Guest firetotheworks Posted January 20, 2013 Share Posted January 20, 2013 Still think he's a good player and more than capable of being a competent left back. Do you honestly believe not using your left foot doesn't matter? Ask world's best left back, Phillipe Lahm. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rich Posted January 20, 2013 Share Posted January 20, 2013 Who now plays right-back for Bayern Munich. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Wullie Posted January 20, 2013 Share Posted January 20, 2013 Can Lahm genuinely not kick with his left foot, like Santon? Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest firetotheworks Posted January 20, 2013 Share Posted January 20, 2013 Can Lahm genuinely not kick with his left foot, like Santon? He's extremely one-footed. Not Downing level, but still very one-footed. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Stuy_O Posted January 20, 2013 Share Posted January 20, 2013 Still think he's a good player and more than capable of being a competent left back. Do you honestly believe not using your left foot doesn't matter? Can he not be trained to use it, when he has to? I wouldn't have thought so, no. He's had years of his professional career to use it and has shown no desire to, so I'd find it a bit unlikely if he could suddenly train it up now to the level of being comfortable using it a lot. I'd have hoped he could use it for absolute basics, but I agree he is very one footed. It does add some imbalance but his problems at the moment are his positioning, not really what foot he's using. I think they're related. When you know you want to use your right at LB you have to compensate by being in a different position to classic full back. When a player doesn't make a left foot challenge or pass, but then makes a right foot one a few seconds later, it's easy to forget/ignore the fact that the left wasn't used. But that doesn't mean that using the left would not have been a better outcome. There are left foot basics that don't get done, such as clearing the ball down the line (instead coming inside and using your right), getting to the by line and crossing, slide tackle when your opponent has passed you (like yesterday). I've even seen when he's had to pass past a player down the line, and the left was an easy pass, but he played it with his right and the ball went two yards to the left of our player and went out. It all adds up, and it doesn't make anything run smoothly down the left since Jonas has a similar issue. He has a tendency to ball watch, which in turn affects how he marks players. He could be equally comfortable on both feet but if he keeps allowing players space it won't matter. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
OoOGazOoO Posted January 20, 2013 Share Posted January 20, 2013 I personally think he is a fine player, yes he gets caught out defensively sometime, but he is still a young lad and still going to be learning the game. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hanshithispantz Posted January 20, 2013 Share Posted January 20, 2013 The lad has literally just turned 22 and has played little over a season for us in a new league Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Wullie Posted January 20, 2013 Share Posted January 20, 2013 Can Lahm genuinely not kick with his left foot, like Santon? He's extremely one-footed. Not Downing level, but still very one-footed. I would say Downing's very competent with his right foot, scored a lot of great goals with it. Do you think left footers at right back and vice versa should be the standard? Lahm and Maldini are two of the greatest players of all time at full back (both sides and it's not fair to hold them up as par. They're clearly the exceptions rather than the rule, otherwise 99.9% of full backs in football history have played out of position. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest BrightonMag Posted January 20, 2013 Share Posted January 20, 2013 Still think he's a good player and more than capable of being a competent left back. Do you honestly believe not using your left foot doesn't matter? Ask world's best left back, Phillipe Lahm. When your slide tackling and speed is as good as Lahm it clearly matters a lot less. If Santon was to tackle with his right like that I would happily see him at left back. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mole_Toonfan Posted January 20, 2013 Share Posted January 20, 2013 Like a lot of our players Santon is suffering at the hands of our managers negativity and overall plain idiocy..... sack him get someone competent and he'll be fine. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
The College Dropout Posted January 20, 2013 Share Posted January 20, 2013 Been defensively suspect. And going forward not all that effective. Would love a left footed fullback. We genuinely do not have any width on the left nor do we look like getting some. HBA/Marv like to drift in the middle, we need someone on the overlap to spread play. He needs to imrpove his game. Positioning, in the air, delivery from wide. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Shush Posted January 20, 2013 Share Posted January 20, 2013 Have a feeling that we are bidding for that Nancy left back because we are expecting an offer from an Italian club for Santon. I was thinking at first that we were going for healthy depth in the position and competition for Santon, but moving Santon on and bringing in cheap replacement sounds like an Ashley gamble. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
