Former Player Matthew Lowton

[Stevo985]

Football Weekly were speaking very fondly of Lowton this week.

People are beginning to notice how well he's performed this season.

[turnbull]

It's like football porn watching his goal over and over again

Lowton not the only one "shooting" then? 

[dont_do_it_doug.]

Amazing how we're going to break a premiership record for goal conceded isn't it.

Must just be unlucky I guess.

Probably easier to write LOLZ or have a dig at other posters than put forward any sort of argument using actual evidence.

Keep going lads.

We conceded 17 goals over a 4 game period. Tell me, what was our defensive lineup through those games?

[Big_John_10]

So that's the only period that should be judged? Everything else has been good in terms of defence then?

[AvfcTheObsession]

Can people stop quoting Villaforever1970's posts, I'd got used to not seeing them at all

[BOF]

So that's the only period that should be judged? Everything else has been good in terms of defence then?

And you wonder why people ridicule your posts. It's the manner of them and their persistance to concentrate on the negative. Have we conceded loads of goals this season? Yes. You win. Yay! If you take out what was a terrible Christmas period for our young side, does it all look a bit better for us? Yes. You lose. Boo! Is it a simple case of black or white? Lowton bad or Lowton good? No. He's a young player learning his trade after a 2-tier step up in class who has contributed towards our season and has made admirable progress and is someone I'm looking forward to seeing next season. You need to start learning to post between the extremes of black and white or continue to meet constant and correct resistance from more reasoned posts.

[Stevo985]

Am I not allowed to have an negative opinion? I thought that was what forums were for, or should I just agree with what everyone else says? etc etc

[P3te]

So that's the only period that should be judged? Everything else has been good in terms of defence then?

Well you seem quite happy in judging everything pre-HT in the newcastle game and disregarding the improvement since...

[praisedmambo]

Amazing how we're going to break a premiership record for goal conceded isn't it.

Must just be unlucky I guess.

Probably easier to write LOLZ or have a dig at other posters than put forward any sort of argument using actual evidence.

Keep going lads.

We conceded 17 goals over a 4 game period. Tell me, what was our defensive lineup through those games?

I brought this up with him before and it didn't go into his head then but in the Chelsea game our defence was:

 

Lowton (note, the only Lambert signing), Herd, Baker, Clark, Lichaj. 

 

This back line also won us the game at Liverpool mind, but I think BJ10 could do with opening his mind to the effect of injuries etc on a young team. Is it me or has he gone a bit mad recently? He's on here all the time not letting anything go, stomping his feet as if he is demanding to be miserable. 

[Big_John_10]

He's a young player learning his trade after a 2-tier step up in class who has contributed towards our season and has made admirable progress and is someone I'm looking forward to seeing next season

Not sure I've said much different.

I think he looks good going forward but has not been great defensively and needs to add consistency with his improvement. I've also said he has clearly got a lot of potential for the future.

I've also said on the whole the defence has not been good enough, not just a 4 game period. Are you suggesting the defence has been good apart from those selected 4 games?

Lowton's been part of this poor defence.

And you wonder why people ridicule your posts

I was ridiculed in the summer when I said Lerner wouldn't back Lambert and that we'd be in a relegation battle this year. I've been ridiculed over the last few years for my opinions on how Lerner was running the club.

Doesn't really bother me that much.

[Big_John_10]

So that's the only period that should be judged? Everything else has been good in terms of defence then?

Well you seem quite happy in judging everything pre-HT in the newcastle game and disregarding the improvement since...

Have I?

I've said Lambert deserves credit for the improvement.

I've said as an attacking force we look miles better.

How have i disregarded the improvement recently? Sorry that's rubbish.

[Pelle]

He's a young player learning his trade after a 2-tier step up in class who has contributed towards our season and has made admirable progress and is someone I'm looking forward to seeing next season

Not sure I've said much different.

I think he looks good going forward but has not been great defensively and needs to add consistency with his improvement. I've also said he has clearly got a lot of potential for the future.

I've also said on the whole the defence has not been good enough, not just a 4 game period. Are you suggesting the defence has been good apart from those selected 4 games?

Lowton's been part of this poor defence.

>And you wonder why people ridicule your posts

I was ridiculed in the summer when I said Lerner wouldn't back Lambert and that we'd be in a relegation battle this year. I've been ridiculed over the last few years for my opinions on how Lerner was running the club.

Doesn't really bother me that much.

 

 

Wasn't he backed by Lerner? Didn't he get £17m to sign players for? Not that it's enough to get us back to the top and we could all wish for more, but you've said yourself that Lambert could've done better with the money he got. So he wasn't backed but should've done better with the money. You might be right, but then you didn't expect us to be in the top.

 

You expected a relegation fight, but now we're actually in one it's worse than you expected. This is what a relegation fight looks like. Yes we've conceded loads and loads of goals, but 20 of those goals came in 4 extreme results, one where the other team got some good help from the ref to score, the other three with a ridiculous young and inexperienced defence which also contained 2 players playing out of position.

 

You know, you very much sound like one who wants to complain about everything. I've probably said it before, but if we won the league you really seems to be the guy who'd complain that we didn't win by enough points, or rather say that it doesn't matter as we'll not do any good in the CL anyway and in the future we'll just get worse again so it's no meaning in celebrating the win. I know you'll say that's just ridiculous, and of course it is ridiculous, but you really come around as that kind of guy.

