Allan Saint-Maximin (now playing for Fenerbahce, on loan from Al-Ahli)

[GWN]

Clearly trying very hard last night , too hard at times .

 

i fucking love the bloke , he gets me off my seat every time , it’s what I pay my money for 

[The College Dropout]

He’s one I want in the squad next season. While it’s a luxury move I wouldn’t be against signing a first team player in his position. He’s easily upgradeable and could do with the competition. 

[Yorkie]

51 minutes ago, SUPERTOON said:

I really feel we will see the best of him when he isn’t out only real attacking threat. 

 

He wound me up a lot last night but yeah, I think this is the most critical point. Fraser has improved a lot on the whole but he's not someone who the opposition need to double-up on. Teams can afford to put three men on ASM, so he might become even more effective if there's another flair player in the side to take the pressure off. 

 

That won't change his horrendous decision making, mind. 

[Tiresias]

Yep the lack of threat from Wood and Almiron (albeit i thought latter had a decent game) mean its easy for opposition to gang up on him so does make him look worse. Frustrating but i dont know where else in this team currently real threat is coming from apart from set pieces, and ASM is still likely to give us a few dangerous free kicks a game anyway.

[Thumbheed]

I think he's going to struggle in a team that is going transitioning to a posession based game. 

 

Perhaps a move to a right where he won't be cutting into traffic and being able to whip more balls in?

[WarrenBartonCentrePartin]

Captain Hindsight who sits next to me and absolutely despises him wasn’t there last night. While we all find him frustrating at times, it was joyous not to have someone chirping in my ear about every single thing he did.

[Jagten]

I think we're in a post-Hatem world where the argument for the romantic spectacle of flawed but talented entertainers in an otherwise mediocre side doesn't hold up. We can probably buy the version of this guy who isn't a bad decision maker. 

[xLiaaamx]

Didn't realise there was a slight deflection on that pass to Bruno which took from him being perfect to hit first time to Bruno having to dig it out

[PeepShow4life]

Either he's amazing and the rest of the team is rubbish or more recently the rest of the teams doing well and he's useless. It's as if we aren't allowed both, maybe the world would implode if we did.

[Kanji]

He seems to not be the same as he was when we played Everton at home. Clearly doesn’t look fully sharp yet, whatever injury he had. But as maddening and frustrating as he can be, he still forces opposition to double and triple team him. He still forces defenders to be scared shitless, and (imo) if we can upgrade players around him, he will only be better and our team the better. Imagine having Pacqueta, Raphina and Wilson around him. 

[Lazarus]

I think Howe needs to set up a training program whereby hes not allowed to shoot at goal. All he can do is look for the pass.

 

I dunno if its fitness, as mentioned above, or if Howe hasnt quite figured out how to best use him or what.

 

Were clearly not seeing the best of him.

[St1pe]

I’m really bored of the narrative that’s shifted towards him lately albeit from a minority of your da types. He wasn’t at his best last night but his play started the move for our goal. It almost seems like the minimum acceptable bar for a player like him is so much higher than most players and if he falls below that he’s selfish, lazy, shite and we should sell him. It’s actually a bit weird. I don’t buy the defence that you should be allowed to criticise players - you can, but it’s never balanced or with thought. 
 

He’s been average since Everton mind but like others have said I can only imagine he’ll get better when we have better players and he isn’t carrying the only clinical threat. 

[Tiresias]

I am not ruling out Howe being able to coach him long term into a better player. When he is surrounded by better players, and is more often receiving the ball closer to the opposition goal rather than having to do everything himself, and when we have other threats so opposition can't crowd him out he has plenty of potential to be a really damaging player. He just needs some focusing, and when we need to play counter attacking games he definitely has use. 

 

Yes we can hopefully buy some players with more consistent end product, and if he isnt improving or goign to get games i hope he goes to a club where he can be that important spark. 

 

 

Edited April 9, 2022 by Tiresias

[huss9]

he's not lazy or shite, but he can be selfish.

[Tsunami]

He was very guilty of running into dead ends and delaying a pass last night. I didn’t think he looked particularly confident in what he was doing either. Having Wood as centre forward doesn’t help him either.

[Lush Vlad]

Still outrageously good at dribbling. Just didn’t have a lot of support when we had the chance to counter and was reluctant to go down the left, when he had acres of space there. 
 

Someone mentioned about it taking him a while to get back up to speed. I agree with that. He has lacked that explosive pace that sees him ghost past players. I mean, he is still rapid. Just not as fast or sharp as he seemed against Everton, for example. 
 

Pretty promising second half, mind. If we can get a lead more often in games. He is going to be even more important for the team than he already is. 

[Happinesstan]

6 hours ago, Ikon said:

Also, he’s not 100% match fit yet. His head wants one thing, and knows that he can (usually) beat his man but when he doesn’t have that proper spring in his step then things don’t quite work out because it’s all about that millisecond of difference. He wants it and tries to force it but it will only come with time when he’s proper super fit again and then the confidence will come too and he will be unplayable again at times. You could argue that he should play it more simple and all that, I agree. Having said that it’s not quite that easy for a player of his style. He’s desperate but he will become good with time and patience.

 

He can be frustrating as fuck I agree. He has a few things that he needs to work on no doubt. Get fit and co Disney again with better players around him and he’ll be good again. Totally different player but Tiote was a player who took time to get proper fit too, and needed to be. Rip. 

 

Exactly. The margins for success are tiny but the rewards can be big. If his fitness doesn't match his ability he's going to fail more often than not.

