Lala, JRod and Punch for me. Gaston on the bench with JWP. We're lucky to have a proliferation of talented midfielders.
Lallana is a good player, but I'm not sure Saints fans would vote him second best youngster in the PL. However, I think he is still coming back from his lay off and will be firing on all cylinders soon.
Well that's a right ****ing laugh. Schneiderlin is absolutely miles ahead of Lallana. There's also Cork, Shaw, Clyne, Yoshida.
Lallana (left) Davis (middle) Puncheon (right) I think Ramirez has been very dissapointing this season and Davis offers a little more protection and bite in midfield. Puncheon started the season fantastically and deserves his place on the right wing. Lallana hasn't been brilliant this season, but hasn't been terrible either and I don' t think we have anyone better to play there.
Agree, Davis for me from what I have seen. Lallana still doesn't look his best, hasn't really built up any momentum. I have faith in gaston- next year will be his season.
Who won by the way ? could not vote for Lallana as he is 23/4 years old, surely youngsters should be 18 or 19 at the most, so surely only Shaw fits into this
The more I think about this the more I've concluded that almost all of these will lead to the same thing. Apart from Gaston at LM or RM in any of the others we will create loads of chances yet fail to make the most of our opportunities. The main thing all the players in the poll above need is shooting practice and more composure.
I was pretty critical of Davis in the Fulham at home, West Brom away period and he was pretty poor in that spell however he has come back and should be an instant choice just as Cork, Schneiderlin are at the mo. The only reason I don't include Rickie in that 'instant pick' choice is because he is 'seemingly' off form at the mo however I see it more as he plays well in certain combinations and in my eyes he plays better WHEN Lallana is beside him and they can interchange. That to me rules Lallana into the front three. I also think that Davis being that 'centre' of the 3 means there is much more freedom for the other 3 whereas with Ramirez the other 3 seem to be a little conservative knowing the extra protection is not there. For me Gaston has shown glimpses of what he can do but I'm tired of this BS of seeing what others don't. MP will say the same. He has a squad and single players have to live within that squad. If Pocho is training them to do what Gaston is doing then something is massively failing as the others aren't doing it. The other end of the coin is that Gaston is either not doing what they do in training or is improvising too much. He HAS to adapt to the players he is playing with either until they can 'catch up' or 'better' players that can 'rise' to his level are brought in close season. Either way it is BS to say that he is seeing what others can't and accepting it. He HAS to be part of the team now as we need the team to be together at this very important stage of the season. Until then he has cameos to play while the team pull together and get us through to safety. Like I said Davis started off well, went off but has stormed back in form. Gaston has wow moments but a lot of aargh moments which is why I compare him to Mirandinha who showed glimpses of genius between the poor performances. He was loved by the fans for those glimpses but in the end left his teamates and manager frustrated.
It annoys me that people have forgotten Lallana's class so quickly, he was consistently excellent before he got injured, and he seems, from past seasons, to take a few games to warm up to his best. He will continue to get picked if he is fit because he's an excellent, excellent player who was fully deserving of his England call up earlier in the season.
I like Davis a lot, but if Cork and Schneiderlin are as good as everyone says they are, why would we need a third blue-collar/box-to-box/semi-DM? If Cork and Schneiderlin aren't actually that good, then Davis should be playing as one of the two instead of one of the three. And if the answer is that we need three non-attacking midfielders because the defense needs support, then why are we playing 4-2-3-1? I don't have an answer. The thing is, Ramirez *does* track back. I don't understand why people say he doesn't. He offers far more defensive support than Lallana. Ramirez is the new Guly. People think of them in a certain way, and they don't play like that so people think they are lazy. But really, they're playing hard even if they don't look like it. And both of them have value as players who can keep possession and tackle a bit so they've become defensive offensive players, if that makes sense. And that role has been somewhat forced upon them because they can't play the creative AMC role they want in this team. There are games where I would put Rodriguez upfront, and use Puncheon, Lambert, Lallana/Puncheon behind. That would be a good setup in away games, and have Do Prado and Davis ready to come off the bench. And for home games where we think we can control the game a bit, it would be Lambert up top, with Rodriguez, Ramirez, and Lallana as the three, with Punch coming off the bench if we need firepower in the second half, or Do Prado/Davis if we are up. I think that it has to be a mix-and-match situation. The midfield by and large is good. The defense and offense is sometimes weak, so I think the only way to do it is game-to-game try to decide which way you want to go and there are many different combinations possible. Just have to hope MP gets it right.
