Match Day Thread Southampton away

If Conte does no more this season than reinstall team spirit, give the team a sense of optimism, and get them to really enjoy playing a team game, then he will have been a success. So far, I think we can tick all those boxes. Our out of form players are in form, the strugglers are not struggling so much, the Cahills, Matic' and Luiz' who copped heaps of early criticism, have stepped up big time. New talent is blossoming ,especially Moses, who looks like he has found his long searched for position, and is now a major player for us. Hazard and Costa are back in the headlines for all the right reasons, and the youngsters seem to know they are appreciated and part of the future. Quite an achievement in quite a short period of time. Will be interesting to see who replaces Moses during the African comps, to see if Ivan and Cesc can adapt as others have done, and of course, where this leaves JT. I thought Cahill was a lost cause, wrong !! Matic was leaving, wrong !! Moses was an also ran, Wrong!!
We finally do look as if we are building for the future the right way.

 

Sadly as all great players come to their end JT will just be a bit part player especially when Zouma gets back to full fitness.

 

Want to see Chalobah continue to get game time.
Then next season Christensen and Abraham need to become squad members too and start getting games for Chelsea.

 

I saw the sheet just now. 8 goals made him to the top!

 

Whilst pedro didn't really have much of an impact and he should have smashed a third into the back of the net (could argue costa should have got it first), i still prefer pedro over Willian.

I'm one of the biggest fans of willian here as i think he has great ability on the ball but if we are going to play hazard, i'd rather not drop pedro.

Apart from Costa, Pedro is the other guy who is actually going to try run past the defence. We all know hazard likes ball to feet and either taking a player on or playing a give and go after he's received the ball so either drops deep or stays out on the wing. Willian is a high energy player and also can dribble but again he doesn't make a run past the defender. He's allergic to the area like hazard.

I guess kante and matic are running into the box a bit more but on the counter, pedro is a great foil to costa and hazard. I feel we would lose the counter attacking ability as we have both hazard and willian not really busting a gut to stretch the defence. The most frustrating thing (maybe this would change under conte) under mourinho was how we'd work the ball up to the opposition area whether that was on the counter or in a build up only for costa to be marked out and there being no one else in the box whilst we have the rest of the team all waiting outside the area.

Pedro even if he's having a mare will provide those runs so at least the opposition are stretched and this gives space to hazard to do his stuff.

 

Yes - if you are focusing solely on that fox in the box - why don't Conte give Batters some starts or atleast minutes?

That is the only grey area I have beef with Conte. Everything else - he is aces.

 

was that in reponse to pedro?

Not sure you can go with 2 strikers with the way he wants to build it up. Pedro does actually do some defending and tries to link up. It's a shame batters has not seen much time as after a blistering start, he's dropped off the face of the earth even in the fleeting appearances he gets. If i had to have someone replace pedro i think it would have to be willian or chalobah first. Think we should be giving some game time to loftus cheek to replace matic too. I think that should be loftus cheeks role.

 

Yes, Batters can ply his role as a winger with freedom like Pedro - than as a strike partner for Costa.
ALso agree with your point about Willian for Pedro & RLC for Matic.
Not sure about Chalobah for Pedro though. Chalobah might be understudy for Kante.

 

You guys were f*cking quality on Sunday. Seems like Conte is the business. Good luck for the rest of the season, please finish above Liverpool (from a Saints fan).

 

Nigeria didn't qualify, moses is here all year

 

Yes - I was disappointed for Mikel when I came to know about ACON.
Very second thought about Moses. Every cloud..

 

. Its a shame we have a good team, would have been nice to see them run out.

Will have to make do with watching England flounder for 2 years i guess...

 

Whoops ,thanks for the correction, seems like more good news then.

 

If you aren't Nigerian

 

More good news even if you are Nigerian. You can save more humiliation in ACON .