benali-shorts

Might not necessarily be a bad thing to have someone in the players' camp who has left Saints and discovered that the grass wasn't necessarily greener.

From a purely football perspective, I think he'd be a decent option for us to play anywhere in the 3 behind the striker, and that he'd improve us, so I'd sign him on that basis. Admittedly hard to overlook the emotional aspect and his beard though. Agree with comment that it's unlikely that the Board would entertain it, however from a football perspective there aren't currently a huge amount of options for attacking midfielders who can combine creativity and pressing/tracking back as effectively as he did for us in 13/14.

It's not impossible that Lallana may be surplus to requirements and jettisoned by Liverpool at the end of the season. On 2014/15 form, it's unlikely that he'd be pursued by any of the top 6 and that he'd therefore be a target for the rest. Maybe there's too much water under the bridge, however putting emotional instinct aside, would he be a decent footballing target for a Saints return in 2016/17? I think he'd be a decent buy at c£10m (he'll be 28 in summer 2016), assuming he's acquired some humility and a razor before then.

The Times reporting that we're unwilling to increase offer to Celtic's demand of £12m, and that we're interested in Werder Bremen's Jannik Vestergaard.

Stuttgart fans' opinions (on loan there 2014/15) - seemed to be considered a squad player and views on him fairly ambivalent http://forum.vfb.de/viewtopic.php?f=30&t=5484&hilit=romeu&start=700

The Times today in piece on Ridgers' travails: "Rodgers preference would be to recruit proven British players, such as Ashley Williams & Ryan Bertrand."

Yes yes and thrice yes. Thanks Dan Johnson, son of Don.

surprising to see a stoic on here.

The Times reporting it as a done deal: Mauricio Pochettino boosted by recruitment of former Southampton aide Mauricio Pochettino’s position at Tottenham Hotspur was bolstered yesterday when the club moved to bring in one of his former aides at Southampton. Paul Mitchell, the south coast club’s head of recruitment, is expected to follow Pochettino to White Hart Lane in a move that will raise questions over the future of Franco Baldini, the club’s sporting director. Mitchell has been widely credited with masterminding Southampton’s successful transfer policy over the past two years, which has taken them up to second in the Barclays Premier League despite losing many of their biggest names last summer. The 33-year-old former Wigan Athletic and MK Dons midfield player began his scouting career in Milton Keynes after being forced to retire with a broken leg at the age of 27, setting up a recruitment division at the club before joining Southampton two years ago. Daniel Levy, the Spurs chairman, is determined to overhaul recruitment as a result of the limited impact made by the signings financed by Gareth Bale’s £85 million move to Real Madrid last summer, the majority of which were masterminded by Baldini. The Italian seems set to stay at the club, but Mitchell has made it a condition of his recruitment that he will not report to him directly when he joins Spurs. Mousa Dembélé has said that he has received no explanation for being left out at Spurs and will be further frustrated to learn that the club are confident of landing Fabian Delph, the Aston Villa and England midfielder, in January.

Townsend probably, weren't we after him (and harry kane) in Jan?

immers signed a new deal at feyenoord this week, so don't worry.

Blah blah blah Southampton could face an exodus of as many as eight first-team players this summer, with a growing number of Mauricio Pochettino’s squad nursing concerns over the club’s long-term ambitions. Manchester United and Liverpool moved within hours of the end of the season to take advantage of the uncertainty at St Mary’s. United submitted an offer of £27 million for Luke Shaw, the full back, and Liverpool made a bid of about £20million for Adam Lallana, the midfield player. Rickie Lambert is also thought to be contemplating a move, while the likes of Calum Chambers, Morgan Schneiderlin and Dejan Lovren have all attracted interest for their performances this season. Southampton’s board met to discuss what may prove to be the most pressing decision: the future of Pochettino himself. Tottenham Hotspur have made an official approach to speak to him over their vacant managerial position, but Katharina Liebherr, the owner, intends to try to persuade the former Espanyol head coach to stay by offering him improved terms. Pochettino is thought to be concerned over the club’s direction.

harsh on sturridge Bearsy.

What on earth does this bit of the interview mean exactly? Is it just media babble? >>It is put to Krueger that he must believe the club is in the position to convince Pochettino to stay. "Philosophically, if you look at my leadership style and you make the statement you did, then you can draw a line under what you think is happening," he says. "We have an open culture here."

