Saints 2 Oldham 1 Post Match Reaction

[sfc4prem]

We don't deserve Morgan. He should've gone to St Ettienne.

[Window Cleaner]

We don't deserve Morgan. He should've gone to St Ettienne.

 

as he probably will, problem is they're skint and have to offload a player beforehand.Thing is it has to be a player they don't want, trouble is neither does anyone else. Now if it were Matuidi or Rivière it would be easy.

[up and away]

We won't get a better 'keeper than Kelvin in the third division FFS.

 

I have got this wrong before between Kevin and Bart that I just leave it to the manager and be happy with that decision. One thing that has been pointed out to me is that Kelvins spectacular saves have more of a hint of Hollywood about them. Looking at the early save against Huddersfield, similar to others we have seen, some would question whether Bart's feet would actually need to leave the ground to make that save, especially if he used his other arm?

[Saint Charlie]

If you don't rate Morgan then thats up to you, but name a better central midfielder in League 1? There aren't any.

[captainchris]

Can't be arsed to read thread but are some idiots criticising Puncheon again? ****ing clueless D'inlos if they are.

 

Who are you calling a dinlo ? Puncheon flatters to deceive. He will not score as long as he has a hole in his rectum. He is slow in thought, little pace and can't shoot, he goes past a player and then duly hasn't a clue what to do next. His head is often looking at the ground when he should be seeking his decision on what to do next with head up. Consistently not good enough.................

[Chez]

I'm a huge fan of Morgans and have defended him on here a lot. Yesterday, however he was slightly under par and Oldham did a terrific job of giving him no time. Those two things combined meant he had a poor game by his standards. As I mentioned, he is always average after coming back from France duty, give him a game or two and he'll be running the game again.

 

Nice that we have a few choices in the middle, although none are decent holding midfielders in my book. Hammond is far better driving forward than he is holding back. Schneiderlin too is good pusing on.

Edited 24 October, 2010 by Chez

[Wes Tender]

Before the freekick was taken the No17 was pointing up in the air claiming the ball was in play when the ref stopped the game, and in his opinion that made it a fifty-fifty ball, cheating sod

 

Agreed. We had possession at the time. Also, I am correct, am I not, that the dropped ball should in any event have been contested where it was when play was stopped? That was much closer to the halfway line than where it was taken. In any event, because play was stopped because of the injury to our player, it would still have been sporting of them to have given the ball back to us.

[benjii]

it's down to understanding the new fangled game, in the 2 CM roles you have a milieu recuperateur and a milieu relayeur, in front of them you have 2 milieu offensifs. If your milieu recuperateur is charging forward all the time you will be exposed at the back,if your milieuu relayeur isn't where he's supposed to be you have to pass long when going forward. The two roles are oft interchangeable within a game but at all times they have to be there as 2 distinct elements.

 

[Bristol_Benji]

iplayer: http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/b00vmxwp/The_Football_League_Show_2010_2011_Episode_12/

 

@ 49min30secs

[simondo]

i was there, just before anyone ask!

chaplow was poor - hammond to play next game for sure & barnard should start with Guly, time for lambert to warm the bench - IMHO of course! ;-)

 

i sit up high normally and you get a great very of the gaps and players runs and i think see a lot more of the real picture however watched a bit of this game at pitch level & you get such a different perspective - it is no wonder people argue different players have different impacts on games

 

i watched chaplow and didn't think he had a great game - i'd be really interested to find out where those people who thought he played well, actually sit to see if there is something in that??? anyone what to comment???

[benjii]

Who are you calling a dinlo ? Puncheon flatters to deceive. He will not score as long as he has a hole in his rectum. He is slow in thought, little pace and can't shoot, he goes past a player and then duly hasn't a clue what to do next. His head is often looking at the ground when he should be seeking his decision on what to do next with head up. Consistently not good enough.................

 

I guess I'm calling you a d'inlo then!

[benjii]

If you don't rate Morgan then thats up to you, but name a better central midfielder in League 1? There aren't any.

 

TBF, I don't have a clue who plays in League One apart from our players and the players we are linked with. The only player I've noticed this season is O'Grady of Rochdale who had a really good game and he is a striker.

[derry]

If you don't rate Morgan then thats up to you, but name a better central midfielder in League 1? There aren't any.

