Ok, so I had the hump earlier, which was why I couldn’t be bothered to write a proper opinion of the game today.
But having thought about things, I’m beginning to have serious concerns with regards to Paul Lambert.
Now I know many on here don’t like him, but he does still have his supporters who can see further than I can.
My opinion says Lambert is in over his head and the job is simply too big for him.
Reasons?
1) Poor substitutions. Enough said. Has anyone anywhere ever complimented any of his changes? (as it happens, I think I did once at the back end of last season, but you know what I mean).
2) Either the whole squad is poor or he just refuses to change things up when players are out of form, which suggests he has favourites.
3) The football has regressed. I was never madly convinced about our finish to last season, as we played some real dross teams, but whatever, I think we’re mostly agreed that the footy of late is dire. Nearly as dire as under you know who.
4) Whenever we do beat someone, it’s never convincing as in we easily deserved to win (this season anyway).
5) He’s quite simply the definition of “boring” when he does his interviews. That and the fact that you can hardly understand what he’s saying.
Lambert looks like a rabbit caught in headlights to me and I really don’t think he knows what the answers are (better players apart).
But that’s just my opinion.
I’d be interested to know what you think.
Lambert out were crap no one can defend him or lerner
Oh but the LEMMINGS can.
Badger123 , same thoughts as me no doubts about it, he is in over his head,yes lost the plot, and many will stick with him till its so obvious its to late, OK who would you have in his place ? I say call back our old staff Gordon Cowens has more brains than Lambert,I bet he would know whose who in the game that never get a chance to show. I know that there’s not many so called manager’s about in the game with quality that Villa need, but for gods sake we have had some bad ones to date.we will only stay up because of other teams that are worse than us.
Lamberk never had the plot.
It’s a shame it has taken this long for many to see, but there is still an overwhelming amount of sheep who suck up to Lamberk FC over AVFC.
Lamberks lemmings as my friend sir Terry rightly says.
BELCS Iwas one that said from the start Lamberk would only ruin our club with his maniac ideas.But have you noticed nobody is coming out to defend him keeping their heads down or are still curled up in their burrows.
Even Langford has seen the light it must be bad.
Hmm, so at the moment the “maybe” option is the clear leader, with only 1 in 5 voting for him out.
I’m probably in the maybe group too, as I do have serious concerns, but it’s who would come in that is the major worry.
Lerner’s record in appointing managers is poor and even MON was Ellis’ choice.
I just keep going back to the fact that there are surely 3 clubs worse than us, which is a pretty sad position to be in really.
Well it isn’t surprising is it, what does Lerner know about English football, he’s a businessman and has his hands on a major English football club, at the end of the day this was brought on us from Ellis, I don’t think he realises what he’s don’t to us.
I think that’s simply because no one trusts Lerner to do any better and lambert is seen as best of a bad bunch. Not really a vote of confidence badger
Done to us….
To be fair both teams were dyer yesterday, it was a scrappy game all over the filed, Downing looked the most likely to do anything on the day, the c**t.
Once again our midfield were on the whole non-existent but Westwood had a better game in my opinion. There is still absolutely nil creativity from all of our midfiled and wing backs which is a real worry. Benteke was found in our own half a too much of the time, waiting for someone, anyone, to overlap and it never came. Kozak was invisible after he came on. Arguably we should of won the game based on clear cut chances but I can’t say we would have deserved it, as neither team did on the day.
Defence were great. Clarke is playing the simple game so well, chuffed for the lad.
Benteke looked a lot sharper and I’m sure we’ll see him on the socre sheet at home against Cardiff. Weimann needs a T.O. badly.
The main worry though, Lambert. He seems to have one game plan and when it doesn’t work he looks lost with substitutions and tactical changes. West Ham were team for the taking yesterday. They look to have even more problems than us thankfully.
