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

[Villa in Denmark]

And how the fucking hell is that anything to smile about?
The only people who can genuinely be happy with that prospect are fans and officials of Burnley, QPR, Sunderland and Crystal Palace, fans of WBA and the blues ir the clinically insane.

Oh I forgot Lambert and his agent.

Clearly not.  I am a season ticket holder and go to three quarter of away games.

Do not believe the hype.

Well if we're playing the better fan than you type bollocks.

Season ticket from '88-'89.  The first time I'd earned enough to afford one.
Every game home and away from '90-'91 up to '98-'99.
Wife / Mortgage / Kids meant no more away days but season ticket through to 2008 when I emigrated.
Get back on average once a month, which given the flights between Brum and Copenhagen plus Sky forever messing about with fixtures means staying overnight from Friday to Sunday or Monday at on average £300-400 a pop, plus match tickets and "refreshments".

And you've still not offered one single reason why
1.) you think he's going to get us enough points to keep us up?
2.) you think that's a reasonable ambition level?
3.) you think he's getting reasonable results with the players he's got available?
4.) you think he deserves to stay?

Asserting an opinion is not arguing for a position.  There have been plenty of arguments from a range of people who can see this ending badly.

And why the smiley?  You genuinely think him staying is a good thing, or are you just happy that it looks like you might get you wish for Lamber to stay, regardless of the cost.

[Malandro]

The only improvement I can see this year is that the opposition do not look like scoring at every single corner or set piece.
The problem, however, is that they have at least four or five golden opportunities to score per game.

With our potent attacking play, you have to be bloody lucky to win - and lucky we are not.

[Quiet Lion]

I was one of those that couldn't really defend Lambert, but thought the circumstances that surrounded his appointment and the subsequent cost cutting he had to undertake meant he had a get of jail free card for the first two seasons.

This season with the addition of experienced players, I thought we may kick on. Sadly I was very wrong.

Still conceding shitty goals
Still don't look like scoring
Still playing a schizophrenic brand of dire hoofball, mixed in with an ineffective passing game
No cohesion, no game plan, no fucking clue
Nor are we making progress on any front.

 Lambert was wanted by the vast majority of fans, he had a good record, success at both his previous clubs and I thought we were going to become the new Dortmund.  It hasn't worked, there is no sign it will ever work, his appointment has been a failure of monumental proportions.

Mind you though, I am a shitty fan, who watches matches on the web and only goes to games in London and the south coast

[WestleyArmsAV]

He kept us up last two seasons.

[Clampy]

He kept us up last two seasons.

The point is he shouldn't have to be 'keeping us up'.

[WestleyArmsAV]

No funds, serious injuries.

[Ads]

We were mid-table in March last season and he presided over a very worrying decline that saw us brush much closer with relegation than we should have done.

His signings this summer are two years late and would have helped a lot of our younger players through the tough part of the first season. They'd also have got us into a cup final.

Nobody is going dispute that he has had the hardest set of financial circumstances to deal with, but our absence of a pattern or means of breaking down the opposition beyond early balls in from full backs is poor.

It leads to poor football, few opportunities created, few goals, few games won and consistent finishing of 15th, which isn't good enough. This squad is better than 15th, but it's being dragged down by a manager incapable of instilling some attacking organisation and it will finish no better than 15th again. The right manager would do considerably better.

[Clampy]

No funds, serious injuries.

We still shouldn't be in a position where we're battling with the bottom three.

[SamTheMouse]

Let's be honest, he should have gone when the Culverhouse/Karsa debacle came out. The manager, head coach or whatever you want to call him should be in control, but he clearly wasn't. The fact that he felt the need to bring in a personality like Keane, perhaps to consolidate his authority, would fit in with that.

I can understand a manager needing an enforcer to handle the players for him if he was a more distant figure, respected more for his tactical nous or ability to get a side playing a certain way, someone in the Houllier mould maybe. But Lambert? Really?

[WestleyArmsAV]

let's revisit in May.

[Ads]

There is nothing from what I have seen of Lambert's team over the past two and a bit seasons that suggests we'll be better than 15th again. I would love to be wrong, as I hate our manager's failing, but I need evidence and I have none.

[Malandro]

He kept us up last two seasons.

lets build the statue.

