That must be the earliest any Saints game has finished...we seem to always be the last game to finish.
Conversely, I thought Shaw was great going forward but a little weak on defense today. Although I wouldn't describe either Clyne's offense or Shaw's defense as "abysmal." Clyne made himself available, he had a couple nice runs. It was a function of the team, less than individual performance I think. Clyne likes to cut inside instead of bombing down the wings, and Villa wasn't letting him do that. But it's also somewhat a function of the team. It seems like when Shaw made a run down the wing, there sometimes wasn't anyone to cross to. Clyne in that same situation held up a bit and waited for support, but that allowed Villa's defenders to get back as well. OTOH, Shaw getting so far up the pitch so quickly left us vulnerable to counters on that side. Wanyama did a good job covering a few of those. Neither one of those guys is the reason we didn't win that game.
I'm going to put an unpopular opinion out there - I really don't think Gallagher has much about him at the moment. He certainly hasn't had too many extended periods of games to properly bed into the team but when he has played I just haven't seen much in him. His movement is OK but he doesn't exactly leave defenders scrambling, he's big but he barely wins any headers (in fact I've just checked, he's won 1/13 aerial duels, which is worse than Gaston), he doesn't get much of the ball to feet but when he does he doesn't look to be massively technically gifted and the only clean shot he's hit was almost his first touch of the ball against Arsenal when he struck one on the turn to force a save. And I see a lot of reference to bringing him in for extra pace or that he's quick, and he's obviously got a yard on poor old Rickie but I can't remember seeing him outrun a defender at any stage. I'm not saying we should give up on him by any means and certainly he has a lot of potential for improvement but at this stage I feel like his worth in the fan's eye is mainly theoretical and based on the success of our academy rather what he's actually showed for the senior team.
Didn't you know, we are a charity. Just goes to show how small a squad we have, having no out and out striker replacement. Frustrated, but happy..,ooo err missus...sound like the wife :-/
Very interesting game from Shaw, it sounded like (from listening to the radio). Got the impression that he was our best attacking player bar none. Got forward time and time and time again, constantly tearing Villa a new one.....but never actually laid the ball on a plate for someone to put it into the net. A cross for Lallana, for example, was apparently behind Adam when he was all in position to score. And Albrighton sounded like Villa's biggest threat. The guy who Shaw would have been tasked to mark.
His arm was definitely out away from his body, and he gained an advantage as he otherwise wouldn't have blocked it. It was arguably also moving toward the ball albeit his intention was not to play the ball. I hate when handball is given for plays like that. In my book that's never a penalty. But despite how much I disagree with it, most of the time I think that call would be given. I think that somehow the linesmen and ref just didn't see it, not that they interpreted the rule and decided it wasn't intentional.
My feelings exactly, we're lucky to have two quality CMs that both compliment Morgan, but with different styles.
I began really questioning him towards the end of the Cardiff game. And those around me seemed to agree. I can't quite see what he offers us or brings to the table. But for three more games, I don't really care. I've got no issue with us continuing to give him a chance in them.
His height is actually something of a disadvantage at this stage, because he has a rather high center of gravity...he simply cannot maintain position against a typical central defender. He'll need to add quite a bit of lower body strength to compete, but that should come in time; until it does, it will be rather difficult to judge his capacity to compete at this level.
Yeah, there were a couple times where the ball was the right one and very close but maybe a foot behind or ahead where it needed to be and the players didn't adjust, although really Adam should have still managed to dig some kind of effort out in that instance. I think the only really clear one was from Davis where Guzan recovered to make a good save, other than that the player on the end of it had a bit of work to do but the kind where you when you have 2/3 of those chances you expect to score one of them. *EDIT* Maybe it wasn't such an unpopular opinion on Gallagher after all.
We have no other striker at the club except Sinclair and a few more youngsters. Yes he may not offer much atm, but he is talented. Having watched him play for the youth you can see this, problem is the first team is a whole different ball game. If Osvaldo hadn't gone crazy I doubt we would see Gallagher in the first team as much as we do. I still think Gallagher will become a good if not great player for us.
