Ok, now that the dust has settled and my anger has subsided a bit, only a bit as you shall see, here's my take on yesterday's game. As I write it's 6.00pm on Sunday, up until now I've been 'spitting feathers' and unable to post on here, I've read no other threads. No-one is a greater admirer and supporter of Paul Lambert than me and I've heaped praise on him for two and a half years, he has been without doubt our saviour. However, no-one is totally exempt from critiscism and Paul you are now going to get it with both barrells. We currently sit eighth in the Premier League and have amassed an incredible 35 points so far, well done and thankyou. If we only win one more game between now and the end of the season, IMO it would take Champions League form from the dross in the bottom three places to overtake us. We were in the last sixteen of The F.A. Cup with many top sides already knocked out, we had an excellent opportunity to progress and be only ONE WIN away from a Wembley appearance. So what does the great man do ? He belittles the competition by fielding a team, that had he done so in a League fixture, we would have sent in the men with white coats. I'm bittlerly disappointed, angry and feel extremely let down. I don't give a toss about perhaps finishing a few places higher in the table and receiving another million quid, in years to come who's going to remember a slightly higher league finish? I thought football was about winning games, winning trophies. Younger fans on this forum probably think money is more important than winning The Cup and that, I'm afraid, is symptomatic of today's sad society. Our last league game was a week ago we have no other fixture until next Sunday, why do players need to rest ? Total bollocks, I thought todays professional footballers were, (I use the term loosely), athletes? An 'athlete', believe me, can run around for more than ninety minutes in fifteen days. Why does John Ruddy need a rest FFS ? Don't give me the 'to give young Jed first team experience crap', send him out on loan when Declan Rudd is fit if you want to do that. Why wasn't Grant Holt even on the bench ? When we needed a goal yesterday, he would have inspired the rest of the team and no doubt we would have got that equaliser. Ok, what other excuse do we have for fielding an understrength team? Injuries, we don't want to risk getting injuries. Most injuries to today's professional footballers happen on the training ground FACT. There's just as much chance of pulling a hamstring or whatever while training. Paul, I'm gutted, you've let ME down if no-one else. When City take to the field against Manchester United next week, it had better be a 'blood and guts' performance and not the shower of ****e we had to endure yesterday. One final point, it has been well documented that Paul Lambert has styled himself on a certain Mr Martin O'Neill. Well, this theory has just been blown out of the water, look at the side that he fielded against Arsenal yesterday and look at the result. A virtual full strength line up that has now seen his side progress into the quarter-finals, nuff said. No doubt several of you are going to pick this post to bits and argue PL's case and that's fair enough, but it won't change my opinion of yesterday's events. Of course I still have complete faith in our Manager, we all make mistakes but yesterday's IMO was a big one. RANT OVER I'm still signing off with ............ OTBC ..... CTI .... IN LAMBERT WE TRUST !
I sort of agree with you and sort of disagree with you. I honestly think that he picked a team he thought would win. We had defensive problems which were well documented, so I don't think he could of picked a stronger defence. Midfield was strong and I don't see any reason why we shouldn't of given Morison a game - after all that could of been a game in which he picked up his form and given Lambert a headache for who he was going to pick next week. Clearly Morison didn't fancy it, like many players yesterday. Where I think Lambert was wrong was his interviews leading up to the game. In every one I read or listened too, he was putting more emphasis on the Man Utd game and it was coming across (to me anyway) that he couldn't really give a toss about the cup game. In my eyes, this clearly had an impact on the players performance. Whilst I agree the league is more important, I don't agree with Lambert saying we are miles from safety. Clearly we are not going to go down, so I do think he could of appeared to take more interest in yesterday's game instead of continuously talking about the Man Utd game.
IMO Carra, that's the whole point. Yesterday's game WAS more important than the Man U fixture. We will probably lose next week anyway, so why 'risk' getting knocked out of the cup ? It makes no sense to me, call me 'old fashioned' if you will.
The ManU game is surely larger. There was no guarantee of a straight route to Wembley. The Manchester United game is a chance to land a massive scalp and is surely a milestone of our success up untill this point. I for one am looking forward to it far more than the cup game. And I believe we can win
To be honest mate you started by writing this post. I can't believe you feel this way, seriously, it's both ridiculous and entirely irrational if you ask me and I could hardly disagree more with what you've said. Here's what I posted on another thread that I believe pretty much sums it up
We very rarely have two bad performances on the bounce, so while we may lose, IMO, we will not go down without a fight. Maybe that was Lambert's plan - try his hardest to make us play bad, so we put on a big show next week.
Of course it would be great to beat Man Utd, but given the choice, I would of preferred a defeat next week if we got through to the quarter finals of the FA Cup for the first time in 20 years. If we were sitting around the relegation places and needed every victory we could get, my preference would of course been different.
What more could Lambert of done? Played Ruddy? Well Steer did fine anyway, they'd still of scored both. Played Holt? He'd of had **** all service like Morrison/Jackson. Played Naughton? He'd of been a little better against Dyer but Dyer didn't score anyway so wouldn't of made a difference. Only thing that might have made a difference would be Surman instead of Hoolahan or Fox.
Fact is Munky, I'm fifty next week and I remember when the cup was THE trophy to win ! Perhaps I should acknowledge once and for all that the FA Cup has had it's day. FA Cup R.I.P
The reason we are doing so well is that we've won the games that the teams below us have slipped up at. West Brom away, Newcastle at home, Swansea the other week. By winning these games we earn the right to enjoy the games against the so called "Big-Boys" Manchester United represents a huge chance to show the footballing world what we are about. I'm afraid, in the quarter finals, we will be treated as "Just another team". The quarter finals of an FA cup are just an opportunity for a Tottenham or a chelsea to start taking it seriously and knock us out Lamberts blinkered in his view of the Premier League. We are not statistically safe and we have a great opportunity to really push on now. 8th in this premier league is absolutely monumental. Finishing there would be even more so.
But like DM said what else could he have done???? Lambert picked a strong side, certainly strong enough to beat Leicester on any normal day for Christ's sake! Just because we are now a top flight club we have no absolutely no divine right to win any game of football, no matter who we play against and the sooner some people wake up to that fact and get a bit of reality back then hopefully I'll stop reading ridiculous threads like this that COMPLETELY DO MY HEAD IN!!!! Dear me, some people!
In 1985 I was at Wembley to see Dave Watson lift the Milk (League) Cup. I shall never forget that day, I feel so sorry for today's younger fans that will probably never see City win a Wembley final and experience that emotion.
That's clearly your job, given your cliche ridden rant. And as for your 'point' about money, might I remind you that the club very recently might have gone bankrupt. We lost one game. Disappointing sure. But until relegation is a mathematical impossibility then the priority has to be the league.
