Morgan Schneiderlin
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Will never forget the third game of last season at Ipswich when after coming on as sub, more or less his first touch was to chip the ball almost vertically in the air over 10 yards to put Lallana through for the 4th goal - I almost had an accident in my jeans ! That piece of skill reminded me of a certain MLT but they are different players, Morgan knows how to tackle !
MS is a great player and has always had confidence in his own ability - certainly skipper material but not quite yet though IMO. AL has been given the captaincy to bring his confidence levels up to the level that Morgan has always had
I think sometimes our enthusiasm gets the best of us and we over-rate Schneiderlin. I don't think he is World Class or even one of the top 5 central/defensive midfielders in the Premier League. Definitely well in the upper-half though.
He is very good and he seems to be still improving when I thought he had reached his peak. Assuming Europe is still the immediate goal, I don't think we need to strengthen that spot, or Lallana's to get there. Lambert is also at that level, just wonder if he can stave off the decline at his age.
Clyne, Cork are at least average-ish and look to be improving. Ramirez and Rodriguez are similar, though more inconsistent and with higher potential. Puncheon is average, but useful. Certain situations he can be a key player, and at other times he should be on the bench. Don't think he is going to get much better than he is, but hopefully he proves me wrong. He's already vastly exceeded my expectations so it wouldn't surprise me.
Anyway, I reserve my Saints-colored glasses/insane enthusiasm for Luke Shaw. I had him pegged as a decently fast, solid defender. Which is what he was at the start of the year. The kind of player who doesn't play a sexy position and maybe isn't that exciting but is very good at what he does which is shutting down the wings and chipping in some solid crosses. But over the last few months he has been getting forward and it turns out he's incredible at it.
Lallana has great ball handling skills and Schneiderlin has a deft passing touch both or which contribute hugely to Saints' attack. And to be fair, because of their positions and the fact they are at this point known opposing teams key in on them making it difficult for them to do something awesome. A lot of times their skills are needed just to retain possession and draw defenders to them to start attacks. So really can't criticize them at all.
At the same time, when I think about the last month or so who has most often just absolutely toasted a defender and left them in the dust so badly that it immediately creates a man advantage for Saints it's Shaw.
I personally think he is the best player on Saints and should be playing for England already. Maybe as teams start to focus more on him as well, his effectiveness will be limited a bit just as has happened to Lallana but I tend to think not. Lallana has a few minor flaws. He isn't super-fast and he's a little weak with his head. They are flaws I can live with, easily given his comparative strengths. But I don't know if Shaw has any flaws at all. The only weakness in his game is a tendency to still make the odd silly mistake. Which is to be expected at his age/experience. In fact it's surprising how few mistakes he actually makes and at the rate he is learning I don't think it will be a problem for very long.
He is very good and he seems to be still improving when I thought he had reached his peak. Assuming Europe is still the immediate goal, I don't think we need to strengthen that spot, or Lallana's to get there. Lambert is also at that level, just wonder if he can stave off the decline at his age.
Clyne, Cork are at least average-ish and look to be improving. Ramirez and Rodriguez are similar, though more inconsistent and with higher potential. Puncheon is average, but useful. Certain situations he can be a key player, and at other times he should be on the bench. Don't think he is going to get much better than he is, but hopefully he proves me wrong. He's already vastly exceeded my expectations so it wouldn't surprise me.
Anyway, I reserve my Saints-colored glasses/insane enthusiasm for Luke Shaw. I had him pegged as a decently fast, solid defender. Which is what he was at the start of the year. The kind of player who doesn't play a sexy position and maybe isn't that exciting but is very good at what he does which is shutting down the wings and chipping in some solid crosses. But over the last few months he has been getting forward and it turns out he's incredible at it.
Lallana has great ball handling skills and Schneiderlin has a deft passing touch both or which contribute hugely to Saints' attack. And to be fair, because of their positions and the fact they are at this point known opposing teams key in on them making it difficult for them to do something awesome. A lot of times their skills are needed just to retain possession and draw defenders to them to start attacks. So really can't criticize them at all.
At the same time, when I think about the last month or so who has most often just absolutely toasted a defender and left them in the dust so badly that it immediately creates a man advantage for Saints it's Shaw.
I personally think he is the best player on Saints and should be playing for England already. Maybe as teams start to focus more on him as well, his effectiveness will be limited a bit just as has happened to Lallana but I tend to think not. Lallana has a few minor flaws. He isn't super-fast and he's a little weak with his head. They are flaws I can live with, easily given his comparative strengths. But I don't know if Shaw has any flaws at all. The only weakness in his game is a tendency to still make the odd silly mistake. Which is to be expected at his age/experience. In fact it's surprising how few mistakes he actually makes and at the rate he is learning I don't think it will be a problem for very long.
