lapal_fan Posted December 8, 2012 Share Posted December 8, 2012 Wow, you actually have a job? Your managers lucky you like him! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Big_John_10 Posted December 8, 2012 Share Posted December 8, 2012 Good defending. Loved the fight we showed and thought we played some good stuff at times. But we can't create or score and that's going to keep us down near the bottom until its resolved. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dr_Pangloss Posted December 8, 2012 Share Posted December 8, 2012 We dominated the first half for possession and controlled the play in Stoke's half, the issue is the lack of cutting edge really. The second half was scrappy but overall we were the better side by far. Hopefully we're get one or two creative players coming in in January. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TrentVilla Posted December 8, 2012 Moderator Share Posted December 8, 2012 First off I didn't watch the game so I've no opinion on how we played, I would though be interested to hear the thoughts of others. I had hoped we might win the game but I'm not overly surprised we didn't and while a point isn't a good result when at home I guess in the wider context of our season it isn't too bad. On the positive side of things, we appear to be better defensively over the last few games. Putting aside the City game we've certainly been tighter and when you score as few goals as we do that is really important, it is also the essential basis for any team. There is clear progress in this regard which I see as being a huge plus point. Also on the positive side of things, Southampton aside results went our way. Reading and QPR are increasingly being cut adrift and while I wouldn't rule out Arry turning them around yet it does improve our odds. Sunderland are in free fall which is also in our favour. On the negative side of things we our utter lack of creativity in the midfield is a concern and not something I believe can be resolved with the players currently on our books. We simply must spend money on the midfield in January or the second half of the season is likely to be as frustrating as the first. Given what he has inherited, what he has had to do and the money he has had to do it I continue to be relatively happy with Lambert and feel we are going in the right direction. Work and money are really needed in January though. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
KHV Posted December 8, 2012 Share Posted December 8, 2012 We dominated the first half for possession and controlled the play in Stoke's half, the issue is the lack of cutting edge really. The second half was scrappy but overall we were the better side by far. Hopefully we're get one or two creative players coming in in January. bannan and ireland are not the answer, both dire today again. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Raymond Posted December 8, 2012 Share Posted December 8, 2012 bannan and ireland are not the answer, both dire today again. Not everything is "dire" or "fantastic." There is middle ground, which is squarely where Bannan and Ireland were today. Please stop with the extremism. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Big_John_10 Posted December 8, 2012 Share Posted December 8, 2012 I am not a fan of bannan but i thought he played well today. Trent we played some excellent football at times, we kept the ball really well but we just couldn't create a decent chance. I thought it was interesting that when we had the ball, herd dropped back to create a back 3 and lichaj and lowton pushed forward to add our attacking width. I liked the look of it and would like to see what it could do with better players. We defended well and like i said previously we really fought hard and didn't let such a horrible team bully or intimidate us. Which i really liked. I agree with you 100% about the need for attacking players in january. There is no way that its just going to click or work with the current players we have. It has to be the priority in january. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rodders Posted December 8, 2012 Share Posted December 8, 2012 mostly agree there Trent. happy enough so far, what I enjoy most and what is why I am probably happier than others is the sense of anticipation and hopefulness that comes from recognising a project at the genesis of it's development. We're still early days but we are improving, we didn't get bullied out of the way against stoke - they didn't have a shot? the side are hard working, organised and feeling their way into confidence. 4 matches unbeaten is good. ok 3 of those are draws, but one of them was away to a side with a new manager on home debut who have spent more on their squad than we have ours, another against arsenal... we obviously need some more creativity in the side, and I think we do need some talent on the width that albrighton and nzogbia don't provide. Replace them with some players with a direct keen eye for goal who can provide alternatives, and creativity up front and we'll really start to having some ppleasing options going into the second half of the year. I know the football in the short term might be frustating occasionally, but in the medium to long run I think it really is all quite exciting. It's like the first years of O'Neills reign, for me anyway, that sense of the roots being embedded for future benefit, with the young players and the transition and attempting evolution of how we play. Until January though, we've got a tough spell coming up again though, so this defensive resilience will come in handy, perhaps we can have the bonus of a league cup win on tuesday who knows - it'll be tough, Norwich in cracking form and the return of Lambert to Carrow Road, but all the same, a win there would be nice as I suspect we won't score heavily points wise v liverpool chelsea or spurs, but with wigan after that, an important game that I think we'll go into January in a reasonable position - probably still around where we are now, 14-16th but ready to invest and push on in the second half. Perhaps I'm mental, but I just think we could end up being a bit of a surprise package in the second half of the season. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
