When Saints signed Steven Caulker on loan it looked to be the case of signing a player who had the experience required to break into the Saints team on a regular basis but he seems to have disappeared

Steven Caulker is a very experienced Premier League defender having been virtually ever present for both Cardiff and QPR in the past two seasons, indeed he was linked with a permanent move to Saints last summer before moving from Cardiff to QPR.

So it was no surprise that he arrived at the club back in July on loan, however after starting in all 3 Europa League games after his arrival, he has been strangely absent in the Premier league, his only appearance being in the goalless draw at Watford where he had a decent game.

He has been on the bench for 3 of the other 5 games, however he was nowhere to be seen in the squad to face Manchester United on Sunday, not making the bench for that one.

The strange thing though is that whilst he is not playing he has been replaced by Yoshida who to be blunt has been found wanting as several of the goals we have conceded in the Premier including the back pass that gifted United their second goal and changed the game.

Without wishing to make this a piece criticising Yoshida the fact of the matter is that in his three years at the club he has proved himself an able deputy at times, but frankly no more than that, there is something clearly up if Yoshida is starting games and Caulker an England International with 118 Premier League games to his name at the age of 23 cnnot even get on the bench.

I can understand to a degree why Yoshida was played on Sunday as he was at right back and more mobile than Caulker, but when it comes to playing in the centre of defence surely Caulker has more chance of being the future than Yoshida.

Why Caulker has been overlooked is uncertain whether it is purely a playing issue and Ronald Koeman just doesn't rate him or whether the issue is off the field is uncertain, but it is strange that Saints would do so much to lure a player to the club when he could have gone elsewhere in the Premier League and got a regular game and then ignore him so drastically.

After the Watford game it looked like he might be about to stake a claim for a first team spot, but for the following Premier game against Norwich he was dropped and Yoshida back in.

Yes in between those two games he started in the Europa League against Denmark but even there he was substituted despite looking our best chance of grabbing the vital goal to get us back in the tie from set pieces.

So it seems that Steven Caulker's days at the club are numbered if he is the fourth choice central defender after Fonte,Van Dijk and Yoshida.

Photo: Action Images

patred added 10:11 - Sep 23 I would expect Steve Caulker to be involved against Milton Keynes tonight. If not, and if he is fit, then I would worry that his signing was a mistake, or he has diciplinary problems.
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DPeps added 10:52 - Sep 23 I think the problem is that Fonte and Caulker together makes for a slow central defence. Plus Caulker does not seem comfortable playing the ball out from the back, which was partly why we were so reliant on hoofs up-field in the first few games. Thankfully VVD looks much better. Agree that Caulker may be worth starting tonight though
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dmaceymacleod added 11:52 - Sep 23 I would like to know why we didn't play Cedric at RB on Sunday. Rojo was there for the taking!
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saintsnutcase added 12:33 - Sep 23 I think Ron over-rates Yosh, and probably under-rates both Cedric and Caulker. But it's a game of opinions, and the good thing is that we have a fairly large squad to argue about.
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bstokesaint added 13:31 - Sep 23 I'd like to see Caulker feature tonight along with Juanmi and Cedric, just to prove they are not out of the reckoning and give them a chance to showcase their talents. I'd also like to see Gazzaniga have a game, so that we keep healthy competition between the sticks. More controversially I'd like to see Yoshida get some game time. He doesn't need reminding he did wrong at the weekend, but he needs the chance to get back on the proverbial horse and put things right, not to languish on the bench or worse out of the squad. As others have stated he might not have the ability to be a regular first teamer, but he has been a fairly dependable squad player in more than one position when needed. Not everyone can be in starting XI, but we need players like Yoshida who are prepared to stay and fight for a position.

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IWOZTHERE added 13:50 - Sep 23 Confused over a few recent issues......Caulker's absence and Soares on Sunday for a start. There is speculation about disciplinary action and general concern about the reduction in opportunities for the youngsters because we've got to give Eurosquaddies a game. You could say 'padding out' the squad for the Euro comp turned out to be a waste of time, but on the other hand we'd have been right 'in it' without these players because of injuries ( or would we have been better off giving the likes of Harrison Reed game time.) I hope Ron's not as confused as I am and I hope there's no creaking in the 'team spirit' department.

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SanMarco added 14:03 - Sep 23 Presumably Yoshida is seen as more flexible inthat he can play badly in two or three different positions...
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bigrob68 added 15:42 - Sep 23 Think you might find that he laid someone out in Bedford place, he is trouble and has been everywhere he's been, talented but a fool, good riddance.
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Jesus_02 added 17:16 - Sep 23 Caulker cant pass as well as ... well any of the rest of the defence. He may get better at passing, but until then I’m not sure that he will get played to often. It may be that he also doesn't do what Koeman asks him. (hopefully because he doesn’t have confidence ATM). There are a number of things we could speculate about but I don’t think that he is 4th choice because I don’t think Koemen works like that. I think our first choice pairing is certainly Fonte and VVD. If either of them are injured I would expect that it would depend on who it was and who we were playing as a to who was bought in. Yoshida was obviously bought in instead of Soares because RK is still worried about us defensively and Soares ability to defend. Yoshida wasn’t our worst defender on Saturday let alone our worst player.

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