Saint86

They should have had a striker deal ready to go at the start of Jan. The longer this window goes on the worse this all gets and the more desperate we become sadly.

Ah I follow. Who knows. I would like to see alcaraz and orsic playing the next game. They can't be worse than the alternatives as a minimum. Diallo did some decent tracking back but gave the ball away so many times in dangerous areas... Has to be dropped I'm afraid! Edozi and orsic behind Che, with lavia/jwp/alcaraz - the league Cup game is the opportunity to trial this.

Orsic came on yesterday and played on the right / centre from where i was sat. He did very little other than make one of the most offside runs I've seen in years. Totally invisible other than that. I wasn't really looking out for him in fairness so may have missed anything else, but If he's meant to be our saviour it was all a bit concerning tbh.

We're going to be in a position where we're looking to pay hugely over the odds to a team for a cf who will also demand over the odds wages to join a struggling relegation threatened team. The player won't really want to be here / up for the fight. Likely becoming another financial burden. Makes the decision not to pursue the supposedly interested ings look even worse when you think about it.

We did enough to get at least a point out of villa yesterday, and arguably 3. He has made us a lot harder to beat and we stay in games as a result. But equally we aren't creating enough for the quality of our strikers to put away... We need a better CF and a better left winger!! Not down yet.

My overall take on the game is two fold. The referee was appalling, blew up at any excuse to give villa free kicks, even for the most innocuous decisons. Ultimatley coating us 3 points through dodgy officiating. We clearly lack the required quality in the final 3rd to take enough chances. With a better left winger and central striker, we wouldn't have needed jwp's goal 😔. What I would say is that our response to the var call was poor. We were all over villa prior to it, but following that call we totally dropped off - despite no tactical changes from villa or substitutions etc. No excuse for that. Was a close game apart from that. But ultimatley 3 points have been lost due to Michael Salisbury (always shit for us) and Richard West on VAR, and that could very likely send us down. Also, the policing response to drone was simply not good enough. Supporters in much of the ground didn't realise what was going on until it was finally announced once the players were basically off the pitch, and many fans could be heard to say, "what about our safety" (re announcement on the players safety). Which is spot on - seemingly no provions in place to stop someone flying drones into the crowd if someone desired.

An immediate confused reaction to this. I guess I should be flattered by the close attention! 🥰.

But of course 😁. I just think it would have been nice if he had just credited SuperSAINT and the broader SaintsWeb community for his content 🤷‍♂️😊

He's not good enough Sheaf, the Championship doesn't... count haven't you heard? Chris Wood is what we need 😘🤣😂 But in all seriousness, great news for tella, hopefully we can use him next season.

MLG has stolen this and shared it all over twitter 😂

I honestly don't even think he is. And even if he was slightly better, he's still a very limited dinosaur of a player, excelling at hold up play only. I prefer Che's work rate and mobility, and i don't think there is any real difference re goal return. Newcastle fans think he was terrible business as well and are desperate to get rid of him. Says it a lot tbh. We've got Mara, Che, and AA as strikers. They offer mobility and a combination of strength and pace - but for finishing, a poor return. Chris Wood might be better at physical duels than Che but honestly i think that is it. And, for me, there is just no point spending significant money on that position unless it comes with a significant upgrade - Chris Wood is not that!

Chris Wood is not a what we need ffs.

Tella is doing pretty well for a winger...

Adams is a capable centre forward with respect to hold up and link play - especially if he has 2 inside forwards/wingers and midfield runners in support. But his finishing (or more to the point, composure) is badly lacking. AA does alright on the wing in fairness, but yes he isn't a striker. We've added goals to the team with Orsic and getting JWP back up the pitch. Perhaps upgrading the wing with Jackson will give us enough? But i agree, its a bit risky. I am not at all convinced that spending £20-25M on another winger will add significant value over Ely, AA, Edozie, S.Armstrong, Aribo etc. Whereas i feel spending £20-25M on an upgraded CF would make a notable difference. Saying all that, i reckon Mara has got something about him. I've always been impressed by his movement and sharpness, it would be interesting to see him being given a run of games - although I admit that is risky given the situation.