David Icke - Son of God Posted January 20, 2013 Share Posted January 20, 2013 I personally think he is a fine player, yes he gets caught out defensively sometime, but he is still a young lad and still going to be learning the game. He's been our best defender this season, which is amazing considering all these faults he apparently has Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
The College Dropout Posted January 20, 2013 Share Posted January 20, 2013 He hasn't like. Defensively, old Simmo has probably made the least mistakes. Honestly. He has time on his hands but I don't have faith in Santon defensively. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest bimpy474 Posted January 20, 2013 Share Posted January 20, 2013 Needs a little rotation for a couple of games. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
The College Dropout Posted January 20, 2013 Share Posted January 20, 2013 Needs a little rotation for a couple of games. Aye, needs time out of the firing line. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
SMTW Posted January 20, 2013 Share Posted January 20, 2013 He's not going to improve in a struggling team. Hasn't been in this position at this level before so think whether he has the mental strength for a relegation fight is a doubt too. Never thought I would say this but wish we had Raylor fit to share the LB position. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest firetotheworks Posted January 20, 2013 Share Posted January 20, 2013 Can Lahm genuinely not kick with his left foot, like Santon? He's extremely one-footed. Not Downing level, but still very one-footed. I would say Downing's very competent with his right foot, scored a lot of great goals with it. Do you think left footers at right back and vice versa should be the standard? Lahm and Maldini are two of the greatest players of all time at full back (both sides and it's not fair to hold them up as par. They're clearly the exceptions rather than the rule, otherwise 99.9% of full backs in football history have played out of position. I think it's most important to play players where they're most effective to the team and I think that usually corresponds to the position that they're most comfortable in. Especially at an early age, or when new to a league. The verdict is still out on Santon, regardless of his best position. He's said himself that he prefers left back, so I'd let him get better there, where he feels more comfortable and we have less cover. I don't think it's essential for players to have their strongest foot match their position, it's often an advantage to invert when dealing with wide forwards that are inverted too. Santon's weakness is that his left foot is non-existent and I think that can be extremely exploitable if you don't have an attribute (pace, tackling, positioning, or cover from others) to make it redundant. To get to the point, I'd keep Santon there and let him develop. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tiresias Posted January 20, 2013 Share Posted January 20, 2013 Downing has not scored 'a lot' of 'great' goals May have scored a fair few pretty damn good ones, but think too many goals are described as 'great' these days (probably guilty of it too in spur of moment) Feel for Santon, should be on the scoresheet this season, has had a fair few decent efforts on goal Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hanshithispantz Posted January 20, 2013 Share Posted January 20, 2013 Another factor with Santon is that we usually have 2 right footed players playing out on the left, that isn't his fault. I don't think his inability to swing in a decent ball would look any where near as bad if we had a genuine left winger ahead of him. As it is we have 2 players running up the wing then slowing to a near halt as they look to find a way inside. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
basjen Posted January 21, 2013 Share Posted January 21, 2013 If we get Haidara and he can handle PL now, I hope Davide get some games in a more offensive role. Even though he can't cross to save his life, he is great 1v1, and he might be defensive enough for Pardew as well, so Jonas could be benched. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
KDT Posted January 21, 2013 Share Posted January 21, 2013 He's certainly got more ability going forward than Jonas at the minute. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
nufc4eva Posted January 21, 2013 Share Posted January 21, 2013 If we get Haidara and he can handle PL now, I hope Davide get some games in a more offensive role. Even though he can't cross to save his life, he is great 1v1, and he might be defensive enough for Pardew as well, so Jonas could be benched. He would be a much better option than Jonas further up the wing, that's for sure. I really hope we are bringing the other lad in just for competition and not replacement as would be good to have a options in both full back positions with Santon capable of playing both sides if issues with Debuchy. Totally the end of Simpson, be surprised if he is here at end of month like. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ikon Posted January 21, 2013 Share Posted January 21, 2013 Competition will raise his game + he can cover for Debuchy if needed. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest tollemache Posted January 21, 2013 Share Posted January 21, 2013 oooh no... dangerous talk. I'd be quite happy for him to stick around til the summer I think Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
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