Richardson has only played 25 minutes of competitive football since his hamstring injury against Fulham at the beginning of October, and never plays for the U21's for some reason. Why this is the case I have no idea, as it means when situations like this arise we now have a more than adept right back who just isn't fit enough to play a Premier League game. 25 minutes game time in seven months means he would do well to last 60 minutes vs Spurs, which is really frustrating because his pace and power would serve him well against them. I agree he deserves a send-off, got so many assists last season and was absolutely solid.
Interesting choice of words. Are you saying he tried to pull out of the tackle and that is why it looked so bad? I thought he was pretty committed myself but studs up and over the ball. He has previous. He jumped in studs first against WHU and was lucky to come away with a yellow really. On Saturday, as someone else pointed out, it was a suicide pass to Shaw in the first place (Davis?). Fox was no worse than half a dozen others on Saturday but faed badly in the second half from an average start. Couple of decent corners first half though. As for Spurs, I think you have to have someone top draw to try and stifle Bale so whilst Richardosn is a good back up its a bit crueal to put him on this game. Cork may be the best bet with Clyne on the left or leave Clyne and play Maya on the left back role. Attacking midfield is easier I think. Lambert up top with Punch, Lallan and JRod behind.
His intent was to injure the player IMO. Team was absolutely fuming at that point from the referees decisions over the course of the match.
To mention Richardson. Not sure why he's not been used more. It's a mystery considering he's not down as injured. He's the best crosser of the ball in open play we have.
Interesting choice of words. Are you saying he tried to pull out of the tackle ________________________ No, he wasn't pulling out of it, it was just a interesting choice of words. If that tackle had been on one of our players, I'd be fuming! Reckless & stupid.
I'd be happy if it was. But I don't think MP will start him seeing as he can't get on the bench even when there seems to be a space for a player like him.
I don't think this is the case, he immediately apologised and didn't look angry. It was just poor execution. As for Richardson, I know he was a useful player in league one and the championship, but he's been deemed not to be good enough for this level, simple as that. Since we signed Forren he's barely even seen the bench, and he has only started one game earlier in the season when we had no alternative. Clyne, Yoshida and even Cork have been preferred to him at right-back. He's very unlikely to feature again.
Maybe on the two second half goals he could have had a better starting position but overall he had a good game. In the first half I thought he muscled in well against fortune. Against Lukaku, you'd need a tank so can't really complain about that.
I'm amazed how much of a slagging the team are getting. Second half was really poor and we were completely out done by WBA. First half we weren't at our normal zip, but still had some neat moves that could have seen us level or even ahead at halftime. Don't get me wrong, we weren't good, I just feel that saints fans are like a swinging pendulum; it's either all one way or the other. Most inept performance for years? Blimey, it was better than WBA away, better than Arsenal away, anyone remember Blackpool away this time last year? I could go on. Get some perspective people, we've been playing fantastically well and this has just not met the standards if the last few games. That is all.
The most disappointing thing for me is not just this result, it's that it's becoming a pattern of underperforming against teams who are not in the top 6. Yes we've had some great results, but also we have also been convincingly beaten by the likes of QPR and Sunderland, games we have been clear favourites for. West Brom are not as bad as them but it definitely fits into that category. If we don't address that next season we'll be fighting relegation again, and for a club talking about the champions league, that's not really good enough.
Well said, that man. And I came over from France for that ****e!! Actually, this is not French bias, but I thought Morgan was sound, but playing midfield on his own was a little beyond him. Cork had a shocker (unusually) and Lallana was way off the pace.
I still think the expectations of fans is at issue here. Yes, we need to beat teams like WBA, however 7 games ago, we were biting finger nails. I'm pretty damn sure Spurs fans will be thinking they need to beat teams like Wigan if they want to get into the Champions League, but football throws things up. Those talking about Champions League for Saints, should be talking in the future... now, we have the squad we have that has performed remarkably well. I believe we can aim for top 6 or even higher, but I am realistic enough to think that it will be with a slightly different squad. Crikey, 6 months ago this was the worst defence in the Prem; last week some people were saying we didn't need a new CB! I think we need two. That might be one now and one more a little later, but I believe fans have lost some reality and hopefully Saturday's game will be a little reminder of where we acutally are. Next season will be just as tough as this, if not tougher. No-one should be staking any claims for next season's finsih until we see how we strengthen the squad. We are looking quite good, but we haven't become Man utd overnight.
Danny Fox's tackle was the worst I've seen from a Saints player for a long time. He went in with both feet off the ground and still had the nerve to complain. Fox needs to go in the summer.
He flew in two footed and charged into the challenge. Reid could easily had a career ending injury. The challenge was a disgrace. He tried to play it off and tried to apologise but I'm not buying it at all. My opinion is you don't fly in like that unless you mean it.
Yes it was an awful challenge, not debating that. But come on, you really think everyone who does a tackle like that is malicious? He had been sold short by Davis's pass and was trying to reach it, it was reckless, and a textbook red card, but I don't think you can really accuse him of attempting to end Reid's career.
I'm not saying he tried to end his career. I only said he could have had a career ending injury. Fox got caught up in the moment as the team was frustrated and flew in two footed at the player intending to hurt him without thinking straight. No excuses here at all for him .
Ok we're not going to agree so I'll just leave you with a summary of my position: It was bad, and yes, Reid could have been injured, but to say he intended it is pretty speculative.
I hate seeing players playing out of position as it generally leads to disaster in my experience. If Luke is still unable to play then I want to see our no.3 come into the team. I think that's probably young Mr Targett. Who would have thought Luke would have made such an impression, if we had messed about playing other players out of position then we would have never discovered how good he was. It's his time to show how good he is when he is faced with Lennon and Bale. We need to know if we need to buy another left back to replace Foxy or will Target be able to step into the breach?
