Jay Rodriguez – An English 22-year-old arrived at St. Mary’s on June 10th 2012. That 22-year-old was Jay Rodriguez, now playing week in week out under Mauricio Pochettino.
Jay Rodriguez had a shaky start to his Southampton career, and due to not playing to his full ability in that first season of his, he was not rewarded with game time. But as the 2012/13 season came to a close with Nigel Adkins being replaced with Pochettino, Rodriguez played a vital role in keeping the Saints in the First Division.
Style of Play
Rodriguez is of Spanish descent and sometimes you can tell with his love of playing the quick short pass, and running to find space. He likes having the ball in games, but often looses concentration trying to think of the clever pass and strong defenders, like a Vidic or a Vertonghen, take advantage and catch him off guard.
One thing I did notice about Rodriguez though is that he always cuts inside when he has the opportunity. Unfortunately for the 23-year-old, his finishing isn’t up to the standards required to test the upper half of Premier League goalkeepers. However, he has a skill of confusing defenders with dummies and should he improve his finishing, he will score plenty next season.
Dribbling has really come into the game in recent years. We’ve seen far many more players choosing to go solo and not choose the passing style. Rodriguez has chosen this style and you can often see him taking on his man on either flank. If he improves his strength I think he’ll be able to do that even more often.
Rodriguez has a few weaknesses that he can often be slaughtered for. Occasionally he cannot manage to hold onto the ball as he is either loosing concentration of being beaten in a battle of strength.
His finishing isn’t good enough and if he doesn’t improve that, he will have wasted his talent. However, when he does get through and has a shot on goal, he is often offside. He just can’t seem to get into his head that he needs to be wary of the defenders playing the offside trap all the time.
Big Southampton Twitter account – @talkSAINTS said: “Admittedly Jay Rodriguez did not have the best of starts to both his Southampton career and debut Premier League season after joining from Burnley for £7 million. Although, After the controversial Mauricio Pochettino appointment Jay Rodriguez came into his own scoring much needed goals against Liverpool, Chelsea, United and relegation rivals Reading to help Southampton secure their Premier League status for another year. Rodriguez also has the backing of club chairman Nicola Cortese who is counting on him to be Southampton’s top scorer and force his way into the England squad before Christmas.”
Luke Shaw – Most avid English football supporters now know who Luke Shaw is. He’s another one of Southampton’s excellent youth system players and at only 18 years of age, he’s already being looked at by big-figures such as Jose Mourinho and Manuel Pellegrini. No wonder Sir Trevor Brooking described the young starlet as ‘technically very gifted’.
Style of play
Shaw’s favoured position is an attacking left back. Although he attacks more often than most defenders he has great stamina for such a young player and makes sure he can get back to do his duty in defence.
Luke Shaw has something special, the ability to run past defenders like a young terrier running for a ball. It’s brilliant to watch. You see him sliding in at the back and then suddenly his game changes completely. He slams down on the accelerator and runs down the left flank. Then once he gets there he doesn’t waste the ball like we’ve seen many young full backs do. You can tell he’s got the work ethic of a David Beckham. Staying behind after training sessions to practice in things like his crosses, which he loves to use.
Although he’s seen as one of England’s future stars, he does have his weaknesses. Luke does loose the ball in the middle of the pitch when his concentration lacks slightly but in the past few months, he’s seemed to improved on it.
Here are @talkSAINTS words on Shaw;
“Luke Shaw came through Southampton’s highly regarded youth system and broke into the first team at the beginning of the 2012-13 season at just 17-years-old, he went on to make a further 25 first team appearances in the top flight. Luke has already caught the attention of Premier League giants Manchester United, Chelsea and Tottenham all reported to be chasing the ‘wonder kid’. He’s recently put an end to the rumours regarding his future, on his 18th birthday, 12th July 2013, Luke signed a 5-year contract with Southampton. He’s admitted to be in much better shape this preseason than last as we build up to the 2013-14 season, where I can’t see him being anything less of a success, the sky’s the limit for the future England left-back”
Victor Wanyama – It was a Champions League night and a special occasion. Half of Glasgow watching intensively, as on the 125th anniversary of Celtic football club. The Scottish champions took on Barcelona. It was a Champions League night and a special occasion. It was simply magic.
After a hard-fought game, Celtic gave themselves a famous victory to be remembered for decades to come as they beat Barcelona. There were a few stand out players that night in Scotland. The most obvious one being Victor Wanyama. Recently he was a target for the likes of Manchester United & Arsenal. Now he’s signed for Southampton as the club show great ambition as they look to push into the top 10 clubs in English football.
Last season Southampton scraped premier league safety. What they lacked was the power house in midfield. Someone who could challenge the strong players; players like Yaya Toure and Christian Benteke. Next season, they’ll have the powerhouse in midfield. They’ll have Victor Wanyama. Wanyama showed at Celtic that he can control the midfield. And with other young players around him, he will grow well in the atmosphere and develop into a player and a half.
@talkSAINTS said: “Recently joined from Scottish club Celtic for a fee reported to be around £12 million, Victor Wanyama is that much-needed ‘powerhouse’ type of player Southampton have been calling out for. Far too many times last season we struggled against teams with powerful players such as Lukaku, Diame, N’Diaye, hopefully Victor will neutralise any threat from such players next season. A lot of people criticise players ability who move from the SPL to the Premier League on how well they will adapt to the higher level, there’s no doubt in my mind that Victor will handle the step up perfectly fine. Wanyama has 61 appearances for Celtic of which the most memorable would be their incredible 2-1 win over Barcelona in the Champions League on their 125th anniversary. He largely controlled the midfield and scored the header that put Celtic 2-0 up in the first half against the Spanish giants.”
Written by Harry Robinson – @HRFootball. But with a massive thanks to the ever-brilliant owner of @talkSAINTS. An account brilliant for any Premier League fan, not just Southampton.
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