These 2 views for me seem a little contradictory, from the little I've seen and read so far this season a significant number our opportunities to score seem to have come for effective crossing and heading either from open play or set pieces. I don't think the skills needed for this tactic are particularly strong ones for Pukki or Aarons. I get the impression that the insistence on playing Pukki if fit, whatever his form, held pack Sargeant's development and even if he had been played over Pukki, the inclusion of Aarons with his poor crossing ability wouldn't have played to one of Sargeant's key strengths. I accept we have added strength in the air this seasons, that wasn't available last season, but to a certain extent that's my point about not holding on to Pukki and replacing him with someone else, with different strengths. At the end of the day it's the change in our patterns of play this season, as well as the changes in personnel that for me are key to making the difference this season and that's down to the head coach. We would never have played our current style of football under Smith.
I agree with that, though I don't think Max is a bad crosser, just that his type of crossing isn't suited to our players. Pukki was our best striker ever (though Sutton might have contested that if he stayed) but his style of play wasn't suited to Wagner's tactics, whereas Sargent and Barnes are. Stacey's heading ability is good but his interplay with the WR players is excellent and already almost instinctive and he's a better defender than Max. I really struggle to understand why Bournemouth were willing to pay up to £12m to swap him for Aarons (but I'm glad they did).
Watched the highlights a few times now. Barnes was pushed into an offside position, then scored from the 2nd phase cross. Should have been free kick to city at the very least, but definitely a legit goal. 2nd penalty, Dimi was not running directly behind their player and would have not made contact with him except for his lurch sideways. So really we won 5-3.
Sara's rating was highest at 9.3. Will he still be with us on September 2nd? We should ask mega price to any enquiries, and I mean seriously mega.
Any top tier clubs scouting Sara will be looking as closely at his contribution against the ball as with the ball, i.e. out of possession as well as in possession. I've no doubt they will like what they see with the ball, but far less so against the ball. If he has his sights set on the EPL, that side of his game needs to show a lot of improvement yet IMO. A European club in a less unforgiving league might be interested, but not at the sort of money we would want. Added to which, we all witnessed the morale- and confidence-sapping effect of selling Emi; it would be incomprehensibly daft to now repeat that mistake with Gabby.
Wagner and his team have been working with Sara to improve the defensive side of his play and it's noticeable that he and McLean have been swapping roles at times in games, so Wagner must have reasonable confidence in his defensive abilities, but it's work in progress. As for Emi, a deal was done for him to stay one more year as long as he could leave at the end of that year. The morale sapping that followed was due more to Cantwell's sulking and the outcome of both wide player options brought in to replace Emi for around £20m, as both Rashica and Tzolis have turned out to be better suited to less challenging leagues.
Ben Lee's tactical analysis: https://ncfcanalysis1.wixsite.com/ncfcanalysis/post/southampton-vs-norwich
