Yeah I agree, but I was thinking more about Shaw's fitness with 3 games in a week rather than physicality
Will be interesting to see if he starts. Testament to Saints backroom boys if they can get him strong enough.
we all know clyne & shaw are pretty ****e in the air, so why don't we play joss, josh & fonte across the back. that would hopefully provide sme extra air power & allow some freedome for shaw & clyne to support the midfield / attack without exposing the back line too much. my feeling is gazza in gol only because of his hieght.
he Saints chief is thought to be on the look-out for new midfield options in light of skipper Adam Lallana's injury absence because of knee ligament damage. The England international has already sat out two games and is not likely to be available to Adkins over the next few weeks. There could be an opportunity for Adkins to bolster his squad when the transfer window opens for business next week, but he is not letting anything out of the bag. "He's not going to play against Stoke and that is all we're going to talk about," said Adkins in the Daily Echo, when asked for an update on Lallana. "We are not going to speculate about anybody. It is fair to say in January all teams will be open for business." Adkins has also had problems in the goalkeeper department this season as he has not been able to find a settled number one out of Kelvin Davis, Paulo Gazzaniga and Artur Boruc. But he would not be drawn on fresh reports linking him with a bid for Blackburn's Paul Robinson. "There is speculation about everybody, I don't know where it comes from half the time," he added. "We've got three goalkeepers vying for the positions. I have high hopes for Paulo and two experienced goalkeepers. "On the training ground they are working really hard and Kelvin has got the shirt at the moment." No Adam but KD looks like he's got the shirt.
But Stoke deploy two wide men who are quick therefore we need people who can keep pace with them. So Clyne and Richardson would be ideal.
If you want quick full backs then you need Clyne and Shaw. Richardson's quite quick going forward with the ball but slow at turning around and once he's beaten, he's beaten.
I think that people are making too much of an issue about fitness over the Xmas/New Year period. Last season, the games were Tuesday-Saturday virtually every week and as I recall, team selections were pretty consistant, i.e. Rickie wasn't rested (apart from cup games). Plus we have had a two week period with no matches recently, to prepare for these 4 matches...I really don't expect too many suprises in the starting XI on Saturday, especially the back four and I think that SKD will be in goal, the same for the Arsenal game, I expect that there will be many changes for the cup game with Chelsea though.
Perplexed at some replies. Shaw is very good in the air. He's a strong player and tall for a left back. Anyone that thinks Shaw is weak in the air hasn't seen us play this season or has been turning up to games with their eyes closed. Yep. Richardson is the slowest for me. He's injury prone and lacking match fitness. Plus at his age he might have lost half a yard of pace and struggle to get it back for a while because of the injury. Suggestions here border on the ridiculous at times.