 

Gary Jones, the Rochdale captain, took us apart at SMS and scored a stunner and has scored about seven goals this season already. He's a proper box to box midfielder and leader something we sadly lack. Schneiderlin plays lots of nothing passes to players going nowhere and almost never passes and moves. He sits in front of the back four and strolls after passing leaving it to others to try and get movement. He is now a major cause of the static central midfield, especially with Lambert lacking mobility up front.

[SuperMikey]

Thought we were pretty rubbish first half, no movement and we were playing the long ball a lot which was odd considering our style over the last few weeks. Guly and Lambert are far too static in attack, we need a Barnard or Chamberlain up there moving, making runs and chasing defenders. Very relieved to get the goal just before half time though, and I think that made us more motivated coming into the second half. Adkins obviously b*llocked them at HT, because we looked a lot better in the last 45, and deserved the second goal. Hopefully we can carry this form into our games with Notts County and Dag & Red, because these are teams that we should be beating comfortably but would have stuttered against last season. The team looks confident, and if Lambert gets on form we can really surge up the league.

[jam]

Agreed. We had possession at the time. Also, I am correct, am I not, that the dropped ball should in any event have been contested where it was when play was stopped? That was much closer to the halfway line than where it was taken. In any event, because play was stopped because of the injury to our player, it would still have been sporting of them to have given the ball back to us.

 

I think they would have but Feeney (their No17) seemed blow a gasket and was beckoning them all forward. He then seemed to lose the plot completely just before he was substituted.

[Shropshire Saint]

Gary Jones, the Rochdale captain, took us apart at SMS and scored a stunner and has scored about seven goals this season already. He's a proper box to box midfielder and leader something we sadly lack. Schneiderlin plays lots of nothing passes to players going nowhere and almost never passes and moves. He sits in front of the back four and strolls after passing leaving it to others to try and get movement. He is now a major cause of the static central midfield, especially with Lambert lacking mobility up front.

 

Do we really need a 33 year old who has never played outside the lower two divisions?

[brmbrm]

Gary Jones, the Rochdale captain, took us apart at SMS and scored a stunner and has scored about seven goals this season already. He's a proper box to box midfielder and leader something we sadly lack. Schneiderlin plays lots of nothing passes to players going nowhere and almost never passes and moves. He sits in front of the back four and strolls after passing leaving it to others to try and get movement. He is now a major cause of the static central midfield, especially with Lambert lacking mobility up front.

 

i agree. PLus he is prone to playing the "wonder pass" - high risk BUT the ones he plays have little upside to them - look great when they (infrequently) come off but don't split defences and hiave little upside. Better choice of passes please

[Toadhall Saint]

I thought we played well - overcame going one down which is another stepping stone we needed to do. Thought Oldham played well TBH - far better than last season.

 

My real concern is RL - he just doesn't look like the RL from last season.

[Marino]

Disappointed that we resorted to the long ball during the first half, which was probably due to

Oldham's game plan rather than our inability to string more than 2 passes together. They were the

better team for the first 45, played neat football and scored a good goal. Credit Adkins for changing things and

putting on our 'impact players'.

I can see the logic but I'm never happy when a forward is removed for the last 15-20 minutes in favour of

a defensive player. It encouraged Oldham to push forward and we end up playing deeper and deeper resulting

in a needless backs to the wall finish which almost led to an equalizer. Guly was having his best game too.

[benjii]

i agree. PLus he is prone to playing the "wonder pass" - high risk BUT the ones he plays have little upside to them - look great when they (infrequently) come off but don't split defences and hiave little upside. Better choice of passes please

 

That's my main gripe with him. Whenever he has a bit of space and knocks it out of his feet the attempted ball is nearly always highly predictable and has a pretty poor success rate.

 

He hardly ever trys something a bit inventive. Nearly all our good through balls from CM come from Hammond.

[benjii]

 

I'm not sure it's a net gain to be honest. He's made a lot of good saves, but we can't assume another keeper wouldn't have made saves too, so there's no way to calculate it. But I've seen him make a huge number of errors too, sticking to his line, being beaten near post. He seems great at shot stopping in the air, but I've never been convinced by him with low shots and too many goals I see us concede should have been saved. I don't know if Bart would have done better but I wouldn't mind finding out over a whole season.