I voted ‘other’ I’m prepared to give Lambert till Christmas (at this time) although I’m far from a happy Villan. If we can point at one positive it’s the defence, he’s (Lambert) obviously had something to do with the improvement there wether directly or indirectly by bringin in the new coaches in the summer so we have to give him that much at the least. UTV
True defence has improved not because we defend better but lambert is doing a mcleish and parking the bus and packing the midfield. This hampers us going forward. Though I agree Clarke has definitely improved and so has vlaar. Benteke has been found out a bit and he is marked a lot tighter as opposition can afford to double up on him knowing the rest of our forwards are useless. The squad is piss poor there is no quality. Benteke will be off as soon as he can and other than Guzan we will have no quality, no goal scorer. Lamberk out us what I’d normally say but we can’t trust Lerner to get anyone better. So stuck with both if them
Lerner has lost the plot …. We will never know whether Lambert is up to the job until he is given SUBSTANTIAL funding from the tightfisted, ignorant twat that is Randolph!
Fuck off Lerner, the Villa is OURS…. Simple Randolph…open your mouth and then open your fucking cheque book!
True but I don’t think lambert wants big name players he want young players he can manipulate who won’t challenge his authority. In the unlikely event Lerner starts spending big again then I wouldn’t want lambert to be the one to spend it. Lambert is a shoestring budget manager like mon. Mon fucked up big time with our one and only chance of too four.
Eh?
I thought most of us complained that MON spent way too much???
So how is he a shoestring manager?
He left Celtic, Leicester and Villa in the shit financially because he had to pay over the odds to get the players in that he wanted.
All sanctioned by the owners though, so I don’t blame him.
This is one thing that I think many Villa fans don’t understand, myself.
We’re not a fashionable club and if we are ever to try and make a push again, we’ll have to over-pay, just the same as MON did.
Which is why I think it’ll never happen again under Lerner. Once bitten, twice shy, imo and why we’re going down the cheap and shit route.
MON is still head and shoulders the best manager we’ve had under Lerner, but no doubt many will disagree.
He’s not as good as houllier IMO and about the same as lambert. What I mean by shoestring is he was used to spending peanuts before he came to us and when he had the money he wasted it on overpaid mercenaries. Nothing to do with us being unfashionable our wage bill was higher than spurs if u remember and when Lerner looked at their squad compared to ours that’s when he started to question mon.
Rightfully so as he failed constantly to take us forward on a consistent basis.
Our wage bill was higher than Spurs because noone wants to come to Brum and if it isn’t London, Manchester or Liverpool, players just don’t want to know!
Hence MON had to pay over the odds to get them to come.
And he was well used to spending money. That’s just plain wrong, thinking he didn’t spend before he came to us.
He nearly broke Celtic and Leicester.
But as I said, all sanctioned from above.
Not sure about this London factor though benteke came as he thought we were in London. We can still attract quality players if we showed some ambition. Remember saints got a class player and they arnt in London. Bottom line us what player worth their salt wants to play in a team full of dross Ffs. The only quality player we have will fuck of soon as well
Find that as a poor excuse to MON having a crap scouting department, in which he didn’t know what he was doing spending so much money. I mean Houllier had Cabaye, Gervinho about to move to Birmingham, MON could have had Falcao in Birmingham, Villa was able to attract Vlaar who while I know isn’t well liked, a world cup starting CB in Birmingham. Find the excuse of location a cheap cop out.
Actually agree with you for once Andrew it’s easy to hide behind the London factor. If we showed some ambition and spent money we would get a better quality player and that’s a fact.
The only problem I have with Lambert is that he is ‘just another’ yes man employed by Lerner ro keep us at least 4 from bottom whilst spending fuck all. No manager with any self respect at a club this size would stand for this…its fucking pisstaking abuse that we dont deserve. The shit will hit the fan if we lose to Cardiff……Lerner, you are a tightfisted,ignorant twat….and you Lambert are a fool to put up with it! Lambert should walk, because there are NO magic wands to turn this mess around. Someone asked why we bought Kozak…simple answer, to replace Benteke…..Lerner will pocket the Benteke money plus the extra sky money and give Lambert a miserly 20 million to spend….anyone see a pattern developing?
Agreed if kozac is tge replacement then we are truly fucked. I think if we lose to Cardiff the knives will be out but I do think we will win tbh so lambert will get a stay of execution
You’re worrying for nothing… Kozak won’t be Benteke’s direct replacement.
Hope not he is shite. I suppose you are going to say give him time he will be the new messi!!
Clearly a guy taller than Benteke’s gonna be the new Messi. But no, I don’t think he’s shite, but he’s not going to replace Benteke.
Malky Makays claret and blue army.
Sounds terrible.
Didn’t realise posts had to sound good I thought it was a forum not a sound test.
