Is Schneiderlin a bad player?

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When you take stock of our squad, who do we really have that moves the ball forward effectively from deep?

Rooney? Baines? Davies? Keane? That's grim.

There's a real lack of care to how this squad was constructed. All of our players might be good in an absolute terms but they don't complement each other at all. There's room in the team for a safe ball-mover in defensive midfield but that player will look pretty bad if there's no one else to move it forward effectively.

Schneiderlin doesn't help his cause by hiding from the ball and generally looking off the pace. But a big part of the reason things feel so toxic is that it's near impossible to put out a functional eleven with this group of players.

And our recruitment team seems totally ignorant of the issues. We've gone for goalscorers when what we really need is midfielders, wingers, and full backs (i.e. anybody) who get us into the final third consistently. Walcott and Tosun might be good but they aren't fixing what's really broken.

Yeah agree, I think he would be easier to watch if he had an agressive passer or dribbler near him.

His decent performances were with Barkley in midfield I think I remember correctly? Barkley is a good old fashioned ball hog. Wants on it constantly and thinks he can do something on it every time he gets it, so schneiderlein was free to either give it straight to Barkley or switch play which he likes to do.

And this year I DO think he’s looked a bit better next to rooney who is similarly a ball hog.

Needs someone next to him who just sucks the ball away from him immediately and allows him to be a safe, accurate passer.

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I've been thinking about that myself. Schneiderlin may have been a little more ambitious at the time but I think he and Wanyama were both holding players first and foremost.

That Southampton team had a lot of player types we don't and there's a good chance that those other things are what made the two DM approach work, at least in terms of build-ups:

- two attacking fullbacks (Bertrand, Clyne)
- an effective box-to-box midfielder (Davis)
- a genuinely good creative passer (Tadic)

Maybe Tom Davies is a good box-to-box player (maybe) but we're currently hurting for fullbacks that contribute to build-ups and anyone who can pick a pass in the final third.

(Probably also helped their cause to have Pelle (target man) and Mane/Elia/Long (pace!!!) when they needed to play more directly.)

Going to get shit for this but don’t forget lallana. A fantastic pass and move midfielder who again is a classic ball hog.

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I think he’s a genuinely good player but for whatever reason I just can’t picture a midfield built around him that plays well.

I’ve said previously maybe with natural ball magnets around him to totally alleviate any responsibility at all, but we don’t have any really.


Needs to go really and hopefully a nice new CM will change how we look.

I think I don’t particularly hate PVA as much as others, either.

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hes become a meme among the fan base. I do think the ire was exacerbated by the fact everyone was hoping for Tosun, but here’s no doubting he’s the boo boy de jour.