Mauricio Pochettino's return to Southampton this weekend is an opportune moment to remember how impressively the Saints responded to his departure -- and the loss of so many key players. A second wave of sales, however, might follow this summer.
Considering Southampton were supposedly in crisis this past summer, it's something of a surprise that they're just a point behind Pochettino's sixth-placed Tottenham. In that respect, the Argentine hasn't yet proved he's moved onto bigger and better things, and the same applies to many of the players.
Of the departures, it's difficult to find any who have performed above expectations. Rickie Lambert has barely received any opportunities at Liverpool, while teammate Dejan Lovren has consistently looked error-prone at the back. Adam Lallana has played well in patches, but he's been well short of last season's standard, when he was nominated for the PFA Player of the Year award.
Luke Shaw has suffered from fitness problems at Manchester United and hasn't played often enough. Calum Chambers had the reverse experience;
used too frequently at an early stage of his Arsenal career, being shunted between three very different positions and simply appearing somewhat overwhelmed.
The one star Southampton held on to, however, has been superb.
Southampton appeared set to lose a sixth key player as Morgan Schneiderlin was determined to join this weekend's opponents, Tottenham. The French midfielder hardly endeared himself to supporters with a mini-meltdown on social media over the issue, and many suggested the Saints would be better off letting an unhappy player depart. Yet Schneiderlin's mood improved, his form has remained excellent, and along with Chelsea's Nemanja Matic, has been arguably the most outstanding central midfielder in the division.
There have been various trends in that central midfield role. At one point, the success of Claude Makelele meant everyone wanted a pure defensive midfielder playing as an anchorman, then the success of Xavi Hernandez and Andrea Pirlo ensured more creative players regained popularity.
Now, Matic and Schneiderlin epitomise a different breed: defensive midfielders who can also attack. They're not overly creative and unlikely to play long cross-field balls or penetrative passes into attack, but they don't use their physicality purely to break up play. Matic is an ex-attacking midfielder who likes slaloming forward in possession, while Schneiderlin can motor forward to turn defence into attack swiftly, and is a decent finisher inside the box, too.
Of the two, it is arguably Schneiderlin who has enjoyed the better campaign overall. Matic, like so many of his teammates, has dipped after Christmas. In the first half of the campaign he was truly magnificent, breaking up play reliably and covering a huge amount of space in front of the back four. In recent months, however, he's endured a couple of dodgy games. He wasn't his usual self at Stoke just before Christmas and his poor form was confirmed with a poor display in the 5-3 defeat at Tottenham.
Jose Mourinho now regularly fields another defensive midfielder alongside him, rather than Cesc Fabregas shuttling forward from Matic's side. This is a chicken-and-egg situation, of course, but maybe Mourinho felt Matic wasn't so capable of shielding the defence alone, so has been forced to help the Serbian with a disciplined partner.
Schneiderlin's role is slightly different. He's always been capable of pushing forward, but since Southampton's signing of Victor Wanyama and the Kenyan's eventual establishment in the first team toward the end of last season, Schneiderlin has more license to push upfield. He does this with and without the ball, and the latter shouldn't be underestimated; not all defensive midfielders are capable of playing in a pressing side, but Schneiderlin is comfortable moving up the pitch and shutting down opponents quickly. His tackles are hard but fair, and he's sensible with his distribution, generally feeding the closest teammate in advance of him rather than playing lateral balls or hitting more ambitious passes into attack.
In the Premier League, only six players have attempted more passes than Schneiderlin this season, and none of those can match his completion rate. He's also the second-most prolific tackler in the division behind Pablo Zabaleta. Only one other midfielder excels in both respects: Matic -- although Arsenal's Francis Coquelin would be in this category had he played more games.
The Premier League's leading defensive midfielders can probably be divided into two groups: defensive midfielders who can also play a bit, and playmakers who can scrap when needed. Schneiderlin is alongside the likes of Fernandinho, Nabil Bentaleb, Alex Song and Ki Sung-Yueng in the former category, while Michael Carrick, Mikel Arteta and Steven Gerrard are in the latter.
The sad, but inevitable, next question involves who Schneiderlin will join this summer. It's doubtful Southampton will retain his services for another season; often in these situations the club squeezes one last season by assuring the player he can depart the following summer. To Schneiderlin's credit, his form has improved; the likes of Cristiano Ronaldo and Fabregas, for example, experienced dips in performance when frustrated at not being able to leave.
It's worked out nicely for Southampton, too. Not only have they been able to depend upon their star midfielder throughout 2014-15, Schneiderlin's reputation has increased and he'll command a larger transfer fee than Southampton would have received last summer.
"I no longer want to be in front of my TV every Tuesday and Wednesday," Schneiderlin said last month. "[Last] August, I wanted to progress my career but the club had let too many players go to sell me. Since then, I have had talks with the directors and I want to play at a higher level. It is important, at 25, to finally play in the Champions League."
At least he's honest. Schneiderlin is now unquestionably a Champions League-quality player, and is likely to be playing at that level next season. Tottenham won't be able to offer that, and a move to the red half of north London looks increasingly more likely.
nguon: espnfc
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