Cedric Soares has shown that he is Premier League quality, but for some reason sometimes Ronald Koeman prefers Yoshida, the game at Manchester City proved that this rotation does not work.

In his three years at Saints Yoshida has been a solid defender, however he is seen as more as a squad player than a first choice by most supporters, his problem always seems to be that in most games he suffers from a lack of concentration at key moments and these lapses too often cost Saints dearly.

This was the case at Manchester City on Saturday, as it was against Manchester United at home earlier in the season when an awful back pass resulted in a goal that turned the direction of the game and cost us at least a point.

At his best Yoshida is a reasonable back up centre half, as a right back he is not Premier quality, I can see why Ronald Koeman would sometimes want to use him as a right back in that against teams that offer a more aerial threat he does offer extra height in the air than Soares does, but that wasn't going to be the case on Saturday against City.

But Ronald Koeman seems to favour this switch of late and hopefully now he will see the error of his ways.

In many respects it seems to cast a shadow on how highly the manager rates Soares, last season it would be hard think that Koeman would have contemplated dropping Nathaniel Clyne for Yoshida, indeed it would have been unthinkable, so why is Yoshida played out of position at Soares expense ?

With Soares Saints look a lot better balanced and Soares is a round peg in a round hole, he is a right back and a good one at that, he was rock solid at Chelsea, so I do not believe that Saints are any better defensively with Yoshida, yes there is the height issue, but Saints have enough big players to bring back into the box to defend set pieces.

I do not want to crucify Yoshida for the mistake at City, but it is not his first this season and his career at Saints have been littered with these lapses, he is a trier and a good squad man, but that is it, with everybody fit he would not be in most Saints fans starting line up and indeed many would say that Steven Caulker should be on the bench before him.

Football is all about progression and learning from mistakes, hopefully Ronald Koeman will have learn't something on Saturday.

Photo: Action Images

stephenblayney added 18:41 - Nov 29 I completely agree with you. When the team sheet was announced I turned to my partner and said that I was confused by his inclusion and position. I predicted that he would make at least one SERIOUS error. And so it proved...
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1970 added 18:44 - Nov 29 I've said many times before City United and Chelski can play square pegs in round holes because of the quality of there players but we don't have that so we need to play everyone in there position as much as injury will allow, so for me if Soares was injured I would play Caulker there, he has played in that position many times and is an equal to Chambers, and then Martina and then several others before I would choose Yoshida it just doesn't make sense , if we played Yoshida at right back all season we would be in the bottom six, and I hope we beat Liverhampton on Weds they got a dodgy penalty against Swansea like always, so stuff those ex-saints out of the cup coyr.

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Notos71 added 19:00 - Nov 29 Totally agree. RK got a few things wrong on Saturday, demoting Tadic to the bench was a huge mistake aswell as the inclusion of Yoshida at RB. I also think we set out with the wrong tactics and gave City way too much respect by sitting deep with what looked like a 4-1-4-1 formation when we've been used to the familiar 4-3-2-1. As you said in your post, let's hope he doesn't do it again.

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abingdonsaint added 19:07 - Nov 29 Don't suppose it has occurred to anyone that RK is targeting the Capital One Cup, so Soares was rested? He's new to the PL, along with Clasie, and perhaps he didn't think either could play three games in a week. Bet he will play the next two......( just putting it out there!)
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SanMarco added 19:42 - Nov 29 Maybe Abingdon but we shouldn't be 'resting' players away at Man City - especially when the replacement is Yoshida. If our squad really is strong enough to be doing such a thing then surely the man signed as the reserve for right back, Martina, should be playing. Although our first-choice 11 is only marginally weaker than last year I do fear that Koeman has no faith in some of those players that are supposedly giving us a stronger squad. Juanmi, Martina, Romeau, Gazzanigga - I don't think Ron rates them. JWP is a problem and Kelvin is still the sub-keeper for goodness sake. Although I am a born pessimist I do think this team will gel in time to challenge for the 6th-7th place positions but once it has there will be more sales in the summer and so on...

