I still don't think Mayuka got enough game time to settle in. Think a few cup goals to boost his confidence and then a few sub appearances at 60m in the league and we would have a better idea of whether he can cut it. De Ridder got more of a chance. Assuming we have 2x CDM and lambert + Osvaldo/J-Rod we have 2 positions to fill in the middle of the park. Lallana is playing very well but nobody is really a shoe-in there. This suggests that although we have many options none are perfect. I would prefer one of the 3 behind the striker to be a natural wide player, ideally with pace.
Sometimes when it's your throw-in and the other guy is being a prat with the ball, you have no other option. I've never seen Mayuka as a wide-man. I'm not sure if others have. He was always one of the four striker for me. Last season it was: Lambert, Rodriguez, Mayuka and Guly. Now it's: Lambert, Rodriguez, Osvaldo and Guly. I'm not fussed about losing Mayuka in that scenario.
Do we have an option to recall him if any of our attacking players get injured? If so, then this is probably beneficial as he'll get game time over there (they've recently sold last season's top scorer) and can always come back during the season if we're impressed or need him. The fact that he didn't get on the bench at the weekend indicates to me that MP thinks we have enough immediate cover.
You need only glance towards the pitch on the occasions he is on it if you want to see him as a wide player. I don't think that's asking too much! I can see why you are happy if you think we have upgraded Mayuka for Osvaldo, but I see a big gap on the right where Puncheon (and Mayuka as backup) used to be. Whatever your view of the merits of these players, we have lost options.
Agree. He always gave defences a hard time, keeping up sustained pressure even into the latter stages of the game. That sustained pressure led to mistakes and allowed us to create chances. I don't think Mayuka is as bigger loss but we haven't had a chance to see if he can fill that void.
But now we're potentially (depending on the matchup, really) taking some bite out of the first XI, and even then, we still only have one person likely to be an impact sub. Too often last year our subs were by necessity based not on "whose skillset could really impact this game?", but rather "who is there and not a keeper/defender". I like Guly, but under no circumstances should he ever be thrown into a game that we're chasing. But he was, because we had to. And he will be again. And we'll by necessity throw JWP on as a sub playing in a wide area, which is not at all his forte, or Davis into a track meet, or Cork on while pushing Schneiderlin or Wanyama into the 10. And Yoshida/Fox will inevitably start a handful of games at fullback, for that matter, and we'll just kinda make do with having no attacking presence on their side of the field for a full game. With everyone healthy right now, our bench consists of a keeper, two defenders, three central midfielders and one attacking player. That's not ideal.
Indeed. Why would anyone potentially want us to weaken our first XI, just so that we have an option from the bench? Especially when there are still enough spare places in our 25 man squad to buy someone to (hopefully) avoid this situation. Personally, against the non big boys, I'm not a huge fan of playing three "CM"s (Morgan/Wanyama/Cork/JWP/Davis) and three "forwards", at home. I would much rather it was two and four. And just as importantly, with round pegs in round holes. With our current squad, I can't see that happening too much though. And that issue is in addition to the lack of pace and wing play (which even with Puncheon, I felt we lacked).
I don't know Poch's plans but as I have stated on here before I have yet to be convinced he has a plan B. Gaston bought on for Lallana at Norwich, a like for like replacement which probably made us less effective as Lallana was arguably our best player. The arrival of Osvaldo may give him more options which may enable to tweak our style of play. Going back to the Sunderland game we never got behind their defence, playing our football in front of their packed defence which coped pretty well before being undone by a set piece. Very similar to WHU, Stoke, QPR performances at back end of last season. The only players with pace to get to byline are Shaw and Clyne, both full backs. We are in need of a wide offensive player with pace to get behind these teams full backs who set up defensively, especially at St Mary's. Puncheon was the closest we had to this who played well in tandem with Clyne. If we have designs to break into the top half of table we need a player who has pace and able to go past full backs. Your right in that Mayuka is a striker.
I would say, losing Puncheon was more detrimental to our squad strength, though it would suggest another player coming in. Fingers crossed!
