KennyPowers

I'm struggling to follow the debate on this thread. The manager isn't the be all and end all of a club. I don't know how many people the club employs but quite a few coaches, quite a few scouts, several executives. Perhaps it's fully detailed in the accounts but I don't think it is. The only thing we can be fully confident that the manager does is pick the team each game. If anyone wishes to enlighten me who actually signs players and how it has changed under Lerner please do. Apologies if it's been discussed elsewhere in the thread but it's too many pages to plow through.

I don't know what you're on about. That happens in rugby does it? In Rugby League the referee gives a try if he's confident it was. If he wants the video referee to check something specific that's what he asks him to do. There's a question about how far the video official referee's review would go back but it's not exactly hard to create a set of rules to tighten up a review system i.e. what exactly can be reviewed and reversed and what can't. I find that most people that are against video technology just love the controversy of incorrect decisions. Personally I don't.

The thing that annoys me about the refereeing mistakes today (well generally) is that the solution is elegantly simple. Have a video official with a monitor at the ground in a quiet place. Automatically review all goals and review anything else as directed by the referee. So simple, so many other sports do similar.

Watching the highlights again Bennett not only gives the ball away but following the save from Guzan he is half a step ahead of Jenas in a good position to sweep the ball away and yet Jenas beats him to the rebound. He also loses what is arguably a 50-50 with Townsend in the immediate build-up to their second goal. I certainly don't condone the shouting at him during the game although I admit I groaned a bit. Bennett is just not a reliable enough defender to play in defence for us right now. I can only think it's stubbornness from Lambert that he gets into the match day squad ahead of a guy like Lichaj who certainly isn't a pretty footballer but can defend.

Far too much time, effort and money goes into the premier league (football generally tbf) to have it ruined by referees who can't get basic decisions right. Of course Sky love it, "ooh it's a day of controversy", when it's not at all. There aren't any conflicting opinions being aired. It's actually a day of consensus, everyone is in agreement. The consensus is that the referees in this league are horrendous.

Drat and mark I agree it's incredibly hard to figure out how much to credit Lambert for the win today. Like I said the most obvious thing that changed the game today was them taking Zamora off. Personally I'm not convinced by Lambert's analysis in post-match interviews at all. I'd be more inclined to give Lambert the benefit of the doubt if what he said tallied with what I had seen but it hardly ever does. Lambert (according to his interview) seems to think we started well today and their goal was against the run of play when actually we were completely ineffective in the first half and Guzan kept us in the game.

Apparently you, me and the other two comments are on another planet with views like this Lambert's tactics in the first half served up some of the most ineffective football we have seen. As many people have said from Ian Taylor to Lineker, to the commentators on Sky just basically we offered nothing whatsoever in terms of attacks and if not for Guzan could have and probably should have been losing by a margin bigger than we could have recovered from It seems still though that any questioning of Lambert is met by abuse from his "supporters" We have mixed ourselves up here. I was criticising the first half performance and I was referring to previous comments when I started typing my post but extra comments were there when I finished. First half they were much the better side. The biggest change from first half to second half was Zamora going off which meant they couldn't hold the ball up anymore and we could have wave after wave of attack. I didn't see Lambert make any changes at half-time which he should get credit for in terms of turning the game around. The only thing I slightly defended was the midfielders because they have so little movement infront of them they can't make incisive passes. They can't create runs, they can only pick them out.

100 times this. I have never seen a referee pull the game back so far after playing advantage to then give the foul. Either they get to play on or they get the foul, they shouldn't be getting both.

I pretty much agree with the last two comments. A major problem is Benteke and Gabby both keep wanting the ball to feet. Weimann is prepared to make runs off the ball but I don't see it enough from the other two. I don't think you can blame the midfield for 'tippy-tappy' football, where are they meant to pass the ball? We couldn't even hit Benteke's head today because he was dominated by Samba. The full-backs don't want to (or are told not to) get caught too far forward. The midfield ends up passing the ball between themselves because of the lack of options. We looked very good in the second half especially when the game got stretched but Lambert really needs to try and learn lessons from the first half. Listen to his interview though and he says "I thought we started the game really well, the first twenty minutes". It really doesn't fill me with confidence when Lambert doesn't seem to recognise what has gone on during the game.

I feel exhausted. Delighted though. I agree with most of the ratings, Vlaar, Guzan, Lowton, Westwood stood out. An extra special word for Weimann, I can't speak highly enough of his effort, he puts others to shame. No point focusing on the negatives today but first half they were much the better side. What changed the game for me was them taking off Zamora (presumably injured?). Once they had Remy upfront on his own he wasn't prepared to work hard and chase down balls and he couldn't hold the ball up. The ball wouldn't stick upfront for them like it did in the first half and we ended up with wave after wave of attack. Their second goal was a fluke I think but hard to tell from my position but Taarabt came on and certainly sparked them. A game with so many twists and turns. It was pretty epic to watch. I loved the effort from the team today, sure I question the ability of some of them at times but I can't knock the effort at all today.

Oh he definitely deserves more than one season, I would say tthe same about about anyone. Very early though, he's 23 this month, the vast majority of his development is complete. Hopefully, we stay up and I'd like to see him go out on loan for some experience. Confidence can transform a player and that's probably what he needs more than anything.

Sure it wasn't a direct comparison, that's not what I meant.

I knew at some point someone would compare Bennett to Bale. The problem with the analogy is that Bale is only 10 months older. I suppose the one comparison I could make is who told them they were full backs? I do think players decide their 'position' far too early in their careers, most of them don't change and will only do so if they're forced.

