Following the defeat to Leicester City a petition named ‘Remove Paul Lambert‘ has been introduced, so far bearing 1,110 signatures. Villa fans are becoming increasingly fed up with the lack of goals and the style of play. Unfortunately it appears unlikely that Randy Lerner is putting any kind of the pressure on Paul Lambert, all the heat appears to be coming from Villa supporters. Shouts of ‘We want Lambert out’ and ‘We want our Villa back’ were heard during the game against Leicester City on Saturday.
Aston Villa haven’t scored in 12 hours of game time, and have now only managed 11 goals in 20 games. Villa are on target on scoring less goals then Derby County in 2007/8 season (20 goals). Villa fans have also only witnessed two league wins in 17 further increasing fans discontent in Paul Lambert’s reign.
Paul Lambert’s response to the recent pressure:
“The fans pay a lot of money to come and watch,” he said. “I don’t want Aston Villato keep doing what they are doing. It’s a great club with a great fan base. We just have to take it, we have to come through it. There are only two ways you can go: you either sink or you swim. But the more important thing is the game, that’s more important than people’s feelings towards myself. We’ve just got to work hard and we need a bit more creativity in the final third.”
As much as I’d like a change of manager, I highly doubt it’s going to happen. I just don’t see Lerner sacking a manager who had just received a new four-year deal in September. Having said that, the least Lerner could do is provide funds for Lambert and allow him to sign two attacking minded players in Sinclair and Gils. Because for now, I think it’s the only way forward and possibly the only way to give some morale to the team.
So apparently our expectations outweigh reality. I guess scoring more than .52 goals a game on average is asking a little too much from the worst manager in Premier League history. But that’s what you expect from the clueless muppet.
At the moment I would say those betting sites look spot on. Things might change, but it is hard to see why they will. It’s too much to expect of Gil to make that much difference. Poor fella is going to have a rude awakening.
Lambert has changed the style of play. At least he has recognised that our counter attack plan was not working. He can also see that his current plan isn’t working.
The counter attack plan needs pace, quick passing and making the right choices, and clinical finishing. We have pace.
Plan B needs creativity in the final third and good finishing. We have……..nope, neither of these.
He is trying to address the creativity bit but we are paying a few million. What a player that Tadic is for Southampton. I think he cost over £10M. That’s probably what we need to do, and I don’t see any sign that Randy is in the mood to spend like that.
I hate to say it but I think this year we are doomed. I haven’t felt this dejected or negative in previous seasons, but it really feels that way now.
if i was the manager and i had our players, i would revert back to counter attacking and the defensive shape, we simply don’t have the tools to open up defenses and teams like leciester that will press high, knowing we are toothless and offer no threat,
we have pace and thats the only thing we have to worry the opposition, use benteke more directly, that fails sit deep and draw the opposition on to us and hit um with countering speed, like we have over the years.
Why is it we could open up teams in Lambert’s first season with basically the same players as we have now?
i think the philosophy lamberts first season was attacking, hence the goals we conceded, also we were more countering. i can’t believe the guy is the same guy that was at norwich. cos they we refreshingly attacking, our balance has switched to more defensive and narrower . also don’t forget teams have worked us out and cut out leaving space behind and stopped over committing stopping us countering.
i also believe you shouldn’t change during a season, things like this should be worked on pre season not during december when games come fast and less training time
Philosophy clearly has changed by my mind still boggles over this as I do realize we attacked more and now we don’t. But why is it that the same team, where we haven’t sold a single important player to the team under Lambert and yet you claimed we don’t have the tools to open up teams yet we do, because we have at a large capacity opened up every team not 2 seasons ago. Sold no one under him that did the opening up and now we can’t… Does this make sense to you, because I’m baffled by this.
Think Nath is right, at least the first part. lambert has lost his nerve. We don’t attack in sufficient numbers at pace. We have gone from hoofing upfield and chasing the ball and trying to get a chance quickly, to trying to keep the ball to tire other teams out and try to nick the odd goal. As for not changing during the season I think we had to, and I think we have to do it again, at least in terms of personnel.
