The Paul Lambert thread - poll reset after our capitulation to Hull

[Damo70]

'Had' a very impressive record. Still in his thirties he'd gone a season unbeaten and won a European trophy. Not just won the league, won it without losing. It looks very impressive, and impressive at the top of the game rather than in the lower leagues where all sorts of managers can get away with tactical crudities which will get found out incredibly quickly at the top level.

He had one trophy winning season and that was in Portugal with their top club. The comparison you make with one trophy winning season at the top of the game and being successful in the lower leagues would make John Sillett a better manager than SGT.

[Monty]

He's shown a certain degree of subtlety - Weimann man-marking Gerrard as an attacking move, for instance, was a great idea - but not much variety in approach. He changes a lot but to achieve the same result, namely quick breaking and bypassing the midfield. That's fine. The reason it doesn't work at home is because teams don't come to VP and attack, so we're left counterattacking into a crowd, which is basically impossible. He doesn't trust the midfield? Well, that's a shame, if only he had four transfer windows to address this. It's not like he just kept buying strikers like a ten-year-old on Championship Manager.

Damo, I'm not saying 'he is better', I'm saying he'd achieved something bigger and earlier. If you're looking at young managers who might have a long career, it looked more impressive. Doesn't mean he is better.

[Irish villain]

"It's not like he just kept buying strikers like a ten-year-old on Championship Manager."

What a quote! I have never understood his fixation on buying strikers given what we had when he arrived and what he as added to our attack since. I like the strikers he has bought, but if resources were tight you'd think a quality central midfielder would have been what I'd have tried to bring in.

[Monty]

Agreed IV. He brought in a £7m backup centre-forward when, if he really didn't trust the midfield, he should have done more to address the first-choice for the centre of the pitch.

[Clampy]

Agreed IV. He brought in a £7m backup centre-forward when, if he really didn't trust the midfield, he should have done more to address the first-choice for the centre of the pitch.

He tried to.

[Monty]

Agreed IV. He brought in a £7m backup centre-forward when, if he really didn't trust the midfield, he should have done more to address the first-choice for the centre of the pitch.

He tried to.

I'm sure he did, but he had limited money to spend and managed to spend £7m of it on a backup Big Man forward and however little (undisclosed, of course) on various bits and bobs squad-filler midfielders like Tonev and Bacuna. They're fine, but they haven't addressed anything. His priorities are quite clearly laid out by this imbalance.

[Clampy]

Agreed IV. He brought in a £7m backup centre-forward when, if he really didn't trust the midfield, he should have done more to address the first-choice for the centre of the pitch.

He tried to.

I'm sure he did, but he had limited money to spend and managed to spend £7m of it on a backup Big Man forward

That's because the 'Big Man Forward' in question was available. Maybe, just maybe the play making midfielders he wanted were not available. We all know Hoolahan wasn't.

[ClaretAndBlueBlood]

Agreed IV. He brought in a £7m backup centre-forward when, if he really didn't trust the midfield, he should have done more to address the first-choice for the centre of the pitch.

it's called planning ahead. If, as seems highly likely, Benteke is off at the end of the season, he has now given Kozak a year to get used to the premier league in the hope that he will actually be ready for it next season. Unfortunately the injury has hampered those plans!!! Most players arriving into England from abroad take a season or more to adapt and I guess he was trying to pre-empt that.

No point arriving at the start of next season with a brand new centre forward who isn't ready for the premier league - which we still may do of course but at least he was trying to minimise the risk

[Monty]

Agreed IV. He brought in a £7m backup centre-forward when, if he really didn't trust the midfield, he should have done more to address the first-choice for the centre of the pitch.

it's called planning ahead. If, as seems highly likely, Benteke is off at the end of the season, he has now given Kozak a year to get used to the premier league in the hope that he will actually be ready for it next season. Unfortunately the injury has hampered those plans!!! Most players arriving into England from abroad take a season or more to adapt and I guess he was trying to pre-empt that.

No point arriving at the start of next season with a brand new centre forward who isn't ready for the premier league - which we still may do of course but at least he was trying to minimise the risk

Planning ahead as far as next season is fine by me. I'd be happier if he'd planned ahead as far as addressing the midfield for this season, though. This isn't some Lyon-esque pre-emptive replacement, this is just overloading and skewed priorities. As I say, I think Lambert actually has many qualities, but passing through the midfield doesn't look like one of them.

[Damo70]

He's shown a certain degree of subtlety - Weimann man-marking Gerrard as an attacking move, for instance, was a great idea - but not much variety in approach. He changes a lot but to achieve the same result, namely quick breaking and bypassing the midfield. That's fine. The reason it doesn't work at home is because teams don't come to VP and attack, so we're left counterattacking into a crowd, which is basically impossible. He doesn't trust the midfield? Well, that's a shame, if only he had four transfer windows to address this. It's not like he just kept buying strikers like a ten-year-old on Championship Manager.

Damo, I'm not saying 'he is better', I'm saying he'd achieved something bigger and earlier. If you're looking at young managers who might have a long career, it looked more impressive. Doesn't mean he is better.

I must confess I do love buying strikers on Championship Manager.

[Clampy]

Agreed IV. He brought in a £7m backup centre-forward when, if he really didn't trust the midfield, he should have done more to address the first-choice for the centre of the pitch.

it's called planning ahead. If, as seems highly likely, Benteke is off at the end of the season, he has now given Kozak a year to get used to the premier league in the hope that he will actually be ready for it next season. Unfortunately the injury has hampered those plans!!! Most players arriving into England from abroad take a season or more to adapt and I guess he was trying to pre-empt that.

No point arriving at the start of next season with a brand new centre forward who isn't ready for the premier league - which we still may do of course but at least he was trying to minimise the risk

Planning ahead as far as next season is fine by me. I'd be happier if he'd planned ahead as far as addressing the midfield for this season, though.

I agree that we could do with a couple of new centre midfielders, but the one's he wanted wasn't available (and let's not forget, we put in 3 bids for Hoolahan and enquired about the lad from Nuremberg). You're missing the point though. Lazio were willing to sell Kozak so we brought him. Norwich and Nuremberg were not willing to sell the players we wanted, so we didn't. It's as simple as that.

[BoskoDjembaSalifou]

I don't buy this whole "the playmaker he wanted wasn't available" stuff. Most European clubs will sell their players, I just don't think he tried hard enough.

[Monty]

If the extent of our scouting was that there were two players in the whole of Europe who fit the bill then that wouldn't say very much for it. As it happens I think that there probably are more players available at the right price but that Lambert wanted to spend X amount on Kozak (he trailed him all summer), and therefore couldn't go above Y for the playmaker. He keeps on saying that he didn't want to pay 'over the odds', but how was £7m for Kozak not over the odds, given squad strength and value for money? I like Kozak, but the sensible thing to do would have been to prioritise the midfielder over the striker, and he did the opposite.

[Clampy]

I don't buy this whole "the playmaker he wanted wasn't available" stuff. Most European clubs will sell their players, I just don't think he tried hard enough.

You're making it sound like he should have gone out and signed any old playmaker. Most European clubs will only sell their players if they don't want them, it's the way it's always worked.

[Clampy]

If the extent of our scouting was that there were two players in the whole of Europe who fit the bill then that wouldn't say very much for it.

I'm only mentioning those two because they're the one's that we know about. There may be more that he enquired about, we don't know. Like I said, the selling club have to want to sell.