My old man was mayor of Southampton, what are the odds that we are related Godders! OT - I think we will have to expect JWP to feature in the rotation of the squad. I don't think S.Davis will be happy to sit on the sidelines too long, and I believe Cork will feature in several games too and it will be Lallana and JWP or Ramirez that will be dropped to fit them in for when we need a more defensive midfield.
I expect JWP to play in all games unless his form drops. What other players think of this is irrelevant to a manager. Prowsie is the golden boy at the moment in the eyes of Mauricio. There isn't exactly a long queue of dead ball specialists. I can only remember MP praising two players specifically...Lambert and Prowse.
The starters berth on the right hand side is his to lose, Lallana and jrod fight it out for the left Rickie and Dani fill the other two places. Ramirez is used as an impact player until his form warrents a start.
But the thing is that JWP is proving more flexible than those two, he can play on the right, in the middle or no.10, which is why unless his form dipshe will be a starter.MP will not start a game with a more defensive midfield, he may change it during a game, but that would just be moving JWP into the middle
JWP was one of our best players at the start of last season and then vanished from the first team. I hope he gets a bigger chance this time as I'd rather he took our corners than someone like Ramirez or Lallana.
What percentage of academy products was it that Cortese wanted in the first team? I never thought it would be possible to get to that target so soon! Shaw, Chambers and JWP all starting the first two games shows intent to achieve this.
I think we will rotate the midfield fairly often. JWP because of his flexibility and talent should see a lot of starts if he keeps up this level of performance. Personally, I would like to seem him play maybe 75% of the time, whether that's starting 3 out of 4 or alternating starts and substitutions. Don't want to overwork him.
Don't see how you can leave out a regular starter in a PL team. Has played well in the first couple of games as well. He has impressed already in other age groups...best of luck to him. Was surprised he hadn't been in u21s before as he went to a tournament earlier this year...turned out be u20s.
Looking at the U21 squad there are very few EPL starters, in fact there aren't many with any EPL experience!
Fully deserves his call up. With Baines and Cole getting on now, I can also see Shaw dominating that left back spot for many years to come.
Quote Originally Posted by fatletiss View Post Rabbit, I'm honestly not being rude, but this last post of yours is just the sort if thing I was talking about earlier. Davis/JWP/Nobby Stiles/whoever .... You seem to view things through a negative lense. Of course these type of players are not as fast flowing in attack as someone like NayRod or Gaston bursting through the middle at pace, but they are so important to the overall combination of a team. Football is not about 90 minutes of perfection, if it was I could counter your argument by sayi g that anyone who passes to JWP or David while we are on a counter attack is at fault as they should only pass to someone they know is fast and direct.... But that's stupid so I wouldn't say it! You really must start to look at overall play and contribution. Sometimes that little hold up of the ball and five yard pass is key. It keeps the opposition working. It keeps us in possession. We can't expect 100 mile an hour direct football ... Unless you live near Upton park or the Britannia Stadium. Believe me, I get frustrated when we don't go passed a full back and I think we should do it more often, but there is still a value in what they are doing. If the always keep trying to beat the opposition or get a ball in the box quickly, we'd give the ball away on a higher number of occasions, our game plan would go to lot and we'd be under a lot more pressure. Of course mate you can't play high tempo for 90 minutes but jwp and davis don't seem to be able to play high tempo as well as the other lads. You need to vary the attacking approach but so far this season we have been so mechanical and poor creatively playing at a low tempo for virtually the entire game. Ramirez would be able to keep possession better than anyone in the team but he likes to attack teams and loses the ball a lot, too much really, which isn't purely his fault as so often he doesn't have options. Our whole team keeps possession well and it isn't really a problem it's what we do in the final 3rd that is imo. And we are the most direct team in the comp so far, "no other team in these first two weeks of the Premier League has played more long balls than Southampton against Sunderland, apart from, Southampton themselves, against West Brom in their opening fixture; in that game, they attempted 83 long passes" http://www.eplindex.com/37849/marcel...o-tactics.html
Post by rabbitspectrum Of course mate you can't play high tempo for 90 minutes but jwp and davis don't seem to be able to play high tempo as well as the other lads. You need to vary the attacking approach but so far this season we have been so mechanical and poor creatively playing at a low tempo for virtually the entire game. Ramirez would be able to keep possession better than anyone in the team but he likes to attack teams and loses the ball a lot, too much really, which isn't purely his fault as so often he doesn't have options. Our whole team keeps possession well and it isn't really a problem it's what we do in the final 3rd that is imo. And we are the most direct team in the comp so far, "no other team in these first two weeks of the Premier League has played more long balls than Southampton against Sunderland, apart from, Southampton themselves, against West Brom in their opening fixture; in that game, they attempted 83 long passes" http://www.eplindex.com/37849/marcel...o-tactics.html
Rabbitspectrum I appreciate you're trying to argue your point but you come across as very biased against JWP. You make excuses for other players but you expect him to put in man of the match performances in order to keep his place. You need to give these young guys a chance to play their way into the team and find their best role. For me, JWP is already showing he is as good an option as the likes of Lallana and Ramirez, and brings things to the team that other players don't. He's not perfect but you seem to be holding him to an unattainable standard. He's a lot better than Schneiderlin was at his age, for example, just imagine if he is given the same opportunities how good he could become.
Rabbitspectrum's mypoia when it comes to JWP has been around a while - remember he was saying recently that he didn't have the requisite talent to be a success at Southampton FC? So you have to expect some blinkered analysis to try and justify this view, regardless of man of the match performances. I think he'll need a few more of those to change his mind, sadly.
Fair enough if you think he's a better option than ramirez and lallana, i think that both of them offer far more to the team and the team will play much better football as a result. He probably is better than schneiderlin was at the same age in terms of all round ability and effect on the game, not relevant to matchday selection and I would hesitate to use schneiderlin as an example of where JWP could be in a few years time. Other than set pieces and crossing I am not sure what JWP brings to the team that ramirez, lallana, rodriguez, osvaldo, lambert, schneiderlin, wanyama, cork and and davis don't. All the previous names other than davis are superior players imo. He is much younger and much more inexperienced but as i already said this shouldn't factor into whether he plays or not.