Not sure, it was emailed to me

Interesting detail on the tactical approach. Apologies if posted previously - think there was a similar article recently but without the same level of tactical insight. >>>>>>> Like last season with Jack Cork, you seem to have been handed instructions to play a few steps ahead of Victor Wanyama in midfield. It all started with Pochettino’s arrival. Before that I was used more as the anchor man just in front of the defence. When he came, he spoke to me straight ahead « I saw a couple of videos from you and I think you’ve the techical and physical abilities to do more attacking ». Then he asked me to play a step ahead, to get into space and burst forward. I’m expected to do the constant link between defence and attack whilst maintaining the same intensity in terms of pressing. Even if I can’t do that all 90 mn (laughs) Your pairing with Victor Wanyama is improving but it will still require a bit of time before you’ll get to the same marks than when you played with Cork… Absolutely. We know each other for years (with Cork) so we had a perfect understanding of one another on the pitch. Last season we knew exactly how the other did play. With Wanyama I had to start over. We’re not there yet, that’s for sure. He struggled a bit to cope with the way he’s pressed. He wasn’t used to that in his former league and it was a tad difficult for him athletically. But you’re right, it’s way better now. It can only improve because as we see at training he’s a very good player, technically in instance. It’s more about physicality and positioning but that will come. You spole about pressing earlier, do Pochettino asks to isolate the player in possession or does he prefer playing 1v1 all across the field, kind of « matching » a lot of Championship use to do ? First of all, we have to close the central zones. He keeps saying it’s the heart of play and there’s always more options from the central zones: switches of play etc… He emphasises on blocking passing lanes. Anyway when I do press, I try to leave the worst passing option possible to the opponent. Pochettino asks us not to give the opponent the choice. But it requires a massive amount of work from a collective point of view. It’s not surprising after six or seven months working on it that we’re now able to harass and fully inbalance some of the teams we face. We couldn’t do that from the start as it’s a massive work put in at training. He wants us to recover the ball as high as possible, so for that it’s usually up to a forward to trigger the pressing ; so then we’ve to follow. Personnally, I sometimes have to leave my zone to help on one side if a winger who was out of position because he was in a forward zone and couldn’t fall back in time. I’m the closest to the ball to intervene so then even if I’m tired, I’m kicking my ass. So then, the winger has to fill my zone and then we switch positions. This is the basic philosophy. We have precise drills and patterns depending of the situation. On goalkicks, if they attack from the right side etc. Pochettino is all about detail, really. I recall that he showed us from the start that a meter or half a meter could block two passing lanes in midfield. We just had to move a step ahead or orientating our body a given way to face the opponent in order to put him into trouble So then Lambert runs a bit more than before… Even him runs more, says it all (laughs). It’s not his thing but he’s adapting to what the coach’s demands. It’s often him or Osvaldo who triggers the first wave of pressure. If one of the two starts, it triggers the whole process. Pressing is first and foremost a collective thing. If I’m coming out, the winger will react that way, so will my team mate in midfield and so on. How is all that implemented on daily basis at training ? You’re ought to know we play a 11v11 game every wednesday. It’s often against the reserves, or the academy ; youths basically but intensity is maximal. The staff implements several patterns of play depending of the situations. And as we changed the system – because Pochettino likes to play with a 10 and a lone striker – because Osvaldo and Lambert are both out and out forwards, it requires adaptation We work on patterns to get the ball out from the back on goalkicks: the last two games, both CM had to get to both angles of the penalty box while the two CB had to spread to both sides of the box. Full backs have to get close to the byline and the midway line. The purpose is to get the ball out from the back on ground and not hoofing the ball on Lambert. If the pass toward Wanyama isn’t possible, we have the two center backs. If opponents close us down, so then both full backs are unmarked in a free zone. The aim is to find them as soon as possible in order to write off the most opposing players as we can. If ever we don’t have a short option, that means that the opponent has closed us down as a team ans so then we’ve to play long on Lambert because it will be 1v1 in the air. But we often change that pattern because opponents adapts after a couple of games. While attacking, there’s also the will to pass the ball on the floor and stretch opposing defences. Hence how crucial is your role as you’re a specialist to switch the play. We must know how to oxygenate play, dictating the rythm, surprise the opponent. Pochettino asks me to switch the play often because he likes that. He wants us to devellop a genuine playing identity. Even falling back as a team is necessary, he gives us license to attack. He wants his full backs to get into attacking positions, put under presure opponent’s wingers. We always have to scan around. If you’re head first in Premier League… That playing intelligence, is it the recipe of your success against the best teams ? I do think so, indeed. But it’s because we’re more at ease with all the teams trying to get the ball out from the back, such as Chelsea, Manchester City or Swansea. We often speak about Arsenal or Swansea for ball retention, but Swansea really is the best there is in England. They’re really impressing. From now on, Bony gives them the running into depth which stretches the lines. Not a surprise if their manager is Laudrup with his experience as a player, his experience in Spain Back to us, with all that work implemented by Pochettino, we’re now able to suffocate those teams. We saw that at Liverpool. Last season, we had a lot of struggles with teams playing route one football such as West Ham. Even this season, we haven’t played so well even if Jääskeläinen saves them. Southampton is currently 4th on the table. The ambitions got to another level. Proof is that a lot of teams now play very defensive against you, as if they were afraid of you Indeed, we often play very organised teams. It’s a good indication I bet that you’ll end the season in the top 6, was I right to do so ? (laughs) I’m being very honest. If we end up 10th, it will be a failure for me. I’m playing to win, not to stay in mid-table even if that’s decent, in some way. I think we’ve enough quality on and off the pitch to do something good. But there’s a crucial point to take into consideration: our propensity to handle pressure/expectations. Imagine that we’re in the top 5 in December or January, it won’t be the same situation as now. Expectations will be much more important, focus [from the opinion] as well. It’s different from (he pauses)... It’s not the same to be an outsider than being a genuine contender. We don’t have that experience ans I don’t know how we will react. Will we panic ? Will we be up to that ? Players such as Lambert or Lovren have a lot of experience. Even guys such as Lallana or I have play hundreds of games. But not to end up in the first places on the table Are you satisfied with your season so far ? Right from the start – no. Against WBA it was OK but I wasn’t very good against West Ham even if I come this close to score. I had a tad more difficult period. As I’m a perfectionnist, I’m not satisfied with being « decent ». I know I wasn’t that bad but it wasn’t good either. I’m satisfied since the Liverpool game. I just played three good games against Palace and Swansea You were in the storm after your tackle on Mohamed Diamé. You get to the ball first but what you put into that challenge was impressing. Back then I was wondering why there was hurling. I knew I got the ball so I didn’t understood. I still apologized straight away. I’m not the kind of guy to injure another player. What was funny though was that we met referees in order to speak about supposed behaviours, rules and tackles. It was the WH game’s referee. Watching the video he said « it’s supposed to be yellow on that one but you got the ball first ». Problem was more the impact in the tackle, I didn’t realize that on the pitch. From a distance, one wouldn’t think you’re that powerful even if you don’t have Rickie Lambert’s frame either But I don’t wan’t Lambert’s frame, I wouldn’t move if so. You don’t even know how massive he is. I gained strength because we’ve a very good individual program. I had to be more powerful without loosing on mobility/dynamism. By the way, I’d like to say that Southampton’s medical staff is amazing. I haven’t had a muscular injury for two and a half years and it’s nothing to do with luck. I have a good lifestyle but we do a lot of prevention. In instance we work a lot on glueteal muscles before every training session.

