14 Oct 2014

Saints hero: 'Great' £11m star is better than £26m Liverpool maestro. Agree?

After enduring an injury-plagued start to his Anfield career, Adam Lallana is beginning to find his feet at Liverpool, and if his superb goal against West Brom is anything to go by, LFC fans are in for a treat when the midfielder is full settled, 100% fit, and firing on all cylinders. £26m is a huge price tag, though, and despite the hype over Lallana, Southampton seem to be doing just fine without him. In fact, Ex-Saints star Gordon Watson insists that he's not missed at all.

Speaking to the Daily Echo today, Watson - who spent two years at Southampton in the mid-1990s - argued that Dusan Tadic is an 'upgrade' on Lallana, adding:

“I would take Tadic over Lallana. Adam had an outstanding season for us last year, but he could have been dropped after the first few games. Last season everything we did went through Adam; Tadic is just another part of a strong jigsaw".

Liverpool rob Southampton of their best players, yet end up trailing then in the league table. The irony is as predictable as it is frustrating (!)

One thing's for sure - at £11m, Tadic is significantly better value than Lallana, but who is performing better for their respective clubs right now? Basic stats:

Appearances: DT 9 | AL 6

Passing Accuracy: DT 79% | AL 86%
Goals: DT 0 | AL 1
Assists: DT 3 | AL 0
Chances Created: DT 13 | AL 3
Shooting Accuracy: DT 61% | AL 75%

Duels Won: DT 44% | AL 50%
Aerial Duels Won: DT 60% | AL 16%
Recoveries: DT 34 | AL 22
Tackles Won: DT 75% | AL 83%

When it comes to specific, measurable attacking impact on the team, Tadic - described by Ronald Koeman as a 'great player' - has basically picked up where Lallana left off at Southampton. Three assists and thirteen chances created is impressive for a newcomer to the Premier League; hopefully, Lallana will achieve similar figures for Liverpool sooner rather than later.

Lallana is an excellent player, but is he a better player than Tadic to the tune of £15m? No chance, IMO. Over a season, though, he may turn out to be the more effective player.

Brendan Rodgers will certainly hope that turns out to be the case. After a series of underwhelming transfers, LFC's boss can't really afford another big-money flop.

Author:


57 comments:

  1. Good for you Gordon .

    We're happy with Adam , thanks. Let's see where you end up at the end of the season before crowing about how good your new guy is. Makes no difference to us imo

    ReplyDelete
  2. Southampton are surprising everyone and good on them. It's great for the fans that all those player sales have not decimated the success that they built over the years. They deserve to be where they are. But their short term success in replacing Lallana with Tadic is not really material to Liverpool and it doesn't diminish how important he can be. At the end of the season I expect Lallana to have about 15 goals and 10+ assists across all competitions and if he produces that I'd call it money well spent. It's a bit pointless saying that player X is not 10 million pounds better than player Y, it's not even really a sensible metric. Players worth on the pitch is rarely reflected in their transfer fees and slicing up those transfer fees and comparing them is even less reflective of reality. Let's just say that Tadic looks like a good player and Lallana is starting to show his quality for Liverpool.

    ReplyDelete
  3. Perhaps we should have signed Schneidelin instead of Lallana although his goals last game was true art. He and Henderson would have been a solid duo and perhaps prepared us for Stevie's departure.....
    Thus far, Pelle is contributing so much more than either Markovic, Lallana or Balotelli added up! UuuuGgghhhhhh!!! Does Sturridge have a brother?

