Ah, so you want perfection from a guy with no game time? Cork lost a lot of the ball in his first full game back too - let's sell him al well.
What did he do today that was anything more than a 5 out of 10 performance? The best game he's ever had for Saints has been at best 7 out of 10. He's just a waste of time.
SS - Corky put in a real battling shift and was the link between defence mid and attacking mid and him being taken off opened up our rather frail defence to the ravages of that classy Chelsea midfield Gaston unfortunately added very little especially in the second half when Chelsea put their foot on the gas he simply disappeared like normal
Stats courtesy of WhoScored.com... Dispossesed - 7 - (the most of any player on the pitch - next most Lallana with 5) Pass Accuracy - 65% - (the worst of any outfield player for Saints) Touches - 76 - (the 3rd most of any player in a Saints shirt) Key Passes - 3 - (the most of any player on the pitch) Through Balls - 2 - (joint-highest on the pitch, with Eden Hazard) Crosses - 4 - (the most of any player on the pitch) Accurate Crosses - 3 - (the most of any player on the pitch) Overall Rating = 6.48 - (Saints 4th best performer)
In the first half maybe. He was absolutely anonymous in the second half and he should've made way for Lambert.
Those are some beautiful stats which illustrate why Gaston has caused so much derision on this forum in his 18 months with us. Top of the class in doing useful stuff, but top of the class at screwing up. So it depends how you like your football/footballers.
And that differs from our other players how? Rodriguez was complete ****e all game but no one jumps on his back. Admittedly he's done a lot more than Gaston this season but he's also had a lot more time on the pitch.
Trying to be pragmatic, neither Gaston nor any of our other players should really be judged on the last half hour today. From the moment they scored their opener, MP rolled the dice by taking off Cork (who for the second game in a row had been booked in the opening hour) for Lambert. This could have been any mix of making sure he didn't get sent off, tiredness, or most likely just trying to get us back into the game by adding more attacking threat. Trouble is, against a side as good as Chelsea (or Everton away), you're always likely to be in danger of leaking more if we play the last half hour with all of Lambert/Rodriguez/Gaston/Lallana as our front 4 and only one (or none) of our out and out DCM's behind them. Just not enough defensive cover on the pitch to do this if we don't have 2 of Wanyama/Schneiderlin/Cork on the pitch to pick up the pieces. Vs Everton we had none of these from 66' onwards, today we had only Schneiderlin from '60 onwards.
Frustrating isn't it. He has a lot of talent but he seems to take too long to action it hence he gets dispossessed a lot. Maybe he is used to a slower pace of game and still hasn't acclimatised to the speed of the Premier League.
This is exactly the problem. On a number of occasions he passed the ball to the opposition who were about 2 yards away which allowed them to mount attacks from positions where they should never have had the ball. I lost count of the number of times he beat one man then another then gave them the ball. Apart from one sublime lobbed pass to J Rod, which he miss controlled ,he did nothing constructive at all and is a liability to the way the team play. It is just not worth having him in the team for the remote chance he may do something special.
So a year ago we were all salivating at the guys obvious potential, & today we're all keen to get rid based on one less than perfect game in his first start if the season, against an excellent side? Harrdly a level headed bunch, saints fans.
I think it's pent up frustration built up over a year and a half of faltering cameos and let downs. Hardly 'based on one less than perfect game'. Feel sorry for him but Pochettino needs to stop tinkering with front 4 and let them have game time together.
I hoped Gaston was going to be a star in the team when he arrived but he has never remotely looked anything better that a squad player and not a regular squad player either. I think Ward Prowse should have replaced him at 1/2 time yesterday then we would have had a better chance of hanging onto the mid field and things might have been different. He has been here about 2 years and surely by now he should have become a round peg in a round hole but he just has not and I can't see him making the adjustment which is a shame as he has talents but not ones which rely suit saints,
Gaston is a good player, but Southampton and Gaston are not a good fit and both parties should move on. He's in the club year and a half already, and he's shown no willingness at all to adapt his game and is making the same mistakes over and over again. It's a shame, really, because only a slight adjustment to his game would make him a very useful player to us.
I agree those stats really do paint a picture. However, there's a worrying trend on here lately of judging players based on a single game. When Cork played his first game of the season people were on here straight away saying "he's not good enough", and now he's had a few more games they probably think differently. Same goes for Yoshida, he had one poor game and people were calling for his head, despite a season for evidence that he is a largely competent, if not brilliant, premier league player. The same is now true of Ramirez. Considering this was his first start for as long as I can remember, he can't be expected to be completely match sharp straight away. I think he showed enough to suggest he can still play a role for us and given more game time I would expect his passing accuracy, for example, to improve. You have to consider the kinds of passes he was playing though. He was on the pitch to play low percentage balls which if they come off, give you a good chance. What is also demonstrated by those stats is that he succeeded in that effort more than anyone else. Playing against a team like Chelsea you simply need to roll the dice to have any chance of scoring. You're not going to beat them by playing safe.