Haha. Saying it out loud, that doesn’t sound good. 😉
Neither does paul Lamberts claret and blue army but shit happens eh.
That, that I agree with.
Right, let’s look at the bigger picture here!
Before lambert took over Aston Villa as a club were looking very bleak on and off the pitch! We were playing poor football with uninterested overpaid nonces! Lambert has come in and had to completely change everything to not only try and keep us in the league but to also change the squad and cut costs!
So, a year on and what have we got, a young vibrant team which at the end of last season started to play some attractive football to get us off our seats! And not only that but kept us in the league and cut costs!
Finally this season we have played 10 games and 6of those games were arguably against the top 6 in the country and we are midtable ish!
Considering the turn around in players and the pressure on the young team to stay up and do well I think we aren’t doing to bad Atall!
I think a lot of people are asking for all too much at once! After 12 months people are wanting, attractive football, new players, more wins, less conceded, more money cut! Fuck me give Vila some credit here! I can understand if we were in this position in 2 years time but I think that this year is the year where players settle in playing a certain lambert style whilst being competitive still and keep building! These things take time
UTV
If Lambert kept last season’s style of play, your last part would have some truth in it, but he didn’t. It’s back to the McLeish/MON days, and further and further from the Houllier style, real footballing style.
Not another give em time merchant. Wev been saying that since mon left Ffs
Clearly gotta give them at least a full season though, no? However if Lambert was continuing on how he started, attacking football, good football, then he’d have very few people on his back as he’s at least trying to implement change, but the fact he denies Villa are just a counter attacking team, which he’s completely wrong this season, it makes sense people want him out.
Well said Dan, fans are as fickle and impatient as could be especially ooh ah and terry, they change their mind every 5 mins, last year they kept complaining about no clean sheets and how we will never be a decent side if we can’t get 0-0s and 1-0s, this year we are gettin clean sheets and gettin points but now they want attractive attacking football scoring loads of goals not caring how many we concede! Its like i said THEY WILL NEVER BE HAPPY! The only thing that makes these people happy is bein able to moan and complain and moan moan moan its never ending!
Fact of the matter is we are playing worse than last year, we were Shite yesterday utter Shite, without Delph we don’t have a midfield period! Every single Lambert signing for midfield is a below average midfielder, one of these would be fine but we start 2 or 3 every game and have maybe 5 in the squad.
I very rarely write off a player so early but kozak does not even look close to prem quality, i don’t have a clue why we bought him maybe just a panic buy cause we couldn’t get da creative midfielder we wanted i don’t know but he is the biggest waste of 7mill ever, helenius should be ahead of him but im sure Lambert plays kozak just cause he cost 7mill and helenius only cost like 1mill, these are not reasons to play or not play a player.
So i think Lambert is losing the plot, benteke is great in the air but he is brilliant with his feet too and there is no point in benteke being great in the air if none of our players ever pick up his knock ons, the whole rest of our team are better at playing the ball to feet, the last 3 months of last season have proved that so what’s with all this long ball hoofing bullshit i have no idea, i just hope Lambert finds the plot again and gets us playing the way we know we can!
We are gettin results though that’s why calling for Lamberts head is ridiculous, the next few games will be crucial because if we play hoof ball bullshit against carrdiff when that’s a game we should be dominating and a game we would have dominated 6 months ago then even rational fans will start to wonder how far can Lambert actually take us…UTV
“After 12 months people are wanting………. more money cut!”
Not me.
I want more money spent by Lerner, the tight bastard who’s currently making a fortune out of the club.
Making a fortune is probably going a bit far. He’s probably making some money, but doubt it’s all that much to be fair. But if Lambert continues like this, then I can’t see much coming from Lerner, as he’s now trusted 4 manager’s with a fair bit of money, and 3 of those 4 let him down big time, not including Houllier as he showed signs of improvement.
When I say more money cut I mean fans aren’t wanting overpriced oldies anymore and want the shit players (Hutton, given, bent) gone!
I never wanted Bent gone and indeed thought we were doing things too fast, but yes, point taken Dan.
Agree should if kept bent
While Bent fits the style, he still doesn’t suit a lack of width that clearly is shown.
Agreed Andrew, our footy is utter shit to watch.
