Laughable how absurd all of that looks.
Lambert: Has looked pretty average when he's played. Says a lot that for a lone striker system, he can't get a game when Sturridge is injured and our other options are Borini and Balotelli (neither of whom BR really wants)
Lallana: Struggled to get to double figures in appearances let alone goals and assists. Absolute flop money wise. When he did play he looks elegant but no end product (quite like Joe Allen)
Moreno: Very little in the way of assists or goals. Did not add any dimensions to our attack as predicted. No longer coveted by Real Madrid
Markovic: Young fearless dribbler who looks completely out of his depth. No doubt he has some quality on the ball but this season has been pretty bad. Tactically and physically weak. Struggled to adapt to RWB.
Lovren: Arguably in the bottom 5 CB's in the league. Nervy display after nervy display compounded by that miserable penalty miss and that absolute brain dead hack into row Z from 40 yards against Villa.
Balotelli: BR might be the only one who can get something out of Mario, but he doesn't want to. He didn't want to sign him, he doesn't want to play him and continually criticises him at every available opportunity. Balotelli has been pretty average too but he hasn't been helped by being played as a lone striker in a system that doesn't suit him.
Can: Brings a lot of physicality to our midfield, by starting at CB.
To be honest the truth of the quality of these players must surely lie somewhere in between this and the post containing the original justifications.
Which begs the question, how can so many new players all have performed at such a terrible level? Ok, they may have been overrated but they are nowhere near as bad as we've seen, and have shown that elsewhere hence those original opinions.
How can we possibly be getting such a minimal contribution out of these players? It's entirely conceivable that the odd player simply can't integrate, or can't be worked into becoming a useful member of the team but so many?
I don't really want to harp back to Rafa- but he managed to integrate and use the likes of Crouch, Morientes, Kuyt, Keane, Ngog, Torres, Voronin etc - players ranging from the sublime to ordinary, players of such varied skills and attributes yet even the worst of which in Voronin provided about as much of a contribution as both Balotelli and Lambert combined who are both clearly better players.
Take Markovic, whilst the spruik said DiMaria unfortunately the more apt current comparison is Babel - but the thing is at least Babel was integrated into a useful member of the team even if he never came close to fulfilling the potential we thought may have existed.
As for Lovren, we've had the likes of Kyriakos and Insua thrust into the side yet still be able to integrate them into becoming useful, if nothing more, players. We're talking an international, he may not be worth what we paid but he's clearly not as ordinary as what we've seen.
How can we be so unable to integrate such a vast number of players (not just those mentioned but there's been more in recent times), to be so either unable or unwilling to find a way to best utilise the tools at our disposal? They may not be the flash new tools we were hoping for but Lambert has still had two years of scoring 13+ league goals, Balotelli has still been an integral part of one of the strongest national teams (not to mention what he's done at club level) and Lovren still a seasoned international with a club history clearly superior than the player we've seen.
When there's so many examples the only possible explanation that springs to mind is that the problem is clearly us, not them. They may not be perfect but there's no excuse for them appearing so useless.
