Southampton Banter Archive May 02 2015

02 May 2015 23:32:13
We desperately need a bigger squad next season. I agree with the question marks over playing Alderweireld out of position, but Koeman wouldn't necessarily have to do that if we had stronger, more experienced options on the bench for that role aside from Steven Davis, who plays better in an advanced position anyway.

It's funny cause before Cork left we'd all say midfield was where we had depth, but now that's where we've really lost out. With the injuries and suspensions between Morgan, Vic, Toby and Davis we've not really commanded the midfield in a game probably since we played against Arsenal in January. That's made us far more open on the counter and led to many cheap goals. Likewise it hasn't allowed us to box a team in their half of the field anywhere near as much as we were doing in the first half of the season.

If Schneiderlin does go in the summer we need to replace him with two players in reality because the loss of Cork is still apparent too. Then we need to bring in a number of creative attacking options as well as another striker. As much as I like to hear Les Reed say we will look to our youth players to plug the gaps in our squad for next season, if we don't balance it with some experienced first team quality players we will continue to struggle. Koeman needs 3 strong options in all key positions, that being CB, Defensive Mid, Attacking Mid and Striker.

03 May 2015 10:46:09
I couldn't agree more, if we are to make our vision of regular European football a reality then this needs to happen.

02 May 2015 20:41:09
You should look where we are in the league . Who would have thought we would be where we are at the start of the season

02 May 2015 17:08:36
Absolutely disgusted with the 2nd half of our Season. When we do play well we don't put our chances away and far too often we have benn far too easy to play against. Koeman is the right man but he does not have the right players. Swansea will overtake us and get Europe.

02 May 2015 19:45:16
this obviously won't happen, I agree about the right players though, we have very little depth, shouldn't have got rid of Cork, it was a huge mistake, we shouldn't have to play a CB in CM, I think both Djuricic and Elia aren't permanant solutions which is why we only got them on loan, Koeman has done amazingly to put togther a squad doing this well after the summer we had, now this summer he can really build his team

02 May 2015 21:18:31
Has Koeman done "amazingly" putting together this team? Of the four players he had to replace - and had a huge budget to do so - only Bertrand has been a real success. Alderweireld has done well, of course, but he's just a loan and won't be around next season. Tadic and Pelle (for around £20million combined) have been pretty poor replacements for Lallana and Lambert. I can't even begin to wrap my head around £12million for Shane Long, an all-round terrible footballer.

Throw in Gardos, who has hardly played, and I'd say the best part of £40million has been frittered away on some very average players. And that's without taking into account the underwhelming loan duo of Elia and Djuricic (Anyone remember the loan of Taider, which lasted all of one pre-season game? How amateurish was that?)

The reality is, Saints' best performers this season were inherited by the manager: Fonte, Schneiderlin, Wanyama, Clyne. And at least two of them won't be here after the summer.

As for building in the summer, Les Reed said this week that they won't be spending much to improve the squad depth in the off-season. He thinks the u21s can make up the numbers. I think they're kidding themselves.

The honeymoon period is well and truly over. Koeman's tactics have been predictable and one-dismensional over the second half of the season, and the squad has performed no better than a side around 12-14th. I've seen little since Christmas to suggest this is just a temporary blip. They peaked in November and have been declining ever since.

The big worry is that no-one seems to have been able to do anything to arrest this long drop off in form.

02 May 2015 22:37:16
Have to agree with all of above, why why why was no striker loaned in in january, the signings have been poor pele had a good 6wks, tadic in my opinion is totally overated, elia and dju'who' awful, mane has showed glimpses and gives me some hope, long was bought as a panic as fans were getting restless and every man and his dog know he's not worth half that even steve bruce had a chuckle, look at swansea they lost there players who were more important to them than lovren/shaw/lallana were to us yet they still move on without spending what we have, the talk of u21s coming through, I don't think so, Reed is good enough but roko doesn't seem to fancy him apart from him I can't see any of them becoming a regular, i'd like to hope targets have been identified but i'd like, siggurdsson, benteke, richards, schmeical and austin for starters

02 May 2015 23:07:58
Of the u21s, I think Reed can make the grade. He's never let the first team down. Ward-Prowse has gone nowhere this season and doesn't appear to be developing at all, which is a serious concern. Targett looks okay as back up left back.

Gallagher's been unlucky with injuries and I'd hope he and Seager can push on next season and become viable striking options, but I wouldn't be surprised if neither does.

I don't see many or any of the rest being good enough. Isgrove has had loans to League One and Championship sides now and made no impression at that level. Sinclair will probably be released. McQueen is too slow to be a winger.

Hesketh has good quality, but he's a long way behind, physically. One or two of the defenders - McCarthy, Wood - could come through, but it's a very difficult position to give kids top-level experience in.

But there's no Walcotts, Bales or Oxlade-Chamberlains on the horizon, I'm afraid. The next generation of Saints are going to be, at best, unspectacular squad players. There's nothing of note in the u18s either.

03 May 2015 00:11:04
I agree with all of the above. Up till now our academy has been turning out good footballers year in year out and there's usually 3 or 4 that can slot in to the first team each year but I don't think that any of the present U21 squad will make the grade. The problem now is if Roko is being restricted on the amount of money he can spend in the summer and with possibly 3 of our best players leaving who does he bring in? I fear that we will end up with more over rated players who look good on paper but when it comes to a long hard EPL season they go missing. Re. Pelle, Tadic, Gardos, Long, Elia and Djuricic. None of them lived up to their hype and I fear that we will only get more of the same for next season. Of the players that left last year only one has been successfully replaced and that is Bertrand in for Shaw. If we qualify for European football it just makes the season longer and harder so we really need a bigger and better squad than we have at present or a lot of players will be falling by the wayside come October/November meaning that we will have no adequate cover in many positions.

03 May 2015 01:41:05
We loose 5 starting players who were key to us last year, make that 6 with J Rod being out all season and to think you can even suggest that Koeman hasn't done a great job of rebuilding our team? Our season has fizzled out due to a lack of goals and I agree our front line really needs to be looked at for next season, at the half way point in the season we were 4th, which shows we have the ability to be up there, we made a mistake in January in not signing a striker, which we have paid for a bit now as our over reliance on Pelle scoring has started to show. We made another mistake in allowing Cork to leave, as he's been fantastic at Swansea and was great for us whenever he played this season. I disagree with comments about the under 21's, I think there's a fair few that have the potential to make it into our first team; Reed, Gallagher, Targett, Gape, Isgrove, Hesketh. list goes on, we had a poor game today but we've still had a fantastic season. It just feels disappointing because of the amazing start we had

03 May 2015 20:10:46
I think it's a bit of a stretch to consider Callum Chambers either a starter or a key player. He was back up right back and has neither been replaced nor missed.

I agree, it was a strange decision to let Cork leave, considering how little money they got for him - he might as well have been kept on until the summer before leaving on a free. The prize money difference between a couple of places in the league probably covers what Swansea paid for him. Given that, at the start of the season, the club thought they needed Cork and Taider as part of their midfield pool, it was foolish to ship out both of them without a single replacement lined up.

They supposedly tried to sign Tonny Vilhena in the winter but didn't have any money left over from their summer trading to pay the fee - which is a pretty damning indictment of how they've peed away much of their money on an ill-equipped squad.

It has certainly been a good season, but the signs of the last four or five months are of a team going backwards, which doesn't auger well for another difficult off-season of player departures - especially after Les Reed spoke of filling the already thin squad with u21 players rather than going out and buying quality.

People are dreaming if they think the club can possibly progress with this approach.

02 May 2015 16:54:53
Well. that was pants!