Batman Posted 17 January, 2015 Share Posted 17 January, 2015 it seems we have a bit of depth. sure, we are always going to miss toby, morgan and vic. Those 3 are absolutely brilliant. but for the run-in for the league we will have this lot that played against newcastle plus Mane, Toby, Morgan, Vic, Yoshida and maybe (hopefully) rodriguez plus mayuka good bit of depth we have Just hope forster does not get injured/sent off Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Saint_clark Posted 17 January, 2015 Share Posted 17 January, 2015 Reed looks an utterly fantastic little player. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Saint-Armstrong Posted 17 January, 2015 Share Posted 17 January, 2015 CB: Alderweireld, Fonte, Gardos, Yoshida CM: Schneiderlin, Wanyama, Ward-Prowse, S. Davis, Cork, Reed FW: Pellè, Rodriguez, Long, Mané, Tadić, Elia. Certainly a strong spine, ignoring the lack of cover at GK and RB. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SNSUN Posted 17 January, 2015 Share Posted 17 January, 2015 It pays to have a top academy. Reed, Targett and JWP are all seamlessly covering available positions, not to mention those that are waiting in the wings. The squad has it's weak areas, losing Forster or Pelle could be costly, but otherwise we have decent quality in depth. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Baird of the land Posted 17 January, 2015 Share Posted 17 January, 2015 Amazing transfer business by Saints this season. Every signing seems to have worked out. Great to see us blooding youngsters successfully too to provide our additional depth. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Turkish Posted 17 January, 2015 Share Posted 17 January, 2015 Reed looks an utterly fantastic little player. That extra game midweek killed us. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Matthew Le God Posted 17 January, 2015 Share Posted 17 January, 2015 CB: Alderweireld, Fonte, Gardos, Yoshida CM: Schneiderlin, Wanyama, Ward-Prowse, S. Davis, Cork, Reed FW: Pellè, Rodriguez, Long, Mané, Tadić, Elia. Certainly a strong spine, ignoring the lack of cover at GK and RB. We don't lack cover at right back, we have the England and Belgian international right backs in our squad. Yes, it means we'd have to move Alderweireld out of the centre, but it is still very high quality right back cover. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Batman Posted 17 January, 2015 Author Share Posted 17 January, 2015 I hope we get a couple of these loans to sign Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
richard Posted 17 January, 2015 Share Posted 17 January, 2015 It pays to have a top academy. Reed, Targett and JWP are all seamlessly covering available positions, not to mention those that are waiting in the wings. The squad has it's weak areas, losing Forster or Pelle could be costly, but otherwise we have decent quality in depth. Absolutely. They are providing brilliant cover at the moment which is giving them a chance to break into the team! Massive win. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Saint_clark Posted 17 January, 2015 Share Posted 17 January, 2015 That extra game midweek killed us. Not killed, but it certainly didn't do Wanyama any favours. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bearsy Posted 17 January, 2015 Share Posted 17 January, 2015 I hope we get a couple of these loans to sign All 3 for me pls Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
70's Mike Posted 17 January, 2015 Share Posted 17 January, 2015 It pays to have a top academy. Reed, Targett and JWP are all seamlessly covering available positions, not to mention those that are waiting in the wings. The squad has it's weak areas, losing Forster or Pelle could be costly, but otherwise we have decent quality in depth. Basically agree but actually believe other Clubs have good academys BUT we give ours a chance and TRUST them Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CHAPEL END CHARLIE Posted 17 January, 2015 Share Posted 17 January, 2015 It's almost scary to think where this team of ours might be with a fit and in-form JayRod contributing - the gap between us and the top two could well be minimal now. It's still early I know, but Koeman surely has to be in with a shout of the 'Manager of the Season' award. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
