League1 Minus 10 Player Review 2017/18 Part 1

This Wall Moves Faster Than Fraser

Let's get these out there and draw a line under the season as soon as possible....

Player Review 2017/18 Part 1

Goalkeepers.

Fraser Forster started the season in goal and continued with his not great form from that tail end of last season. He wasn’t as bad as many will make out but he wasn’t good either. The massive flaw that he had in his game of not getting off his line didn’t seem to have been addressed in the summer and towards the middle of the season there started to be quite a few goals where you felt he could have done better. As well as not getting off his line, he then seem to get into a mode of not using his hands and just letting shots hit him. Of course it was completely in the lap of the gods where rebounds ended up and quite often they ended up with opposition players who just put it into the net. The argument against Alex McCarthy coming in was that he had hardly played for the best part of three years having been bombed out by Crystal Palace, joining Saints, getting injured and then not performing fantastically in Under 23 matches. It wasn’t until Fraser reached the point where virtually anyone would be better that Alex was given the chance and what a revelation. From his first game away at Manchester United when he kept a clean sheet to right to the end of the season, he has been absolutely fantastic. He does all the things the goalkeepers are supposed to do, coming for crosses, commanding the box, giving confidence to defenders. His handling and punching have been immaculate and his kicking is good as well. When a high ball goes into the box and you see him coming for it, you know he’s going to catch it and the defenders know he’s coming as well.  Another bonus is that he doesn’t seem afraid a physical contact from strikers. The decision to play him, which in fairness was made by Mauricio Pellegrino, is one of the biggest reasons for our improvement and escape from relegation. Alex has to be first choice next year and Fraser, who rumour has it is our highest paid player, will hopefully be in demand from the top six club looking to flesh out the home grown element for their European campaigns. 

Oh yeah, Stuart Taylor drank tea and clapped a bit.

Forster 5, McCarthy 9.

Full backs.

There are really only two to talk about and they are Cedric and Ryan Bertrand. Cedric has mainly been complete dump all season with some extremely questionable defending of the wet lettuce variety and crosses at the other end of the pitch that with great regularity go nowhere near any of our players in the box. He gets it right occasionally like he did at Arsenal and Everton but in the main, dump. All the tight shirted poser boy band bollocks that he does on Instagram doesn’t endear him to me either and I severely questioned his attitude in the middle part of the season but with no replacement, he had to keep playing. To be fair he has improved in the last few games and I dare say he’s been given a bit of the Mark Hughes treatment and been told what is acceptable and what is not. He will be off to the World Cup summer with Portugal and I don’t expect him to be a Southampton player next season. He has been okay overall but I think we could comfortably do better.  If he stays he stays but if he goes I’m not bothered.

Ryan Bertrand always plays with a smile on his face. You can always see the joy in his face which illustrates how much he loves it here.  I’m taking the piss of course but there was one moment this season that made me realise that this is just the way he is and it’s not any sort of slight about playing for Southampton. When he scored his first goal for England, he looked miserable after that as well. The guy has great quality both as a defender and going forward and even this season, which is not been his best, has provided some great moments like the overlapping run to set up a goal versus Chelsea. If there’s any justice in the world, he should be England’s first choice left back at the World Cup but again, like with Cedric, I don’t think he will be a Southampton player next season. I for one will be sorry to see him go but he has given us four years and has been an excellent performer in that time so good luck to him. He was happy to leave his comfort zone at Chelsea to join us and improve as a player and he’s done that so to my mind, he deserves a move to one of the big clubs at the age of 28 and I won’t begrudge him that.

Jeremy Pied will leave the club in the summer having played about four games over two years, part because of injury and part because he’s not very good. I don’t think he was even considered as a viable option when Cedric was playing terribly or injured and Jack Stephens got played at right back rather than give him a game on some occasions this season. We as a club have got to get away from signing pathway blockers, as in very cheap , 30+ journeyman players who just bloat out the squad and impede the progress of any youngsters we may have.

Matt Targett had a couple of games and then got loaned out to Fulham where he did really well. He may still help them get promoted if they come through the play-offs. He has never looked totally convincing when he played for us but assuming Bertrand leaves, he should get more opportunity next season. 

The same could be said for Sam McQueen who has always look good to me in any game he has played and in a season with some attitudes have been questioned, he always looks decent in that regard.  He is one that needs more games next season but if we have two other left backs then I would like to see him loaned out for the first half of the season to see how he gets on at a Championship club.

Cedric 4, Bertrand 6

Centre Backs

This is the weakest area of the team because if you don’t have one dominant leader of a centre half then you are always going to struggle and at present, none out of Maya Yoshida, Wesley Hoedt, Jack Stephens or Jan Bednarek are that leader. We had a leader of course but that was Virgil Van Dijk and the less said about that twat, the better. It has all been said before.

To me, if you’re going to play two central defenders then it has to be Maya and Wesley. You have a right sided player and left a player and you have the one with the most experience in the team. I don’t think Pellegrino ever tried this combination, persevering with Stephens and Hoedt which never looked secure at all in the same way that Yoshida and Stevens never look secure last season. Bednarek looked like an absolute car crash at the start of the season and there was a collective sharp intake of breath when Mark Hughes put him in the team after Jack Stephens had twatted Jack Wilshere.

