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

[Damo70]

I can only see two ways that we'll see the back of Lambert. 1. Randy manages to sell the club and the new owners get rid sharpish. 2. We find ourselves in the bottom three and getting cut adrift, Randy sees the value of the club dropping like a stone and finally decides to cut his losses gets rid and brings in a manager to rescue his investment.
The second option with us staring relegation in the face doesn't bear thinking about,  because I don't think Randy would make the change until it's too late and no manager would be able to save us.
So I'm afraid it's down to option one and I wont be holding my breath waiting for that to happen.
No amount of booing is going to work this time unless Lambert is not as thick skinned as I think he is and he decides to walk.

If Randy makes a change at the point we need a miracle worker I shudder to think who our messiah will be. How is Joe Kinnear's health and availability these days? Or that bloke who pulled off a great escape last season. Lee Clark.

[adrenachrome]

Squawka

What is Paul Lambert really trying to achieve at Aston Villa?

By Seb Stafford-Bloor

On Sunday, Aston Villa eventually overcame Blackpool 1-0 to advance into the fourth round of the FA Cup.  Given their opponents’ struggles this year and their well-documented lack of resources, the Villa supporters were entitled to expect something a little more conclusive from their side and, inevitably, there was some audible dissatisfaction at full-time.

Paul Lambert disagreed.  Far from empathising with the fans, he was in bullish mood and post-game he praised his players and questioned the value of such a negative reaction.

Ordinarily, Lambert would have a point.  Anxiety and frustration within the stands has a habit of infecting the players on the pitch and he’s right to say that the moans and groans around Villa Park are counter-productive.

But surely Lambert has to be more self-aware?  Villa may be 12th in the Premier League, but they are a deeply uninspiring football team.  They’ve scored eleven goals in twenty league games, they average just 2.8 shots on-target per game, and Sunday was their first win in six games.

Watching this football team must be torturous.  Paying to watch this football team is insanity.

The issue with Lambert and Villa is not that he is necessarily a bad coach or that they are that poor a football team, but just that they don’t seem to be heading in any particular direction.  Modern supporters can be very short-term and they don’t always appreciate that the mechanics of change take time, but they are usually more understanding when a clear objective is being pursued.

Villa are an ambiguous club.  They are now over four years into Randy Lerner’s devaluation process and their ambition has been retracted to the point where Premier League survival is the only objective.  Having put the club up for sale in May 2014, Lerner is yet to find a buyer and, as a result, his side remain in a continual state of flux.

That’s a natural asterisk for Lambert’s performance.  His apologists will point to the lack of a transfer-budget and to the wage restrictions he’s working under and claim that he’s really achieving some sort of managerial par.  But while it may have been unrealistic to expect Villa to have made a quantum leap under Lambert, it’s not unfair to query why this club has essentially stood still for two-and-a-half-years.

Lerner’s lack of recent investment and apparent change in mentality is a problem.  Between 2012/13 (Lambert’s arrival) and 2014/15, transfer spending has reduced year-on-year: from £24m in year one, to £17m in year two, down to just £7.5m in the most recent window.  That kind of decline is clearly not going to allow for much progress.

Still though, looking down the list of players who have been signed by Lambert over the last two-and-half years, it’s difficult to understand what it is that he’s been trying to build at Villa Park.  There have been successes: Christian Benteke was an outstanding bit of business, Ashley Westwood is a very underrated player, and Jores Okore could theoretically become a colossus of a centre-half, but Lambert has generally stocked his squad with filler players – and, also, has committed himself to a certain style of play.

The Scot’s tactical thinking is built around counter-attacking football.  Superficially, that’s quite smart; Lambert recognises that his team are frequently outmatched and rightly places the emphasis on resilience rather than flair, but he has failed to make his squad sufficiently dexterous.

Against a Manchester City, Chelsea or Manchester United-type opponent, Villa look well-built.  They’re defensively much better than people assume them to be, they have a strong cast of restricting midfielders and their forward unit is built to break with pace or play direct, knock-down football.  In games where they’re expected to be on the back-foot, you don’t really notice the deficiencies, but when Lambert’s players are asked to actively chase games or knock-over opponents who they’re expected to beat, then you see this squad for what it really is.

There’s no Plan B.  From the current list of players, there’s no way of assembling an offensively aggressive team.  It may be a slightly reductive assessment, but there are really too many of the same type of player at Villa Park and, position-by-position, there’s not nearly enough diversity.  Where is the advanced playmaker?  Where is the forward who can run beyond a defensive-line?  Those are the sort of players who allow a team to develop traction in an opponent’s half and who typically allow far greater chance-creation.

But Lambert has never successfully added that to his squad.  All his midfielders play in roughly the same way, all his wide-forwards do similar jobs, and the end result is that Villa have become the most formulaic side in the league.

It’s fine to expect patience from a fanbase, but in this instance what are the club’s supporters being patient for?  Lambert seems content to perpetually struggle and there’s no sense that Villa are really working towards anything.  Lambert, for all intents and purposes, appears to conform totally with the ‘survival and nothing else’ mentality which radiates from Villa Park.

So again, what really is the value of having patience with this manager?

[Monty]

His name sounds made-up, but his article is quite sound.

[Rudy Can't Fail]

Can't argue with any of that.

[andyh]

we need a few more of those type of critiques in the national and local press.

[RussellC]

I can only see two ways that we'll see the back of Lambert. 1. Randy manages to sell the club and the new owners get rid sharpish. 2. We find ourselves in the bottom three and getting cut adrift, Randy sees the value of the club dropping like a stone and finally decides to cut his losses gets rid and brings in a manager to rescue his investment.
The second option with us staring relegation in the face doesn't bear thinking about,  because I don't think Randy would make the change until it's too late and no manager would be able to save us.
So I'm afraid it's down to option one and I wont be holding my breath waiting for that to happen.
No amount of booing is going to work this time unless Lambert is not as thick skinned as I think he is and he decides to walk.

If Randy makes a change at the point we need a miracle worker I shudder to think who our messiah will be. How is Joe Kinnear's health and availability these days? Or that bloke who pulled off a great escape last season. Lee Clark.

Worryingly, for me, the one Manager who would have been able to come straight in and pretty much guarantee us a higher-placed finish than Lambert has just gone to our nearest rivals.

[brian green]

I think Seb Stafford-Bloor is Ads real name.

[Archbishop Herbert Cockthrottle]

Its an anagram for Broffo's Lost Beard; pseudo jazz/folk electric supergroup from Chorlton cum Hardy. 

[brian green]

Backwards it's Rool B Droffasbes. The manager of The Westley Arms.

[Ads]

I am far too posh to have only one part of my name hyphenated.

[Legion]

Hello, Sir A-d-s. It's hyphenated.

[frankmosswasmyuncle]

Hello, Sir A-d-s. It's hyphenated.

With-Ads-it-isn't!

[Stu]

That is the kind of article I'd hope to read in the Birmingham Mail, but don't.

[claret and blue blood]

Whoever the guy is can we have him as assistant manager to point out to Lamberk exactly where he is going wrong.

[saunders_heroes]

That is the kind of article I'd hope to read in the Birmingham Mail, but don't.

The Mail are pretty weak these days and are probably reluctant to upset the Villa hierarchy.