davefizzy14 Posted 17 January, 2015 Share Posted 17 January, 2015 Amazing transfer business by Saints this season. Every signing seems to have worked out. Great to see us blooding youngsters successfully too to provide our additional depth. Spot on this. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Saint Charlie Posted 17 January, 2015 Share Posted 17 January, 2015 Only areas badly lacking IMO is cover keeper and like for like cover for Pelle. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lighthouse Posted 17 January, 2015 Share Posted 17 January, 2015 Assuming out first choice 11 is something like: Forster - Clyne Fonte Toby Bertrand - Morgan Victor - Mane Davis Rodriguez - Pelle Then our second choice would be: Davis - McCarthy Yoshi Gardos Targett - Reed Cork - Elia Tadic JWP - Long Aside from Davis and McCarthy and Long not being a 'lead the line' type striker, that's a mid table Premier League team we've got in reserve. I'd take that over the team which started the 2012/13 season. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bucks Saint Posted 17 January, 2015 Share Posted 17 January, 2015 We should have lost the first FA cup game Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
FloridaMarlin Posted 17 January, 2015 Share Posted 17 January, 2015 Basically agree but actually believe other Clubs have good academys BUT we give ours a chance and TRUST them If you need proof of that look no further than Swindon v Chesterfield today. Swindon's best player was John Swift, on loan from Chelsea, and described as the next Frank Lampard in a gushing Daily Mail profile this week. He's 19 and on loan at a League One side. He's never going to break into the Chelsea team because if Hazard or Oscar break down, they'll just lavish £25m on another player. If he was at Saints he would have got a chance by now. He must look at JPW with envy. Like our little midfield gem, he's also from p****y. Incidentally, Jack Stephens scored Swindon's first goal today, playing out of position in the centre of midfield. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Baird of the land Posted 17 January, 2015 Share Posted 17 January, 2015 If you need proof of that look no further than Swindon v Chesterfield today. Swindon's best player was John Swift, on loan from Chelsea, and described as the next Frank Lampard in a gushing Daily Mail profile this week. He's 19 and on loan at a League One side. He's never going to break into the Chelsea team because if Hazard or Oscar break down, they'll just lavish £25m on another player. If he was at Saints he would have got a chance by now. He must look at JPW with envy. Like our little midfield gem, he's also from p****y. Incidentally, Jack Stephens scored Swindon's first goal today, playing out of position in the centre of midfield. Agree completely about Chelsea. Really hope Jack Stephens can step up next season with Saints first team squad. Swindon fan i know rates him highly as a defender and defensive midfielder. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
doddisalegend Posted 17 January, 2015 Share Posted 17 January, 2015 We don't lack cover at right back, we have the England and Belgian international right backs in our squad. Yes, it means we'd have to move Alderweireld out of the centre, but it is still very high quality right back cover. Generally I don't think moving a player from his best position (which is CB regardless of what Belgium thinks) is the best plan even if he can do a job there. We need a dedicated RB as both cover and eventual replacement (most likely next summer) for Clyne IMO Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
doggface Posted 17 January, 2015 Share Posted 17 January, 2015 Only areas badly lacking IMO is cover keeper and like for like cover for Pelle. Bang on. Koeman was talking about signing a cf, but very quiet atm. GK position I find puzzling as to why the club have not acted. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
The9 Posted 19 January, 2015 Share Posted 19 January, 2015 it seems we have a bit of depth. sure, we are always going to miss toby, morgan and vic. Those 3 are absolutely brilliant. but for the run-in for the league we will have this lot that played against newcastle plus Mane, Toby, Morgan, Vic, Yoshida and maybe (hopefully) rodriguez plus mayuka good bit of depth we have Just hope forster does not get injured/sent off Reed has come along so much we can add him to the depth chart, and Gardos has shown in the past few matches that despite his ponderous decision-making on the ball and dwelling in possession, his defensive positional play and ball-winning skills are enough for him to contribute too. We've also added Elia, and Mane has shown he can play in the hole, so we're a couple of players better off now than we were when I was ripping apart the lack of depth everywhere except midfield in October-December (and even then the problem area of midfield turned out to be where we were strongest in depth in theory). We've still got a problem without Pelle or Forster though, but the way we've won away without Alderweireld, Wanyama and Schneiderlin in the last match shows we've got enough to beat anyone in the bottom 12 even with a couple of injuries. It could well still come down to having key players available in the borderline home games (the other top half sides below us) and as ever that might be down to a bit of luck. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Batman Posted 19 January, 2015 Author Share Posted 19 January, 2015 Luck is going to be huge Another ref could have easily given a penalty against fonte Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
