I'm not really watching but he's keeping Sisto out of the team for some reason, there's a fantasy swap deal there which would help with our ultimate goal of signing the whole Denmark national team.
Six games into his Saints management, Pochettino lost at home to QPR 2-1. A few games later we lost at home 0-3 to West Brom. The rest of this season is the experimenting phase, and lets not forget that. I'm sure Ralph learned a lot last night.
I have decided 7.45pm games are bad. In my head it's because players can't perform that late in the day, or something, I dunno. They should be scrapped anyway. PS winter break.
A winter break is coming soon, isn't it? Sky and BT are happy because half the teams have one fortnight off, then the other half have a fortnight off...means there is no weekend without football. Clever idea.
Unfortunately I could not get to the game but watched on TV. My reflections are that the Saints pressing game will pay dividends as they get fitter. They did appear to be a bit leggy but that is. Understandable if the training regime is now in turbo charge. What struck me most was the power in the WHU side..we do not have that and it is something we have to correct. WHU were the better team on the day and deserved the win. A couple of things...we should have had a penalty on the corner as it was much worse than the one given for Ward-Prowse against Brighton. The ref unfortunately assisted Anderson with his first goal as he jumped out of the way just as he hit it giving McCarthy no chance.
I thought the ref was at fault for a diffferent reason: he should have closed Anderson down quicker, rather then jumping out the way!
Definitely. We're playing in a way that will win us games. Not every time but often enough. We haven't looked like that for some time. One thing I can't see mentioned anywhere (if I've missed it I apologise) and it might well not have shown up on TV was the sheer size of the WHU players. Every single on of them looked bigger than the Saints player up against them. They were certainly stronger and plenty of times sheer muscle won the ball. It seems glaring to me but I might be wrong. Anyway, all we need to do is stuff Man C on Sunday and your optimism will be back. Vin
We didn't have the energy yesterday and West hams shape allowed them to play through us when we tried to press. Think that was a bit of a welcome to winter in the premier league match for Hasenhuttl. i think we will pick up the points.
As has already been mentioned, I thought we looked tired. It was as if we were playing game four of the Xmas period, rather than game two (which doesn't bode well for the City and Chelsea matches - because even if we rotate, to freshen things up, we'd generally be rotating with lesser quality players.) We just didn't really turn up. But then again, the players are still getting used to Ralph's training methods, and Ralph is still getting used to the English game. Targett again disappointed me. Lemina again put in a below par performance when partnered with Romeu in a two (he often seems a little confused as to what his role should be, when partnered with Rom - sometimes leading to him trying to do everything, but executing very little). And Ings wasn't really on it. I did think Bednarek and Vestergaard again played well, and that was probably the best I've seen from Romeu in a long time. Redmond, and to a lesser extent Armstrong, again looked dangerous when in possession - but alas that was all too rare, and all too lacking in support. The second biggest problem for me (after the tiredness) was the formation. Firstly it inevitably provides an intelligent opponent, when holding the correct tools, with an obvious route to attack you: namely down the flanks, where you can get a 2-on-1 situation against the wing-backs. Secondly, without substituting off a CB (which of course we ultimately did do, but possible too late), it severely hampers what tactical tweaks you can make when things aren't quite going your way. You need two wings-backs, you need (minimum) two CMs - ideally both of whom have to be able to tackle - and by definition you have three CBs. So you're kind of left with just playing around the front three.
Forget Huddersfield, they've lost Mooy for 2 months which has pretty much sealed their fate. Cardiff won't survive with Warnock, so you've just got to be better than Fluham & Burnley.
After not winning this century (or at least that is what it felt like) we won two games....to stay up we need to win games....not draw them....win! A more attacking style, players scoring, and a lift in team confidence will be enough. However, this does require stamina..and you don't get that overnight, so we must expect to run out of puff in some games.
That’s the key... winning games not drawing them. 6 points is great from two games and takes a little heat off. Shame we didn’t have Ralph a week or ten days before the Cardiff game.