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saintmark1976 added 19:45 - Nov 29 For goodness sake get off of Yoshida's back Is it his fault that he is continually played out of position? What do you expect him to do,tell RK that he is not going to play? The fact is that we signed two replacements at bargain basement prices for Clyne both of which are nowhere near adequate standard at Premiership level.How is that his responsibility? Last week Fonte was all at sea for the Stoke goal and nobody bats an eyelid!

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IWOZTHERE added 20:16 - Nov 29 I think your Header photo is really apt. It shows Yoshida watching Caulker about to boot the ball and Sterling into touch! That's the way to do it!
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legod7 added 20:19 - Nov 29 SanMarco, Surely it was RK's decision to buy Juanmi , Martina and Romeu. So how come he doesn't rate them ?
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SaintNick added 21:03 - Nov 29 Martina wasnt bought to replace Clyne, he was bought to add depth to the squad, back in July we had several key players out, Van Dijk not yet signed and a Europa League qualifying campaign etc, to be fair he has served his purpose now I would not be surprised to see him loaned out in January
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TimSaint added 23:56 - Nov 29 I can only hope that Cedric was rested, due to the couple of batterings he has received recently and to give his stitches chance to bed in !! Let's be honest, with the continued punnishing of Yoshi errors this season, surely even Ron has realised that he is not a right back, but there is no other cover, unless we play JWP or Caulker - not sure Mugabi is up to it just yet !!! As for Yoshi, playing at Centre or Right Back, he has made too many fatal errors already this season, that have cost us dearly. Glaring miss v Newcastle Everton Home - say no more Man Utd Home - backpass Man City Away The only thing he has done is score against a team bottom of the league in the Capital One Cup !! Roll on January and a new right back

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aceofthebase added 08:01 - Nov 30 No-one in our squad is any good at right back. Poor buys, not just there, have made us a below average team. Hoping we can stay clear of the relegation race
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Jesus_02 added 09:22 - Nov 30 legod7 : If you t hink the signings are all RKs you are still living in the 90's. Its 50/50 at best
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Jesus_02 added 09:32 - Nov 30 Soares has been good and is still improving, however he is still young and new to the Prem. Surely he was rested, and I assume that it was for good reason. Equally we know that Tadic (Like Lallana before him) suffers from fatigue. People will say that we cant afford to rest players against Man City however our chances of getting a result against PL favorites was always going to be slim. Im not saying that RK has thrown this one, however he has gone for a more physical/less creative side that enabled him to rest Classie, Tadic and Soares We obviously lost but if Tadic had scored to make it 2-2 we dont know what the result could have been

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abingdonsaint added 10:13 - Nov 30 Blimey 'aceofthebase'......stay clear of razor blades!!
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BaselSaint added 12:03 - Nov 30 Why no Soares? was the first thing in everybody's mind. Surely we learnt the lesson about Yoshida more than 2 years ago. Sigh. Tadic is a trickier decision because most of the time you only get 20 trailblazing minutes out of him so which half do you use him?
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birminghamsaint added 12:29 - Nov 30 I haven't seen that much space down one of our flanks since Danny Fox was playing. OK Yoshida had a bit of a nightmare game, but this was an awful decision by RK to play a left footed Centre Half at right back. I felt sorry for him having to mark Raheem Sterling who is one of the quickest players in the league. If Martina is not up to standard for the premiership, then we might as well play one of the kids, who will also not be up to standard, but will at least gain experience the hard way. After 20 minutes I would have settle for 4 nil at 90 minutes, because we really looked as if we were going to be thrashed. It was like the Alamo!

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SaintBrock added 17:29 - Nov 30 I think the coaches plan was for us to sit deep with three tall guys to mop up their attacks and try to it them on the break for a 1-0 win. Bit naive against the best team in the land don't you think? Not sure they know what they're doing half the time. Certainly not the team we were a season ago and our 10th place isn't likely to improve anytime soon unless we find our best formation and stick with it. Classie & Soarass should be automatic starters.

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