AntrimBlack

Gil, Sanchez - have Elche got any more like them?

Looks a really good little player. I think he can make things happen in the box, but we need the strikers to put chances away. Hopefully Lambert can organise the team to make the most of his ability.

Stretching it a bit, but not by too much. We did have fifteen attempts at goal. We bossed the second half and should have taken one of the umpteen chances we had. Over the last two games I criticised Lambert for our lack of penetration, with Delphi and Gil on we looked a different side. One capable of staying up! I am not sure whether intentional or not, but we seemed to play 4-4-2 second half with Gil free to roam. Surely it was Weimann and Gil who made the difference.

Looked much better when Gil and Weimann came on, they seemed to work well together. To my mind, Weimann needs to start in stead of Agbonlahor, or possibly Benteke. Benteke needs to be dropped, he is a passenger at the moment. Too many passengers - Agbonlahor, Benteke, Cleverly. Delph is over-rated, and should be sold this window. Sanchez MOM, Gil looks very good, hopefully Lambert will allow him to express himself, really think a change of personnel up front with him creating and we will start to score again. Good games also from Okore, Hutton and Guzan. Apart from when our two subs came on, it was pretty much more of the same as always, aimless passing around in our own half, with just a little bit more penetration than usual. Did not expect anything from this game, so not particularly disappointed.

ala darren bent Would Robinson be any worse than Benteke?

This is the sort of stupid comment that does not endear him to fans.

Does this mean that we do not pay him to train? We pay him purely for the minutes on the pitch? Genuine question, if anyone actually knows, not just guesswork.

Think Grealish and Robinson should both go out on loan and remain on loan until they are required to actually play for the first team. Lambert is wasting their development years. Their contracts will have run out during the time of Lambert's contract, and we may lose them without ever finding out how good or otherwise they are, either on loan or with us. I can understand that he has to be cautious with young players, but this looks like bad management of our resources.

?

Valencia are a top 4 club in Spain. It's like saying 'if he's not good enough for Arsenal, then he's not good enough for us' Madness. They also have one of the best academies in Spain - the fact that Valencia would've preferred him to stay shows me that he must be up there with their top prospects, as it must be difficult to break through with such an array of talent. This young kid is being put so high up on a pedestal so early is ridiculous, hopefully he fits into our system and dose well, but he is coming from a very different footballing culture and will therefore need time to settle in, of course teams like Valencia will say we didn't want to let him go, he is a product of there youth system which they will always try to hype and also with the re-buy clause in his contract they want him to think he is loved within the club in case they just might want him back Give him chance to adjust If he adjust quick great Of course he'll need time to adjust, my point is that you can't write him off because he "isn't good enough for Valencia" I take your point, guys, but I am not writing him off, and if you read my post, Stefan, you will see that I am not saying he is not good enough for us. I just think people are expecting an awful lot of him.

Quite a few have been going in and he has been nowhere near them or else has missed the target.

You guys do a great job, one I could not do, and I can appreciate how you must feel, but it really is not close to being the same thing.

If he was a really good player, he would already be a regular for Valencia, and they would be busting a gut to keep him. I am not expecting a wonderful player, but only a decent one who will do well for us, and we should not be expecting too much.

And the majority of the players will have no idea who you are singing about! They already look confused on the pitch, no need to make it worse!

Far too messy!

I would prefer it if we forgot about this one. Stalling over salary? Got too high an opinion of himself.

Not sure it is a good idea to play Gil from the start at the weekend. Far too much expectation being placed on this guy, by Lambert as well as the fans. He may well be decent, but I suspect he will take time to settle. For example see Sanchez, coming from the same league, took time to get to grips with this league, and he is older, more experienced, bigger and stronger than Gil. Patience will be required.

Given the circumstances then I think very few wanted us to sell him then. Hindsight is such a wonderful thing. Correct. I wonder how selling Bony will benefit Swansea. Are their fans in uproar btw? I have no idea what the general consensus is. Agree with these. Quite a gamble to sell your best players at their peak.

It seems to be purely based on goals scored. Not that I'd disagree, but that's their only remit for being "boring". I think another media outlet, perhaps American?, had a article saying the same, but based on the overall performance, not just on goal-scoring. I tend to agree, I am utterly bored watching them.

I have doubts on him being our best midfielder at present. Knew I should have put an IMO in there Not better than Sanchez - IMO.

I can think of one of our Irish defenders was anything but backward.....more appropriately highly intelligent in footballing terms. Mind you Oscar Wilde was a bit of numpty too.lol Nope i take it back, us Irish are backward. This young guy was on the main news tonight i kid you not. http://youtu.be/2I_MIoooXn0 No, no, no. Please do not let anyone else see this.

It seems obvious to me that he is saying we expect to be comfortably mid table cus of our history and after the few years we had under Mon but the reality is that we spend like a championship team so realistically it's an achievement to be still in the league. We just need super timmy sherwood on board and everything will be fine ye? I do not like his comment one little bit! Most fans have very low expectations now because of Lambert's performance. And, by the way, I believe we have outspent many of the teams in the Premier League, so that is not an excuse. He blames the owner, the strikers, the defence, the budget, and now the fans. What about his responsibility? He is on course for yet another record - the manager who takes us down to the championship.

Add to that, 3 points off the relegation zone with 3 difficult games coming up - posters have said ` we are not going down no need to get worried' - I think it is very possible for us to sink into the bottom 3 quite soon, and there seems to be an air of complacency among fans that we cannot go down, but I am not convinced that we can pull away this time unless something changes dramatically.

Spot on VO. He abandoned the `young cheap and hungry' approach, he abandoned the `bomb squad' approach, now he has abandoned the `hoofball/counter attack' approach. Each change brutally sudden, with no transition from one to the other. And the players are slavishly following his edict to play it out from the back and getting themselves in trouble, instead of mixing it up and hitting long as well. Leicester were getting in their faces at the back and causing havoc. Okore, Clark and Sanchez are good on the ball, but Guzan's short distribution is terrible and makes the whole thing look embarrassing inept. I think Lambert has lost his way completely, and is now thrashing around, hoping he will accidentally hit on a solution.

What on earth were they thinking of to give him a new four year contract. Could they not just have waited. It is not like another club was going to jump in to grab him. Absolutely crazy! Lerner really has made some stupid decisions during his tenure.