    ReplyDelete
  4. Adam Lallana a top player and i only wish he was a bit younger as then the fee would be abit more justified. Nevertheless, im sure in 2 seasons aged 28, we will see the FULL benefits of Adam Lallana. of all the signings Lallana, Moreno and possibly Emre Can would have been the only additions i'd have bought, for the rest of the players Lambert, Lovren, Balotelli, Markovic, i believe there are players in our academy or already in our ranks who are better than them, but just need a chance with the first team and to prove it. personally i dont care what Markovic has achieved, ability and performance wise i dont believe he is better than Suso. also i believe if we give Jordan Ibe, Texeria or even Harry Wilson an oppurtunity they would produce and contribute more than Markovic. his touch doesnt allow him to be a good player and from what i remember Jordan Ibe played as a 17 year old on his PL debut against QPR, got an assist to Coutinho and was a constant threat regularly uses his pace to effect(unlike markovic who is easily strugged off and has a poor touch and doesnt get in behind for the pace he has). Texeria made his debut and played excellently helping win the penalty to win us the game. Even Rossiter, scored on his debut. there are plenty players in our academy who are talented and if playing with the 1st team will shine. Wisdom is better than Lovren in a LFC shirt. from what ive seen, the shakyness Lovren brings to the backline is ridiculous. Wisdom was always firm at CB and not shaky. Lovren may have good ball skills but so far Wisdom has kept more clean sheets than him so that says it all. even Ilori, we didnt have to spend money on Lovren when there are players in the ranks who can play there. Jordan Sinclair has proved he is a top striker in the academy and he would have been a much better experiment than Lambert. English, quick, strong, big and a finisher. if we built him up he could be a real player. even Peterson, better experiment than Lambert. personally i would have payed £35M for Marco Reus and £30M for Hummels and £16M-£20M for Andriy Yarmolenko instead of Balotelli.

    we could have looked like this

    -----------------------------Mingolet

    Johnson----------Skrtel----------Hummels--------Moreno

    ------------------Henderson--------Lallana

    ------Yarmolenko--------Sterling-------------Reus

    ----------------------------Sturridge



    and whilst Reus injured like this

    -----------------------------Mingolet

    Johnson----------Skrtel----------Hummels--------Moreno

    ------------------Henderson---------Can

    ------Yarmolenko--------Lallana-------------Sterling

    ----------------------------Sturridge

    ReplyDelete
  5. Too early to say. Lets have this discussion in two seasons time. The problem with football and public view nowadays is we're too quick to judge after a few games. Great clubs and coaches are thinking about developing a team not just for now but establishing a base for growth in the years to come. Barring injury, Lallana is a 5-8 year player for Liverpool and will hopefully have a huge impact over those years.... not just in the first 6 weeks.

    ReplyDelete
  6. Liverpool spent that money on a proven Premier league player of very good quality. Saints took a wild punt that an Eredivisie player could do well in the Prem. We've been lucky. And as a Saints fan I'd say at the moment that Lallana at peak is better than Dusan now, But Dusan still in theory has a huge improvement in him as he gets acclimatised to the premier league, I'm sure he isn't yet the finished article and that will start to show after the new year

    ReplyDelete
  7. Mike don't take it personal old son all managers have to big up their players to get the confidence going etc

    ReplyDelete
  8. :P got to say pelle bubble keeps getting bigger, he is a bit hit and miss, fortunately more hit than miss, but I've seen 3 games where he was quiet and 4 games where he murdered the opposition.

    ReplyDelete
  9. Lovren looks like a different player, you must have got his non football playing twin. Watching him is comical and delicious ... Saints fan

    ReplyDelete
  10. I agree that is what it is about and that is fair enough. It is a shame though he feels the need to have a dig at a former player to do so especially as he knows it will pander to many of the club's supporters.

    ReplyDelete
  11. To be honest, those stats don't carry much weight as they've not played the same amount of games/minutes.
    Having watched both players consistently, it certainly looks like Watson is right, but with "honey moon periods" etc, only time will tell.
    Once Lallana starts to get regular starts, the comparisons can begin, buy until then, it's just opinion. Being opinions, those who've followed Southampton are likely to be more accurate for now, as they've seen more of Lallana than LFC fans have and also seen more of Tadic than LFC fans have seen of either of them.
    Only time will tell.

    ReplyDelete
  12. Our first season back in the prem lallana was next to useless. 25million on a guy that has had 1 good season is a lot IMO. The other thing is if you look at last season he had to be subbed around the 65min mark as he isnt fit enough.

