mrfahaji

But just as when you posted this last time, his shots to saves ratio suggested that he did in fact have a terrible season. By the same token, those stats also don't tell the whole story, but they do support more what I saw with my own eyes. He did go on a particularly bad run where he failed to make any saves and was questionable for a lot of goals. He's so slow to get down, which is perhaps understandable for a big guy, but surely on the flip side someone of his size should offer MORE in terms of coming out for crosses, commanding his area etc which he, frankly, does not do at all well.

Agree, it could work. For those that saw him play in Italy, can't Gabbiadini also operate slightly deeper? Not sure how best to use him to a) drop deeper to pick up the ball and also b) play on the shoulder of the defence at the same time, but no reason it can't be mixed up a bit. Especially as Stephens and van Dijk would both be capable of pushing up into the midfield in this set up. Still missing that effective box to box midfielder though...

Yep, and we even tried to play this line up (though not with Stephens) a few times towards the end of the season with largely disastrous consequences. Totally lost control of the midfield as you would expect.

Ha, I was confused for a minute there, thought I'd replied to the wrong post. Apologies, assumed it was a reply from ALWAYS! You should be a little bit worried that I thought your post could have been one of his though...

WTF. Wasn't he already rumoured to be a crazy amount per week? Presumably we've just given him a bit more?!

I don't think he's particularly brilliant at either, but still currently better than Ward-Prowse. I wouldn't expect you to agree on anything remotely positive about Davis though. The trade off for good corners might be worth picking JWP anyway, but then again we hardly ever score from them because we don't have enough of a threat in the air, especially when van Dijk isn't playing.

I guess you're right on that. Just seems funny that I don't really see you contributing to many discussions and then he posts something (sometimes a wind up post, but not always) and BAM! There you are with literally the very next post, like clockwork.

Don't feel a Samuel article deserves any sort of consideration, but there's two things about the FFP ruling. Firstly, the way it was set up favoured the clubs who had already spent and meant others couldn't get near them. Secondly, without the FFP it now becomes a case of who has the richest owner (or the one prepared to spend the most). Don't think either of those cases is great to be honest, and it's a shame that it seems to be one of the other and they couldn't come up with a better system that served sustainability and healthy competition. Unfortunately the answer is handicapping the wealthiest clubs as well as, if not more than the other teams, and we know that's NEVER going to happen.

Really? Don't get me wrong, I love our kit and wouldn't change it, but I really like Sunderland's too. Reminds me of our 2003 UEFA shirt which is one of my favourite Saints shirts.

Well at least you acknowledge it... I'd say at the moment Davis offers more than JWP as a 'linking' player, whether that's running with the ball or creative passing (the sort of passes that not every player can pick out). However, for the reasons you give I certainly think it's worth giving JWP a shot there. He's not particularly mobile though, so his effectiveness may depend on whether we find a good partner for Romeu, or perhaps if Hojbjerg steps up a gear this campaign.

Do you have Heisenberg posts on a notification setting or something?!

I think most people see this as the base team, with a couple of possible changes. JWP/Davis/Clasie/Hojbjerg are a bunch of players that whoever is picked on the day, I expect most people will say "ok fair enough". Equally if Boufal is picked in one of the wide positions. The issue I have is no matter which of those four midfielders you use to plug the two gaps in midfield, it's a bit "meh". I'm ok that we go with one of them - perhaps Hojbjerg can do a job defensively if we have a quality player ahead of him, and perhaps Davis or JWP can be more effective attacking players if they're not having to get back and help the DMs so much - but we saw it too often last season that we either had no-one joining the attack, or we looked lightweight in the middle and teams bypassed us easily if they managed to avoid Oriol!

It's a bit of both really. Games are sometimes won by the team that sets up right tactically, or maybe just an individual tactic that makes the difference in a marginal game (which most football matches are). That being said, games are also often decided by one team having a player who needs one chance to score, and the other not managing to find the net despite carving out several good opportunities (usually Saints!)

Yes it probably is, but it's also a slightly different way of looking at it. You could look at the fact we keep some of our better players and say "that's progress, we haven't done that before", or you could look at obvious weaknesses in the team and say "we should be looking to upgrade that position". Just because the first one is true doesn't mean the second one shouldn't happen. There is always criticism that we will never compete further up the table because of the perpetual player sales, so if we do manage to keep hold of everyone, surely now is the time to bring one or two others in, partly to really have a go this year without having to go overboard, and partly so that next year when those players probably do leave, we are only having to replace them rather than half the team. It does feel a little like we're resting on our laurels.

