So happy for Jose today to be the match hero after his unfair (IMO) criticism from some fans after last week's game. The guy is Saints through and through as shown by his celebration today and is currently Poch's first pick as Dejan's partner at CB. I think that some fans like change for the sake of it and judge players simply because they were with us at a lower level.
Same here. In League One he was easily the best CB we had. In the Championship, after Jos arrived, he was still the best CB we had. And now, in the second year of the PL, he is more than worthy of his starting spot. He just isn't showy and he does all the right things. Watch him on his own and you see how much good work he does. As Poch might say, he can be trusted.
He was decent in the last game but made some errors. Didn't really have much to do today but did everything he did have to do well and came up with a goal too, so probably a contender for MOTM.
I like Fonte but for me the first choice partnership should be Lovren and Yoshida. I really like Yoshida.
Disagree with most of this, I think Hooiveld was far better in the Championship, Fonte was well under par and had a very strange season, but I think has better attributes to suit the PL than Hooiveld. And I think he is a bit showy sometimes, at home against Wigan last year where he tried a cruyff turn with a man closing him down, resulting in a goal for Wigan. While I think he had a good game today, I don't think he is a top 10 CB. People always seem to get carried away; just cause he had a couple of good games and scored a goal does not mean he's now officially stopped making mistakes and is awesome, over the course of the season I think he'll be replaced by Yoshida fairly soon.
Yoshida and Fonte are both average-ish Premier League defenders to me. Hooiveld is below average but by no means awful. I like Fonte, but he still remains the weakest of the back four in my opinion. He always gives his best effort and has served the club for so long and so well that he's one of my favorite players. I'm happy when he does well, as he did today. And he was far from terrible last week, just didn't seem as good as Lovren. The performance overall was perfectly acceptable. But 's a reflection on Saints' ambition that average may not cut it anymore. Regardless of who wins the battle to start at CB between Yoshida and Fonte, I think we'll be bringing someone better in next season.
Haven't been online this evening and so my recent visit to the OS was an eye opener. I felt that Pochettino was barely concealing a huge disappointment, frustration and anger, and I'm glad he could barely conceal it because I want to see that passion. No platitudes, no ifs, buts and maybes. Even the way he ended the interview with Adam Blackmore, by shaking his head, and deciding not to utter what he thought of Sunderland, spoke volumes to me. I hope there was some cheap furniture around that he could kick because I believe it would have taken a battering today.
I've always been a big Jose fan, and how he came under any criticism for the West Brom game baffles me. I didn't see him out a foot wrong, he made his share of tackles and blocks and his passing out from the back was excellent. Saints fans doing their usual "we're never entirely happy" routine...if it's not Guly it's Danny Fox and now neither are in the squad so we've seemingly moved onto Fonte. He was great again yesterday, after watching his pre-match interview I started digging through the old archives from the League One era when Jose practically carried us over the finish line, that goal against Brighton. He's been a massive part of the club and one of the surviving members of that League One side so he'll always be a legend. Does nobody remember the game against Fulham last season?
I'd suggest Jose was criticised for his cross-field passes that kept ending up in the Albion stands. Other than that, he was good.
Yoshida is better at timing tackles and interceptions, but he is pretty poor with his feet. I would start with Fonte, he has earned his place. As long as Fonte is concentrating, and not making silly errors I think he is the best choice, purely because he is also so good with his feet. He has a great range of passing, and excellent vision for a centre back.