    ReplyDelete
  13. Totally agree with you. What's even worse, looking forward, is that he wasn't fit when we had one of, if not THE fittest squads in the Premier League due to the amount of work they put in, but now he's on Rodgers "2 day recovery" system, he become less fit, stamina will drop and so will his performances with less training sessions to work on things.
    You can see why Hodgson previously cast doubt on his future England career when discussing players' "big money summer moves".
    Such a shame for England and also the player, in the long run.

    ReplyDelete
  14. If it makes you feel better that's fine. It's a shame but whatever helps

    ReplyDelete
  15. Lallana presses really well which can't be emphasised enough in Rodger's team. Radical has certainly looked good and hitbthe ground running but nowhere in that quote does it say Tadic is better than Lallana just that he has become a piece of a jigsaw. Also I thought it was twenty three million?

    ReplyDelete
  16. I am not sure he did. Not from that quote anyway.

    ReplyDelete
  17. Next to useless? Not the thoughts of all saints though is it and his goals will have been handy.

    ReplyDelete
  18. Yes you will get lots of people agreeing with you when using Roy to make your point. If this is trolling it's sophisticated trolling. Kudos.

    ReplyDelete
  19. Trolling? No, feel free to read my original comment which was 100% fair and accurate on all accounts.
    The fact that I mentioned that "Woy" also feels that Lallana's move could damage his England career, just like most people who are familiar with the player, is neither here nor there. It was a supporting comment to another users comment and nothing more.

    Please read the comments, before attempting to troll, next time. ;)

    ReplyDelete
  20. Yes, it was general consensus among Saints fans that season.
    But you're right, the goals that season were handy.......
    ALL 3 OF THEM!

    Please read what he wrote, before arguing with him! He has written factual information about that 1st season back.

    ReplyDelete
  21. Exactly, after his first prem season, had a club offered 4mill for lallana h would have been sold. Crazy to think he ended up going for 25mill. Last season for 60mins agame he was fantastic. Shame he cant do it for 90mins.

    ReplyDelete
  22. No he stated opinion. An opinion I have heard the opposite of.

    ReplyDelete
  23. Another point here is that according to whoscored Moses and Sigurdson have also made lots of chances for teammates this season. Should we take arguments that these players are better than Lallana too?

    ReplyDelete
  24. Then you know the ONE and ONLY saints fan who had that opinion!
    No REAL saints fan rated Lallana in his first year in the Premier League. It was a general "opinion" held by the entire of the Saints fan base, except your 1 mate, that he had a dire season and it looked like he couldn't cut it at that level.

    Fair play to your mate for being the only person watching premier league football that season, to believe he did well. He's clearly deluded, but entitled to that opinion though.
    It was Lallana's worst season of senior team football for Southampton. Fact.

    ReplyDelete
  25. So what were thoughts on Lallana prior to promotion? Sorry real saints fans that is. His opinion wasn't that he was great just that he had alright. This was actually in question about his form thay season prior to us purchasing him. His thoughts were his second half of the season form was much better than first half. So next to useless being harsh.

    ReplyDelete
  26. Far too early to make such calls on new players. How often do we see new players join a club, make an instant impact for the first 6 months/year and then just fade away. Names like Cisse (Newcastle), Mutu (Chelsea) and even our own Coutinho (although I still feel he will be a star). You also have to bare in mind Saints have started the season extremely well whereas we have been struggling and thus as the season develops I would expect Lallana to be the more effective attacking threat. You also have to remember Lallana missed all of pre-season so he is basically just finishing his pre-season now. Add in the fact Southampton play through Tadic a lot whereas we have other players who are meant to be shouldering the attacking burden. Just think its far too early to make these calls.

    ReplyDelete
  27. "Next to useless" was used as a description of his first season in the Premier league.
    You argued with the guy, telling him (and myself) that you knew someone who disagreed that he was "next to useless" in his first PL season. (I told you to read the comments properly before commenting).

    So now you're changing your stance and talking about LAST season, instead and confirming that I was right that even your mate didn't think he was good in 2012/13 season? Lol.
    And you accuse ME of trolling? Dear oh dear.

