Just read an article about the 5 most inmproved players in the PL. The extract reads "The only defender on this leaderboard is Southampton's Jose Fonte, with the Saints' start this season under Mauricio Pochettino the polar opposite from their return to the top flight last time round. The Southerners had conceded a league high of 18 goals after six matches in the previous campaign, while their success this season - sitting in 6th - can be attributed largely to the joint-best defensive record in the league, with just two goals finding the back of Artur Boruc's net. Much of that is down to the successful forging of a partnership between Fonte and summer signing Dejan Lovren. Both have scored important goals this season, with the former's averages for aerial duels won (2.6 to 3.8), interceptions (1.4 to 2.8) and clearances per game (8.8 to 9.5) all having improved from the 2012/13 campaign, earning the Portuguese a mark up in rating from 6.87 to 7.61." http://www.teamtalk.com/arsenal/8952346/North-London-quartet-among-most-improved? I have to say I had my doubts and thought Maya would be ahead of Jose this season but full credit to him. He seems to have a real passion for our club both on and off the pitch.Well done Jose!
To much reading for this early in the morning... But it's great to see Fonte doing so well. It always difficult to know what has helped but I would say the whole team is working much very hard defensively. Protecting our cb's so they are not being left exposed.
It's not a surprise to me, Lamb. I've always thought Jose was our best defender since he arrived at Saints. Lovren may well be worth every penny of his £8.5M fee, if any footballer is worth anything, but Fonte is his worthy partner. They are getting to be an excellent partnership. I'm really pleased to see Jose's rise because it is fully deserved and also because he believes so much in the project, and has done so from the very beginning.
What I like about our signing of Fonte is we must have seen good potential to one day be a premiership defender. I do get the impression from some clubs that you are only going to get that improvement from youngsters.
Apologies that the text looks so squashed up. For some reason if I post from work any paragraphs or spaces I put in just disappear. Grrr!
After a shaky start he's probably having his most impressive period in a saints shirt. I think it's a little early to say he's premier league class or ready for a call-up to the Portugal squad though. Right now I think Yoshida is better and he certainly has more potential, and I'd expect him to return to the first team soon. If Fonte continues playing as he has in the last few games for the rest of the season (and is able to do it without Lovren) however, he will deserve to keep his place.
Just no pleasing some people! Having a guy who committed himself to the club and its future at a time when most of us sniggered at idea of going back to the Premier League is good for everybody. The spirit of Fonte, Schneiderlin, Lambert, Lallana who were there in Division One is a key part of the building process. Apologies to anyone I've forgotten, but these 4 just keep turning up for the club and have grown with it. Happy Days
Fonte is doing well but I think a lot of that is down to Dejan Lovren. On Saturday I noticed that Fonte made an error but went unnoticed by most as Lovren was very quick in getting over and making an interception. I think Lovren is making him look better than he is.
We've changed two of our back four from the bad start last season and now have a great defensive record. Shaw and Lovren have improved n what we had and have given us more competition for places. At the start of last season Fonte was pretty much guaranteed a starting place, so I think the competition for laces as well as the arrival of Lovren has helped improve him. Maya may well be better but at the moment our defensive record speaks for itself and Fonte deserves to keep his place. Should an injury or loss of form occur its great to have such a quality replacement to step in.
Not in so many words, but Fonte acknowledges this. Says he never expected the pairing to work out so well. No shame in it...defence does work as a team...look at the famous Arsenal back four including Adams.
I've noticed this a couple times, both with Fonte and Shaw; Lovren covers a remarkable amount of territory while never appearing to be out of position. Fonte deserves considerable credit as well, but Lovren's a monstrous presence in the back four.
I like to think of it as just being a fantastic pairing- yes Lovren is probably better than Fonte as stand alone players but they work as a unit. Its true Lovren could be making fonte look better but given Lovren had some poor performances for Lyon you could argue giving him the right compadre is equally important. You could bring in a "better" CB than fonte but if they don't understand eachother then the pair will be crap. Credit to Fonte I'm pleased for him, as said above I like the fact that he dropped from Palace to L1 with a dream of playing in the prem and he has now achieved that.
I did the same last last night mate. Two paragraphs, neatly laid out. Now just one block of text. It's the server playing up again, and/or the software on it. At least we aren't getting bundles of multiple posts, I suppose.
Like when we bought Hooiveld to partner Fonte in the Championship! Both great players at that level but never properly clicked, though I'd much rather they had played together than Fonte and one of Martin and Seaborne. One long injury to our CBs that season and we would have been ****ed!