One of the biggest surprises of the season is how well Bednarek has played because he has kept his place and deservedly so. By playing three central defenders, Hughes has managed to get a semi-solid defence that is greater than the sum of its parts. All four look okay at times but none are capable of playing consistently well in the Premier League at present and if we just sign one player this summer it has to be I dominant experienced leader central defender.

Jack Stephens should spend all summer heading footballs because he hasn’t done it all season.  The amount of times the ball floats over his head and he never ever looks like he’s in a position to win it is quite frankly embarrassing for Premier League centre half of 6 foot 2.  other teams have susses it because it’s so obvious.  Play a decent header of the ball coming on from the left and float the ball over Stephens head and see Cedric trying to cope with a big striker running in.  Everything else is pretty much there but he just has to get a little bit nastier and head the fucking ball. To me, he hasn’t improved much from last season and I don’t understand it as it is such an obvious weakness in the same way as Foster staying on his goal line is such an obvious weakness.  Nice lad, good attitude but has to improve.

Talking of not learning, Maya Yoshida still has some of the same issues as he had six years ago when he joined us. He still panics like hell when faced with a big physical striker. He still gets too close to strikers and allows them to roll round him and he still trashes through the back of people when his over eagerness gets the better of him. I saw an interview with him where he said basically that he was telling himself to get stuck in more and that’s all well and good but you have to make the right decision and launching that Everton player into space when already on a yellow card was not a great decision.  All that said, he is the closest we have to a leader back there and once we went to a back three, he has done a good job as the central one of the three at least he did until he had the brain fart Everton.

Wesley Hoedt I think was brought in to learn of a van Dick but van Dick of course wasn’t interested he was only interesting and getting the fuck out of Dodge. The expectation of Wesley was therefore to be the next van Dick and he’s too young and too inexperienced to be that. At the start of the season he had a mistake in him through overconfidence and towards the end of the season he seem to have lost a bit of confidence due to the mistakes that he had made earlier in the season. He does do the odd giraffe on ice impression but I feel that there is a player in there.  He’s pretty good on the ball and assuming he sticks around next season, I see him being a lot better than this season. I don’t have any doubts over his attitude or will to win so I don’t think he’s going to turn out to be another expensive flop.

Yoshida 6, Hoedt 6, Stephens 6, Bednarek 6

Midfield

I think it’s fair to say that Oriol Romeu has struggled to live up to his past performances this season. I can’t really put a finger on why but there has at times there seems to have been an issue with concentration.  One of the strangest goals that we conceded this season was Harry Kane’s header from 6 inches at Wembley when Romeu basically just stood next to him and let him score. I have no fucking idea what was going on there. With the arrival of Mark Hughes, Romeu certainly rediscovered the grunt in his game and looked like he would die for the cause, picking up a booking in virtually every match. A tally of 14 over a season is really quite a strong effort.

Pierre Emile Hojbjerg was out of favour at the start of the season, sometimes not even making the match day 18 under Pellegrino. When he was given a chance, he gave an interview where we spoke about how much it meant to him and how much he was determined to do well.  Clearly an intelligent footballer, it marked a huge turning point and made him stand out in a sea of players who maybe didn’t have the best of attitudes. Still has a slight tendency to play a little bit safe when he doesn’t need to but this is been a very very good season for Pierre and I don’t think anyone would complain if he was made Captain for next season.  An outside bet for the Danish World Cup Squad and he deserves that if it comes his way as well.  Still very young and one of the best things about staying up is that he’s much more likely to still be here next season.

Mario Lemina, our Instagram Model Rock Star rapper has at various times this season look like the best player in the league (Palace away, WBA away), looked like the worst player in the league (Chelsea in Cup Semi, West Ham away), looked like he really didn’t give a shit about anything other than himself, look like he wanted to get away from the club at the earliest opportunity and at the last minute, looked like he actually cared.  A few weeks ago, after he strolled round Wembley in an FA Cup Semi Final, I would’ve happily driven him to any other club that he wanted to join but I assume there was another meeting with Hughes where he was told what was acceptable and what wasn’t and under a strong manager, I feel that he could be a real asset next season.  He has everything in his game when he’s ‘on it’ and I think we need to give it another season to come out. If we can get Lemina playing to high-level consistently then he would be a fantastic player.  The Social Media Brand bollocks drives me nuts though there has a been a bit of a slowing down in the rate of pictures of him and his girlfriend in their best Jay-Z and Beyonce power couple wannabe poses.

I’m reviewing Steve Davis here because this is where he has played for the majority of the season and not very well. In previous seasons, I’ve liked his consistency and good character but this season seems to have been season too far as far as his legs are concerned. There have been a few more niggling injuries this season as well and he doesn’t seem to fit in anywhere – not strong enough to play as a defensive midfielder and not creative or quick enough to play further forward.  When Pellegrino picked and attacking midfield three of Tadic, JWP and Davo, you knew the lack of pace would be horrible.  I feel that if we had been relegated then he may have stayed another year but as it is, I think that he will move on in the summer and if he does, I hope people remember what a good player he has been from us since we arrived in the Premier league under Nigel Adkins.  A return to Rangers has been mentioned but with Steven Gerrard as manager, who knows what’s going on there?

Romeu 6, Hojbjerg 7, Lemina 5, Davis 4.