KHV Posted December 8, 2012 Share Posted December 8, 2012 I am not a fan of bannan but i thought he played well today. Trent we played some excellent football at times, we kept the ball really well but we just couldn't create a decent chance. I thought it was interesting that when we had the ball, herd dropped back to create a back 3 and lichaj and lowton pushed forward to add our attacking width. I liked the look of it and would like to see what it could do with better players. We defended well and like i said previously we really fought hard and didn't let such a horrible team bully or intimidate us. Which i really liked. I agree with you 100% about the need for attacking players in january. There is no way that its just going to click or work with the current players we have. It has to be the priority in january. I thought a lot of stuff broke down with bannan today, his passes were often misplaced Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
KHV Posted December 8, 2012 Share Posted December 8, 2012 Not everything is "dire" or "fantastic." There is middle ground, which is squarely where Bannan and Ireland were today. Please stop with the extremism. misplacing 56% of your paces is dire at this level. Ireland had a shocker when he came on. Dont know bannans completion but a lot of our play broke down due to bannan giving it away Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jon_c Posted December 8, 2012 Share Posted December 8, 2012 misplacing 56% of your paces is dire at this level. Ireland had a shocker when he came on. Dont know bannans completion but a lot of our play broke down due to bannan giving it away Bannan's completion was 81% today. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PieFacE Posted December 8, 2012 VT Supporter Share Posted December 8, 2012 Didn't think Bannan was that bad at all, don't think he was brilliant just had a pretty solid game. Glad we're looking better defensively. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dr_Pangloss Posted December 8, 2012 Share Posted December 8, 2012 bannan and ireland are not the answer, both dire today again. It was an interesting performance by Bannan today, he did a lot of good things IMO. He demands the ball, often moves it about well and always finds space to play in. The issue for me is the issue I've always had with Bannan, his forward passing is often poor: he loves a speculative, miracle ball, the problem is that more often than not they do not work. That said he wasn't the problem today, he did well for the most part. Ireland well, it was a poor cameo but again he wasn't the problem, the problem was the lack of quality coming into the box from wide positions. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LondonLax Posted December 8, 2012 Share Posted December 8, 2012 I am not a fan of Bannan but I thought he was ok today. Though we really need someone better than him and Holman (even Ireland doesn't cut it IMO) to play alongside Westwood if we are going to be a top half side. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cheltenham_villa Posted December 8, 2012 Share Posted December 8, 2012 Lambert's failing so fair has been to rectify our lack of goal threat. We all love benteke but it's come at the expense of bent. Needs to get us scoring goals soon, impressed defensively recently. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MikeMcKenna Posted December 8, 2012 VT Supporter Share Posted December 8, 2012 Just got back. Think Lambert got the substitution of Bent wrong today and bowed to pressure to bring him on against his better judgement. I agreed that Gabby needed to come off but he should have put Wiemann on instead of Bent. Wiemann would have given us more movement when their defence was tiring & also provided a target for Ireland - Bent's introduction didn't even cause a ripple. If we were flat before he came on, we became even more so after. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TrentVilla Posted December 8, 2012 Moderator Share Posted December 8, 2012 I see what you are saying Mike but unless whoever he used scored people would have been saying he should have used the other one. He couldn't win unless whoever came on scored. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MikeMcKenna Posted December 8, 2012 VT Supporter Share Posted December 8, 2012 I see what you are saying Mike but unless whoever he used scored people would have been saying he should have used the other one. He couldn't win unless whoever came on scored. I agree with that. But most also seem to agree that playing Bent & Benteke together just doesn't make sense, hence IMHO it was a "political" substitution. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TrentVilla Posted December 8, 2012 Moderator Share Posted December 8, 2012 Perhaps but then people have been saying he should give them another try together. He just can't win unless he wins. Lambert just doesn't strike me as a man to play to the crowd oracle decisions to please people, quite the opposite in fact. He did drop Bent from the squad after all. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
supernova26 Posted December 9, 2012 Share Posted December 9, 2012 You could play Benteke deeper like a number 10. He's quite a creative player and can beat a man as we've seen today....and drop Gabby. Bent up front. I don't believe they can't play together that's nonsense really. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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