That's not true though - we've been stuck with Prodl and Mariappa for half the season, neither of whom are good enough for this level. Mee and Tarkowski at Burnley, Lejeune and Lascelles at Newcastle, Duffy and Dunk at Brighton, and van der Hoorn (though not Mawson) at Swansea, would all be preferable to our calamitous pairing.
Mawson is rated at 25 million though ! Prodl was good last year but is slow and Mariappa too small. Need a defender with pace and height .
Mawson would walk into our first team faster than Merson could spurt out a moccasin slipper metaphor. He's still a rough diamond, but will end up at a European-placed side this summer. Our lot, if we can shift them, will end up in the Championship or an equivalent.
Presumably MU will play the reserves tonight vs Muff given the cup semi final on saturday ? Less of an issue i guess given they are already above us.
I think Mapps is very underrated. He plays with his heart on his sleeve and will put his body in where it hurts. He certainly cares about the team, which goes a long way. Now, of course I'm not saying he should be a first team regular necessarily, but his attitude to the job is first class. We have no other defender that plays like this. The others are a bit fragile, half-hearted, scared to get hurt and do not concentrate for long enough. This is the problem. They have not been led by a tough coach. Someone who will demand they do their jobs and if they fall below that standard they will be out of the team. Now, of course, you can only really do that if you have fit counterparts, but we've not had defensive injuries for the past 30 months or so. Last season, defence was the only area of the team that didn't have big injuries, but the attitude was still bad. This is why I think the coaches we've had since QSF, have not worked hard enough with the defenders in terms of attitude and commitment. It doesn't hurt our players enough when we conceded a goal. Sure, they all look down dejected with hunched shoulders, but no one takes offence by it or are determined to stop it from happening. There's not enough desire, and that standard is set by the head coach.
He was someone who couldn't speak English, smoked, had the charisma of Ramon Vega and tactically setup for the wrong league whilst looking to use any excuse when defeated rather than accept he got it wrong nor to gee up the players after a bad result. In theory he had the characteristics but in reality he'd have done ok and Udinese, not Watford.
My best friend is a Brighton fan and I’ve seen them a few times and can attest that they are FAR better at defending than we are. Mainly because they have Dunk and Duffy who get stuck in and don’t let standards around them drop. And when they do, they bloody learn. We have none of this. Most teams would love have 4 defenders who when fit, are the ones who play. Relationships count for a lot in a defence. We just have a mish-mash if defenders and it doesn’t matter which 4 play. We have endured a horrific injury crisis for a couple of years now - but I think we’d survive it quite well across midfield and attack. It’s in defence where it’s killed us because we have poor defenders who can’t even strike up partnerships.
I viewed Mazzarri as a coach who looked tough on the exterior but was questionable behind that. A lot of throwing arms about and arguing but I’m not sure just how much of it was for show. I think his points and arguments against the team and in the changing room would have been felt far harder if made in English. As it was, I’m pretty sure the majority of the team just shrugged off what he said because they didn’t understand it.
Is this ‘Prodl’ was good last year stuff a bit of a myth? He was our best defender, no doubt. Best player even. But the defence was awful. It’s terrible this season but let’s not kid ourselves it was good before that. For me, a good defender is good regardless. He looks as uninterested as the rest of them at the moment.
Mazzarri had that look about him, but he's a bit like Holebas. Throws his arms about, shouts in the moment but inside is a bit of a pansy. I don't think anyone took him seriously. More like laughed at him. Just my observation of course.
I agree. Prodl is a really nice chap off the pitch, but he does look disinterested on it. I've been really disappointed with his performances this season.
I take a little bit of issue with this. At the start of the season who would you say was our strongest pairing? I'd say Prodl and Cathcart, Mapps has done far better than expected but Britos was a calamity and Kaboul wasnt good enough last year. Whilst typing this I forgot Kabasele, admittedly he was brilliant, but at the end of last season I'd say most had written him off. It's almost criminal we didn't sign a new centre back last summer
Anyway, I really don't believe we are going down but in terms of pushing on I see little evidence of that. We're a horrible mid table club no one cares about
I really think we need more points to be sure of avoiding the drop, because although some of our rivals appear to have horrendous run ins many of the teams they have left to play are already on the beach or involved in more important games that they want to win. Therefore they are either not playing to their normal potential or even fielding 2nd string players, because they are involved in Europe or even the FA cup. I know on paper it looks unlikely we will go down, but football is a funny old game as someone once said
Whoever we put as the middle 2 (usually the 2 who are fit) are completely compromised by having a RB & LB either side of them who are really wing-backs and can't defend. No CDs can operate effectively with opponents constantly getting behind them from wide positions. Its one of the downsides of constantly changing coaches and therefore style of play. We have decent wing backs but are forced to use them as RB/LB.
I predict a win for Southampton at Leicester tonight. Should put some money on it then it won't happen.
Yes me too. LC have nothing to play for now and will be deflated after the loss to Burnley. For Soton, life effectively depends on winning this match.
While I agree, the FB’s weren’t making Prodl stand still and completely unalert on Saturday. And the full-backs had little to do with some of the goals against Burnley or Bournemouth. Whilst Doyley was dependable, he wasn’t amazing (sacrilege I know!) and Jordan Stewart was terrible. But the CB’s inside them were solid so the defence looked good regardless. The CB’s set the tone for a defence. Don’t get me wrong, I’m not disagreeing with your point. But I think if we had two, vocal, 100% committed CB’s who can keep the full-backs in line, the difference would be palpable. As it is, Mariappa is the only defender who seems to give total effort. And that is annoying because he’s limited ability wise.
I think fans would even be more accepting if when these late goals go in, we saw some real anger from a few members of the team and showing some accountability. And that should be followed up by a manager who is utterly raging and letting every see that. For me, what is infuriating, is the meek shrugging of shoulders as if they can’t believe it. And the blank look they all give one another as Troy likely does a wry accepting smirk from halfway/the bench. And then a manager who claims its cruel ‘in this moment’ and promising things will be better next week and we’ll try to win the game. Fans will always accept mistakes in limited numbers. But when the same mistakes and statements are made, whether it be tactics/lineups/defensive lapses, week after week with no anger or willingness to learn from them, then surely noises have to be made?
Not if they are on song and can be bothered rather than all 3 spending the 90 mins thinking about where they'll be playing next season. They've not looked too switched on in their 2 losses so far this month.
