The Takeover Thread - Recon Group - NOW WITH NEW POLL

[Chris Smith]

Prior to the whole thing blowing up, whenever we launched long ball after long ball, I never once linked it to the coaches. Taking the players out of it for a second, it's only natural when things are going well or not well to link it to the manager. I have never heard when Man U were battering all before them that the tactics and performance was down to Phelan and co. How the team lines up and plays on a weekend is down to the manager and the instructions he has provided to his coaching staff. It would be absurd to think Lambert, 5 minutes into a game looking round at Culverhouse and saying "I didn't ask you to practice this". Lambert must have been fully aware of what his coaches were doing, or he allowed them far too much power to do what they wanted. Either way it isn't acceptable.

We almost always started games trying to play the right way, that is clearly how they were sent out. It was teams closing down the space and the players then resorting to the easy way out. My take was it was down to a combination of inexperience and low confidence.

[Monty]

If the players have low confidence, then it's the job of the coaches to train them to be sufficiently prepared for tight situations so that they gain confidence. Our play is not planned at all - even at its best it's haphazard, relying mostly on initiative and bursts from individuals (usually Delph). If they get into crowded situations, nobody moves to help them. If they get on the ball in the centre of midfield, the movement ahead of them is embarrassingly basic - one might 'go', one might drop deep to give them the good old 'useless one-two' option, and mostly they'll just pass it wide and then back and then back and then boof it.

Lambert may want them to play with style, but they'll never actually play with style if he really does think that 'passing the ball' is one option, but so is 'going direct' when the opposition defence is in position. Not until he has coaching like Brendan Rodgers' was at Swansea - rigorous, determined, designed to get players playing better together than they would on their own - will he succeed in having some real style, but if he continues to think that the long ball is an option, that aim will always be crippled.

[ClaretAndBlueBlood]

I know what went on - let's just say that Lambert gave their instructions and they weren't followed - in fact, very little was done by the coaches

[VinnieChase84]

I know what went on - let's just say that Lambert gave their instructions and they weren't followed - in fact, very little was done by the coaches

If that is the case then Lambert is equally culpable for letting it happen.
Whose meant to be the manager!?

[nigel]

Prior to the whole thing blowing up, whenever we launched long ball after long ball, I never once linked it to the coaches. Taking the players out of it for a second, it's only natural when things are going well or not well to link it to the manager. I have never heard when Man U were battering all before them that the tactics and performance was down to Phelan and co. How the team lines up and plays on a weekend is down to the manager and the instructions he has provided to his coaching staff. It would be absurd to think Lambert, 5 minutes into a game looking round at Culverhouse and saying "I didn't ask you to practice this". Lambert must have been fully aware of what his coaches were doing, or he allowed them far too much power to do what they wanted. Either way it isn't acceptable.

We almost always started games trying to play the right way, that is clearly how they were sent out. It was teams closing down the space and the players then resorting to the easy way out. My take was it was down to a combination of inexperience and low confidence.

That's pretty much my take on it, Chris.

[Toronto Villa]

Prior to the whole thing blowing up, whenever we launched long ball after long ball, I never once linked it to the coaches. Taking the players out of it for a second, it's only natural when things are going well or not well to link it to the manager. I have never heard when Man U were battering all before them that the tactics and performance was down to Phelan and co. How the team lines up and plays on a weekend is down to the manager and the instructions he has provided to his coaching staff. It would be absurd to think Lambert, 5 minutes into a game looking round at Culverhouse and saying "I didn't ask you to practice this". Lambert must have been fully aware of what his coaches were doing, or he allowed them far too much power to do what they wanted. Either way it isn't acceptable.

We almost always started games trying to play the right way, that is clearly how they were sent out. It was teams closing down the space and the players then resorting to the easy way out. My take was it was down to a combination of inexperience and low confidence.

Not dismissing the confidence aspect entirely, but we resorted to that kind of football even after we took the lead playing good football e.g Stoke at home. And if other teams did close us down, why was our only tactic to go long or at least not have another strategy to combat the approach of the opposition? Last year we pressed a lot more and played football where, especially in the second half of the season we played some confident, attacking football ourselves, where we closed down our opponents. While some of this seasons failure can be attributed to the financial restrictions, injuries and confidence much of the problems are down to poor preparation, a lack of tactical awareness and inability to change or be flexible on the part of manager and his staff in my opinion.

