Top four finish?

[Ironskullll]

Son in february said that he can play up front either side or behind the striker. But you know better than him or the south korean coach?

I remember everyone saying that dier couldn't play as dm and even a few saying kane couldn't play up front on his own. This isn't fm, sons stats wont drop if he plays up top, he just needs to be able to bang them in.

Gareth Bale's a left back as well...

 

[Shadydan]

These responses are so typical.

We're in pretty similar positions to these clubs regarding squad depth. Arsenal have one out and out striker. They have other who can play there if needed, in the same way we do. We over estimate their squad, and underestimate ours.

Nothing to do with over or underestimating, it's purely facts.

No-one is saying that we're inadequate but anyone can see we only have one striker who is guaranteed of playing as a striker in the Premiership.

If Giroud gets injured then Walcott or Welbeck can step in who have both have more experience of playing as strikers, we have no idea if Njie or Son can do the same job and the fact is that these guys haven't been tested in this league and they are both relatively young and new to the league, it's as simple as that.

 

[Mullers]

These responses are so typical.

We're in pretty similar positions to these clubs regarding squad depth. Arsenal have one out and out striker. They have other who can play there if needed, in the same way we do. We over estimate their squad, and underestimate ours.

Those clubs qualified for the CL last season and Chelsea are the champs, Man City came 2nd, Arsenal came third and also retained the FA cup, Man Utd came 4th after finishing 7th the season before, certain people thought they were finished and we were going to finish above them for the foreseeable future. On our day we can beat any one of those club but it's consistency over the whole season that counts, that's what we've had trouble with.

 

[ohtottenham!]

I’d say the best chance for top 4 we’ve had for a while! Really don’t know what’s going on at Chelsk except karma maybe, but I like it, and do see that they have some deep-seated issues that will continue and mean they’re no shoo-in for top 4! Utd are so inconsistent, lucky so far, and barely ahead of us. I think City and Arse 1 and 2 respectively. Aguero and Silva to come back for City. Arse have Sanchez, and Wenger, like Fergie, always gets it done despite injuries and setbacks. Liverpool look weak upfront given their injuries, and still vulnerable in defence. Spam, Leicester, Palace, Saints won’t last the season with their squads, which leaves us!

The should haves! We should have picked up more points from almost every game we drew, plus unlucky against Utd. We should have got that striker; hope that doesn’t haunt us, and still pray that Kane doesn’t follow Son injury wise. The positives – a manager the players believe in, a solid defence, we’re getting goals from various sources, more players to come back from injuries, and more to come from youngsters like Alli and Onomah! We’re just behind the leading pack, and I feel that we could actually get a result against anyone. We’ll have our poor performances and setbacks, but don’t see us getting really caned by anyone like we have before. Yeah, fuck it! We’re a good shout for top 4!

 

[Mustard]

BTW special mention for @Mustard on his attempts at trolling.

So lame.

So very fucking lame. Do you even know what trolling is?

Oh well. Back to ignoring your boring, mundane posts then.

 

[Adam456]

BTW special mention for @Mustard on his attempts at trolling.

9/10 effort
5/10 wit

Overall rating: Mayonnaise

 

[beats1]

I think Poch needs to sort out some of his decision making with selections and subs. Fix that and we could potentially be challenging for the title since no team looks any better than us.

My major issue with Poch is rotation and I fear a repeat of last season and see our players shattered by the end of February. The thing is its clear imo already the fatigue is affecting us as we are getting more injuries than last season

 

[millsey]

I think Poch needs to sort out some of his decision making with selections and subs. Fix that and we could potentially be challenging for the title since no team looks any better than us.

My major issue with Poch is rotation and I fear a repeat of last season and see our players shattered by the end of February. The thing is its clear imo already the fatigue is affecting us as we are getting more injuries than last season

Cmon you saw what happened on here when Poch rested players for Arsenal cup game. Then he played full team Anderlect and won. My opinion is he plays full strength team every single prem game. The other cup games can be a mix. And we have no chance of the league or even near it. If we had another superstar striker maybe

 

[LexingtonSpurs]

We could be top-4 on Monday...if results hold

 

[LexingtonSpurs]

I think Poch needs to sort out some of his decision making with selections and subs. Fix that and we could potentially be challenging for the title since no team looks any better than us.

