Still? He's played less than 60 minutes in the last 3 months or so. I would think everyone's opinion would be the same as it was 3 months ago.
That's the point though. It'll be like this unfortunately until the end of the season now. The finishing thing isn't going to change until we buy someone, so we need to put up with this I'm afraid. Jay and Adam aren't natural finishers and never will be. Rickie was, isn't any more.
He made more fouls than tackles though. Got booked. Nothing terrible but hasn't convinced me he's actually good enough. Felt like nothing quite fell for our forwards today. Everything was slightly behind them, or finishes slightly scuffed. Has Lambert's day finally come? I think so. It's nice that none of this really matters though. I have a few neutral games lined up anyway, so I can enjoy them without really caring about the result.
I think we'll have to agree to disagree about that. Anyone think Gaston has been showing a bit (slightly more than before) of promise?
He's been excellent recently. I only hope it's not *just* because of the World Cup, and that he's genuinely turned a corner in terms of getting used to the Premier League etc. I had come round to the idea of selling him in the summer. Now I very much hope we keep hold of him.
miles better was a slight exaggeration I'll admit but we play better football and the all round first team is better if you take out Suarez. It is getting boring watching us outplay everyone and still lose. We need to spend big on our forward line in the summer. As for the tactics bit marking Lallana out of the game. That was made easier by Pochettino taking Davis off. He is unspectacular but moves opposition players around much more. He and Lallana then draw more players out of position so it was harder to mark Lallana in the first half. Second half Ramirez was tending to hold a right hand berth so Lallana ended up a lot more central so was easier to mark. And no I'm not blaming Ramirez or 'dissing' him. You know what Davis does and doesn't do. Ramirez for Davis was pretty much the obvious change knowing that it would mean a more rigid formation in that line of 3. Just did't work out.
Yes, I think he is still a good player, but if he is going to get yellow carded everytime he does a perfectly good block tackle, then probably he would be better off elsewhere where the Referees are of a better quality. I lost count the number of times Cork received a nudge in the back as he challenged for the ball, not once was it considered foul play, the consistency is just not there.
I think it's a bit harsh to highlight our sole problem as needing a new striker when it was two superb pieces of play by our current striker that provided Lallana and Rodriguez with the best chances we had in the game, which neither of them were able to finish. I think we'd be severely pushing it to try and rely on Lambert as our main man for another season when his form has been wavering for a long time now and he has taken such a sharp decline physically, but I do think it's a bit unfair that he seems to have become the scapegoat for us not scoring as many goals as we should be.
Well, I expected for us to get beaten unfortunately, but we played and matched Liverpool well for the first 65 minutes, then the second goal went in and our midfield completely lost their heads. We are missing that clinical striker, as we all know. Still no excuse as we could and should have scored 2 goals. Lambert is unfortunately slowing our attack down big time, and I think if Osvaldo was the player we thought he could be, then I don't think Rickie would play much. We bossed the possession, had more shots, and controlled the tempo as we do in almost every single match. We're missing those 1-2 players of real quality upfront with pace and power, which is hopefully something we can address in the summer. Very encouraging signs of how good we can be though.
It is OK that you keep telling us this but you never come up any solutions, you seem clever enough to supply some ideas that could change things for the better. I am an old idiot, I can't think of anything other than getting someone to show the forwards how to score goals, to my mind that is the only way we are going to change.
That's a good point Mikey, but then I think we're all agreed that JRod and Adam are never going to be 20 a season players, but that they do provide other plusses - particularly Adam. As a result, what we need so clearly up front is a 15-20 a season man which Rickie isn't any longer.
I am OK with that, but it was against a player who is extremely clever at making it look worse than it was, did you see the exagerated hobbling one minute, running like a greyhound the next time he had a sniff of a chance, I am not convinced.
I suppose a few minutes playing for England would do Rickie the power of good, his lowering of performance has only come on since his Cap!
Well, my first comment on coming in the door was "Good game, I'm not depressed; get a decent striker over the summer and we'll be top six" I still stand by that. Loads of chances in the first half. Good chances, that is. If we weren't creating any, I'd be worried. Don't panic. Vin
