He was only on for 15 minutes, but I thought he looked very mobile and very strong. Three times in the corner near me, he completely out muscled their CB. His movement was good and he looked to get in behind with his runs. This is something Rickie doesn't offer. I feel sorry for JayRod. He's played wide and yesterday as the top man he did well on a day when Rickie was poor, but will he get his chance? I don't want to knock Rickie as he has been fantastic for us, however he wasn't effective against Arsenal or Wigan, but very effective against United and City. Before the season started I wondered if his lack of mobility would work for us in this league. Everything we play is in front of the opponents back four and easier to pick up; I don't feel we get behind teams enough. I am not advocating dropping Rickie, but asking if others have a similar view. I think JayRod would do well with a run of games down the middle but that would only happen with Rickie either playing deeper or being dropped. I believe in this league you need to get defenders turned with movement in behind. Five of the Arsenal goals came from movement and balls in behind our defense. When we played against Wigan everything was in front of them. Our wide players and full backs don't go passed full backs wide, we play inside and this it is always visible to defenders and easier to defend against. Any views?
Ok. I've bumped this as 100 people have viewed it and nobody has commented. I was hoping for some sensible debate. Usually if one posts a load of rubbish on this forum you get told quite quickly. I am now wondering though if there have been no replies because there is a very small under current in my post that may be suggesting a gentle questioning of Rickie Lambert; is this why nobody dare comment. If what I have mentioned is a load of nonsense, then fair enough, however maybe there is a valid point that maybe we should try JayRod and bring Rickie on as in the City game. This would make defenders work harder and be moved about the pitch more, creating more gaps for us to exploit.
I like this boy. Lambert didn't get much going yesterday but it wasn't entirely his fault, balls were hitting his forehead but they weren't dropping to Puncheon or Lallana. I'm as much of a Rickie fan as anyone else but I wouldn't be surprised if Rodriguez started some games with Lambert on the bench, it was a tactic that worked well for Norwich last year (sorry to make the Holt comparison). Just hope the fans show him some patience, Nigel must see him as Rickie's replacement in a few years when he hangs his boots up but I hope his large fee and coming from Burnley instead of the Bernabau don't turn people against him. At least he has a good name.
I'm certainly with you on this, FLT. I was a very firm supporter of the Rodriguez signing and I was very disappointed to see people start turning against him, after two games at a new club in a new division where he was out of position. It's a pity we're only playing one central attacker because Lambert is a very hard man to drop, even though as you said, he was poor yesterday and against Wigan. I don't think he's undroppable though and I know if Rodriguez was given a run of games at CF he'd show why we spent £6m on him. Thankfully he's young, so hopefully his chances will come in the future...
FLT - sadly I agree with your comment. JRod did well when he came on and probably one to start away games as he is far quicker and more mobile than Sir Rickie but the important thing is can he take his chances as well as Rickie (yes I do know RL missed a good opportunity in the second half but generally fairly ruthless). In away games JRod might give us something more as it can sometimes mean chasing shaddows to get possession
My main concern is that we have two midfield players that can produce glorious balls and look capable of doing some amazing things. If we stick to just one up front I hope Adam plays on the left with Mayuka/Puncheon on the right and then we put three strong midfielders in front of the defence. Morgan is capable of both good long passes and short ones so should be in the centre of the three. I would then like to see two box to box ball winners along side him. I just hope that we haven't concentrated too much on finding players that are comfortable on the ball. As for JayRod, I feel he will take over from Rickie before very long as our number one striker. I still feel that when we attack we get caught by teams with too many up front and out of position with little thought but that of trying to score. We all know that one or two of our players are a bit nslow when tracking back and this causes a lot of our troubles.
Didn't help yesterday that we were chasing the game which meant people were bound to try and go forward. Pleased that JRod looked decent yesterday as he is obviously one for our future more than Rickie. It's good we have choices...both will get chances.
Could Lambert drop further back, allowing J Rod to play the line frontman role? I see Lambert as a trequartista who creates a lot of goals as well as scoring them, and he did start his career as a CM. Of course this would be a luxury to have both of them as well as Lallana and puncheon/mayuka/Ramirez playing but is an option we could use at home against the 'non elite' premiership sides
When Lambert isn't winning much in the air, he tends to drop deeper because he doesn't have the ability to outwit defenders with his movement. As strikers like Gomez, Giroud and Dzeko prove, you don't need a whole lot of pace, but you do need the wits to get away from defenders and a willingness to spend less time on the ball. To play deep and forward takes a quick and gifted player. For Arsenal's first, as soon as Podolski lays it off to Gibbs, Podolski legs it into the box to follow up. Hooiveld gets there, but Podolski is right behind him. Very good forward play. It's a tough skill even for the best players. Lambert can't do it. He either needs to be in the firing line or have someone ahead of him. Lambert is a very good finisher. Give him a good chance and he'll score most of them. He should have scored when he got on the end of that fabulous faked shot from Ramirez. Normally he would score that. It's a bit of a role reversal that he's not the one playing the throuh balls though and something that spells good news for our other strikers who aren't as good on the ball or in the air, but are quicker and smarter off it. We need Lambert, but he's not a complete striker (who is? Certainly no-one that we could have signed) and we'll need different options. Rodriguez wasn't great on the wing, but while he's been there, he will have learnt plenty about what Lambert does well and what he could do better. It won't have been a waste of time. I'd still start Lambert against Villa, but I'm pleased we're reaching a situation where he's not totally immortal and we're not afraid to take him off if he's not having the effect we want him to. He needs competition.
1x Goalkeeper 2x Fullbacks 2x Centre Backs 3x Central Midfielders 2x Wingers That's 10 men and unless we plan on playing a Spain style 460, one would presume that the 11th man is a striker. We tried this in the first half against Arsenal and the midfield got caught flat footed by the quality of Arteta and Cazorla. Lambert was isolated because we rarely got on the ball and didn't have an outlet between the lines. We've learnt that there's a time for a compact midfield, but also that there's a time not to have one and the rest of the season will be a real test of Adkins' tactical ability. He has to do his homework on the opposition and make his decisions accordingly. None of us will have watched Villa in much detail, so we're not in a position to preach even if we have our own opinions. The compact midfield worked so well against United because Tom Cleverly isn't as good as the media make him out to be and we dealt with him. Cazorla and Arteta are actually good and we obviously weren't prepared for it.
I'm open to starting JR. He has got the ability, he's just not suited on the wing. He does track back quite well, it's just that he doesn't have as much skill as someone like Lallana. He's got a bit of pace and a decent shot, therefore I think that would be better used in the middle. He's also quite tall and good in the air so I think that we can play a similar game that we do for Lambert for him. It doesn't mean much, but the shot warm up before the Man Utd game he was scoring in the corner everytime. If he can replicate this sort of form in matches then I think he can make it into the 11, but not necessarily replace Lambert.
