In our player review we are now in the central defenders, today we take a look at Japanese star Yoshida.
Its true to say that when Yoshida arrived from VVV Venlo in Holland as the summer transfer window drew to a close, the little known Japanese central defender appeared to be something of a panic buy, Saints had been linked with many centre halves over the previous four months, but had managed to sign none of them, supporters knew that what we had wasnt good enough and that it wasnt experienced enough, so signing Yoshida wasnt really what anyone was looking for.
In fairness to him though he has had a reasonable season, not a great one, but reasonable given that his versatility to play anywhere along the back four has offered us options and to be blunt even being reasonable earns him the plaudits of being our best defender in the central position and thats a sad state of affairs.
In many respects though Yoshida is a solid defender but he shares one trait with both Fonte and Hooiveld and that is the fact that although in games he can be solid for long periods, he tends to lose concentration at vital moments and often this has lead us to concede sloppy goals, this is best illustrated away to Wigan in the first game in February, both goals conceded were sloppy, but Yoshidas summed up not just him, but our defence as a hole, Yoshida was marking Caldwell at a corner, the ball came in, Caldwell dropped his shoulder and left Yoshida marking space, a free header allowed him to pick his spot, a soft goal to concede, but typical of the ones we let in.
Before anyone accuses me of being harsh I will point out that only four teams in the Premier in 2012/13 conceded more goals than us, that should tell us something, we dropped 29 points from winning positions, the highest in the division, that should also tell us something and too many of the goals we let in came from defensive errors and that again should tell us something.
Yoshida to be honest was the best of a bad bunch in the centre, the acid test would be to perhaps ask yourself, would any of our central defenders get into any other Premier side ? I think the answer is simple on that one, Yoshida is a good back up player in this division and thats what his role really should be at Saints, a good player to come in for an injured player, a good man to have on the bench in the fact that he can come on late in the game and add fresh legs, he can also come on and play full back, again another good option especially at home as it could free up space on the bench in other areas.
The Daily Echo has given Yoshida 9/10 in its review and says that he has added an air of calm to the defence, that may well be true, but all it has meant is that we have conceded soft goals in calmer circumstances, for long periods we are calm and assured, but thats no good when we then go on to concede sloppy uneccessary goals, again that Wigan game illustrates that fact, we controlled it for 90% of the game, should have gone in at the break at least one up, didnt because of a lack of concentration and basic defending, fought our way back into it and a lead going into the final minute and then threw it all away with sloppy defending again.
Someone pointed out in the earlier reviews that the marks surely cant be as high as i had given in such a poor defence, they are right, we talk of the two full backs as England candidates and as having great seasons, if you give Yoshida 9/10, how the hell are we letting in so many sloppy goals, if three players are so good.
For me Yoshida is a solid 7/10, he has brought a lot to the party, but sadly ruins it on too many occasions by a lack of concentration and poor judgement, alongside a decent defender he would be adequate in the Premier.