Southampton should be ahead with the number of chances they've created but that goal was justice for an awful decision for their goal. Hand of God from another Argentine It was a blatant push on Davies though, he has every right to slow and protect the ball and Pelle puts both hands on him and it clearly knocks him off balance. Even if you think it's soft, the foul given against Bentaleb on Mane early on shows how little contact constitutes a foul in the refs book. We need to smarten up though, we created next to nothing and it's always going to be difficult with Southampton defending deep in numbers then playing long balls so we have to be braver. Play less safe passes in their half and start moving the ball forward quicker and taking players on, we're not going to beat them by knocking it around all neatly whilst the defence organise themselves.
The thing is, I don't think he's supposed to be playing there! He's certainly contributed to our lack of width today. Chadli, Eriksen, Lamela: all good technical players, but all like to play in the middle. It's been a game where the momentum has switched between the two sides in 5-10 minute periods. One team gets on top, then something goes wrong and the other takes over. Cheap giveaways and poor officialdom have been responsible for most of the changes. Moss and his mates have been utter, utter ****e. Missing a dive and a foul in the buildup to their goal is very poor. Mane's constantly leaving things on defenders and has yet to be punished and their whole team is being very physical. Yoshida clearly slowed up Lamela on the break by fouling him repeatedly. **** knows what they're watching.
But as Kane touched it just in front of him, then he just throws his body at it. As long as it's legal, I don't care where it hits.
I think we miss Lennon we do not have sufficient pace up front which is even worse with Walker out as well.
He's a player who divides opinion. For some, they feel he has potential and is played out of position so hasn't been able to show his abilities. For others, he's an overpriced luxury player who's lazy, doesn't track back, makes poor runs and passing decisions, lacks pace and overall never delivers on these supposed promises when given countless chances. For me he lacks a footballing brain and nowhere near good enough at this level. He hasn't shown any progression of all the players we signed and doesn't seem to have a clear idea what he's doing when he receives he ball.
Because he just does do enough well enough. It often looks, for example, like many of his passes are just not quite good enough. But look almost good if it had actually come off, hence the continued optimism with him.
They just showed it again. The defender gives Lamela a shove and the ball,cannons in off his forearm. Pure luck, but never handball...
We got 30m for Berbatov...And consensus was that we got top money. I know it was a while ago but even football inflation isn't that crazy.
I think the whole "£30m for Lamela" debate has been all but agreed. We know we overpaid so we have to move on. It's whether we now persist with him and try to see if he can develop or find a new club for him. I think I'm in the latter camp sadly as it would be a pretty sizeable loss on him for sure but it is what it is.
That's the problem with the criticisms - they can be aimed at plenty of other players in the squad. For example, he's far better than covering his full back than either Townsend or Chadli are, yet where do they get roundly slagged off during yet another game where we're giving the opponents plenty of time and space on the flanks? Same can be said for his runs, considering Mason routinely gets caught out of position at critical times which leaves our defence exposed - to the point slipping and falling on his backside isn't a surprise.
