Is it just me who was really impressed today? Today was the first time I've watched him for myself rather than on TV, and I kept an eye on him all game. He is an exciting player, and his movement is absolutely top notch. He hardly ever stands still, he's always moving and making runs to make space for others all to make space for himself. I think he is struggling and getting caught offside as sometimes we are not on his wavelength, or a bit slow to get onto it? Sometimes he wants the ball and we play the pass a little late and he's offside. His run and assist for Lallana's 2nd was absolutely brilliant, he's a real team player with great work-ethic. Long may he continue to grow at Saints and push on to become a vital part of Southampton Football Club going forward. DTLW
Pleased to see he's settled in well...can't be easy with an entirely different culture and language. See on OS that he had a small contingent of very excited Japanese fans.
Saw the Japanese fans on the football league show. At this rate they are going to fill up the rest of the ground to capacity much like they do at Old Trafford
Yep, saw them too. I'm sure it's all part of the drive to expand the club's profile. There is big money to be made in overseas markets, and having a Japanese [or Korean] player in your side, where the home fans often have a half-decent amount of disposable income, will surely hellp the coffers of SFC long term. And it gets Japanese tourists into the City of Southampton and into St Marys. Plus it gets the Eastern rich looking in our direction. Chung wasn't signed just for his playing ability, impressive though it is. There's an awful lot of potential resting on his shoulders.
Dare I mention he who is hate Mr Lowe started the 'expanding into the global market' years ago. I remember watching an interview where he was talking about Saints efforts as a club to promote themselves in the Far East. Guess the hard sell/promotion doesn't really work in that market where they idolise their own players rather than support the team they play for. I suspect those Japanese 'Saints fans' will become fans of another club should Lee move on at some stage I don't think Adkins nor Cortese would have taken him unless he was 100% what they wanted. The nationality and homage that goes with it is a secondary bonus really. Much like people ridiculed AF and MU when they took Park Ji Sung saying they were just trying to make money by getting a player that wasn't goo enough when in fact it was one of the best buys of recent years and the most underrated player in the PL if not Europe. Even in these days of media, money and promotion I don't think any team can afford to take players on those terms. they still have to be worthy of their place in the squad with the financial/commercial aspect being a secondary bonus. Lets hope he turns out as good as Park Ji Sung. That would be fantastic
Lee's signing was a tribute to the scouting system. Adkins said he had previously used shots of Lee in videos he'd shown the team, but doubt he thought we would get him. Somehow the sytem located that he was suitable for us and was open to a move to England. Lee, himself, said he had better financial offers from other countries, but that he decided on Southampton once he'd seen our presentation (what on earth is on that video...a hypnotist).
Strewth Joey......not sure what game you were at ........Lee was outstanding. He came into his own more in the second half very true. (It was clear NA had told the playmakers to utilise his runs more at halftime) One of those runs led to Lallana's second. He caused a lot of problems for Barnsley during the time he was on the pitch.
His off the ball movement is really not very good. It is far too linear and is nearly always away from the man. Our best forward by far for movement is Connolly and that was shown when he came on, arcing his runs and getting in behind, also knowing where the ball is. It must be 5/6 times now the ball has hit lee as he's been running away from it. If we go up it's something that needs to be severely worked on as it will be very easy for prem defenders to pick off passes. I spent the game largely watching Lee and his movement, and I must say Sharp's movement when he entered the fold was a lot more impressive. Lee however is a workhorse, very similar to Kuyt's mentality. The 'run' for the goal was more pressure on the defender rather than a run to create space, he did well with it and got his assist.
Well that's peculiar because the other day against Leeds and Ipswich, it was said that Chung was arcing his runs intelligently. Indeed the report used that very phrase. So maybe he's been asked to go earlier and more direct..? On the other hand, I have no absolutely beef with Connolly. An extremely intelligent striker. To take off Lee and to replace with Connolly is just changing style, but the effectiveness is every bit as good.
Wasn't Joey B saying about a month ago after the Leicester game Connolly ain't good enough? Now he has come out and said he is our best forward for movement? I only bring this up as he has been quoted by another user (normally on my ignore list for good reason)
He isn't, he hasn't hit the back of the net enough. However his movement is far superior to our other forwards.
I didn't watch the Ipswich game, couldn't get there so can't coment, however against Leeds from what I could see on the camera's his running was very linear again. At the moment he doesn't have that movement in his locker. A massive factor in our second half performance was the inclusion of Cork and Connolly who both have fantastic movement. I wouldn't say we changed our style either. We went 4-3-1-2 after about 15 minutes.
I know Joey B isn't the most popular poster for a lot of you, but you can't deny he has a far superior knowledge/reading of the game on here.
Jeez, can you keep the comments to the realistic, please..? My computer screen is now covered in Brazil nut pieces.
