Cold up there. (But they are sensitive in Newcastle area if you dare to suggest that the north is cold....despite all the evidence).
Wickham, Defoe and Graham? You can't say Sunderland are sitting back. Not sure who is going to be supplying them though.
Southampton 01 Davis 02 Clyne 06 Fonte 03 Yoshida 21 Bertrand 17 Alderweireld 12 Wanyama 16 Ward-Prowse 10 Mané 07 Long 19 Pellè Substitutes 05 Gardos 08 Davis 15 Djuricic 22 Elia 25 Gazzaniga 28 Reed 33 Targett
Although I think Alderweireld is accomplished in the midfield, do we really need to be so defensive to field a midfield of Wanyama and Alderwiereld? And another thing, why put a defender in midfield when we have more than capable talented young midfielder on the bench?
Rest of the team is fairly attacking minded to be fair. You have Long and Mane who are basically striker, and JWP whose contribution to defence is that he's a body that occupies some space.
I'm not sure I get that argument. No-one complains when it's Morgan and Vic, and it's largely thanks to us playing those two in front of the back four that our defensive record is so good. Today, Toby is simply filling in for Morgan. We were terribly exposed in the first half against Burnley recently, when we went with just the one in front of the back four (Morgan on that occasion). It's not like we're lacking attacking options. Pelle, Long and Mane all starting, and JWP is hardly a defensive midfield warrior.
I think Ron is a subscriber to the "Sunderland are a bunch of thugs" point of view and he doesn't want Harry Reed being abused.
Because I think we're more solid with Toby in CD. I think he's a little bit wasted as an excellent player in CDM. Would rather we had Reed and Vic which is equally defensive (if slightly physically different) with Toby in the back four.
Toby is a good midfielder as well....obvious replacement for Schneiderlin. Our defence is based on having Wanyama and Spider in front of the back 4...great to be able to replace Morgan with an experienced defensive player.
Well that's a different argument - and one which I do agree with. It's not how I interpreted the first part of Croatia's post (which you agreed with), but apologies that might have been a misunderstanding on my part. I'd be against us playing Vic as the only defensive midfielder, but I'd be fine with playing Reed along side Vic and putting Toby back into the defence. The main thing is that we have those two defensive rocks in front of the back four. Although that said, Yoshida has done little wrong to deserve to be dropped.
Toby is a very accomplished CM, more so than Reed at this stage. I imagine if things are going well we will take off a defensive midfielder, but building from the back is how we've been playing this season.
Agreed (and with Brendy too), I just think he's a better defender than he is midfielder, and I'd rather play players in their best position than push them into a less effective position just because they're very good (particularly when I personally feel Reed can do a good job there). I suspect Ron's reasoning being experience, and also Toby has a better passing range (a la Morgan).
