ozvillafan

Your invitation will only bring disaster. Best leave it alone.

Why footballers should never do a Q and A session on Twitter, as learned by Michael Carrick:

I fear that Lambert will: - Play 5-2-3 - Start with Holt - Start with Herd Please ensure me this won't be the case

After paying out what he's paid out already on manager's contracts, it doesn't surprise me that Lerner didn't give Lambert a 5 year deal from the start. If he gives him another 3 years now and they look at it again in 18 months time, then that's probably sensible. No? Oh, I agree that it's sensible. I just don't know how you can make a 5-year plan when you only have a contract for just over half of it. Perhaps it took 18 months for Randy to buy into it?

The new contract news takes me by surprise. Not because he deserves it or not, just that he had 18 months left of what must have been a 3 year deal. Coulda sworn I remember Lambert talking about a 5 year project......

Watching them spin up a record could be.... interesting.

We do NOT play 3-5-2. It is always 5-3-2, unless you are watching a different game to me. As for "It has worked in the past" - it has also spectacularly failed in the past. Has everyone forgotten West Ham away earlier this season? Fluking wins against Man City and Southampton is not a reason to persist with this formation when last season (and even recent performances) strongly suggest our best results come from 4-3-3

"We were good in the first half". Not quite. We were comfortable in the first half. That all changed when Martinez substituted Pienaar on at half time to operate down the left, then gave instructions for their right back to push forward, effectively playing a 3-5-2. Against our horrid 5-2-3 formation that guaranteed control of the football, which was played almost entirely in our half. What was Lambert's response? Swap to 5-3-2 with KEA for Holt. So our midfield is now only outnumbered by 2 instead of 3. Whenever our midfield actually won the ball, the majority of our players are sitting behind them. What other choice do they have but hoof it up to Benteke for a percentage play? Horrid, horrid formation having 5 a the back. He got lucky with it a couple of times, which is a shame because he now persists with it. We have better shape and play more attacking football by limiting our backline to 4 - something that was obvious out of last season. Why do we never learn?

Everton are a decent side.... ... but they have a lot of injuries and have not been in great form recently. Sadly, we sat back and played them into some sort of form.

But at the same time we started with holt, replaced him with KEA and vlaar went off with a knock. Lambert messed up but this squad is still weak thanks to the owner. Granted. But this performance was not down to a weak squad - the same squad scored 4 mid-week. It was down to poor decisions on Lambert's part.

Regardless of wage restrictions, it wasn't Lerner that instructed Lambert to play 5-2-3. This result is not down to poor/average players. It was down to poor tactics and substitutions. For mine, Lambert showed a complete lack of belief in his own players and their ability to take the game to Everton.

He was poor. End of. Should not be starting games. Period.

I hate 5-3-2 (or the 5-2-3 aberration we saw in this game). It says one thing to the opposition: We cannot play you - we will defend. That's fine and good given the opposition we are facing..... .... but, please, nobody ever tell me again that Lambert always plays attacking football and tries to win every game.

Sorry if it's mentioned already, but saw this tidbit: Ireland's now off the books? Source

I suddenly feel very, very old.

Love the way he looks up as soon as he controls the football and sees immediately the ball he should play. Needs to work on his defense and then we have a very good right back.

Perhaps with McLeish we all saw that we were on the downward spiral (at least, I thought so during his spell). Our football was so depressing under him that I actually stopped getting up in the middle of the night to watch. With Lambert it's the opposite. We aren't fantastic by any means - but the feeling that we are on an upward spiral, or that we have turned things around is there (for me, at least). Totally subjective, of course. But, then, enjoyment is subjective. That said, your point about being to discuss the enjoyment of them both is valid.

That's one way to look at it. Another is that it takes differing views to make this thread worth reading (or - dare I say it - entertaining ).

BJ has simply stated that he has not enjoyed this season. In truth, I find myself in a similar position. After the end to last season and the opening few games of this, I had higher hopes for this season. Sadly, some of the football I have seen has bordered on pathetic - on par with the 3-0 loss to Wigan last year where we had no shape, no confidence and seemingly no clue. But I understand that it's a work in progress and while there is still some lingering doubt in my mind about Lambert, I just need to rein in my expectations a little and be a bit more patient. Now I'm not trying to put words into BJ's mouth - I just see where he is coming from and his point of view (although laboured) is valid. This goes for all posters who are pigeon-holed into the "doubters" group.

Has scored as many goals as Delph and has more assists. Scoring.... now there's something NRC couldn't do!

And this is why the completed passes stat is bollocks, he did his job. I'm not sure why this is worthy of praise but if you're using that example surely you have to balance it out and mention the time he tried to do some sort of flick on in the middle of the park and lost the ball when he could have held it up, the time benteke flicked it to him and while it was a decent first touch, he was too slow to get to the ball before the defender and when he stupidly dived and gave them the ball back cheaply again. Praising that performance would be hypocritical for me because its the kind of performance I used to criticise Bowery for. True - that flick was particularly poor, especially as he should have known better.

They'll change their mind when they get relegated this season

Got caught late in the game on the right sideline about halfway and surrounded by 3 WBA midfielders.... ... held the first midfielder off using his body, waited for another one to get close enough and played off him for a throw. Means bugger all in the big scheme of things, perhaps, but if all our players could have done the same it would have been a far less nervy finish. We need that kind of cool head - especially in a derby where the winner ends up in the top half of the table.

Thought he got his subs and formations spot on today. - Subbed Holt for Lowton. Lowton was struggling defensively and we had just taken the lead. Pushed Bacuna into a defense and Holt gave us fresh legs to aim at. - Subbed KEA for Sylla. Not KEA's best game. While I didn't think Sylla did much, he was fresh legs in an outnumbered midfield. - Subbed Wiemann for Baker. Last 10 minutes and WBA are pushing. Changed to a 5-3-2 system with 2 target men up front to hold the ball up and slow down the play.

His passes aren't overly bad but, as a defensive midfielder, he simply doesn't defend well enough. Too concerned with getting into a defensive position and pointing rather than reading, closing down, marking and tracking.