I say tear his contract up in front of his crying wife and children. Or play him next week see how he does.
Know what you mean, st_b. On Davis' best form he adds to the side, but recently he's been very off the mark, and I consider myself one of his fans. There have been times when he's on his toes and playing beautiful little weighted passes over the top, or through someone's legs, and he was doing these things as recently as three or four matches ago, but it's getting patchy. A season or two ago he was brilliant, but I feel we've either got slightly too good for him or our game has moved away from his. Either way, he's nowhere near as effective all the time. We're not going to get bundles for him, but I see him moving back to Rangers where he will be excellent again.
You do need back ups in a side...Davis is in a mini-slump..but, if you let him go, you have to buy someone else (unless we have a youngster who is better). As they say, form is temporary. All depends on what Koeman thinks...he said today that Davis was a technically good player....make of that what you will.
Davis can do everything except score. He can tackle, he can pick a pass, he always gets himself in good positions, and if he'd scored from either of the two clear chances he had today, we'd be saying what a great game he had. Granted, his eye for goal has been truly woeful lately. But before today, you could have directed that accusation at any one of our strikers - and Davis is not a striker.
Ok his finishing is poor, but that could be said for our team in general this season. We have had many games where we have had the majority of chances but not taken them. Davis is a player to pressure the opposition, play short, quick passes and raise the tempo. To that effect, he does a pretty good job I think.
Davis is our first line of defence, in our midfield. He closes down a lot of attacks before they get started and is usually in the right place to receive balls from the defensive midfield players, and link to the forwards. I think his position is the most at risk, in the team, simply because of the lack of goals from him. He could become the "go to player", off the bench, to help see games out, or increase the team's energy.
Why do I suspect that some of the SD bashers are the same ones that were bashing Graz recently, he proved them to be mugs, hopefully Stevo will do the same.
I believe he is a great asset to the team. His work rate cannot be questioned but he should be banned from trying a shot on goal and leave it to someone else!!
Whoa whoa whoa. Why all this Stevie D hate? He was terrible in front of goal but so were others. Pelle was off target many times. His role is not striker though. Him and Mane are the only players who seem to want to drive the ball forward by running into space. My reason for wanting Davis in the team is historically we do better with him in.
Oh Tom, that ****s me off. He has been excellent for Saints in our three years back in the Premier League. He isn't a good finisher and he should have hit the target today, no doubt but to start labelling things as unacceptable for a professional footballer is nuts. Different players are better at some stuff than others. Davis is a very good player, but he just isn't a good finisher. Pelle has had loads of shots that have been worse, but that's just the way it goes. Let's not go over the top. As time goes on, I'd hope that we progress with new players and people like Davis will play less of a role, but let's not disrespect him and how important he has been to us and we are still going to need him.
I'm going to reply again to this Tom. For all the **** referees who have missed so many blatant decisions this season, it is totally unacceptable as they are professionals and the best in the country (Steven Davis isn't even that). Sack all the ****ers!
If we qualify for Europe we will need Davis , he has been an important player for the last few years, yes hes been poor in the last few weeks but all players have poor runs of form Pelle? Tadic?. Yes Davis should be scoring goals in his position but i don't think you can just blame him, as midfielders go every single one of them has struggled to find the net.
One miss I can understand, two just about but 3 glaring misses without hitting the target is ****. You bring up referees, lets look at Martin Atkinson's performance in the Chelsea v Burnley game. He was awful and his performance was unacceptable after making error after error. Well it's the same with Davis. 3 awful misses in one game is completely unacceptable in my book, just as 3 awful refereeing decisions are.
Have to agree, you can't play as an inside forward (in old money) without being able to finish.. I was astonished that Prowsie was subbed before Davis..
Davis at least got the opportunity to miss- JWP never looked like he wanted the ball, and other than set pieces didn't get involved
Davis has done tremendously well to be a mainstay in our team despite us having signed players with better on ball talents. Koeman is a practical manager and appreciates the balance that Davis brings to the side. Sadly his lack of a decisive contribution in the attacking third is frustrating and a reason for us to probably still look to find a replacement. A Ramirez or Tadic have not worked, but I'm sure there are players who are better or more disciplined defensively who could offer more in an attacking sense. Vilhena sounds like he might fit the bill, but ultimately I would favour Ward-Prowse long term
Prowsie played a disciplined role, Davis had the freedom of a number 10.. Surely Tadic for Davis was the obvious substitution..