They did both play ok at Bournemouth too though. And the defence has been a bit shaky all season before then
I see a different player. He dives in far too much for me and often in dangerous areas of the pitch (in or near our penalty area). I see a player who looks a little awkward on the ball and thinks he can ping a 40 yard cross field pass. He hits about 1 in 5, with the ball either being a 50/50 Ariel ball (usually for Cedric who isn’t potent in the air) or out for a throw-in. He doesn’t dominate in the air like someone of his size should and he has a turning circle like the QE2.
As I said above though, it's not Wes' fault that we can't score. If we scored just one goal across the Burnley, Bmouth and Newcastle games (and we had the chances to do just that), we'd currently be just two points away from 8th - and with a very healthy gap to the bottom three. Conceding goals against Liverpool and Chelsea isn't going to particularly bother me. And to be honest, we've fallen so low that I can even take relatively narrow defeats to Everton, Leicester and (at the time a bang in form) Wolves. Those three should all be looking at top 8, which I no longer think is a realistic aim for us. So that leave us with the matches against Burnley, Bmouth, Newcastle, Palace and Brighton. We kept clean sheets in four sheets from those five. The Brighton one is the one that the side, from a defensive view point, really, really disappointed in. You don't blame your forwards for dropping a 2-0 lead. But you can blame your forwards for scoring so few goals in those other matches. So yes, Wes is currently playing in a team who is 16th in the table and right in the relegation battle. But that doesn't necessarily have to correlate to his ability. Cardiff, Fulham and Huddersfield all have GDs that are almost twice as bad as ours. And two of them have outscored us.
He hasn't been in great form before the recent matches though Brendy, but if he continues with his current form then i'll be delighted.
As you said, it’s a game of opinions. Of the teams you list, only Bournemouth have been potent this season. I just make my comments on what I’ve seen of the player over the season and a bit he’s been here. I hope he improves and proves me wrong. He may well have turned a corner, as he was ok against Chelsea and we have had two clean sheets since. Let’s see.
Just shows you can't be sure of anything in sport. Except, well, you know...Saints disappointing us. Pretty sure that will keep happening
I have read through the thread about how good players might be or how good they could be, but to be honest, collectively we are aweful and we have next to nothing in terms of individual abilty to turn a game. Neither do we have a manager to strategically control a game or an owner with the cash to buy us out of trouble. If you fundimentally disagree - lets discuss because unless we change things very soon, we are going down unless there are 3 teams worse than us.
I don’t fundamentally disagree but there is an anxiety in our forward play which explains the lack of goals. I have no doubt that this squad is capable of so much more but need a couple of ugly wins to get things moving. I don’t really want to see an owner who buys us out of trouble ( a tactic that offers no guarantees whatsoever btw). I think MH is doing the right think to publicly concentrate on the positives but wonder how long they’ll give him. He has very little experience of blooding youngsters and favours ‘big’ players which does not bode well for the likes of JWP and Targett. If he tries to turn us into another Stoke he will lose my support. If he remembers what he did at Blackburn I’ll be happy.
Luckily for us there are a few other teams just as bad as us, perhaps worse. I can easily see us staying in roughly the same position all season (ie just outside the relegation zone) and staying up with mid 30s in terms of points. Fulham are the only team below us I would be confident in saying are better than us, and they look so bad defensively I'd even fancy us to maybe score a pen against them.
We might just scrape through this season with a great deal of luck but this team needs money and work if it is not to be sunk next season.
It is a poor team, but a considerable amount of money has been spent accumulating this squad, so either the club has spent well over the odds in acquiring these players, or the management is totally inadequate in getting the best out of them. If we want to compare with another side in another league Villareal, a good La Liga side, who could do well in the Europa League, have gathered together a far better side on far less than SFC have spent. And if we want to compare the SFC with another PL side, I wouldn´t mind guessing that Brighton´s cost considerably less.
I've given this some thought since yesterday's match and my opinion that it was essentially an slightly above average squad of players that has been mismanaged since Puel left has altered and i'm leaning toward the view that it does lack quality and natural leaders on the pitch. We have not adequately replaced key players like Jose, VVD, Mane and Pelle and the only one that we have bought recently that I think will be top class is Pierre although Danny and Redders are decent enough. We do need a change on the football side of things at the top as there is an obvious decline in results over the last couple of seasons and it needs some fresh blood and ideas. Oh and sack all of the Academy coaching staff, Staplewood needs a broom right through it as we should be getting better production and results from it by now.
I've just seen this on the BBC review of our game vs Newcastle: "with champions Manchester City arriving at St Mary's next weekend" I though I had simply misread this, but there is also: "...before welcoming Manchester City to St Mary's on Sunday (15:00 GMT)" As long as Man City players read the BBC web site, they'll be in Southampton next weekend, and we might actually be able to score before they have time to get back. Having said this, our forwards probably couldn't kick off, pass upfield and score into an empty net, so we probably won't win, even if the City players are in the wrong ground. We don't need luck, more a miracle.
I dont know what to make of the Gabbiadini situation. He is a talented player who cannot get a run of games. He should have left by now yet he is still with us and for that alone he deserves opportunities. It has been evident ever since Puel that the way WE play is not the way HE plays. He see's space and makes runs, we are ponderous and one dimensional in attack. I'm not overstating that, we play through midfield, stop, go back, play it out wide and put in soft crosses that are easy to defend, meanwhile Gabbi is retreating after the run he made that no-one saw. Given that the way we have played has conceded more goals than we have scored I cannot place the fault with Gabbi. I didnt see the game yet so I'm not talking about that specifically but something tells me that getting rid of Gabbi while retaining Redmond, Long and Austin is precisely what the club will do.
They only watched him for 6 years man. Mistakes happen. I watched him against City. He's good but we're not.
