markavfc40 Posted December 27, 2012 Share Posted December 27, 2012 (edited) PL is doing what he can with very poor resources Sigining 2 or 3 players who can hit the ground running is a good idea but 1) that costs money that may not be made available and 2) what money is available might be needed to plug 5 or 6 gaps in the squad. I beleive that Lambert is trying to make the best of a very bad situation and very very limited resources and he will continue to recieve my backing I agree. Over the summer we needed quantity and proven quality but for a 17 mill net spend we were not getting both so Lambert went with quantity and gambled on players with potential. In January he needs to be given significant backing and for his part he needs to use that backing to sign 2 or 3 players of proven quality who can as you say hit the ground running and make an instant impact. We don't have the time to gamble on potential in January. It is very much a balancing act for Lambert. I like what he has done in bringing in players who are hungry with potential and who will improve and think Westwood, Lowton and Benteke have been excellent signings and hopefully Bennett and Bowery will eventually make a positive impact. However, funds allowing, these kind of signings need to be coupled with players who can make an instant impact in this league/at this level to help the others along and to help ensure we are competitive whilst the younger, inexperienced players settle and realise their potential. This upcoming transfer window is as important as any transfer window I can remember in recent history. If Lambert isn't given the funds and/or doesn't spend them right then come May we could find ourselves planning for life in the Championship. Edited December 27, 2012 by markavfc40 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
VillaCas Posted December 27, 2012 Share Posted December 27, 2012 ???? You started banging on about Bale vs Herd. I didn't mention those two originally. I said Bale was getting freedom, but he was getting it all over the pitch. My point was that we didn't defend as a solid, cohesive unit; as a team. You can coach players on how to defend as a team & how to retain shape/provide cover for each other. You know, the basic stuff. I used Herd as an example When you have one team worth 300m and the other worth 30m all the coaching in the world isn't going to allow you to completely close them down - that was McLeish's approach and as we saw it didnt work. Defoe's goal was a result of Lowton "switching off", Bale's goals were a result of him being too good and our defenace not being good enough I'm not going to claim that we couldn't have defended better against Spurs but to blame PL's training methods as the main issue and ignore the massive disparity of talent on show is ridiculous With all the training in the world you can't guarantee that a team of journeyman can close down a team of much more talented individuals Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
gilbertoAVFC Posted December 27, 2012 Share Posted December 27, 2012 Tbf, in regards to defending: Ron Vlaar and Richard Dunne are far better players than Chris Herd and Nathan Baker. I don't care how much people slate Dunne for his lack of pace or drinking tendencies, he remains an experienced Premier League player and there is no way we'd have conceded anywhere near as many as we have in the last two games if we had a back three of Clark-Dunne-Vlaar. There's defensive training, and then there's defensive training when missing your two best defenders. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
VillanousOne Posted December 27, 2012 Share Posted December 27, 2012 anyone not think that Lambert is going down the exact same route of using the youngsters that almost got us relegated with McCleish? I am almost bored of pointing out how average the core of our squad is. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
briny_ear Posted December 27, 2012 Share Posted December 27, 2012 Did anyone else feel a small pang of regret watching Carlos Cuellar captain his team and lead his defence to an excellent win over Man C on Boxing day? 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Papillon Posted December 27, 2012 Share Posted December 27, 2012 The 3-5-2 is just horrendous, a team like ours shouldn't do it at all. With an exceptional team like Man U or Barca, you can play any way you like and still win, but trying to do something like that with average players like Bennett and Lowton is just like shooting ourselves in the foot. There is a reason why no-one else uses it, because it gives the other team an easy way of exploiting the wings. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CI Posted December 27, 2012 Share Posted December 27, 2012 Did anyone else feel a small pang of regret watching Carlos Cuellar captain his team and lead his defence to an excellent win over Man C on Boxing day? No. I reserve those feelings for Gary Cahill. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Papillon Posted December 27, 2012 Share Posted December 27, 2012 Did anyone else feel a small pang of regret watching Carlos Cuellar captain his team and lead his defence to an excellent win over Man C on Boxing day? To be fair, the Sunderland fans are pretty critical of Cuellar thus far this season. However, he would go right into our side, he is actually a proper defender compared to let's say Herd who fights hard but doesn't really look a real defender. Is he a stopper, a midfielder? I don't know, he just runs around and fights for the ball without actually contributing much. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Morpheus Posted December 27, 2012 Share Posted December 27, 2012 Other not others. One at Man City. + Southampton That's only 3 drubbings this season which obviously means the drubbing at Chelsea must have been a 'Freak' result as it had only happened twice before in a 3 month period. Thanks, it saved me the bother. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Risso Posted December 27, 2012 Share Posted December 27, 2012 The 3-5-2 is just horrendous, a team like ours shouldn't do it at all. With an exceptional team like Man U or Barca, you can play any way you like and still win, but trying to do something like that with average players like Bennett and Lowton is just like shooting ourselves in the foot. There is a reason why no-one else uses it, because it gives the other team an easy way of exploiting the wings. Indeed. There's a reason we stopped playing this formation in 1996, and that's because when you face a good team with excellent attacking players, you end up getting battered. Only a complete moron would have stuck with the tactic after the Chelsea debacle, especially when facing a team with Gareth Bale in it, but that's what that chump Lambert decided to do. But never mind eh Paul, we'll just "pick ourselves up and go again" eh? