Paul Lambert: Genius Or Just Lucky?


Paul Lambert: Genius Or Just Lucky?

It seems churlish to complain in victory, but it’s one of the things football fans specialise in. I’ve been so used to adding ‘yeah, but...’ when discussing Aston Villa recently that I’m a syllable away from being sued by Matt Lucas. And really, what is there to moan about? Villa were never likely to challenge for the title, and are the thinnest of bets for Europe, so as long as survival is assured before May Day, where’s the beef?

The problem is that for the eleventh Premier League game running, I’m not sure whether Villa are capable of ever being a good side or if the 2013-14 kit includes a rabbit’s foot as standard. I don’t mean we were lucky to beat Cardiff – their best chance came via Libor Kozak’s head-over-the-parapet defensive effort – but that somehow, we finished the weekend in tenth place when the side is so palpably short of quality.

Due to forty-eight hours of revisionism, my fellow supporters will claim that this was a by-the-numbers victory, which took a while to happen but was always inevitable. This, in my view, is bunkum. Villa never looked like scoring or conceding on Saturday until Leandro Bacuna was allowed to remain ahead of Matt Lowton on the right. Freed, Villa became far more potent, with somebody capable of whipping in a decent ball able to get into areas to exploit it.

History will record Bacuna’s superb free-kick turned the tie, but it was Paul Lambert’s late introduction of Lowton which allowed the pacy Dutchman to keep the ball at his feet. Prior to this, Lambert had stood on the touchline watching his side pour away a lively start to both halves, reluctant to do anything. One change, and the Holte End saw the first goals Villa had scored in over four hundred and fifty minutes of football.

This is what I can’t work out: did Paul Lambert know that was going to happen, or was it one single roll of the die which landed a six? I can tell you that Twitter and fan forums were incandescent with frustration towards Lambert and his reluctance to change things before Bacuna’s goal, with opinion insistent on introducing Callum Robinson, the eighteen year old that terrorised Newcastle’s under 21s last week. This was rooted in nothing more than a desire to see the side ‘have a go’.

Lambert is employed to make the best decisions for Aston Villa, but if he is doing, the guy’s a genius of Newtonian proportions. I can’t honestly say I’ve seen his successes coming – I questioned the arrival of Christian Benteke when we failed to land Clint Dempsey; he dropped Darren Bent; he signed Yacouba Sylla from the French second tier. If you put money on those things succeeding, I’d like to look around your mansion. As long as Villa are winning, I can’t complain, but Saturday proved there’s a fine line between genius and madness. If Paul Lambert’s really in control of these outcomes, he’s a shoo-in for the Royal Variety Performance.

Chris Stanley

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