 

Come off it.

 

He has hardly made any serious errors in the last couple of seasons - certainly not ones where you could lay the blame for a goal at his feet.

[Wes Tender]

Di*ck-off:

Dickov said: "I am very disappointed we shot ourselves in the foot once again and both Southampton's goals were schoolboy stuff from our point of view.

 

"We scored a cracking goal to take the lead and we looked very comfortable but every week I talk to them about not giving silly free-kicks away.

 

"There were 31 seconds left of the first half and their lad had the ball by the corner flag facing away from goal and we gave away a stupid free-kick. That was made worse when we didn't mark properly. It's very frustrating for me and for the players and I have told them that if we want to do anything this season then we have to cut out these basic defensive mistakes."

 

The tw*t has obviously been taking lessons in manager-speak from Fergie. When his team loses, it is because of schoolboy errors, but when they score, it was a cracking goal, rather than poor defending by us.

 

And as for the free kick that they conceded for the Fonte goal, Lallana might have been going away from the goal towards the corner, but Oldham's defence already knew full well that he is capable of turning them inside out, nutmegging them, skinning them all ends up and generally making them look like idiots. So D*ck-off, the truth was that Lallana drew the foul because your defenders couldn't handle him, not that it was an error of judgement.

 

As for your conclusion that our second goal was also down to schoolboy errors by your defence, well, it looked to me having watched it on the Football League show (about 49 minutes 25 seconds) very similar to the goal that your lot scored. And Chamberlain really cut through your defence and your post saved you right at the death, or else the win would have been much more comprehensive, especially if the referee had the balls or the attention span to have spotted your cheating and awarded the penalty that we deserved.

[derry]

Do we really need a 33 year old who has never played outside the lower two divisions?

 

He outclassed us at SMS, and it's in the lower two divisions we are, and yes exactly what we need instead of a passer that does little else and a tackler that does little else. Central midfield is a major weakness as is central striker. If we are going to get promoted it is going to need more than the cosmetic play we are getting from Schneiderlin, Hammond and Lambert. It is time all of them upped their game as the end result from all of them at present is poor.

[SNSUN]

First proper chance I've had for internet access since the game on Saturday - a good win, not a great performance, and we were indebted to Kelvin for some good saves, but a win's a win.

 

Their keeper made a great double save, but there was no stopping young Alex, a great cameo, had his second gone in instead of hitting the post, it would've been goal of the season for sure.

 

Davis: A couple of great saves, and unlucky not to stop their goal. 7

 

Butterfield. Solid if unspectacular. 6

Harding. Poor performance today from one of my favourite players. I think he only got forward once, in the second half, and looked shaky defensively. 5

Fonte. A good performance, a couple of chances, but was quite suprised when he got MOTM. 7

Seaborne. The bloke next to me thought he was Morgan for some reason, commenting on his good performance. It was a good performance for me, and his distribution was good IMO. 7

Puncheon. Despite his shot that hit the post, did little to suggest he put more effort in. Was rightly subbed. 5

Lallana. Kept possession well, and was better in the second half. 7

Morgan. MOTM for me, was everywhere, him and Chaplow were running midfield together, a great little pairing. 8

Chaplow. Close run second for my MOTM, worked his socks off and didn't look like tiring. 8

Lambert. Off the pace, was suprised he started, last season's shot would've stayed under the bar. 6

Guly. I was one of the first people to stand up when he went off, great touches, looked class. He's not a striker but looks like he's the creativity we need. Good performance. 8

 

Barnard. Put himself about well. 7

The O.C. Awesome cameo. Another talent to ease the pain of any potential Lallana sale. (God I hope we keep them all!) 8

Hot Wotty Botty. Solidified the defence, and I seem to remember being impressed by one of his passes. 6

[Redbul]

Can I just say I was impressed by the quick thinking of one of the ball boys, he was about half way between the centre and goal lines Itchen/Northam end; this was late on in the game and Oldham were really pressing forward. The ball went out for an Oldham throw-in and they swarmed forward quick as you like. This ball boy delayed chucking the ball back to the Oldham player for the throw-in just long enough for us to get back and mark up properly. Kudos young chap, they might have caught us on the hop but for that.

