Saints Man Of The Week - Shane Long
Monday, 10th Nov 2014 09:46

It has taken Shane Long a little bit longer than the rest of our summer signings to be appreciated by Saints supporters, but finally they are realising his worth to the squad.

It would not be unfair to say that of all the signings made by Ronald Koeman in the summer, Shane Long was the one that had some Saints fans grumbling rather than salivating, their only real basis for this though was the fact that they all felt that Long was not a £12 million pound player, they felt that for that money Saints should be getting a player who could score more than 10 goals a season.

However that comment had little foundation in reality, for a Premier League striker 10 goals a season is a decent return, indeed the average total needed to get into the top 10 Premier League scorers in most seasons is around 12, last season was a little different it needed 15 to get in the top 10, but look at how much you needed to pay for the man in 10th place Lukaku, Everton forked out £28 million for his services and his joint companion on 15 was Jay Rodriguez so what would he be worth if we sold him.

So although we may have paid a million or two over the top for Long, we have not overpaid drastically, we are getting a solid player and you know what you are getting a player who will his a goal about every 4 games and as a lot of those games are off the bench that is not a bad record.

But for some Saints fans this was not enough, but they were perhaps not realising that we as a club had moved on, instead on relying on cheap transfers for players who might not be playing all of the games, we can now bring in players of the quality of Long and on Saturday he showed just why we have bought him, coming on and changing the game by scoring two well taken goals and turning a game that looked like yielding only 1 point, into one that saw the maximum 3 banked and how vital might that be at the end of the season.

But to suggest that Long is no more than an impact player off the bench is unfair, in any of our other Premier League seasons he would have been an automatic first choice, its a measure of how we have come on that he is not so far this season.

Long offers us options, not only can he play in a variety roles but he is putting pressure on those who are being picked to maintain their form, this is something that's hard to quantify but cannot be underestimated unlike the last couple of seasons the likes of Mane, Pelle and even Tadic know that if they aren't in form then they may find themselves on the bench,.

The problem for some though was that they were measuring his contribution in terms of goals scored rather than what he was adding to our play overall or indeed what he added that was different to our other options, but there were those that for them this was not good enough, if he wasn't scoring goals then he was not contributing and that was very short sighted.

On Saturday though it was finally Shane Long's turn to be in the spotlight and be appreciated by the Saints fans, in a game where the guile of Tadic was being quashed, the pace of Mane being checked and Pelle was being isolated by a Leicester defence defending with gritty determination, it needed something else, someone perhaps a little more direct and with an eye for goal and that man was Long.

As mentioned of all our summer signings, Florin Gardos aside, he is the last to truly be appreciated, hopefully now the supporters know just why we signed him and why come the end of the season £12 million might just be a bargain, Long could be worth a lot more than that if he keeps up his knack for weighing in with the odd vital goal or two as he did up at Stoke in the Capital One Cup and on Saturday.

So Shane Long is Saints man of the week for this week, I have a feeling it might not be the last time as Saints supporters come to truly value his contributions to our success this season.

Photo: Action Images

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Jesus_02 added 10:21 - Nov 10

Personally I appreciated Long from the outset, he has a great touch, commits defenders and constant gets free kicks. His work rate is also beyond question. As nick points out 12m is not far off the mark in the current market.

From Koemans comments, it is obvious that he is being schooled to play in the same role as Tadic rather than a target man or poacher type player. At 27 some may assume that his development is over, however people might be reminded that Rickie was 27 when he signed. There is a lot more to come from Schlong.

bstokesaint added 12:12 - Nov 10

Agree totaly with Jesus. I have admired Shane Long long before he joined us. He's a grafter and a pain in the backside for opposition defences. He's another option and his Â£12m price tag is not his fault. At the end of the day you pay over the odds when you leave it so late in a transfer window and other clubs know you have money to burn. As I recall I said at the time though we got just under Â£50m from the Liverpool lads (way over the odds) so we could afford to take a slight hit/ risk. We haven't done too bad from that window now have we ;)

pintsizedsaint added 12:52 - Nov 10

As said a few months back on this site, Long is a very good addition to the squad as he is multi-faceted, lively, and a work horse. If he is not scoring, he is likely causing all kinds of mayhem for defenders to have to concentrate on. He is known as being a real headache.

Clearly he's is good hands now as Saints start to maximise his potential. I for one was not too bothered about Â£12m price tag; in the context of when we bought him we wanted to get him and fast so a protracted debate with Hull (which was 99% likely) was not an option. If the reports are to be believed, we have had our eye on Shane for a long time - and clearly feel he offers a great return across many different aspects.

When he scored on Saturday may first feeling was of real joy for Shane- he's a good player and hopefully this will help with his settling in.

TreeHugger added 12:53 - Nov 10

Shane Long was a n intelligent buy looking back. He has pace, excellent work rate and doesnt have an ego...either way he was going to be a key member of the squad. For 12m he would always score goals or improve the team if he wasnt scoring. When you look at some of the marquee signings, its a much smarter investment than most. Hull are struggiling to replace him and look at what osvaldo and ramirez gave us for 12m. Secretly i still hope ramirez can turn it around as he has conducted himself very well throughout everything that has happened.

Zambucco added 13:28 - Nov 10

Of all the players I hated us facing it was always long (and that skate Nugent) s he always cause damage. This was echoed by many teams too, so I was pleased we signed him and could easily see his benefit to the club, even if his goal tally was minimal. His work rate and distraction value is worth Â£12m

In fact I can't think of one player who is under any sort of scrutiny at the moment.
HANG ON no-one to heckle and barrack? There must be some sad Saints whingers, maybe they could pop along the M27 plenty to moan about there these days.

"who the flipp is laughing now?"

REEDYREEDOREEDZ added 14:13 - Nov 10

I was one of the majority in the summer who thought Saints had paid massively over the top for an average player. That judgement was made when Saints were crying out for quality players to replace what we had lost. Little did I (or most people) know just what a sound master plan the club had! All of the players they bought in have been excellent and have gelled together to be better than what we had last season. There is a great balance to the squad that we didn't have last season. We have a number of attacking options and decent cover in most positions. Shane Long was a very clever signing because he is just what we needed in the squad, and this was proved with aplomb on Saturday. Individually, Long does not possess top class ability, but he has a lot of positive attributes that work very well alongside our other players. What we have is people in charge at the club who know what blend is needed to create a great team. That is something clearly lacking at the likes of Liverpool, Spurs and Man Utd. The club, especially Reed and Koeman, deserve a huge amount of credit for their impeccable judgement in signing the right players and building a very strong & well balanced squad. Koeman's tactics and man management have also been absolute top class. The games coming up are all huge games, its really exciting, each one a cup final, each point could be make or break come May.
COYR!! We've never had it so good. Not in my 20 odd years of supporting them.

BoondockSaint added 14:55 - Nov 10 Like Reedy, I've been leery of Long mainly because of the price tag, especially since we weren't in a bidding war for him. But a few more goals and he's another RoKo bargain!
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