Smirking_Saint

Whilst all those things your 'friend' has identified are completely rediculous Id stick to my original assessment that Lambert isnt the man to play uptop on his own, he looks better when we change things and when he plays deeper but uptop with this style of game he just looks lost and ineffective. I said early in the season to buy a different style of striker with better mobility (osvaldo) or change the gameplan to suit Rickie. Ossie hasnt been that bad but he has struggled at times, part of this is a lack of any real service though. Lets not pretend Im sat here slagging off Rickie, Im not, I fully appreciate his talents Im just trying to be objective.

In the AM three maybe, but not as a lone striker he isnt

True but it is classed as say Gross misconduct as its blatent cheating basically. I see your point bear, but it is what it is, take the red away and itll happen more often. Also Refs dont want to give pens anyway, noway they'll give one outside the box. Its like when the pundits say that line that annoys me so much 'its definately a foul in the box but not enough for a penalty' ....... Eh ?

He is more of a DM, box to box type from what I know. Pressumably to create more competition.

To be honest the bowling hasnt been that bad, certainly not from a technical point of view. I think we are giving the ossies too much respect maybe but thats a tactic and field placement point. Batting wise ? God knows, its just, as you say, a horror show. Two decent batting wickets and we have managed little, whether Trotts leaving has caused too much imbalance I dont know ? Bell to be moved to 3 for me and Root 5. KP is a good, good player when he is on top but his forms been flaky for a while, unfortunately Bairstow etc just havnt got anywhere near his ability. Perhsps we need to play more aggressively at the crease but I dont know as confidence seems so low that I think that would be a disaster aswell.

He is still a good player, but from a team point of view his inclusion isnt working. He works hard, has decent vision and his movement is ok but he is just not mobile enough to be effective in this side. Unfortunately he has become a victim of the extreme pressing game we have here. When you win it high up the pitch you need quick incisive movement behind and to be able to run onto through balls. Thats never been Rickies game, hence why he looks better for england as the tactical set up is one that allows him to play to his strengths more.

I watched a bit last night and the night before, both times I could only watch till about 2am, just absolutely dire capitulation from England. Ok, we arent getting the rub of the green as we did at home but boy the difference in confidence levels is staggering. It looks like men against boys out there. The Ossies all out attack looks to be working aswell and we seem scared/unable to bully either their bowling or batting attack right now. In short Im going to do an Alpine and suggest that Im worried about a spanking in this series.

Dissent could be easily eradicated if the governing body just released instructions to keep the offence and card issueing procedure consistant. All they need to say is that the ref is correct and the only man on the field able to converse with the ref on a decisions POV is the captains. Refs will not change their minds no matter how much you berate them on the field and generally they will end up being more punitive to a player giving him '****' then he would a player thats not been as critical of his decisions. Its easy really, if your players pick up yellows everytime they get in the refs face or everytime they go too far in their criticism then it will have the same effect as coaches will tell their players to accept it. Sin bins just arent needed IMO

He wasnt great at the end of last season either, doesnt suit MoPos system, end of

Was v v highly rated a few years ago, linked with the top clubs. Then he had a bit of a dip in form if I remember rightly ? Still, depending on price good player and will add depth.

Nelson Iron Mandela. In a world where the human race has been enslaved by a vicious race of super dolphins in wallaces robot trousers there is only one man who can fight for the freedom that everyone deserves.

Whilst I dont necessarily agree with the relevance at a football match Id say it is a tad ignorant not to appreciate the man and so hold a minutes silence for his passing. But then I suppose there are those who are completely OTT for these sorts of emotional public outpouring aswell so I get both sides of that particular coin As far as Saints V City Itll be a tough one but I reckon we will either scrape a draw or get thumped 3-1. Im normally more of an optimist then a pessimist bit looking at this Ill stick to what Ive said in my other thread, we look mentally and physically tired and knocks are taking there toll. Not just this but Morgan was the fulcrum to our tactics and morgan was so muchore effective in the defensive phase then Cork and would allow the FullBacks more freedom. Without them both I think we will struggle to pull off our game plan and considering Ive not seen much of a plan B (admittedly as plan A has been so effective) I dont think we will play another way. Id love to be proven wrong though

But of course a penalty and a red card is a double punishment, because thats exactly what it deserves. If I push you over on the way out of the box its a pen but possibly no card. Professional cards and denying a goalscoring opportunity is a red. It should be a red. So I dont see the issue with that particular point. As for sinbins ? No, I just dont get it, Im guessing its to 'fruit' the game up a bit. Other than that I dont get it, missing 10 mins for a third foul etc ? As per diving, it should just be looked at after the games, if it is a dive then its a yellow and IMHO if its a dive in the box that wins a penalty should be a ban. Obviously this only happens if its conclusive

Very, losing Morgan was bad enough, but both essentially means are tactics are now defunct, which considering its basically all we have been working since MoPo must be a tad annoying

Not kept up on this news, VW out as well ? Its bad, dont get me wrong I think we have been unlucky but I would say those still 'fit' look jaded, at least mentally if not physically. We need to use better recovery techniques or get a bigger squad IMO

Goes around like he owns the place FFS

This really, I am a Tory at heart but in essence I wouldnt want them to have more then two terms as it seems whoever is in power after that seems to just go into meltdown. Whilst I disagree with Brands overall assessment I do agree changes need to happen, politicians no longer represent and act for the people, it seems they just act for their own personal agenda.

They are knackered, jaded and picking up muscular injuries. Plus agreed Morgan is the fulcrum, thankfully we didnt listen to the knee jerkers and sell back when he was useless and would never make it.

Well its gonna get worse, Ive been asked to go up north to help with the storms. That said there is a reasonable breeze here aswell. Aslong as it doesnt snow I dont care

Its pretty much this, opposition teams know that we play very narrow and slowly build things up. Villa played a similar game to sunderland earlier in the season, play direct balls with quick breaks but get as many bodies behind the ball once we have it and suck the space out of the middle of the pitch. They played 5 at the back which allowed bodies in the middle but allowed the full backs to occupy ours which is where our 'width' comes from. Osvaldo is the man we need up top to provide mobility for orward balls but he isnt on his game yet. Lambert slows things down too much and isnt mobile enough to play up top alone. Perhaps we need to get a bit quicker and take more risks, change the tempo at times. We play a bit like Barca in the fact that we take few risks and win the ball back quickly when lost effectively stopping the other team playing, problem is we dont create enough at all as we dont have their players. I would say change the tempo every now and again to catch teams off guard

Why would we change our way of play which apart from the last three games is very successful ? If it wasnt for some **** poor (unusually) organisation against Villa and possibly Boruc against arsenal we wouldnt even be discussing things ? If we change our gameplan we open up, and look how that went at the start of last year. Keep what we are doing, give Ossie more time, try and get Ramirez fit and we will be ok.

Bang on

Yup, I largely ignored Ramirez' goals and assists last year and also Ossies goals this season. Still atleast Lamberts banging them in....... Oh

of course Dune. You lot have never lost a debate have you ? And there is never a situation within which you ignore salient points just to bang your drum over and over and over.