sharkyvilla

Yeah, played Gabby out wide and Young through the middle. When Gary Mac took over he swapped them back round iirc, and coincided with an improvement in results. I still believe Houllier did the worse job of the 3 since O'Neill.

I said with a few more Lambert signings. I would also say that mentally we were at an absolute low these past few weeks which exaggerated those results slightly and across a whole season we would be ok

I was surprised he didn't already have a French passport when he signed for us. Either way we were mugged and it is yet more money just pissed away

I think we would win the championship quite easily. The likes of Given, Ireland and Nzogbia will most likely have to take a pay cut if relegated which would make it easier to shift them. I think we would still have a decent bargaining position for Benteke and with a few more Lambert signings we would be ok, and only Vlaar and Bent would be certain to leave. I still have hope that we will stay up but it almost involves relying on Sylla being brilliant and not getting injured, which is probably not that likely.

Exactly my friend. The playing staff needed a complete overhaul as it has been such poor value for money and we have gambled by not gambling. I think it had to be done though.

Once again though, who to?

I'd definitely take Palacios on loan, even if Sylla turns out to be our defensive midfield saviour it would be prudent to have another one at the club as our midfield is so dire. Let's hope it's a busy 4 hours or so

I just find it odd that someone would have 3 types of fruit lying around. Surely nobody has that much fruit for lunch? It wouldn't leave much room in a lunchbox for crisps, cake or sandwiches. He must have put some effort into this, I'm guessing it's Iniesta as I think he has eaten an apple, banana and orange in his lifetime.

If he's a bruiser then hopefully it will make Westwood and El Ahmadi's jobs easier. Benteke, Vlaar, Guzan and Lowton have all had a decent impact. Excited about this other signing now.

6ft black French-African defensive midfielder, perfect. Don't care if he can't pass for shit.

Houllier was allowed to spend £24m on Bent and £6m on Makoun, plus bring in Walker on loan, and had Young and Downing all season! If Lambert could do that then I'm sure he would arrest our decline too. I'm sorry but I just don't see how Houllier possibly did a better job than Lambert when the latter had less to spend on buying 8 players to fill an already terrible squad than Houllier spent on one player to supplement a squad that finished 6th the year before.

He just couldn't cut it in the dressing room or on the touch line. You could tell that he just wasn't up for it. He still had O'Neill's squad minus Milner plus about £30m to spend in January and had us in a relegation battle, which I think is worse than McLeish and Lambert achieved. I was very supportive of his appointment but in hindsight wish it was just as a director of football with a young and hungry first-team coach. It was a missed opportunity for the club.

That is going a bit far. I sympathise with Lambert for the squad he inherited and he has at least tried during the season to play football as well as go direct, also try different formations. With no wingers at the club other than Albrighton and N'zgobia, who I'm sure he would have expected to be half-decent, there is little other option than to play narrow. There is no excuse for Heskey on the right wing, however.

I don't really have a problem with that, plenty of clubs can operate on a sell-to-buy method. We just haven't invested in the right players.

Just get him in the side and hope his goals keep us up, screw the rest of his contribution, it won't matter come May. At the moment we'd be selling him at his lowest value in his entire career when he's still only 28 or something. Stick Benteke as a defensive midfielder if you have to...

I agree totally. Lambert's biggest task this season was as a coach to get the best out of the players he inherited and that just hasn't happened. His signings should have filled holes that needed filling and to be fair to them have largely been successful for the money spent, but it's not made a difference to the team's performance because of how shit the likes of Ireland and N'Zogbia have been. They really have let the team down and this is where I have sympathy with Lerner and Lambert.

Is there something wrong with me that I find half of those names hilarious? I love the Dutch

True, Delph's idea of protecting the back 4 is to kick someone about 30 yards from goal. Absolutely horrifying that he is in our central midfield and part of the reason our defence is so shit

When Lambert took over I expected us to be flirting with the bottom 3 in Jan before picking up in the second half of the season, and a cup run would be a bonus. I know it's easy to feel utterly depressed at the moment but I really think it will only take a couple of players to make us safe assuming we are lucky with injuries. If Lerner wants to keep Lambert then he has to give him some backing, not a massive amount but he has to stick by his man and the best way to do that is to get a couple of heads in sharpish. If Randy can't do that then Lambert is on a hiding to nothing, I can't believe he would have taken the job on in the first place if that was what was offered.

Well I'm still on Lambert's side, the squad is so poor and he really is trying to sort things out against the odds. He just needs some frigging money to spend on a defender and midfielder, at least. I think there has been enough encouragement from the front lads recently to suggest we can win games if we stop shipping basic goals.

The problem with playing 2 up the top is that we haven't got the midfielders and wingers to play conventional 4-4-2. That leaves the option of the diamond midfield which we've tried and didn't really work or the 3-5-2 which has clear flaws too. I'd love to see someone like Robbie Keane up front with Benteke, I think he has the nouse to really get the best out of him but we would still need an entirely new midfield in order to make it worthwhile.

I would love to see him here but that deal you describe would cost the club £16m and he'd be available on a free transfer in 2 seasons' time. I just don't understand why other clubs who are playing Champions League football aren't going for him, let alone us.

Again we spent about £20m and had an offer for Dempsey accepted...

There was zero chance of him coming here. I don't know why neither of the Manchester clubs are going for him, probably because a deal would be financially ridiculous even for them so would be a no-go for us

It's not that simple though. If we signed Sissoko today we'd probably have to give him an extra 20k a week than if we signed him in 10 days' time. I'm starting to think we should have a 2 week winter break and the transfer window is only open then