Apparently he's won possession in the final third more than any other player this season. In fact he's quite a long way out in front: http://www.whoscored.com/Articles/0...n-Mata-a-Mourinho-Player#.UsrFgUlE7i4.twitter Who'd have believed that a year or two ago?
did anyone else read that nasty article in the sunday times yesterday about the saints and lallana. Cant remember who wrote it but it was like it had been written by a bitter pompey fan!!!
Would that be this one by Rod Liddle? http://www.thesundaytimes.co.uk/sto/sport/football/article1359192.ece
Rod Liddle has a beef against Southampton which has been fairly well documented during the course of his generally unamusing and poorly thought out ramblings. The bloke's a pillock alongside the likes of TalkSport's Moose or James Whale.
He makes so many interceptions. When he played ahead of Fox last year, people said he didn't cover Fox enough, but in actual fact, Lallana helped out a lot and Fox was poor.
Don't take it personally, Rod Liddle has a beef against everyone. He makes the talksport guys look like paragons of journalistic integrity.
I think there's a post of mine around from a year or 18 months ago, citing Adam's ability to snick the ball away from an opponent, to regain possession. Lallana has an acute skill in that department and it comes from his superb ball control. He doesn't tackle in the traditional sense [OK, he does even that occasionally], but simply removes the ball from the opponent. He's got better at it in the last year too.
Considering how much our scheme that prioritizes winning the ball in that area, it would be a disaster if he weren't at the top or very near. Fair credit to Lallana-- he's doing what the manager asks of him. And his tackling has improved tremendously over his career, and I think it's function of constant playing time and also playing in lower leagues. But someone call pull up the stats from last season. I'm willing to bet that "lazy" Gaston Ramirez last year also had very impressive stats in terms of tackles, % success, balls won in the final third, etc.
To be honest I think Lallana felt more of a responsibility to help Shaw out, or at least Shaw's introduction into the side coincided with Lallana really getting to grips with that side of his game. Well, none of our other players are anywhere near him, so make of that what you will.
An abiding memory of this season for me has been Adam scaring the living bejesus out of slow-witted defenders caught on the ball with him bearing down on them. It's a delight to watch. Another one like him and there'd be no stopping us. Vin
I don't think he did and anyway, that's irrelevant as this is about nicking the ball in the final third. Foxy certainly wasn't there much.
Is there a chart showing how many Referees he has sworn at since he became Captain, compared with games when he didn't wear the armband?
There was another article about it today by the babbling Patrick Barclay: http://www.standard.co.uk/sport/spo...refereeing-is-a-load-of-nonsense-9041316.html He seems to be undecided.
I read it and haven't a clue what point he was trying to get across, but his take on the "insult" doesn't come close to what others implied has happened.
I read the title thinking that he disagreed with Clattenburg, then Southampton then PGMOL and Fifa, but am not certain... Class journalism.
Could Nathan Redmond be that man?! I would have liked us to have signed him at the time he moved to Norwich. If they go down, I reckon we should make a move for him.
