Gentingthereslowly

??? no one has passed the ball to him? Hes playing top of a diamond

need to be working the ball to ireland when hes free on the edge of box like that

deep lying midfielders arent getting on the ball at all

KEA weak in tackle there

great tracking holman, nice interception

Prefer to try loan the new united kid bing honest if this is the route we are taking

On a positive note...may of been against lower league opposition but apparently bossed it last night and it was well received by lambert. Good confidence builder if anything

The alternative interpretation is that Lambert just got his selection wrong and will have learnt that he needs Ireland or a new player of similar ability playing in midfield. Agreed... to much respect shown to Everton and they thrived off it...

Holding my hands up and saying I haven't heard of him first off... been on a couple of sites and read one or two forums in the last hour, defo isn't a defensive midfielder, most fans seem him as a player who can spot a pass. Opinion seems very divided on him as to whether he is good enough at championship level or not...some saying hes to good and some saying not good enough, some saying hes wasted deep and some saying he is neglecting playing deep and leaving holes going forward... I wouldn't write him off but seems he will be one for debate if he arrives of the Bannan, Gardener and Ireland proportions.

Really dont see this as a runner as then we will have two strikes who cant hold up the ball, win flick ons, bring midfielders into play, give our defense some relief in general... i see any striker signed being brought in to do this and to leave Bent to what he does best....score goals...

Any update on the fella who became an agent last week striking some big deals at VP today mate??

Lambert definitely won't want to lose this game, especially after losing his first to a team we should be beating if we are to put together a half decent season. I think this will lead him to having a "stop them" approach for this one. I can see a good couple of changes in this game, a different formation adopted maybe. Everton will most likely be on a high after beating Man U but I dont envisage them using the same tactics. I think they will play a little less long ball to fellani and adopt a more passing and slower build up approach. Everton passed through Uniteds midfield quite easily at times the other day so I think they may look to build on this against us. As a result of this we may see a bit more steel added to midfield...whoever it is will need to be sharp from the outset and be keeping a keen eye on the runs Pienaar and Osman make which can be very dangerous. Similarly Bent is simply unable to make the ball stick up front, something I think the manager will have a real problem with as the season progresses if we dont add to our squad, hence why we are in the market for a Kenwyne Jones type player. Based on this I think well probably go with two up top to try keep a bit more ball in the final third and put a squeeze on their full backs who will look to get forward. I think we could line up something like this same back 4 as last week ---------- Herd Inzogbia KEA Delph Bent Wei/Delf With Inzogbia being the only midfielder with license to roam. On paper I think Everton have a much stronger squad than ours and unfortunately dont think this is one we can win, I have feeling we will go a goal down and come away with a draw from this one.

No offense pal, your mate recently became an agent and he said we weren't in for many players that were doing the rounds...I dont think its the kind of business where they run every potential deal by the new fish in the pond... and secondly the fact that we aren't in the hunt for many players "doing the rounds" is a good thing if they're anything like the players doing the rounds from our club (Hutton and Warnock).

Except when they do it, the ball invariably ends up as an attacking threat rather than being passed around the defence and midfield without every troubling the opposition It's not hard to see/understand the difference between the two examples really is it ? You have to walk before you can run. Just out of interest is there any analysis on how many of his and delphs passes were backwards/forwards?? It takes an average player to pass the ball sideways/backwards, but a very good player to have a consistently high pass completion rate of forward passes. If we have a defensive or holding midfielder who is an enforcer, I have no problem with them winning the ball and setting off as many great DMs do for a box to box ball carrying driving midfielder (case and point de jong and Yaya), but currently not having one, its not much good if the two lads are passing the ball between themselves and cant get it forward, Especially when we dont have two full backs that can receive the ball from them deep and drive forward either.

First attempt at a real post...hope its up to scratch... With regards Ireland I feel there are a couple of things that need to be given consideration... 1) to keep or get rid- Financial considerations? I don't think it is realistic to to expect to offload Ireland at the moment. Firstly financially there isn't a string of suitors as mentioned earlier, so any price we get for him may be minimal, secondly there aren't too many clubs in the league that could match his wages (especially that want him) so it would probably cost the club to get rid of him in the form of a payoff similar to that which he got from city, probably in the region of €2m to make up the difference in his wages at a new club. Based on the above, do we know if Lerner is willing to stump up the cash to bring in two midfielders as many are saying we could have when we have his wages off the books?? And if so how much and what quality would they be? 2) Performances to date Given his first year and a half was disrupted by a combination of managerial changes, injuries and loan moves I think while not fully excusable it is acceptable to overlook this period as a period of transition and uncertainty in both the club and the player. Based on this, from his performances last year against Arsenal onwards I am by and large satisfied with his performances in a Villa shirt. He may not of been as outstanding, as a number on the site reckon, but he played quite well in the majority of games he played in and I wouldn't argue with him getting our player of the season as he was in my honest opinion better then the rest of an underperforming squad. His natural game suffered due to the arrival of Keane and being pushed on the wing (where I thought he worked hard and was far better than anything we had seen from Nzog or Marc Alb) then he played a number of games in a much deeper role (a great goal line clearance against Sunderland comes to mind). During this time I thought he played quite well, plenty of effort, hard work, good passing, never moaned and this is one reason his assists and goals tallys may have been lower than expected from a creative midfielder. My point is he didn't play there (AMC) that often and while he didn't, he proved he actually DOES have some versatility and adaptability in that time. Potential I disagree with a number of posters who reckon Lambert will get rid, I think he clearly sees the value Ireland has, namely his to ability to control the ball (shockingly a lot of our players still cant), one touch quick passing, vision, his confidence to try passes others won't, his ability to arrive late and score goals. All of these are undeniable in my eyes. This is the first time since he has been here we have a manager who has wanted to retain possession and try break down teams as opposed to long ball kick and hope tactics. This wont happen over night but it definitely wont happen if we don't have the players with the ability to do it. Regarding Saturdays game, first half i thought he showed his ability to do this quite well, he played some very good passes, was full of running and was linking with holman quite nicely. Second half I felt the ball wasn't getting forward from Delph and Al fast enough and Ireland ended up coming deeper and deeper trying harder and harder to get involved. I wouldn't fault a player for wanting to be involved, but hiding is one thing I can't stand and felt other players did this the other day, particularly in the second half. I honestly felt this was through no fault of his own, something that was also recognised by lambert based on his substitutions. This WILL be worked on in training, addressed and improved upon in the next game i'd imagine (hope) and we should see an increased directness. At the end of the day, if the manager had given him different instructions or wanted him to do something differently i feel he would of at a minimum been roared at from the touchline until he obliged or else been replaced. Similarly I'd have to question someones judgement above who compared him to Kawaga for united last night, he was a player who was allowed retain his position as Scholes and Co were constantly working the ball forward to him as opposed to sideways as we did on Saturday. He constantly had men on the overlap in Young, Valencia, Nani et co, United played with two strikers in front of him at times which increased his passing options, and both these forwards could actually take the ball to feet. Finally Everton were sitting a lot deeper than West Ham did defending a lead which was another reason he had to drop deep a lot less. All and all I think he is without doubt the most talented player in the squad, underperformed to an extent since his arrival based on his ability but should definitely be persevered with under Lamberts regime until the manager has seen fit as to get rid of him. Until then I will support the player just like the manager does because he obviously believes in him. It was game 1 at the end of the day under a new manager. Hope this was some way useful.