Match Day Thread Southampton v West Ham 29/12/2020 6pm Amazon Prime

I just can’t believe the crisps thing.

 

We have still only lost 25% of our games with 3 losses against big 6 clubs and one on the opening day. This represents definite progress and it is inevitable that there will be periods of indifferent form during a long season with injuries and suspensions.

 

I have to agree with Adam Blackmore's comments. Not a great performance and disappointing after the Fulham match where VAR denied us the points. I believe West Ham have been us in the last five outings. Also worth pointing out that Hassenhutl was absent last night.

Also worth noting that I believe it was under Koeman that we had a dip in form over Christmas. We have been excellent for much of 2020 in what has been a very disjointed year. With 26 points,, we are three points away from fourth place. We are 13 points clear of the relegation zone which makes it very unlikely we have to worry about getting sucked in to a battle at the wrong end of the table.

At this point in time, I think it is incredible that we are where we are in the league. I am pretty sure that there will be a break in January and parts of February due to the worsening situation with Covid. I hope we can pick up the pieces when football resumes if this happens. It is ironic that Big Sam is calling for this but, a few weeks down the line, this will be the sensible option as opposed to a cry from the manager of a relegation threatened team who wants time to get his house in order.

 

Players and staff on both sides got it right as it was 2 points dropped and one point gained for both teams. I thought the game was entertaining but both teams defended well and didn't have enough to win it going forward.

2 things that have concerned me since the draw with Arsenal is that teams have worked out if they defend deep and narrow it stiffles our attack. We don't seem to have the creativity to open up a tightly packed defence. Also I'm not sure how much longer Bertrand can compete at this level. He is getting clumsy in defence and ineffective in attack. Our best attacking play in on the right but without Redmond we do little on the left.

Another good game from Stephens. His mistake at the end could have lost the game but I think Saints have conceded just 1 goal and kept 2 clean sheets since he came in although I'm not seeing enough from him to take Vestegaard's place in the team.

 

Bit of a **** game, but when I saw our line-up I knew it would be. We paid £45m for Haller, and that was one of his better performances, the difference when Antonio came on was chalk and cheese.

 

To be fair, in the last 25 minutes, they didn’t have 10 men behind the ball and they left chances for us to get behind them and cause problems. But we dropped back and settled for the draw.

 

Yeah, that was probably always their plan.At least we got the draw, instead of getting sucker punched at the end.

 

45m wow. That’s about double our most expensive signing.

 

The thing about that west ham display was that they had no pace to counter attack, so they sat back and absorbed pressure but were relying on a set piece to get something. On the other hand we had plenty of pave but nowhere to go with it. Two bonkers tactics really.

 

Yeah the ease with which their players were falling over anywhere in our half became laughable. It was clear as f*ck after the first two or three dives exactly what their intentions were. Crazy that refs just let it go on.

Regardless, they defended very well and the draw was fair.

 

Stephens has stepped in well
I don’t think he could do much with that late header, no pace on the ball difficult to get any distance in it

Re Vesty, Jack played 3 killer cross field balls to KWP in true Vesty style. I think the FB just got a toe on all of them though

 

Cresswell read the deep diagonals very well, so Jack started putting them slightly less deep, or going via Romeu and JWP.

 

Wrong thread.