In the 6 games against WBA, Sunderland & Norwich last season we scored 2 goals. This season has seen the fewest goals to a start of an EPL campaign. The Barnsley game shows that if we play a poor defense we will score for fun. Random fact generator has finished
the barnsley game and what other premier league teams are doing is irrelevant. We have played against good defences with substandard width in all of our games. The finishing hasnt been great. Sometimes we have looked very good though especially against west brom when shaw was our biggest threat virtually. Put him back in and we will look hugely better. Im not sure if weve won more than 1-2 games when fox has played the full 90, i would be very surprised if hes been involved in more than a few wins such is shaws imprtance to our succes
It said on Solent yesterday that our average points per game with Shaw in the side is 1.4 and with Fox in the side it is 0.6, so that seems to back up what you're saying.
Cheers for that, thats nearly the difference between a daw and a loss every game. Im not really sure why pochettino has shown so much faith in him. Hes not even useful from a setpiece anymore which has always been his strongest asset.
I don't know why he persists with him, perhaps he shows a lot more on the training pitch than he does on a Saturday. I would rather play Clyne at LB than Fox though when Shaw is injured. I would rather it even more if Shaw didn't get injured full stop though.
From Southampton's point of view, there was little sign of a nascent understanding developing between Osvaldo and Rickie Lambert but Pochettino said it would inevitably take time. "It's normal, it was their first match together. Norwich dominated the first 15 minutes, but after that we matched them for strength and effort and I thought we deserved more from the game." Asked why he had decided to take off Lallana, comfortably his side's most creative influence, Pochettino shrugged. "When you lose a game there are always decisions which, looking back, perhaps you would make differently," he said.
Exactly this. We have to believes that if a bunch of observers like us can pick out faults, and areas where this went a bit wrong, then an experienced international footballer and a team of coaching staff may just be able to as well....
That's why I posted it ( it's from the observer ) , he's simply saying with hindsight he may have done something different , fair play IMHO , instead of hiding his head in the sand .
I agree with this idea. I suggested it before the West Brom game especially for away games. Cork can push wide if he has to and often last season he would help out down the right wing. Its then a question of best fit for Lallana, Rodriguez, Osvaldo, Lambert, Ward-Prowse and Ramirez. Crazy to think that it would mean only 3 of those 6 could start but there it is.
Dont forget about davis i dont rate davis very highly but he showed last year that he can score and the times he has played this year he has looked good. When he came on saturday there was much more urgency from him he was actually looking to move the ball forward with his touch and passing whereas the rest of our midfield was at a slower less dynamic pace.
