Turmoil

[ChicagoLion]

It may not be as irrelevant as you think.  We tend to kick towards the Holt in the second half.  So, without doing the research I'd guess it means we very rarely score in the second half at home, which may be a pointer to one of our footballing / tactical problems?  Ie - get our noses in front, sit back, concede late, go home frustrated.

Absolutely - and here is that research.

Since we played Cardiff at the start of November last year we've scored two goals in the second half of league matches at Villa Park (Benteke's consolation against Arsenal and Delph's winner against Chelsea). It goes up to a whopping three if we include Helenius' in the cup defeat to Sheffield Utd.

That can definitely put in the 'not good enough' file.

Grant Holt scored in front of the Holte in the second half of the match against Fulham. Doesn't make it much better though!

As was Benteke's penalty winner against the Baggies.

Interesting how certain "stats" get fabricated.

Like us being 20th in every attacking aspect of the game.

[john e]

How about these, then?

That stat is so last week,
since we scored on Saturday and had loads of attempts we would have moved up to at least err.......19th maybe on one of the categories

[silhillvilla]

Is that graphic still current ?? Small consolation I know but I thought we'd soared above hull to 19th in 1 or 2 areas ?

[SamTheMouse]

Can you imagine if Lambert was Newcastle manager, with these results and performances? The Geordies would have burned down St James' the Sports Direct Arena by now...

Not saying the Byker Grurve brigade are the sort of supporters we should be emulating, of course. But still, I think Lambert's been given a very fair crack of the whip by those saintly lot who stump up their hard-earned cash to go to games.

[SamTheMouse]

Is that graphic still current ?? Small consolation I know but I thought we'd soared above hull to 19th in 1 or 2 areas ?

I think it was from before the Burnley game.

[Steve67]

Graham Taylor was mentioned in another thread, it really needs someone like him to sort it all out. It seems like an avalanche at the moment, gathering downhill motion, getting worse. Action is required but Randy is fiddling whilst Rome burns. He'll be selling the club at a song when we go down. I want our Villa back.

[PaulWinch again]

I really do think short of us going into administration or something like that we're in about as much of a shambles as I can remember us being.

[silhillvilla]

My fear is if we drop into the bottom 3 we won't get out. Not with the current set up anyway.

[brian green]

I am not normally a supporter of simple reasons and simple solutions but in this case I see a core malaise, namely the owner never being on the premises or so rarely that it is not significant,.   The old adage about the mice playing while the cat is away fitting the situation perfectly.   With no head to the structure the culture of office and career politics takes hold and the direction of the organization is lost in a welter of point scoring and staff vendettas.

I do confess however that in moments of black despair for the club I fantasize that like in Cold Comfort Farm, there is something nasty in the woodshed at Villa Park.   This fantasy was given substance by the revelation of the bullying but the chaos continues post C and K so it can't be that.   I did hear a vague whisper from the fan of another club that certain Villa players were gambling very heavily and losing heavily but no substantiation of the rumour materialized so I drifted back to my first idea outlined above.   We are in a horrible muddle because the owner does not care that we are in a horrible muddle.   He is demob happy and somebody else will have to clean his mess up.

[OzVilla]

Lerner has been the biggest long term problem with his instant austerity and dreadful appointments but Lambert has, unfortunatley, turned into a greater short term problem.

He simply must go or I really think we'll get relegated. We're getting worse the longer he stays here.

Trouble is, with a dumb, absentee owner who just want to sell it suits him to keep Lambert to hold the reins till we get sold. We know that's crazy but that's how Lerner seems to think.

In short, we're Donald Ducked.

[Mister E]

You know, the most bizarre thing in the Lambert era - a time where he has had extraordinary backing from owner and fans - is the way players have been favourited or ostracised. I say this because there several times on Saturday when I thought Bacuna would have been a perfect player to bring (not least when we had a free kick just outside the box, with about 15 mins to go). Bacuna has been almost completely defted by Lambert.
He is not the manger I thought we were getting when he came from Naarwich.

[brian green]

He is not the manager he was at Norwich by a long chalk. With us he has made a lot of failed knee jerk gambles, the young and hungry theory, the bomb squad, the cultivation of a favourites mentality, the ostracizing of those who oppose him, the bullying - these mistakes have, quite correctly, put his job on the line. To cling to his job he has had to grovel to Lerner and Faulkner and now Fox to convince them he is the man for the job. His line of pleading to them is the same as his line of pleading to the media, to whit, Look how much money I am saving you getting in players like Grant Holt and Joe Cole and shaving down the squad with loan-outs, and they buy it and he goes again.
In reality he has turned himself into a manager whose first priority is not the success of his team but his own survival.
It is like buying a sheepdog then selling all your sheep and using the collie to fetch your newspaper from the corner shop.

[ozzjim]

I was wary of him being MON mark 2 when we were linked and didn't want him at first but was won over by Norwich fans adoration and the German learning route.  He is just as odd as mad Martin and actually less effective by miles. Just a shambolic manager. Any other chairman would have sacked him by now.  Lerner is going to get a very very sharp shock when we are relegated and hurtling towards administration. We are currently one of those games golf balls nestled against a big front wall of a bunker. No chance of escape and you wince looking at us.

[not3bad]

Problem is if/when Lambert leaves it's not like the turmoil will be abated. We need someone like Graham Taylor? Yes we do, but who could do a job like that now. He may well be out there somewhere, sure, but to be on Lerner's radar he'd need to have a reccomendation letter.  More likely even when Lambert goes, it will have the same effect on Villa's slide as when Graham Turner left in the 80s.

[mr underhill]

what about the bearer of the recommendation letter himself? One last challenge for SAF?