I have to agree with NorwichFanNotOn606, some good points there. I honestly think if we still had Lambert we would be relegated this year. We wouldn't survive with such a leaky defence this year. I liked Lambert's ethos about going all out to win, but that surprise factor had gone now we've had our first season in the Prem.
I dont disagree with you Yellow that they all have there strengths. I think I feel we have too many players who I wouldnt like to see played together and the reason is being able to hurt the opposition. I rate Snodgrass, Surman and Fox highly and appreciate their strengths however, I just feel we lack the ability to hurt teams with too many of these players playing (which is why I feel they have found themselves out of favour). If you play Snodgrass and Surmn out wide then the opposition defence always seems to have time to get back behind the ball making it harder for us to score. Whereas you play Bennett and not only will he beat a man he stretches the opposition creating space for others like Wes to work his magic. I hope Pilkington can improve his form as I thought he looked class last year. I have full faith that if we play Holt upfront, Bennett and Pilks wide, Wes in the hole and Tettey +1 as deep midfield players we will stay up this year. Does anyone think Tetty might be good enough to be the only deep midfielder and maybe play Howson instead of Johnson allowing more link up with attack? So many different options in midfield!
This was mentioned on another thread recently. I think it would depend on the strengths and pace of the opposition - not a good idea vs Arsenal, but ideal against a sluggish and misfiring Villa midfield last week for example.
the hughton-lambert debate is one that will forever be played out in peoples minds - we'll never know how we'd have got on this year under lambert, we'll never know who he'd have signed or how we'd have performed and changed/adapted our style. personally, i think we have a better long-term future under hughton than lambert, simply because he seems like he's here for the long haul. there's no denying we all felt lambert would be off to bigger and better things at some point and it hung over the club like a big, bad smell. i don't think lambert would have addressed the defence as throughly as hughton has and for that reason, i'll say we'll do better this year under hughton than we would have under lambert.
Luckily, we had quite a lot of points on the board before Xmas last sesaon, as our record this year was 24 points from a possible 57 and 8 from 24 over the last 8 games.
.........good spot, in a way he reminds me of Song. a defensive midfielder who is quite prepared to go on surging runs at the opposition, also has an eye for the goal. just hope he proves to be more adept at passing than Song did.
