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

[PaulWinch again]

Whatever happens with this manager or another manager, the whole focus of the club has to change. We have to spend sufficient money to get players in who are good enough to play in the top flight. If we don't do that, we'll be gone within the next couple of years.

[not3bad]

Ron Vlaar is the definition of overrated imo. If he has a good world cup I wouldnt be averse to letting him go if a good bid came on. Poor captain and injury prone.

What makes you say he is a bad captain?  I've always been impressed by how he looks after the players, particularly the younger ones.  In fact you could argue that when he plays the team/defence is a lot more organised which may be a testament to his captaincy skills.

It could be argued that Vlaar is overrated as a player and the injury prone part is a fair point, but to say he's a poor captain is utter rubbish.

[Boz]

Indeed, but keeping with this manager will always hold the club back no matter how much money we spend.

Absolutely, dire football from a tactically inept management team.

[curiousorange]

The fact we've seen these players can play, notably against everyone's favourite ever best champions Liverpool and twice against Chelski, leads me to believe Lambert doesn't get off lightly here. There may be large dollops of mismanagement going on above his head, but I'd no sooner give him sixty-odd million as I would put my John Thomas in the hands of a madman with a pair of scissors. The man has no tactical ability at all. I'd say he has no man-management ability either, but Christian Benteke signed a new contract last summer, so how that miracle occurred I have no idea. We can be paying him anywhere near what Tottingham would have offered.

[kippaxvilla2]

The fact we've seen these players can play, notably against everyone's favourite ever best champions Liverpool and twice against Chelski, leads me to believe Lambert doesn't get off lightly here. There may be large dollops of mismanagement going on above his head, but I'd no sooner give him sixty-odd million as I would put my John Thomas in the hands of a madman with a pair of scissors. The man has no tactical ability at all. I'd say he has no man-management ability either, but Christian Benteke signed a new contract last summer, so how that miracle occurred I have no idea. We can be paying him anywhere near what Tottingham would have offered.

I would imagine Benteke signed up for the very real possibility he would have gone on to sign for a much better club than Tottenham post World Cup, unfortunately that has gone down the WC as it were.

[sirlordbaltimore]

but to say he's a poor captain is utter rubbish.

when, has he shown leadership on the pitch ?. he looks a lost as the rest right now. as an older head he should be the one going round cajoling the troops, getting the young lads (seems like we've been calling the same players young lads for about 5 years now mind) to pick their heads up. i see none of this on a regular basis from Ron

[sirlordbaltimore]

The fact we've seen these players can play, notably against everyone's favourite ever best champions Liverpool and twice against Chelski

You ever heard the famous phrase form is temporary class is permanent ?

Never truer than when it's used about us. Sadly in the negative sense

[not3bad]

but to say he's a poor captain is utter rubbish.

when, has he shown leadership on the pitch ?

In basically all the decent showings Villa have made this season, and in the run Villa made last season to escape relegation. He's as much responsible as Benteke for why Villa are still (just about) a premier league side.

[sirlordbaltimore]

In basically all the decent showings Villa have made this season, and in the run Villa made last season to escape relegation. He's as much responsible as Benteke for why Villa are still (just about) a premier league side.

I'm pretty sure Ron wasn't the only player to play in all those 4/5 games

[kippaxvilla2]

I think Ron Vlaar would be a very decent player with a reliable Centre Half partner, in the two seasons he has been here he hasn't had one - just one that has been converted and isn't very good, one who he didn't have a chance to develop a partnership with, and one who is just too much of a liability as much as a full blooded player as he is.

[not3bad]

In basically all the decent showings Villa have made this season, and in the run Villa made last season to escape relegation. He's as much responsible as Benteke for why Villa are still (just about) a premier league side.

I'm pretty sure Ron wasn't the only player to play in all those 4/5 games

And I don't claim he's solely responsible, along with Benteke. But I am saying he was a key player. Villa's terrible run over Christmas last year was when he wasn't in the side.  Their revival coincided with his return.

[ozzjim]

Ron is a good player. Getting him a partner is the issue.

[Morpheus]

Morning all. First post so go easy on me lads.

From the moment that Paul Lambert became our manager I had my reservations that he was going to be the right man for our club. I do not say this with the benefit of hindsight as I did continually post my opinion on another site which was ridiculed at the time but I guess not so much now.

My worry was that although Lambert came to us under the banner of 'an up and coming manager' with promotions tucked under his belt he was nevertheless going to build this club into another Norwich. A team full of spirit but ultimately lacking in any real flair or imagination. He also liked to play with a big target man upfront something which we have previously been accustomed to but recent successful clubs have now left that system behind in search of more progressive and fluent football.

His first major mistake at the club was to alienate several of our high earners into what has become known as the 'Bomb Squad.' This sent a message out to other prospective purchasers of those players that not only did we not want those players but maybe there was also the existence of an attitude problem. Irrespective of that it automatically devalued and made it harder for the club to recoup transfer fees for those players even if their wages was also an issue.

Lambert's second mistake was in the transfer market. By creating the 'Bomb Squad' he had cut most of the experience out of the squad and began replacing it with a lower league youth policy or players not yet used to the rigours of Premiership football. Another Norwich if you like. It was a cut and slash approach rather than a gradual one which would have been less of a shock to the club. Yes there is the argument that it was his remit to take this approach to lower the wage bill but I do remember reading somewhere in Lambert's first season that the Chief Executive stated it was up to Lambert how he spent his budget. I however feel that it was arrogance on Lambert's part that he could strip back a Premiership squad, replace the high earners with players mainly on Championship wages while still being competitive.

He has however had successes in the transfer market namely Benteke who most Villa fans originally thought was a poor signing (including myself. After a few games I had a likened Benteke to another Balaban). Vlaar has been another good signing along with Guzan but after that you really do begin to struggle to name any further Lambert successes in the transfer market and of course we've had the debacle in the FB positions and the signings of Bowery, Tonev, Sylla and Helenius. Was Fonzy, Bannan and Albrighton any worse than those new signings and you can safely say that they have not been replaced with better with Albrighton now our most effective player going forward.

Ultimately Lambert has proven to be another disastrous appointment by Lerner breaking all the wrong records at our club. We really haven't progressed at all from having what I would deem the worst Villa manager of all time in Mcleish and indeed the records of both Lambert and Mcleish are comparable which is a terrible indictment of Lambert's current tenure at our club.

It is worrying times indeed. In our remaining games due to injury we cannot call on our saviour of last season but we do have Grant Holt. You remember the Norwich connection again.

We are struggling to score goals and unless Lambert changes his preferred system replacing Holt with Agbonlarhor and going 4-5-1 to flood our midfield and make it harder for opposing teams to score against us we will drop into the bottom three.

Or we could simply do what we should have done much earlier. Sack Lambert and replace him with a manager who will get the best out of the players available and then give him a full pre-season to sort out the mess that Lambert hopefully will have left behind him.

For those who still want Lambert to fulfil this so called plan and the bigger picture we keep hearing about name me a Premiership manager with Lambert's result record who would have kept his job?

[citizenDJ]

Ron is a good player. Getting him a partner is the issue.

I'd agree with that, I think, and I remain hopeful Okore is the right guy to play alongside him.

Vlaar is a decent enough centre half, prone to some howlers and not all that quick and, without wanting to sound overly flippant, if he was any better he'd probably be playing elsewhere. As it is, he looks like a mid-table-ish central defender to me, and that's not bad, really. With Okore alongside, he might look better than that.

I think Vlaar is a long way down the list of things to worry about, to be honest!

[brian green]

Welcome Morpheus Darren Woolley you ain't.