It's Yoshida's fault for giving the ball away stupidly in a bad position. When you have possession, players are .looking to run away from the opposing player into open spaces to provide an outlet. If you give the ball away the way Yoshida did, the other team immediately has possession behind your backline and the team does not have time to recover. That goal was classic Park. Even though he's old now and not that good, he can still read a game and he never gives up. And it was also a perfect example of a good press. That was the kind of goal Saints should have scored. Our defense was out of sync all day yesterday and had difficulty both making the early stop and in passing out of the back. It looked exactly like it did early in the season where due to players being unable to contain their man 1 v 1 so it was always getting pulled out of shape. Even the few good last-ditch tackles we made were a result of not doing something simple properly earlier on and forcing us into having to make a last ditch tackle. QPR players were regularly schooling defenders off the dribble or finding gaps between players even though we had enough players back. We made everything harder than it should have been. I really don't think any of the CB's are good enough. Fonte is maybe slightly-below-average. I don't expect that Saints can put together a fortress-like defense right away, so maybe he is okay for another year. But he should be the weakest link and not the strongest. Hooieveld and Yoshida should both be backups. As for Forren, I have also read that he picked up a knock.
I thought it was later than that, but, although he may have a knock now, MP doesn't seem that keen. Would be delighted to be proved wrong, because we may need another CB before the end of the season. Let's hope he is fired up should he get an opprtunity.
On the day they signed him him MP always said he was one for the future! Which makes me think he was never bought to go straight into the I take it at face value that we saw potential as was Norways player of the season but he is still getting there.
I wouldn't be so sure it is untrue (despite being in the Mirror)...it's a bit of a random rumour to make up. He was a desperation buy...I know I was shot down about that before, but I think we failed in our real targets and he looked promising. It may be that he isn't finished here, but they feel he needs some games.
Was at the u21's game last night. For someone who we payed that much money for he was awful. Should of completely bossed the game against 17 year olds but instead kept finding himself out of postion and constantly being paced
It's a bit early to be writing him off surely? http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/0/football/21079956 It was the 18th.
Our signings do seem a bit hit and miss. Perhaps Nicola should look at the recruitment team. The problem may be that we want to sign players of real quality, but are not yet in the position to attract them. Therefore, we get the next layer down and some of them work out and some don't. There's also Mayuka, remember.
I can understand him not getting into the side at centre back. I just find it odd that he hasn't played at left back when Shaw hasn't started or been taken off.
A few points to consider 1)he was signed during the scandinavian winter break so was not match fit when he joined - has had to work hard to get fitness up but difficult without matches 2)our defence hasn't been doing too badly so MP justified in not just throwing him in 3)he really wasn't that bad for the u-21's, certainly put in a good enough performance to be on the bench vs Norwich 4) it clearly takes some players time to adapt and find their feet (I remember Ivanovic not playing for Chelsea for months after signing, wouldn;t say he was a poor signing now!). 5)loaning him out makes no sense whatsoever (unless it's an emergency loan for a couple of games) He may well be sh!te but I doubt it. He's stood out at international level and I think we will see him introduced into the first team before the end of the season. Patience.
I think we have to accept that in the manager's view he isn't good enough. Mauricio has only arrived, so there are no historical problems. He must have been as open to playing him as anyone else.
Bale hardly used to get a game for Spurs. Henry was a bit pony when he arrived. Now I'm not saying that Forren is the new Bale/Henry at all, but it's funny how these things pan out in the long run. I'm not concerned at all with it. Let's just wait and see.