[Window Cleaner]

Can I just say I was impressed by the quick thinking of one of the ball boys, he was about half way between the centre and goal lines Itchen/Northam end; this was late on in the game and Oldham were really pressing forward. The ball went out for an Oldham throw-in and they swarmed forward quick as you like. This ball boy delayed chucking the ball back to the Oldham player for the throw-in just long enough for us to get back and mark up properly. Kudos young chap, they might have caught us on the hop but for that.

 

 

Clubs instruct ball-boys about this ...oh they'll say they don't but then...........

[jawillwill]

Fonte is in the L1 team of the week for helping to keep another clean sheet...according to the OS.

[Window Cleaner]

Fonte is in the L1 team of the week for helping to keep another clean sheet...according to the OS.

 

bit rich, it was a fluffed header from him the eventually led to their goal.

[Smirking_Saint]

bit rich, it was a fluffed header from him the eventually led to their goal.

 

Is there actually anyone you actually approve of in the team atm ??

[Window Cleaner]

Is there actually anyone you actually approve of in the team atm ??

 

all of them, except Lambert he is our number 1 problem, everything else stems from it, he just isn't fit, he's a yard or two off every ball, he's not harrying defenders, forcing them into errors that we can profit from.Other than that I think the lads are doing a great job.

Fonté was just a reflection on "a clean sheet".

[Clifford Nelson]

Oldham came to SMS to deal with a home team which likes to pass the ball around. So they didn't let us have any time on the ball at all. They were very good at it and their no 20, Dale Stephens, pretty much ran the midfield as he liked it.

 

We will have to get used to other teamd not letting us play as we like to, there is nothing exceptional in that. It was different in the days when very good sides came to assert their right to play their brand of football. We used to spoil it when we were at our best. In the third division we're the big boys and will temporarily, I hope, have to put up with it. We did change our way of playing, but the long balls make things riskier.

 

What concerns me is our midfield, because just as like Derry pointed out that a 33 year old who has never played higher than L1 controlled things for Rochdale, this time a youngster did the same for Oldham. This is not a new problem, but one which is going back years. Whoever we buy as a promising offensive midfielder with a goal scoring record immediately becomes goalshy when playing for us. Hammond used to put them away with regularity for Colchester, so what has happened?

 

There must be a tactical issue about how we play the game, as well as the midfielders we buy. As for players I am surprised about the enthusiasm for Chaplow. So far he hasn't managed to pass the ball half decently, and I can't recall he did so the last time he was here either. I don't think that he is a solution to anything. There is a view on these pages that somebody "will do in this division". This shortsighted thinking is only leading to us having a large number of players hanging around for a coupe of years after we have been promoted, bloating the squad.

 

As for tactics we haven't looked dangerous in CM since AP abandoned the 4-5-1 formation. This is not a call for a return of that, but whatever formation we are putting out we need somebody in there moving the ball about and regularly arriving late into the box. If the current crop won't do it, then we need somebody who can.

[Window Cleaner]

Oldham came to SMS to deal with a home team which likes to pass the ball around. So they didn't let us have any time on the ball at all. They were very good at it and their no 20, Dale Stephens, pretty much ran the midfield as he liked it.

 

We will have to get used to other teamd not letting us play as we like to, there is nothing exceptional in that. It was different in the days when very good sides came to assert their right to play their brand of football. We used to spoil it when we were at our best. In the third division we're the big boys and will temporarily, I hope, have to put up with it. We did change our way of playing, but the long balls make things riskier.

 

What concerns me is our midfield, because just as like Derry pointed out that a 33 year old who has never played higher than L1 controlled things for Rochdale, this time a youngster did the same for Oldham. This is not a new problem, but one which is going back years. Whoever we buy as a promising offensive midfielder with a goal scoring record immediately becomes goalshy when playing for us. Hammond used to put them away with regularity for Colchester, so what has happened?

 

There must be a tactical issue about how we play the game, as well as the midfielders we buy. As for players I am surprised about the enthusiasm for Chaplow. So far he hasn't managed to pass the ball half decently, and I can't recall he did so the last time he was here either. I don't think that he is a solution to anything. There is a view on these pages that somebody "will do in this division". This shortsighted thinking is only leading to us having a large number of players hanging around for a coupe of years after we have been promoted, bloating the squad.

