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

[Toronto Villa]

Oh cry me a river. 'Offensive' indeed.

In fairness it is the only thing remotely offensive related to Villa any of us have seen in a long time.

[Monty]

Oh cry me a river. 'Offensive' indeed.

In fairness it is the only thing remotely offensive related to Villa any of us have seen in a long time.

True, but I still think it was just a whine.

[leylandalbion]

The players went to around half way line (after being camped in 6yd box at opposite end for 10 mins).  They were warmly applauded - Lambert was last to applaud, and there were smatterings of boo's - applause still continued - to a lesser volume - but still certainly outweighed the boo's

[ClaretAndBlueBlood]

You must have been in the West Ham end as where I was he was getting clapped mucka.

Can somebody please confirm this? I mean I know our fans are second to none, but clapping Lambert in the current circumstances would constitute duty well and above the call.
As regards the point on the squad, I firmly believe that we are more than capable of being top 10, the fact we aren’t lies well and truly at the door of the tactically inept buffoon who’s had more chances than any manager I have ever known. There simply has to come a point where those that run the club say ‘enough is enough’, unfortunately those that run the club have just handed him a new 4 year contract on the basis of a couple of good results and a seeming reluctance to wish to search for a new manager. I fear that the only thing that will make them act will be when support for the club dwindles to alarming matchday numbers and for that, I refer you all to the second sentence in this response.

I was there, plenty of clapping of the players where I was and never heard any booing

[Gareth]

My view, be it right or be it very wrong :-)

I'm very, very firmly in the camp of getting rid of Lambert - there cant be another manager who has been given so many chances, so many opportunities to change the ethos of the club and yet his continued mediocrity rewarded with a new contract...if it wasn't so annoying / frustrating it would be funny.

I don't buy the budget thing, yes we have cut back substantially from the days of the petulant quitter BUT he has had 2.5 years of 'living within means' and he has singly failed to improve the product on the pitch, the football is no more pleasant on the eye - we have endured the young & hungry, we have sat bemused at the bomb squad, we are now looking at the experience view.....any chance of any coaching?

Does anyone genuinely believe he has anything tactically in the locker beyond defend & 100mph counter attack?  We are a soft team when we aren't at breakneck speed so are easy to attack, any team can sit back and call us on because we are clueless if we have to pick our way through to goal.

His 'tactics' also rely on a big man to hold the ball up in the vain hope that 2/3 of the others might make it up that end of the pitch to help out....so why when he knew Benteke & Kozak were not going to be fit at the start of the season did he think Agbonlahor / Weimman could do the job? 

He should have gone the morning after Bradford not to mention the other embarrassments in the Cups he has caused.

The excuse culture around our team does my head in, him constantly telling us how 'excellent' the team has been is bemusing, his definition of excellent is generally every one else's definition of adequate at best - I genuinely don't think defeat hurts our players & manager as much as it does our supporters & that again is down to the manager.

Last Saturday was the first time I have ever found myself thinking defeat would not be a bad thing, in fact as it got to the last few minutes I was almost willing West Ham to score - if he is to be put out of our misery it has to get to untenable. 

McLeish always felt like a decent bloke in the wrong job - this one feels like a leech just taking the money and giving back the bare minimum to protect his job with no ambition or aspiration to move the club forward.

Our club is boring bordering on being a laughing stock....with this chancer managing us we will continue to drift, under achieving players will continue to be rewarded for mediocrity...we may or may not drop out of the division - next year more and more supporters will decide not to renew season tickets on the basis of lack of entertainment / achievement.

We are Aston Villa established members of this division not Burnley who are happy to be here & hoping to survive....after 2.5 years he owes us progress, he hasn't delivered...he hasn't imposed anything impressive!

Its clear I want him gone - thinking successors is trickier, I could see the appeal of safe hands like Pulis or Moyes before his Spanish adventure but I think the time is right to roll the dice and cast the net wider for a coach who wants to play football and doesn't come in with pre-conceived views of the players at his disposal, this squad needs a little tough love to drag it out of the comfort zone it has grown into.

