Paul Lambert has a lot qualities as a manager, but one of his highest is getting the best out of players that he has available. Its something we saw from him at Norwich when he secured back to back promotions from a squad that wasnt hugely expensively assembled. With Benteke misfiring this season, Villa have a clear standout player and I personally think that he has played a big role in that improved defensive performance from the team last season I am of course talking about the one and only Fabian Delph. Delph is a player that I have talked about plenty of times before in relation to possible involvement with England. This season the player has an average rating of 7.28, and has clearly been one of the leading defensive minded midfielders this season; the fact that he has only scored once and provided one further assist, shows that his best qualities are as a midfield enforcer. Those qualities are best illustrated with his ability to make tackles and intercepting the ball; Delph makes 3.2 tackles per game and steals the ball 2.1 times per game both of these stats put in within the top two at the club. Its this sort of player that rarely gets the praise they deserve, but has become so important in the modern game. Managers that are usually under pressure dont get the best out of their players, the fact that Lambert is at least with Delph is a prime reason why he needs to be given more time.
James Kent is a freelance writer published on Yahoo! Sports, Bleacher Report, FTBpro, Bloomberg Sports and many others. He has also been featured in the Daily Telegraph, Zoo Magazine, MSN Sport and the Manchester Evening News.
His role on What Culture is currently to produce compelling football articles that nearly always use of combination of stats and strong opinion. Feel free to connect with James via Facebook, Twitter and Google Plus.