The9 Posted 19 January, 2015 Share Posted 19 January, 2015 We should have lost the first FA cup game What, against Ipswich? Based on their one, lucky looping headed effort on target which happened to go in the top corner? We slaughtered them for the 10 minutes we were actually trying and spent the second half camped on the edge of their box failing to create a shooting opportunity. Like in whole of the replay, they weren't going to score in months and only one side was ever going to win it. That also had nothing to do with depth or tiredness, and everything to do with attitude - which was right for the replay. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
The9 Posted 19 January, 2015 Share Posted 19 January, 2015 We don't lack cover at right back, we have the England and Belgian international right backs in our squad. Yes, it means we'd have to move Alderweireld out of the centre, but it is still very high quality right back cover. We DO lack cover at right back, because it significantly weakens the centre back position. Albeit Gardos has been less of a liability since we stopped passing it to him. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
The9 Posted 19 January, 2015 Share Posted 19 January, 2015 Luck is going to be huge Another ref could have easily given a penalty against fonte Another ref could have given handball against the Newcastle player who blocked the clearance immediately before it with his elbow, too. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Patrick Bateman Posted 19 January, 2015 Share Posted 19 January, 2015 We DO lack cover at right back, because it significantly weakens the centre back position. Albeit Gardos has been less of a liability since we stopped passing it to him. haha! I like Gardos, he seems like a fairly intelligent defender who can only learn alongside Fonte. I mean, where did this level of Fonte come from?? Incredible! Fair play to him. I'm still concerned about the goalkeeper backup - hopefully they'll unearth some gem who is happy to be backup and is good enough to push Forster. Maybe that's Gazzaniga or Cropper now? I haven't seen either of them play this year so I can't comment, but I assume as they'd rather have Kelvin on the bench who must be rusty as hell (in match terms), that neither are stepping up? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Minty Posted 19 January, 2015 Share Posted 19 January, 2015 We DO lack cover at right back, because it significantly weakens the centre back position. Albeit Gardos has been less of a liability since we stopped passing it to him. Not sure I get your problem with Gardos. Yes he has dwelt on the ball a couple of times, but only in early games, and he is sharpening up with every game he plays and is pretty comfortable on the ball overall. He's clearly not yet at Toby or Fonte's level, but he is a very competent player who, given his age, will only get better with experience. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
The9 Posted 19 January, 2015 Share Posted 19 January, 2015 (edited) Not sure I get your problem with Gardos. Yes he has dwelt on the ball a couple of times, but only in early games, and he is sharpening up with every game he plays and is pretty comfortable on the ball overall. He's clearly not yet at Toby or Fonte's level, but he is a very competent player who, given his age, will only get better with experience. I no longer have a problem with Gardos, he's shown he's worth his place based on his defensive abilities, just don't ask him to make a passing decision with the ball at his feet. The reason he hasn't passed to any opponents or been caught on the ball in the past couple of games as much is mainly because we've adjusted the decision-making so that if we're under pressure at the back with the ball at the back, we now pass it to Forster or one of the full backs instead of Gardos. His clearances is defensive situations are fine, but he does give it to the opposition too much (including Ipswich) when he's trying to play it out of defence. Now ideally I'd like our defenders not to have that handicap, but we're working around it, so it's not an issue at the moment. The Yoshida for Gardos swap at the end of the Arsenal game showed how Koeman felt about the balance between the need to retain possession at the back and opposition's (complete lack of) aerial threat though. Edited 19 January, 2015 by The9 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