[paul_e]

Prior to the whole thing blowing up, whenever we launched long ball after long ball, I never once linked it to the coaches. Taking the players out of it for a second, it's only natural when things are going well or not well to link it to the manager. I have never heard when Man U were battering all before them that the tactics and performance was down to Phelan and co. How the team lines up and plays on a weekend is down to the manager and the instructions he has provided to his coaching staff. It would be absurd to think Lambert, 5 minutes into a game looking round at Culverhouse and saying "I didn't ask you to practice this". Lambert must have been fully aware of what his coaches were doing, or he allowed them far too much power to do what they wanted. Either way it isn't acceptable.

We almost always started games trying to play the right way, that is clearly how they were sent out. It was teams closing down the space and the players then resorting to the easy way out. My take was it was down to a combination of inexperience and low confidence.

That's pretty much my take on it, Chris.

I don't disagree that the plan may well have been to play good football, but that they were so quick to revert to hoofing shows that the coaching wasn't giving them any confidence in their ability to do it. However you paint it up that comes back to the manager. To me if you want to play good football it has to be trained to the point where it's natural for the team to do it, as with everything that means lots of practice, which hasn't happened (on the evidence of what we can see in games).

I've said on here before that I think formations and positions are defensive elements, some managers are very good at that part of the game, getting players drilled to be in the right place and mentally prepared to be 'on it' for 90minutes, McLeish is a good example of that.  Other managers are good at the movement and off the ball elements that make up attacking play, Martinez is a decent example of this.

When Lambert joined it was off the back of a season where Norwich scored and conceded a lot, suggesting he lent towards the latter, movement based approach but struggled to get a defensive shape right, and towards the end of last season you could see that was the case with us as well.  Then for whatever reason the whole team started shifting towards the former, except Lambert hasn't got any idea how to implement that level of defensive stability, which has left us trying to play quite a disciplined defensive game but without us actually being any good at it.

I don't know why he felt the need to change it, but that he tried to do it and failed so badly is pretty worrying.  If he is staying for next year I hope he reverts back to training from his first season.

[clash city rocker]

Not saying I am ITK but have just been speaking to a mate who now lives in Miami. He is a CEO of a company over there and does have a lot of contacts.From what he has found out there are interested parties but they are as he says ' business men'. They know Randy wants out so that means they can negotiate a bit more..From what he was told about one party their line of thought is that if Randy wants £225m for villa , their hope would be to get it for £190-£200 m and then put in £30m for players.He couldn't get any names of who are interested and reckons it is very hush hush as prospective sales go...so basically I'm still none the wiser.He has been on holiday for a couple of weeks and is still trying to catch up with work and the villa info.

[clash city rocker]

P.s. He did say that although it seems very hush hush it might be a case that it is not big news over there and not that many people might be actually interested in trying to find out what is going on.

[Jarpie]

P.s. He did say that although it seems very hush hush it might be a case that it is not big news over there and not that many people might be actually interested in trying to find out what is going on.

Or prospective buyers are keeping things as much as possible in dark so other potential buyers couldn't come and mess up the deal, which would make sense.

[pauliewalnuts]

In not sure we were sent out to play much football really - we played more long balls than any team in the league last season.

For what it's worth I think Lambert wants us to play good football but wanting us to and being able to make us do it are two totally different things.

[curiousorange]

More info: The Sun's Charlie Wyett claims there will be no takeover in the near future. Lerner's statement was released after a potential sale fell through, and we're looking at six months min.

Another guy on Twitter, called Sporting Genius, has waded into the conversation I've seen and reckons the deal was with Larry Ellison, and it was pulled after Lerner tinkered with the deal. Lambert wasn't too impressed to say the least, hence his demeanour at the mo.

It's probably bulltwit, especially from the non-journo, but interesting speculation.

[Jarpie]

More info: The Sun's Charlie Wyett claims there will be no takeover in the near future. Lerner's statement was released after a potential sale fell through, and we're looking at six months min.

Said 'nuff.

IMO we're more like 4-6 weeks away from the takeover, not six months. Do people really take what english "journalists" say without any pinch of salt? Seriously?

[VinnieChase84]

More info: The Sun's Charlie Wyett claims there will be no takeover in the near future. Lerner's statement was released after a potential sale fell through, and we're looking at six months min.

If that's truly the case then we are fucked.
Season ticket sales are going to be the lowest for years after all this....

[Ads]

If there is no buyer on the horizon then the only way to estimate the length of time would be equivolent sales.