Niemi or Boruc? Love to have both, but think I would just choose Niemi. Love to have Killer back as well.
Interesting Debate 03 vs 14 Niemi v Boruc Dodd v Clyne Bridge v Shaw Lundekvam v Fonte Killer v Lovren Oakley v Cork Fernandes v Lallana A. Svensson v Schneiderlin Marsden v Davis Pahars v Rodrigues Beattie v Lambert Who would you pick?
After today's results and the fairly easy run of fixtures we have, I want to finish above United. I'd be unbelievably happy with that.
I'd go for: Niemi Clyne - Killer - Lovren - Shaw Oakley - Schneiderlin Lallana - Pahars - Marsden Lambert
Actually, I'd be mildly disappointed if we didn't. That might seem the same, but there's a different emphasis. ManU might be the biggest club in the PL, and Saints a medium sized club, but at present they are going nowhere, whatever they do, and Saints are on the up again. Signing Mata might improve them, and he might get them a few points overall, but they were woeful against Stoke, and I don't see them getting appreciably better soon. They also had Van Persie and Rooney playing together again. Saints, by comparison, look like a well drilled unit, now that the competition for places is back again, and that's still without Dejan and Gaston. I'm actually starting to feel really very positive, post Cortese, for the first time. However, whether we build on this season, time will tell. With Cortese we would have, I have absolutely no doubt. Without him at the helm, I can't be 100% sure. I hope so.
Niemi was brilliant for us, he made our defence look better than it actually was. Then we had Beattie scoring 23 goals in 2002-03. Those two have to be in a combined team for me. I looked back at the table for 2002-03 when we were 8th. Beattie got 23 goals and we only got 43 as a team! It surprises me that none of you have chosen him.
Niemi Dodd Shaw Lovren Killer Cork Lallana Schneiderlin Davis Rodrigues (only because of Pahar's injury record) Lambert
Think that may have been down to wording of the question and it being Beattie v Lambert. I think if you put a team together with two strikers it would probably be Beattie & Lambert upfront. Ormerod was more a part of that side than Pahars, but though a great worker I don't think he'd make many peoples team. I'm surprised how Shaw has dominated over Bridge in everyones selection so far, thought that one would be a bit closer.
Bridge looked like the bees knees back then...has had a good career without quite achieving the potential we saw then. I really liked him. Watch and learn Luke...stay with Saints for a bit longer.
Boruc Clyne Shaw Killer Lovren Cork Lallana Schneiderlin Davis Pahars Lambert Although comparing these 2 sides is like comparing an Aston Martin with a Fiesta that has a Ferrari engine in it. They may well achieve similar results. The Suped up Fiesta may even achieve a better result BUT the Aston Martin would do it with style and grace and even if it cruised along and finished way behind it would be beautiful to look at. The Gordon Strachan side was all heart, hard work and effort. It was not the prettiest team to watch and achieved what it did by the whole team putting in gritty performances. Hoddle's side was equally more based on defence than attacking intent. This is the best footballing Saints side I have ever seen and I include the early eighties side in that equation as they alway had a bit of bite in them to go with the grace. The only player we currently have in our side that could be argued as having that bite is Wanyama but he doesn't do niggly, he doesn't really do dirty. He just tends to use his strength and stability to lean on people or become the immovable object. Like the Wilshere 'incident' he took one step, Wilsher had the momentum yet Wilshere 'bounced' off him.
Bridge became a permanent understudy to Ashley Cole at a critical time in his career. Should have been playing week in, week out. It wouldn't do Shaw any harm to stay with Saints for his entire career, let alone for the next few seasons. When clubs win a league, do players that sit on the sidelines the entire time feel a real part of the achievement..? Be one of the big fish in the Saints pond, and together this club can achieve great things.
Ok I picked 11 from that, not necessarily the vs you said. Good one though! Niemi Clyne Shaw Lovren M Svennson Lallana Davis Oakley Schneiderlin Pahars Beattie I'd take the red and white stripes with little black outlines as the kit
