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Get The Aspirin Out For Pochettino Tuesday, 20th Aug 2013 08:42
Saints manager Mauriccio Pochettino will have a very big headache in the coming weeks, but its one that every football manager likes to have.
Saints fan welcomed the arrival of new striker Pablo "Dani" Osvaldo for the club record transfer fee of around £15 million this week, but ironically just as those same supporters acclaimed the greatest week in the footballing life of Rickie Lambert alongside the new arrival, it could be that the new England striker's place is under threat at St Mary's for the first time since he arrived four years ago.
There are those that prefer to assume that the manager can accommodate both of them in the line up, but I would say that is going to be hard to do and that neither player will be happy in any other role than as a striker.
Mauriccio Pochettino is unlikely to revert to two up front, last summer Saints adopted a formation that they now use and like Barcelona the thinking behind that is that a variation on this formation is used by every team at the club, the thinking is that if the younger players are comfortable with something from an early age, they will find it easier to slot in to the first team, so a two man strike force is highly unlikely, not just for that reason, but the plain fact is that Pochettino himself is known for his liking of that formation.
So its quite clear that in terms of playing up front, its a case of one or the other.
Some Saints fans have pointed out that Osvaldo can play on the left, to a degree that is true, although Roma played a very particular formation that involved the lone striker playing very deep and the two wide men coming in from the wings, Pochettino could opt for this formation, but Osvaldo fell out with Roma because of this, he doesn't particularly like playing it, his caps for Italy have been as a striker and he realises that if he is to make next years World Cup then he needs to be playing up front and not out wide, I would find it hard to believe that he would have agreed to come here unless he was very much promised that he would be the main striker.
That will be the problem for Rickie, as Jack Cork found out, it doesn't matter how vital a cog you were last season, if a big signing is made you could find yourself out of the team, put bluntly apart from the likes of Chelsea, you don't sign a player for £15 million and leave him on the bench for very long.
So it could well be a straight fight between Rickie and Dani for that lone strikers role, this is where both want to play and its where both are most effective, they are central strikers and both know that if they aren't playing regularly for their club in this role then they aren't going to make the World Cup in Brazil.
The headache could get worse for the manager here, again to be blunt, we haven't signed Osvaldo to play on the bench, although Lambert is likely to start on Saturday with the Italian on the bench, that wont be the case for long, unless Lambert is hitting hat tricks week in week out, Osvaldo will be in the team and in to stay, if you spent £15 million you tend to play the player as mentioned earlier, this is where that England cap for Lambert could actually work against Saints, approaching 32 in January, without that cap Lambert could well have been happy in a squad rotation system, content with still playing his part, but now he has that cap and knows he has a chance of going to Brazil, he knows he has to be playing and scoring, if he finds himself playing second fiddle to Osvaldo, then in January Rickie himself will be reaching for the aspirin, does he stay loyal to Saints or does he look for a club, even on loan where he will play week in week out and get a chance to go to Brazil.
On that note, there was a strange comment from Rickie in a Sky Sports quote about how he had never looked to leave Saints at any time, was that setting the scene as he could see the writing on the wall.
In football of course you always have to move forward, in replacing Cork, a player who was probably second only to Schneiderlin last season in how important he was to Saints with Wanyama it showed there is no sentimentality, I think that we could be just about to find that out in a big way.
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Let us see. I for one will be well fed up with Mopo if the intention of bringing in Dani is to freeze out Rickie in the short term. I would much prefer to see them both playing with Dani playing off one of Rickie's strengths as a provider. If as you suggest the intention is immediate replacement then Dani better prove quickly he is quality and not an Argentine / Italian drama queen.
On Jack Cork you may be at little ahead of yourself, we have only played one competitive game this season so it is a little early to talk about him being replaced.
SRL cannot shoulder the burden of that position all season as we saw he was jaded by the end of the campaign last year..and that was without injury. Saints needed back up for the coming season ad to push as hard as we can to climb the league. It just so happens that comes on the form of an established Italian international striker who gets on well with MoPo and his system. As he said yesterday Poch knows how he works and that is part of the reason he came. He works up front. Its a tough call for SRL to get onto the plain for Brazil - he needs games and goals as does Osvaldo to meet his dream. It may will be asprin time for MoPo but for SAINTS, its a good headache.
Do you consider Jay Rodriguez a midfielder? I could have sworn he played CF for Burnley, and unless my eyes deceive me, he played on Saturday, and funnily enough so did Rickie!
I would suggest whatever happens, Poch is no fool and knows exactly what he is doing.
Lets wait and see before jumping to the usual rash conclusions!
