Match Day Thread Saints vs the Champions

Only heard the first half on the radio and it wasn't comfortable listening. Claudio needs to be brave and consider whether the likes of Wes, Drinky and Vards are non-droppable ...

I do firmly believe the squad is good enough to be comfortable in this league ...but every single one of the players needs to play for their shirt..

 

It was a case of square pegs in round holes!

Drinky is not a right sided midfielder for start off.

We can only play 4-4-2 and if we are, we have to choose 2 from Drinky, Ndidi and Mendy. Don't play players out of position, just to fit them in to the team.....it doesn't work!!

 

I'm not sure currently they are good enough. Collectively there just doesn't seem to be any cohesion or self belief. Hindsight is a wonderful thing but I think things like free cars went to some heads and they all believed they were world beaters. They concede and just shrug shoulders, no signs of passion or care. I thought bringing in Grey would help but he seems to think he can score his Man Utd goal every game instead of picking out unmarked team mates. Fuchs is now just hoofing it and I couldn't believe how much room they had down our right. Morgan had a shocker, hope its just an aberration and not three years of non stop football and father time catching up. Okazaki runs round without the ball and then falls over when he has it. Vardy is just not there. You could say its poor service but good players make things happen and currently he isn't. City fan all my life and always will be but I feel entitled to say when they are playing absolute cr*p and that is what's happening now. Southampton had lost their last 4 have a cup semi coming up and we caused them absolutely no concern at all. Did Foster do anything? Ranieri is saying it was his fault. Very admirable but he wasn't the one showing naff all urgency. There finished. Normal positive thoughts will resume when I wake up tomorrow.

 

Good post.

 

Nobody should be undroppable. But the statement about players being played out of position yesterday was right and seems to be seriously pi55ing the players off. We had absolutely no width most of the time and the midfield all gravitated towards their natural positions in the centre of the pitch which meant we had a constant little game of pinball between 3 or 4 players trying to keep the ball and then a hopeful high hoof 40 yards upfield in the general direction of Vardy but gobbled up easily by the central defenders.

I would seriously look at the defence first of all. When he returns from the Afcon I would consider putting Amartey in for Simpson, which is a little unfair because Simpson gets very little protection in front of him and often gets confronted by 2 opponents. I would put Chilwell in for Fuchs; he will give us far more going forwards. In fact he reminds me a lot of Leighton Baines. Morgan and Huth are getting beaten too easily in the air at the moment but I don't believe we have a better replacement. FF has mentioned Amartey played central defence for FC Copenhagen, but the Danish League is a whole different ball game to the Premier League. We need the full backs and defensive midfielders to get tighter and stop opponents having time to pick out a good cross in the first place

In midfield I would put Drinkwater back as a holding midfielder alongside Mendy or Ndidi. I would then look at providing width with putting Albrighton on the right and Gray on the left. Both of these players can provide an outlet and go past opponents. It would be interesting to see what Kapustka has to offer in a wide position. Maybe even give him a bit of a run out on Friday.

I would like to have a player in the mould of Eriksen, Sigurdsson or Silva to put in the hole behind the striker, but we don't have that type of player currently. Could Ramirez be the answer? Okazaki could be on his way out of the club and he lacks the guile to play that position. If Mahrez can be bothered he certainly has the ability and guile but does he have the right attitude? Failing that we are left with King, James or Mendy/Ndidi.

Finally I'd put Musa or Slimani up front. Musa has quicker feet than Vardy and can go past people with the ball. I haven't yet seen much evidence how proficient Slimani is with the ball at his feet, but at least he's big enough (and certainly ugly enough) to get in the thick of things and hold the ball up and bring other players in.

Thoughts anyone?

 

Amartey is also playing centre back for Ghana and they are through to the quarters following 2 wins without conceding a goal ....

 

Would be more willing to drop Amartey for Morgan then for Simpson.

 

Something has to change......FACT!

Bring in Kapustka, Benalouane etc......THEY CAN'T DO ANY WORSE.

Play players in their preferred positions, if it means a "big name" being dropped, then so be it.

We need to turn this around NOW, or face the consequences!

 

Sounds impressive, FF. Now let's have a look at who the opposition was....oh, it was Mali and Uganda. Neither side is brimming with household names.

 

Perhaps not ... but he has established himself as Ghana's first choice centre-back ... and Copenhagen were unbeaten at home in all competitions for quite some time whilst he was playing there ...

In January 2015, Amartey played in all the group matches for Ghana at the 2015 Africa Cup of Nations, where the Black Stars finished as runners-up, losing the final to the Ivory Coast in a penalty shoot out ... the game actually ended 0-0 so Amartey kept Drogba, gGervinho, Bony and the Toure brothers at bay and co at bay....I understand there might be a couple of household names in there somewhere ...

So we have an established international centre-back who also won a national title in that position in a club that tends to hold its' own in the Champions League ... but let's not look for any positives eh?

PS before he left for ACON he was arguably our best / most in-form player

Edit: Think he might have got injured and didn't play after the final group stage game ....

 

Good call. Must be wondering WTF, why ain´t l getting a game ahead of this dross. l was really hoping we´d be well away from a relegation fight this season but the fact is we ain´t. To many of the ****ers not earning thier money and `quitting`.

 

Pretty hacked off with Vardy yesterday. The challenge on Virgil did not appear too deliberate, but it was ****.
Could have at least come over and apologised. Won't be wishing much fortune on that little weasel over the coming months.

 

Kasper

Simpson Morgan Huth Chilwell

Albrighton Drinkwater N'didi Gray

Okazaki

Slimani

 

Last season we were running out of superlatives to describe our achievements, I'm rapidly running out of less polite words this. I'm failing to comprehend how we've become as abysmal as we were on Sunday in such a short space of time, with fundamentally the same team.
As previously said, I didn't expect to be up in the top 4/6 but I was hoping we could realistically be top 10.
We don't even look like we are trying half the time

 

Once the guys are back from ACON we need to get back to playing a settled team week in week out but also need to look critically at the players form because several are performing way below the levels last season ...

I'd like to see us give this formation a go playing wing backs

Schmeichel

Morgan Amartey Fuchs

Albrighton/Kaputska Drinky Ndidi Chilwell

Mahrez

Slimani Vardy/Musa

 

Give over. Couldn't have been more accidental.

It's a contact sport, he shouldn't have to apologise for making contact.

 

Thanks to your thug of a striker, our best player is out for 3 months. Thank you very much Vardy you utter ****.

 

He should apologise for being a grade A **** though

 

Give over! There was nothing in that whatsoever. Sorry Van Diik is out, I like Southampton, your fans and Van Diik as a player but you're just looking for someone to blame there. Some injuries just happen due to the odd time the sport remains a contact sport!

 

Personally I didn't like the challenge. I think Vardy does have a nasty streak and while he may not have intended to put the player out for a length of time he knew exactly what he was doing. Not necessary.