Stoke preview

Cute, canaries popping across. Bless.

Horror show though this.

Maybe last chance H to Wigan / Blades. We feel down to be honest...
 
The silver lining is the more we divebomb the sooner we’ll start to get some semblance of reality coming from the club. The last thing we need to do is go on a run in the second half of the season and be relegated by a few points and paper over the cracks
 
It would appear that there is a general improvement all over the pitch save the one that matters and that is scoring goals, it puts into stark reality the idiotic folly of getting rid of our entire strike force which scored over 40 goals between them in the previous season, thanks Evans I hope you get immense pleasure from counting your money, now do everyone a favour and get out of our Club.
 
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fieldmarshall said:
It would appear that there is a general improvement all over the pitch save the one that matters and that is scoring goals, it puts into stark reality the idiotic folly of getting rid of our entire strike force which scored over 40 goals between them in the previous season, thanks Evans I hope you get immense pleasure from counting your money, now do everyone a favour and get out of our Club.
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Come off it fieldmarshall, you’re flogging a dead horse at this point. Lambert has come in and is doing so much worse than Hurst. It’s got so bad now all over the park that Lankester is the only remaining flicker of light.
 
fieldmarshall said:
And what games have you been to lately ?
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This old chestnut is so tiresome. Not as many as you because you live in East Anglia and I live in Yorkshire, have a medal.

We are stranded at the bottom and the manager is saying we are not far off being a top side. I wouldn’t be surprised if Matthew Allwright and the Rogue Traders cameraman turned up at the ground next week.
 
I do understand why people say we are playing better football. The passing is better and faster so it looks prettier, but we’re leaving ourselves wide open under Lambert, the shape and particularly defence is all wrong. Even when we are on top in a match we’re ALWAYS a sitting duck. Stoke have quality in the side and that’s what’s undone us today but so do most of the sides in the Championship.
 
Apart from making a nicer noise at press conferences I’m also struggling to see how PL is a better manager than the last few incumbents.
 
Hampy - results HAVE been worse under Lambert than Hurst so far. That’s true. I also agree he’s been somewhat naive re playing too much footy considering the defence we have.

However, I draw the line there. You love both Keane / Hurst for some weird reason - and your desperate for Lambert to fail with Hurst’s shower of s so you can somehow vindicate yourself re Hurst.

Roll on January so we may be able to do something about the mess Hurst has got us in. This “squad” he’s been allowed to “build” is beyond me.
 
I think performances have slightly picked up under Lambert, and we look more in games compared to the Hurst days, where we typically didn’t start playing until we were two goals down. However, some of our concerns over Lambert’s managerial success does start to look vindicated as results just have not been there. As people say, it’s a results business and Hurst and (at this moment) Lambert have not been getting them. I believe we’d be in a similar (or worse) position if Hurst had been retained, because he proved that he could not manage this squad in terms of performances, results, or fostering a good atmosphere. So let’s not kid ourselves and try to retrospectively rehabilitate the man’s time here. He was bad. Results, signings, performances, and his antics behind the scenes testify to that.

We need to get a win against Wigan. How many times this season have we said that a game is “must win”, only to drop points? I know I bang the drum on this, however I think it’s worth reiterating; years of underinvestment and poor strategy at the club, from Evans, is ultimately responsible for this mess. Hurst, who put this useless squad together and ruined the goodwill and positivity at the start of this campaign, also deserves blame. Mick, who saddled this team with one-dimensional footballers and failed to implement any long-term benefits, also cannot get away without any blame considering he was here for six years. Both Sunderland and Wolves suffered relegation when he left, and we look like following suit. That’s a sign of a poor manager’s legacy. And finally, if we meekly go down with a whimper and continue dropping points, then Lambert will have to bear some of the responsibility. Chances are he will continue with us in League One, regardless of the manner of our relegation. And that’s a little worrying to me.

We need to hit upper mid table form, and certainly beat all those teams around us in the bottom six, to avoid relegation. I still don’t see it happening, but a couple of wins before January and an inspired transfer window will make the seemingly impossible appear slightly more achievable. I can’t see it happening though and, deep down, I don’t think many people at the club see it either, despite the nice words in public.
 