 

As for tactics we haven't looked dangerous in CM since AP abandoned the 4-5-1 formation. This is not a call for a return of that, but whatever formation we are putting out we need somebody in there moving the ball about and regularly arriving late into the box. If the current crop won't do it, then we need somebody who can.

 

Perhaps our problem is that the advanced midfielders aren't dropping back to help out. It seems to be a fairly popular opinion that our midfield is Hammond (or Chaplow) and Schneiderlin but it is really, Hammond,Schneiderlin,Lallana and Puncheon, perhaps the latter two are playing wide too much instead of centrally but behind the strikers. Now it would seem to me that the bloke from Rochdale, Jones, is one of their advanced midfielders and also their leading scorer. Perhaps we need more from Lallana (or Puncheon) in the "running" of midfield because if the others are coming with 4 and we've two and two wide were ****ged.

[Smirking_Saint]

all of them, except Lambert he is our number 1 problem, everything else stems from it, he just isn't fit, he's a yard or two off every ball, he's not harrying defenders, forcing them into errors that we can profit from.Other than that I think the lads are doing a great job.

Fonté was just a reflection on "a clean sheet".

 

Yeah, i can agree with that.

 

He has not been at the races, i stick by what i said at the start of the season which is we needed to stick by him as long as we could however he doesn't seem to be coming out of it any time soon and we need to start getting scores on the board. I think we have been unlucky at times but i would rather see Barnard in there atm and use Lambert and Chamberlain to scare and batter defenders towards the end of games if we need them.

 

TBF he was never a footballing god. He always seems to struggle against defenders with any pedigree and fwiw i would be more devastated to lose lallana, morgan, fonte and perhaps even puncheon. I just am not convinced he will take the step up to the next level, and is getting towards 30 (which is ok if you are naturally fit and strong).

 

I just am a bit puzzled as to where the whole confidence issue has come from and i really think something or someone has really knocked him as we were told he was 100% fit at the start of the season.

 

Strange. But we are missing his goals.

[Smirking_Saint]

Perhaps our problem is that the advanced midfielders aren't dropping back to help out. It seems to be a fairly popular opinion that our midfield is Hammond (or Chaplow) and Schneiderlin but it is really, Hammond,Schneiderlin,Lallana and Puncheon, perhaps the latter two are playing wide too much instead of centrally but behind the strikers. Now it would seem to me that the bloke from Rochdale, Jones, is one of their advanced midfielders and also their leading scorer. Perhaps we need more from Lallana (or Puncheon) in the "running" of midfield because if the others are coming with 4 and we've two and two wide were ****ged.

 

For a long time we have played a sort of 4-2-4 or 4-2-2-2 sort of formation.

 

Puncheon puts in a good shift and lallana tracks back every now and again but essentially we have one midfielder who just sits in front of the back four and that is his role, be it Hammond or Schniederlin and the other is box to box but in no means is he deployed as an advanced attacking midfielder.

 

For me to get it to work we need to use a 4-2-3-1 formation, and incidentally it was that formation that i thought we looked the most comfortable using last season.

[Window Cleaner]

For a long time we have played a sort of 4-2-4 or 4-2-2-2 sort of formation.

 

Puncheon puts in a good shift and lallana tracks back every now and again but essentially we have one midfielder who just sits in front of the back four and that is his role, be it Hammond or Schniederlin and the other is box to box but in no means is he deployed as an advanced attacking midfielder.

 

For me to get it to work we need to use a 4-2-3-1 formation, and incidentally it was that formation that i thought we looked the most comfortable using last season.

 

Well I don't know, you need to be able to see the organisation of the blocks to be able to tell exactly how we're playing and for that you need a bird's eye view. This is the vast advantage of football on canal +, their statistics and camera work are really exceptional (not that we're on there of course) Every player has a passing yard stat, a ball played, lost, won and distance covered stat as well as a complete run down of where they were when they played the ball and what they did with it(an image with a load of yellow dots on it) or received it. You can tell exactly who's doing what at all times.

[Window Cleaner]

 

 

 

Strange. But we are missing his goals.

