Lambert would be too slow for international football.Yes,he is our talisman,yes he is the best striker in the championship and yes he is a great all round player,but there are players ahead of him,Welbeck,Sturridge,Rooney,Crouch(he should be England's main striker because of his goal scoring record) and Holt. What England desperatley needs,is players with flair and skill or has some people call it "lazy" players,like Lallana and Adam Johnson,these type of players are so,so scarce in english football and yet we never take full advantage of them...
I'm not sure that Rickie will get a look in even when we are in the Prem. If a player of the acknowledged genius of Matt Le Tiss can play the whole of his career in the top division and still only get 8 England caps it shows there are other things to be taken into account, namely, which club does he play for? Southampton might become a fashionable club for England managers to pick players from once we've won the Prem and the Champions League a few times but that will be too late for Rickie. I would absolutely love to be proved wrong though!
problem would be tactics, lambert likes to go a roaming-just look how many excellent crosses from the right he has produced, it is the style we play. rooney also likes to look for the ball- so leaving no-one up front. but then the other options are all shyte compared to rickie. i like welbeck but his goal count is poor, crouch has an excellent record, sturridge is quick and direct, but england do not play quick through balls that suit fast strikers- lets see if we can get spidey to leave france and play for england
Well no, he was the highest scoring English striker. There were better and certainly better playing in England.
There are few English strikers that get your heart beating at the moment. If we get to Prem, Lambert may be looked at for a qualifier, but doubt he'd ever be taken to the WC.
Rasiak finished the 06-07 season with 21 goals, while Pahars never scored above 14. Who is the better player?
Played pretty much three full seasons - 13 goals, 9 goals and 14 goals. And okay - Lambert got 21 goals last season in league one, below the division Rasiak got 21. I know which player I'd take first.
To be fair to Pahars, at the time he was playing for Saints, we were nearly always fighting relegation. Not an easy situation for a striker to bang in 20+ goals a season.
England are good for quick strikers, but not so deep for classic centre forwards that can bring others into play, hold the ball up, score goals and challenge in the air. In that category there's Carroll, Holt, Crouch, Zamora, Graham and Lambert that spring to mind - a less illustrious list. Most of the PL has an overseas player playing centre forward or uses the midfield to move the ball around and feed a goal poacher.
I think Lambert would score goals at international level, but he has no chance of a call up until he breaks into the EPL, even then as proved by the Grant Holt situation he is unlikely to get a call up. It seems you need to play for a top six club. Form doesn't seem to interest Pearce and co. I like Lambert though, clearly a decent striker. Sent from HTC Sensation XE
Funny cause Pearce said he was gonna include different, inexperienced players. Well, we got Fraizer Campbell..!
Yep, same here. Rasiak was a poacher, and a lazy one at that. He was not interested unless he was the last person to touch the ball - and then the net. I'm not knocking that, but just to say that Lambert is a much more all-round player. He is often found defending well, when Saints are under pressure; he is an excellent classic CF, when required; he is a sublime penalty taker, with a Le Tissieresque hit ratio [got a feeling he's actually never missed one - must find out]; he's quite a twinkle-toes for ball-skills nowadays, now that he has slimmed down, and his technique and ability to strike a ball is superb. On top of that he has an excellent football brain which, in the Championship at least, more than makes up for the yard or two he lacks in pace. Do I exaggerate..? I don't think so.
All very true - the penalties, you'll be pleased to know, are on 24/24 for us (he missed one for Brovers earlier in his career, I've heard). Figures by the wonderful st brendy here
It would be interesting to see if any of the Holt/Lambert/Graham crew will be called up if they maintain their form to the end of the season. Lambert may be a big outsider for the squad, but it would be so refreshing to see Holt or Graham called up to the team, and with their current record of about 0.4 goals a game, they'll end up on something around 14/15 goals at the end of the season. Now that's a record that has seen many a player be called up by their country. An example of this is Llorente for Spain. His goalscoring record for Athletic Club wasn't great at the start of his career, but had one good season and found himself being called up. A few good performances for Spain later and all of a sudden he seems to be going into Euro 2012 as their first choice striker, despite his "target man" style being completely different to how Spain play. This started out at a time when Athletic were around mid-table, about the same position Swansea or Norwich are in now. It might be too late for Holt and probably Lambert, but Graham being 26 could definitely be considered in the future if he keeps up his form for Swansea. And imagine knowing that you could get into the national team despite being at a lower-end club (no disrespect to Swansea and Norwich, who I still think are doing great in the Prem), it's going to be a huge spur for other Englishmen, including Lambert if we got into the Prem next season. Pick them on form, not club/past rep.
