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.

Photo: Action Images

Santos added 10:33 - Sep 21 The full back area IMO is our current biggest problem and the main reasons we are not functioning as a team and look very static and disjointed. Comparing us to last season the set up is the same we play with four defensive players in the middle Fonte, VVD Victor, Romeu, then there are the four attacking players Pelle, Mane, Tadic, Davis. The fullbacks effectively have a job in both camps these days making either a 6 in defence or a 6 in attack and provide extra width, it's this that just is not happening!! hence 0-0 results and lack of chances. Yes Morgan is a loss but Clyne's and Bertrand's pace and width in the fullback position as vital these days and key to sort. The jury is out on Cedric as a defender but we have looked better when he has played.

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DPeps added 10:48 - Sep 21 What was even more baffling was the decision to bring on Martina and not Cedric
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SanMarco added 10:51 - Sep 21 Totally agree Santos. And to repeat what I just said on the verdict thread: why did we sign if he is considered suspect as a defender?? Martina is hopeless and Yoshida isn't even a fullback so if he can't get in ahead of those two then something is seriously wrong and it will have repercussions over the whole season.
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safwanmo added 11:19 - Sep 21 DPeps, completely agree, with targett bursting forward, space was brig created for tadic to influence the game, and the mindless decision to bring on Martina proved costly. We were playing with 4 centre backs in the 2nd half, neither martina nor Yoshida provide any threat going forward, neither have pace or the ability to beat a player. This left our defence sitting so deep and our midfield exposed, so United could knock the ball around with ease, Also at home, bringing on martina was such a negative change, we therefore had no threat from either fullback. Cedric would have provided a threat going forward, and could have switched Yoshida to left back; last year we used full backs to perfection, pace and positivity, yes we don't have clyne and Bertrand is on his way back, but Cedric is halfway there, we CANNOT play with Martina and Yoshida at full backs if we want any attacking presence from those position. Bertrand cannot return soon enough....

3

IWOZTHERE added 11:27 - Sep 21 Surprisingly, we looked sharper going forward on Sunday despite having Yosh at fullback. No excuses for his error but there were several occasions when our defenders in possession were turned back towards their own goal as there were no escape routes, so we found it very difficult to break out when under pressure. I agree with Santos that we have been used to the outlets provided by fast wing backs, so we're suffering from Bertrand's abscence and should persist with Soares

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stmichael added 11:29 - Sep 21 We don't know what has happened in training perhaps he has a bad attitude. But what is clear is that we received good money for Clyne and he should have been replaced adequately. If Cedric is not good enough the buck lies with RK.
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bstokesaint added 13:03 - Sep 21 I'd like to think Ron was involved wih the decision to buy Cedric. I thought he looked reasonable pre season, but as others have stated he got made to look poor against Everton. To be fair he wasn't alone, so maybe it was harsh to judge him on this one game. The thing that surprises me the most is that Clyne wasn't even that good in the second half of last season (when his mind was probably elsewhere) so I never imagined this would be such a problem area.

2

SanMarco added 15:29 - Sep 21 You could look at it the other way bstokesaint and say that the decline you point out proves how important Clyne was - and that the decline will not be properly sorted out until he is properly replaced. That replacement was supposed to be Cedric...
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grumpy_saints_fan added 15:30 - Sep 21 What was even more baffling was to bring on a right back and play him as a left back when you had a left footed centre back playing at right back
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perazi added 16:34 - Sep 21 I thought that apart from the calamitous back pass Yoshida had a reasonable game - he is certainly not a RB though. It seemed a strange decision to replace Soares with Yoshida against West Brom - and very odd to start him yesterday.
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Zambucco added 18:13 - Sep 21 Apparently he head butted Fonte's missus, well Osvaldo and Pardew have had a go, so why not Cedric? But in all honesty, for me it was no brainer, having him at right back. But I'm starting to grow a feeling that a lot of what happens on the training field influences RK. Which isn't a bad thing when it comes to unity of the team, but at the cost of points?
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wopper added 19:45 - Sep 21 Too short
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Jesus_02 added 09:28 - Sep 22 "Yoshida's back pass cost us dearly that cannot be denied" I still don’t think it was a back pass and that he was actually passing to Fonte who simply got out of the way. But no one is going to say Fonte made a mistake anytime soon. Apart from that we simply should not have sold Clyne. We didn’t make much and have actually lowered the bar in terms of clubs wanting to buy from us. Liverpool where desperate for a RB and would have got someone else in so he may have even ended up signing a new deal with a reasonable release clause. When we signed Soares the club told everyone that he WASNT a replacement for Clyne. That means its was either a straight out lie or we have failed to replace him.

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Jackflash1975 added 19:01 - Sep 22 We have no attacking full backs at the moment. Fox and Shaw were not what I would call attacking full backs either. It was always one sided until Betrand and Clyne played. Is there no- one with pace at the academy?
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