    ReplyDelete
  28. Sorry but the Southampton team as a whole were pretty poor in their first year back in the prem so I'm not buying that. I've heard all this nonsense about him not being fit enough to play for 90 minutes what a load of garbage that is, Saints fans have only started piping up about that since he left...bitter maybe? I've seen him play 90 minutes for us quite a few times and he doesn't look any less fit than the rest of the players and that was without a pre-season behind him so pull the other one.

    ReplyDelete
  29. yeah thats what i was thinking its comical how saints fan used to hail their captain before and now coming out with flaws..and i saw this guy running like hell in 90th minute..short of fitness?? you must be kidding.

    ReplyDelete
  30. Yes Sturridge has a brother and he`s in the Saints youth team lol

    ReplyDelete
  31. I don't disagree with much of this, re: fitness. It does, however, tie in with what I said earlier though. Yours and most teams didn't and don't have the same fitness and stamina levels that the Southampton squad achieved overall.

    Nobody is "piping up", as you put it. It's true that Lallana struggled to maintain the pace last season, past 60 minutes, Due to the style they played. Somebody made a comment about the previous season, But this other lad is arguing without reading comments.

    My initial comment, which is above, is a fair assessment. Unfortunately I'm being argued with by fan boys who aren't equipped with the information they need, to discuss the points I made.

    Bitter? No. Mainly because so far, Tadic looks to be a step up, but as I've already said and had it disregarded, only time will tell.

    ReplyDelete
  32. Can you please tell me how you know the fitness and stamina levels of all the PL clubs then? I would love to know the evidence supporting this statement...oh sorry you just made it up!!!


    If you watch much football you would also be aware that the Southampton style of last year is similar to our style, a high tempo pressing game.


    Tadic looks like a decent player but I would be very surprised if you are speaking of him in such glowing terms come the end of the season...we shall see.

    ReplyDelete
  33. Hallelujah!
    Finally someone is willing to agree with my point of 4 hours ago, that only time will tell!
    It's a miracle!

    Please feel free to go back to my original point, above, and see the sensible & level headed point that caused everyone to stray from the topical point! ;)

    ReplyDelete
  34. Nonsense. I read his post and referred to it. Perhaps it's you not reading.

    ReplyDelete
  35. Out of context, but yes, referred to it.
    Facts were stated, which you both; argued with, then claimed you were talking about a different season to the one he discussed. Luckily I read it properly and corrected you. (which led to you changing your point about your mates opinion).

    ** Yawns **

    ReplyDelete
  36. with the most fit squad and high stamina level as compared to any team in EPL and having players better than those of liverpool's, i can see southampton winning the title then or ending in champions league..good luck with that

    ReplyDelete
  37. LOL@theblinkeredfans7:03 pm, October 15, 2014

    Not really, because it's different.
    You've taken a Southampton article, in a Southampton player, created from an interview with a former Southampton player, where he briefly mentioned another former Southampton player - hence it is a different situation.
    This is purely a LFC fan taking a purely Southampton based topic and taking offence to it, whilst tagging it as a Southampton article to enable it to appear in the Saints FC news feeds.

    You specifically went to "whoscored" for the other points.

    ReplyDelete
  38. Wow! A sensible comment on a Liverpool forum. Good work sir

    ReplyDelete
  39. Although 15 goals is a tad optimistic. Maybe at some point yes, but not now.


    Hope he proves me wrong.

    ReplyDelete
  40. And to elaborate further (sorry) He was bedded in at Saints for a long time. Struggled first PL season and shone the next, when he almost had a team built around him and his captaincy.



    Great player in that sense. 25m to Saints in that sense.


    Not saying he wont be great for us but its a risk.

    ReplyDelete
  41. What JK does to get other visitors to liverpoolkop website is up to him and it seems that us where your problem lies. I didn't search out that info but read it on football 365 and as one played for us and another was a near miss I used it in a liverpool related way. Once again on a liverpool site. The authors info is above if you want to complain.

