This is something I've been pondering of late. Tough to see him getting back into the team with Schneiderlin, Cork, Davis all ahead of him, and Lallana and Ramirez both capable of playing attacking central roles. Unless we have a nasty spate of injuries tough to see him involved much. Where do people think he's heading in the next year or two? He's not exactly got an obvious route into the team, we've got a young midfield so not really going to be taking over for any aging players. Might stunt his development a touch being dragged around on the subs bench, can't be great for him having his toe dipped into the water and then immediately taken out and back into the background. How long will it be until he's integrated into the team? Will he be integrated into the team? Glad we've got him locked up though.
http://www.saintsfc.co.uk//news/article/ward-prowse-pens-new-deal-496841.aspx?pageView=full#anchored wahey.
He's still an important part of our squad even if he is not starting every game. Like Shaw he is young and in three years, he'll still be young. So certainly no need to rush him into the first eleven yet.
He'll certainly have to fight to get a start. Presumably both he and the coaching staff think he'll be good enough.
I agree with you, he's probably 4th choice in central midfield right now. He's been on the bench though so it wouldn't surprise me to see him make some more appearances. He's obviously got lots of age group games to play in and he'll be pretty much first on the teamsheet for cup games of course, so he's not going to be short of game-time of some sort. I think there's a distinct possibility that we will loan him out at some point this season. He's established himself as a fairly dependable premier league player in the few games he's played and I'm sure lots of championship clubs would love to have him for a while, and I'm sure a bit of lower-league toughening up will do him no harm, just as it has added a bit of steel to Schneiderlin's game. Cork and Schneiderlin are clearly the first-choice partnership and for good reason, I really rate both of them. JWP's only going to get better though and it's certainly conceivable that in a couple of years he will have moved up the pecking order (and what a player we'd have, by the way, if he does manage to displace one of the incumbents).
From what I've seen this season, I'd say he's already better than Steven Davis in terms of passing ability, though obviously he's a very different type of midfielder. I'd like to see him go out on loan for a bit if he goes on a long run without games. He needs to be playing.
I don't know if I'd go that far, but I've been disappointed in Davis' lack of enterprise in terms of his passing. From what I've seen of his career up until Saints I think he's a very good passer of the ball and good at unlocking defences at times, but most of his play has been very simple and efficient, and whilst a lot of that is our short quick passing style, would like to have seen him go for a few more incisive attempts. Maybe it's got a lot to do with Rickie not exactly being the kind of striker to work the channels, not many opportunities to slip him through. I rate Davis though, feel for him falling out of grace after a couple of poor games, but with Cork our system just seems to run much smoother and more balanced at both ends.
