Form comes and goes. I'm not suggesting he was poor...just didn't make the impact we have learnt to expect. Didn't do him any harm to have Hodgson watching. I hope Roy doesn't now think that Lambert is a hot head, though
Or, other fans rate him so highly because they haven't really seen him play, but knew he was getting rave reviews in L1 and the Championship and was also called up to England so think he must be great.
Just managed to watch the highlights on Player. Impressed with Victor. Strong and a good eye for a pass.
He is immense. I still don't know why everyone thinks he has suddenly got worse! He was absolutely brilliant yesterday, and I would back him to have a good season. There is absolutely no wy anyone needs to even bring out the old "form is temporary" line for me. He is one of our best players. The stuff he can do on a football pitch is absolutely incredible to watch. With a player like Lallana you will always get games where things don't come off for him, but he reads the game very well and always puts in the leg work and effort to make up for it. This is why for me he is much better than gaston.
I agree with this except for Mayuka who I am starting to think is just a very poor imitation of De Ridder. Rodriguez should have had a hat trick in the first half. He had half a dozen good chances one of which crashed against the bar. Guly was superb as was Morgan and once Wanyama has the ball it is very hard to get it off him. I felt for Cork who it now seems may have been relegated to a bit part player. We still need to strengthen this team with a striker and a decent centre half. On yesterday's evidence Lovren is no better than any of our current central defenders.
Lallana is a quality player technically and is effective when he has players to link up with. When he doesn't he is as wasteful as gaston. I think both will be much better this season if they can stay fit. Someone made a great point about lallana struggling to beat his man with pace or trickery and is therefore easily controlled when he is on the wing especially when isolated. One other minor point about lallana is that he seemed to be called offside too many times, most notably spurs away. he was called offside 9 times last year, in comparison gaston was called offside 3 times and puncheon 5 times. Not making a big point about the offsides but it was something that frustrated me.
Bit early to say that about Lovren. Look at how Maya improved over last season. Give him a few games and then decide.
I think I'd prefer to see us bring in a defender if we are to only sign one more. Shaw seems to constantly pick up injuries, and we looked very shaky at times. We were brilliant going forward and created loads of chances, but although the finishing could be improved on, I think the defence needs more work first.
Pochettino was not his usual energetic self yesterday. He was not up on the touchline at anytime that I can remember and he seemed very flat in the interview afterwards and I am beginning to wonder if he is pissed off with the lack of movement on the transfer front.
Maurico was probably not concerned about the result (hence no leaping about) but wanted to concentrate on what he was seeing from the players. He definitely wouldn't want to agitate the players and get them injured in a friendly. I suspect his mind was later occupied by Shaw's injury.
Just noticed in those highlights it's Guly who comes sprinting over to get between Lambert and that player and try to calm Lambert down.
Guly did a hell of a lot of running yesterday! In all seriousness I really wonder what happened, I've never seen rickie react like that before! All I know is rickie would have won that fight!
I'm just watching the highlights now, Jay's finishing is still very frustrating. Could have easily got a couple.
Yesyerdays first half performance from a completely rejuvenated Guly mirrored his second half performance last weekend in Spain and for me should take the wide right midfield position against WBA. Loved the interchangeability of the front four yesterday. Must be a nightmare for the defenders tracking the runners.
