Its a shame we are only allowed 8 forwards in our team I guess we could drop a center back and to fit Adrián López in?
Cant comment , as I have never seen him play but... Years Team Apps† (Gls) 2005–2006 Oviedo 30 (4) 2006–2011 Deportivo La Coruña 92 (13) 2008 → Alavés (loan) 10 (3) 2008–2009 → Málaga (loan) 28 (3) 2011 - Atlético Madrid 59 (10) Those stats don't really fill me with confidence
As I've said, he's tended to play wide, so looking to his goal statistics is pretty meaningless. At Oviedo and Deportivo he was young and not first choice, but very highly rated. He made the Deportivo first team eventually and did very well before Atletico pounced. I haven't seen much of him for Atletico, but I've seen very good performances for Spain U21.
You say that but he also contributes practically zero defensively wherever he plays. He's averaging 0.3 tackles and 0.1 interceptions per game which is absolutely horrendous. Lambert is on 0.5 tackles and 0.2 interceptions. Lambert also commits more fouls and makes more clearances and blocks. Says it all really.
They're very different players, I doubt they'd be in direct competition - as Joe has said twice, he tends to play out wide, but he also plays in the hole behind Falcao quite a bit.
Well obviously he's not good enough to be a regular starter for Spain, otherwise he'd not be linked with us.
Yes... meaning his defensive contribution is terrible. That was my point. Lambert contributes next to zero as it is when we lose the ball that's why I compared his defensive contribution to Lambert.
Lone strikers usually contribute nothing defensively. I was highlighting the fact Adrian offers nothing when you lose possession by comparing him to Lambert. Loads of people moan at Guly's defensive contribution and it's more than triple Adrian's.
I'm pretty happy with where we are at striker personally. Lambert will still be our leading man for a couple more years and JRod is showing himself to be a more than capable partner or deputy, then Mayuka I still believe has a hat full of talent and we've got a couple of decent strikers coming through the academy. If we were going to buy another striker I'd prefer it to be another player on Mayuka's kind of level just for a touch more depth. Personally all I'd like to see us bring in is a big time Ramirez-style coup of a centre-back and a couple of depth players to strengthen us in defensive midfield and full-back. Other than that I'm happy at keeper, two brilliant young full-backs, we've got a cracking defensive-mid duo, a nice group of attacking players to choose from in Lallana, Ramirez, Rodriguez, Puncheon, Davis and Guly to rotate in behind Rickie, and I've got really high hopes for Rowe and Isgrove coming through to add to that group. All in all I think we're in pretty good shape, and just don't see personally where Adrian fits in. But like I said, if Mauricio or Nicola or our recruitment team in general believe Adrian has the talent then I believe in their belief!
He could come on trial and show Rickie and JRod how to beat the keeper 1 on 1. Really though, are we the new Chelsea or Arsenal that needs 12 attacking wide midfield type players? maybe cover for Cork and Morgan and a quick CB that can cover when the team is pushed high then I will be a happy bunny. We have a couple of good widemen coming through the acadamy and unless we are looking at signing Falcao then there are not many players that can displace Rickie and we have JRod as cover for Rickie but the guy is a machine and rarely injured. Mikey, did not read read your post, great minds and all that
JRod is looking good playing with Rickie, so don't strictly see him as cover for SRL (though that was what I thought initially).
I think right now he's got a firm hold on a spot in the team, but if Rickie were to (god forbid, knock on wood etc.) get a teensy weensy injury then I'm sure Jay would step into the strikers role and then Punch or Davis would come into the side in the attacking trio, so he basically functions as both Rickie's partner and back-up which is handy. He's certainly come on leaps and bounds, I had real reservations about his price tag, and for much of the season I didn't think he would be suitable for either of those jobs, now he seems the perfect man for both!
The club face an interesting conundrum this summer (assuming PL status assured of course) in balancing the long term vision of academy players and pushing up the league. If we go back in for Astori say and Forren makes good on his talent then we have a half decent side, but is it strong enough for a push toward Europe? Not on this seasons evidence. So I do think someone to challenge for a starting place in the front 4 would be welcome.
Came across this... http://www.caughtoffside.com/2013/0...ake-bid-for-16-5m-southampton-teen-luke-shaw/
Ah, CaughtOffside! I'd take no notice of them. Apparently we signed Paul Lambert up to a new deal this week.