"The headache could get worse for the manager." Are you sure you're not Alby in disguise?
We all know it will be Lambert & Osvaldo up front, and we're all very happy with that, so for the rest of us, including Pochettino, there is no headache at all: only the joy and excitement of being a Saints fan at the moment.
That 'strange' comment by Rickie was probably to do with the fact that Saints players in the past had been overlooked for less deserving individuals in England squads (normally ones that played for Spurs for some reason).
Agree entirely that we did need more cover up front.
Abingdon, J Rod plays out wide in our formation rather than as an out and out striker, Dirk with all due respect if you think that we will play Osvaldo and Lambert up front as dual strikers, I think you may have a shock coming, even if we were going to play two up front, they are too similar to one another
Nick, Must agree with abingtonsaint. It is Rodriguez whose place is up for grabs not SRL. Mind you we could play different formations depending on the opposition. But as some of the other posters have said it is a squad game now and will be difficult for some players to even make the 18 on a Saturday.
I think you need to change the way you think here nick. In the past this would probably have been a straight swap, as most signings we have done over the years are for sure starters or like for like replacements. If you look at the teams at the top of the league, they are all capable of managing their squads and rotating some of the best players in the world. I think if we are to go to that next level then this is what it’s like to be a big club. This is all very new to us but I’m guessing it’s just common practice if you want to be a big club. Looking at man city and Chelsea the other night, all of their bench would walk straight into our squad. However, you wouldn’t t say they are all under threat or close to being shipped out? its squad game now and I think we have to view this signing as a statement of our progress. Rickie will not lose his place. he may miss the odd game depending on form and fitness but it’s only going to benefit him as well as the squad.
isn't this a great debate..... the fact that we are able to discuss whether it SRL or JROD or possibly someone else to make way for PDO !!! the future looks bright!!! there is always the worry that Saturdays game could be a skin, however I really do believe now that we are at another level now and can only see a 3/4 NIL result....the spine of QUALITY is there for all to see now and don't it look great. btw how amazing did LS look on Saturday, Clyne on his way back however Chambers looks quality....JWP the same....we really are in a new era today!! I even opened the METRO newspaper and saw a large size pic of MOPO and OSSIE!!! come on the saints!!!!!!!!!
We may be in for a shock (although I don't think we will) but not as big as the shock we had last season when we went up to Man City and found that Adkins had dropped Lambert for Guly.
If any of the forwards arnt performing there dropped. Competition is all in this league. No more just turn up and put the hirt on, this is what we need. When and if you get that chance take it, can only improve us.
Lambert and Osvaldo will play in the same team. Have a look at our average positions against WBA (its half way down the page) http://www1.skysports.com/football/news/12040/8878312/weekend-review 7 Lambert, 9 J-Rod and 20 Lallana, all play centrally. Therefore Osvaldo could play instead of J-Rod, or as the main striker with Lambert slightly deeper in the Lallana role. Our 'wide' players tend not to play like standard wingers where they stick to the touchline. They drift inside and play centrally creating space for our full backs bomb forward. Therefore Osvaldo and Lambert can easily play in our existing system.
On Saturday I thought J-Rod had more of a positive impact than Lallana, so against Sunderland I'd expect Lallana to be dropped, Lambert to play a little deeper and Osvaldo to start up top. Lambert is great at linking the play, threading through balls and making late runs into the box, and by playing 'in the hole' he can do this.
Agree with Nick here, not going to change our formation to play two up top and are too similar in any case. Why are people talking about replacing J-Rod one of our most promising and direct players. I don't want to see Lambert replaced either however we needed another top class striker. Lets see how things play out, its up to Lambert to continue to put the ball in the back of the net and I for one am hoping he can!!
Interesting stats from Reedy, which back up what my impression was about how Rickie and JRod play together. Jay does NOT play wide, our width comes from the full backs. Equally, Rickie does NOT play in a traditional 'Sam Allardyce' style central role either. You will often see him drifting out wide, or playing in runners from further back with his excellent vision and passing. Our 'formation' to me seems very fluid and flexible.
I have nothing against Jay at all by the way, and I'm sure he will play a big part this season and in the future. The reason I think he is most likely to make way in the short term is that we rely on Rickie too heavily for goals, and Jay, as primarily a striker, simply does not score enough at the moment. It also interests me that people are saying that Rickie and Dani can't play together as they are 'too similar'. Has anyone actually seen Dani play. Yes, he is a central striker, but from the snippets I have seen on YouTube he does not look similar at all!
So, once again, it will be interesting to see how all this pans out, but I am confident our manager knows exactly what he is doing.
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