Morgan Schneiderlin

[St José Dominguez]

Disagree. Watched a lot of Southampton last season and he got forward to support/initiate attacks often enough. When you have two players sitting in this sort of set up you'll find one will roam a bit more than the other but has the nous to know when to do this - something he demonstrated exceptionally well last season.

His one goal, one assist says differently though. I think he's far better in the first two thirds of the pitch. His tackling and intercepting is fantastic and the pace he gets the ball forward to. That is what we need him for. At home in particular against pretty much 3/4 of teams he can control the CM in front of back 4. There isn't a need to partner him with another defensive mid. We aren't Soton, we'll be looking to be on front foot far more.

 

[WiganSpur]

Disagree with this statement 100%. Whether Dembele can get and stay fully fit is one debate. A fully fit Dembele is better than Schneiderlin without doubt...

No ones better. They couldn't be any different to each other.

 

[Mr Pink]

His one goal, one assist says differently though. I think he's far better in the first two thirds of the pitch. His tackling and intercepting is fantastic and the pace he gets the ball forward to. That is what we need him for. At home in particular against pretty much 3/4 of teams he can control the CM in front of back 4. There isn't a need to partner him with another defensive mid. We aren't Soton, we'll be looking to be on front foot far more.

I didn't say he was scoring and assisting regularly, where did you get that from? I said he joined in the build up play, at times, further up the pitch ie...Wanyama was the true holder. Schneiderlin's tackling and interceptions stats are extremely impressive but he covers a lot of ground. Yes he's defensive but he has a lot more to his game than you're average holding midfielder.

Capoue's passing is extremely good from those deeper positions. Schneiderlin and Capoue would form an extremely formidable pair and it would give us a very good balance, we would have effective/incisive passing supplying our creative sparks higher up the pitch and off the ball we'd be very strong in terms of winning it back. A different blend to that of Schneirderlin and Wanyama. So I still don't agree with you.

 

[St José Dominguez]

I didn't say he was scoring and assisting regularly, where did you get that from? I said he joined in the build up play, at times, further up the pitch ie...Wanyama was the true holder. Schneiderlin's tackling and interceptions stats are extremely impressive but he covers a lot of ground. Yes he's defensive but he has a lot more to his game than you're average holding midfielder.

Capoue's passing is extremely good from those deeper positions. Schneiderlin and Capoue would form an extremely formidable pair and it would give us a very good balance, we would have effective/incisive passing supplying our creative sparks higher up the pitch. A totally different blend to that of Schneirderlin and Wanyama. So I still don't agree with you.

Against certain teams yes. At home to a team who are sitting back I think it's pointless having two CMs who are mainly sitting. He's not a goal threat CM. He can do what we'd require from him and Capoue against 3/4 of teams, especially at home, on his own. Which allows us to play another more attacking player, a goal threat. We're gonna be far more on front foot than Soton were and up against teams that sit back against us, again not what Soton faced.

 

[SEANSPURS1975]

But it's not simple and it is pertinent to the debate, Dembele has a long term hip injury that he is refusing to have an operation on. If he's unwilling to get the problem dealt with then he's of no use to Spurs because he can't offer us what we signed him to do and now just plays a rather timid and boring game.

Schneiderlin is fit, injury free and has the confidence of our head coach, it should be a no brainer.

I agree, if Dembele cannot/will not get fully fit then he is of no use to us. But my point is a fully fit Dembele is a better player than Schneiderlin.

 

[Mr Pink]

Against certain teams yes. At home to a team who are sitting back I think it's pointless having two CMs who are mainly sitting. He's not a goal threat CM. He can do what we'd require from him and Capoue against 3/4 of teams, especially at home, on his own. Which allows us to play another more attacking player, a goal threat. We're gonna be far more on front foot than Soton were and up against teams that sit back against us, again not what Soton faced.

Well I don't think one of them is constantly always sitting though, that's my point. And they both have a pass on them anyway so when situations demand it they're capable of getting further forward and affecting the game a bit, like Capoue did for Holtby against Celtic.

But yeah there will always be situations that we need to change things tactically. But I'm talking about in the main, good to have a pretty regular side and system so familiarity can breed improvement and confidence.

Anyway, agree to disagree here I think.

 

[The Spurs Lad]

His one goal, one assist says differently though. I think he's far better in the first two thirds of the pitch. His tackling and intercepting is fantastic and the pace he gets the ball forward to. That is what we need him for. At home in particular against pretty much 3/4 of teams he can control the CM in front of back 4. There isn't a need to partner him with another defensive mid. We aren't Soton, we'll be looking to be on front foot far more.

