Premier League Weekend Review: Give Lambert a chance and he'll make more goals for Liverpool

Rickie Lambert had an instant impact in Liverpool's Premier League campaign

Rickie Lambert's elevation to the England squad and move to Liverpool has been one of the summer's more romantic stories. Ralph Ellis reckons he could make an even bigger impact at Anfield...

I live in Bristol, which might explain why I've always had a bit of a fascination for the Rickie Lambert story.

I first saw him play in 2006 when Bristol Rovers had not long spent 200,000 to sign him from Rochdale, and to be honest it was hard to see why he was worth that much. He wasn't quick, he took from August to November to score his first goal. For a club that under Ian Holloway had earned a reputation for finding bargain priced strikers and turning them into goalscoring superstars, it didn't look as if he was going to add to that tradition.

But he worked, and he blossomed, and he helped move the club back into League One thanks to a play-off victory, before suddenly finding his form to hit 29 goals in a season. He still wasn't quick, but he had that knack of finding himself in the right place at the right time, he could pick a pass to a team mate, and boy, could he finish.

I remember talking to Lennie Lawrence, who was the club's director of football, towards the end of that 2008-9 season and asking whether Lambert would join the club's list of centre forwards like Barry Hayles, Marcus Stewart, Jason Roberts, Nathan Ellington and Bobby Zamora who had gone on to play in the Premier League.

"Unlikely," was Lennie's professional verdict. "He's a good footballer, but he hasn't got that bit of pace or that something extra that people want. I'm not sure a Premier League club will take a chance on him."

He wasn't totally wrong. Southampton were in League One when they spent 1million to sign him. But as we know together they made the journey to the top flight, and now Lambert has moved on again to play for England and join Liverpool.

There are still plenty who doubt whether he belongs at that level.  Even Gary McAllister in last week's Betfair Big Interviewadmitted he had concerns. But Lambert has spent a career proving people wrong, and looks as if he could be ready to do it again.

He had been on the field for all of two minutes against his old club Saints yesterday when Daniel Sturridge got the winning goal. And it seemed to me it was the presence of another genuine striker that helped make the space for Sturridge to get on the end of Raheem Sterling's header.

Roy Hodgson clearly doesn't think Sturridge and Lambert belong on the same pitch. They have 22 England caps between them, but have shared just 28 minutes of playing time in only three games.

But maybe Brendan Rodgers has bigger ideas for the way a partnership might blossom, and how Sturridge, who has an astonishing 32 goals from 38 Premier League starts at Anfield so far, could benefit from the guy who the rest of the managers were so reluctant go take a chance on.

Lambert is still not quick. The EA stats say only Simon Mignolet's fastest sprint was slower than his yesterday. But he continues to pick a pass - in his 14 minutes on the pitch he had the ball eight times and found a team mate with it every single time.

His potential influence looks to me like one more reason that Sturridge is an absolute gift to back at odds against of 2.245/4 to finish among the top four Premier League scorers.

"A good footballer" was how Lennie described him when damning with faint praise. I think we might be going to find out exactly how good.