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

[Risso]

I wonder how many of those 10,000 were Johnny Come Lately.

We were consistently 6th and chasing the top four, having had a manager who spent more on one player than Lambert has had as a entire seasons budget.

I seem to notice that our away support has not lowered, strange that.

UTV

I'm not sure it makes much difference to the accounts.  Paying supporters are paying supporters, and they've left us in droves.

[andyh]

I wonder how many of those 10,000 were Johnny Come Lately.

We were consistently 6th and chasing the top four, having had a manager who spent more on one player than Lambert has had as a entire seasons budget.

I seem to notice that our away support has not lowered, strange that.

UTV

10,000 johnny come lately's splashing out on season tickets? I don't think so.
Regardless of what they were, they are no longer buying season tickets.
That's the stand out issue.

[kippaxvilla2]

Right lets give him another chance.  There are absolutely no excuses for not coming out and attacking QPR on Monday night.  There are behind the scenes rifts, they are bottom, they have less goals than us.  We should rightfully go after them and attempt to control the game from the off.

[frankmosswasmyuncle]

Right lets give him another chance.  There are absolutely no excuses for not coming out and attacking QPR on Monday night.  There are behind the scenes rifts, they are bottom, they have less goals than us.  We should rightfully go after them and attempt to control the game from the off.

Agreed 100%...
...and with 3 points in the bag this will make for a very happy journey home on the club coach to VP...I will probably break into song...The Sound of Music...We Are the Champions...Gingangoolie...etc...
my joy will know no bounds!!!
 

[ez]

I wonder how many of those 10,000 were Johnny Come Lately.

We were consistently 6th and chasing the top four, having had a manager who spent more on one player than Lambert has had as a entire seasons budget.

I seem to notice that our away support has not lowered, strange that.

UTV

Well i was going then because we had those really cheap season tickets in the lower north.

[ChicagoLion]

He has had 3 seasons to show he knows how to organise a football team.
Lerner has had 8 years to show he knows how to run a football club.

[pauliewalnuts]

I wonder how many of those 10,000 were Johnny Come Lately.

We were consistently 6th and chasing the top four, having had a manager who spent more on one player than Lambert has had as a entire seasons budget.

I seem to notice that our away support has not lowered, strange that.

UTV

Well, as he was talking about season ticket holders, if there is any such thing as a Johnny Come Lately prepared to stump up a few hundred quid in advance to go to all the home games, then we could do with having them back.

How do you deal with the fact that, yes, he's had less than MON to spend, but he seems incapable of putting out a team which is any better than 15th in the league?

[LTA]

The frustrating thing is that I don't think Lambert is inherently a negative or defensive manager (because his previous teams had a reputation for being quite attacking) nor is he tactically inflexible (at Norwich he'd change the formation frequently, and sometimes several times during the match).

Yet despite having the best squad at his disposal of his entire career, he's been guilty of both of those things during his time at Villa.  Maybe the Christmas Massacres broke him.

There have been occasions under PL where we have played some pretty neat and decent stuff.  In particular the first season during our good run at the end.  Sadly, its been too far and in between and he's adopted a cautious approach.  In fairness, he was able to drill Norwich like that in the lower leagues, whereas he had to come into us as a top flight club and do all that work while helping to sort out the damage done during the era of MON's reckless spending.

[Rudy Can't Fail]

I accept survival mode but you can only maintain that if you can keep the fans onside, 4 goals and 12 shots on target in 8 games won't do that.  I just want to see us looking like we can score goals, by the time we play qpr it'll be over 6 weeks since the last aston villa goal and we've made 4 keepers make 6 saves in that time, that's not good enough.  Right now I'd take some pot shots from 35yards so long as the keeper had to move for them.

Couldn't agree more.

I can accept the "but they finished in the top five last year" argument in the sense of "this is why we lost to them" (although I'm not sure that works so well when you're talking about losing four matches, but hey ho), but not as a reason for not scoring or barely making goalkeepers work.

There are a whole bunch of statistics at the moment that reflect on us really, really badly, and like you said, survival mode will be more accepted if we at least started to get shots on target.

Our performance in that sense this season has been shocking.

Yup, we really are in need for something to paper over the cracks or this season is going to be worse than last season.

[brian green]

All of this angst and discord in my opinion flows from Randy Lerner thinking that getting shot of Villa, writing his infamous Dear John then walking away was going to be quick and easy for him.  It has all gone very messy and like most messy situations it generates muddle and cock ups. That I think is how Lambert's new contract came about.
When it became evident that Lambert was not able to achieve with us the success, such as it was, with Norwich and Colchester the club should have put a package together to get a proven top manager.
Money rules in football and you buy what you want. If we had been prepared to make Martinez a big enough personal, I repeat, personal offer he would have come. If we made David Moyes a big enough personal offer he would come.
We do need better players and we need to dig deep to buy them but much, much more we need to buy a better manager.

[pooligan]

Spot on Brian as usual

[Witton Warrior]

I think there is an interesting comparison to be made with Allardyce at the Wet Spam. He was publicly dressed-down by his Board and told to play better football this year with less funds or he would be out in a year. I thought he might leave but he has started to deliver in the early games. I am not for one minute suggesting we pursue him as a manager but the contrast between somebody under pressure and our happy-for-years-to-come chappie is pretty stark.

[Mister E]

Another comparison is the form of Bertrand at Sourhampton this season and his swift downward trajectory at VP last season.
Lambert is clearly not the man. Get a real manager in (who? - no idea! But not Keane).

[supertom]

Another comparison is the form of Bertrand at Sourhampton this season and his swift downward trajectory at VP last season.
Lambert is clearly not the man. Get a real manager in (who? - no idea! But not Keane).

I think the fact that Bertrand is primarily focused on attacking is helping him for starters. He came in and looked good for us initially as he was allowed to push forward more consistently, but the more ground down and negative we became, and the more we invited pressure, the worse he got. He's the epitome of a modern fullback. Can run all game, much better going forward than in defence.

The fact Southampton can retain the ball also helps. We tend to give the ball away cheaply after 2-3 passes, before we've barely made it over the half way line.

I actually think the way Bertrand is playing for Southampton, he's a better player than Cissokho. Certainly in terms of going forward and his end product in the final third. In the summer I wouldn't have paid 8 million though.

[Pete3206]

I seem to notice that our away support has not lowered, strange that.

Not sure I agree with this. The club seem to take a lower initial allocation these days and don't always ask for more tickets if they sell out. Never used to get many away games going on general sale, but that is the current state of play with the West Ham game and the Burnley fixture is heading the same way.