We go again

[Monty]

Made me laugh on an otherwise depressing morning. Lambert's post match pearls of wisdom from yesterday - sorry if someone has already posted this:

"I don't think we got going if the truth be known. I can't fault the lads, their effort was there, we had a really tough game on Wednesday and you pick yourself up and go again. ..."

What a load of rubbish yesterday was. 1 step forward, 2 steps back. That's how our season seems to be panning out.

The 'we go again ' line he trotted out all last season made me laugh in the early days but it now has me pulling my hair out in frustration

What would you rather him say?

''I've been sacked because my team plays the most atrocious football since Wimbledon of the late 80's''

Good grief, do you really think this? I know most of us have wiped the McLeish era from our memories as much as we can, but can you actually physically recall it? Or how about the end of last season, where everything clicked and we were one of the best sides to watch in the division?

[usav]

That's all very well saying on step forward and two steps back, if you think the Southampton game was a step forward.   I happen to think it wasn't.   It was in terms of the result, but in terms of the performance it was every bit as bad as Fulham.   

We will get fluke results like Southampton because we do have some quality players in the team that can do things like that, but it doesn't mean we have progressed, far from it.   We are playing  players out of position, a centre forward woefully out of form, our best defender missing and a general lack of tactical astuteness - other than the pass to Luna for the third goal at Arsenal, can anyone tell me what Weimann has added to the team this year?   Yet we still stick to that formation.  Time to try something else, Paul.

[aj2k77]

Made me laugh on an otherwise depressing morning. Lambert's post match pearls of wisdom from yesterday - sorry if someone has already posted this:

"I don't think we got going if the truth be known. I can't fault the lads, their effort was there, we had a really tough game on Wednesday and you pick yourself up and go again. ..."

What a load of rubbish yesterday was. 1 step forward, 2 steps back. That's how our season seems to be panning out.

The 'we go again ' line he trotted out all last season made me laugh in the early days but it now has me pulling my hair out in frustration

What would you rather him say?

''I've been sacked because my team plays the most atrocious football since Wimbledon of the late 80's''

Good grief, do you really think this? I know most of us have wiped the McLeish era from our memories as much as we can, but can you actually physically recall it? Or how about the end of last season, where everything clicked and we were one of the best sides to watch in the division?

Yes, I really don't rate Lambert. Mcleish was a disaster but the football this season is no better and in many cases worse. It's ok pick pocketing a few results but that never continues. Eventually this season we will have to play better to continue picking up results and as great as 10th supposedly is we are 6 points and 1 small bad run off relegation positions. You can conversely say we are 1 good run off being in the top 8 but us going on a good run picking up consecutive wins looks more less likely because of our performances, and I seriously doubt if this man if capable of

A. Picking the right team
B. Picking the right formation
C. Drilling the team well on the basics
D. Picking up more players that will improve us on our budget

I'm not a believer in Lambert, In Lambert I don't trust.

[Jon Crofts]

Made me laugh on an otherwise depressing morning. Lambert's post match pearls of wisdom from yesterday - sorry if someone has already posted this:

"I don't think we got going if the truth be known. I can't fault the lads, their effort was there, we had a really tough game on Wednesday and you pick yourself up and go again. ..."

What a load of rubbish yesterday was. 1 step forward, 2 steps back. That's how our season seems to be panning out.

The 'we go again ' line he trotted out all last season made me laugh in the early days but it now has me pulling my hair out in frustration

What would you rather him say?

''I've been sacked because my team plays the most atrocious football since Wimbledon of the late 80's''

Don't be ridiculous.  Wimbledon had a midfield.

[itbrvilla]

Made me laugh on an otherwise depressing morning. Lambert's post match pearls of wisdom from yesterday - sorry if someone has already posted this:

"I don't think we got going if the truth be known. I can't fault the lads, their effort was there, we had a really tough game on Wednesday and you pick yourself up and go again. ..."

What a load of rubbish yesterday was. 1 step forward, 2 steps back. That's how our season seems to be panning out.

The 'we go again ' line he trotted out all last season made me laugh in the early days but it now has me pulling my hair out in frustration

What would you rather him say?

''I've been sacked because my team plays the most atrocious football since Wimbledon of the late 80's''

Good grief, do you really think this? I know most of us have wiped the McLeish era from our memories as much as we can, but can you actually physically recall it? Or how about the end of last season, where everything clicked and we were one of the best sides to watch in the division?

Yes, I really don't rate Lambert. Mcleish was a disaster but the football this season is no better and in many cases worse. It's ok pick pocketing a few results but that never continues. Eventually this season we will have to play better to continue picking up results and as great as 10th supposedly is we are 6 points and 1 small bad run off relegation positions. You can conversely say we are 1 good run off being in the top 8 but us going on a good run picking up consecutive wins looks more less likely because of our performances, and I seriously doubt if this man if capable of

A. Picking the right team
B. Picking the right formation
C. Drilling the team well on the basics
D. Picking up more players that will improve us on our budget

I'm not a believer in Lambert, In Lambert I don't trust.