    ReplyDelete
  42. Your own inability to understand context is quite funny considering your having a go. Read the lads and my post again and try taking your cool shades off this time.

    ReplyDelete
  43. You fail to mention Marquilo(spelling?). Pile of crap. Lovren is a great defender, but obviously a shaky character. Saints settled him, the kop has put him right back to Lyon where he was voted worst player by the fans repeatedly.

    ReplyDelete
  44. Seriously, don't bother. They aren't Saints fans, they have a 'top 4' view of the PL and the players outside the upper echelons (lol). They will never get what you are saying.

    ReplyDelete
  45. Good observation. Chips in with tackles all over the pitch. Also, think it's unfair that he statistically lost the ball more than any other PL player last year. Although it's true it's a typical distortion of facts.relating to his actual ability and contribution

    ReplyDelete
  46. Lallana is just clearly better than Moses, I mean come on! Stats which defy that are irrelevant. Sigurdson on the other hand, different player, different qualities. Hard to say which one you would rather have, especially playing regularly on form. Impossible to call.

    ReplyDelete
  47. Although, to be fair. Gilfi didn't chase the money

    ReplyDelete
  48. I read it fine! He said that in Lallana's first year in the Premier league, he was next to useless, which was true. You argued saying it wasn't true, then tried to refer to his comment whilst claiming you were talking about his 2nd season in the Premier league.
    You didn't read anything correctly, then went on the defensive.

    Either way; he was right and that opinion was backed by most viewers of the Saints matches and was general consensus among their fans.
    I also stand by my original statement and the points therein, which he was responding to!
    **yawn**

    You'll get there in the end lad, keep persevering!

    ReplyDelete
  49. Do you troll everyone, then? Seems like it.

    ReplyDelete
  50. You're missing the major point that Tadic is actually better statistically, and more importantly, way way better creatively when you watch him play. He tries things, and has liberty in the system. Lallana strives when he's given a role that Liverpool give to other players, the single creator (unless Gaston was on and we all know how that turned out), and yet still... Tadic does it better swapping wings than Lallana ever did. yes that may be because Saints have 2 or 3 wingers/creatives as opposed to just Adam now, but still, it's all about the set up.



    AL is a great player, one of the best if used properly, but it's a complex situation.

    ReplyDelete
  51. I think it seems to sound like a child who has his favourite toy taken away and responds with 'I never liked that toy anyway and my new toy is better!'. I think Lallana will be great for our club and we need to stop hanging price tags over his head, just like Marko, Balo, and the rest. After a couple of seasons you forget about price tags, such as with Hendo. People complained about his price but he has more than justified the purchase now. Lallana I feel will be similar but with a quicker progression. Can't wait for QPR and the return of Studge. Peace, YNWA

    ReplyDelete
  52. Whoa whoa, why pick on Manquillo? He has been a solid performer for us in every game except the West Ham game where our whole defense was getting smashed. He's a very young player, one who has picked up the english game extremely well and has been one of the most consistent performers so far. Not consistently amazing, but consistently decent. I'm not sure what to think of Lovren, he looked so good last season and even in the first couple of games for us this season, but has really taken a hit. I'm personally backing him to pick it up once we are back at full strength.

    ReplyDelete
  53. Mate, just relax, JK compiles articles that relate to our club. It isnt a purely Southampton based topic, it clearly involves LFC as it talks about one of our players by comparing Tadic to Lallana. JK didnt take offense to it, neither did we, we were merely discussing it's validity. I think they are both great players but personally I dont care enough about Tadic to actually watch him, not to be offensive, but if he aint a Red, I dont care.

    ReplyDelete
  54. of course he is...where else would he be?????????

    ReplyDelete
  55. I prefer Schneiderlin......solid as dm but a very good passer.............

    ReplyDelete
  56. Just think, regardless of results, Southampton will enter December in 2nd place! Looking quite good do far, eh?
    Just 5 points makes the difference, by which I mean, Saints are 5 points away from top spot, whilst Liverpool are 5 away from a relegation spot!

    ReplyDelete