[AV82EC]

Whilst westleys defence of Lambert is done with well meaning intent I confess to being in a similar position last March. The ending to the season convinced me that he didn't have a clue on how to set his team up, his best formation or a define able set of tactics that could get us draws let alone wins. I didn't renew my season ticket this summer and have been to two games this season, with his continued occupancy of the Managers seat I doubt I'll be doing much more than choosing the odd game to attend (endure?). I haven't for one minute regretted not renewing in fact is say my decision has been thoroughly vindicated judging by the zeitgeist on here and other forums. This is not a rush to judgement I've been a season ticket holder for the last 7 years, ultimately I go to be entertained, support my team and have a good time with friends. I've lost complete faith in the ability of the club both on and off the pitch to tick any of those boxes and I've lost count of he number of times I e posted on Facebook or texted mates with the "great day out ruined by 90 minutes of football" over the last few years. Ultimately watching Villa just isn't fun anymore, it's become dreadfully dull and whilst I wouldn't expect us to be challenging the top 4 a bit of decent attacking play having a go and winning the odd game would be a pleasant upturn on be last 3 and a bit seasons at the club.

I haven't quite reached the stage of boycotting the club Like I did in 1998 under Ellis but I'm close.....

[footyskillz]

I'm wondering, for discussion sake, how people would be with Lambert say he were to win / undefeated in the next 4 to 5 matches. Its often believed there are turning points in seasons and form can change .

Footyskillz, I can't decide if your hopelessly optimistic, completely naive, just blind to what's going on, or maybe Lambert's agent?

You're not the first person to compare Lambert to Newcastle and Pardew, but there are some important differences.

To plagiarize a previous post-

The toon army have been after Pardew from the minute he got through the door as he's not "one of them"

Unlike Lambert he can actually point to several periods of good form with them, as well as actually having turned around ailing sides, both inherited and self created.

Lambert had only known success since he started as a manager and apparently has no idea how to progress from the current shambles.

We, on the over hand, are in a downward spiral and have been for 3 1/2 seasons, 2 1/2 of which Lambert has overseen.

It's his squad now. He's already discarded all bar Bacuna and Kozak from last year's signings.  In all of that time we've seen 1 run of decent results, at the end of his first season, that have come from a team that looked like they knew what they were doing.

Everything else has been pretty much downhill.

A chimpanzee in space could see that our players are devoid of confidence and self-belief at the moment. The last 2 games I've seen they also looked like they had no belief in what they were bring asked to do.

Pauliewalnuts said in the West Ham post match thread that in the first half that they looked like a team trying to get the manager sacked.
I wonder how close to the truth that was, and it was an almighty bollocking from our favourite Irish psychopath that got them working a bit harder second half.

Do you really think that Lambert will keep us up? Because nothing, absolutely nothing suggests that. 

It's not just about 6 defeats without scoring, or 1 goal and 1 point in 7 and you don't even need to bring up all the negative records that would have got anyone at another club sacked for just 1 or 2 of them

What it is about is:
30 points from 31 games so far in 2014.
15 points in the last 1/2 seasons worth of games. (so our points per game is actually falling over the course of the year.)
5 goals in 11 games.
Barely averaging a goal per game during his time here, despite having Benteke available for most of that period.

Tactics that make a Sunday pub team look like Barcelona or Bayern München.

Where in all of that is there an indication that he can identify where we're struggling and that he knows what to do to sort it out.

In that awful run-in last year, people were talking about Baker looking shellshocked and that he needed taking out of the firing line for his own good.

I think the same can be said of Lambert. The last 2 1/2 seasons might well be the making of Lambert as a manager if he can take the time to look at what's gone on and reflect on how to do it better next time. But it won't be with us.

He needs to go for our sake and his.

Football is about getting things right in tactical systems and coaching with the players responding and understanding. I'm not saying Lambert or villa aren't struggling but its about now not what happened previously . Where Villa are now there is a chance to improve from last season . At this moment the evidence suggests the players, coach and staff are all working hard to put this right.What we like to hope is Lambert awareness in the matches will mean results come in . I think people on here can acknowledge that managing a club isn't easy and I would say that for any premier league or football league manager. Keeping Villa in the premier league has already been achieved by Lambert previously so one could argue there is evidence to suggest he has been successful as this wasthe target . It also indicates he knows how to keep Villa in the premier league something we all want to see. I think it pays to have patience if only for own peace of mind even if things can happen very quickly in football.
 A run of good results versus a change in management . Some want one or the other or both. I suggest seeing how things go in the next 4 or 5 matches after international duty.

[Monty]

I agree, footyskillz. In football, what really matters in the long term is teamwork and coaching. That's why I don't believe in Lambert - he evinces absolutely no apparent knowledge of any coaching method more modern than Martin O'Neill does.