I know we've discussed this before but I think its clear after yesterday that we won't finish higher than our present position and can only drop one place. Time to blood some of the younsters? Personally I'd like players like Reed Sims and Mcqueen given a go starting againt Cardiff next week. Views?
Not sure you should throw them straight in. They need to be brought in to the team at the right pace. Throwing them in can do more damage. I would however throw young Sam Gallagher in as he seems ready and did very well against Arsenal. I'd like Reed to get more time, maybe 20/30 minutes in the next couple of games. Then, have any of those we think close, to get some playing time before the end of the season and increase that time based on how well they seem to adapt.
Agree that the kids shouldn't just be thrown in for the sake of it, but players like Gallagher & Reed who could seriously challenge for first team next season should get more time. I think there are more senior players who could also do with more involvement- gutted if we lose Jay for a while, but would be a good chance to give Ramirez a more settled run of games for confidence & consistency. Clyne & Wanyama have been in & out through injury recently so could do with getting back into the action and - dare I say it - the only way Gazzaniga is going to improve is if he gets game time...
I'm with the attitude when they are ready to play, they get game time. Just sticking them straight into a premier league match is just like chucking them into the deep end of the swimming pool. The question is if we just for example get in 1 or 2 reasonable good players in this summer. Do we have enough kids who are ready to fill in the rest of the squad? Rushing them into our starting 11 could have detrimental effect on there potential.
No I don't agree that youngsters should just be thrown in because we have secured our season. Putting that kind of pressure on youngsters is not what is needed. There is no easy game when it comes to football as we know, so youngsters need to be eased in slowly and precisely, one at a time. Pre season is a good starter as well as early rounds of the cup as they do now. Now we have lost our top scorer, Gallagher is the most likely to be used to replace him. However the most likely scenario is that Du Prado and Ramirez will interchange with him to give him good game time. The longest he has been on is about 20 minutes so he might get a full 45 or so. If it was me I would give him his full chance just as we did with shearer all those years ago at roughly the same age. Arsenal and a hat trick wasn't bad for starters was it? Difficult decision for the manager for sure.
Well, we did start him at home to Arsenal and he played for an hour... ironically, but for an unfortunate miss in the first half, he too may have gone on to score a hat-trick against the gooners on his debut
Take your points but surely MP needs to know if some of these kids can step up before he goes into the market in the summer. Reed in particular has been on the fringe for weeks.
We have Cardiff up next, so we must respect the other teams in the relegation battle. Remember WBA playing Wigan the week after they demolished us last year, that still rankles me what they did.
Sadly I have missed so many games this season it is unbelievable, Arsenal was one of them!! I hadn't realised he had played an hour so there is no reason that I can think of for him to not start against Cardiff. You just cannot put youngsters in at the deep end. Nor can you have too many in at one time it upsets the balance of a team. Hence why they blood them a bit at a time. Finally though, you still have to get bums on seats and those Bums expect the best Saints side out on the pitch that they can put out.
I'd probably be thinking about giving Gallagher some more game time, and possibly Harrison Reed. Meanwhile, I hope we have a team of crack scientists in an underground lab somewhere in the Alps, working on cloning Artur Borucs.
MP will know already. The blooding of the youngsters is about getting it right from a confidence point of view.
Rodriguez loss will be someone else's gain. Personally i'd like to see Gallagher take his place against Cardiff. JWP did ok when he came on yesterday, but we lost that threat Jay gives us as we didn't stretch City as much. Ramirez is the obvious senior choice to come in, but with Lallana and Lambert too we will have players all dropping deep and we could find ourselves playing in front of the opposition too much.
