Saints by height: Forster 6ft 7 VVD 6ft 4 Maya 6ft 2 Austin 6ft 2 Stevens 6ft 1 Gabbi 6ft 1 Jrod 6ft 1 Hojbjerg 6ft 1 Romeu 6ft 0 Long 5ft 11 Tadic 5ft 11 McQueen 5ft 11 Caceres 5ft 11 Bertrand 5ft 10 Boufal 5ft 9 Cedric 5ft 8 Redmond 5ft 8 Pied 5ft 8 Davis 5ft 8 JWP 5ft 8 Clasie 5ft 7
At one point last night I noticed during a CP attack that we'd somehow ended up with Cedric (5ft 8in) marking Benteke (8ft 3in). Fortunately the cross didn't come in. Vin
The Great Battle for 8th Place ! their should be goals but who will score the most? Football is so intriguing
If we beat WBrom, we'll finish above them. No doubts. Hope our relaxed attitude lets our players express themselves. Confident of a win, unusually,.
Round pegs for round holes, Clasie and Pierre are good enough to come in for Oriel and Davis and not have too much drop in overall performance. The worst thing to do would to upset the structure of the team that is playing so well.
I'd be for Caceres coming in, whether for Stephens (who I felt had easily his worst game for us to far yesterday, albeit on the back of probably his best game for us before that) or for Romeu with Stephens moving into DCM. But I would be very against us going to a back three/five. WBA will play one up front and have very little of the ball in open play. We'll be totally wasting a player by fielding three CBs alongside each other. I accept that it would really free our FBs to go forward and attack - and getting round the sides of them will no doubt be easier than tried to get through them - but you would hope we'd be bold enough to push the FBs forward a fair bit as it is. It's hardly the biggest prize in the world, but this is a massive battle for 8th placed. And given that we've had to cope with the EL, and a cup run - on top of losing Mane, Pelle and Wanyama (and Fonte and Virgil mid season, for different reasons) - I would be more than happy with 8th place.
It would be nice to get to 40 points in this game allowing the players to relax a bit and go on to beat Man City and Chelsea!
how about Caceres replacing Romeu and Clasie replacing Davis? I wouldn't mess with the Maya / Stevens combo unless one was injured
I also don't think we have enough time to learn a completely new formation either, with only a couple of training session between yesterday and Saturday.
Interesting how one perceives height. My comments after the players heights. Forster 6ft 7 - Yep, that fits. Could even be taller and I wouldn't be surprised. VVD 6ft 4 - Such a unit that even 6' 4" seems a bit short for him. Does he wear lift boots or something? Maya 6ft 2 - **Maya is never 6' 2". Japanese people just aren't that tall. I don't mean to be 'heightist' either Austin 6ft 2 - Charlie's relatively short legs carry an awful lot of body. His arms are so heavy they want to fall off. Stevens 6ft 1 - Actually shorter than I thought. Gabbi 6ft 1 - Taller than I thought. I had him down as a string-bean 5'11" in my head. Jrod 6ft 1 - Yeah, there or thereabouts. Hojbjerg 6ft 1 - He's a big lad all round. 6'1" means he's even bigger than I thought. Romeu 6ft 0 - I had Oriol down as about 5'10" because he's always got his head slightly inclined. You look next time. Long 5ft 11 - Doesn't matter. He jumps like he's 6'4" Tadic 5ft 11 - Another there or thereabouts. Tall-ish for a string bean wide man though. McQueen 5ft 11 - Crikey, that's short. I would have said 6'2" or something. Caceres 5ft 11 - CBs are 6'0" or more by default, so naturally he seems a tad short. Bertrand 5ft 10 - That makes him shorter than both Targett and McQueen and I thought he was the tallest LB we had. Boufal 5ft 9 - Yeah, that's fits. Little twinkle toes lacking confidence. Can't wait for him to regain it. Cedric 5ft 8 - Bit surprised he's even that tall. Optical illusion though as he's usually standing near 6' plus CBs. Redmond 5ft 8 - Wee little Nathan. This is why he's so feisty. He's got ducks disease. Pied 5ft 8 - Must admit, I used to get him mixed up with Hojbjerg when they first arrived. Seems short to me. Davis 5ft 8 - Wee little powerhouse. If someone said he was 4' 20" I wouldn't bat an eyelid. JWP 5ft 8 - That's impossible. JWP can't be amongst the shortest players. I think their telling fibs. Clasie 5ft 7 - Totally believe this. Same comment as for Davis, except 4'19". I've always found that the player's head positions, while being interviewed post-match, to be very enlightening. But, in retrospect, obviously misleading too. **just after Maya joined Saints I found out he was 6'2". Still surprises me to see the stat.
*** All heights from Wikipedia - other heights are available! *** I omitted Josh Sims because all sites quote a different height, must still be growing