If we finish mid table this season we will have improved on last.Im only interested in a long term project at AVFC with premier league improvement.I am hoping Lerner will spend a bit more next season maybe 30-40 million.If not I will have to concede but until the end of the season then I will make my judgement.Finish 10th or above improvement,12th just ok but below this I will concede that there is no improvement at all……..End of the season…UTV
But don’t you wanna see some kind of improvement on the pitch? We’re going backwards. We went from O’Neill’s kick and run style, to Houllier’s trying to play football style to McLeish’s kick and run style to Lambert’s attempt at playing football to Lambert playing a worse kick and run style than McLeish did. You can fully understand why Villa are shit, that’s a change every single season in just the style of play alone.
As I said improvement all round
JD you are so deluded if you think Lerner will spend 30-40m it ain’t gonna happen. Also getting excited over a midtable finish shows how far Wev fallen even Cardiff are ahead if us now Ffs
I don’t know what Lerner is going to do as I am not Lerner.Also what’s with the deluded shit all the time just because I’m not over animated and keep my feet on the floor.We just drew away and now have Cardiff coming up.Now if he loses at home to Cardiff I won’t be to pleased but I also won’t be sitting at home chewing on it UTV
Well said Dan, fans are as fickle and impatient as could be especially ooh ah and terry, they change their mind every 5 mins, last year they kept complaining about no clean sheets and how we will never be a decent side if we can’t get 0-0s and 1-0s, this year we are gettin clean sheets and gettin points but now they want attractive attacking football scoring loads of goals not caring how many we concede! Its like i said THEY WILL NEVER BE HAPPY! The only thing that makes these people happy is bein able to moan and complain and moan moan moan its never ending!
Fact of the matter is we are playing worse than last year, we were Shite yesterday utter Shite, without Delph we don’t have a midfield period! Every single Lambert signing for midfield is a below average midfielder, one of these would be fine but we start 2 or 3 every game and have maybe 5 in the squad.
I very rarely write off a player so early but kozak does not even look close to prem quality, i don’t have a clue why we bought him maybe just a panic buy cause we couldn’t get da creative midfielder we wanted i don’t know but he is the biggest waste of 7mill ever, helenius should be ahead of him but im sure Lambert plays kozak just cause he cost 7mill and helenius only cost like 1mill, these are not reasons to play or not play a player.
So i think Lambert is losing the plot, benteke is great in the air but he is brilliant with his feet too and there is no point in benteke being great in the air if none of our players ever pick up his knock ons, the whole rest of our team are better at playing the ball to feet, the last 3 months of last season have proved that so what’s with all this long ball hoofing bullshit i have no idea, i just hope Lambert finds the plot again and gets us playing the way we know we can!
We are gettin results though that’s why calling for Lamberts head is ridiculous, the next few games will be crucial because if we play hoof ball bullshit against carrdiff when that’s a game we should be dominating and a game we would have dominated 6 months ago then even rational fans will start to wonder how far can Lambert actually take us…UTV
Oohah,
Saints got a class player purely because of the manager mate, simple.
Like you said, apparently even Benteke thought we were in London.
Shows how thick players are if you actually believe that story.
You should be a bit more careful before you slag players mate.
You’re best known on here for your early Benteke verdict, after all.
Must admit, I’m not seeing it with Kozak up to now.
Still, early days and all that.
Andrew, I’m totally convinced Lerner is making a fortune out of the club and is reaping anything he’s paid out back, big time.
Kozak’s got the ability, he’s just more suited to Serie A and being a poacher, while having really talented players like Candreva and Lulic doing the work than being 30-40 yards from goal, having to hold it up and whatnot.
I’m not claiming he doesn’t make money, and why shouldn’t he as a big sports owner not go into it making money. I’m sure all sports big club/team owners expect to make money. I can’t see it being an absolute fortune though.
Well if he went because of saints manager then even more reason lambert should go as if he can’t attract that type of player then what’s the point. Benteke is the new heskey almost as bad as Hansen saying you win nothing with kids lol
Osvaldo did admit that though, only because he’s worked with him before, but then he’s also said he wants to play in a more technical league rather than the EPL after the first month… Yeah.
But it’s true, Houllier was a huge attraction of quality, or would’ve been. Lambert’s not. People kept talking about his Dortmund days, but a season there doesn’t say much at all.
