Highlights from the OS: https://southamptonfc.com/news/2018-03-04/highlights-southampton-stoke-city-premier-league Redmond lucky not to get booked for his remonstrating after the final whistle, which came 10 seconds early and didn’t allow an attacking free kick.
Oh, and for those of you who believe Cedric should be discouraged from long distance shooting, he hit a rasping effort straight at the top corner from 20 yards yesterday which was only denied by a fantastic save from Butland.
Seen in isolation, I'd have seen yesterday's performance as acceptable but unlucky. We restricted Stoke to a couple of chances, even when our bete noir, Crouch, came on early. He was largely stifled and Shaquiri similarly. In return, we missed two or three absolute sitters that in easier times we'd just have slotted away. The fact that the header by Sofiane was his first touch of the game and then the bobble past Manolo were moments that we might have shrugged off with a sigh last season. There were some good points. I thought Guido worked well and won a lot of the ball in the air. Redmond had a simply excellent game, crowd opinion notwithstanding. Lemina is the real deal and Josh Sims showed himself to be a real handful. There were also some bad points, largely in our lack of finishing power (as ever) and our "support". There was plenty of noise until the 25th minute when suddenly - for no reason I could see - the mood of the fans turned and went into relentless negativity. I do wonder who thinks they'll improve matters by tedious attacks on the players for almost literally everything they do. A case in point, watch the cross by Nathan to Boufal when he missed the header. He's running up the wing, notices he's alone and slows for a second before running on and delivering a brilliant cross. You get a slight whiff of it on TV but, believe me, the Northam erupted in hatred when Nathan hesitated. What they wanted was for him to carry on, cross it into an empty box and really be able to hate him. God's teeth... All I ask is that if we're going to play Tadic (and he's too in-and-out for me to see him as a must-have on the sheet) we should have him on the left. I'd also be thinking about dropping Bertrand. He looked (and has looked for a while) utterly detached. I don't see why he's deserving of the captain's badge at the moment. And he and Nathan look like sworn enemies, they so rarely pass to one another. Anyway, if we muster that second-half performance again we'll give someone a surprise. It'll also help that we're playing away for a few games; our fans are massively more supportive on the road. Vin
Glad you’re still with us Vin, and you make some very good points. I was wondering, from your perspective behind the Northam goal, did you think as I did that when Sims made that fantastic break in the first half, and Tadic was keeping pace with him but separated by 2 defenders, should Tadic have cut in to give Sims a chance of a pass, which would have been ideal for Dusan’s left foot?
I felt at the time that Josh's last touch was a tad too strong and took away the option of passing it; he was struggling to get to it at all and had to try to snatch a shot with his much weaker left foot. I don't think that at that point he was looking for any passes. Vin EDIT: and of course Tadic would have taken three touches then spooned it into Butland's hands. He's a terrible finisher, IMO.
Cheers, Vin. Great points and welcome back! As you say, we should be better on the road because the fans really get behind the team and a lot of the negativity from the stands isn’t there. I’m still keeping everything crossed that we can win a couple of games and get away from the drop ..... But the best bit is having our mate Vin back!
Yeah, as I said earlier I still believe we’ll be okay. Perhaps foolishly. Call me Josh Sims, but I do think there’s enough in this team to pull out the necessary results, however (or despite) how we’re set up.
Thank you. The question is, should I read back through all the threads I've missed? Will they lift my spirits? Or will it all sound a bit "home atmosphere"ish? And a word to the people on this thread who have used words along the lines of "are going to" and "will be" in relation to relegation, you might want to open an account with Betfair and put your life savings on us to be relegated. On their exchange, you can multiply your money by 4.6 if you're that certain. Vin
No - I shouldn’t bother if I were you, Vin. There’s nothing in there you wouldn’t have read months ago ....
Nathan was right to protest, 2 minutes was well short of what it should have been, taking in to consideration the time taken at the substitutions, time wasting and other stoppages there should have been more. The free kick should have been allowed to have been taken in my opinion, it would have been for any of the big sides!
I’ll condense for you. - strange match threads - we’re **** - Pellegrino, how is he still our manager - two up front please - we’re getting relegated/we’re too good to go down - odd new posters who must work for the club - Kylie
I agree he was right to protest, I just thought that the bizarre thought processes within Anthony Taylor’s mind might have oroduced a yellow card, despite him not booking any Stoke players until they had been tried and convicted for GBH.
I’ll be annoyed and I’ll be flat for a few weeks in terms of football. Then I’ll look forward to the next chapter.
He had a very odd game. It was almost like he was hungover and couldn’t be arsed. I did think he looked a bit ill at one point, oddly enough.