What your saying makes sense but it doesn't apply to Pochs system. The difference with pochs system to others is that we only leave the two cbs and 1.5 dms back and everyone else gets forward. the two holding dms allow the front 4 to interchange entirely with little to no defensive reliance needed(out with pressing). The two full backs effectively play as wingers to further support the front 4s free roaming and keep the width.

 

[The Spurs Lad]

Capoue scored 8 I think in his final season in France as well.

 

[dynamoSpurs]

Dembele is crap.

That is all.

 

[Luka Van der Bale]

Re: the rumours of us including Chiriches in a deal for Schneiderlin..

Steaua Bucharest defender Florin Gardos has had a medical at Southampton #SSN

They may be interested in bringing these 2 together.

They've named Fonte their captain.

 

[allatsea]

Dembele is crap.

That is all.

Laughable

 

[Sandros Shiny Head]

the problem with Dembele is that he has the decision making speed of a cupboard

 

[TheAmerican]

Dembele is crap.

That is all.

He can be great when we are attacking freely. I think he's a very responsive player. By this, I meant that he will never change the tempo. He very much matches the team's overall style of play. Play slow, and he will too. Play fast, and will move quicker. He isn't a conductor like a Modric-type (which I believe many expected him to be), he is a box-to-box mid. He also has a wicked left foot when he wants. He should shoot more.

 

[ravo]

the problem with Dembele is that he has the decision making speed of a cupboard

Made of balsa wood.

Seriously, for him to work in our new style he needs to get his head up and be able to play quick vertical passes, like we have seen from Capoue this preseason.

 

[double0]

Nabil is going to be a very good player but is not ready to run our midfield yet... He can play when we are playing against lesser opposition but the two that stand out for me last year were the man city at home and Liverpool away games which totally bypassed him, he looked like a little boy and was not up to the job, on the same note games against palace and Southampton he was class. Not ready if we seriously want to be top 4 this year

But then the little boy grew up and played at the WC.

 

[nicdic]

He can be great when we are attacking freely. I think he's a very responsive player. By this, I meant that he will never change the tempo. He very much matches the team's overall style of play. Play slow, and he will too. Play fast, and will move quicker. He isn't a conductor like a Modric-type (which I believe many expected him to be), he is a box-to-box mid. He also has a wicked left foot when he wants. He should shoot more.

Nailed it.

Everyone's criticisms of Dembele are slightly unfair because he was never that player. I'm actually really quite excited to see what Pochettino can get out of Dembele because I don't believe that he isn't able to play at a higher tempo. For whatever reason Dembele seems to have become the fall guy for the AVB system, a system that as a whole was ponderous and completely devoid of intelligent movement. I'm excited to see him behind a front four under Pochettino, still think he has lots to offer.

 

[y1dk1d]

Dembele is probably the most frustrating player I've ever watched. So much ability and a physical beast. His left foot is a rocket and when he controls it can be a lethal missile. However, when he's off for he often finds row Z. As well as the fact that he dribbles it around 5 players, gets sight on goal and passes it. His decision making is very poor and very slow. As well as his inconsistency, his injury problems are pretty serious. He can be amazing, everything to him is natural but by being inconsistent and injury prone I'm not sure we can take the risk. I'd be sad to sell him, but I'd be willing to let him go if it meant we can get Morgan

 

[Giovanni]

I find it very hard to read the way people so openly critisise our players and force a ridiculous label upon each one of them..... I mean whoever said the dembele is "sh**" clearly has zero knowledge of football and is simply wanting to scapegoat. Dembele at one point was the very first name on the teamsheat, our driving force, the player that could actually take care of the ball in tricky situations, made defensively lung bursting chases to track a man and disposes him and was 1 player who could actually beat a man and open up space.

Some people on here make me laugh and at the same time realise how saddening it has become to attract this kind of so called 'fan' to our club. If dembele is shit then all of our squad is shit for one reason or another and thats perhaps why we are a team challenging for 4th/5th/6th as opposed the the pl title and winning cl ect.

Dembele is a quality player and even when playing half injured was one of the best on the field. Poch will improve him and I think we will see some real attacking quality and greag pressing from him in pochs system.

 

[Shadydan]

Dembele is crap.

That is all.

Are you Dumb fam!?

 

[CJMurray]

Sigh. He's so fucking talented. Why does he only do that twice a season. He should be getting 5-10 a season.