The time passed without a Villa goal has reached 531 minutes, another great stat to add to the ever-growing list of Paul Lambert’s achievements as Villa manager.
The Monday night game against QPR saw a change in the way Villa went about losing a game of football. They dominated long periods of the play and had more of the possession, yet were caught on the break a couple of times.
It was pleasing to see Villa keeping hold of the ball for longer than five passes. However, the lack of imagination in the final third was hugely alarming. Every attack was predictable and lacked any impetus. The lack of Fabian Delph as a driving force in the middle of the park was brutally obvious.
It seems like the ‘scare factor’, as Lambert put it this week, that Christian Benteke once bought to opposition has evaporated. The big Belgian used to bully defences into submission, but on Monday an ex-Villan in Richard Dunne had him in his back pocket the whole game. Yes, it was always going to take time for Benteke to be firing on all cylinders but the lack of threat he bought was worrying.
There was no excuse for the defeat or in fact the performance. The ‘tough fixtures’ have passed and the majority of injury problems have gone. Yet, the team looked so short of confidence at the moment, especially when trying to penetrate the QPR defence.
So Should Lambert Go?
I have seen many calls for Pulis to come in as manager. I know we have declined as a club in the past few years, but are we really that low now? Are we really that desperate that we have to call on the services of a manager that specialises in managing small relegation-battling clubs?
A month ago everyone was praising Lambert and Keane for providing the Villa with a great start to the season. The handing of another four-year contract was extremely premature but Lambert deserves the next five games against ‘easier’ teams to show if he has the capacity to take the team forward.
Would Lerner be willing to payout the money to sack him now anyway?
For those of you that endured the game on Monday you can imagine how difficult it was to pick three players for the top three performers. In light of this, we have had to think outside the box somewhat.
[Click ‘Next’ to see page 2 for the Star Players and the player that let himself down.]
It was largely due to off field activities by Gabby & Fabs that Villa avoided relegation last season . But at times this season I’ve dispaired at the 2 of them , but at other times it has been them driving forward that has driven the team on . And I think that lass of Delph has been a blessing in diguise even if the results have suggested other wise . As Delph has been it would seem has been one of the 1st names on the team sheet . And in the modern world of footie where the whole squad is important it has enforced changes . Problem is no players seem able to step up and make their mark
Fans have been calling for greater possession & against QPR we certainly got that , but still no goals and I was not sure what sort of change might create them as we certainly attacked their goal . However by the hour mark I was wondering when Lambert would bring Cole on as in the previous match against Everton he seem to add something to the team , although I was not sure who should make way for him
And that seems to be the problem for Lambert in that he has players but how does he get them to produce the results we all want ? It’s easy to say that another manager would get them performing but is it what is needed ? Somebody like MON probably could but indoing so he’d probably drive them into the ground with fatigue and where would that leave us if it happened before the season ended ? Because as Luke Young said he did not realise how badly he had been performing untill he returned from his enforced break . And I think that’s Lamberts dilema should he drive the players on to perform hoping they can keep going until they can be replaced , or does he wait untiil they are ready to perform and bring us success ? Certainly on past performances a fully fit Benteke = goals