That thought has certainly crossed my mind too. Every time another club has no keepers available they always seem to draft in a youngster who somehow proceeds to play a blinder and establish himself as first choice, or at least a dependable backup. We've had decent second keepers (Jones, Bialkowski, now Kelvin) but I can't ever remember us having a third choice keeper who could catch so much as a cold. Bring back Dexter Blackstock!
I'm not sure that's true. The top 5 or 6 teams do but I don't think the rest have amazing second keeper. And to be fair Gazza is 3rd choice. How many teams have a decent 3rd choice keeper? Having said that, I said at the start of the season Gazza should have been sent on loan for the season. If Boruc and Davis had been injured, leaving Cropper as our only fit keeper, then I'm sure the Premier League would have allowed us to bring someone in on loan.
I'd argue that City would actually benefit from De Michelis actually being injured. Their second choice couldn't be more of a liability. He's like a higher profile Jos.
Just off the top of my head, I can think of Guzan at Villa, who became first choice as a result of stand in duties; Friedel at Spurs; Bunn at Norwich; McCarthy replacing Federici for Reading last season and playing out of his skin. All did more than adequate jobs. I'm purposely leaving out the top 6 teams.
Hope these personnel issues are sorted by our TV games against Chelsea, and our and Man City's bogey team Sunderland. Otherwise our media image will take a serious plunge!
The club are obviously going to talk up their expectations. I would rather they do that then talk them down, it increases confidence and shows he has fave in the team. I did the same when I was a manager of a under 16's.
I think the solution is pretty clear. Don't allow Lovren or any of our other defenders to grow a full beard as they clearly affect performance!
I don't know where people thing we will get this 'strength in depth' from. Which top level players are going to come to Saints? Yes look at the teams above us. What do they have in common? They are either in europe or they are big famous clubs. Newcastle haven't got strength in depth but aren't having our injury nightmare. They are pretty similar to us in having a very good first 11 & I would suggest our first 11 is actually better. The only way we are going to get this quality strength in depth is to qualify for europe or become an overnight big name brand. Whether that be a commercial way like Chelsea or by success is a different matter. Remember Chelsea were not a big global brand until they became fashionable. I would guess that is the kind of rapid growth Nicola is aiming for. So unless we get into europe this season (by any route) then we will be in a similar scenario next season in that we will not be able to attract players for 'rotation'. I guess the only other way is to offer silly money and also risk pissing off the players we currently have and that would be an even bigger gamble. Get a grip guys. We are not out of the hunt for top 8 or even 6. We have had a bad run, we are only 6 points off 6th place and half way through the season. Should we really be giving up on that yet? As for including Ramsey in the 'better than Lallana' list. Maybe at the moment but wait till he returns to the ****e overhyped form of conceding posession that he has had for his whole career bar the last 4 months. That puts Lallana ahead because they are both on fire this season whereas Ramsey has always been garbage before.
There's a couple of things here. Firstly, I think people's opinions of these guys may be flawed. For example, I remember at least one Norwich fan coming on this board when Boruc was injured and sympathising with us, saying that, while Bunn wasn't a disaster when he played, Norwich missed having Ruddy in goal last season and their form dipped when he was out. McCarthy is another example of the wrong impression. He was actually first choice at Reading last year. He started the season in goal, got injured and then returned towards the end of the season. Obviously there are some exceptions but most of these keepers come in and play a game or two here and there. Performing in the occasional game is very different to having a run in the side. Gazza wasn't disastrous against Newcastle or Man City and neutrals who only saw those games would probably think he was decent, but we know he's not good enough to play well consistently. Brad Jones is similar at Liverpool in that he's a backup keeper who can come in and play well for a game or two but there's always a mistake waiting to happen. Finally, comparing these guys to Gazzaniga isn't realistic because Gazza is our 3rd choice keeper. Who's the 3rd choice keeper at these clubs and how would he cope when 3 of that team's back 4 are injured? That's not to say we don't need another keeper to come in, but I think it's good to remember our injury situation is freakish.
This is the thing isn't it. What does Cortese want to do, or what is he going to do in January IF he perceives there to be a problem with the progress. I certainly still think that we can finish well, just frustrated at the mistakes we make when we don't have our strongest 11. I know the talk in the club is positive and ambitious, but like I said on the Wanyama thread, until we have better cover (which brings in the factors that you have included above) then we will find it quite hard to sustain the run that we were on. I don't personally know how soon Cortese wants success, but with the philosophy of bringing through the youth, I guess it could take some time.
We were outplayed sometimes, but still managed to score two goals. Losing by preventable errors makes us angrier than just being beaten...must make Mauricio pull his hair out.
Oh it was so annoying, and although Spurs had done their homework, I get the impression that the media are happy at the restoration of the status quo, but......it really was a gift wasn't it.
I was just trying to say though more a case of we are seeing that there could be another 2 or 3 youth players ready to come into the 'quality' category. Hope one of the young defenders can step up too. If so then maybe next season we could add Reed, Targett, Gallacher, Turnbull ??? to the list just as Shaw, Chambers and JWP were added last season? That would add to the squad but we aren't really going to be attracting 4 top quality defenders to a club that only plays domestic football and isn't a 'famous' or 'romantic' club. We could attract 2 quality defenders (Lovren included) and then every other quality defender we approach will question if they would be playing as first choice. I'm not overly worried yet. Like I say we are half way through the season and only 6 points off 6th. There is no reason why we can't go on a good run again once we've got our players back. There's no reason why a couple of youngsters can't sneak through this season like Luke, JWP and Chambers have and add some improvement / options. We can still finish Top6. Like Beddy I'm just a little disappointed with the way we've lost some of these games when the opposition (including Chelsea and Arsenal) haven't looked very good. Chin's up and lets hope 3 points on Thursday catches us up a point or 2. Maybe KD will be back seeing as it does say expected to return 26th on the Premier League site.
Well I'm not really in the business of predicting the future so I have to go on current form. For me there's no maybe about it, Ramsey has scored 8 goals and assisted 6, in 16 games. I'm not sure anyone is performing better than him from midfield this season.
I don't see how you can argue Lallana is better than Ramsey. Lallana has had one good half season in the Premier League. Who's to say he won't return to the average performances we saw last year? Ramsey has NOT always been garbage. His performances for Arsenal in 09/10 - before Shawcross broke his leg - were arguably on a similar level to Lallana's this season and he was only 19. He was a highly-rated and very promising youngster until that leg break. It may simply be that he's taken a long time to fully recover (physically AND mentally) from a very serious injury. On top of that he'll only hit 23 in a couple of days so it's not impossible there's more to come.
