ScepticalStan

You must be even more thankful that whilst Shaw, Clyne, Chambers, Lovren, Aldeweireld, Lambert, Lallana, Schneiderlin, Wanyama and Mane were all signed by big clubs, whilst Tadic, Fonte, Rodriguez and JWP have all attracted interest as well, not a single one of the clubs that regularly finish in the top six has come in for Steven Davis. Imagine that! Despite our club overachieving, attracting interest from all and sundry and being generally known as a 'selling club' to boot, not a single one of them has shown any interest in signing Steven Davis. How and why could that be? We're just so lucky. Obviously the likes of Klopp, Rodgers, Moyes, Van Gaal, Mourinho, Wenger, Pochettino, Pellegrini and Guardiola just can't see what you see.

Except that he can't create chances, score goals, or beat players. He runs around a lot though and rarely gives the ball away, which is a microcosm of our problem on Sunday, we had a tonne of possession and never looked like scoring until we brought on Boufal (who actually can do all of the above) and sent Van Dijk forward for the last 10 minutes. Massive cap on what we can achieve until we bring in a proper creative midfielder. Expensive? Yes, certainly. But that's the reality. If Davis was as good as everyone on here says he is, he would have attracted interest from bigger clubs. There's a reason he doesn't and never has done. For all our overachievement these past few seasons and the extent to which our squad has attracted attention, absolutely none of the bigger clubs have attributed that overachievement to wee Stevie Davis. Davis is very useful when we are clearly and definitively the underdog. He's a pest, he breaks up opponents' play, he keeps the ball, he hussles and harries. Against the Man Cities and the Arsenals and so on, fine, straight in the team. However, when it comes to creating chances against teams we should be slicing through on the counterattack, his lack of talent slows us down and makes us easy to defend against. Annoyed at the fact that teams get men behind the ball and park the bus against us? Well, they'll do that (and quite successfully) if your midfielders can't 1) beat a player 2) thread a pass or 3) shoot from distance.

In our first couple of seasons I do remember dropping a lot of stupid points against teams below us (a trait that Pochettino has carried on at Spurs funnily enough), but in fairness, that hasn't really been the case recently. Koeman was pretty good at building decent seasons on beating the teams below us quite comfortably and consistently. Nicking the odd win against the big boys (last season we were fortunate enough to play them at very good times (Chelsea (a)/City (h)/Spurs (a)) was a bonus which managed to propel us to overachieve, but the foundation was built on basically winning the kinds of games we somehow managed to turn into a defeat on Sunday. 14/15: http://www.soccerstats.com/team.asp?league=england_2015&teamid=28 vs teams below us: 16-3-7 = 51 points from 26 games. 15/16: http://www.soccerstats.com/team.asp?league=england_2016&teamid=14 vs teams below us: 14-7-7 = 49 points from 28 games. That's not too shabby by my reckoning. Having a little click around on other teams reveals some fairly scattered results from our competitors as well. Truth be told, I'm quite concerned. This is the first time we've really thrown a game away to that extent (and against a ****-poor team) for quite some time.

The lack of goal threat from central midfield is a massive issue. Romeu is a defensive midfielder who ought really not to have to shoulder any creative responsibility. Clasie and Davis between them should therefore be able to create things going forward. But they can't. Mainly because they don't have the ability to beat players, shoot from distance or create chances. Both players have their uses in games where we're a clear, clear underdog, as they can keep the ball relatively well, aren't easily intimidated, can break up the opponents play and operate in tight spaces. In matches where we're the favourite or have taken the lead (as exemplified yesterday), and have loads of space/ought to be creating plenty of chances, neither Clasie nor Davis bring anything to that particular party. Liverpool play Lallana in central midfield position along with Can and Henderson and the results for them going forward, with Lallana linking with Coutinho, Firmino and Mane up front have been massive. Why can't we do the same with Boufal or move Tadic into the 'number 10' role and stick Boufal out wide?

Again. Utterly embarrassing. 60-70% possession against one of the worst teams in the league who we have the opportunity to counter-attack against and he can't 1) thread a pass 2) create a chance 3) shoot from distance 4) beat a player Or just generally do anything expected of an advanced midfield player but somehow not expected from Davis. The irony is that Clasie (who was crap as well for that matter) is basically a clone of Davis and will get 100% of the blame today.

Because our attacking midfielder, Steven Davis, can't do things attacking midfielders are meant to do, like score goals, thread passes, beat players and set up chances.

Steven Davis has been woeful again

Mm. This. Its not unsaveable at all.

I've slagged off JWP tonnes in the past but he looks absolutely great so far. Terrific in Milan too.