[the_eristic]

I brought this up with him before and it didn't go into his head then but in the Chelsea game our defence was:

 

 

Lowton (note, the only Lambert signing), Herd, Baker, Clark, Lichaj. 

 

This back line also won us the game at Liverpool mind, but I think BJ10 could do with opening his mind to the effect of injuries etc on a young team. Is it me or has he gone a bit mad recently? He's on here all the time not letting anything go, stomping his feet as if he is demanding to be miserable. 

 

Just for the sake of accuracy (I have no interest in the argument at hand, whatever it is), Bennett came on for Lichaj shortly after the break, immediately before Chelsea hit us for the remaining five of their goals.

[Big_John_10]

You know, you very much sound like one who wants to complain about everything. I've probably said it before, but if we won the league you really seems to be the guy who'd complain that we didn't win by enough points, or rather say that it doesn't matter as we'll not do any good in the CL anyway and in the future we'll just get worse again so it's no meaning in celebrating the win. I know you'll say that's just ridiculous, and of course it is ridiculous, but you really come around as that kind of guy.

Well I certainly wasn't that guy during the first few years of Lerner's time here so that's bullshit.

Have you seen the last three years? You can't really say that there's been nothing to complain or be negative about.

3 years in a row of worrying about relegation. It's hardly like my view is completely against all the evidence.

[Big_John_10]

Amazing how we're going to break a premiership record for goal conceded isn't it.

Must just be unlucky I guess.

Probably easier to write LOLZ or have a dig at other posters than put forward any sort of argument using actual evidence.

Keep going lads.

We conceded 17 goals over a 4 game period. Tell me, what was our defensive lineup through those games?

I brought this up with him before and it didn't go into his head then but in the Chelsea game our defence was:

 

Lowton (note, the only Lambert signing), Herd, Baker, Clark, Lichaj. 

 

This back line also won us the game at Liverpool mind, but I think BJ10 could do with opening his mind to the effect of injuries etc on a young team. Is it me or has he gone a bit mad recently? He's on here all the time not letting anything go, stomping his feet as if he is demanding to be miserable. 

So are you arguing that our defence has been fine and our defenders have performed to an acceptable level?

Yes we did not have a strong defence out against Chelsea. I'm looking at the season as a whole. It hasn't been good enough IMO.

[Pelle]

You know, you very much sound like one who wants to complain about everything. I've probably said it before, but if we won the league you really seems to be the guy who'd complain that we didn't win by enough points, or rather say that it doesn't matter as we'll not do any good in the CL anyway and in the future we'll just get worse again so it's no meaning in celebrating the win. I know you'll say that's just ridiculous, and of course it is ridiculous, but you really come around as that kind of guy.

Well I certainly wasn't that guy during the first few years of Lerner's time here so that's bullshit.

Have you seen the last three years? You can't really say that there's been nothing to complain or be negative about.

3 years in a row of worrying about relegation. It's hardly like my view is completely against all the evidence.

 

No, absolutely. There's been lots of things to complain about, no doubt. But you're even turning positive things negative. And I've seen you cut out big parts of posts before, so I'm not surprised you did it this time too. And every time you do it, it looks like you couldn't answer to what was posted so you leave it out instead.

[SikhInTrinity]

You keep going on and on about the defence, apart from Lowton, the defence has been changed through the season on shape, injuries. We have not had a constant back four, we are not City or Man United where you can replace say Vlaar with Smalling. We've also had Dunne out, we have had to rely on kids. The defence was inexperienced, however recently we have tightened up due to having Vlaar back in and a better support in midfield to assist the defence. As BOF says its not a case of black or white, we have been poor defensively for a while and thats even with the likes of Collins, Dunne and Warnock in the team.

[Big_John_10]

The discussion about wether or not Lambert was backed properly this season has been done to death, if you want to argue that he was. Be my guest, I'm not sure many will agree with you.

And again your point about the defence I've acknowledged in previous posts. Yes we've had a freak result and Vlaar was injured for awhile. Overall I still don't think our defence has been good enough. Do you?

the other three with a ridiculous young and inexperienced defence

Find this a bit hypocritical really.

You use the fact the defence was young and inexperienced as an excuse but who signed 2 young and inexperienced players to add to our defence? You use signing these young players as a reason to praise lambert but also then use it as an excuse for a poor defence at times. Surely you can't have it both ways.

[Big_John_10]

You keep going on and on about the defence, apart from Lowton, the defence has been changed through the season on shape, injuries. We have not had a constant back four, we are not City or Man United where you can replace say Vlaar with Smalling. We've also had Dunne out, we have had to rely on kids. The defence was inexperienced, however recently we have tightened up due to having Vlaar back in and a better support in midfield to assist the defence. As BOF says its not a case of black or white, we have been poor defensively for a while and thats even with the likes of Collins, Dunne and Warnock in the team.

So you've got no problems with our defence then?

Would you be happy if Lambert made no improvements in the summer?

If we'd had a fairly bad year for conceding goals I'd accept some of the excuses made.

When you break the clubs premiership record while the goal keeper is a player of the year contender then IMO there's more to it than the excuses given here.

[SikhInTrinity]

Were Hutton and Warnock experienced? How good was our defence last season? PL was IMO relying a lot on the fitness of Dunne to play alongside Vlaar, but it never happened. So we've ended up playing kids there. Hutton and Warnock would not have made a jot of difference to our defence as they are both terrible which was proven last season.