Lamberts Villa Revolution A Work In Progress

Lamberts Villa Revolution A Work In Progress

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The 2nd of June 2012 signified in many Villa fans eyes a day of great joy and happine s, it was the day Paul Lambert arrived at Aston Villa FC.He couldnt do worse than McLeish if he triedThe previous regime under Alex McLeish was a disaster in many ways, protests outside Villa Park were becoming a regular occurrence, players such as Alan Hutton and Stephan Warnock were on the end of torrid abuse from the fans, but even they didnt suffer the wrath of the villa faithful like McLeish did. However, he didnt help himself.Statistically he was the worst Aston Villa manager of all time recording a lowly four wins at home for the entire 2011/2012 campaign and playing negative football mainly consisting of lumping the ball up to the now ex villa forward Emile Heskey. The only thing he did seem to get right was the fact that he could get Darren Bent to score for Villa, something which has not happened regularly for awhile now and has resulted in him playing second fiddle to the in-form Christian Benteke, one of Lamberts first signings for the Claret and Blue side. It was a matter of time before changes were to be made, and they were.When Paul Lambert arrived at Aston Villa he was greeted with a more than generous welcome receiving backing from not only Randy Lerner but more importantly the Villa fans, something which Alex McLeish did not get due to being the ex Birmingham City Manager, Aston Villasfiercestrivals. There was a optimistic feeling around Aston Villa with most fans thinking that due to Lamberts managerial credentials of back to back promotions with Norwich that they were on the way up and Lambert was the right man for the job.Fast forward to February 4th 2013 and i wish i could say that most Villa fans felt the same way as they did back then, sadly i cant. Villa sit in 19th position in theBarclaysPremier League and have been backed by a lot of pundits asfavouritesto be one of the three clubs to be relegated.Transfer Dealings and Slashing the Wage BudgetVilla fans need to be patient, Paul Lambert is not going anywhere as recently stated by Randy Lerner and I still feel he is the right man for the job. When he took over one of the first things he was told to do by the chairman was to slash the wage budget as Martin ONeil had left the club with anastronomicalwage budget which was around the 5th/6th highest in the league. They are now Duke Johnson Jersey safely one of the clubs in the premier league with the lowest wage budget and this was achieved because Paul Lambert had to sell the older, more experienced players in the squad.Alan Hutton (on loan at Mallorca) and Stephan Warnock (now sold to Leeds) were one of the first to be told by Lambert that they had no place in his Villa revolution and it was a clear me sage to all that he was going to favour a younger, more hungry but vastly le s experienced side to fight for Aston Villa for the 2012/2013 season.INS:Ron Vlaar 3 MillionMathew Lowton Undisclosed (Rumoured to be around 3 million)Joe Bennet (Undisclosed)Karim El Ahmadi 2.8 MillionChristian Benteke 7.5 MillionBrad Guzan Resigned (Free)Ashley Westwood 2 MillionNow many of you at this point are probably scratching your head regarding three or four of these players as you probably havent heard of them, before this season neither had i. However, the majority of Paul Lamberts have been very good signings most notably Christian Benteke who has scored 14 goals so far in his first season in top flight football and has drawn comparisons to Didier Drogba.Ron Vlaar who is dubbed Concrete Ron is another signing that the Villa have took to with his great aerial ability early on in the season before he got Injured. He returned to the side for the second leg against Bradford in the copyright Cup Semi Final and was at mistake for the goal which ultimately knocked Villa out of the competition but aside from this he has looked a solid center back and is crucial to Villas survival hopes.Of course, with the good comes the bad but JoeBennettsperformances for Aston Villa have been downright ugly from the start and have shown no signs of improving. His positional sense is left wanting and he looks afraid to put in a tackle and overall it just looks like he cannot defend. To be fair to the kid it is his first season in the premier league but considering Mathew Lowton was playing his football in League one last season, the difference between the two of them so far has been night and day.Ashley Westwood has been another astute signing from Paul Lambert who constantly compares him to himself in his playing days as being the player who just keeps the game ticking by just keeping the ball and playing the simple pa s. He does look a player you should watch out for in the future as he does have a lot of talent and can pa s a ball, he has done remarkably well for his first season in top flight football considering he was playing for Crewe Alexandra just last season.Sadly the player who was looking to be the best signing of all judging by his first couple of performances has probably been the biggest let down for Aston Villa in my opinion and that is Karim El Ahmadi. I remember in one of the first games of the season he looked Ray Lewis Jersey fantastic and even Trevor Francis (Ex Birmingham City Player) labelled him a great player and that he looks a cla s above the rest on the pitch. He didnt manage to keep up his early season form and just started to fade in games, he was dropped to the bench in favour of trying out different midfield combinations.So Why Are They 19th In The League?They cant defend, the simplest way of putting it. Aston Villas downfall this season has been there inability to hold onto a lead or stay firm under pre sure. I think the main catalyst for this is that they lack strength in the middle of the park and experience at the back of it. That is a combination waiting to fail and it is not entirely Lamberts fault, his signings overall have been good and the problem for most Villa fans is not with Lambert but with Randy Lerner and his tight pockets.This does not excuse Lambert of in my opinion not getting the me sage acro s that they cannot afford to concede as many goals as they have been conceding from set pieces. All 4 goals from Bradford in the semi final of the copyright Cup were set-pieces. This week against Everton, Fellaini was the latest player to punish us with Ron Vlaar Andre Johnson Jersey losing him in the box and allowing him to score a simple header to snatch the 3 points from Villa.In terms of the Barclays Premier League it really is crunch time, next saturday at Villa Park against West Ham is a ma sive six pointer for Villa and they dare not lose. If they do, i myself fear they will be relegated as they still have Arsenal, Man City, Liverpool, Chelsea and Stoke away to play in their final 13 games to survive the drop.So what did Lambert do in January?Not much, and i really didnt expect him to either. Randy Lerner has made it clear that we do not have money to play with this year and that Paul Lambert has to get the best out of what hes got.Yacubbu Sylla who has been dubbed a Midfield Destroyer has been brought in to the midfield from Clement for 2 Million to add some well needed strength into Villas midfield. He has not got a lot of expectation on his shoulders as a lot of the supporters feel underwhelmed by him as he was playing in the second division in the French league for Clement. Obviously Paul Lambert still has faith in his philosophy of buying younger, le s expensive players from the lower divisions.On loan Tottenham Hotspur attacking midfield Simon Dawkinshas also come in to add another dimension to Villas attack line. I for one am slight intrigued by this signing but i do feel that Lambert would have been best served looking for a defender instead of Simon Dawkins.So..Will They Stay Up?I amquietlyconfident that Aston Villa can stay up, their second half performance against Newcastle was fantastic and was worthy of a point and their attacking display for the whole 90 minutes against Everton was promising. They just need to tighten up at the back and stop conceding basic goals from set-pieces. Paul Lambert needs to make sure he gets the me sage acro s before their 6 pointer against West Ham at Villa Park on Saturday because if they lose that they are in deep trouble as their next game is at home to Man City and the Villa faithful will really begin to lose their patience.For Villa it is a case ofconsistency though, to stay up they will have to replicate their performances against Everton, Newcastle and Liverpool at Anfield. Most importantly though, Christian Benteke, the Belgiam striker is absolutely vital for Aston Villa this season as he looks like a beast of a player who can keep Villa up with his performancesAlaTevez for West Ham. His hold up play along with the goals that he has been scoring have been nothing short ofmarvelousand if Villa go down they have no chance of keeping him.
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