The surprise from Lallana is how big an improvement he has made this season over previous. This is the best he has been, since perhaps he was that outrageously talented academy kid of 16-17. I love genuine two-footed skilful players over workhorses, and Adam is both. He's the most talented player, bar none, Saints have had on their books since Matty, and now it is starting to show through properly.
That's complete rubbish. A few of us said it was going to be a big season for Lallana because he had been under-performing for a long time, and he needed to step up and make a case for his inclusion in the first eleven. To his credit he has exceeded all our hopes. I don't think anyone "wrote him off".
I don't think that's true at all. As you'll appreciate, I'm on this forum most days and in the past 18 months the worst have seen is disappointment about Adam's form, and that was in isolated moments last season. But nobody has written him off that I can recall, bar perhaps irrational ex-members who are best forgotten.
Isn't that exactly what ImpsSaint was saying? A lot of people had written Adam off last season as not being up to it?
No. Disappointment with and writing someone off are two different levels of response. One is mild and the other is extreme. And several were expressing disappointment, not half the forum.
Let's not forget Lallana has only had a really impressive quarter of a season in the Premier League. Andy Carroll had an impressive half season not too long ago and he couldn't maintain it. Let's see Lallana keep these performance levels up for a bit longer before we get too excited.
written off was exaggeration. However many were expressing doubts as to whether Adam could make that step up whilst at the same time saying Gaston needed time. I accept no-one had written him off but there were many moaning that Adam could play pants and not get slated by anyone whereas others couldn't which is an oxymoron in itself because they were slating him for being unslatable. From the platform he started this season, namely doubts over whether he could make the step up then it is a surprise that he has arguably been our player of the season so far at least in the attacking side of things.
It is surprising how well he is playing right now, but speaking for myself at least, the major disappointment with his form before was that I knew he could do better. He has earned the right to a bit of leeway in terms of criticism and I think he was given that. Why does it follow then that Ramirez should be written off after one underwhelming season? Your position seems contradictory.
I was surprised at how many people voted for Ramirez. I voted for him too but only because everybody else did! I did like the comments which mentioned JWP and Fonte, and they've both stepped up massively. I think JWP wasn't that worse last season so, personally, I've always rated him highly.
Started as a right midfielder but as is the way with they acadamy, he was moved around and the rightback slot suited him. If you look at his goal record for england and the acadamy its fairly impressive for a rightback. For the first team im pretty sure he was told to concentrate on defending as was Shaw when he first entered the team.
