Our defence - a positive outlook with an assessment of potential pitfalls

OK - there is a lot of negativity here tonight about our failure to sign a centre back. I guess we are all disappointed that no-one has been signed to cover for the loss of Fonte, but hopefully it is not all bad and maybe.. just maybe... in a few weeks time we will look back on this and once again laugh at the bed-wetters.

I want to suggest a few more positive factors and possibilities but I also want to be honest that there are some significant pitfalls with these...

1. Hopefully VVD will not be injured for as long as we fear.

2. Yoshida is not great but he has been far better this season than ever before. With a regular starting place he is finally starting to live up to the potential that originally caused Saints to buy him.

3. Stephens is only young but he has done pretty well so far and the more he plays the faster he will learn and the better he will get. OK, he made mistakes against Arsenal but it is unfair to single him out for blame for that result. The absence of Romeu in front of him was a significant factor in that result as was the unfamiliarity of playing with Gardos. He will learn from it.

4. Gardos was only just back from injury for the Arsenal game. He will get better as he gets more match fit and as he trains with the other first team defenders so that they become more familiar with each other's style of play.

5. Romeu is an extra line of defence that was missing for the Arsenal game. Hopefully he will not be missing for many other games.

6. Bertrand can also play at centre back and we have other options at left back with both McQueen and Targett.

7. Martina can also play at centre back.

8. We also have Alfie Jones, Will Wood and Ollie Cook waiting in the wings. Maybe this could become their big opportunity.

However, there are of course quite a few pitfalls with all of this:

* What happens if Romeu gets injured?

* What if VVD is out for a long time?

* What if Yoshida gets injured?

* What happens if we get further injuries to centre backs?

* How quickly can we get Gardos up to full match fitness without leaving ourselves with a team that are exposed by this lack of fitness?

* How quickly can we build up an understanding between Yoshida, Gardos and Stephens?

* How much risk do we want to take with our youngsters? Putting them under too much pressure could undermine their confidence at a key time in their development.

Personally I think we have taken a big risk - even if VVD is back from injury soon. We should not have sold Fonte until we had a replacement not just lined up but tied up. The injury to Tasci came at an unfortunate time and negotaitions for players take a long time but that just adds to the importance of tying up a deal before a player is sold. Of course, it could be argued that keeping Fonte any longer was liable to cause further unrest in the squad and that maybe getting rid of him led to us being in a place to defeat Liverpool, but we will never know. There are lessons to be learned by the club from this whole fiasco. let's hope they learn them fast!

7. Martina can also play at centre back.

 

 

In much the same way I was curious to see quite how bad Trump would be Martina at centre back is something I reckon could be worth a watch, against Man City or Arsenal preferably.

If there were complications leading to an extended Van Dijk lay off coupled with one more centre back injury then we could be in big trouble. It would frustrating (no swearing means this does not convey fully how frustrating) if we ended up back in the championship because we let Fonte go for 8 million. My fingers are crossed every time our centre backs jump, slide in or stay down longer than a few seconds.

There is only one thing that matters at the moment and that's the EFL final. We have 2 games to get through, before a 2 week break . 2 games for Yoshida & Stephens to build on their partnership and 2 games for OR to get through. Provided OR & Yoshida are playing on that Sunday , it won't be too bad, but I shudder to think what'll happen if one is out.

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

I still think the club have completely cocked up here. I like Yoshida, don't get me wrong, but he's a solid PL cover player - he'll play a handful of games when required and do a job. He's now become our leading CB in a matter of weeks. That shouldn't have happened.

I cannot put any faith in Gardos, he's been injured for 2 years and looked utterly hopeless against Arsenal. He didn't really pull up any tree's before that either. We've basically lost our first and 2nd choice CB's and we're down to our 3rd, 4th and 5th choices for the remainder of the season. No other way of painting it really.

