Steve Peters who is/was the sports psychiatrist at Team SKY and Team GB.  Apparently he's been at Liverpool since the Nov 2012.  Annoyingly it's Brendan Rodgers who seems to be ahead of the curve again.

[brian green]

It occurred to me that one of the reasons that Paul Lambert is as inconsistent as his players is because he never gets a pull.
If Doug Ellis in his prime had been the owner last Sunday he would have had Lambert in his office at eight o'clock Monday morning and laid it on the line.   Doug would have been very angry and the manager would have felt the full brunt of that anger.   Ellis would not have been angry about the shambolic defending, nor the lethargy nor the mentalist substitutions.   He would have been angry about the ground being empty at the final whistle.   The most important thing to HDE, a man who kept an attendance counter in his office, was that the fan base should not be allowed to be eroded.   He knew how important that fan base was and still is.   Lambert would have had his card well and truly marked about performances at home.   But in the absence of Doug Ellis who is going to hold Paul Lambert to account?   Randy Lerner?  Never in a million years, Paul Faulkner ditto.   The manager has his set piece about going again to deliver to the media and he is home free.   In most normal clubs the most outspoken senior players would front up the manager but Lambert has purged the dressing room of potential dissenters - Dunne, Collins, Hutton, Warnock, Bent, Given, Ireland they have all been bombed out and only those who toe the line remain.   Paul Lambert has brought about a situation where he himself is bomb proof.   It is not good for him if he is to become a top manager and it certainly is not good for the team.

[LTA]

I think one of the things he needs to work on is his interview technique - not so much his accent, which he can't really do a lot about, but its more a thin skin when being quizzed by the media.  He doesn't seem to handle it well when someone says something mildly critical to him in a press conference, and immediately goes on the defensive - remember at Millwall last season he was incredibly rude to Mat Kendrick in the press room after the match.  Bearing in mind he's almost the only one at the club who talks to the press, he needs to portray Aston Villa in a good light, and he's failed at this at times.

[Dave Clark Five]

I think one of the things he needs to work on is his interview technique - not so much his accent, which he can't really do a lot about, but its more a thin skin when being quizzed by the media.  He doesn't seem to handle it well when someone says something mildly critical to him in a press conference, and immediately goes on the defensive - remember at Millwall last season he was incredibly rude to Mat Kendrick in the press room after the match.  Bearing in mind he's almost the only one at the club who talks to the press, he needs to portray Aston Villa in a good light, and he's failed at this at times.

He does a good impersonation of O'Neill.

[pauliewalnuts]

Arsenal A
Chelsea A
Man City H
Liverpool A
Chelsea H
West Brom H
Half of Norwich H

7 out of 31...

If you are doing half matches, then surely you'd have to say half of Man City at home.

The second half we were very good. The first half we were utterly awful. It was the most one-sided half I've seen in a long time.

I know we lost - thanks to the ref - but that Chelsea away game, even though we came back with nothing, after that match, I was more full of hope as a Villa fan than I'd been for ages. We'd been to Arsenal and won, and then to Chelsea a few days later, and it's not an exaggeration to say we played them off the pitch.

When I think of some of the horrible hoofing nonsense we've played subsequently this season, one of the reasons I get so annoyed about it is because we put in a show like Chelsea away and we prove we can play proper football.

The problem is, those days are too few and far between.

[LTA]

I think one of the things he needs to work on is his interview technique - not so much his accent, which he can't really do a lot about, but its more a thin skin when being quizzed by the media.  He doesn't seem to handle it well when someone says something mildly critical to him in a press conference, and immediately goes on the defensive - remember at Millwall last season he was incredibly rude to Mat Kendrick in the press room after the match.  Bearing in mind he's almost the only one at the club who talks to the press, he needs to portray Aston Villa in a good light, and he's failed at this at times.

He does a good impersonation of O'Neill.

Yes exactly, and that was a failing of his too.  Both O'Neill and Lambert often try to be clever and make out that they know better than the people on the terraces, when really they're just being pig-headed.  If your happy to take the back-slapping when things are going well, you should be prepared to take the flak when they're not

[pauliewalnuts]

Both O'Neill and Lambert often try to be clever and make out that they know better than the people on the terraces,

I don't really hold with that whole "he's a football manager, you're not, therefore the football manager can't be wrong whilst you are right" thing, but let's be honest, thinking they know better than people on the terraces is hardly a damning stick to beat a manager with, is it?

They should do.

[Simba]

I think one of the things he needs to work on is his interview technique - not so much his accent, which he can't really do a lot about, but its more a thin skin when being quizzed by the media.  He doesn't seem to handle it well when someone says something mildly critical to him in a press conference, and immediately goes on the defensive - remember at Millwall last season he was incredibly rude to Mat Kendrick in the press room after the match.  Bearing in mind he's almost the only one at the club who talks to the press, he needs to portray Aston Villa in a good light, and he's failed at this at times.

He does a good impersonation of O'Neill.

OK see your point but honest I don't give a tinkers cuss how our manager 'sound bites'. He would be better in font of a mic if his team played decent bloody football.

[not3bad]

Arsenal A
Chelsea A
Man City H
Liverpool A
Chelsea H
West Brom H
Half of Norwich H

7 out of 31...

If you are doing half matches, then surely you'd have to say half of Man City at home.

And half of Cardiff at home. And half of Arsenal at home.