Chelsea v Saints Saturday 16/12/17 KO 3.00pm.

He must be the only person in the world that thinks we are most threatening with Redmond coming from deep. Which is a worrying thing considering he's our manager and has had half a season to work out that Redmond has been anything but a threat for 99% of this season.

 

Unless Austin is injured or needs protecting, he should play every week whilst he's hot. Let him cool off and we are back where we started. I favour doubling your chances by having two strikers if the midfield isn't really firing. I would have liked to see Long given a chance to use his speed to distract the opposition and to get ahead of them to bring in the main striker. Unlike some, I do understand MP2's defensive attitude when playing top clubs....no point in going several goals down too early....but there comes a point where you have to need to attack if you've gone behind. It's possible goal difference may be important at the end of the season, but too early to worry about that.....unless he thinks another big defeat will push the panic button.

If we had done better earlier I'm sure people wouldn't worry too much about recent results...last minute dropped points to Arsenal and City are disappointing but expected and a 1-0 loss to Chelsea isn't shaming....though we would have hoped for 3 points against Bournemouth. Our main concern is that it is late December and the players seem none the wiser about what is required and the manager is still thrashing about. Huddersfield is a must win for Mauricio....and a good side like Saints should hardly be thinking that half way through the season.

 

What are the rest of us missing?

The best attacking performances this year have been with Redmond dropped. MP has had half a season to work with this team and find an attacking formula and the best he can come up with is what he intially decided upon despite it not working 90% of the time. Please forgive me for thinking that he doesn't have any other ideas or tactical nous or man management ability.

 

I think my main issue with MP2 is not what he has done, but that from day one in his mannerisms and accent etc, I just see Gus Poyet (I know wrong country, same continent). I cannot get away from it. Now I have mentioned it, I'm sure some of you will see it too

I am not saying his actions and abilities are like Gus, just that when I see him I am reminded of him

 

Redmond and "a threat" should never be used in the same sentence, from this thinking, all I go do is shake my head and say "we are doomed I tell you, doomed".

 

Redmond is a significant threat to our Premier League status.

 

So Nathan Redmond is unanimously declared "scapegoat of the week"?

 

Nope, we have far bigger problems than Redmond. He has had some shockers this season but so have plenty of others. I struggle with the managers use of Redmond not Redmond.

 

No but I would name him most frustrating player we have had since dani headbutt rockstar.

 

My only issue with Redmond is his unwillingness to use his pace to go at or past defenders.
There are times when he has a yard on the defender running with him, yet he still cuts back, giving the defender the chance to get goal side.
And comparing him to Boufal, when facing up to a defender. Boufal runs at the defender forcing him backwards in an attempt to unbalance him, whereas Redmond seems to walk the ball up to the defender which, IMO, makes it easier for the defender.

 

I wonder how much of that is because a player doing that stands a chance of losing the ball. He used to run at them but given the toxic atmosphere at our games I can see why a player would soon tire of trying it and go for the safe ball instead.

Not saying it's the right thing to do, just saying it would be understandable. He needs a coach to tell him to stuff the crowd and go for it regardless.

He's on a hiding to nothing. Shown when, against Arsenal, people around were very loudly blaming Nathan for an easy miss in the second half. It was Bertrand. Didn't matter to them, though.

Vin

 

This.

“He needs a coach to tell him to stuff the crowd and go for it regardless.”

It is because Boufal goes for it, I won’t criticise him. Yes he sometimes holds the ball too long, and yes he sometimes showboats when he should keep it simple, but he keeps on going for it.

 

A pretty poor comparison as he's not near the same level, but - Messi always slows down and stands players up.

Yeah then he bursts past them easily or plays a one-two.

 

Boufal often stands players up but by that point the defenders are almost on their arse or forgot which way they're facing and he uses some great footwork to shimmy out of some very tight corners at times. Far too often Redmond gets the ball and stops almost immediately, giving everyone the chance to work it out, then passes it back to the defence when there would have been better results from just getting at them.

 

Perhaps MP is being instructed to play Redmond? Puel came in, said he could be like thiery henri. We thought that was odd. Doesn’t perform. 12m on MP persists in playing him. Do the club think he has the potential to make the big time?

 

Pep seems to think so....

Let’s wait and see if Pep steps up with a £30m offer next month.

 

Buy one, get one free perhaps........

 

Not making him a scapegoat, just commenting on the fact that our manager sees him as part of an attacking threat instead of two strikers, and I do not agree that he is a threat to any team in the Premier League. He acts like a deer in the headlights when he gets the ball and panics and gets rid of it as quickly as he can, usually to the opposition. I am sorry if he is lacking confidence but we appear to be playing counter attacking football with MP2 now and we need players willing to counter attack quickly and affectively and Redmond does not get it.

 

He scored 8 PL goals for us last season and was our top scorer. He was good last year, no idea whats happened to him this season.