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Would Joe Allen improve us?


Winnersaint

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OK staff room discussion this lunchtime seemed to be about Joe Allen and where he would be playing next season. One view was that he would be an ideal player for Saints, one which I pretty much poo-pooed. I'm not sure whether there was a somewhat parochial view that he would improve us because he was a Liverpool player and that any unwanted Liverpool player would add to us merely because he played for Liverpool and we were Saints, but I pretty much disagreed that he would improve us. One view put forward was that he was 'better' than Steven Davis. So I thought this through and tried to rationalise whether we could indeed be missing out.

I feel that Allen is a number of things; a tidy passer, albeit rather too sideways and a bit of a breaker up of play sprung to mind, but I struggled beyond that. I don't think he is dynamic enough for us and would slow things down through the middle in a team that will play with a press and move the ball forward quickly under Claude Puel. My view is that JWP is not dissimilar, nor is Clasie in some ways and I couldn't see Allen improving on what they already give. In addition we are talking about a non first-team regular for a team we finished above, so over to you. Would Joe Allen improve us?

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Our problem is scoring from midfield not necessarily playing through it. He would take nothing away from the latter, but would add nothing to the former. Perhaps Sigurdsson would be a better bet.

Edited by Winnersaint
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He's a good player but no better than Davis, and JWP and Reed need games. We need one midfield signing to come in a dominate. Someone better than Clasie, Romeu, Davis and JWP who are all good, but none of whom are Wanyama and Scheiderlin levels. We need someone of that level, which isn't Joe Allen.

 

Adrian pretty much nails it with this.

 

I like Joe Allen - good player - but not exactly what we need right now & not at £10m.

Edited by SuperSAINT
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Nope, no better than what we have, if that.

 

He's a Liverpool reject, he could barely get into a team last year that finished 8th.

 

Lets not get hoodwinked by the Euros, Wales are an excellent team, greater than the sum of their parts, does not suddenly mean we should get some of those parts unless they are Bale, Ramsey and maybe Williams. All of which are unrealistic and Williams is maybe a bit old.

 

But Joe Allen nope.

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I've seen joe Allen mentioned a fair bit on here over the last 4 weeks has his agent just joined our forum or something.

 

He is dog **** and is the last type of midfielder we currently need as we have small play makers covered, we need big unit destroyer not some Welsh fairy

 

 

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

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I think he is a decent player quite similar to Steven Davis but five years younger I wouldn't be upset if we signed him at all. Steven Davis hasn't got to many more years in him.

 

So you're saying Davis is the Northern Irish, Welsh Pirlo?

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Allen is a good player but I thinknwe already have players of his style at the club.

 

What we currently lack is in central midfield with the options we currently have is:

 

- Presence

- Power

- Agility

 

At this stage of pre season central midfield is possibly our weakest area for me. Certainly when for a few seasons we had Wanyama and Schneiderlin. At the moment none of our options are even close to their level.

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I would Rather we spend some of that £14m to sign Kaputska from Cracovia

 

Having only seen him in the Euros, I'd be inclined to agree. Assuming the scouts know a lot more about him than I do, I'd be much more excited to see the club taking a punt on players like this than safe but uninspiring players like Allen.

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Like a few players who've not really impressed in the Premier League, he's done well in the Euros. But, whenever he's played for Liverpool, he's looked fairly anonymous, to such an extent that I always hoped he'd be in their lineup when they played against us. I can certainly see why they'd want to sell him but not why any top 8 team would want to buy him and I'd expect him to end up at one of he bottom teams like Sunderland, West Brom or Watford or a newly-promoted team and again I'll be happy to see him in the oppostion lineup as he won't make much of an impact.

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He's a far better player than JWP & Reed .

 

He's really not, he was trash last season for Liverpool, I have two Liverpool mates and they moaned about him constantly. They'd royally take the **** if we bought him, not thanks at all total backwards signing.

 

JWP can at least pass forwards and take a set piece. He's also 21 not 26, Allen should pretty much be entering his peak.

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Didn't think he had his best game last night. His distribution was woeful.

 

Wales without Ramsey look seriously limited which I think made all the players look that little bit worse last night, Allen suddenly looks like the average premier league player he is and one or two others suddenly look like the lower league players they are. I think it is underestimated how important he is using up the space created by the opposition concentrating on Bale. Ramsey is a very very good footballer and one of only three wales players that would walk into the England team.

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Can I just be the first to say that if we are going to spend £12m on Joe Allen we might as well have kept Jack Cork (..............yes, I know he didn't want to say/we didn't want to give him a better deal/behind MS and VW for starts etc etc).

 

JA is definitely not an upgrade on our current options, more of an addition; he would be an (expensive) squad-filler but he would be an ideal DAJFU-budgeting-for-11th type of a purchase.

 

We could probably get better value abroad but the bottom line is we are already well-stocked in what he offers, we need a decent destroyer and a decent creator, we already have plenty of water carriers.

 

A big 'NO' from me.

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If this is a dedicated thread on a random player just because he's been in a team in the Euro 16 competition maybe we'll soon have threads on all the Iceland squad, one of whom I see is linked with the mighty Norwich.

It's interesting to speculate about signings but shouldn't the focus be on players who would fill a gap in the squad or are an improvement on someone we already have. Not sure I can see a reason for picking this player out for discussion.

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