Ah I don't know. We've beaten them and got points against them in the past, but yeah. That's their third win out of five at our place and they certainly seem to turn up. But yeah, no arguments today. Best team won. Shrug our shoulders and move on. If you offered us a point from City away and Chelsea at home we'd have probably taken it. Sounds pessimistic I know but we wouldn't have expected to beat either of them or go unbeaten.

bit strong that

No he didn't. He wanted to leave but we came to a respectful gentleman's agreement to give him another season. When he did eventually head, he left with both parties wishing one another the best.

Always had the talent... Personally I think it was six of one half a dozen of the other with Gaston. He rarely was given any decent opportunities to play in his number 10 position but on the other hand, he didn't take the limited opportunities he had and his workrate was hopeless. Not surprised to see him playing decently in the Premiership though.

Marge Simpson: *crying* "My father was a stewardess!" Therapist: "Marge, nowadays, male flight attendants, or 'stewards', are in fact very common. Perhaps you should view your father as more of a 'pioneer'? Marge: "Yeah...now that you mention it, you could say he was an American hero!" Therapist: "...let's not go nuts."

I'm delighted with what Steven Davis gives us for £800k. He's still overrated! Which, as I say, isn't his fault in the slightest. Verlaine's hesitant to actually say so but my guess is that this is because he's a British player who exemplifies the no-fancy-stuff-high-work-rate ideal that many English fans hope to see. Given that as late as 2012, people were actually calling for Hammond ahead of Schneiderlin in the team, I'd argue that there's evidence that this is indeed the case among our fanbase. Similar thing with Pelle and Lambert - both players were almost certainly viewed as much of a muchness by neutral fans of any other club, but the gulf between the reception that the two of them got on here was huge, despite the fact that from open play, Pelle actually outscored Lambert in both his seasons vs both of Lambert's. (12 & 11 vs 10 & . Now, I'd just about err on the side of Lambert in his prime (and granted, he'd been fantastic throughout the lower leagues so some favouritism is understandable) but nevertheless, the gulf between the two players was hugely overstated by the fanbase. No way of testing or proving it I know, but if Davis was from Argentina, Ghana or Japan I don't think there's any way he'd be as highly rated.

I've never seen any other player being treated with as much of a forgiving tone as Davis and he's certainly never once made any sort of a scapegoat. On the contrary, every single five-yard sideways pass he plays all game is hailed as Xavi-esque. Which is a shame, because he's actually quite a nifty, useful little player. He's just absurdly overrated on here.

Psh, I rate him too. Just not to the absurd extent that a lot of Saints fans seem to (which, I hasten to add, absolutely isn't the fault of Steven Davis himself).

Verlaine is absolutely on point on this one and the fact that he never *actually* rubbishes Davis, but instead, just points out that he's an average player who has his uses, has his flaws but is ultimately, a mid-table player really just proves his point. Its a bit like being in a radical Muslim country. If you say that the Prophet Muhammed wasn't the messenger of God but seemed like a good bloke and a nice chap, you'll have your head chopped off for denying his divinity. Similar on here with Steven Davis. My favourite moment from the Davis-worship brigade was during our goalless spell in 2014-2015 when I pointed out that it wasn't all the fault of Pelle, and that we didn't have enough goals coming from midfield, and wouldn't it be nice if that wasn't that case? Perhaps we could buy an attacking midfielder in the summer? I was then slated by people who said that if Saints were to make the top 4, it would be 'because we had players like Steven Davis playing out of their skin'. That's right. On here, you'll actually get slated for even wishing for a better player in AM than Davis. Again, it takes a religious tone. "Thou shalt not covet a better attacking-midfielder than Steven Davis".

Lol. He's actually just ****e and has no ****ing talent. Tries his best though. Bless. nvm. points not bad.

****s sake Long.

To be fair, he played 90 minutes in the league cup match away to Arsenal in 2014 where we won 2-1 with the Clyne screamer and looked absolutely fine to me, particularly as a backup. Thought he'd overtake Yoshida and become a really useful player for us but meh, guess it just hasn't worked out.

I personally recommend block 4 or 5. Great view and you're close enough to the noisier contingent of Saints fans in the Itchen North (the main support comes from the Northam stand with a little bit from the Itchen North corner (i.e. the sections either side of the away fans), but I'm not a fan of being behind the goal) So for me, I'd move slightly more centrally to block 4 or 5 with a good view of the pitch side-on, as well as a good view of the away fans and the banter between them & our noisier contingents.

logged in but Inter Milan isn't coming up as an option under away games. Only Leicester away