Lambert: Downes is Going to Be a Really, Really Top Player Thursday, 28th Feb 2019 17:19 Blues boss Paul Lambert believes midfielder Flynn Downes can go on to be a “really top player” and is capable of taking the type of criticism he gave him last week for failing to cut out the cross which led to Wigan’s last-gasp equaliser. England U20 international Downes, 19, had come on as a sub but failed to prevent on-loan Chelsea youngster Reece James beating him down the Blues right and sending over the ball which ex-Town striker Joe Garner buried at the far post. “I think Flynn Downes is going to be a really, really top player, I really do,” Lambert said. “And I think top players can take the criticism and crack on with it. “I think he’s certainly one of these kids that can certainly deal with it. I think if you want to get to the top level of football you have to be prepared to field criticism at certain times. “If you go with kid gloves and you think it’s acceptable, it’s not. It’s not acceptable to allow a cross to come in. “If you try your utmost and it comes off your foot and it goes in, you’ve tried everything you can. “I think where Flynn probably just lost it, he never really affected the ball. He matched the guy running but never really affected the ball. “But he’s been brilliant for me since I’ve been here, he’s been absolutely great. I think I can count on one hand really the number of mistakes he's had, the kid. “But I think to get anywhere near the top level and your performance, and if you want to win things and you want to drive it and you’re ambitious, you’ve got to have a little nasty streak in your game. “All the top players have it, all the top teams have it and I know he can be a top player if he gets that little bit of a nasty streak, which I think he’s got. It’s just doing it week in, week out. “And that’ll come because he’s only a 19-year-old kid. I think Downes is definitely going to be a really top player.” He added: “I think you’ve got to push them to their limits, young players. I would never have had the career I had without managers at certain times being on my tail and on my tail all the time. “Even in Borussia Dortmund, at the highest level when I had my highest point, I had a manager that was always on at you to perform, to perform, to perform. “I don’t like people underachieving because I think it’s important for me to get the best out of the younger ones, and the older ones. “I think that’s why the crowd appreciate everything that’s going on. They see the lads giving everything they’ve got and I can’t ask for any more. “As I said to some of the lads, you can’t play the game without enthusiasm. Regardless of how talented you are, if you don’t have an enthusiasm for the game or a hunger for the game, it doesn’t matter how much talent is in your body. “If you’re not willing to match that, it doesn’t work. As long as you’ve got that drive and that hunger to perform, you won’t go far wrong. “And think with Flynn there’s a really, really good player there, he could be an exceptional player and I’ll never take the little devilment that’s in his game. “But it’s every week, every week, every week, it’s not just one game, two games, you have to do it every week. “And he’s only 19 so he’s got 14 or 15 years in the game, every single week you have to perform in training and playing, there’s no respite. That’s what you have to get inside their heads.” Lambert admits it took a while to get over the Latics’ late goal after his team had dug in for what would have been a vital second away win of the season. “It was a body blow, but we did the same to Stoke the previous week,” he reflected. “It’s how you bounce back. “The way we started the game, the way we started to play and we looked really, really good from there. “The goal was an absolute blow because we’d had some near misses against us, they had some good chances Wigan, but the goal never materialised and you think it could be your day. “But we never stopped the cross and we never did well enough to defend it. We ended up losing the goal, so it wasn’t a good Saturday or Sunday, put it that way.” Lambert was pleased with how the 3-5-2 system worked at the DW Stadium prior to Jonas Knudsen’s red card. “I just thought with the personnel that it could work,” he explained. “I think that’s the important thing. The players make the system, the system doesn’t make the players. “The players make the system work and I just thought at that time that that was our best route. “I had one or two other ideas in my head to do it and I just thought it could have worked and up until Jonas got sent off we looked as if we could have been two or three-up if we’d taken our chances. The sending off changed the game.” Given Knudsen’s unavailability, is he likely to change the system for Saturday’s game against Reading? “There are one or two little knocks that we’ve got as well. We’ll see tomorrow how they’re going to be and then I’ll decide tomorrow what we’ll do.” He added: “I’ll need to look at the system again because Jonas is out. We’ll see how James is. The likelihood is that I probably won’t do it, but I have to look at it. “We’re running out of games and that’s why I always say you need a pre-season to set out the way you want to play. “We played it last week because it suited the personnel. Maybe we need to change back and do something different this weekend but we’ll see.”
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