Interesting that with a defence that hadn't been beefed up with Lovren, we shipped 9 goals in our last ten games last season. For the comparison, worse than Arsenal and Everton (5), same as Chelsea and Liverpool, better than the remaining 15 clubs. Vin
10 goals in our last 10 games, 3 in 7 if you ignore our 3 game winning streak. If we get a striker in, Lambert finds form again and Ramirez has a good season our attack will be far from concerning. Our defence isn't so much of a worry in the aspect that our full backs are great and Boruc's decent, it's just the fact that none of our CBs are brilliant and are all roughly the same quality. We have OK depth there but our depth in the other three defensive positions is a bit worrying.
I agree that for £20m, Damiao is not worth it. Osvaldo, though a reasonably good player (though I remember he was bang average for Fiorentina) has a poor attitude. No other players at Saints currently have any kind of attitude of ego problem so in one respect I hope Osvaldo goes elsewhere. His behaviour after the Coppa Italia final last year was disgraceful.
People are always clamouring for our youth players to be given a chance. Adding expensive fringe players will not help this. We need another attacker, however so do most sides.
I do think the success of our season is upon us bringing in another striker, when Lambert wasn't on form we looked incredibly stale up front as shown by the amount of goals we scored in the last 7 games when he had in injury. We can't risk Lambert having an injury/poor form without another striker in my opinion.
I don't think anyone has suggested getting in expensive fringe players anyway. The expensive players we've been linked with would all go straight into the first team.
I don't know what you other lads think, but I look at Jay Rod's improvement since MP's appointment and almost think of him as another new arrival. Loving his surging runs from deep positions. I didn't see it at first, but think he is going to develop into a very good player. Very happy with the signings! Watching Morgan grow is making me smile too - he has a kind of 'Stevie Williams' thing going on ( in MY head at least ). Bogey team tag aside, can't wait for the West Brom game. Hope Shaw is fit.
OK, if ten games is unusually unrepresentative then over the sixteen games Pochettino was in charge, we were 8th best for goals conceded. I'm sure there's a reason those aren't relevant games for some reason, so: Even over the whole season seven teams were as bad or worse (and that includes our record-breaking 24 goals conceded in eight games at the start of the season) Our defence is NOT awful whatever factual (rather than supporter-pessimistic) measure you take. Vin
I think we ended up in a great position when you consider our rotten start. Also remember six goals conceded were in one game, so (ignoring that outlier) the number of goals conceded per game was actually even better.
A very good point. We have a good squad and a few options in front and behind one of the strongest midfields in the league. That said, would love to see another striking or attacking midfield option.
