For me the two changes that affected the game the most were taking Dusan off and getting Boufal on. Dusan slows everything down and replacing him resulted in us having pace on bothe wings with Joss and Nathan (our MOTM for me) at 442 we went more direct and got space down the wings, Gabbi's direct effect was minimal but knock on effect wasn't Then losing Sims ended up with us slowing the pace again and losing directness which meant that bring Shane on wasn't very effective as we had gone a bit tippy tappy again Im not an actual fan of 442 but if Mario and Oriel/Pierre/Davo can protect the back 4 (ie against lesser teams) then I want to see pace on the wings and two attackers with pace on the field and getting forward when we have the ball
Saints vs Stoke was always a fixture to get the purists hearts racing. From Boston to Bangkok, the bars will have been filled with fans of the beautiful game eager to relish this one
Boufal had the best chance of the game and really should have scored. Redmond brought a great save from Butland.
So much better if Sims had said that Saints are awful and relegation material....that would have lulled the other relegation-threatened teams into losing their next matches.
I wonder if a lack of leadership is a problem (whether it's Davis, Yoshida or Bertrand, none of them shout 'captain' to me). For all we know, maybe some of the lads do want to something about, but they're being held back by following the manager's tactics and instructions. Is there someone amongst with the balls* to turn around and say stuff it, we're now going to do it differently. *And the confidence that they won't get dropped from the team for doing it.
I just had a look at the Leicester site and a lot of Leicester fans are turning against Puel with his less direct style of football. They liked him at first but his slower deliberate style is having a negative effect. Even Vardy alluded to that
Could make the trip to West Ham interesting. Somehow I think that Arnautovic, Evra, Zabaleta and co will equally think that they're too good to go. And absolutely Gold and Sullivan.
Yes because the only other message he/the club can say is the complete opposite. There is no middle ground where they can say, we can stay up but we need to give more, we need to go out with an attitude to win games, and we do that by playing with more intensity and drive than just the occasional 20 minutes.
If JWP didn't exist (or was injured), I could go with that. But there are enough games - and home to Stoke was always going to be one of them - where having JWP on the pitch for (a) his set piece delivery, and (b) putting in deep crosses from the right hand side, is something I would really want. Especially now that we've got a target man up front (and CBs who are starting to chip in).
I just watched MOTD (couldn’t be bothered last night) and I honestly don’t see what the fuss is about Josh’s comments. The poor kid obviously hasn’t been born to a life of public speaking the way JWP has, and all he was essentially saying is they know they’re in trouble and they know a couple of wins will lift them out of trouble. I saw absolutely no arrogance in what he said whatsoever.
Its possible, I only didn't mention JWP because he didn't play and so who can say (It is easy to big up the potential effect of anyone who doesn't play) However, maybe even decent crosses would have played to Stoke's stongest hand (high balls into the box) btw Did anyone mention how bad the ref was? How the f**k did Ndiaye manage to stay on the pitch?
I agree. I was worried by the comments until I saw it for myself. There really is no issue with what he said and I’m more than satisfied with his personal attitude and effort on the pitch.
It must be exhausting being a fan that swings from passion to anger to despair....we are on a long ride and nothing we can do will have any real effect, so it is much easier to stay calm and be ready to accept whatever comes. Believe me, if blowing my top and rending my clothes would do something, I wouldn't have an article of clothing left, but it won't.....so everyone should just hold on tight.
Yes Fran, but you only have to take a seat at St Mary’s to see the need for anger management amongst the fans. Yesterday The guy sitting at the end of my group was screaming abuse at the Stoke player who got clattered and ended up getting subbed off, having no concern for his well-being and a numpty behind us stood up and tapped his watch whilst shouting, “ref, the time! The time!” whilst he was treated. Some would call it passion. I call it utterly brainless.
I don't quite agree about Tadic. The bit in bold is key for me. We regularly see all of Redmond, Boufal and Tadic get into decent positions on the wing before stopping, jinking about a bit and generally slowing things down, which allows the opposition defence to get into position and ready to defend a cross. I 'd suggest this is because we play our right footed wingers (Boufal and Redmond) on the left and often put Tadic, our left footed winger, on the right. Swapping this around would probably help - our best chance yesterday came when Redmond was on the right (where he's spent most of his career) and got to the byline (ish) ahead of their full back. If he'd been on the left he'd probably have stopped running, tried cutting back inside, then tried another trick to get past the defender again and the Stoke defence would have had time to get back where they wanted to be. But because he was on the right he was able to whip in an early cross while the Stoke defence were still running back towards goal. It's just a shame it was Boufal on the end of it. Tadic is pretty good at doing that as well when he plays on the left. So, given our perilous position I'd be okay if we tried putting Tadic on the left wing, JWP, Redmond or Sims on the right and and played Gabbiadini off Carrillo. I very much doubt it'll happen though.
