Southend United manager Phil Brown has spoken to the press ahead of Saturday afternoon's League One clash between his team and Jon Whitney's Saddlers, and has praised Walsall for their recent form before comparing Erhun Oztumer to one of the best footballers in the world.
Speaking via SouthendUnited.co.uk, Brown said; "They’ve been quite impressive over the last two or three months. We got a 0-0 draw at their place and that was a good point on the day, albeit I thought we should have won the game if truth be known.
"They were going through a transition period of losing maybe nine or ten players and they took their time getting going. It’s a fairly similar story to us. We lost 14 players and took our time getting going. Now we’re going and we got a good win on Tuesday night but it will be a tough game on Saturday.
"Jon has moulded the side together with a couple of stalwarts at the back and then brought a little wizard in, in Oztumer, who is the same type of footballer as Messi or Jack Payne.
"They play I style of football that suits them and over the last two months have given themselves a chance to get into the play-offs. We’ve got to kill that opportunity on Saturday."
