Paul Lambert, Paul Lambert, Paul. Lambert.

What can you say about the man who is quickly rising through the ranks to become one of the best Scottish managers around? Is he the spiritual heir of Sir Alex Ferguson, the name that will be on everyone's lips in a twenty years' time? At the moment it's starting to look like it.

Having beaten Premier League sides whilst in charge of Wycombe Wanderers to reach League Cup semi-finals, he then less than two years from that found himself at the helm of Norwich Football Club where he built the core of the squad that is now competing very well in the Premiership - of course having been lifted there by the man himself. On to bigger things he went and is now working on a fascinating project at Aston Villa where the second-choice goalkeeper Shay Given is the only player over 30. Having beaten Arsenal away and lost to poor refereeing decisions at Stamford Bridge, his Villa side is definitely starting the season off in an intriguing fashion - does Europe await already?

Anyway, there are tougher tests out there than Arsenal or Chelsea on the road as Lambert's men will find out this Saturday when they host the mighty Reds from Merseyside. A tough battle may be expected, but Liverpool are expected to have too much skill, grit and good-looks for General Lambert's men to walk away from battle anything but defeated. But it's well to be anticipated that Lambert's genius leadership will result in the men in claret to continue to take off precious points from Liverpool's closest rivals during the season, like they did on the opening day against Arsenal.

We salute you, Paul Lambert and Aston Villa, but for Saturday it's best you prepare your diddly-holes.

Same team, pls win.

They've played 3 games in 1 week.

That surely has to take a toll on them.

Close down Benteke at all times, and be wary of all counter attacks. They have some serious pace on the burst.

Yeah, we need our full-backs to be on guard, if Agbonlahor and Weimann get behind them we are likely to be punished.

I think both teams will score in this match, but we should be asking their defence more questions than the other way round.

We always questions for the opposition.

The problem is, we make the opposition goalkeeper look like he's a prime Oliver Kahn week in week out.

I can see this becoming another Paul Lambert Appreciation thread!!!  

Art Lambert
Sorry to disappoint you mate, the only day I dont support lambert is the day when liverpool play against them.
I will say, fuqk the pretty football, take lambert's game away from lambert and hit on counter, counter, counter.
I remember the last season, for the same fixture one goal was away on counter, gerrard to cou and cou to Hendo. The other was a penalty earned by our very dear Suarez. Gerrard saved our arrsses by clearing on the line. This Villa team have no guile to break us down if we play narrow and defend, always try to win the ball near half line and heat them direct.

Also, I would like Alberto, the new inverted number 9 to start instead of Hendo...he has the guile to play in close spaces and finish the chances with composure.

All in vain in the end, nothing will happen as I wish

Everyone is talking about Benteke, but Agbonlahor is on form of his life, and we shouldn't allow him to get the ball and run at our static defense. Same team as last week, with emphasis on Hendo to track Gabby.

Kolo needs to have a beastish game with Benteke. their defense is still shit, and we'll create a lot of chances, and as long as Guzan isn't in Begovic mood, we'll score at least 2 goals.

frrack their midfield looked good to me yday westwood, el ahmadi and delph...i guess these guys know where to pass when hitting on the counter. I take back my words we need Hendo to harass their midefield unless Alberto cant do the same thing.

I'm pretty sure it'll be the same team as against Stoke, Rodgers probably feels it's our strongest line-up at this time. So line-up is fine, imo, it's the game-plan that will decide this match, unless there's lots of luck involved, we need to be patient and not let Villa play to their strengths (counter-attacks, wide play and crosses). Their midfield isn't that scary in the final third, mostly there to feed the balls to the wings or to Benteke.

I just haven't felt it this week  , villa scare the fark outta me .

I just hope Guzan isn't on fire chances are he will, with our luck at least.

Villa are deadly on the counter. That's the only thing that scares me to death. Not Benteke or Agbonlahor or anything. The fact that we send too many players forward, one misplaced pass could lead to a goal for them. I think Agger and Toure will be fine against Benteke. I wouldn't mind at all playing against them like we did Zenit at home last season. 4-2-2-2 changing to 4-2-3-1 and back and forth. With Hendo and Allen pressing the shite out of Villa ahead of Stevie and Lucas. And Cou with Sturridge up top interchanging in dropping wide when we lose possession. Aspas and Ibe/Sterling from the bench to add spark when the players are tired if we haven't broken them down. Defensively we'll be very sound and prevent being caught on the counter when Enrique and Johnson venture all the way forward.

over past year or so Aston Villa have bought some good young talents

Jed Steer, Jores Okore,Antonio Luna,Leandro Bacuna,Yacouba Sylla,Aleksandar Tonev,Nicklas Helenius,Benteke

they do need some top players for XI to go long with young players

To be honest, Villa should scare us. They counterattack with pace, employ dangerous wide-forwards, and possess a #9 with an amazing combination of power, technique, and finishing ability. If you could describe our weaknesses, those three things would be first on the list. Our system relies heavily upon the full-backs getting forward to provide width. In addition, all but three players (Lucas and the two CBs) are often drawn into the attack. These two aspects of our approach can leave us susceptible to fast-paced counterattacks, specifically from the space vacated by the fullbacks. Then, there is Benteke. Our CBs (likely Kolo Toure) will have as much as they can handle in the form of Benteke. If we’re to come away with 3 points, the defense will need to be on their game for the entire 90.

Though Villa’s forward line is capable of causing us all sorts of problems, we should be able to have our way with their midfield and defense. With Nathan Baker is likely out with an ankle injury, and Ciaran Clark hasn’t been much luckier, suffering a head injury. We could be facing a pairing of Vlaar and Okore, which no Villa supporter would be totally comfortable with just yet, especially against such quick and tricky forwards as Aspas and Sturridge.

