My heart sank when I saw the team sheet yesterday, I’m not gonna lie. But he played pretty well, I thought. Could we see him and Doucoure in the middle? No need to play Schlupp out of position there.

To be fair, yes he hasn't been great, but he was very good yesterday. Schlupp still isn't a midfielder although was OK in the first half, Hughes was a much better upgrade in the second and surely has to start alongside Dacoure! 3 points Is all that matters at the end of the day.

He did have this strange habit of passing to a team mate yesterday, but we won’t get carried away, saints were awful first half yesterday and he had a lot of time and space

Have our standards slipped to the extent that one reasonable performance from Luka can be acclaimed as a second coming?
To me it's more of an indication of the paucity of midfield options leading to a willingness to allow hope to triumph over experience.
Luka has been well off the pace for well over a year.
Although in general he did ok yesterday, he was bypassed too easily on a number of occasions and has no recovery pace so is totally taken out of the game.
Southampton were awful in the first half yesterday and our midfield were under little pressure, but Luka would be exposed against the majority of teams in the Premier League which is why he's not usually a first team starter.
He did a good job for us for a number of seasons, but we need to move on from him now.

I think it was mainly because he was on his own.

“That’s a joke son, I say, that’s a joke.” “Nice boy, but he’s sharp as a throw pillow.” “He’s so dumb he thinks a Mexican border pays rent” “ “Son… I say, son, some people are so narrow minded they can look through a keyhole with both eyes.”__ Forhorn Leghorn

Thanks for starting this thread, Aray. I do think more balance is needed in the discussion of Luka.

I made a particular point of watching him closely yesterday. We were good in the first half and Luka played his full part in a good team effort.

No team was going to play as badly in the second half as Southampton played in the first. They had been given a bollocking and also made a substitution. We were on the back foot and struggled to get a foothold. Luka was as much a part of that as others were. For periods we were overwhelmed in midfield and Luka was clearly tiring.

I have seen the substitutions criticised but they all bolstered a midfield that clearly needed it.

I don’t think ‘the old Luka’ is back but I do think it’s right to praise him when he does well. Overall yesterday he had a good game in my view.

Edited by dg1937 (30 Oct 2022 10.31am)