Ok I can understand that to a point but if we keep playing the same team as we are we are down so it wont make a difference , Sterling is playing for Liverpool , lots of 17 years olds make their debut for premiership sides and I thought we were dedicated to playing 50% homegrown talent ? Have we lost our faith ? Just chuck him in there because he will learn either way and thats only a good thing .
Fox really looked injured to me tonight. He was just conceding so much space, he was really tucked in playing almost on Yoshida's toes, so whenever the ball went out to West Brom's right he had a good 10 yards to run to close down his man, giving them loads of time to sling the cross in. My theory is that Fox has been playing on injections since the Arsenal game just because, apart from Shaw who is too young to have so much pressure put on him, he is our only option at left back; and with injections he can't cope with the pace of the game (only a theory!).
He has had that brain injury since February. It's called 'bottling it'. He is **** under pressure and that isn't good. On the flip side we have a young left back: Instructions from Dad = 'play better than Fox' Shaw - 'Not sure I can manage as bad as that Dad' All this 'too much pressure for a young kid. Lots of commentators go on about by youth being 'free from pressure'. Which is it? Can't both be right. 1 - Play him 2 - see how he handles it 3 - make a decision after game Repeat steps 1-3 until his run ends.
This. I'm not sure what more Lallana can do other than tell Fox to take a breather and play LB for him. I didn't see anyone covering for Clyne tonight and he seemed to cope okay. Give the kid a chance.
I'd be happy to see Shaw start but only on his own merit and if Adkins and the club believe he is truly ready and he is truly the future of the club at LB, throwing him in out of desperation would only make things worse in my opinion.
I am definitely hoping we see shaw next week in some capacity as I can't stand Danny Fox, again he had a major role in not defending the second goal tonight, however I actually am feeling something that may prove controversial.....DROP LALLANA! He was bloody awful tonight and offers nothing defensively at all to an already very weak left back! Just want to drop some of these 150 million pretty passes and learn to win ugly, so what if we have to grind out some 0-0/1-1/1-0/2-1 theyay not be always pretty but we would be getting points! Lallana is a great individual talent but he is a luxury this season! We need to reshuffle and get some protection in front of the crappy centre backs! Lets get Ramirez in the middle of the park running the game! If it was possible to buy new players at the moment there would be several players that wouldn't play for saints again after tonight! Fonte,fox,Davis mainly! Yoshida, Rodriguez,lambert ,lallana wouldn't be far after them (based on tonight) Heart seems to have gone! No battle left already!
Drop Lallana? No play him where Gaston is. Relieve him of defensive duties. Play Gaston Left wing instead. That is my opinion. And Lallana was pretty good tonight compared to the rest. Tracked back a lot, ran his socks off. Not sure what game you were watching.
Thought Shaw did well when he came on. Fox had an ok game but was at fault for the second goal. I would give Shaw a go against Swansea.
You could argue Lallana doesn't have hte defensive qualities, but he had to track back all evening..., we kept getting ripped apart on the counter.. The fact is Steven davis, the one player able to compose the team and spear heading our attack was our worst player last night.. the times he kept giving the ball away or losing it i lost count.., And with mulumbo and Jacob winning that battle we were never going to get going.., The sooner that cork comes in to partner spiderman won't be soon enough! we have looked so disjointed without him.
Next game we need to drop Davis and put on cork if fit.. if not, play JWP! Also Shaw look really assured and composed can only be a good thing for us.. Drop fox for him!
thats where we seem to be getting done in the most The LB gets skinned n loses his tracker.. or RB nathaniel gets caughton the counter!! Bring in Dawson in january and that be the only change i would make to our defense this year!
No he wasn't. Davis gave the ball away too easily when we were on the break which left us stretched and exposed. It was from that careless, sloppy and very lazy action that he gifted them the chance. Mulumbu ran the show for WBA last night and Davis couldn't cope with him. What constantly gets to me is that we are too slow to break into attack when we have the chance. Two passes for WBA last night and they were in our box. We get the ball and we have to pass it back and forth between our defenders to give the opposition time to get back and form their defence. We were great for the first twenty minutes and then we gave up closing them down. Why?
The flip side is that if we were to go down (and I hope we don't) then Shaw will have x number of games premier league experience behind him and fully ready for being first choice in the NPC
Technically Fox is a very good player, he has a lovely left foot and does work hard. He just doesn't seem comfortable about his postioning in defensive situations. I think he would be better suited to a midfield role. We would benifit from still having his delivery into the box and as a first line of defence but not as the last line of defence. The second goal against WBA was a perfect example, he was never going to beat Odemwingie for pace even with a five yard headstart. But if he had simpley used those five yards to get ball side of the player it would have given him a chance of intercepting the ball. I'm not saying he would have stopped it as the cross was brilliant but by not getting ball side you give yourself no chance. Goalside and Ballside are the basics of defending that most people learn as a schoolboy.
Fox is the poorest of a poor defence. The hoofing is a minor issue. He does get the odd good cross in but thats stopped as he's not getting forward as much as he was. Not good enough technically and not quick enough (even when given 10 yards). If u want to play in the top league u gotta sweat your nuts off and be able to cope with these top athletes and he for 1 has and cant do it.
