I agree - we were screaming for some pace the last 15/20 minutes, and Ramirez looked sozzled, Mayuka for Ramirez would have made sense
Ramirez was good today, not brilliant but good. With the exception of one or two corners, they were all decent. He retained the ball more than he lost it and on a better day he would have got on the scoresheet. End of.
I'd have brought both Rodriguez and Mayuka on for Ramirez and Puncheon . They were both good against Spurs
He was very poor today in the final 3rd. But did put in a big shift. At times Lambert was completely separated from the midfield when we lost the ball which shows you how hard Ramirez worked. But he was clueless in the final 3rd for some reason and kept ignoring Lambert. It's frustrating as he was amazing against Aston Villa so we've had a glimpse of what he is capable of in the Saints shirt
Adkins didn't want to risk any more subs because we were doing well without them. A change in players would have changed our approach, if it isn't broken then don't fix it.
This certainly isn't Adkins' philosophy if you look at the times he has taken Puncheon off and in particular Lambert and Puncheon against United. Today it made no sense not to bring on an impact player especially since Mayuka made a big impact in the last game. And Rodriguez also played decent in the last home game.
We were attacking right up to the end. People complain when subs are put on when we are playing well...Adkins can't win. Ramirez showed flashes of genius...he has to be given game time in order to improve. He did lose the ball too much for a quality player..needs to concentrate
Half of those passes that were apparently given away were from the fact people didn't exactly make many runs for him. When we did that against Villa, we crucified them. Our best player by a mile. Not yesterday admittedly, I'd say Jack Cork was, but Ramirez ability-wise is streets ahead of the rest.
Forgot about Cork...great come back for him. I am expecting better results now that our wounded are back and games are (slightly) easier.