syd_barrett_saint

https://www.saintsweb.co.uk/showthread.php?61138-The-quot-Deadline-Day-quot-Thread/page10#.XUxeO5NKh-X

Alderweireld Mk 2, hopefully! (but also hopefully a permanent signing who stays around for longer)

Wouldn't a dismissal for a 2nd yellow card mean a 1 match suspension, that he served tonight?

And in doing so, Fat Sam sends West Ham down. I'd love to see it.

From what I saw Bertrand has been more of a liability down the left than Boufal so far. Bertrand has been very sloppy in possession.

Knowing Saints, we'll mess up a lot of the "easy" games, as we have done so far this season, but then do better than expected against the bigger clubs, making up for dropped points that way. We're certainly due a few results against the top 6 in the league after the abject failure in that area under Puel.

We're not going to get overrun by replacing Redmond on the wing with Long, and having Gabbiadini up front. Quite the opposite I'd suggest... Long puts more work in and tracks back more than Redmond.

The problem with saying we can't play with 2 strikers is that it seems Long is being classified as a striker. I think he's more effective wide as part of a front 3. That way we can easily play Gabbiadini through the middle, with Long and one other (Tadic or Boufal) either side of him. I'm not sure if Pellegrino is ruling out such a line-up because he classifies Long as a striker and he won't play with 2 strikers. Which would be strangely arbitrary.

Well, at the very least today should be the last time Redmond starts for a while, and hopefully Pellegrino will see that we can play with Long and Gabbiadini at the same time, assuming one of them is on the wing (Long I think). Also would be nice to see Boufal get some starts now after he created our goal today... maybe even as number 10 in place of Davis? We should be strong enough in the middle against the poorer sides we have coming up with Lemina and Romeu behind Boufal.

None of the replays of the Stoke winner went back far enough to show what happened with Cedric. Was he pushed, or did he just f*ck it up himself?

The way things are going we might as well play Stephens and Hoedt at the back so we can have Yoshida and Van Dijk up front.

If someone says that Redmond could be an Eriksen or a Salah, how else are you supposed to take it other than a comparison to those players? You also have the wrong stats, in 2014/15 Eriksen scored 10 goals in the Premier League. It was his best goalscoring season for Spurs (but the following 2 seasons were far better in terms of assists). Either way, whatever way you look at it, Redmond will LITERALLY never be an Eriksen in terms of quality, level or play or type of player.

I'm not a Forster fan, and I think he's been mediocre this season and last, but you're wrong in this case. It was a great reflex save and there was no way he was going to recover from that in time to get anywhere near the 2nd shot. The only players possibly at fault for the goal are Tadic for failing to prevent Young's cross, Hoedt for not being strong enough against Lukaku (then again, how many defenders are? and he was also probably fouled), and Yoshida for marking space and being nowhere near any Utd attackers when the cross came in.

This is the team. Done. Can someone please advise Pellegrino?

He'll never be an Eriksen. Assuming you are talking about the one at Spurs. Not only is Eriksen not much older and streets ahead of Redmond in terms of end product, they are also completely different types of player.

As I said, different types of player. The success or failure of a player like Davis isn't judged only on goals and assists. That would be like judging Forster just on clean sheets when often in recent seasons it's been more down to having such good defenders in front of him that he has very little to do.

You'd expect Tadic to be even further ahead, to be honest. Davis isn't played in the same forward role that Tadic is... Davis has far more defensive responsibilities (and also is used more to link play between defense and attack), even when playing in the 3 behind the striker.

According to the following study, Steven Davis was the most positively influential player in the Saints team last season, just ahead of Romeu and VVD: http://www.bbc.com/sport/football/40974299 Unsurprisingly, Tadic has the most negative influence.

Everything in his locker, except for consistency, penalties... shooting in general, pace, moving the ball on quickly when required, a good temperament, and honest play (he dives too often). I'm not saying he isn't a very talented player, who in the right position and system can be a great creative hub. BUT... he is far from having everything in his locker.

Agreed, although I would still stick to having Long as part of the 3 behind Gabbi as the sole striker. I know you like 2 up front but I don't think it's going to happen. For me, against Watford we should play: Forster Cedric Yoshida Hoedt Bertrand Lemina Romeu Long Davis Redmond Gabbiadini Although unless Redmond improves in this game, I would give Boufal at least half an hour instead of him in the 2nd half. But, being Watford, hopefully Redmond will improve... he scored in both games against them last season :-)

This thread I saw on the Saints subreddit might share some light on the situation: "The Targett deal earlier was actually very far in the process, but Targett wasn't too keen on joining for a full season loan due to him not knowing whether he would enjoy it in Newcastle or not." "Saints didnt think that the 6 month/full season loan would be such a massive issue as they thought an extension could be discussed again at the 6 month mark but newcastle for some reason were not happy with that. (Which is strange as they will now only have one fit LB)"

To be honest there hasn't been a lot of competition on the field in that respect. But there are other options in the squad who given the chance could do better.

6 league goals a season isn't too bad if he's playing in the 3 behind the striker. It's more or less what you're likely to get from Tadic or Redmond. But in my opinion Long brings a lot more to the team than they do, in terms of the space he helps create, the lost causes he turns around, and the hard work he does for the team.

For me, Long and Boufal could be an improvement on Redmond and Tadic. Long changed the complexion of the game when he came on against Huddersfield, and made more happen in half an hour than Redmond did in the whole game. He's just as pacy as Redmond, if not more so, puts more effort in, creates more space, and I think he can put last season's bad luck in front of goal behind him and be a danger as one of the 3 behind the striker. And Tadic has been so bad that Boufal deserves a few games to see if he can do better.

Ever since they changed to 3-5-2 near the start of last season Azpilicueta has played as one of the 3 centre-backs. He has only played at right wing back on occasion when Moses was unavailable or required to play further forward due to other players being unavailable there. I'm sure that Conte wants someone who can play as a more attacking right wing back, similar to Moses, as backup/competition for the role. And of course Oxlade-Chamberlain can also fill in for various other positions if needed, as noted by others here.