You say he was "cornered" superman. Wouldn't it be more accurate to say he'd got himself into a corner of his own making? Of course we don't really know anything much, but I find it hard to believe there was much on the club's side other than asking for (1) commitment by signing a term contract, and (2) accepting the need to pay off the external debt this year. Yes, you can get all sorts of clashes of personality, but those were contained through last season and I cannot see anything apart from Bowkett and McNally quite correctly putting the interests of NCFC first. Indeed, when Bowkett spoke at the season's end about the financial priorities, PL said "I understand where the chairman is coming from." He understood, but he disagreed. To which one could add Bowkett's comment about PL's impatience. Bowkett is on record saying they would do everything they could to keep PL. Everything, that is, apart from prejudicing the club's longer term future. Cornered, maybe; but by himself.
i find that a bit bizarre. must have headed straight down the tunnel after the game (i would have done after villas performance). I wonder if he blanked delia and michael as well
I think it might of been one of the pink'un boys who reported it over twitter as the players left the field. It may well of been just a coincidence I.e. they walked off the pitch at the same time.
Even the loose brains on MotD said Lambert was deluding himself about his teams performance. I think he's made a very bad career move, I don't wish ill on people, but in this instance I couldn't give a toss! It looks as if Randy Leerner has just asset stripped the club, taken the cash from sales of the best players and put it into other enterprises in the States, it will be interesting to see how much Lambert has to spend in the January window!!
lets not forget, lambert is always like that in his post match interviews. he always backs 'his boys', no matter how ****e they were. its just his style. he looked a total muppet on saturday though. his 'review' of the red card decision was deluded at best while his assessment that the match was '50/50' was the only thing more laughable. alan hansen called the match correctly on match of the day.
Not worth a separate thread, but two worrying stats from Friday's Grauniad :- That equates to two entire seasons although our defence is so much better this year with the acquisitions of Bassong, Garrido and Tettey affording them protection. But, still... OK, that was put to bed with Turner's glancing header from the short corner, BUT we were the most prolific (from set pieces) last year, with pinpoint crosses landing ideally for Holt and Morison to profit from. Two areas of major concern.
the clean sheets will come - we look so much more solid this season. its been individual mistakes that have cost us goals and that was the case on saturday too. this can be worked on, as indeed can the final ball and set pieces, which i agree were dreadful but we know the players are capable of better because they did so, as you correctly point out, last season. as far as worries go, we don't have too many and those we do can be ironed out. i feel much more comfortable with how things are going now than i did immediately after the liverpool match. plenty of things to work on but we were never going to be the finished article at this stage! we aren't a bad side really. we do have our wobbles though. we just need to start taking more of those chances - someone could get absolutely tonked if we have a good day in front of goal. a little luck wouldn't go amiss either.
Also consider that last season we only got two clean sheets at home. This has already been matched this season against West Ham and Arsenal.
i thought lawro and hansen were complimentary to us on motd on saturday, some fair comments. Shock horror
hansen was, not sure lawro said a word about us to be honest. to be fair, i have no issue with hansen - at least he does some analysis, even if we don't always like what he says about us, but lawro and shearer both sit there, looking smug and talking nonsense most of the time. i just fail to see what they both bring to the party
Re. the set pieces. One difference is that last season Fox played. He is by far the best deliverer of the ball at set pieces. We now have even more aerial threat in the shape of Bassong and Turner (and Snodgrass for that matter), but if we don't put good balls into them ....... It's all shaping up nicely, now let's give Fox a few starts alongside Tettey.
I'd like to see this, but it would be increasing Tettey's workload as Fox is not as good as Bradders at breaking play up/winning the ball.
he's not hopeless at it though. i feel there is a time and place for both players. when we have more of the ball fox needs to be on the pitch. he gives us a measure of control to our game.
Not sure all the hatred for Bradley Johnson is this season; I think he is better at ball winning than Tettey is...
I thought we were crying out for Fox on Satruday, we had no luck using our width because our crossing was so poor and Vlaar seemed to be on the end of every cross. Fox would have allowed us to break their defence down a bit by playing with more patience and possibly found some gaps in the defence. We had two occasions where going through the middle was our best route, i.e Wes and Holt's one on ones. It is frustrating, but how good was Wes on Saturday, he seems to get a bit more freedom under Hughton and it works a treat, he isn't being isolated in a deep position all the time.
what are you talking about? what hatred? he just isn't as talented. there's no witch hunt or anything here, just facts. johnson's good at breaking up the play and giving energy to the midfield. however, his passing is abysmal and so is his shooting. these are things that he can improve but tettey is better at both those things and he's got the physique to dominate premier league midfields. johnson is a little more lightweight. its not his fault. tettey probably cost a few million, johnson was a freebie, and a bloody good one at that. johnson has had a decent season so far but he won't be one of the first names on the teamsheet. i bet tettey is.
