There was also the pass in front of the box to Romeu, when Oriol had two men on him. Someone else on here said that with this new coach we pass the ball out of defence and that might not suit Maya; but there are still times when you need to put your foot through the ball, as VvD did at least once towards the end of the 2nd half. Generally a solid performance from a back four which might, on paper, have worried a few people. Targett I thought gave a much improved performance. He looked solid and confident, perhaps because no one in that Sparta side had pace on him. VvD is a ****ing legend already, hope he stays for years. And perhaps I'm naive, but I think he might.
Still we won 3-0 with two of our strikers scoring goals, with 7 changes to the first team, including a lot of "back ups". Not bad.[/QUOTE]
Particularly liked the cute back-heel from Virgil to Cuco instead of hoofing it out ................. Cuco then obliged and put it into row ZZ ....... That's Dutch football fopr you!!
Ok, so we are pointing out one or two minor blips from Maya ... how about the 40 yard supersonic dash across the pitch to cover Cuco, when he thumped it into the stands. Awesome defending. His defending was excellent last night, far better than "just solid" and he looked good on the ball for 95% of the time.
It's a little like saying "we wouldn't be saying this about Jose if his two blatant penalties had been given" last season. It didn't cost us. It just feels like this strange need to not wholly give Maya praise. He was much better than Jose has been the last two games (and the same is definitely true of Cuco/Cedric).
They're not really "minor blips" if they cost goals - which at least one of them probably would have been against a better side. I don't think anybody on this thread has been over critical of Maya, & the brainfarts will probably decrease if he gets a run of games. Not sure I'd describe his overall performance as "excellent" last night. Decent yeah, competent mostly, but excellent, really?
In all seriousness, if we want to take language even remotely seriously, we only have one "excellent" central defender, and he is Dutch.
Virgil was excellent; that performance sets the bar, for me. For six years Jose got excused his occasional errors because his overall contribution earned him some indulgence. Then all of a sudden he's The Unforgiven, for some reason.
That was brilliant! Seeing as we're talking little errors suprised no ones brought up Frasers mishit clearance straight to the Sparta player which was worse than anything Maya done. Funny that...
Don't think they do, I just got that feeling from Austin's interview. I agree with FLT though that after he has his rollicking, he should keep the job (if JWP isn't playing!).
Saints great centre halves: Killer Claus Lundekvam Dave Watson Mark Wright Jim Steele Toby Alderweireld John McGrath Chris Nicol
I didn't like the back heel. He couldn't be certain of finding a teammate and had he found a Sparta player, VVD would have been 30/40 yards out of position. Cuco did what VVD should have done.
