Match Day Thread Southampton v Arsenal Sunday 16th December 2018 13:30.. the Welcome Ralph Thread

Yeh interesting. I noticed that in their last game. I fancy our chances if we can press well. They can’t be as good in possessions as the Arse

Hope Redders, Armstrong and Ings are all ok

 

Describes their 1st goal perfectly. Bednarek followed but failed to stop Iwobi from receiving and turning. Redders was also near him but not near enough. Valerie a split second late seeing the run. Then great cross and Mkh got between Oriel and Jan

We’ll learn from that

 

There should be no place for this kind of lewd sexist near pornographic imagery on this message board especially as it has got **** all to do with football.

 

Yeah they've apparently only scored 3 home goals all season according to their forum I'm now apparently banned from.. No need to defend deep. Play our style, Press them as they try and pass it around the back, nick it and score.

I missed being confident

 

Yeah, I went on there as well. Bloody depressing......hope we twist the knife!

 

I need more football!

 

We had a lot of those stats last season. Didn’t do us much good though. In our first home win in over a year at the weekend, we recorded possession of only 34%.

 

Arsenal had lots of possession as well, but a lot of that was in their own half. Long balls over the top may be the danger....if they have the players for that....admittedly I know less than nothing about Hudders.

 

I'm not saying high possession is great (especially when you cant score) just they're perhaps more susceptible to a high press than I would have thought perviously. Had them down as more low possesion and having to play on the counter.

 

After our win it would have been good to have a midweek game. The players and manager might not agree, but nice for fans.

 

Nah, we need a weeks work.

 

They have one decent player, who is currently injured.

This is not a call for complacency!

 

Ooooo is Mooy out?

 

Billing is rated very highly there also.

 

Yep. Until February.

 

Sad for Mooy, and bad news for Huddersfield. But good news for us! It'll still be a tough game though, completely different test to Arsenal.

 

Out until February with a knee injury. They, or rather Australia, are hoping he’ll be fit for the Asia Cup in January but it doesn’t look likely.

 

I am really hopeful that the new set-up will see us play more intensive and exciting football, my only worry is that successfully converting those quick crosses into the box (as we did on Sunday) is fairly reliant on us having a consistently fit strike force, that is good at taking the chances that come their way.
I rate both Ings and Charlie as strikers, but history has shown they will miss their fair share of matches (I fear this is even more likely with the increased workload of a high press) and beyond them we don't have a proven goal scorer. Because of this (and our current points total) I fear we won't be able to relax until quite close to the end of the season.

 

Don’t forget we also have Obafemi, Afolabi, and a few others from the U23’s who could be called up. Will Smallbone is a really exciting AM who I’d love to see in the first team, and then big Sam Gallagher is reported to be almost fit again.

 

They are all exciting players, but I would be worried if we pick up injuries and are relying on them to score a season saving amount of goals