You do raise a question: does Morgan look this good because of, or in spite of, the massive responsibilities laid on his plate? Here he's expected to screen for the back four, make tonnes of tackles and interceptions, contribute significantly to attacking moves, and now to get into the box, and he has somehow excelled at it all; with a top team, he'd likely play a more conventional defensive midfield role, I'd imagine, where he'd still look good but probably not nearly as immense.
Just snipping this bit out, if you're looking at purely defensive midfielders this season it's almost impossible not to put him in at least the top three for me. Just looking at stats and ignoring the amount of games where he has had stand-out performances, he's made the most tackles overall and per game, the most interceptions overall and per game and ran the furthest distance overall and per game, that is simply ridiculous. Just to be at the top of one of those is great, to be at the top of one and around the top 5 of the others is fantastic, to be top of all three is inhuman. If you class him as centre-mid then that's opening a whole other can of worms. But for me if you're looking defensive mids his only rival for best this season is Sandro, Cabaye and Arteta are both in my book more centre-mids but have mostly played deep this season so I'd probably have them in the discussion too, but they'd probably be fighting for bronze.
It goes back to what Schad said. I feel like those stats show that Schneiderlin is indeed multi-talented and capable. But on the other hand, I feel like those stats reflect on the team as much as the player.
Like in the NFL where the safety who leads the league in tackles probably is in fact a good safety, but most likely he also plays on a bad defense. You shouldn't need your safety to be making all those tackles. For all of Schneiderlin efforts running around and tackling people, Saints defense is rather porous. You wouldn't think that would happen with such a supposedly awesome DM.
Not that I'm blaming Schneiderlin for the bad defense. I haven't looked recently but at least in late December when I checked virtually all of the Saints were very high up in terms of tackles made and ground covered for their positions, which to me is reflective of a team that often has to scramble. I think as Saints become a better team, you'll see Schneiderlin fall back on the leaderboard, but he won't be any worse of a player.
Like in the NFL where the safety who leads the league in tackles probably is in fact a good safety, but most likely he also plays on a bad defense. You shouldn't need your safety to be making all those tackles. For all of Schneiderlin efforts running around and tackling people, Saints defense is rather porous. You wouldn't think that would happen with such a supposedly awesome DM.
Not that I'm blaming Schneiderlin for the bad defense. I haven't looked recently but at least in late December when I checked virtually all of the Saints were very high up in terms of tackles made and ground covered for their positions, which to me is reflective of a team that often has to scramble. I think as Saints become a better team, you'll see Schneiderlin fall back on the leaderboard, but he won't be any worse of a player.
I don't think of Morgan as a DM really. Cork does more of that role. Morgan is more like Carrick or Arteta and at the moment is the playmaker of sorts for the Saints. He is the pace setter for the team and everything tends to go through him and quite often end with him as well 
VERY smilar player to Carrick which is why I mention Man U. He has been noticed by other teams fans so the managers definitely will have noticed him too and if he has been noticed then we aren't over-estimating him at all.
Is he world class? Of course not....he plays for Southampton. World Class players play for Liverpool or Man U or......etc
VERY smilar player to Carrick which is why I mention Man U. He has been noticed by other teams fans so the managers definitely will have noticed him too and if he has been noticed then we aren't over-estimating him at all.
Is he world class? Of course not....he plays for Southampton. World Class players play for Liverpool or Man U or......etc
I think Saints real strength is as a team...we have good players all over the pitch. Unusually for a side near the bottom of the table, it is hard to select the pivotal player to take out of the game...it means that the opposition can't just man mark one player (MLT in the past). Although Rickie does draw people to him and this opens space for our other attacking players.
It's been great to watch him progress as a footballer over the last 5 years.
When he arrived he came with a great range of passing and not much else.
His attitude has been an example to any young professional about the importance of actually playing 1st team football.
His tackling has gone from non existent to clumsy to very good.
His fitness is phenomenal and that engine allows him to stand out above other midfielders
Where next?
Goals have been added and against QPR I saw an all too rare sight of him taking on a couple of defenders and driving a shot from distance. He has the ability to do this and the next level is for him to demand the ball more often and to drive at the opposition whether its with the ball at his feet or with a pass.
Dembele & Wilshere have this drive and I think Morgan needs to add this if he is to be truly considered as a top PL midfielder.
When he arrived he came with a great range of passing and not much else.
His attitude has been an example to any young professional about the importance of actually playing 1st team football.
His tackling has gone from non existent to clumsy to very good.
His fitness is phenomenal and that engine allows him to stand out above other midfielders
Where next?
Goals have been added and against QPR I saw an all too rare sight of him taking on a couple of defenders and driving a shot from distance. He has the ability to do this and the next level is for him to demand the ball more often and to drive at the opposition whether its with the ball at his feet or with a pass.
Dembele & Wilshere have this drive and I think Morgan needs to add this if he is to be truly considered as a top PL midfielder.
His goal is in Six of the Best on Sky. However, as it doesn't show his run in, it looks like a head down from Rodriguez just found him in front of goal and doesn't show it was a nice side foot. Hazard's goal will take some beating though.