Just signed first proper ££ contract with us?

surely his chant has to simply be poch-et-tino, to the ar-gen-tina chant. simple enough even for us to manage.

Distant links to Anthony Salz? Dark days, although quite entertaining forum days.

Very enjoyable read, Duncan, with thanks.

Still painful to watch midget Heath score. It's never a free kick against Reuben.

Just to clarify what I hear and from whom - I met with one of Ted van Leeuwen's colleagues on Friday (coincidental meeting, and not related to football): Vitesse's attitude is that they have done a deal with Saints and that Buttner is duty-bound to proceed with this. The additional payments that are required mean the deal is in limbo until one of the parties (Saints; Vitesse; Buttner) compromise. Buttner currently training on his own and not permitted to negotiate elsewhere. On Friday, Vitesse were informed that a compromise had been reached over the other party and they assumed that the deal would therefore proceed. I said at the time I couldn't comment as to when Saints would conclude. Just to clarify, Saints had (as of Friday) actively not withdrawn the offer, i.e. Vitesse still not discussing with any other party. Sounded like Vitesse and Saints had agreed to leave Buttner in limbo to force the deal through. Bit of a weird one all round. Doubt I'll see the guy from Vitesse again, so alas no more updates. Apologies for jumping the gun on assuming it would complete quickly, but as of Friday, Saints definitely still had the offer agreed with Vitesse and hadn't withdrawn from the deal.

did dorigo play for us actually? is replying to yourself a sign of insanity?

kanchelskis dorigo

from the dutch side of the talks, hence don't know when we will conclude.