God, I hate international breaks :-) Rant over....

[supertom]

You're not wrong Gareth.

[SamTheMouse]

The usual reason for not sacking a manager is that he needs more time to embed his ethos and mould the squad to his liking. Fair enough.

Lambert's had over two years, and the quality of football has declined, not improved.

[paul_e]

This is getting dull, simple question for Footy and Westley, do you think we have a bottom 6 squad?

I think when all players are fit and available we have a top 10 squad.  It is November.

Good, we're in agreement on the strength of the squad.

Next simple question how far into the season does it need to get with us being in the bottom half before it moves from bad luck (with the fixture list and injuries) to being negligence on the part of the manager to not have the squad performing to the sum of it's parts?  You mentioned it's November so you clearly don't think it's at that point yet.

For me the answer to that would normally be 15-20 games.  This season I'm in the 'sack him now' group because Lerner has shown that he won't rush a managerial appointment even in the most dire circumstances (manager quits 5 days before the start of the season, replacement doesn't start until 6-7 weeks later).  We can't get to January and then pull the trigger if he's going it needs to happen by early december so we can get a replacement in and they can have some time with the squad to decide how to spend whatever money is available.  On top of that we have a run of games after Southampton where we should be looking for 15-20 points from the next 9 games (burnley, leicester twice, palace twice, sunderland, swansea, man u and tescos), we just can't afford to mess that run of games up and whenever we've had a run of games that have looked nice on paper he's managed to fuck them up.

[Mister E]

This is getting dull, simple question for Footy and Westley, do you think we have a bottom 6 squad?

I think when all players are fit and available we have a top 10 squad.  It is November.

Squad alone is not enough.
The players need direction, tactics, effective coaching, leadership and dynamism.
I don't believe they're getting any of this.

[paul_e]

This is getting dull, simple question for Footy and Westley, do you think we have a bottom 6 squad?

I think when all players are fit and available we have a top 10 squad.  It is November.

Squad alone is not enough.
The players need direction, tactics, effective coaching, leadership and dynamism.
I don't believe they're getting any of this.

That's largely my point, on paper the squad is better than we're seeing on the pitch.

[WestleyArmsAV]

He lost his BOTH of his target men with serious long term injuries, who were brought in to bring midfielders like Delph and Cleverley into the game and have Gabby and Andi playing off them.

In the process he has lost Delph, Vlaar and Senderos.

[mr underhill]

injuries are a fact of footballing life - it's how you respond that's important and I expect a little more than seeing us play like Trumpton Rovers.

[supertom]

He lost his BOTH of his target men with serious long term injuries, who were brought in to bring midfielders like Delph and Cleverley into the game and have Gabby and Andi playing off them.

In the process he has lost Delph, Vlaar and Senderos.

He also chose to sign injury prone players.
And we've had entirely too many injury problems on the training pitch for it not to be an issue with our fitness regime.

Good managers can adapt too. If you don't have a target man, you play in a different way. Man City (yes I realise they are gazillionaires) can play with Dzeko up top with Aguero, alternatively they can play with Aguero alone.

West Ham adapted to losing their target man. In fact it made them better.

[Monty]

It's somewhat damning that his entire attacking strategy vanishes with the absence of the Big Man. With a player as good as Benteke missing you'd expect a loss of cut and thrust, but the whole style going down the pan shows him up. We're reliant on punting it to Benteke, who can use his very special qualities to hold off defenders and bring midfielders into play. That's the only way Lambert knows to get space for possession, and that's just incredibly damning.

[Gareth]

He lost his BOTH of his target men with serious long term injuries, who were brought in to bring midfielders like Delph and Cleverley into the game and have Gabby and Andi playing off them.

So, with that being his only tactic, why go through the whole transfer window with two seriously injured players out & not get another target man in on loan?? Its an excuse that he could have remedied??