I wouldn’t mind seeing the same lineup that faced Stoke, but I would prefer to see it rearranged a bit.

This puts Coutinho in the best position to play balls into space for Aspas and Sturridge. With Villa’s fullbacks almost as adventurous as ours at times, there is space to be taken advantage of. Moreover, Sturridge’s pace will give Vlaar and Clark/Okore fits all game. This might even be a good game for Sterling to get an opportunity. His pace and technique could be very valuable in tormenting Villa’s backline.

Lucas and Gerrard should be capable of handling El Ahmedi and Delph. However, Enrique and Johnson will need to be very disciplined and aware… not necessarily something they are known for, unfortunately. Toure will also need to live up to Rodgers’s nickname for him (his ‘Invicible’) if we hope to have any joy.

All in all, I think we shoul win. However, should we make early mistakes, we could also see another 3-1 embarrassment like last season’s.

Think Henderson has to play in the middle, to be honest.

Lucas will have to stay very very deep.

We will dominate them, they need to play 3 games in 1 week. That's a challenge at any time in the season, but it's even more difficult at the start where you still trying to get match fit.

With that said, expecting a big game for Mignolet as our defence is average.

that's why I say just let them have the ball around the half line...they cant do shat with it and hit them from there direct, score 2-3 goals and then control the match

Villa's midfield trio didn't look too bad against Chelsea, they looked organised, if narrow, when defending and capable of keeping the ball a bit, although there wasn't much of playmaking in the attacking half of the field, mostly just getting it out wide or to Benteke as soon as possible. But I don't think we'll have the center of the park all to ourselves.

as we like to press teams, i would drop Gerrard bring in Allen & go back to 4-3-3, so we would have Lucas deep & Henderson,Allen used as box-to-box midfielder's

vegfootball wrote:as we like to press teams, i would drop Gerrard bring in Allen & go back to 4-3-3, so we would have Lucas deep &  Henderson,Allen used as box-to-box midfielder's

Dropping Gerrard to get Allen running around on the pitch, yeah, sounds good...

Tactically this should be an interesting game. Lambert usually tends to pack a narrow formation despite straying away from his unorthodox 4-3-1-2 into use of inside forwards to also support a recently impressive Christian Benteke. Like any Lambert side, its usually narrow and focus their counters through pushing back high lines along with hold-up play through their physically blessed forwards.

Our team should be 'around' the same line-up that was fielded vs Stoke City.

4-2-3-1

-Doni-
-Johnson-Skrtel-Agger-Enrique-

-Lucas-Gerrard-
-Henderson-Aaspas-Coutinho-
-Sturridge-


Assuming Skrtel is fit, I'm hoping he will get a chance to re-instate himself within the squad given that he has been ruled out of sale despite Napoli's impressive 10m bid. The Skrtel-Agger partnership if aligned properly with the stars can be formidable as I do not mind the rusty, but reliable Kolo Toure yet I do not want to see Skrtel ostracised continually.

Our dual-pivot around the same as it worked perfectly last game, despite Lucas in particular not being tested by Stoke's atrocious midfield.

Henderson, I am not a fan of him in the RAM wide role, as it strips him of his central tendencies, doesn't allow him to cut in & limits his channels of movement. His intelligence & distribution remains within that side yet I stress upon the fact that such a role is only negative for him.

Aaspas looked a slight bit lost last game yet on the ball he showed tremendous understanding with our front-flank. As shown in La Coruna, his behind the striker role is optimal.

Coutinho continues to thrive in his El Shaarawy type role to which he drifts in to playmake, such allowing Enrique to flank the needed width in our increasingly narrow side.

Sturridge can make AS MANY MISTAKES AS HE WANTS. We need his ruthless efficiency, selfish desire to score goals and continually learn from mistakes that have only improved his game. He STILL needs to learn how to use more variables in his channels of movements that doesn't just favour his strongest foot, yet this side built around him doesn't bother me.




Edit: I just checked this thread.....Can someone find me the Aston Villa vs Liverpool preview ala Nish? Cause I think I just stumbled upon the Paul Lambert Testomonial Thread.

Arquitescu wrote:Edit: I just checked this thread.....Can someone find me the Aston Villa vs Liverpool preview ala Nish? Cause I think I just stumbled upon the Paul Lambert Testomonial Thread.

I clearly remember what happened to the same the thread last year! Pretty similar

Art Morte wrote:

vegfootball wrote:as we like to press teams, i would drop Gerrard bring in Allen & go back to 4-3-3, so we would have Lucas deep &  Henderson,Allen used as box-to-box midfielder's

Dropping Gerrard to get Allen running around on the pitch, yeah, sounds good...

I can understand these funny thoughts coming into mind but sadly we will go nowhere with Allen on the pitch. He has lost that bit of confidence so dropping Gerrard and slotting him straight into heart of midefield doesnt sound good at all.
Gerrard will be the perfect weapon on counter for us. If we are not able to break them easily I can see few long balls by Gerrard

He looks downnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnn!!!

After looking at those videos, it seems he perfectly understand what we are going to face so let see how he overcomes this challenge

Art Morte wrote:

vegfootball wrote:as we like to press teams, i would drop Gerrard bring in Allen & go back to 4-3-3, so we would have Lucas deep &  Henderson,Allen used as box-to-box midfielder's

Dropping Gerrard to get Allen running around on the pitch, yeah, sounds good...

well Gerrard has not the legs any more for that role, so only player we got who can play high press line is Allen ( not the player i would like in that role)