D Doesn’t necessarily matter who we play up top, it’s too soon to judge Carrillo, but as Bertie just eluded to, for any striker coming on to know they’ve got a partner up top and the teams aim is to pass to both of them.... much better than playing any one of our out of form strikers who know they’re gonna get no service....
Carrillo is getting a lot of stick today, but he needs time. Saints have been playing very poorly. He has little service. Give him a break.
A game we should be expected to win, so I’m not going to read too much into it. Still, we looked decent and a win’s a win. Can’t be anything but pleased with the result. Just going to enjoy this and worry about the future later.
Wigan deserved to win on the first half display alone but I’m not complaining. Too many problems still apparent today. Legacy of Puel’s tactics as much as MP2. Hughes has a lot of work to do with this group. Some of the indivual mistakes were just unforgivable. But it’s a start and we can only get better.
As things stand we could have a repeat of the a) 1961 final b) 1963 final c) 1967 final d) 1976 final e) 1994 final (it was a this stage in my life that I lost interest in the two participating teams in the final and found better things to do than watch what was often a turgid match)
I am 8 hours behind in Arizona on business, I have all day to finally celebrate a Saints win. The first half was awful to watch. But we turned it around second half, thank you Sparky. Now we have to move on and bring that second half performance into the league. I have said that before, after the City game, the Spurs home game, the Arsenal game, we need this win to get us out the predicament we find ourselves in. "Once more into the breach"
I agree thought Carrillo looked poor today, not much pace, shabby first touch and no real link up with Gabbi. Thought Gabbi looked much the brighter even though he missed so chances. So for me a fit Bricklayer then Gabbi then Long, our £20 million pound pile of poo sitting at the bottom of the heap!
Fantastic result. You guys up there must be loving that! Well done Hughes. Just what we needed. Well done players.
Nope completely disagree, thought he looked dangerous throughout before being taken off. Nah who am I kidding he was awful!
I had my girl dog on my lap, a quiet cheer for the first, she kept sleeping. Cedric’s goal, I haven’t seen her since! Poor thing. Maybe I should go get her!
I think it's important to look at this match as realistically as possible once the excitement of actually winning a match settles down. Plenty of positives to take away from it (subs, tactics, playing style, new manager who shows excitement/joy/relief) but I think it's important to acknowledge that it was a game that we were expected to win comfortably (even if Pellegrino was still here), and for 45 minutes we got schooled by a division 1 side. It's more than likely just the players breaking into the new tactics of a brand new manager, but i hope Hughes takes a good look at what happened in the first half, acknowledges the errors and carries on the form of the second half back to the PL with us.
That’s fair. But Gabbi probably should have had two goals today. Neither him or Carrillo were that good against a lower division side where they should have shined. Look, it’s just one game and of course the strikers will be lacking some confidence and not in form given they’ve had so few chances. At the same time, it’s way too early to start saying Gabbiadini is awesome and only Pellegrino was preventing him from double digit goals. I like Gabbiadini. I think he’ll come around. But he has been bad this season and was bad again today and IMO, never earned a permanent starting position (not that anyone else has). I hope that we will look for another striker in the offseason and if we do, Gabbiadini will have to fight hard for a place. One thing is, if we do end up going with two strikers, Long becomes more useful too.
I can’t believe we have a manager that can make a positive impact at half time. I am so happy. This one game has brought me more joy than every game since wembley combined.
