verlaine1979

Boufal has played well, but should be in the middle with Tadic on the left and JWP on the right. That said, if we insist on hoofing long from the back every time we win possession, the midfield and attack could position themselves wherever they like without ever seeing the ball.

Is it me, or did Tadic really not want to give Boufal the ball in space in the middle just now? Preferred to hoist a speculative ball out to the wing instead.

Would love to believe it, but seems unlikely from an ultra-conservative MP. Will probably drop Davis back as you say, but bring in JWP instead of risking an attacking midfielder playing through the middle with only one specialist DM behind.

Probably increases the chances of Boufal not being picked in order to maintain a spurious solidity.

Yup - I see no reason why winning the ball back within three passes particularly indicates pressing any more than it indicates effective man-marking or any other strategy for regaining possession.

I think it was Hoedt's signing video that accidentally featured some player sprint times. Redmond isn't any quicker over most distances than Tadic or even JWP. I won't speculate where the assumption that he must be quick comes from, but neither the leaked stats, nor watching him rarely outpace anyone during the course of a game, argue pretty strongly that he isn't really very fast at all comparatively. And as for Boufal, the like-for-like argument with Redmond is a red herring. As others have said, he needs to be played centrally, not on the wing. If MP needs the assurance of another water carrier on the field, then Redmond or Tadic should make way for Davis or JWP to tuck in on the right.

I haven't got him in the middle - I've got him on the right of the three, and only there to satisfy those who insist on having a Davis-style player somewhere in the side. Neither of them should be anywhere near the middle. At best they should be on the right, getting out of Cedric's way.

Sure, like I said, pick whichever water carrier suits your individual preference/prejudice. That said, I thought Davis's corners against WBA were slow, flat and ineffective. The main thing is to get our two most effective ball carriers in the middle of the pitch, playing off of each other, with our best striker just ahead of them playing on the shoulder of an unsettled defence.

Forster - Bertrand/Yoshida/VVD/Cedric - Romeu/Lemina - Tadic/Boufal/JWP - Gabi Let Romeu sit and get Lemina and Boufal playing close together through the middle. Both play with their heads up and are more likely to spot Gabi's movement than anyone else in our squad. I've included JWP as a sop to those who insist on have as many water carriers as possible, so if you feel particularly strongly about it, feel free to swap him out for Davis, though playing on the right I'd rather have JWP on the dead ball than Davis, who hits a useless corner.

No end product, that's Boufal's problem...

Since your opening premise is that we've only scored 4 goals from open play this season, your subsequent argument isn't as strong as you think it is.

Since your opening premise is that we've only scored 4 goals from open play this season, your subsequent argument isn't as strong as you think it is.

He's already probably first in line with Ancelotti for the next CL level European job that comes up. Nobody is going to look at a Saints team that has struggled to achieve a goal a game over the course of more than a season now and think we're a smart career move.

Lemina and Boufal seemed to link up well when the latter came on - both very energetic, always looking for space and both equally happy/capable of passing or running. Get those two playing close to each other with Gabbiadini ahead of them on the last defender, and build the rest of the team around that combination. Who else comes in seems largely immaterial - the rest of the squad have demonstrated comprehensively that they aren't really capable of influencing games, so just pick whoever is most likely to put in a hard-working shift, and whose ego wont get in the way.

If the official formation graphic is genuine, that's an absolutely bizarre lineup.

Any evidence of those numerous meetings?

Hah just when you think the insane bias in SD's favour can't get any worse, people are now rating him above Lambert! Utterly, utterly insane.

No, me neither. He'd pop up centrally from time to time, but was almost always positioned out wide. The wing is a safe place for cautious managers to put unpredictable/unreliable players - they're less likely to lose the ball catastrophically, but less influential. Three points off relegation, in one of the worst goal droughts I can remember, and with Romeu and Lemina providing the most solid DM pairing we've had in years, I'd say it's time to abandon caution.

Davis and Redmond are both pretty cowardly in possession. Both prefer to offload to someone else rather than attempting something that would risk losing the ball. In Davis I suspect that's just a natural conservatism in his game, whereas with Redmond I suspect he tries to avoid doing anything that might make him look bad (hence why he's never slow to criticise the player he's just passed to if they don't magically engineer a decent chance).

Boufal gave the ball away twice that I counted, but in 20 minutes on the pitch showed more creativity and intent than either Redmond or Tadic have all season. Absolultely mind-blowing conservatism from the manager that he'd rather persist with the 'senior' players established under his predecessors than take a risk with the line-up to try and address our woeful attacking.

Long, Austin and Gabbi on at the same time? At least the get-it-in-the-mixer crowd will be pleased.

He isn't - in the sprint data the club accidentally shared in the Hoedt video, Redmond was no quicker than Tadic (or JWP for that matter on most sprint distances), and substantially slower than the likes of Long and Sims etc. He's not fast.

Lemina, like VVD, already looks several degrees better than anyone else we've got.

I don't rate him. Gets forward well, but pretty much the same booming, overhit cross every time.

Redmond isn't quick. According to that spreadsheet of player data that appeared in the Hoedt video, his max speed is actually slower than JWP's, while his individual sprints are no faster than Tadic's. While it's nice to have data to back this up, the truth of whether he's fast or not should really have been apparent to anyone who has seen Redmond being reeled in time and again when attacking on the break. He has no sustained pace, which is why he generally always slows after about twenty yards and plays the ball back.