Agreed, and without him and Mayuka and even (forgive me) De Ridder, we are entirely devoid of it now.
I see this as two separate discussions. Mayuka leaving doesn't concern me in the slightest because he didn't get on the pitch much. Isgrove can make the occasional substitute appearances that Mayuka did and may well be more effective. Puncheon is slightly different. I like him and he was joint second highest scorer last year but I also got the feeling he's not Poch's type of player. I still don't think we wanted to let him go but it seems he asked for the move for personal reasons and we (quite rightly I'd say) allowed him to leave. I thought Joe made a good point earlier that the timing meant we didn't have much time to find a replacement. Who's available? Well Beefy (who I think is pretty reliable) has said we were interested in Moses but Liverpool got him. It's not ideal but we're just going to have to get by.
Puncheon left roughly two weeks before the end of the window, and I'd imagine that deal didn't happen in an hour...surely, that's enough time to be able to find a winger with some directness, available for transfer or loan? What I'm really curious about is Poch's statement after the West Brom game that there were areas that we needed to strengthen. Has he been overruled by the others on the transfer committee, or were they unable to find the right players?
It's just typical that, by all accounts, Chelsea are trying to find a PL club to loan Nathaniel Chalobah to. Looks a real decent young player, but CM is the one position that we don't need to strengthen!
Blimey, I've picked through the feathers that seemed to have been ruffled and read a lot of these posts. Some people wanted a scrap today. We have lost Puncheon who did us more than a good turn last season and this is strange if we haven't replaced him; I think we should have replaced him. Sending Mayuka out on loan seems sensible to me as he has hardly figured when here. I didn't see him as back up to Punch and I don't believe Pochettino did or he would have been considered more often. Lallana, JayRod, Ramirez, JWP, Guly have all been played wide and I believe were considered higher up the tree than Manny. I believe that if push came to shove, we would now consider promoting one of the youngsters if really needed, but that would probably not be considered before playing Cork or Steve Davis wide right if needed. Then, you could even consider playing Clyne there with Chambers at RB if injuries got really, really bad. That is possibly 8 options plus younsgters that COULD be considered if we really were in an emergency and if it gets that bad, then that is just bad luck I don't quite understand why so many have thrown a wobbler that we have let a player go who has hardly featured and 4-6 months ago was told by the manager to sort his attitude out.
And we will get by, we still have a good squad of players. We will give any team a hard game, its just those odd games against those teams at the same level or below who will nick points by frustrating us (aka Sunderland, Stoke, WHU, WBA) at St. Mary's. Also a few big guns came to us last season and got complacent thus ending up with bloody noses, not so sure they'll be so complacent this season.
Not having Mayuka or De Ridder is not that big a deal. I'd accept playing one of the players I mentioned above in a wide position as a short term emergency. Getting one replacement for Punch would be nice.
Would have been nice to sign Redmond for £2m wouldn't it? Would have been a decent replacement for Puncheon or Mayuka for that matter, but apparently we weren't interested. I just think Pochettino doesn't want any wingers and I'm not sure I understand why, frankly.
It's not Mayuka that's garnering ire so much as selling a wide player when we are desperately short of wide players. It's the thinness of the squad now, and the limited variations we can throw at teams as it stands. As you yourself said when we acquired a central mid adding strength to strength, it's important to have quality depth and competition for places. Do we really have that? Playing JWP, Cork or Davis wide is really not a good option. How many of our players that have gotten league games can you say are natural wide players? Is Lallana the only one?
@SimonPeach: Sorry to the bearer of bad news but #SaintsFC are done for the day. Nobody else in or out. Which means no replacements for Puncheon or Mayuka.
This debate seems to be the product of losing to Norwich rather than any real deficiency in the team. When Osvaldo, Ramirez, Lambert and Lallana click together, with wanyama and Schneiderlin behind, I personally can't find any reason for a pacy winger. Thay hot forward line will create a lot of space for two of the nation's most exciting full backs to attack. It is going to be a good year.
