Match Day Thread Sunderland vs Saints - 11/02/17 KO-15:00

Booooo. There's always one party pooper!

 

Despite many years having gone by [and I know he was a good player for us] the picture I always get from the mention of Henri Camara is of him playing for Wolves and nearly ending Jason Dodd's career. Luckily, JD didn't have weight on the leg, so it didn't fold completely sideways. I still wince when I picture it though.

 

Agreed. Manolo, Gabby, or even [LeTiss forbid] Manny, I could handle. But Barry.? If he was Welsh I could understand.

 

A

 

Sorry to quote my own post, but I further thought that if Saints wanted to make a little series of masterclass videos, then first up could be Ryan Bertrand on how to cross the ball into the most dangerous zone of the penalty area, from almost any position down the left side, under almost any condition, running or stationary. He makes a difficult skill look easy.

 

Important post that!

Almost as cringe worthy as calling Boufal - Sofie Anne

 

Was thinking about this. We've been moaning about a lack of creativity from our midfield, and too much of the sideways/backwards stuff. The likes of Beef and Fats have in fairness been saying that much of the problem is that there hasn't been a striker in position to move the ball forwards to, or for the creators to create for.

Until now.

Looks like we have a bargain here, but it also suggests to me quite how poor JRod and Long have been as attacking outlets for us (and that just maybe the situation wasn't down to Claude and his tactics).

Still, only one game.

 

Precisely. Sorry, I wrote my post before seeing yours. Exactly the point I wanted to make too.

 

Could also put it down to Dusan getting to play 10 yards off the striker rather than 30. I do think Gabbiadini's movement has been an upgrade but in the 4-3-3 we've been playing where the CMs stretch out wide, the thing you're most likely to find between our midfield and striker is a gaping void. At least until one of the wingers comes inside, which often coincides with the other team transitioning into their defensive shape. Today we were able to find Dusan quickly with spaces to exploit, usually the spaces to exploit are about 40 yards away from our CMs.

 

Yeah, we absolutely played differently from a tactical sense today. If you look at the average position map for this game, Tadic and Gabbiadini are atop one another (Tadic actually played marginally further forward on average), while the two wider players in Redmond/JWP actually presented wide-ish options earlier in moves, rather than having to collapse into the middle; you can actually work out who was playing where, when it's often a really pinched clump of players in the middle as the wide men are forced into the width of the box to try and get within visual range of the striker. As a result, a few things happened: Gabbiadini and Tadic had the opportunity for interplay. There weren't any massive gaps allowing our forward players to be trapped sans outlet, and we had enough spacing to stretch them out. And our crossing was improved, because we didn't have to wait for bodies to arrive in the box.

With the first goal, Bertrand has acres of room to cross, because a Sunderland defender initially got sucked into the box and we moved it right-to-left in a hurry (there was a long one-touch pass in there!). We then had a 2v2 with both Tadic and Gabbiadini making near-post runs; if Tadic isn't there, Kone heads it away easily, IMO, but he was unsighted/distracted enough to completely fluff the contact. The second goal is a complete clusterfk defensively, but it happens because we had enough attacking players to feature some movement: Redmond made a diagonal run toward the corner of the box, which forced a defender to go with him, and consequently the rest of Sunderland's defensive line retreated. Thus Gabbiadini can pick up Tadic's pass with Sunderland's defenders 12 yards out instead of our traditional 18, and on their heels. Also, while it didn't come into play, note JWP making a sweeping right-to-left run in response to Redmond's run to the right-hand side of the box; he reacted to the space that would present, and if Gabbiadini's shot had resulted in a rebound, there was no one even remotely close to him. He would have skied it, but still.

And that's the biggest difference with Tadic central: it frees up the wider players to do things. If we only have three players on any given possession who are threats to be in the box, and one of them is on the ball, there are a finite number of ways you can shake eight well-positioned defenders. Redmond got caught standing around the edge of the box a few times, but he also made some constructive runs from deeper/wider positions. Combine that with the means to launch attacks earlier in possession and you can make things happen. Against Sunderland. Now we'll see if we can make things happen against other sides.

 

Seeing as the list of constant wingers about there having been no replacement top quality striker should be headed by either Beefy FLT or Me. It has been my single Saints moan topic since the Summer Transfer Window closed.

 

Some people take life far too seriously.

#gobarrygo
#sofsofsofsofsofieann

 

I was there that day at Molineux, in the Wolves stand. That tackle nearly got me lynched!!

 

Can't believe we signed him though. He was **** at Villa

 

Great win and all should be full of confidence going into the Final. Looked so much better with a 4-2-3-1. More protection for the back 4 and frees up Tadic as a roaming number 10, not having to track back all the time.
Can't wait for Wembley now, players now have 4 days off with their families, back to Staplewood to do all pre final PR work etc, then they're off to Spain for a few days. Perfect preparation giving Puel the time he needs on the training ground. COYR

 

St Marys last Saturday wasn't much better.

 

Off to Spain....glad Puel took my advice. A change of scene, all lads together....just what they need. This two week break is perfect....we'd have killed for that when trying to cope with the Europa.

 

I thought Tadic looked motivated from having him in the team - it seemed every time Tadic received the ball he was looking up to find Manolo.

 

It was good to see the old Tadic....he needed the kick up the bum that having a new striker has given him. The team as a whole needed a stir up...they were playing below their quality. We are a good side, but needed a finisher. Ridiculous that we had scored so few when we are near the top for shots on goal.

 

Unfortunately, yes.