The only straw I'm clutching on is VVD not being out for too long, but the silence from the club on this suggests otherwise. Let's also take into account that VVD will be in serious demand in the summer and will probably go. We will then be in a position whereby we need to find 2/3 centre backs. Diabolical squad management from the club. It may not be enough to effect us too much this year, but long-term this could end up being a disaster.

I am sure the club are as disappointed as us that we did not sign a Centre Back in the Window.

There was plenty of time to sort this out after it was clear Fonte was going. Even more so when Van-Dijk suffered his injury (I think it is a bruised bone at the top of the foot and can take up to 3 months). However, our club have reached this level in football because they do not panic and they continue to rely on the “Southampton Way”

We do have a list of names in the “Black Box”, probably 6 to 8 but some will be for the future and not now. I am sure the club actively pursued those players behind the scenes. If none were available in the window then there might have been a widening and “outside the box” considerations but it would have been half hearted and probably underwhelming.

We have what we have. Our club have the habit of finding rich talent and if we cannot keep them, move them upwards banking a good profit. If we had signed the Sakho that is not our way. OK on loan for reported £2m fee plus his wages of £100,000 per week might look cheap but we are not in a relegation scrap and to do so would break all the principles that have guided us to where we are since our Administration.

However, we must get this right in the summer. And let's hope my pessimism about Van-Dijk is unfounded!

I am sure the club are as disappointed as us that we did not sign a Centre Back in the Window.

 

There was plenty of time to sort this out after it was clear Fonte was going. Even more so when Van-Dijk suffered his injury (I think it is a bruised bone at the top of the foot and can take up to 3 months). However, our club have reached this level in football because they do not panic and they continue to rely on the “Southampton Way”

 

We do have a list of names in the “Black Box”, probably 6 to 8 but some will be for the future and not now. I am sure the club actively pursued those players behind the scenes. If none were available in the window then there might have been a widening and “outside the box” considerations but it would have been half hearted and probably underwhelming.

 

We have what we have. Our club have the habit of finding rich talent and if we cannot keep them, move them upwards banking a good profit. If we had signed the Sakho that is not our way. OK on loan for reported £2m fee plus his wages of £100,000 per week might look cheap but we are not in a relegation scrap and to do so would break all the principles that have guided us to where we are since our Administration.

 

However, we must get this right in the summer. And let's hope my pessimism about Van-Dijk is unfounded!

Top post.

but we are not in a relegation scrap and to do so would break all the principles that have guided us to where we are since our Administration.

 

With you all the way until this bit....we could easily get drawn in lost 4 out of 5, West Ham have Carroll back although some don't like him he is an aerial threat we dont have anyone that can live with him now. Agreed we probably only need 3 wins but at the moment I can't see where they are coming from.

I cannot believe with our resources we cannot find a central defender better than Gardos is at the moment...thats the criteria set...."better than we have..." in the world!

Can we not sign a CB on emergency loan outside of the transfer window? We surely need this as an option in case Yoshida or Stephens get injured...otherwise we may as well give Man U the trophy now

Can we not sign a CB on emergency loan outside of the transfer window? We surely need this as an option in case Yoshida or Stephens get injured...otherwise we may as well give Man U the trophy now

Not in the Premiership no - yesterday was last chance of a signing or loan unless out of contract.

We're three matches into a run of 5 games where we should have been looking at at least 9 points and we've got three points, having lost two matches to poor teams.

If we don't beat West Ham or Sunderland or we pick up any more key injuries I'm going to start having a sneaky peak at the relegation odds.... I don't think we'll be bad enough to get relegated but could be worth a "softener" just in case!

However, our club have reached this level in football because they do not panic and they continue to rely on the “Southampton Way”

Jordi Amat screams panic to me.

Top post.

Sakho on loan would have been a good acquisition even for £4m. He hasn't played much recently (no need to rotate), agreed, but he has played a lot more than Gardos over the last 2 years and Puel was happy for him to be on the bench last night and face Arsenal