Horses for courses

[swedish dave]

Reading an interview with Paul Onuachu, (who found his scoring talent after returning to Turkey)

.One is bound to ask the question...why he was dubbed a failure during his time with Saints. 

He raised the point that continual changes of manager, and (consequently) formation ...contributed

to his failure to score goals with any sort of regularity. It never ceases to amaze me that this situation

continues when clubs continue to try and solve their various problems, be it defence, midfield or up top,

when some managers have no plan B and simply insist on staying with the one formation " they believe in"

regardless of whether it works or not.  Importing new talents who played well elsewhere is no guarantee. 

 

As someone who recalls Saints teams from the early 1960's when Derek Reeves became record club

goalscorer (and probably still is ?) was to a large degree a formation with two teenage wingers, 

namely Terry Paine and John Sydenham, and we saw the subsequent deluge of goals.

Fast forward a few seasons and the arrival of " a natural CF"  in Ron Davies (1966) with performances

that surpassed even the legendary names of that era. 

Quite simply, clubs fail to acknowledge the fact that a player's success is mainly due to those around him

and buying-in a good goalscorer is not a certainty of him repeating his achievements, and the current rash

of new signings in the Prem. (sometimes at huge fees) is plainly proof of that mistake. 

Back in the day, Rickie Lambert seemed to score for fun in his career with Saints, in part because he 

got the service, whilst the arrival of Jay Rodriguez was a disappointment at first when he was outlawed to

the LW spot and rarely saw the ball.  It took a revamp of the system for both men to benefit.

Sadly, Saints have not been immune to the problem, and after the sudden departure Ronald Koeman

(whose teams were a revelation to many), we embarked a long series of ill-planned buys of players

who may have shown up well in other teams / other leagues yet proved to be costly errors for us. 

The list has become embarrassingly long, and shows little chance of changing in the near future.

 

Replacing like for like is hard, but expecting people to play in unfamiliar roles is a recipe for disaster.

In our case, few deny that Larin and Azaz have shown up very well, but when I look at the bench and see

the likes of Fellows and Dobbin sitting out games. It's the same question.. What do we expect of them  

in the current set-up. How long will we have the patience to wait....before asking the inevitable question?.

[beatlesaint]

I know I'm in the minority on this and ok had he stayed we may never have heard of Cyle Larin but nothing will ever convince me that especially the way Tonda sets up I firmly believe Onuachu would have scored a hatful of goals in the Championship. 

[Badger]

This is a good thread here, Swedish Dave, (or David in Sweden). Raises some interesting points (in your inimitable style) but has gone overlooked as a) there are fewer old sods to read it, and b) most are understandably caught up in the FA/Spygate affair.

Mention of Derek Reeves. His career was came to an end before I was interested, although older relatives rated him. 
 

I didn’t understand your comment re record club goal scorer as Channon and MLT would in my lifetime both overtaken him. But on reading about him realise you must have meant in a season, when he scored 39. Big Ron got close once but ‘only’ managed 37 or 38. 
 

Other things about Reeves, reading he scored four away at Man City in the FACup, and five v Leeds at home in the League Cup. Both 1960. Has anyone scored four in an FA Cup match for us since ?

I’ve thought of myself as fortunate to have seen Davies, Paine (et al from the ‘Alehouse’),Channon, Keegan, Ball, MLT and Lambert play for Saints (although Big Ron and Paine past their peak). If you’ve seen Reeves, Big Ron at his prime, (and George O’Brien - another name from the older ones) play then that seems a pretty charmed time to have followed Saints.