Lambert: Don't Judge January Business for a Few Weeks Yet Thursday, 24th Jan 2019 17:55 Town manager Paul Lambert says it will be a few weeks before the impact of his January additions can be judged. Lambert has added six players to his squad as he looks to mastermind what would be the greatest of escapes from relegation with the Blues seven points plus goal difference from safety. “I think so just because of the lack of game time that they’ve had,” Lambert said when asked whether his signings shouldn’t be evaluated in the short term. “It’s an impossibility [for them to be at their best]. These lads haven’t played. Collin Quaner’s not played many games, Will Keane’s not played many games. "I think the one that’s played the most games is Alan Judge, I think he’s the only one. James Collins, Callum Elder, Simon Dawkins, they’ve hardly played many games. “That will take a few weeks, your body detrains in three weeks. If you don’t train for three weeks your body detrains, it’s human nature. “Some of the lads haven’t played many games but what you do get is the adrenalin rush which does kick in but slowly but surely they’ll get better with training. “I think they feel better within themselves after another week’s training, but they’re going to have to go another few weeks before they hit the heights where they can get to.” He added: “You need a pre-season, without a doubt every [manager] needs a pre-season to have their own players. “We’re trying to short-term fix a lot of stuff, which is important but we have to try and get through this season and next season we’ll see what happens. “Short-term, we have to try and fix it, that’s critical, we have to try and do that. Lads have come in who aren’t so high on game-time because we’ve taken them from clubs where they haven’t been playing. “They’ve all fitted in really, really well and I can’t ask any more from them than giving it a go. But we have to wait and see what’s going to happen.” Asked what the benefits of a pre-season are, he added: “Huge. I know a helluva lot of managers never go into clubs during the season and I understand why that happens because you have to have your own way of doing it and your own time to do it and your own players to come and do it and implement the way you want to play. “Lads have come in in such a short time, it was only the end of October that we came in and that’s only a few months. “So you can never really put your stamp on it, all you can do is make a quick fix and try and get through it and then the real work starts after this season. “The [lads have] been great. The football we’ve played, apart from the Blackburn game when I don’t think we did enough and the second half against Rotherham when we never really got at it, every other game I’ve always come away thinking that we’ve played really well, have played really good football, but just need a bit of help up top, which we’ve tried to do and hopefully that pays dividends. “But football-wise, in the way we play the game and teaching the lads different things, it’s pleasing to watch.” Lambert says the players that have come in can’t be given a mini-pre-season to get them up to speed. “You can’t, it’s impossible,” he insisted. “It would kill the guys, it’s too dangerous for them. You have to get them through it every training session. “You adjust it with certain guys, you have to understand where they are body-wise and because of their lack of game time. “But your best judge is your eye at times. I can see myself who I think is ready and who I think is not. “As I’ve said, Judge is probably the fittest and even then I think he has started six games or something with Brentford. Everybody else is behind that but they’ve given us that lift that if it goes up front we know we can score.” Regarding the Republic of Ireland winger, who said last week he saw himself as a number 10 then started at Blackburn wide on the right before later switching flank, Lambert added: “I think Judge is a really good player, technically I think he can play anywhere he’s that good a footballer. “I don’t think any position that Judge plays would be a problem to him because he’s that good on the ball. “We have to try and get him where we think he can hurt people. He’s very clever and his set plays are unbelievable. They’re on the money nearly all the time. “I don’t have a problem with him, good players can play anywhere and he’s certainly a good player.”
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