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

[WestleyArmsAV]

A squad as thin as ours can not cope with so many key players out and expect to have a run against top 8 sides and expect to come out smiling.

If Pulis became our manager I would never set foot at VP again, I would stick to away games where there is more realism amongst fans.

[Dr Butler]

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.

and spent a load of cash doing it ...

[supertom]

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.

We couldn't hope to compete with Trumpton Rovers brand of football.

[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.

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.

So you are comparing Carrol to Benteke??

[Monty]

So you are comparing Carrol to Benteke??

No, I think he's saying how amazing it is that Allardyce found a way to play without pumping the ball up to a big bloke but Lambert has thus far failed.

[Gareth]

A squad as thin as ours can not cope with so many key players out and expect to have a run against top 8 sides and expect to come out smiling.

If Pulis became our manager I would never set foot at VP again, I would stick to away games where there is more realism amongst fans.

I don't like Pulis either but the scary thing is if he was in charge the style of football would be no worse.

What a horrible realisation....

[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.

and spent a load of cash doing it ...

No more than we should realistically be allowed to spend. And on paper, still the squads are much the same quality, yet they're miles ahead of us.

As much as what they've spent, what has pleased the hammers is how Fat Sam as adapted the way they play and improved their style. His punt signings have also come off. They get Sakho from the second division in France, we got Sylla.

I don't buy this notion that Southampton, Swansea and West Ham should be in a whole other league in terms of budget. Financially we should be matching or even exceeding them. Again, that's down to Randy primarily.

But in terms of how bad we look on a football pitch, and how poor some of our players look, that's down to Lambert. Our squad isn't bottom 6.

[Ads]

If Benteke was playing and Delph was fit on Saturday, then we still wouldn't have seen us attack in any way different than have our full backs put balls in from deep.

We may have scored off a corner, as they couldn't deal with the balls that were put in there and Benteke would certainly have caused Reid and Collins, a pair of donkey's, ten times as many problems as Gabby.

But the fact remains, that even with all his best players fit, we still have only one plan for breaking sides down and it isn't very good.

[andyh]

A squad as thin as ours can not cope with so many key players out and expect to have a run against top 8 sides and expect to come out smiling.

If Pulis became our manager I would never set foot at VP again, I would stick to away games where there is more realism amongst fans.

QPR, Everton and Spurs were not in the top 8 when we played them, and they are not now.

So, if Pulis became our manager, you would stop going to VP but go to away games ? Strange.
Would Pulis not be in charge for away games then ?.


 

[joe_c]

A squad as thin as ours can not cope with so many key players out and expect to have a run against top 8 sides and expect to come out smiling.

If Pulis became our manager I would never set foot at VP again, I would stick to away games where there is more realism amongst fans.

What if realising the error of the appointment, Pulis was then replaced by Guardiola or Hiddinck or similar? Might you be tempted back then?

[NeilH]

And what kind of realism do our away fans have that our home fans don’t? Virtually every single Villa fan I know, knows full well that we can’t compete for a UEFA spot and the cups are our best chance. Equally every fan I know also can see that we are totally one-dimensional and our squad is under-performing against where it ought to be.
As far as I am concerned, we are stronger than last season, we’ve signed reasonably well for our means, but instead of kicking on, we’ve once more regressed back. I simply don’t believe that the injuries are the reason for our inability to create chances or our seeming ability to break every record going (and not in the way we ought to). He’s had more chances to fix this than any manager ought to and still we stumble on without a plan or a real sign of improvement.
If the club simply refuse to do anything about this and continue down this route when it clearly isn’t working, then the fans will continue to trickle away from the club and they will struggle to entice them back.
Personally the last five years have nearly killed my love for the club, whereas I had envisaged enthusiastically returning home to Villa, it’s become a chore and my trips have become more and more infrequent. I’m still a fan, but I’m struggling greatly to offset the costs involved in making a trip to Villa against the benefits of being there. Trips over the last few years have left me cold and the atmosphere has left me disillusioned. I suspect, like many others, I’m not alone in this feeling and if the club think that by sticking to this flawed path and pushing my loyalty to the extreme that I will blindly follow, well they’ve got another thing coming. I’ve already picked up a season ticket at my local Dutch club and unless there is some vague sign that the club want to improve the lot of an average fan, I’m afraid my trips will get more and more infrequent.

[tomd2103]

Personally the last five years have nearly killed my love for the club.

To be honest, they've nearly killed my love of football full stop. 

[WestleyArmsAV]

Thick and thin.

The love for my club increases in hardship and when so many are jumping ship.

VTID.

[edgysatsuma89]

I've seen us play utterly shit football many times when we've had all of our main players fit. So this 'everything will be rosey when so and so is back' is complete bollocks in my opinion. We may just rise from a 1/10, to a 2/10.

[Chico Hamilton III]

Thick and thin.

The love for my club increases in hardship and when so many are jumping ship.

VTID.

Except if Pulis got the gig, you say. Then you'd jump ship too

You're not a better fan than anyone else on here, lets get that straight