Personally I think you've made him your scapegoat. He hasn't been great but Bednarek's been just as bad, if not worse. And our strikers have gone AWOL.
He’s been playing Bundesliga and Serie A for over 5 years. Hardly a nobody. It’s not like we’re signing him from China or South Africa.
I think Salisu is in a slightly different position to Kane. The scenarios are theoretically similar but very few clubs could afford the fee for Kane Barca won’t be Salisu’s only option - this summer or next But I appreciate that maybe the point here is that maybe the opportunity of Barca might be off the table With Kane very few clubs could ever buy him. Pretty much City and PSG
Oh, I'm sorry.. I don't watch German or Italian football! My bad for not knowing rhe entire football encyclopedia of playing staff.
I don’t think I would call Sally slow. That’s one thing he isn’t. Rash, on occasion for sure. But slow? Not at all. I do tend to agree with Tom on this one - Bednarek is the senior partner of the two, and has been a fair bit worse.
Yes, I have. But only because we all saw how brilliant he was at the beginning of the season. And with Bednarek we have seen him for 4 or 5 seasons now, so we know his ability. Right now, Salisu has had as many bad games as good ones unfortunately. Also, if you read my post again, I said he would be suited to a higher mid-table team. Essentially, that's another way of saying he's too good for us. So it's not like I'm criticising his ability or potential. I've come to the conclusion (I'm probably wrong), that he just doesn't suit the way we play. That's more Ralph's fault than Salisu's. But there is no hiding from the fact that Sally made some dreadful cock-ups this season. A lot of them.
He's very quick. When he gets going. But a man of his size is never going to be quick out of the blocks. He arrives half a second too late, too often.
His reactions to potential danger were slow and almost half-arsed against Brentford and was culpable for the first and third goals. I don't think that him and Bedders work well as a pair as they rarely cover each other. Mo is still young so maybe with the right coaching and partner he can get through this poor run of form but both centre backs have been equally to blame since the Villa game and Ralph should've dealt with this issue by not selecting at least one of them.
Salisu has undoubtedly been poor recently (who hasn't?) but you cant just forget the fact he had been excellent this season up until this poor spell. He has definitely had a better season than Bednarek and whilst he does make a fair few errors, he is still 23 so fairly young for a CB. I think if Salisu is playing beside a solid, more experienced CB in a team that hasn't all but given up we would be raving about him. If he stays/signs a new contract and we bring in a top CB, then I think we see the best of him next season.
I see what you mean. For me, the change in him was that during his golden spell at the beginning/mid season, he was reading the game so, so well (if on occasion still being a little rash). Then for some reason (I think because he saw Sally reading situations, and this working) Ralph decided that 'run like a nutter and go for suicide interceptions just past the halfway line' should be a general tactic, which murdered the whole team's confidence, and in particular our defenders.
Exactly this. Sally seems unable to just jockey the attacking player. Conceded against United and Brighton (both away) because of it (off the top of my head), plus the pens he gave away to Spurs (home) and City (cup). I just think he would be much more effective holding back, because he’s massive, strong and surprisingly flexible. I’m assuming he’s being instructed to do it, because it isn’t what a CB instinctively does.
Salisu and Bednarek have both been amongst the highest performing centre backs in the league (per https://www.dailyecho.co.uk/sport/2...among-leagues-best-defenders/#comments-anchor). To be fair, its easy to blame central defenders even though many of the defensive frailties originate higher up the pitch. Still, they were exceedingly poor at Brentford. But CB's don't necessarily need to be quick to be good. It's more about reading the game like VVD does. Fonte, for example makes our current CBs look like Ferraris by comparison yet he was a decent CB.
The trouble is that at least Sally (as you've said previously) has a very good CB in him. On this season's form, Beddy could get turned by Vestegaard.
This why I prefer my eyes as opposed to relying too much on stats, virtually every Saints fan I know have been critical of them including most on here during this current run. We can all see the glaring errors that they are consistantly making currently and it's costing the whole team.