As the title says really, a lot of strolling about. Not as clinical as you'd perhaps expect. Last week against QPR I wasn't sure if he even jumped for a header. He's a Saints hero and scores so many vital goals - but he has been off the boil recently I'd say. Anyone else? DTLW
You're forgetting that 3 games ago against City he was an absolute monster. Against QPR he was marked out of the game by Samba who is a very good Centre back, and today the conditions were hard for a striker who thrives off long balls. We also had little width today and barely any crosses were anywhere near good enough. So no, I don't think Rickie is going missing, I just don't think he has had enough service.
Disagree Lambert does so much more in this team than simply finish off the moves However, at the moment nobody ele seems to have a clue how to put the ball in the net
He's the only player capable of scoring. Would have been interesting to see the reaction if i had made this thread? I'm sure i'd have been called an idiot/moron/moaner/******.
This thread is just what we, and Rickie, need. Every time in the last 3 seasons , whenever someone has posted a "Rickie Lambert lean patch" thread he has started scoring bucketfuls.
That's because your thread would have been infantile. Something along the lines of: 100 goal is ****. We're **** we're gonna go down guys. OH MY GOD I'M JUST EXPRESSING MY VIEWS YOU CAN'T CRITICISE ME. I totally saw this coming and that makes me great.
He has had a few quiet games but he's scored a lot of goals, created a lot of chances (most of which have not been converted), and generally played very well. I don't think you can say he's gone missing.
And you've just entirely proved his point. I just raised the question without being such a screaming ninny about it.
I was there today and disagree about the crosses. We hit a lot into the box from wide. They weren't from level with the box, but several really good crosses went into their box today. One particular free kick from Guly was a peach. Edited to say: not that it was a fault of Rickie that they weren't converted as not all were aimed at him.
I don't recall a single moment today where a Saints player got down the right side to the by-line and sent in a cross at a headable height. I believe Shaw did it a couple of times from the left. If Rickie is going to score goals it has to be put on a plate for him, feed the Lamb and he will score, and of course if we ever get a genuine penalty decision, that would be a foregone conclusion. Lala may be trying too hard to get his fiftieth, the flood gates may reopen when the problems are solved. Steve Davis would have revelled in todays conditions, just our luck he picked up a lurgy at the wrong tme.
Do I feel like Rickie is sometimes missing in the six yard box or at the end of moves where we need his killer instinct because he has committed himself in the build-up or something of the like? Yes. Do I feel like Rickie is 'going missing' from games? No. He still makes good contributions, for me the only thing up for debate is whether we could utilise him in more effective ways. His overall ability and impact is great but particularly with our recent somewhat lean patch, we may perhaps be better off removing some responsibilities and distractions from his game and just honing him into more of an out-and-out goalscorer to squeeze out a few more of the vital goals that we have needed in our recent run of games.
Perhaps my title could've been better thought out. It does kind of indicate Rickie is entirely missing from games which isn't the case.
Jog on you cretin, I'm only interested in hearing the opinions of those I value - hence why I posted it in the Southampton forum. Now toddle along and carry on abusing your own manager.
He's not been able to play where he likes but he's been making some nice passes and doing a pretty good job played deeper. That's the conundrun when your best scorer is also one of your best distributors. If he plays up front, he can't get service. If he plays more in the hole/down the wing, he provides service to people who can't finish. It is really up to Jay Rodriguez and Gaston Ramirez to up their games. They either need to score more consistently or pass better. I still feel like both of them will be able to do this, but must admit they are somewhat trying my patience a bit at this point. The nice thing about Lambert is that you don't have to do anything special for him, he finds his own way to contribute it's just that right now he's being asked to do too much. Next year I hope that Rodriguez and Ramirez figure out how to work together to provide a consistent attack and then I have no doubt that Lambert will be there to sweep in and pick up his share of junk/sniper goals.
Well at least we have a striker that A) We didn't have to pay £50m for and B) scores on a regular basis.