I'm with you. Clueless doesn't come close.

[LeeB]

Yes, for you two, clueless doesn't come close.

[Smirker]

Gets right on my tits. Almost to the extent of people who go into shops or cafes and when ordering, begin their sentence with "Can I get ....". Animals. Absolute animals.

That boils my piss and all. Fucking American shite.

No, you can't fucking 'get' it, you may ask for it and the person behind the counter will get it for you if they have it.

[Concrete John]

That's all very well saying on step forward and two steps back, if you think the Southampton game was a step forward.   I happen to think it wasn't.   It was in terms of the result, but in terms of the performance it was every bit as bad as Fulham.   

We will get fluke results like Southampton because we do have some quality players in the team that can do things like that, but it doesn't mean we have progressed, far from it.   We are playing  players out of position, a centre forward woefully out of form, our best defender missing and a general lack of tactical astuteness - other than the pass to Luna for the third goal at Arsenal, can anyone tell me what Weimann has added to the team this year?   Yet we still stick to that formation.  Time to try something else, Paul.

Well, the winner against Man City springs to mind.

[Concrete John]

Made me laugh on an otherwise depressing morning. Lambert's post match pearls of wisdom from yesterday - sorry if someone has already posted this:

"I don't think we got going if the truth be known. I can't fault the lads, their effort was there, we had a really tough game on Wednesday and you pick yourself up and go again. ..."

What a load of rubbish yesterday was. 1 step forward, 2 steps back. That's how our season seems to be panning out.

The 'we go again ' line he trotted out all last season made me laugh in the early days but it now has me pulling my hair out in frustration

What would you rather him say?

''I've been sacked because my team plays the most atrocious football since Wimbledon of the late 80's''

Good grief, do you really think this? I know most of us have wiped the McLeish era from our memories as much as we can, but can you actually physically recall it? Or how about the end of last season, where everything clicked and we were one of the best sides to watch in the division?

Yes, I really don't rate Lambert. Mcleish was a disaster but the football this season is no better and in many cases worse. It's ok pick pocketing a few results but that never continues. Eventually this season we will have to play better to continue picking up results and as great as 10th supposedly is we are 6 points and 1 small bad run off relegation positions. You can conversely say we are 1 good run off being in the top 8 but us going on a good run picking up consecutive wins looks more less likely because of our performances, and I seriously doubt if this man if capable of

A. Picking the right team
B. Picking the right formation
C. Drilling the team well on the basics
D. Picking up more players that will improve us on our budget

I'm not a believer in Lambert, In Lambert I don't trust.

Which is exactly what lots of people were saying two thirds of the way into last season and guess what haoppened?  And this season we at least have a solid defence as a better starting point.

[supertom]

Made me laugh on an otherwise depressing morning. Lambert's post match pearls of wisdom from yesterday - sorry if someone has already posted this:

"I don't think we got going if the truth be known. I can't fault the lads, their effort was there, we had a really tough game on Wednesday and you pick yourself up and go again. ..."

What a load of rubbish yesterday was. 1 step forward, 2 steps back. That's how our season seems to be panning out.

The 'we go again ' line he trotted out all last season made me laugh in the early days but it now has me pulling my hair out in frustration

What would you rather him say?

''I've been sacked because my team plays the most atrocious football since Wimbledon of the late 80's''

Good grief, do you really think this? I know most of us have wiped the McLeish era from our memories as much as we can, but can you actually physically recall it? Or how about the end of last season, where everything clicked and we were one of the best sides to watch in the division?

Yes, I really don't rate Lambert. Mcleish was a disaster but the football this season is no better and in many cases worse. It's ok pick pocketing a few results but that never continues. Eventually this season we will have to play better to continue picking up results and as great as 10th supposedly is we are 6 points and 1 small bad run off relegation positions. You can conversely say we are 1 good run off being in the top 8 but us going on a good run picking up consecutive wins looks more less likely because of our performances, and I seriously doubt if this man if capable of

A. Picking the right team
B. Picking the right formation
C. Drilling the team well on the basics
D. Picking up more players that will improve us on our budget

I'm not a believer in Lambert, In Lambert I don't trust.

Which is exactly what lots of people were saying two thirds of the way into last season and guess what haoppened?  And this season we at least have a solid defence as a better starting point.

The big worry some on here is that equally we've seen how we can capitulate as a season progresses. We're strikingly similar to McLeish's side at the moment. It was going reasonably well with him until January, where we looked safe and comfy in mid-table. We'd been poor but ground out results in spite of our horrible brand of football.
Then a couple of injuries to key players and we suddenly looked absolutely awful and should have gone down.