Yes ok, maybe this season we haven’t been playing as much attacking football and that style we had! But I think lambert is being a bit more cautious this year to try and tighten up the defence and it’s working! Yes admittedly it has hindered are attack but he is trying to find a balance of attack and defence and it hasn’t been easy losing okore and benteke for a few weeks
Fair enough and defence has improved but my point is we all slagged of mcleish for playing anti football so why does lambert get away with it?
But that balance starts in midfield, which he’s at fault for. 3 of the main 4 are his buys, and while I still like KEA and Sylla, the balance is a huge fail. There really isn’t a DM in there, though Sylla naturally was, there isn’t an AM in there, there’s no dominating midfield in there, no creative, ball moving/playing midfielder in there other than maybe Westwood who was so much better in the “playing football” style as he actually can play it. The players he bought are suited to his style last season, but Villa aren’t playing that because what, he’s afraid? So he lacks character and doesn’t wanna take a risk, even though the players he bought come from footballing Countries that actually like to play and attack. I mean what you’re claiming makes sense and it shows, but then why go for the players he has, when he could go for MON and McLeish type players who were suited for that garbage football?
Wanyama at saints would if been a great buy for us
McLeish fucked that up… 1m.. 1m is all Celtic paid for him and he played out of his mind for them. Schneiderlin would be brilliant too, but either of them would cost upwards of what, 20-25m now? Nor would they probably make the move unless Arsenal or the likes came for them.
Andrew,
re your 9.43 post
I don’t work on rumours, I can only judge on what actually happened.
I do remember we were rumoured to be in for Ozil.
Two hopes.
As for Lerner making a fortune, I’ll be interested in seeing the books when they come up next time, although you can defer profits and losses, so they don’t really mean a fat lot.
I’ll stand by what I’ve said previously in that Lerner will probably have the vast majority of his investment back in 4-5 years at the current rate he’s pulling it back in.
Fair enough, but rumours are really all we can go off of unless something actually happens, no? But then I wouldn’t think that a rumour of a foreign talent wouldn’t be linked to a MON team unless it had a small ounce of possibility or truth to it as we all know although he got Heskey instead, he’d been linked to Keane, Defoe instead.
I have no doubt he’ll make his money back eventually, but then when you make such big payments and get little back, you tend to take a turn around on investment.
People are freaking out on facebook as we’re linked to a Swedish CB and a Dutch winger who’s playing in Bulgaria and has 1 U-21 cap. So rumours do seem to mean a fair bit.
Andrew, No, not eventually; rapidly.
And then he’ll be sitting on an asset worth nearer £200-250 million, as opposed to the pittance he paid for the club.
Not that I blame him.
If I was investing in this sense, it’s just the sort of return I’d be looking for, but with bells and whistles on.
Doesn’t make him anything like a Villa fan though, just a pure invester/gambler.
Who needs to reinvest if he thinks anything of the club, imo.
Yeah but then I don’t think if Lerner sold, we’d get a buyer who is a fan of Villa, but a company trying to make their name globally as Villa are a big club, or a billionaire trying to flex their muscle under the same guidelines Lerner had with O’Neill.
That’d do for me.
Anyone who can push us on a level, as we’re going nowhere under Lerner, except possibly down.
But then again, Lerner could surprise us all and spend like he once did. One thing I’m not worried about though is going down under Lerner.
I live in hope mate.
If he does go again, fair play to him (and I’ve previously suggested that he might).
No doubt we’ll see.
With that, I’m out of here; now a late night combined with a very early start.
As always, a pleasure debating with you mate.
I think we are shit.
We have a shit owner.
We have a shit manager.
We have one great player.
We have half a dozen half decent players.
The rest should go back to Division One.
Until the game changes it’s all fucked.
We are pointless.
We are out of date.
We are history.
The clock has stopped for us.
In fact it is going backwards.
MON made us relevant.
MON spent a lot.
All mangers do if they can.
An unhealthy Houllier was a mistake.
McLeish was even worse.
Lambert had one decent season in Germany.
He is overrated as a Manager.
Why waste time blogging?
Why waste money on tickets?
Or train fares.
Or pies at half time.
Why make a very rich man even richer.
Football has fashioned its own wheelchair.
Blogging a dead horse.
The End.
So it’s not all bad then!!