Just got back from game. I like Fraser but two long shots in goal all game - resulting in two goals he has to be accountable. But I won't dwell on that. Nor will I dwell on the fact that Watford played brilliantly- reminding me of the saints under Poch. What I will say is we played better passing the ball in the second half and with two strikers. But MPo correctly identified that this wasn't going to get us anywhere against the big defenders hence the longer balls first half. It was a good idea that didn't work - would it have done with someone ekes either than Gabby? Possibly. Sadly we live in a time when fans demand instant success and wins every week and that rarely works even for the top sides. MPo has been trying to change things slowly but on today's performance he is going to have to press the prdal a bit. Watford nearly scored a third right at the death with our players backing off to cover the next pass whereas a couple of minutes earlier in the Watford box our attack broke down as they attacked every ball. That was the difference between the sides today. But full marks to Watford. They deserved the win and were lovely to watch.
I can't blame the defense for the odd lapses they did today. It is the same as last season, the pressure of the attackers being unable to score gets to them. Then they crack after a while. Like I said last season, it must be very mentally draining to have to think you can't make one mistake as we can't score.
The game was summed up for me 30 seconds before the second half started. Saints players lined up in their positions, whilst Watford players did some shuttle runs.
Yeah, I mean, being reliant on a fairly unlikely set of circumstances (Atletico finding a way around a transfer ban) to bring in a much-needed addition wasn't the greatest of plans.
There's no point throwing toys out of the pram. When the board (Les Reed) has yet another shocker in the transfer window, and we continue to persist with Davis in the team, results like this will continue to happen. Far, far too many people (including on here) have been blindly ignoring last season. And yet of the 18 players who featured for us today, 17 of them were from last season. Shock horror - nothing has really changed. No point crying about it now. The window has shut. It's far too early to make any sort of judgement on MP yet (although he made a number of mistakes today in my view), so I've got nothing to comment there. But it's not too early to make a judgement on Les. He failed. Irrelevant how hard the club might have tried to sign players, the end result was failure. And we've now got at least four months of living with that now. Great, we held onto Virgil, woo hoo. Only we wont see him for another month yet, and we failed to sign a single attacking player. A side who could hardly score a goal last season failed to sign a single attacking player. Watford were very good today. I expected them to control the midfield (the moment Davis' name was shown against them...), but not to the extent that they did. I'd have said 3-0 would have been a fair scoreline to them. Their performance somewhat surprised me, but ours didn't. (It sounds so completely and utterly wrong, and I don't even think I would do it myself, but if we're going to persist with this formation then starting Long up to might be a goer. It's not like Gabbi is getting the ball from anyone, or surviving much past the 60 minute mark. Maybe moving him out wide, or bringing him on after an hour, with Long starting up top might lead to a better outcome.)
I think that Watford's attractive style of football with Chalobah being hugely impressive (and the bargain of the season of he only cost £5 million) masking the fact that Saints were very poor today. It has been interesting reading some of the comments on this thread as my perception of the match was that too many of our senior players did not turn up today, I thought that Bertrand was especially poor and the whole midfield effectively contributed nothing. A lot of criticism is going to be levelled at Boufal but, in all fairness, the same remarks must also find their target in the likes of JWP, Redmond, Gabbiadini , Davis and Romeu. Boufal does look a poor acquisition but on today's performance Nathan Redmond is surely no worse. We were well-beaten by a better team. It is true that the addition of Tadic, Austen and Long improved the attacking threat yet Gabbiadini is so out of form surely the question needs to be asked why either didn't start. JWP remains an enigma. He was exceptional in the first game of the season but the today he looked totally lost.
I can't blame Gabbiadini at all. Guy runs around trying to link up play, but never gets the ball. The service to him is terrible.
You are literally unbelievable! I haven't written anyone off. I said that I'm worried based on having them seen play a few times. If you looked at my posts you would know I'm incredibly positive as a real fan, supporter, season ticket holder yet you decide to "write me off" with your quite personal first line - why do you feel the need to be so superior?
Really not sure how you can judge Gabbiadini's form? He's so isolated from the ball getting anywhere near him, what are you expecting him to do?
This argument has the potential to become more boring than a Saints home game. Can you just ignore each other, or accept that there's a difference in perception and drop it? Depressing enough today without this going on too!
Was just thinking about our image as a selling club, all the pundits saying that Saints can't sell their best players and still maintain our league position. Wouldn't it be ironic in the season we keep hold of our biggest asset VVD we go down? Just being morose, sure it won't happen! Yes I'm sure it can't happen, can it? lol
