I knew you'd like that one. But when you sign a player from a less psychic league would he be able to perform like that at Sunderland... on a cold bleak and wet November day?!
Watching Goals on Sunday and Ruud Gullit is the guest. Be interesting to hear his comments about Saints with our Dutch contingent.
Just caught up on MOTD highlights of our game...we looked good with several decent chances...especially a couple for Mane. As Koeman said, the best team won.
Oh, Vinny Jones and Harry Bassett have just come on so that's the sensible talk over, before they show our game....
http://www.hitc.com/en-gb/2015/11/07/64-touches-10-duels-won-saints-star-mane-was-awesome-in-victo/ Stats analysis of Mane's contribution to the game. Differs somewhat from some fans' views.
Yeah, I wouldn't dismiss Martina as a failure just yet but it's an odd one. Juanmi is obviously a relatively young player that we hope to develop while Martina is 26 so you'd think there's less chance of major improvement. Martina is taking up a space I'd rather a young player like Jason McCarthy could fill. Presumably there's nobody from the youth team quite ready to step up and he's a stop gap.
http://www.hitc.com/en-gb/2015/11/0...ct-on-twitter-to-maya-yoshidas-performance-v/ Twitterati happy with Koeman's selection of Yoshida.
Yeah, but it's Bassett and Jones - Ruud has gone - so that's the end of getting any sensible discussion on our game
I get the impression that some would blame a Saints OG, from any other player, on Yoshida having hit a misplaced pass 5 minutes earlier, rather than accept he is a very capable player. I think it's time some people started to judge Yoshida on his current performances, and stopped looking to blame him for things that haven't happened. Defensively, yesterday, he was once again, solid. The criticism of him not overlapping is accurate, because he didn't hit the bye line, as Cedric does, but that didn't stop him from getting forward and supporting Mane/Tadic. I think we all agree that Bertrand got forward a lot, yet statistically he ran just 400 metres further than Yoshida, which kind of pokes a big whole in any argument that he doesn't get forward from the RB position.
No it doesn't. It only points out that he ran, and not in which direction. It was certainly not forward. There were maybe 4-5 occasions in the 90 minutes when he went deep in the Sunderland half to support the attack.
The most telling thing about Maya is that he got a new contract....I wasn't expecting that. Says that Koeman rates him....his judgement will do for me.
I don't think many people now doubt Yoshida's ability as a defender. Some of us are still not convinced he's a fullback, which in today's game is a different animal to what it was even 10 years ago. I doubt there are many Saints fans who distrust Ron's selection right now. Doesn't stop us having our own opinions.
Yoshida played to add physicality and allow a relatively light-weight but mobile and skilful midfield to operate without fear of falling apart at set pieces. It worked. Everyone can now move on to the next Yoshida based debate: namely, I believe he is a far more skilful player than people think and he adds a lot in the build up to attack. Unfortunately he crosses like a drunken chimpanzee.
Hallelujah, someone has seen the light! Took a long time though. I like diversity on "my" threads but deplore negatives when we win! I bet that is a promise that will be forgotten when the next round of doom and destruction befalls us, if it ever does....................
It was obviously a "horses for courses" selection, probably based on experience of Fat Sam's brand of hoofball. Maya is an International Captain and a very good defender and there have been plenty of Centre Backs that have played at Full Back before.
I know what you mean. It's far better for the blood pressure to see us control possession for long periods. If we have the ball they can't hurt us. The flip side is that we were a little too safe with the ball under the South American dude. Kind of doing what Bournemouth did to us last week and Man Utd seem to be suffering. Moving the ball from side to side, but not really moving the opponents. I remember games under that Spurs bloke where we would have 60-70% possession but not create a chance of note. I didn't see the game yesterday, but when you lose the ball I guess it depends on the context. If a pass is intercepted or slightly mis-judged, but would have resulted in a goalscoring opportunity or put us in a promising position then it's probably worth the risk. If we're under hitting five yards crab passes then shoot them.
