I'm going to defend the lad a bit as I think he gets a lot of stick from fans which isn't always completely fair imo. Last season he played a big role in a promotion winning side making the second most starts with 43 and scored 7 goals with the vital one in the play-off semi-final. This season he has only started 6 games down with Fraser and Lallana and they aren't slagged nearly as much as he is as they aren't regarded to have played much of a role in our crappy season. He has come off of the bench a lot (14 games) but almost always in a pretty hopeless match position although I admit that he hasn't been able to change a match in our favour much.
True he was ok in the EFL, but he never seems to run Fraser this year was a right off I think Lalla should have played more, he was ok when he did come on
I'm not knocking your opinion as everyone sees different things, it's just that I see him getting lots of stick when in truth he has been a very minor, bit part player this season and not really had much time to be an influence on the team's play at all.
Smallbone was our most improved player last season. He got alot of undeserved criticism last year. I do think he has been out of his depth in the Prem.
Yeah, he isn't a PL player but he will be a good squad option for us in the Championship. If we did end up with Downes, Charles and Fernandes as our midfield 3 then Smallbone would be fine on the bench.
Not saying he’s a big fish in this pool of ****, but he’s often a sub and you want your subs to have an impact I didn’t knock him last season and some others have been far worse
I think it'll be harsh to bin him off when he's proved that he can be an asset in the Championship but he needs to play in his best position with the right balance not a in deeper midfield role.
Disagree. In my opinion he's too small for that position and not exactly stocky. Get rid of as much deadwood as possible. No time for sentiment. I'm sure he's a nice guy but no thanks.
He is 6ft but I don't really think it matters that much how tall he is. He was player of the year at stoke a couple of seasons ago playing CM so is clearly capable at championship level. I wouldn't want him starting but is fine as a squad player.
As long as it's in no way a defensive midfielder then fine. I just like the idea of starting from scratch, we've not exactly got a lot to loose. That may not be practical though!
Regarding Smallbone, I can accept his lack of quality this season - he's clearly not PL standard so was always going to be tough for him. What I can't accept is lack of effort. And his attempts to tackle Odegaard on Sunday for the winning goal were downright pathetic. It was 1-1 FFS, should be a bare minimum that everyone on the pitch is busting a gut to keep the point intact. If that's the effort levels he's going to be showing then he can **** off quite frankly. Not acceptable and I can't see Still tolerating that either.
Agree entirely and on the evidence of this season there’s not gonna be too many still playing. That has been my big problem this year. It’s one thing being **** if you’re just not good enough but the lack of effort we’ve seen so many times is simply not acceptable. I trust Still to sort this out and on that basis I’m really looking forward to next season.
This was a weak point for us the entire season, and also in the Championship. Another Russ hangover basically. We so badly need a terrier in the squad - not necessarily a starter - but who we can bring on to just break up everything the opposition tries on the edge of our box for the final 15-20 minutes. The amount of time and space we gift the opposition on the edge of the box, is criminal. I was specifically watching this on Sunday. The contrast was mad; we couldn't even get quarter of a second on the edge of theirs, while they would have 3-4 seconds or more, before a press/tackle came in. This is the midfield's fault. It's daft blaming the defence for our goals against stats, when we don't have a midfield. Madness we didn't sign anyone to do this job; f*cking insanity to not bring back Shea Charles to do it.
Agree with your overall point about needing another midfielder but I think letting Charles stay where he was for the rest of the season was the right call. We were down and out in November so no point brining him back when by all accounts he was having a good season. Let him come back without the weight of this ****show on his shoulders and hopefully he’ll be good for us next year. I think the terrier type midfielder just isn’t what Martin wanted, hence why we didn’t have one. He clearly didn’t rate Charles as he wasn’t comfortable enough on the ball to play the Downes role in his system. He seemed to want DMs who could receive the ball with a player close by, turn and play a decent pass. Most of those aren’t also break up the play types, and someone who is good at both isn’t coming to a team like Saints. We’ll see how Still approaches it but hopefully our need for “just” a scrappy midfielder is reduced next season, will need options if we do make an immediate return to the PL though.
Think every squad needs a terrier type. Luckily in modern day football there are many players who can do this role, as well as having other technical qualities. JWP for example. The amount of late goals we conceded because Russ was horrible. Every other game more or less.