My major issue with Poch is rotation and I fear a repeat of last season and see our players shattered by the end of February. The thing is its clear imo already the fatigue is affecting us as we are getting more injuries than last season

None of the injuries are fatigue injuries...

 

[beats1]

None of the injuries are fatigue injuries...

They aren't typical fatigue injuries but tbf Pochettino has fitness regime has seemed to stopped muscle injuries however there seems to be more long term injuries than last season which imo could be down to high fitness style we play and train. Whilst its great for niggling injuries.

If you look at Espanyol his first season and bit hardly had any injuries whereas the second had an increase in long term injuries. I dont know if that is the same at Southampton

 

[nicdic]

They aren't typical fatigue injuries but tbf Pochettino has fitness regime has seemed to stopped muscle injuries however there seems to be more long term injuries than last season which imo could be down to high fitness style we play and train. Whilst its great for niggling injuries.

If you look at Espanyol his first season and bit hardly had any injuries whereas the second had an increase in long term injuries. I dont know if that is the same at Southampton

You can't account for ankle turns, impact injuries, etc. That has nothing to do with coaching, it just happens. We get very few muscle injuries, something we can have an impact on.

There's no sign of fatigue in the squad. People loved saying Kane was tired, but I didn't see any visible signs of that, it was jsut an easy way to try and explain the lack of goals. We're incredibly fit, and players are more capable of playing games in quick succession than we often think. Look at the CL teams, they very rarely make as many changes as we have in the EL in the past.

 

[Adam456]

Some great fixtures coming up. We can go 9 (10 realistically with goal diff) clear of Chelsea on Monday if we can beat Villa. Then so many of the teams around us playing each other. Villa's first game under new manager likely to be Citeh next weekend. Spammers starting to crack and look vulnerable.

Arse game looking like a real six-pointer (win and we're two points behind them. Lose and we're 8)

 

[Adam456]

I know, I know, one game at a time

 

[allpaths]

as good as it is right now im just looking forward to the team playing well and growing, i think an expectation of top 4 would hurt all the good that is going on at the club, just take it as it comes

 

[nicdic]

as good as it is right now im just looking forward to the team playing well and growing, i think an expectation of top 4 would hurt all the good that is going on at the club, just take it as it comes

I'd expect the team to be aiming for it.

 

[beats1]

Cmon you saw what happened on here when Poch rested players for Arsenal cup game. Then he played full team Anderlect and won. My opinion is he plays full strength team every single prem game. The other cup games can be a mix. And we have no chance of the league or even near it. If we had another superstar striker maybe

TBF the issue with the arsenal game is he neither rested the tired players nor played a full strength team. You can make an argument for both cases for that one game.

I agree with you, we should play full strength for the league and rest players for Europa.

I didnt say wining it, I said challenging it for it. Having top 4 form at the moment puts you around 2nd or 3rd as the form of the top teams is that bad. At the same stage last season Southampton had the same amount of points and the same goal difference as the league leaders this season. So it shows how poor the start from the league leaders has been

 

[nicdic]

Worth noting that when there isn't enough rest more stress are put on the joints and bones and the chances of breaking or doing something goes higher than that of when there is more rest time. Hence why one of the best fitness coaches in the game doesn't do double training sessions at all in the second half of the season or even during a week with more than 2 games as the down time isn't enough.

As for Kane, I disagree, against City he was totally spent for the last 15 mins and was deeper than some of our CM and stop running and the same happened again, against Liverpool where for the last ten minutes he was playing deeper.

So a turned ankle and ankle ligament damage is the kind of injury you can prevent with training etc.? Come on Beats, you know what people are getting at here. Obviously the more tired players are the higher risk all types of injuries could be, the point being made is that our fitness guys seem to have minimised the impact of these kind of things. We're incredibly fit and sharp.

As for Kane, I'm not sure what you're saying? Him playing deeper proved that he was tired? He was playing deeper because we bought on N'Jie to stretch things later on. We made a tactical change, it wasn't just that he was tired and so hanging back. I'm sure he's got tired in games, all players will right? The whole Kane needs a rest 'narrative' has been nothing though.

 

[dondo]

If you play a deep defensive line against Arsenal then Wallcott is utterley useless.

Rubbish most teams in the league play a deep defensive line vs arsenal and he has been far from useless this season

 

[allpaths]

I'd expect the team to be aiming for it.

it's just is my mindset coming into this season and it's been such an odd season and this is such a young side i dont think putting any extra pressure on them is good