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Westlake33 said:
Hampy - results HAVE been worse under Lambert than Hurst so far. That’s true. I also agree he’s been somewhat naive re playing too much footy considering the defence we have.

However, I draw the line there. You love both Keane / Hurst for some weird reason - and your desperate for Lambert to fail with Hurst’s shower of s so you can somehow vindicate yourself re Hurst.

Roll on January so we may be able to do something about the mess Hurst has got us in. This “squad” he’s been allowed to “build” is beyond me.
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Westy im not desperate for Lambert to fail but fail he has more or less at every club since Norwich. I thought it was the wrong time to make a change and the wrong change to make. As I’ve said for weeks, January is too late even if we splash millions and all the indications are that that’s the case.
 
Nuggets said:
I think performances have slightly picked up under Lambert, and we look more in games compared to the Hurst days, where we typically didn’t start playing until we were two goals down. However, some of our concerns over Lambert’s managerial success does start to look vindicated as results just have not been there. As people say, it’s a results business and Hurst and (at this moment) Lambert have not been getting them. I believe we’d be in a similar (or worse) position if Hurst had been retained, because he proved that he could not manage this squad in terms of performances, results, or fostering a good atmosphere. So let’s not kid ourselves and try to retrospectively rehabilitate the man’s time here. He was bad. Results, signings, performances, and his antics behind the scenes testify to that.

We need to get a win against Wigan. How many times this season have we said that a game is “must win”, only to drop points? I know I bang the drum on this, however I think it’s worth reiterating; years of underinvestment and poor strategy at the club, from Evans, is ultimately responsible for this mess. Hurst, who put this useless squad together and ruined the goodwill and positivity at the start of this campaign, also deserves blame. Mick, who saddled this team with one-dimensional footballers and failed to implement any long-term benefits, also cannot get away without any blame considering he was here for six years. Both Sunderland and Wolves suffered relegation when he left, and we look like following suit. That’s a sign of a poor manager’s legacy. And finally, if we meekly go down with a whimper and continue dropping points, then Lambert will have to bear some of the responsibility. Chances are he will continue with us in League One, regardless of the manner of our relegation. And that’s a little worrying to me.

We need to hit upper mid table form, and certainly beat all those teams around us in the bottom six, to avoid relegation. I still don’t see it happening, but a couple of wins before January and an inspired transfer window will make the seemingly impossible appear slightly more achievable. I can’t see it happening though and, deep down, I don’t think many people at the club see it either, despite the nice words in public.
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The two goals down thing happened a couple of times but it wasn’t a characteristic of Hurst’s side. The characteristic was generally competing with the opposition but creating only one or two clear cut opportunities in a game.

We can’t say whether Hurst could have built on that or not but what we can say is that we couldn’t have done any worse than appointing Lambert.
 
YorkieLancsHampyLondoner said:
The two goals down thing happened a couple of times but it wasn’t a characteristic of Hurst’s side. The characteristic was generally competing with the opposition but creating only one or two clear cut opportunities in a game.

We can’t say whether Hurst could have built on that or not but what we can say is that we couldn’t have done any worse than appointing Lambert.
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A third of Hurst’s games in charge (five from fifteen) ended up in a 2-0 defeat. So I’d argue it was more common than presumed. Furthermore, we only took the lead four times in his 15 games (and that includes a 15 minute lead in the first game of the season and for the last six minutes in the eventual 3-2 win at Swansea). So the characteristic of Hurst’s time in charge was of a side struggling to take leads, hold on to games, and typically showing our best moments against the bigger teams when we were out of the match. Have we forgotten how bad and frustrating those days were already? How pedestrian and passive we were in those home games? Let’s not beat around the bush, Hurst’s negatives far outweigh any positives he brought to Portman Road.

Looking back, I wonder what alternatives there were to Lambert. Burley and the old guard? Lambert has taken on their advice and met with them a couple of times, so we cannot presume there would be much difference in results. Another lower league manager? McGreal? I don’t think your Steve Bruces and experienced old hands were up for it. Apparently Grayson, Holloway, and Sherwood were on the shortlist and I think it’s safe to presume they wouldn’t have done much better at this stage. Lambert will be judged on the transfer window and how he can bring in some much-needed quality. Early rumours that Peter Crouch and Charlie Adam are incoming do not fill me with much hope on this front.
 
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