Pot. Kettle. Black, dude. You don't see how the rules have changed for Long as well? When he doesn't score, he's great because of the other things he does. When he scores, suddenly his goals get trumpted. The rules are the same for everyone. You have to contribute to the team. It's really gotten silly. When you watch a game, or read about Saints all the pundits talk what a good target man and technical striker Pelle is, and how much Long's running scares the opposition. Odd that our own supporters are the only ones that can't see it. I don't know if either player is good enough for a top club, but they're both good.
Not sure if anyone noticed but as the squad arrived at Villa Park there were no headphones in sight...
What really annoyed me yesterday was the delay with releasing that final ball. We have so much pace up front but it is nullified by a slow thinking midfield.
There has been a fair bit of criticism of Long wasting chances.........It is a fair argument but what does not seem to have been mentioned is his ability to be in the right place at the right time!! Even the TV pundits picked up on this. In truth though he is twice the player now than when he arrived. He will learn as time goes on about being more accurate and passing to better placed colleagues. I felt the heat was on him at the beginning of the season and as the season has progressed he has got better and better in all departments. The other criticism of the mid field holding play up at times is also a fair comment in my view. However is this not the way Dutch sides tend to play with a purposely deliberate, accurate build up? It gives the impression that we do not have a decent passing midfielder who can slot a pass in quickly, yet most of our goals this season have come from pacy play. In other words from down the wings with quick accurate passing? Just shows the complexity of todays football maybe...............
Sometimes, despite the pace up front, there's still not a lot of movement in front of the ball, which means the midfield are short of options.
h Not at all.... I wasn't the one raising it. I just smirked and pointed it out. Don't go trawling .... dude. If you want my opinion, I'd rather have the striker that offers the extra work, pace and problems for the defenders when the two strikers aren't "on it" I also think that Long can be equally as good a target man as Pelle. He wins as many/more in the air as Pelle and can hold it up as well as Pelle, if not better. I have said for a long, long time that I don't think Pelle holds the ball up as well as he should, so I am not "seeing" what the expert pundits are seeing, but then again I read so often that the pundits are rubbish, so who knows, eh? I am not saying he never holds it up and he can chest a lay-off beautifully, but he doesn't do the simple hold up and link back anywhere near enough as a centre forward. I think all round Long offers more. I do agree that both have room for an upgrade. *This is my opinion* Ps. What's gotten silly? Pps. What are the other things Pelle does when he doesn't score?
Just caught up on MOTD. Wish we could play Villa every week...gave us the chance to look like the old Saints in patches....free flowing and creative. We've found that hard to do this season....even struggling sides usually make it harder than this. It was as if I could see the side we could be....the players are there, just missing that good old consistency. Don't understand the problem a few still have with Long....if he scores and makes assists, he can make errors....I don't care. He is doing what he is paid for. Ron claims that he has learnt a lot at Saints and I believe him....he is a revelation at the moment. What is it with us and woodwork? If only hitting the woodwork was a goal....we'd be top of the league. Note to Les Reed: we have to keep Bertrand. Ron looks younger each week....not ageing like so many managers. Must suit you here, Ron #hint-hint
What a lot of our strikers don't do enough for my liking, is come short and "show" to have the ball to feet and then lay it back. This helps pull and move defenders out of position, but hey I probably don't know what I am on about..
What I don't understand (and for which I am very grateful) is why the papers aren't linking Bertrand with every possible and impossible team.
To be honest Fran, the highlight were a little misleading. There wasn't much free flowing football at Villa Park yesterday. It felt a little like a training match.
Well yeah. You can compare Long's game yesterday and Jay's. Jay hasn't wasted a single chance, but he didn't even have one to waste. Long had like 6 huge chances, first when he hit the bar, then the goal, then his first assist for Tadić which he really should've scored himself, then when he hit the outside of the net, and finally when Tadić once again found him in the box, but his bad first touvh allowed to defender to nick the ball. Ok, that's five, but I'm sure I'm forgetting something.