He is right, as I was aware we changed philosophy and it was more of… How is it that people claim we can’t open up teams, when we did it 2 seasons ago on a regular basis, and sold no one under Lambert and now we don’t have the tools? It’s garbage we can’t do it.
like dsvilla says hes (lambert ) lost his nerves and if you think back to his first season, we did concede loads by committing to many forwards and bad last ditch defending. to compensate lambert went more defensive in season 2 and 3,
for changing in middle of season, its also changing from one extreme to another, benteke doesn’t move for the little through balls, that villa are trying now, so hes looking dis interested, the full back or wing backs lack in the final third, (cissokho ) they are the width in this system. there is no need for three similar central mids westwood sanchez and cleverley, (send cleverley back) lastly gabby and weimann are not creating anything or scoring
very scary 🙁 can i ask andrew what are the chances, of sending cleverley back and loaning Januzaj there seems talk about this on utds website but nothing at our end
another thing regarding benteke is with our slower build up, benteke is getting marked by 2 or 3 defenders, this is our main threat marked out of game. where as for the before our change, we would move the ball much quicker and benteke wasn’t doubled marked, now he does move and hes ignored while we pass slowly right to left and back, so he stops moving. fed up with never receiving the ball.
we need to keep trying to pass the ball around, but not to forget 2 get the ball up to our threat and work off him like we used to, mix our game up. guzan now rolls the ball out 100% even if our defenders are marked,
So Lambert’s scared to play attacking football, so we are set up not to win, but to not lose. We did concede a lot of goals, but now we have more than a good enough defense to attack far more often, no? So what you’re saying is, Lambert can’t balance the two? Attack and Defense can’t be balanced under Lambert’s tactics?
So what I’m getting is, Lambert is afraid to attack as he’s afraid to lose games, so we don’t attack and we lose as we don’t score. Lambert can’t motivate Gabby and Benteke to move, ala say Koeman did to Pelle and so we can’t get the ball forward as Benteke’s man marked by 3. So if lets say Benteke is man marked by 3, then any number of players should be fairly open, no? And as you say, Lambert’s playing 3 very similar midfielder’s in Sanchez, Cleverley and Westwood, despite Villa having Grealish and Cole available, or the option of not playing 3 midfielder’s, or the option of keeping Gardner as he is something different to the 3 we have. So the cutting edge we used to have was switched and basically trained out of Villa by Lambert.
See where I’m going with this… Lambert is behind everything football related at Villa Park. So changing him out means a new man comes in and changes the team, we’d no longer be scared of playing football, someone who can actually motivate. So most of our issues IS Lambert. The whole we have no cutting edge is bogus because under Lambert we had it, then he got scared and basically trained it out of the team. The entire problem isn’t a lack of money, because he had money, we once had a cutting edge, but a scared little man took it out of them, and now we can’t do anything, despite used to be one of the most creative teams in the league, can’t create because the team’s far too slow, a Lambert tactic. Lambert is 100% the issue on the playing side.
There is nothing new in football, “Catenacio” which a decade ago made the Italian Serie A so boring with an average score line of 1-0 is what Lambert is running now.
But the score line should dictate how you play. From the off you should attack at least as bravely as the oppos, especially at home, until a goal is scored. If you go a goal up then you sit back and defend. You hope that when you can see a long ball forward you have as many players (1 or 2) up-field as they have back to score more on the counter.
If you go a goal down you must at all times outnumber the forwards they have left up field with the defenders you leave at the back. The oppos will probably sit back while you attack. Their 8 behind the ball will probably have a set shape, and the trick to unlocking them is to move your players around to cause physical mis-matches. Big against small, fast against slow, tricky against clumsy. You are going to have to win some of these pair contests to work an opening. That is it.
You can see that v Leicester Villa did not leave enough back, Guzan looked to roll out, not drop kick up to our attackers, and the idea of moving our attackers around to cause mis-matches seems to be on a page Lambert has not come to in the play-book.
andrew chill out mate, your not alone we all feel frustrated, why why i aven’t a clue you make decent arguments , but i am not lamberts spokesperson, i can only give my views and thats all i do, as for a new man coming in working with what we have. i really do doubt this villa team, your asking a new manager to come in and manage players that he might not rate. i seriously doubt a top manager or even one on par with lambert would risk a sinking ship. hope iam wrong
answer your own questions. i love to know why we are shit, also grealish i doubt is the answer, yes he should get a chance. but he doesn’t do it for me,iam not convinced. against blackpool he showed hes miles away, yes hes has come on and show nice quick feet. but is he gonna play week in and out at a high lvl not for me
Erm I’m well calm. Not sure how we came to the conclusion I’m not but that’s okay.
I’m just pointing out that people continue arguing about Lambert but if he’s really scared to attack teams, that’s automatically a you gotta go.
Also why do people think no manager is going to want to come. We’re still a Premier League team, we’re still mid-table, we’ve still got a more than good enough team to be doing better and with the Premier League in the worst state it’s been in in years, we’re well off to do quite well. The manager’s going to get transfer funds, as every manager has and the manager’s going to be well paid, like every manager has.