Valid point - Tella seems to have been forgotten lately.

An interesting snippet - if only from the perspective that Everton cannot afford him... 🧐 If its come from his agent/Udinese, it implies someone is sniffing around. The next link on that site is 2hours old and says Everton are also after Zapata on a loan with option to buy.

New manager bounce incoming?

I checked his last 5 match appearances (and more), he's a sub that played generally on the wing.

No. It really isn't. Incredibly limited player and not a good goalscorer.

Ducky, you may not like stats / think they're animals from the forest. But probably one of the key points there is that he is averaging nearly 4 shot creating actions per 90min over the past year, despite playing in a struggling side, and despite being "held back" by Ralph for the first half of this season. For comparison, i was looking at Jackson the other day (who plays for a better team relative to their league, generally as a winger / sometimes CF, and often an impact sub) and he was averaging approx. 1 per 90min. Its been levelled at jwp a lot on here that he doesn't impact our attacking play, or that his passing is poor etc. But equally its been said (admittingly less often) that he offers some great attacking plays that go unnoticed by the fans. i.e. lots of good cross field diagonals and through balls etc. that the fan's don't notice because ultimately they're falling to Che (or edozi a couple of times lately), and they get spaffed into the crowd... and the fans tend to then remember the misses rather than the creative play behind them. We all know that he's a good player in the press, harrying the midfield, interceptions etc. But the stats do also show that he contributes significantly in an attacking sense as well

I agree, but nothing to do with me... 😅🙈

Was about to say exactly this. If we don't have a comparable equivalent lined up, we should definitely be going for Ings for £12M if he's interested. Add to it the fact that a direct rival wants him and we'd be screwing up their plans as well.

Basically true of any signing at this point. And ings is currently fit, firing, and clinical at this level 🤷‍♂️

Just dawned on me.... I know we have a terrible record at Goodison - but have we just won our last ever game there?😅

Imagine it would have very little bearing as Jones wouldn't have been able to magically heal Lavia's hamstring to free JWP from defensive midfield duties, and similarly he wouldn't have been able to do anything about the quality of Diallo or an unfit AMN as our only other central midfield options. I don't get this new narrative that JWP wasn't previously being used in an attacking sense - for years he's been making runs off the attackers, turning up at the edge of the box to whip in crosses, or arriving late into the box for shooting chances etc. He's been adding open play goals and chance creation to his game for a couple of seasons now. For example, 21/22 he contributed 132 shot creating actions, which was more than in 20/21 (where he created 105), which is a significant season on season increase despite missing games due to suspension. Although I acknowledge that it will be a more marked impact if Jones continues to use him as a proper #10. This is how he rates for the prem over the past 365days - Playing in a struggling side. Nearly 4 shot creating actions (91st percentile) isn't bad for a player who has been playing a more defensive role for most of this season (half the time period). Regardless, his (and saint's) uptick in form coincides exactly with having Lavia (an actual midfield anchor) back to fitness and available. Numerous fans had stated the need to get CDM cover this window as second only to strengthening the attack - and that is due to the recognised importance of the lavia/romeu role for defensive cover. If anything, i'm surprised by the number of people remarking on his miraculous uptick in form - he wasn't playing badly, he was just out of position which nullified his attacking output - he was surely always going to struggle in an attacking sense when being held back in a more defensive role?! 🤷‍♂️. Also re the England squad. Sadly i don't think it would have made that much difference how well JWP was playing - Southgate doesn't fancy him for whatever reason, maybe its big club bias, maybe he just doesn't rate him that highly. But best case, i think Southgate would have maybe picked him and not played him (as per Maddison). The reality is that Southgate is not a good manager and is tactically very limited. This is even more the case if his reasoning can't differentiate the difference between a player's form and a player being played out of position. Ultimately the guy picked Kalvin Philips over JWP - So enough said in that regard sadly. Maybe if Prowsey moves to a "big club" he'll make the euros who knows.