Overall impressive stuff this season,I had you down as my surprise team of the year as I like your great team spirit, your manager knows the type of squad and player he wants which is why you never signed a ton of players, instead waiting for the right purchase. You have some fab young stars and boruc is a top keeper, I rated him from his time at Celtic as I stay in Scotland and when hes confident he will go through spells where hes unbeatable. Anyhow great result and you have proved the sacking of the popular adkins was correct and I expect you to finish top 8.
Just watched the extended Sky highlights and overall very impressed. BestI've seen Victor play and Dani looked sharp. Could esai;y have had a couple more and raraely looked under any threat. All positive stuff for me. COYR!
Martinez was complimentary about Saints on MOTD, saying that our position is our just deserves for basically going about our business in the way that we have. I watched all of the game on a stream and really enjoyed it unlike some. We obviously controlled the game, and it wasn't such a test as would be with a better side and therefore not as satisfactory in that sense, but still great to see the team evolve which included Osvaldo getting off the mark.
As I said yesterday that game was exactly the sort we used to cock up. I thought it was a very controlled professional performance. Now we really need to build momentum by beating Swansea!
His passing percentage is higher than Lambert, Osvaldo and Lallana, all of whom have their pecentages in the 70's, Wanyama's is in the low 80's according to Squawka, so to say he does a terrible pass too often is surely to say the same for the others. I would say that the three mentioned's poor passing would be more a reason why we haven't been scoring than Wanyama's, whose role I see as simply winning the ball back and providing a big presence in midfield. If this is his role then surely he's been effective as we've had 4 clean sheets now. I worry that he'll be the next 'Guly' and that some fans will be so fixated on his passing that they'll boo when he misplaces a pass, even if others are misplacing more. It will be interesting to see how Celtic do without him against Barcelona.
they play higher up the field in completely different roles, citing statistics is unnecessary if you are able to watch the lad play, or look at squawkas pass maps and compare them to the more attacking players, even then you are unable to gauge the difficulty of the pass. He has misplaced easy passes and lost the ball with poor control too much for mine, I don't think I'm being too harsh when I say he isn't technically good enough. He needs to play within his limits even then his passing and control will still be a weakness. My worry with wanyama is more that he has been a liability, i.e. he has created goal scoring opportunities for the opposition. He can contribute to poor possession which is also bad but a secondary concern.
In reality though it was a poor game part from the 10 minutes after half time and the final 10 minutes. I see the stats show well for Wanyama, he was everywhere as usual (to the extent that he actually seems to get in people's way sometimes, one mix -up with him and Lovren could have been costly), but he appeared to give the ball away a lot with a poor touch and even worse passing. Now it maybe that he looked worse because he had so much possession but it seemed, in the second half in particular, that a Wanyama touch was followed by a groan. I think, with the game more or less won, he was trying to be more ambitious with his passing. At that point I might have substituted him, his real work for the day having been done. Certainly Osvaldo's best game so far. He really enjoyed the goal.
That wanyama is a liability is without question. A holding midfielder should not be dispossessed 1.8 times (11) a game in comparison schneiderlin has been dispossed 3 times and has been playing further forward and in less dangerous positions. Whether he will continue to be a liability remains to be seen but I didn't see anything in that Crystal Palace game to suggest that he won't be.
Right, so the guy who gets everywhere and breaks up play will give away a goal. How many more goals would we concede without him? Or have we always been this solid defensively and I just didn't notice?
This is getting ridiculous...Wanyama is not a liability. He puts in a lot of work and no doubt there is room for improvement, but he is part of a successful team who are (presently) 4th in the table. I bet if you watch anyone (with a jaundiced eye) they make mistakes. The strikers aren't scoring with every decent chance they get...sack them at the same time.
No doubt we have been solid defensively but I would wait until we play a top half team with a first choice strike force. We haven't played a decent attack yet. Our back 5 have looked brilliant but haven't been put under much pressure, against liverpool they got in behind regularly but didn't have the quality to score, I thought wanyama was extremely suspect for that game giving away the freekick that gerrard should have scored from and was generally poor. I think we'll see how good the defence is when they play a decent attack. Far too early to even comment on how good they are. Cork from all accounts looked rusty in the cup and I think wanyama probably isn't seriously in doubt for next weeks game but I'm not at all convinced that he's a major contributor to us looking better defensively. Indeed he has made more defensive mistakes than anyone imo.
You don't understand the difference between performance and results. Wanyama has under performed whilst we have picked up decent results. that is in no way a contradiction.
The real test of the defence will be against the top sides (that must be the 3 above us ), but signs are good. Cork and Schneiderlin worked well together when they did it week in and week out, so not really surprised that Cork looked rusty in his first start. Shows how difficult it is to keep everyone up to scratch, ready to step in in case of injury. When asked about Cork, Mauricio just said he was omitted for team balance. Tough on him.
You keep doing this. You make a genuine point, then undermine yourself with sweeping statements. It's ridiculous to call Wanyama a liability as for every pass that goes astray there are two cases of him winning the ball in key areas. And you must be watching a different player to me if you fail to see any improvement or potential. The way he can break up the opposition's play then pick the right pass (although the execution may not be perfect) reminds me of Patrick Viera.
I agree a player can be poor and we could still win, but the proof of performance is the result. There has to be one player who is the poorest in any team...but unimportant unless he is costing points or is keeping someone out who is better. You obviously feel that Cork could do better...perhaps he could, but nothing will happen until Mauricio thinks so.
For all of wanyama's faults I can't see him being dropped to the bench. Much like Rickie, wanyama adds aerial ability, strength and a decent shot which while they don't enhance the way we pass and move the ball they have their own value. I really think that we would play better as a team with cork in for wanyama but wanyama is better individually so without giving cork and schneiderlin the necessary match time to strike up that partnership we won't see it again imo.
