KennyPowers

That was the annoying thing about the stupid 'well they only banned him 8 games for racist abuse, the FA must think racism is less serious than biting'. No, the FA just got the first one wrong, he should have been banned 20 games for the Evra affair. Lets not forget: Mr Evra said that after Mr Suárez said "I don't speak to blacks", he (Mr Evra) said "Ahora te voy a dar realmente una porrada", which means "OK, now I think I'm going to punch you". To this he says that Mr Suárez replied "Dale, negro...negro...negro". At the time Mr Evra understood this to mean "OK, nigger, nigger, nigger". He now says it means "OK, blackie, blackie, blackie". http://www.guardian.co.uk/football/2012/jan/01/fa-report-luis-suarez-patrice-evra

The weird thing is if you think back to Man U at home, Enda Stevens did a good job on Valencia. Of course, he doesn't get a look in now, not being one of Lambert's signings. I suppose yes it could be based on training performance but with the season nearly over it's pretty apparent Lambert will persist with his own signings and not give the same opportunities to players that he inherited.

Look at our attacking options: Benteke, Gabby, Weimann, Bent, N'Zogbia. How many teams in the league would trade their top 5 attackers for those 5. I would guess all but 6 teams would. I am in agreement with the general consensus that attacking wise, we have looked good since January playing pretty consistently 4-2-3-1. Also, that the problems are central midfield and defence. Quite simply how many teams would trade for our central midfielders? Or our defence? Maybe Reading would but that's it. Quite simply half the team is abysmal (relatively speaking, compared to the rest of the league). A top 7 attack, a bottom 3 defence, a top 10 keeper. It's quite honestly a very confused squad we have right now. I'm sure Lambert realises this and hopefully we stay up and he addresses it in the summer even if it means selling Benteke to raise funds.

I'd like to think this will be the end of him in England but biting, punching, diving, lying, cheating, whingeing, abusing people are all qualities that are only going to endear him to the people of Liverpool.

There are times when I've thought Bannan could turn out to be a quality player although he would always have needed accommodating somewhat with player(s) next to him to do the defensive work. The best I can describe Bannan though, he seems to lack concentration on the pitch and he doesn't appear to care too much.

I think this is the biggest issue. I realise it's partly because of financial constraints but also out of choice we have been patient with promising youth players like Clark and Bannan , waiting for them to come through, hoping they will form the basis of our immediate future and it just doesn't look like working out.

Do we actually know that? He's a good signing and all but come on the guy scored for Belgium against Netherlands two weeks before we signed him, he was hardly a nobody we unearthed. We should probably be taking more chances on foreign players though, like Newcastle have, instead of spending money on English players. Saddens me to say that but that's the reality of the premier league right now. I would say Africa is still somewhat untapped, Japan/Korea has a lot of potential. Not sure I would bother with South America, too many 'cultural' issues with their players.

Just having an extra body in the middle would have reduced the space Rooney had, it might have stopped him pinging balls around like he did in the build-up to their first and second goals.

This! The midfield is a total shower of shit too. We have a decent front 3 and a decent keeper. The 7 in between are crap. Yeah I'm inclined to agree.

He has not improved us at all. Our league position and points tally shows just how dire Lambert has been. His gung ho approach with lack of organistion and basic defending is quite amatuerish to be honest. Tactically he is clueless and some if his decisions are horrific. Id rather a gung ho approach than previous managers safety first and play for a draw tactics You shouldn't forget that Greece won the Euros, Chelsea won the Champions league with defensive tactics. Regardless, tonight was the kind of game we should have been playing for a draw. I don't take pride that we were 3-0 down after half an hour at Man U, just as I didn't that we lost 8-0 at Chelsea just because we played with 'progressive principles'

Yeah I agree. Even if he thought the formation we put out was a good idea at the start once he saw Rooney sat deep in midfield the alarm bells should have been ringing that we need to make a sub or adjust it so that Rooney didn't have all day to pick out passes.

I'm surprised I agree with you on something but I agree. He's not an attacking midfielder at all, well he is in the sense that he makes forward runs, he isn't in the sense that his forward runs always come to nothing. For all his playing time this year has he contributed directly to any goals?

True. I posted in another thread that if we stay up I'd like to see us go after Mbia at QPR. It doesn't matter who it is, we need some physicality in there. Other than Sylla we have such a collection of small, physically weak midfielders (Delph, Westwood, KEA, Bannan).

If there's a game in the season when parking the bus is acceptable then surely playing the best side in the league away from home is it.

No question he did enough to merit a start next game. I'm not sure Lambert picks the team based on how players play in the games though.

So did Lambert tell him to stand 20 yards off Valencia all night or did Bennett just decide he needed that much of a head-start to avoid getting beaten down the wing?

we actually had a very good chance just before they scored the 2nd goal but your right we should of tried to sit back and defend all night Lambert must be dumb as shit to think we have a team that can go to Old Trafford and go toe-to-toe with them. Every side but 2 or 3 in the league goes there with an extra man in the middle of midfield. Saying I wanted to defend all night is bollocks, a front 3 of Gabby, Weimann and Benteke will create chances against any side, we would still have seven other outfield players who can concentrate on keeping it tight in midfield and at the back.

It's all well and good saying the goals were offside or that we played better in the second half. It ignores that United were 3-0 up after 33 minutes, they had 60 minutes left. If they weren't already 3-0 up or if goal difference mattered to them (as it did last year) they wouldn't have let their intensity dip as it did. Even if all 3 goals had been ruled out we would still have lost comfortably.

We are soft as shit in midfield no doubt about that. If we stay up I'd like to go after Stephane Mbia at QPR.

"Bring back Sylla, play a tight 4-3-3 and we will be able to contain them and frustrate them for long periods. We'll still make a few chances, have to take one or two of them." That's what I posted before the game. We simply had no chance the way we were set-up tonight. Rooney, Valencia, Kagawa, too much time, too much space. Awful tactics from Lambert.

Never had a chance the way we were set-up tonight

So the plan was to stand off them as much as possible? Presumably, Lamber has told Bennett to stay out of the same postcode as Valencia?

Luis Suarez ‏@luis16suarez6m I'm sad for what happened this afternoon, I apologize Ivanovic and all football world for my inexcusable behaviour. I'm so sorry about it!! https://twitter.com/luis16suarez/status/326058608376811520

I'm not sure about that, most of them aren't experts in political history. I would say it's more growing up being told you are special and different and be wary of 'outsiders'

They quite bizarrely take any criticism of their players as, by proxy, an attack on the club and often the City. Just about everyone I've ever met from Liverpool I have liked but never discuss football or politics with them, they become extremely unreasonable and I would suggest irrational.