Agree that is very harsh on Maya...he's done his bit for us. RK showed his view of him by extending his contract....which surprised a few of us at the time. However, a player like Maya is the work horse that a manager often needs.
http://www.hitc.com/en-gb/2015/12/0...-southampton-stopper-maarten-stekelenburg-is/ Heard this on Saturday...Phil Thompson says that Stekelenburg isn't good enough for the PL. I suppose he is getting more exposed now that our defence isn't protecting him as much. At one point he hardly had to stop anything. Obviously not as good as Forster....were we likely to get a class keeper to come in temporarily? He may be just going through a slump at the same time as the team, though I know a few don't rate him. Basically he's the one we've got and we aren't going to get anyone better when Forster is on the verge of coming back. I think he would be fine as our back up keeper, so be interesting to see what happens at the end of the season.
I said last week that we risked being left behind, by teams that have improved, as we need to evolve and develop a quicker style of attacking, to complement our slower build up play, that regularly fails if Pelle gets marked out of the game. I received a few "poo poo" comments, indicating a knee jerk reaction, following the thrashing by Liverpool. My thanks to Jose, for agreeing, at least, with the first part of my concern.
Just left the evening with Koeman. Good news: remembered to record 42 minutes from Ronald's chat at tonight's dinner. Bad news: Ronald said if he could manage any other Premier League team, it'd be Liverpool. Also said if we sign anyone it'll be a striker, but it won't be Charlie Austin. Had another little moan, about our reluctance to pay bigger fees but also bigger wages. I'll try and upload the audio in full tomorrow afternoon.
On the subject of keepers, just watched the highlights of the under 21s 2-0 win against spurs; the commentator described Gazzaniga as an "unbeatable barrier" or words to that effect.
I'm already beginning to detach from RK. Losing Poch was a shock, because we thought he would stay and we thought we couldn't replace him. We are already getting warnings that Ron will leave after next season as he is not fully happy and he must take some responsibility for the team's inconsistencies so is he the greatest thing since sliced bread?...how easy it will be to replace him is the big question. Sadly at Saints it's best not to get too dependent....only the club and the fans are forever.
Want Stekelenburg to be good, but there's been quite a few goals conceded that a very good goalkeeper would have saved. And no, this isn't a knee jerk reaction to the Liverpool game.
Interesting with Koemans reluctance to drop/rest or even substitue Pelle that he wants another striker. Must not think what else we have is good enough. Annoying that Liverpool of all the clubs is the one that he'd be interested in managing in the PL. Wonder if that's with him assuming that he's not won enough as a manager to manage Chelsea or Man City. Klopp should be safe at Liverpool for at least a few seasons given how long Brenda had. We can get over losing Koeman. He's got his deficiencies like all managers. It would be nice to have some stability though, and my main concern with him leaving is: Will we have another player exodus when he goes?
Probably sees Liverpool as more like his type of team...he gave an honest answer to a question by the sound of it (as he always does). I always liked Liverpool till I realised they were a bunch of pirates....fit your grudge with handles and carry with pride
Koeman has his limitations as a coach, sure. He's not a visionary like poch, and imo not as courageous. But he is a massive figure in world football, charismatic and legendary. The board did a fantastic job landing him as Pochettinos replacement; difficult to imagine we'd get that lucky again. Ron's reputation is a huge asset when it comes to attracting new signings; or it should be. Not sure modern players are influenced much by anything other than money.
.... "may" have saved. It does annoy me when people just assume that another keeper would have saved something as if it is a fact. Stekkers isn't one of the best keepers in the world, however he was brought in as cover for our injured keeper and he is doing a pretty decent job. Why do people feel the need to continually niggle away about him, when they know he's only here as cover for Fraser. Fraser will be back soon and I think Stekkers has done pretty well for us.
Sorry, LB. Don't think it means Bertrand is off....just a sign of preparedness. The Black Box is insatiable....needs feeding with data constantly.
Have to agree with this. Ronald's comments about spending are beginning to irritate me. This is something he should be discussing with the board not the general public or press. He needs to concentrate on sorting the team out, nothing has changed about our spending policy since he arrived.
Liverpool don't rely solely on wingers/wide players to create chances, so on that basis I would suggest they wouldn't be a good fit for him.
http://www.hitc.com/en-gb/2015/12/0...thampton-are-working-hard-to-improve-their-f/ Romeu saying team are working on finishing in training....good idea. It's not as if we aren't creating chances, but have to put them away.