Emmanuel Mayuka has moved on loan to Sochaux in Ligue 1. please log in to view this image Good luck to him. Anyone think he should've been given more chances? Good move? Bad move? DTLW
Good move as he will get game time and hopefully comes back a better player for us next season. But now I'm certain we are in for someone. Wasn't sure before today but letting mayuka go must surely signal we are in for a winger to replace him. Would be shocked if we don't now.
Already being discussed on the deadline day thread, go look there if you want my thoughts (and many others): http://www.not606.com/showthread.ph...-deadline-day!-Southampton-FC-Football/page10
And now it's going to take one or two injuries before we are short in attacking players. Stop getting rid of our wide players without getting replacements FFS!
I'm not too worried about it. I liked him, but he wasn't good enough. Far too erratic and Tottenham (home) aside he contributed very little in his Premier League appearances. Will keep an eye on how he gets on in France.
Let's not be silly. Fox, Fonte and Hooiveld have all played FAR more under Poch than Mayuka. I agree with those who say we should have replaced Puncheon but Mayuka has played a total of 60 minutes in the League under Poch. That's nothing. We don't lack options now Mayuka's left because Mayuka wasn't really an option anyway. As for replacements, we have plenty of players who can sit on the bench or in the stands for 90 minutes just as well as Mayuka did. I think it's better that someone else pays (some of?) his wages than we pay him to do nothing but train and play League Cup games.
I'm being absolutely serious. If Mayuka is "not up to it" then neither are they. They play only when we have no-one better available, same as Mayuka. And minutes played is totally irrelevant. Chambers has not played many minutes, so should he be sold?
Fox is (unfortunately) our second choice left back. Was Mayuka second choice in any position? Fonte is good enough and he is starting games. Was Mayuka starting games? Hooiveld is also good enough and made 25 appearances last season. How many did Mayuka make? Yeah, fantastic comparison there.
If Lambert, Osvaldo and Rodriguez were all unavailable Mayuka would start. If we had more competent defenders then none of the players I mentioned would have as much of a look-in as Mayuka. You're engaging in wishful thinking if you believe otherwise. You can console yourself however you like but I think disposing of Puncheon and Mayuka without replacement is pretty short-sighted.
Mayuka remains in our plans. He has another four years on his contract and this deal contains no option to buy.
So he's 4th choice in the striker position, where we play a system utilising one lead striker? We play one ST and 3 AMs behind them. Sometimes a ST plays in an AM positions, other times not. I'm not too gutted, as I never felt that impressed by his league performances.