[80]

7 hours ago, Dr.Spaceman said:

He was frustrating last night, but as others have said let's see how he does in Newcastle 2.0.

 

Part of the issue is our team sometimes fail to anticipate his movement and he ends up alone after skinning 3/4 players. He's a valuable asset, we just need to tone him down a bit.

 

I find myself wanting to say more negative things about him than positive. Not that I feel more negative than positive about him, it's just there's more to discuss on that side. It's partly about effective outcomes.

 

The thing is, with our current squad capability at least, what are they supposed to do even if they do anticipate what he's going to attempt? Bearing in mind he's far from guaranteed to successfully skin all 3/4 players, it means half our team needs to drag itself out of position to support him and risk getting hit on a transition. It becomes a question of whether it's actually useful to beat 3 or 4, or better to beat 1 or 2, pass and move to receive a return - which is something the rest of our team as it stands could actually keep up with.

 

6 hours ago, Klaus said:

On a side note, this guy must get kicked/shirt pulled etc at least 10 times a match without getting a free kick awarded. It's so fucking frustrating.

 

 

 

Certainly. There was one point in the match where he nearly had his shirt ripped off his back, Dan Burn style, right in front of the referee and it was just ignored. There's a photo around of it.

 

I was very interested in his start to the game. It was clear the team had put a lot of work into attacking movement since Spurs, and I think having him in a floating role was very effective, allowing double-ups with Fraser/Almiron etc. Made us much more of an unknown quantity for Wolves to defend against.

 

For what it's worth, I also saw him 'trying' to fit in with various gameplans and not being his stereotypical self. He certainly didn't always succeed, but the effort should be recognised and appreciated. If he keeps trying to improve and be more cohesive, the club can keep trying with him. It's obvious he needs to be loved as a character and will respond far better to ambition for the future rather than criticism of the past.

 

Re: Everton, I think we all need to forget that performance insofar as his outcomes (his actions multiplied by Everton's failures) were unreal. It's both unfair of us to hope for him to hit 'that kind of form' again, and naive for us to not realise the opposition played their part in that amazing display.

 

TL;DR - He and we need to calm down. Sensible people know he has special qualities, but he doesn't need to continually prove that to his and our own detriment.

[TRon]

10 hours ago, huss9 said:

he's not lazy or shite, but he can be selfish.

 

This is the problem. He was clearly trying to follow instruction last night by passing, but he was doing it too late. He holds onto it as long as possible in most situations, but he will never spot the early pass purely through selfish instinct. It's maddening because he could be a world beater without it. I doubt he'll be here in two years time.

[Thiago]

Maybe it's because I've had a good day, but I think we've got our approach with this lad all wrong. 

 

I'm reminded of something young Hatem said after a game at Villa Park (paraphrasing) "When they shout go on, take him on, you can fly." 

 

During the last few years there were times Alan Saint-Maximin felt like the only chance we had of winning games. When legs were tired and heads had dropped he'd be the one willing to take the ball and try to find a way through. There were games he turned around for us single-handedly. He was exciting and exhilarating, and he kept me watching amid some truly awful football. If this club was able to lean on him during a bad spell, can he not lean on us for support?

 

I'm not here to argue he's the Saint-Maximin we all know and love right now. He's not. But there's flickers. little feints, and drives inside. Enough to tell me he's in there even if it's not quite igniting the same way. Away from home we can't do that much, but when I think about how we've adored entertainers down the years, why can't we make him feel like we've got his back at St James' Park? Can we not give him the kind of backing so he feels like he can fly with the ball? 

 

It's easy to back the lads when we're all winning and all playing well, but sometimes we need to give a bit of extra attention to those flagging. 

[clintdempsey]

As frustrating as he can be it still was his touch for Joelinton that started the move which got us the pen. But for a brief touch from a Wolves defender he probably would’ve had an assist for Bruno as well. It wasn’t his best game by any means but he still brings something to the table that no other player in our team can do. And he really needs some protection from the refs as well. He’s been getting kicked and pulled left, right and center these last few weeks and it’s frankly pathetic and I do understand his frustration. Keep him in and watch him soar as soon as we get a few more talented people players in. 

[Begbie]

He is clearly out of form,  can be very frustrating to watch because his game relay on dribbling and atm he is loosing the ball very often.

My biggest frustration with him atm is his lack of workrate defensivly, stop running when he looses the ball, takes his arms up and complanes about the ref or teammates when he clearly just lost the ball fair..

 

I do have high hopes for ASM, but he is a very rough diamond who our coaching team has to work hard with to get him to do the extra yards of defensive work, and for him to understand when to pass, when to dribble and when to hold the ball. I also hope that we get him to be a more direct player, often when he is on the counter against 2 defenders he goes down towards the cornerflag instead of taking them on and go for goal. A young C. Ronaldo, Zlatan and many more top players used to do the same thing.

 

[1964]

I think he's there is too much doubt in his head at the minute, he's been told to tweak his game a bit and release the ball in certain situations.   Unfortuantely it's taking away from him just doing what he does, perhaps he'll adjust in time

[Mazzy]

He wasn't great against Wolves but still an improvement over how he played against Spurs and Everton. 

 

Whilst he did do alot right on Friday and made some decent runs off the ball he seemed to fail at most of his attempts to go past players, which considering that's what he usually excels is strange. 

 

I don't doubt he'll be back to his usual self within the next few games. 

[Wolfcastle]

Sooner were safe, or safe enough that a pro like Eddie will accept it, the sooner we can maybe indulge ASM and see how that works for us and him.