Not a real suggestion....was just making the point that there isn't much to discuss as MP make so few changes.
please log in to view this image Bench: Davis, Yoshida, Chambers, Cork, Ramirez, JWP, Lambert If Wanyama is injured? Swap for Cork, but I think we need to start getting him involved again. If he was fully fit and up to speed I'd be more confident of starting him in this game, but as it is, I'm 50/50 whether I'd like to see Cork or Wanyama. Went for Davis for solidity and experience over Ramirez. And Gallagher for his movement and I think dropping Rickie to the bench against Liverpool could see him come on in the second half with an extra spring in his step.
Finally someone with some sense although Lambert in for the invisible man. Clyne > Chambers Lambert > Gallagher Cork/Schneiderlin > Big Vic The youngens are good but Clyne is our best RB (though Chambers is pretty damn decent), Lambo is a very intelligent/experienced/quality player despite half of you slagging him off whilst Gallagher still looks a bit raw and Wanyama will have to be slowly eased back but only once Cork and Spiderman stop performing. You can't play all 3. Certainly not Corky in CAM. And Ramirez is starting to look more worth the money we shelled out for him.
Am I the only one who thinks Clyne should start in front of Chambers? Clyne is immense going forward and we lose something in attack when he doesn't play. Our defence started leaking goals when the back 5 from the start of the season began being tampered with. Admittedly this was virtually all out of Pochettino's hands with injuries to Lovren and Boruc most notably but I say we go back to that same team we had so much success with at the beginning of the season. Boruc Clyne Fonte Lovren Shaw Wanayama Schneiderlin I also think that Ramirez did enough against West Ham to come straight into the starting XI. For me, Rickie Lambert has been really poor since and including the Hull match. He missed a few sitters in that game, he missed that one against Sunderland and he did nothing against West Ham. I would drop him for a game and move Rodriguez up front, Gaston into Rodriguez's position. If he sticks with Lambert he should replace Davis, who has been one of the more consistent players without being exceptional, with Ramirez who has assists and goals in him and always looks dangerous. The season hasn't half petered out though. Pochettino doesn't seem as up for it as he did earlier in the season and I have a gut feeling he'll be away in the summer.
I think he's up for it...he went ballistic when decisions didn't go our way on Saturday. However, he has to keep motivating the team when our season is flattening out (hence his talk of Europa League, even when he doesn't like the competition). The PL is a long hard season...that is why teams fighting relegation start winning unexpectedly...they are up for it, when teams in the middle are mentally inflating their li-los.
What does Davis have to do to be considered “exceptional”? As I said earlier in the thread, he has assisted and scored more goals than every other member (bar Lallana) of our midfield put together.
Vic said “It has been a really tough time for me because I’ve been out for a long time and to be honest, I’m behind,” and “It has been difficult, the Fulham one was tough in midfield and I was tired. Also, coming into the cup game was also tough because I was a little bit tense about my leg, but now I’m tackling with my legs feeling much better and hopefully it’s not going to take me a while to get going."
That may be the case but we have been lacking potency in attack and although Davis has thus far scored more goals and made more assists than the rest of our midfield bar Lallana put together I still think that Ramirez would have scored more goals and assisted more if he was fit. He's a far more creative and exciting player to watch. Tbh I don't know how relevant that stat is. Morgan isn't in the team for his goal scoring or his asisting ability, neither is Wanyama. Cork has never scored a goal for us. Poch has been picking two defensive midfielders, a combination of Wanyama/Cork and Scheniderlin. I'm not comparing Davis to them because he does a different job entirely, a job that I think Ramirez could do better. You omitted Lallana, you should also omit Rodriguez who has been playing out on the left.
I get frustrated by this. It's not slagging him off, it's just observing that he's playing very poorly at the moment, and hasn't actually looked on top of his game for quite some time. There's speculation as to why that is (back injury etc), but saying "slagging him off" makes it sound like; a - people are wrong, and b - it's just being done for the sake of it. Neither point I agree with. Do you know the first person that would probably admit he's playing way off his best at the moment? Rickie......
Has to be said he's not the player that broke into the England team. The vision and passes are still there but something is missing. Let's hope it comes back with a bang on Saturday!
In a computer game world I'd go with this: Boruc Clyne Fonte Lovren Shaw Wanyama Schneiderlin Ramirez Lallana Rodriguez Gallagher but that's 5 changes from the side that played West Ham, which is possibly a little too many, so I'd expect Pochettino to go with something like this: Boruc Chambers Fonte Lovren Shaw Cork Schneiderlin Davis Lallana Rodriguez Gallagher Mostly as I expect Ramirez and Wanyama to not quite be capable of 90 minutes yet. I'd start Gallagher either way as I think Lambert has been very poor, and should not be kept in the team just because he's the only 'senior' option.
When we played West Brom at Home we had our first choice back 5 playing together for the first time in 6 weeks. We looked much more solid, which is no coincidence. I would go for something like this: Boruc Clyne Fonte Lovren Shaw Wanyama Schneiderlin Lallana Davis Rodriguez Lambert Subs: Davis, Yoshida, Chambers, Ramirez, Cork, Ward-Prowse, Gallagher.
I'd go with... Boruc; Clyne, Fonte, Lovren, Shaw; Cork, Schneiderlin; Lallana, Gaston, Rodriguez; Lambert.
17:30 Southampton v Liverpool REFEREE Lee Probert: ASSISTANTS: R Ganfield & G Beswick. 4th Official: A Marriner
