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Alpaywasawesome

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Everything posted by Alpaywasawesome

  1. The Robbie Keane selection kinda rubs me the wrong way - Yorke, JPA, Carew, Benteke? Surely all 4 of them had far greater seasons than Robbie Keane's short stint here.
  2. I'm going to guarantee if Given starts the cup final against Arsenal, we're going to have plenty of heart-in-mouth moments where Arsenal break and Given is crawling off his line like the semi-retired man he is, we will likely concede from most of those chances. Will it split the dressing room? Only if Given reacts poorly, which given his professionalism I doubt it. And Guzan can say he deserves it after what MON did to him in the League Cup.
  3. Close the thread! Never thought I'd be so happy on a night Villa got smashed 6-1 but whoo! EDIT: Lol this if for next season? A tad premature no?
  4. I wouldn't limit it to Okore. I don't think Vlaar brings out the best in any other defender. Agreed, just to illustrate: Earlier in the season when Vlaar was playing he looked decent beside Senderos. But the Senderos-Baker partnership when played has looked equal to if not better than the Senderos-Vlaar partnership. When he came back from injury, Vlaar looked decent beside Clark. But the Clark-Okore partnership looked equal to if not better than the Vlaar-Clark partnership. Then Clark got injured and Vlaar played with Baker (who lasted like 1 game before getting injured) before getting paired with Okore. And the Vlaar-Okore partnership has looked shaky for a while now - think Lukaku's run for the penalty and today - with Vlaar looking particularly error prone. This was the similar to their partnership under MON when lower division teams in our friendlies got the better of them two. Vlaar can go or stay as our reserve. Even if he regains his form and cuts out his errors, he is still too injury-prone to be anywhere near the first-team. He is our 5th choice centre-back to me. I think we have two great CB pairings at the moment to split between competitions next season. Senderos-Baker Clark-Okore
  5. Every keeper makes mistakes, even the best keepers of their generation will make high-profile schoolboy blunders, they are only human after all. I think Guzan was entitled to his one error against Man City after the past 3 seasons of fantastic and consistent service, yet people were quick to claim his form had dipped, didn't look comfortable commanding his back line. What nonsense really. Guzan was playing the same way he'd always been for the past few seasons, from what I've seen from Guzan, he's too much of a professional to be complacent to let his standards slip as some have suggested, after all he's pushing for the no.1 spot for the US national team for Christ's sake. He's been solid without being spectacular, it's just that one stupid save Given made in the cup that Guzan didn't have the chance of making that has blinded everyone to Guzan's better overall game. Given has been a liability ever since the Everton game, he doesn't command his box, he doesn't clatter the opposition attackers to get to the ball like good dominant keepers do, which you can see in the first 2 goals he conceded today, as well as during the last 2 games he's played in. When I was playing defence in uni, my team's keeper was terrible on the ball but he was a big burly ex-Rugby guy who was rapid and strong in a one-on-one footrace and in the box. He ALWAYS got the ball even if it meant clattering into the opposition player at full speed, brave as a ox, or jumping over taller guys to grab the ball out of the air. And that more than made up whatever he lacked on the ball and allowed us in defence to push further forward to support the attack and even when we were defending, his assuredness in the box meant we felt comfortable pushing out and squeezing the play for the offside call. Even when we didn't get it, we were certain our keeper would get there. Look at Given today. When the high line failed and Southampton players were running onto goal, did you ever feel safe with Given coming out? **** it he was slow and not aggressive enough, I remember many occasions this season when Guzan would rush many yards out of his own box to clear the danger. Given was not quick enough to get out of his box fast enough, the gap between defence and him was massive! Sure the defense also didn't handle those goal situations well, but Given could have made things much more difficult for the Southampton forwards if he was faster. He isn't. Heck I think Given has never recovered from the full-speed collision he had with Marlon Harewood which ruptured his hernia or something - I forgot when that was but Given charged out full force into an equally committed Harewood and I think he's never been the same again, this kinda crap affects you on a subconscious level, he'll never be as 100% brave or committed as he was before if he was ever. I hope we would see Guzan, I hope Sherwood realises if you want to play an aggressive high-tempo high-line game you need to have a keeper who can rush off his line to squash the distance between keeper and defense when breaks are on. With Arsenal's rapid players in Sanchez, Welbeck, Walcott - are we really going to let a keeper who is not fast enough to rush out of his box continue requiring his defenders run all the way back into the box to defend? Seriously? We are willing to allow that big of a gap between the keeper and the defence? No there is no reason to appease Given seriously, he's at the end of his career at the moment. Brad is the better keeper overall, maybe there was a reason to get him out of the limelight after the high-profile error against Man City but **** it, he's had enough time to regroup. Get Guzan in for the cup final.