 

but goals are all he does,that's why we have one of the worse goals for totals in our division. Lambert has just one purpose in our side ,scoring goals because other than that he is just average to sub-par.We just have to do something about this problem before it's too late. To me 3 penalties,a deflected free kick and a header are a p*ss poor total for a hot shot striker unless he's creating goals for others by inspired forward play,as he isn't doing either that he has no place in the side at the moment.

[madruss]

but goals are all he does,that's why we have one of the worse goals for totals in our division. Lambert has just one purpose in our side ,scoring goals because other than that he is just average to sub-par.We just have to do something about this problem before it's too late. To me 3 penalties,a deflected free kick and a header are a p*ss poor total for a hot shot striker unless he's creating goals for others by inspired forward play,as he isn't doing either that he has no place in the side at the moment.

 

Last season he also got a lot of assists, he's a great passer of the ball and he also set up a fair few goals by winning flick-ons on dangerous areas.

 

This season he's been hardly winning anything in the air, compared with last year when he rarely lost an aerial battle. He's badly off form, and it's to the detriment of the side at the minute

[Upton72]

For me Lambert has to stay in the team, he's one of those players that needs to rev up and only first team games will get the engine moving to what it was in the 2nd half of last season. Equally, don't dismiss his ability to bring other players into the game. It's not like last season where the flick ons were headers, that's not working yet and NA alluded to it last week that they are "still working with Rickie on some body issues". One thing's for sure, he didn't like being taken off.

OC is still an impact player. He's young, has undoubted talent and seems to be one of those players that the richocets always come back to him and not go elsewhere. He's liable to score goals like Saturday; he's also liable to give the ball away in dangerous areas. He'll continue to learn and I think NA is getting his education right and at the correct pace.

Midfield remains a puzzle. We've not seen the best of Adam yet and that's because he's only just coming up to full match fitness. One thing's for sure, we miss him when he's not on, or he's closed out by the type of marking Oldham gave him. Only when the subs came on and forced Oldham to shore up other parts of the field did he achieve more of what he is capable.

Chaplow had a miserable first half but plugged away and kept going. He was also lucky not to get booked again for going in with his foot up.

Puncheon is putting in the work rate, he'll get his goals soon, we should persevre.

I take the point made by others that Morgan takes some time to "adjust" to League 1 after days with Les Bleus. Wonder why that is?

You won't see many better saves anywhere than that made by Kelvin to secure 3 points; priceless and almost worthy of forgiving him for the wayward play out from the back that nearly cost us.

Guly; I'm still not sure but he continues to improve and contributes more each time I've seen him. It must be a massive culture shock for him.

Butterfield didn't have a good first half, improved in the second. I don't think it'll be long before NA finds a starting place for Frazier.

Interesting point made by one poster; where you sit, and at what height, determines your judgements of players and their movements. I think there's truth in that.

May be we should initiate a thread that delivers opinions defined by where the poster sits; look for correlations between Chapel and criticism of Puncheon; Northam and total support for Jose?

One final word; D'Urso, unable to get basic decisions right, unable to exercise control, (quite how he let Feeney get away with dictating the drop ball situation is beyond me) and seemly no respect from the players. Wessex League looms if anyone does the assessment properly. Still, he warmed us up didn't he?

[fanimal]

Some of you lot are blind and blinkered!! Lambo half fit is still the first name on the team sheet IMO. he laid off the ball for Puncheon, their full back bounced off him, others cant get near to tackle him; he holds the ball up, his mere prescence scares the opposition and when hes gone off, its an obvious void. Give the guy a break, he cannot be superhuman all the time - even Le God had an occasional bad game!

[Saint_clark]

Yeah, i can agree with that.

 

He has not been at the races, i stick by what i said at the start of the season which is we needed to stick by him as long as we could however he doesn't seem to be coming out of it any time soon and we need to start getting scores on the board. I think we have been unlucky at times but i would rather see Barnard in there atm and use Lambert and Chamberlain to scare and batter defenders towards the end of games if we need them.

 

TBF he was never a footballing god. He always seems to struggle against defenders with any pedigree and fwiw i would be more devastated to lose lallana, morgan, fonte and perhaps even puncheon. I just am not convinced he will take the step up to the next level, and is getting towards 30 (which is ok if you are naturally fit and strong).

 

 

This is utter rubbish. There was 1, maybe 2 defenders who could even compete with him last season.

