Why No Cedric ?
The question most Saints fans were asking on Sunday evening was why wasn't Cedric Soares in the team to face Manchester United.
When Saints sold Nathaniel Clyne to Liverpool the supporters although not being exactly happy were confident that a suitable replacement would be found indeed when you considered our renowned scouting system, Ronald Koeman's nous and the £12 million or so we had raked in for Clyne, it looked a no brainer.
The arrival of Cedric Soares looked to be a decent signing, at 23 and with plenty of experience behind him for Sporting Lisbon and a member of the Portugese International squad he looked to be just the type of player that Saints specialise in signing and taking him up a level or two.
But his Saints career does not seem to be taking off, in fairness to him he hasn't played badly, indeed he has looked good in several of the games he has played and showed a flare for crossing the ball for goals.
But there just seems to be this feeling that Ronald Koeman does not rate him, in his Premier League debut he did get exposed for pace a little and was taken off at half time before he got sent off for a second yellow, he seemed to be adapting well after, so it looked tactical when he was left out of the side for the two games against Midjytland in that their threat was aerial and he is a little short.
But it's hard to see why he was left out against Manchester United on Sunday and even harder when you see he was replaced by Yoshida, it just did not seem to make sense at all.
Even those who are still unconvinced about Soares long term potential would have picked him ahead of Yoshida, in fairness to the Japanese central defender he has been a good covering player in his three years at St Mary's but there are not many who see him as a starter in the team, he has his uses, but that is in the main in his normal position in the centre of defence, it is hard to see why he would be played at full back whilst we actually have a fit fullback available.
Cedric was fit, he was on the bench and he had been quoted in the media the day before the game about how he was looking forward to it.
Tactically playing Soares looked a better bet that Yoshida, unlike Midjytland, United were not going to offer a real aerial threat, so his diminutive size could not have been a factor, whilst he is not the fastest of players when compared to Bertrand or Clyne he s still quicker and more mobile than Yoshida.
In essence dropping Soares to the bench and putting in Yoshida seemed to have no logic at all.
Yoshida's back pass cost us dearly that cannot be denied, he is not the first Saints defender to do one, he will not be the last, but the annoying thing is that there should have been no need to play him, when I saw the team sheet I though that perhaps we would employ three central defenders and five in midfield and that was the reason for the change, but that did not seem to be the case.
Ronald Koeman is not the first manager in history to make a tactical blunder, it does not make him a bad manager, if not making errors is the yardstick for being a good manager, then there are no good ones as all make bad decisions from time to time.
Hopefully and Im sure he will, Ronald Koeman will have realised that this was not a good choice, Soares is our fist choice right back, he is our best option there at present, he has to have games to get used to playing in the team, one thing is for certain Yoshida is not the answer in that position, if he is we are in trouble.
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