I'd love to know what you guys are going on about, even if it's just a conspiracy theory. If you pm me I won't post it. As someone said earlier Lerner lost a fortune in the financial crisis. He's already sold the Cleveland Browns so it wouldn't surprise me if he's selling or trying to recover some of his losses in the process. I struggle to see how though. Recalling some of his loans? Taking out loans on the club? Unless he's done something clearly underhand I'm not going to join in with this name calling though. I think he bought the club for the right reasons and a lot of things have happened since then which were hard to foresee. He almost certainly underestimated how much it would cost to make us a top 4 team but it seemed a lot more achievable back then than it does now especially with Man City a permanent fixture at the top.

The only way we would get a £40m offer for him is if he was English. We're only going to get offers of over £20m if there is a bidding war between two (or more) clubs. It's going to be hard to keep him next season though, all indications from his camp are that we are a 'stepping stone' for him and given he's already proven himself in the prem he (well his agent) will surely be pushing for a move.

Yes I agree. I'd like to see those three as a trio for the rest of the season. It would provide a shield for the defence which we desperately need and like you say it could free up Westwood a bit more, I'd like to see him a bit further forward as he has the vision to make penetrating passes.

I suppose Delph could make it as an attacking midfielder but it's a bit of a leap of faith when we could persist with players like N'Zogbia who have a lot more technical ability. I wonder if Delph's future could be at left-back. I've seen him play there and given the position has been such a disaster this year it could be worth giving him a go. He has a high work rate and an aggressive streak which would be valuable at full back.

Imteresting debate on this thread. I'm no fan of financial determinism (as in our wage bill = our league position) but I suppose the length of the league season will eliminate randomness so it becomes somewhat of a reality. The worrying thing is a poorer club can put together a good side in the premier league but can't sustain that success as players will get picked off one by one by bigger clubs. It's a premier league wide problem. Maybe FFP will help but I seriously doubt it.

Hasn't seen better results though. Plus I agree anyway and if we stay up the young players will have benefited from the experience and we will likely reap the rewards over the next few years, it is a dangerous game we have played this year though.

Delph, Sylla and Westwood as a midfield 3 for the rest of the season makes sense. As much as I'd like Bannan/N'Zogbia/Ireland to come good they just don't provide enough defensively and in terms of workrate.

That was a brainfart on Swansea. I meant Norwich away in the cup. That's the problem with making long posts and not checking but whatever. Don't debate then. It's painful to debate with people who cherry pick things you say rather than responding to the overall point. I never said McLeish played counter-attacking football because a lot of the time he didn't, he played for draws as I said previously. It is possiible to play successful defensive football. Chelsea won the champions league this year with pretty negative football, Inter did a few years ago, Greece won the Euros less than ten years ago with an awful team. If people think its more entertaining to concede a record number of goals then okay that's your opinion but it's not mine. My overall point was a manager should recognise the strengths of the team and pick tactics to suit the players. We should be protecting the defence right now because it is atrocious. That means packing the midfield a bit which is entirely negative. There are a few sides in the league we can go toe to toe with and try and outplay right now by opening the game up but only a few.

The only team we have obviously outplayed is Reading. We've taken six points off them, they looked very poor both games. You could make an argument for Swansea as we've taken four points off them and knocked them out the league cup. There's not much point trying to make out we're a better side than them though is there. Last season was dull because we had a lot of draws. We hardly stayed up by the skin of our teeth though. We got sucked into it at the end but we we're safe going into the final day and it really would have taken a fluke set of results over the last 2 weeks to relegate us. Last season was quite dull and we're setting up in a more positive way this season but it's hardly been free-flowing attacking football. We've had some very dull performances at home. I think I'm a realist. I don't know if some of you are naturally optimistic, so relieved about getting rid of McLeish that anything is an improvement or it's the euphoria coming off a big win but this argument that things are a lot better this season is wrong on any objective level. i think by the way that the negative football argument is a fallacy. It's quite possible to play disciplined counter-attacking football that is enjoyable to watch.

Well opinions are subjective, points are a matter of record. We haven't exactly outplayed anyone other than Reading this year. I don't enjoy watching defensive, negative football but we shouldn't be trying to outplay teams if we don't have the team to do it. Liverpool?? Swansea at home? Man United at home for the majority? Newcastle away drawing to a wonder strike? I could go on. Fixed. But anyways, I cannot understand the people who would gladly see the team play negative defensive football, then actually go out, try to take it to teams and score some goals. In terms of entertainment, this season has eclipsed the last by far and aside from a couple of inept performances around Christmas, I have been much happier to pay to watch the team play this season. And if we can build in the future with this team as a foundation, we can have something very special in a season or two. I don't want to be Mr. Negative but if it's a choice between trying to play good football and getting relegated and playing negative football and staying up it's an easy choice for me. Seriously guys, lets compare: 2011/12 - P29 GF 31 GA 38 GD -7 Points 33 2012/13 - P29 GF 28 GA 54 GD -26 Points 27 I recognise we're building for the future but "this season has eclipsed the last by far". Seriously? Seriously? I do have serious, genuine and sincere hope we will improve next season if we stay up but make no mistake its a dangerous game we've played this year that could set the club back several years if we go down because with the tv money going up next year we will stagnate whilst other clubs will be growing.

A draw would be a good result. It would help kill their momentum a bit. Their team has quality, we aren't going to outplay them. Our best hope is they that put out a very attacking formation and it allows us to sit back, absorb pressure and pick them off on the counter attack which we definitely can.

Well opinions are subjective, points are a matter of record. We haven't exactly outplayed anyone other than Reading this year. I don't enjoy watching defensive, negative football but we shouldn't be trying to outplay teams if we don't have the team to do it.