Fair enough. I guess it depends on one's personal opinion of what the definition means. I guess I have lower standards! Lallana is currently one of the best attacking midfielders in (arguably) the best league in the world, and is in the England national squad. He could easily play for the likes of Man Utd/Arsenal/Man City, and therefore any other team in the world. Admittedly though I do admit that I maybe have the red and white specs on for Lovren. Ha ha!
Far too many Adam bashers on this site. The guy is regularly featuring in Europe's best stats. He has some of the highest ratings in the league not just for dribbling, assists, chances created etc. His defensive stats are the highest in the squad!!! At the moment he is as good as many in the PL. For those who are saying 'rose tinted glasses' or 'it won't last' you should be supporting another team. http://eplindex.com/48037/sunderland-southampton-preview-team-news-facts-key-men.html
this is a strange one....in the top 10o players to watch this year???? http://bleacherreport.com/articles/1927119-top-100-players-to-watch-in-world-football-in-2014/page/6
That list is written by my best mate! I believe he put Yoshida in there purely because of his importance to the Japan National side. I'll ask him though.
What crap Impsaint (your reference to Adam bashers)! You seem to aim that at me as I referred to the specs. All I said was Adam is not World Class..... I could have added yet. Don't tell me to support another team either, thanks. Adam is having a quality season, he has loads of talent and is one of our top players. He needs to do this in the too league and internationally for more than one season to be World Class. Can't see anyone saying it won't last either. Me thinks someone was having a bad day yesterday and lead you to making a ridiculous defensive post.
Let's hope Sam can do what Shearer did all those years ago against Arsenal. A hat trick would do very nicely!
I think he will. When we started at home to West Brom in August with three 18 year olds in the side (Shaw, Chambers, Ward Prowse) Pochettino said before the game he had no problem playing that many youngsters, that they were in the squad because they were good enough. Sounded like bravado forced by necessity at the time, but he was proved right. Looks like we may need to need to call on Gallagher throughout the rest of this season. Past experience says he's come from the right place.
Though he is clearly the best CB in the Premiership this season, and the tenth best in Europe, according to these stats: http://www.football-observatory.com/...f/wp57_eng.pdf
I wasn't aiming at you although I did subconciously use the 'red tinted' narrative as it is a common theme to use. I agree with you in that I am not saying he is world class but I don't agree about there not being many 'adam bashers' and definitely not as the other poster says that there haven't been for months. Nearly every week any thread that refers to any other player in a negative way there are snipy comments about 'Adam being untouchable' or 'Adam can do no wrong'. Anyone who dares suggest he worth more than £15m is told that is all he is worth. Last season people were continually wanting Gaston in his place even though Gaston had not shown anything near enough form to oust Adam, and that is something considering Adam had a relatively poor season last season. I am not saying its a majority at all but it is very noticeable that more than a minority cannot see the wood for the trees. The worst is when people try to defend Fox last season by blaming Adam for not doing much defensively when even last season he was working his socks off. Gets annoying. If Lallana was at Man Utd he would be doing what Cleverley and Kagawa can't do and that is perform consistently and start every game. That is how good he is and the constant put downs by our own fans of 'he wouldn't be good enough for a top team' are laughable. Yes stats can be misleading but Lallana is at or near the top of all our stats both in terms of attacking and defence. On top of that he is very high up the Premier League and European stats. At the moment he is one of the best attacking midfielders in Europe. Is it permanent? Who knows. Lets hope so though.
I agree, of course. I think that this business of EITHER Wanyama OR Cork is ridiculous. They are completely different players. Wanyama is a stopper, Cork is the guy they give the ball to to start the next forward move. They should be a perfect match playing alongside each other. Of all the stats flying about concerning the number of passes and their accuracy there is one I have never seen; that is, how many times a player is passed TO. I bet Cork would top that stat and Wanyama would be near the bottom. That does't mean that one is better than the other, it just shows they have different roles. In terms of the team against Arsenal, if Wanyama is fit I'd be tempted to keep Davis in so effectively having a 5 man midfield with Davis and Lallana breaking ahead of Rodriguez.
Yeah but they have Swansea's Chico Flores in second place, so I'm taking their rankings with a fairly generous helping of salt.
