Even he himself said it was the defenders to blame. I actually thought our defence was solid yesterday. But yes you just knew he was frustrated with Guly and perhaps one or two in midfield.
I think you're relying on what the commentator [Steve Gibson..?] and Martin Keown were saying that Lambert hadn't had a sniff of a chance. They may have been criticising, but I don't think so. Especially as one of them observed after he'd scored... one chance, one goal. Guly did have a poor game. But, to put it into some perspective, it was no worse than Kitson's. And Kitson plays like that every week, apparently.
This may be true, but Kitson didn't directly cost them the game. Higher magnitude errors make for higher quantities of criticism.
-Dan, I totally take your point, and I'm not in any way defending Guly. He should have been there to head the ball away, but didn't have the taste for the physical match up. However, I'm not sure I saw Kitson even track back enough to get into his own penalty area to have the opportunity to make such an error.
I thought Kitson played well, I really did. Granted he never looked like scoring. He could have played for four games, not one, and he'd have never scored. But playing up front by yourself, with next to no support, is hard (Pompey badly need to either change formation to give him some support, or try and somehow bring in some real pace on both wings next month). He held the ball up, he won free-kicks, he made Hooiveld have to put in a top-notch performance. It was exactly the sort of display you want from a striker when you're 1-0 up and looking to hold on for example (but of course, they never got 1-0 up - hence the need for extra support for him).
I can't say I've watched too much of Kitson this season, save on TFLS and also listening to the occasional Pompey radio commentary, but on your opinion I will watch my recording of the match tonight [was looking for an excuse]. I honestly saw the player most Pompey fans see. A player who is so lacking in confidence it shrieks out at you. IMO, he went through the motions of running at players because he's an ex-PL player and is supposed to be capable of that, and has been asked to do that by his manager. The majority of Pompey attacks broke down when he either misplaced a pass, or badly controlled the ball, or had it simply taken off him by a defender. If that was a good day for him, I'd hate to see a bad 'un.
Rickie is a legend. Great to see him showing so much passion in the interview also. On another note on fifa I have my virtual pro on pro clubs called Rickie Lambert lol.
Maybe it's just me being sympathetic towards him. He really did get no support and was just isolated up there all by himself - against two very good CBs as well. I have to say, if that's how Pompey play at home every week then I can almost understand why their crowds are down - and I can certainly understand why they don't score many goals. I wouldn't want to watching that every week, negative 4-5-1 formation, with a lack of pace, no natural goalscorer, and almost the mentality of being the away side and looking not to lose.
I thought Kitson held the ball up quite well but offered nothing of any sort of edge and caused no problems - whether due to a fault by him or a top performance from Jos is impossible to tell but if I only had one striker, I would not want him to play the way Kitson did. He needs to be looking forward and actually pushing to make chances rather than doing what he did - I know he was looking for opportunities to make chances but a complete lack of incisiveness made him as ineffective as the scoreline said.
Pardew said he has more chance of Cortese selling him his own mother than getting any player from SFC! LOL
Without doubt the most effective player in the Championship.....any side in this league would want him including Skates and Bristol City. And yes he wouldn't be the worst centre forward in the PL
What impresses me about him is his fantastic temperament there seems to be no ego when you consider he is our talisman . We have a great squad of players but we and probably the players know who the main man is yet he appears modest and not only works for his goals he works for his teamates i congratulate him for all that he is