The9 Posted 19 January, 2015 Share Posted 19 January, 2015 haha! I like Gardos, he seems like a fairly intelligent defender who can only learn alongside Fonte. I mean, where did this level of Fonte come from?? Incredible! Fair play to him. I'm still concerned about the goalkeeper backup - hopefully they'll unearth some gem who is happy to be backup and is good enough to push Forster. Maybe that's Gazzaniga or Cropper now? I haven't seen either of them play this year so I can't comment, but I assume as they'd rather have Kelvin on the bench who must be rusty as hell (in match terms), that neither are stepping up? I think the thing with reserve keeper can be misleading, Davis is on the bench for experience, and also so the other keepers can get experience in Dev squad and (previously?) Youth games. If they're on the bench for the first team they're missing out on matches. I honestly don't see Gazzaniga getting another contract based on last season's performances though. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
van Hanegem Posted 19 January, 2015 Share Posted 19 January, 2015 it seems we have a bit of depth. sure, we are always going to miss toby, morgan and vic. Those 3 are absolutely brilliant. but for the run-in for the league we will have this lot that played against newcastle plus Mane, Toby, Morgan, Vic, Yoshida and maybe (hopefully) rodriguez plus mayuka good bit of depth we have Just hope forster does not get injured/sent off Good to see Saints are holding on to third place! I could only wish that Feyenoord had the "bit of depth" you mentioned above... Although we're playing better football now after Pelle left (Koeman's tactics at Feyenoord were simple: all balls to Pelle...), we surely miss him as a target man and we don't have the money like Saints to buy a decent replacement. Then again, which player is there to buy who could play like Pelle? Off course there are enough better central forwards or should I say goalscorers but are they the teamplayer that Pelle is? So, who would you like to see as an equal substitute for Pelle or would you choose for Koeman to change tactics? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SaintTex Posted 19 January, 2015 Share Posted 19 January, 2015 Basically agree but actually believe other Clubs have good academys BUT we give ours a chance and TRUST themYes, but why do we trust them more than other clubs trust theirs? This weekend on American TV, a NBCSN commentator noted that the reason Southampton can seamlessly insert our Academy players into the starting XI and be successful is exactly because we have NOT put them out on loan. They stay at the Southampton Academy, they are coached by Southampton coaches, they are taught "the Southampton Way" (for lack of a better term) and they practice with Southampton players (first teamers). They don't pick up bad habits or taught contrary techniques/schemes while at other clubs while out on loan. There is a consistency to their training, their football education. They know exactly what do and what is expected of them when they get the chance to play under the bright lights. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dark Munster Posted 19 January, 2015 Share Posted 19 January, 2015 Bang on. Koeman was talking about signing a cf, but very quiet atm. GK position I find puzzling as to why the club have not acted. Indeed. They are playing russian roulette with the gk situation. We've been lucky for 22 PL matches, and I think they are hoping for the same over the remaining 16 PL (and cup) matches. If they don't get a dcent gk cover and FF gets a serious injury the season could go up in smoke. To a lesser extent, similarly with Pelle. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bobbyboy Posted 19 January, 2015 Share Posted 19 January, 2015 This weekend on American TV, a NBCSN commentator noted that the reason Southampton can seamlessly insert our Academy players into the starting XI and be successful is exactly because we have NOT put them out on loan. They stay at the Southampton Academy, they are coached by Southampton coaches, they are taught "the Southampton Way" (for lack of a better term) and they practice with Southampton players (first teamers). They don't pick up bad habits or taught contrary techniques/schemes while at other clubs while out on loan. Didn't Les Reed say something sometime about how it was a case of using loans in certain circumstances, depending on the player, the team being loaned to etc. Trying to figure out a way Stephens and Turnbull could still have a future at the club since they've not been with us for a while. Or are they just in the shop window? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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