If Lambert takes affirmative action I've no problem with him, but at the moment he seems fine with how things are. But we're playing a dangerous game. We've been incredibly fortunate over our unbeaten run. Our luck ran out yesterday and Vlaar was sorely missed. What if Guzan were to get injured? That's a very scary thought. I'd also hate to lose Delph, Gabby or even Benteke (As poor as he's been of late) for any length of time.

There's a fine line between being a solid mid-table side and fighting for your life at the bottom. If we carry on playing so poorly do I think we'll stay mid-table or fall dangerously near the drop zone? I would say the latter. He's got to get a suitable line up and try and cut out the pub team errors. The players look clueless on the ball and that's his doing.

[somersetlion]

Its not results like yesterday that worry me - as others have said we will get results like that in the same way we will get very lucky wins like we did against Southampton.  What worries me is the complete lack of any kind of tactics/style other than work hard and hope something happens.  I was just looking at our match results this season and trying to remember the last time we played well for a whole match (or at least a majority of the match).  Chelsea away, 2nd game of the season is what I came up with.  We do not appear to have any idea what we are doing.  I lose count of the amount of throw-ins we have where we give the ball away as the thrower only has at most 1 option to throw to.  How many times do we get caught out with a quick free-kick or corner?  Sunderland must have done it to use 3 or 4 times in 1 match.  Happened again yesterday.  I'm generally a glass half full kind of bloke but at the moment I think we are in big trouble.  It is easy to look at the table at the moment and be positive but we are a lot closer to the bottom 3 than 10th suggests and if results dont go our way over the next month its going to be deja vu last season.  Only difference is, we don't have a striker in the form of his life to get us out of it this year.  One final comment - Benteke - one season wonder - discuss?

[supertom]

Its not results like yesterday that worry me - as others have said we will get results like that in the same way we will get very lucky wins like we did against Southampton.  What worries me is the complete lack of any kind of tactics/style other than work hard and hope something happens.  I was just looking at our match results this season and trying to remember the last time we played well for a whole match (or at least a majority of the match).  Chelsea away, 2nd game of the season is what I came up with.  We do not appear to have any idea what we are doing.  I lose count of the amount of throw-ins we have where we give the ball away as the thrower only has at most 1 option to throw to.  How many times do we get caught out with a quick free-kick or corner?  Sunderland must have done it to use 3 or 4 times in 1 match.  Happened again yesterday.  I'm generally a glass half full kind of bloke but at the moment I think we are in big trouble.  It is easy to look at the table at the moment and be positive but we are a lot closer to the bottom 3 than 10th suggests and if results dont go our way over the next month its going to be deja vu last season.  Only difference is, we don't have a striker in the form of his life to get us out of it this year.  One final comment - Benteke - one season wonder - discuss?

The funny thing about Benteke is, that yesterday he had 2-3 chances that 5 months ago he'd have buried. I think part of it is second season syndrome. Part is injuries (and he's a yard or two short of pace compared to last season), part is lack of application and a big part is confidence. All this adds up to him looking like a bad Heskey impersonator.
I do think though that one in off the arse or something and he'll look a different player. But I would be dropping him for the next game because Libor deserves a go.

For me we played extremely well in the first two games. We deserved 6 points, we got three. Since then it's been a mish mash of fortune, 20 minute spells of playing well in a few matches, a lot of huffing and puffing, but worryingly, never with a clear game plan and utterly abysmal passing. Not simply down to poor players, but no clear system, no organisiton, composure, and just really, awful, glaring errors. We've won two games this season 3-2 with around 30% possession and 3-4 shots on target. That won't happen too many more times. That's fortunate. More often than not we'll lose those games for the remainder of the season.

What I'd like to see, ASAP is the mid 3 of Sylla, Delph and Westwood, with the front three of Andi, Gabby and Benteke and Lowton at right back. It worked last season. At the very least Lambert needs to give that a couple of games to see if we can recapture some of that attacking play. Granted with Andy and Benteke in woeful form it might be hard, but we've got to try something. KEA can't keep on vanishing in games as he has been. He's such a poor player.

[somersetlion]

Agree with everything you say Supertom.  What has Lowton done wrong?  Bacuna is not a right back - what about Lowton with bacuna right midfield which I'm sure is what we bought him to do.  Weimann was a million miles my favourite player last season but what has he done this season (he scored winner against Man City I know) and yet he gets picked seemingly every time he's fit but Lowton doesn't get a look in

[itbrvilla]

Yes, for you two, clueless doesn't come close.

Grow up.

[sirlordbaltimore]

Every manager eventually has a catchphrase that makes me wantt to punch the radio or kick the TV in. Lambert's 'we go again' and 'we gave it a right good go' are up there with Little's 'for sure'