  6. Lowton looks so much better than Hutton at left-back.
  7. In general, don't you think Given looks slow and weak off his line? Before Guzan's cock-up against Man City, he was very solid playing as the sweeper keeper type role which is essential in modern football. Sure it may be harsh to say Given should have kept both of the first goals out, but he looked so non-commanding in his box, so weak, no assertiveness. I have absolutely zero confidence when Given comes off his line, whereas I always felt safe with Guzan. Same with claiming of high balls, Given always looks for the foul, which he has been lucky to get favourable calls for. I think if Guzan was dropped on the basis of his shaky performance against Man City well, Given should be as well for this one. I suspect Guzan might have saved or come closer to saving Mane's third and Long's second, Guzan has that in his locker, whereas Given looked like he was never ever getting to either.
  8. Get him out the first 2 goals he was so weak and so slow to get to the ball, the fourth was a decent through not great save that I would have expected Guzan to have made as well. And in general he looks so uncomfortable any significant distance away off his goal-line because I think he knows he doesn't have the pace to push out there to loose balls or get back when he needs to. Which is why you if look at the fifth goal, yes no way Guzan would have saved that either - it was a worldie but look how slow he was in his backpedal to attempt to save it. It might have been right initially to take Guzan out of the firing line after his Man City clanger, but enough time has passed to give him the chance to reclaim his place. Given is too slow to play the sweeper keeper style we need in this league, Guzan despite his sometimes dodgy kicking doesn't let us down in that position 99% of the time. Surely a super solid keeper like Guzan deserves our forgiveness for his once-in-a-blue-moon clangers which are seriously far and few between.
  9. He was always going to cost us because he's useless, I just hope he has got it all out of his system ahead of the cup final. Which goal was his fault? The first two goals slid out like an idiot and made himself small, didn't commit with any force or determination or more possibly didn't have the legs and pace to rush out to clear the ball away. Useless. These are the underrated qualities of Guzan, his ability to get off his line quick. Given is too old to be a functional keeper in the modern game. He's a relic, the Neuer types are the future for how teams want to play, especially with us wanting to adopt an attacking on the front foot approach - Guzan made a cock up and was dropped, Given has shown just as much today. Drop him for Guzan. Given has lost his place in the cup final for me.
  10. Clattenberg is a piece of shit - what the hell kind of performance was this? Nonsense.
  11. Get Vlaar off for Senderos he's going to be sent off like this especially with the way twattenberg been officiating today.
  12. Disgusting from Vlaar, no danger we had three men behind the attacker what was he going to do? Idiot.
  13. He's allowed 1 error per season but both goals were horrendous keeping from Brad, he'll be the hardest on himself no doubt.
  14. Just curious, do you know something specifically awful about that party? Pray tell, I had no idea they existed until now.
  15. Has anyone heard of this new party: Justice for Men and Boys It's running on an anti-feminist ticket, and the leader is a former consultant to the Conservative party. Apparently men and boys have it really bad. I don't know about the state of divorce settlements, but if fathers are really denied rights to their children - of course controlling for the requirement that they are a 'fit and proper' parent and not an abusive alcoholic asshole - that is quite horrific. Its one of those weird fringe parties I feel, I'm worried the kind who may call for a reintroduction of National Service for the good of young boys and men. Not like it'd be a bad thing honestly, some of the youngsters these days are **** hooligans. Okay maybe not National Service, but better schools and economic prospects would get rid of idle hands which tend to do bad stuff.
  16. I just got back from work is Lowton playing left back?
  17. Lowton starting is never gonna happen though. I'm actually tempted to have Bacuna and Lowton on. Hutton Okore Baker Cissokho ----------Sanchez Lowton------------Delph Bacuna Benteke Gil
  18. He hasn't been much improvement on El Ahmedi honestly.
  19. That's my point. They managed to replace those players last summer but you can't keep selling your best players and then replacing them with cheaper players. No scouting system is good enough to keep doing that IMO. Well most of those players moved on for Champions League football so if Southampton really does what we failed to do that season ... then no problem for them.
  20. Even if we get creative players in, he will coach that instinct out of them - remember Bertrand? Or Benteke and Weimann first season? Somehow players get worse attacking wise under Lambert. Which attacking players have actually improved under Lambert? Honestly?
  21. When will Robinson, who was in red-hot form for PNE before his recall get a chance in place of a woefully out-of-form Gabby? Please can we pair Benteke with Robinson the next game with Cole behind them? Let Gabby be an impact sub.
  22. When is Westwood coming back? Because I think Delph Sanchez Westwood would be a great midfield.
  23. Why no blame on Gabby? Useless again, no movement, no running in behind, bad while in possession .... At least we got to see Cole and Grealish on at the same time.
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