I suppose so, I tend to forget that footballers in their 20s are after good nightlife...! But quite a few of those 20-something footballers also have young families.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-38351138 I know this probably isn't quite the point you were making, but the South Coast is quite an attrative place to live, in fact probably one of the most attractive places to live after London.

Good points, as is your OP. Don't think it's unreasonable to want the club to take a step forward each season though, rather than patting itself on the back. Objectively I am delighted with our standing on and off the pitch, but there have been moments in the past (Alderweireld, Fonte, strikers last summer, AM for about 4 years) which have left me wondering if the club is quite such a well oiled machine as it likes to portray, as well as being a bit complacent at times. If, for example, we go into next season having not made any steps to strengthen our midfield, I would view that as a mistake and further evidence of complacency. This isn't the transfer window to start going all out, but it would be nice for us to get a little bit better every year, even if all we do is slightly improve on, or just maintain our position in the table.

Ha, it's just ridiculous isn't it? "These small clubs don't need our money any more, isn't it dreadful?" However, the Premier League will probably think Klopp has a point, and look for a way to redress the balance soon.

Possibly. I think he holds on to it more when he plays wide, but to be fair to him he oftens turns a defender inside out before eventually getting a cross in. When he plays centrally he's better at releasing the pass, but I'm not sure if his all round game is good enough to play that position. Perhaps with JWP on the right he could do. Perhaps you're thinking of someone like Danny Drinkwater (not saying he should be a target), who was excellent in pinging those balls over the top for Vardy, and looking for that pass was almost the first port of call. That being said, when you have someone with Vardy's pace, you can build your game around it. Gabbiadini doesn't have that, and although Shane Long does, I don't think we're going to adapt our whole system to play that way, especially with his profligacy. Who knows, perhaps Ward-Prowse could be the man with such a skill?

Exactly. Obviously good performances at that level are encouraging, but nothing more than a 'positive sign'. A sort of related stat, from the 2009 U21 Euro final, 6 of Germany's players that day went on to win the world cup. 5 of England's went on to play for Sunderland.

People are asking why VVD hasn't come out and spoken of his desire "not to leave". Perhaps the situation is that he does want to leave, but isn't desperate to. In that situation, it doesn't make sense for him to announce he's staying if there's still a chance of a move (imagine the wrath from supporters if he did that, a la Fabian Delph), but equally, if he knows he is staying and is prepared to get on with it, why does he need to make a statement? Yes it makes the Saints fans a little uneasy, but it also keeps all these pathetic scousers on the hook, and even LFC are hesitating on doing business because they think they can get him. Probably does more to unsettle them than it does us. Obviously this post is written with more than a dash of hope!

Except, he really isn't. Unless you're talking about England U21s. At best he "should be starting" for Saints, but even that is questionable. Although I know you have been a long time advocate of JWP, the bit about Hojbjerg smacks of someone reacting and overcompensating for other people's opinions. If we're going to 'dream' about how good Hojbjerg can become, we'd certainly be aiming higher than JWP's current standard!

I actually think that his best chance of being first choice for a position is if he improves in attacking midfield. You don't have to be blessed with pace to play there, and while I still think his vision, creativity & passing could be better, there's no doubt he has some ability in that regard. The biggest question mark is whether he can develop that goalscoring touch. I can't see that he can suddenly discover the kind of positioning nous that players like Dele Alli have, but as last season went on he did start showing a bit more purpose in the final third. With a bit more confidence, his 'good striking' of a ball might actually materialise into being able to shoot well from distance/mid-range. That being said, I wouldn't have him in my strongest eleven at the moment, just that the skills I can see developing could lead to him being suited to a slightly more advanced role.

Dusan Tadic is more than capable of this. He certainly has weaknesses in his game, but passing (and creating chances) is not one of them.

Before van Dijk, Bertrand, Cedric, Romeu and Gabbiadini? I can see an argument, even though I wouldn't necessarily agree, that he is currently better than our other non-Romeu central midfielders, but given that none of Clasie, Hojbjerg and Davis look like world beaters (in fact I think most fans would be a little disappointed if they were the extent of our midfield for next season), I'm not sure that's saying much.