[Smirking_Saint]

This is utter rubbish. There was 1, maybe 2 defenders who could even compete with him last season.

 

Its not utter rubbish, i saw a fair few games and religiously watched the highlights and matches i missed on Saints player.

 

He gets dominated by higher level CB's.

[sfc4prem]

This is utter rubbish. There was 1, maybe 2 defenders who could even compete with him last season.

 

Lambert caused havoc against a then-Premiership defence. I don't doubt his ability. He brings much more to the team than just goals, his assist tally last season shows that. He's just off form, for what reason I don't know.

[Give it to Ron]

Lambert caused havoc against a then-Premiership defence. I don't doubt his ability. He brings much more to the team than just goals, his assist tally last season shows that. He's just off form, for what reason I don't know.

 

I agree with you , look at the Skates game, Ipswich and he ripped Norwich the runaway leaders to shreds. This is why its so bad at the moment as it has gone off the scale how extremely bad his form is at the moment.

Last season he hardly lost a header...this season he hardly jumps.....why??

[Appy]

Its not utter rubbish, i saw a fair few games and religiously watched the highlights and matches i missed on Saints player.

 

He gets dominated by higher level CB's.

 

Like against Marc Wilson of Pompey who he beat in the air for our goal.

 

Or Peter Clarke of Huddersfield who in 2 of the 3 games against Huddersfield he beat in the air to score.

 

Highlights will not show you anything near what you need to know.

 

Lambert is one of the first names on the team sheet and rightly so.

[Smirking_Saint]

Like against Marc Wilson of Pompey who he beat in the air for our goal.

 

Or Peter Clarke of Huddersfield who in 2 of the 3 games against Huddersfield he beat in the air to score.

 

Highlights will not show you anything near what you need to know.

 

Lambert is one of the first names on the team sheet and rightly so.

 

I didn't say every game btw, he is a good player just not the god some on here make him out to be. Much in the same vein as Puncheon is nowhere near as bad as everyone is making out.

 

Marc Wilson is hardly a high pedigree CB btw and isn't even that tall.

 

He was also pretty much completed negated against Leeds last year.

[Appy]

I didn't say every game btw, he is a good player just not the god some on here make him out to be. Much in the same vein as Puncheon is nowhere near as bad as everyone is making out.

 

Marc Wilson is hardly a high pedigree CB btw and isn't even that tall.

 

He was also pretty much completed negated against Leeds last year.

 

Oh i agree he isn't the god that some make him out to be, i'd definetly rather lose him than Lallana and Fonte.

 

But if he hits top form soon i wouldn't pick another striker in this division over him.

[Smirking_Saint]

Oh i agree he isn't the god that some make him out to be, i'd definetly rather lose him than Lallana and Fonte.

 

But if he hits top form soon i wouldn't pick another striker in this division over him.

 

I could equally agree with that, if he was firing on all cylinders like last year then he was undroppable, but thats what 30 goals gets you.

 

I still don't know whether he would make the step up though.

[sfc4prem]

I could equally agree with that, if he was firing on all cylinders like last year then he was undroppable, but thats what 30 goals gets you.

 

I still don't know whether he would make the step up though.

 

The pleasing thing is we have the finance to address that if we do go up. But to get us out of this league Rickie is perfect (when on form).

[up and away]

Originally Posted by sfc4prem

Lambert caused havoc against a then-Premiership defence. I don't doubt his ability. He brings much more to the team than just goals, his assist tally last season shows that. He's just off form, for what reason I don't know.

I agree with you , look at the Skates game, Ipswich and he ripped Norwich the runaway leaders to shreds. This is why its so bad at the moment as it has gone off the scale how extremely bad his form is at the moment.

Last season he hardly lost a header...this season he hardly jumps.....why??

 

I would not go to those extremes, but you have a very valid point. What I cannot understand is there appears nothing major wrong, yet we are seeing no improvement after all this time? The last time I saw something like this was with Fuller, where it took a couple of seasons after joining us to come through. Even Dennis Wise could jump higher than Fuller at that point.

 

Ricky just looks to be trudging through mud in his wellies. Still useful for the team, just not near his previous high standards. If Bignall was good enough, I would be tempted to rest Ricky so we can do all that's possible to get him back to his previous form.

[georgeweahscousin]

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