Form is temporary, class is permanent. So was, for example, his terrorising of Liverpool in the EFL Cup last year simply a run of form. Is his current blip simply a loss of form (aka confidence?) or was he always over-rated? Time will tell, but for what it's worth I'm going with the idea we'll see him back to his best again soon. Whether he needs to be taken out of the heat of the kitchen is the one question that needs answering.
To be fair I had the feeling that a lot of players form dipped during the latter part of last year.......It will take another two or three games to get back up to speed. I thought the way we played Saturday was a vast improvement even though we lost. I think confidence is beginning to grow again so will Redmans............
He's basically the player many of us thought we were signing, IMO: a talented but flawed and inconsistent player, who is nonetheless a very useful element in one's squad. The problem is that we're relying more heavily on him than anticipated, and he's not a complete enough player to carry that sort of weight. Edit: we also should utilize him on the #$@!ing right. He's always been better there with the U-21s, and Tadic is better on the left.
Was writing something similar to this earlier this evening, but got totally ambushed by company, so I wiped it. Nathan is a match winner. He can make things happen. He was the first passer in that nicely worked move against Crystal Palace, which led to a goal. He's not in the best of form. OK, it happens with mercurial players.
This. All of it. He's a current Southampton level player. We need to start getting our heads round that up until and if we push on from that. He's good, but not great. If he were great he'd be courted by bigger teams (that autocorrected to 'bugger teams' which works equally well!) and likely leave in the summer.
And calling Redmond a match winner is a bit strong. Mane was a match winner, a player who could single-handedly pick up points and drag an otherwise indifferent team effort to a result. Redmond is more of a match-affecter; when on, he'll have a definite positive effect on the result, but he'll need good players around him if it's to come to anything. Which is fine! We should not expect part-time starters signed from relegated clubs to drag us to victory, and it's somewhat unfair to cast Redmond in that role simply because we don't have anyone else. But it does mean that we still need to seek out some actual match winners.
Yep. Got it in one. There's a reason we still haven't signed Ronaldo. We're all right. We can hang around with the big boys, but occasionally get beaten up behind the bike sheds. We can even afford a bit of a swagger of our own, especially in the company of fans of another Hampshire team. But we've got a level. We might go on from that, but it ain't happening tomorrow. I signed up for reality sometime back in the late 1950's and see no reason to change my view of the club.
Potential match winner in the future? I dunno; I like Redmond, but I don't see him becoming that. Think he'll have a long, mostly productive career in the PL where he's never one of the first attackers on the team sheet in good times, but is never without a place, either.
I'm not a fan of Redmond. I think he has reached his potential and we can only hope for a small improvement in the future. He has a certain ability and physical attributes, but not a very good understanding of the game which is why I think he won't get any better. He's a player I'd compare to Wayne Routledge and Nathan Dyer and for me he's very much on that level; a pacey player who can run a bit and sometimes dribble past his marker and can do a jdecent ob in an average-ish EPL side, but not much more than that. Very much a player any opposition manager or fan isn't affraid to face. I'd take a player like Puncheon every day over Redmond.
I agree. He's turned into a cul-de-sac on legs, literally goes nowhere 90% of the time. The occasional flash of brilliance notwithstanding he's not creating enough, not threatening enough, not causing enough problems to be a guaranteed first team starter. I'd like to see him benched for a while, let him earn his place back again.
Yep, I was thinking exactly the same. Although Redmond probably has more potential & maybe a bit more talent, at least Punch did show some serious passion & gave a few match winning performances (ok, maybe misty eyes & lower leagues but that's my impression). Unfortunately I agree & with most of this. He drives me absolutely nuts with that "skill". I appreciate if nothing's on, don't lose possession but how many times have I muttered "for ****s sake". I also agree, the bench might be a good release for him.. And as others have said, play him on the right. My biggest worry is the Bertrand - Redmond axis has never seemed to work. Ok, occasionally but their body language with each other is shocking. That's always worried me.
The first most of us saw of Nathan was when he was Norwich's matchwinner, and he scored a couple of cracking goals for them against us. He was good then, but for one reason or another has lost his way a bit. The problem we have is that, as with most teams of our calibre, all the parts of the machine have to work well, or the thing don't go at all. Nathan has to start performing at his best again, or he will have to be dropped, it's as simple as that. Unfortunately the same applies to most of our attacking players!
As LTL said, Redmond is Saints' level, average PL player. Can be very good on his day, like every PL player, but is not consistent enough to be very good on a regular basis, like majority of PL players. If he could play at his best week in week out he wouldn't be at Saints, simple as that really.
Lol at people saying they'd rather have Punch. I loved Jason, but I don't think he's in any way a better player than Redmond, and if my memory isn't completely fooling me, Saints fans (on here and in the ground) were fairly luke warm about him when he was a Saint.
Dogshit is perhaps a bit strong! And he's not, as has been pointed out, the onlyb Saints player to suffer a drop off in form.
My opinion of Redmond hasn't really changed since we signed him. I was happy enough when we signed him as an attacking option, a good player to bring off the bench, but that he wasn't good enough to be relied on as a main source of assists or goals. Basically I saw him as a bench option, or an impact player. Despite the amount of game time he's had since we signed him, I don't think he's proved me wrong. Maybe that's a touch harsh, but I do think he's a player we should be looking to upgrade on or at the very least have him SWAP SIDES WITH TADIC this season! Also his lack of attacking threat is magnified given our entire midfields lack of attacking threat, resulting in us relying on Redmond far more than we should have to.
