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James Ward Prowse The Most Likely Saints Provider At Old Trafford.
Saturday, 10th Jan 2015 12:21

Dusan Tadic may be the leading man for Saints with assists in Premier league games but it is James Ward Prowse who has the better ratio of assists to minutes on the pitch.

Dusan Tadic has got most of the plaudits for being the provider of the most Saints goals and indeed only Chelsea’s Cesc Fabregas (14) and Swansea’s Gylfi Sigurdsson (8) have set up more goals in the Premier League this season that Tadic.

However James Ward Prowse despite only starting 7 league games this season plus a further 3 as sub compared to tadic's 18, is still lying fourth in the overall table with 5 assists to his name.

So the given that 4 of Tadic's 7 assists came in one game the 8-0 thrashing of Sunderland, the figures suggest that James Ward Prowse with around half of the minutes on the pitch than Tadic is the most likely player in Saints starting line up to provide a goal.

But JWP is far from certain of a place in the starting line up on Sunday, with Victor Wanyama and Morgan Schneiderlin sure to occupy the deeper lying central midfield role, Ronald Koeman has to decide whether to go for Steven Davis or JWP for the third more attacking spot.

Davis seems the more likely to be selected as he is more of the tackler and general battler of the two, something that will be valuable when taking on a United side who have won 8 out of 10 home games and have lost only once that on the opening day of the season to Swansea, given that their only other dropped points came back in October when Chelsea drew 1-1, Old Trafford is again the bastion of invincability that it used to be.

However Koeman could opt to use either in a wider role and in this respect the Dutch Saints manager has plenty of options to ponder in how to beat his fellow compatriot.

But back to Ward-Prowse, he has the ability to change games and is sadly one of those players that fans sometimes underestimate as like Steven Davis he is a player who concentrates on doing the basics well rather than the more showy things that can sometimes produce the spectacular but when playing the percentage game more than often produce less goals than doing the simple things.

Football teams though need a happy balance and it is great that JWP is now back from injury, add Jack Cork and Nathaniel Clyne back into the squad and it is looking very well balanced.

Photo: Action Images



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TimSaint added 13:00 - Jan 10
Think he needs to start to start scoring to make himself worthy of a starting slot in the prem, but a valuable squad member as is - although a right back he isn't !!
With Cork returning soon, there will be greater competition for places and that can only be good for the team. Hopefully Jack will sign the contract renewal that is on the table for him, followed also by Clyne - who apparently is 'stalling' so is being linked with a move to Man U on the eve of our game at OT. Typical media. What we really want to know is when Clyne is back - but guess that does not sell papers.
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SonicBoom added 14:11 - Jan 10
Clyne is fit for selection. Koeman rather strangely said that the final decision as to whether he plays is up to the player...
I'm a big Jwp fan. Quality on the ball, works hard and great delivery. Tadic despite his numbers seemed to do his best work at the start of the season. I'd start with Ward Prowse in the wider role with Tadic on the bench. We need his quality as set pieces could be crucial for us.
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Consigliere added 15:42 - Jan 10
Slightly off thread but recommend to all the Guardian sports section today - Mr Koeman on the front page and lengthy article about him on the inside - well worth the read.

Also in the online edition though a bit harder to find.
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perazi added 06:45 - Jan 11
Nick, I agree with a lot of what you write, but not in this article. If we have to rely on JWP to be our main supplier of goal assists or creativity then we are in a lot of trouble. Statistics here are misleading - off the top of my head I can only remember a recent one/two with Sadio resulting in a goal assist from broken play - otherwise JWP's assists have come from corners or free kicks. No doubt the lad has an excellent dead ball technique but there just isn't enough to the rest of his game (at this stage) to justify starting him on a regular basis.
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TimSaint added 13:23 - Jan 12
OK SO IT WAS DUSAN WHO SET PELLE UP WHEN HE HIT THE POST AND IT WAS DUSAN WHO SCORED WITH THE FOLLOW UP, BUT HEY, WHO CARES ? THIS WAS ALL ABOUT THE RESULT !!
OH AND JWP PUT IN A GREAT SHIFT AND EVEN GOT MOM IN ONE OF THE PAPERS I READ THIS MORNING !!
Strangely though, reading the opinions of certain writers, I was amazed to see that FF got a couple of 5 and 6's out of 10 in some papers - Less than the Utd keeper, who incidentally let in the deciding goal !!!!!
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BuenosSaint added 16:05 - Jan 12
But Lets be honest FF did have a shocker in a game where both keepers had no saves to make. Just count how many mis kicks.
But hey ho. what a result!!!!! and a lot of our current third position is down to FF....
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