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Morpheus Posted December 27, 2012 Share Posted December 27, 2012 You're massively overrating Dunne. He may be really experienced but he's still shit and over the hill. Our defence may be shit this season without him but remember it was shit last season with him. Vlaar is very experienced as well, but unlike Dunne he's actually a half decent defender. I'd be interested to know how many goals we conceded last season with Dunne in the team? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CrackpotForeigner Posted December 27, 2012 Share Posted December 27, 2012 Indeed. There's a reason we stopped playing this formation in 1996, and that's because when you face a good team with excellent attacking players, you end up getting battered. Only a complete moron would have stuck with the tactic after the Chelsea debacle, especially when facing a team with Gareth Bale in it, but that's what that chump Lambert decided to do. But never mind eh Paul, we'll just "pick ourselves up and go again" eh? You must be an awesome person. Every manager we've had since I joined VT has been a chump by your high standards. You really should be in football management. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Morpheus Posted December 27, 2012 Share Posted December 27, 2012 Dunne's completely past it now, and I honestly don't know what you're talking about when you speak of his "leadership". It's amazing how Dunne's suddenly becoming this good player in the eyes of many fans since he has been absent. Probably due to conceding 12 in two! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dudevillaisnice Posted December 27, 2012 Share Posted December 27, 2012 We've only won 3 premier league home games in 2012. Awful year. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
The_Lions_Roar Posted December 27, 2012 Share Posted December 27, 2012 Disagree with that somewhat, what Spurs have done is sell players at the right time for maximum profit and then replace them with equally good players.They also kept their Wage budget under control whilst we were handing out Millions to the likes of Beye and Heskey. Well yes the wage structure is obviously massive as well but that's looking deeper into it. Who have they sold? I can only think of modric that you'd say they were one of their top players. I still don't think he's been replaced. They've bought 3 midfielders in but all different players to modric. We've sold players for profit but we haven't used the money wisely enough. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
markavfc40 Posted December 27, 2012 Share Posted December 27, 2012 Well yes the wage structure is obviously massive as well but that's looking deeper into it. Who have they sold? I can only think of modric that you'd say they were one of their top players. Off the top of my head over the last 4 years they have sold Modric for 33 mill, Keane for 20 mill, Berbatov for 30 mill and Van Der Vaart and Bent would have gone for at least 10 mill a piece. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CI Posted December 27, 2012 Share Posted December 27, 2012 We've only won 3 premier league home games in 2012. Awful year. Fulham 1-0 Weimann goal of the season Swansea 2-0 decent performance Reading 1-0 turgid game It's absolute relegation form Of the highest order Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LondonLax Posted December 27, 2012 Share Posted December 27, 2012 It is a bit of a worry how lost he looked last night in the face of another drubbing. So many young managers get promoted and stay up then disappear back down the leagues in the second season. It's starting to look like Lambert will be another one. We need some big money in January to turn around this momentum. I think Wigan will cone to Villa park Saturday and fancy themselves. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Morpheus Posted December 27, 2012 Share Posted December 27, 2012 (edited) I don't think he is but as Mantis says under McLeish things were getting worse all the time, despite the last two results I think Lambert will take us forward. That though is dependant upon Lerner a man I have little or no faith in. Lambert hasn't been taking us forward though and i maintain that he is not the right manager for us. We already had several young players in and around our first team before Lambert was appointed and we didn't need more. What we did need though was stability. That stability could have been achieved from bringing more of the right experienced players into our team before the season started. Everyone has their own choice of player and i have put forward mine more than most so i will leave it at that but the blame for our current position and team lies soley with Lambert. Many will say to excuse him that he inherited a very poor squad and there is some truth in that. However, he had at his disposal one of the best goalscorers in the Premiership and rather than basing his team and tactics around that player, he has actually alienated him. He also had Ireland who is still by far our best technical player, yet plays him sporadically. Moreover, Lambert hasn't identified how to get the best out of N'Zogbia. A simple phone call to Wigan's manager would have sorted that out. Play him cutting in from the right FFS!! Tactically Lambert has been mostly inept. He hasn't got the best out of what he inherited and certainly for me didn't purchase the players we needed preferring to gamble on youth which we already had in abundance. He has also made our defence worse. If we don't win against Wigan then he must go! Edited December 27, 2012 by Morpheus Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dudevillaisnice Posted December 27, 2012 Share Posted December 27, 2012 He also didn't identify how to get the best out of N'Zogbia. A simple phone call to Wigan's manager would have sorted that out. Why would he help us? we are now competing with the likes of Wigan to escape relegation. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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