Well that was pretty ****ing rancid. Whoever is in charge of mental conditioning at the club needs to have their contract shredded, we can never just lose one game and draw a line under it we always have to drop like a stone to the bottom of the form table every time. Poor set up and inadequate sub response by Ralph. ‘How to annihilate your season in just two weeks by Southampton FC’ from a push for Europe to 07/08 Derby in three games, lose against Man City next week and our season is over. The last three games reaffirm why Forster has been behind McCarthy for anyone who was in doubt, total liability. Salisu, Bednarek, Perraud all exceptionally poor. Elyounoussi’s pass selection was absolutely hideous. Probably Stu’s worst game at Saints. Apart from first half set peices arguably JWPs worst performance since becoming captain. Adams and KWP tried their best and are the only ones who really emerge with any credibility. By the way all the credit built up from those games against Man City, Spurs and Man United is now worthless, those results now mean nothing, congratulations boys. /uncoordinated supremely pissed off rant Congrats to Watford who managed to look like they were formed of pure energy in comparison to our randomly assembled pedestrians XI today.
At the current rate of performance, I'm not sure I want even one eye on the next game! I really hope this is a con trick to entice City to take us for granted. I'd like to believe that but right now after that performance, hope is a bit thin. But then we're Saints after all,!
Few tough matches after City. Trip to Elland Road which won't be easy after today and then Chelsea and Arsenal.
We're a confidence team. A few wins last month and we looked stunning. A couple of defeats this month and we just look stunned. But no point in moaning because this is the level Saints are at. Always have been. Always will be. In the build up , everyone seemed to want Tino and Broja rested. They got it. They wanted JWP in his (allegedly) favoured position. They got it. But now people seem to be blaming Ralph for messing with the team. We have a good squad of 22 players and any selection should have beaten that Watford team today. I don't see how we can pick on players like Ely, Perraud, Smallbone and Salisu for having off days when the off day by Romeu, Forster and JWP was far more telling. Anything can happen next week
Are we definitely safe from relegation then? If these ****s don’t beat Leeds then they can all **** off tbh
That’s what I said if we were to lose to Watford. Villa and Newcastle were excusable but Watford are proper ****.
This past week hasn't surprised me. Firstly, because we scaled our mountain by reaching 9th. There was never realistically any further to go. And as much as some people like to think that fighting for prize money etc is a motivator, in reality it was always likely to lead to us going on our summer holidays early (as I suggested a while back). Brighton went on holiday first, we've now joined them, and I would expect Palace to be close behind. Secondly, we've got history of going through these waves of sustained good form and sustained bad form. We're now back to the latter, and will likely stay there for a while yet. And then at some point we'll go and win four games out of six, or something. As for the match itself, I thought KWP was easily our best player, whereas Salisu and Armstrong both arguably had their worst games for us.
There is so much common sense in this post. To be honest, Watford were pretty rubbish. Their finishing was attrocious and I am ure that it our moe attack minded players had got behind their defence more, we would have seen a different result. What I thibk was salutory was that so many key players were below par for us. Salisu was dreadful but I have to say Stuart Armstrong had one of his worst games for us. Peraud was really poor too andd even Bednarek vented his frustration against the fans. All told, too many players did not show up today. Sorry yo say that I am not convinced by Smallbone. Elynoussi was not as sharp are he usually is. Going with Adams alone up front was a mistake but I cannot see why he brought Broya on. I would loved to see Ralph put some faith in Armstrong and give him a run. I thi k Ralph shoud, have kept the same formation but switched players. Broja needs a rest and I think Stephens should have been brought in for Salisu. I did not feel Watford looked that good, to be honest. They should have put the game to bed in the first half and made the game more difficult than it needed to be. I will not make predictions any more - even though this one seemed a shoo-in.
Just home from the game - l want to know who was the ****ing idiot that closed one lane of the flyover at Millbrook and failed to put up any advance warning signs??!! A one hour drive to get to Romsey from West Quay!! About the game, worst home performance of season, by some stretch - not helped by the bizarre line-up. Why play one attacker against a team that leaks goals? Ralph dropped the ball today from a great height IMO. Embarrassing goals to concede and Mo's goal had an element of luck with his miss hit attempt finding the side corner of the net. KWP was outstanding and Perraud was solid (Ralph got one thing right). Elsewhere, everyone else was poor to very poor. I think Salisu had a bet on a Watford win and a goal in the first 15 mins, he certainly tried his best to gift them the game. By far the poorest player for us today. Ralph said we would see a positive response to the Villa defeat. Message to Ralph - am still ****ing waiting.... Honestly, at half time l was ready to walk across the pitch from Block 29 of the Kingsland Stand and walk up to Ralph and give him my season ticket - l was that annoyed with him. Rant over and no, l do not feel better for it.
So a really bad day. We were coaching our U14's today with a place in the Q/F at stake. at H/T we were 2-0 down, looked at my phone expecting some cheer from St Marys and saw we were 2-0 down. Needless to say both games ended badly. Will read through the thread to see the mood, unfortunately, it looks as though it might wimper out quickly, strangely enough I see can see a parallel to youth football, disappointing as a fan and a coach
Even if we up our game against City, we aren’t going to win it. We have had a better season, but Saints are still a bottom half or Championship quality team.
I think Smallbone deserves a chance, we have given endless opportunities to others. I thought he looked decent in a recent cup game, maybe game time will help him
I strongy disagree with this statement, Oldstockton..I think that we are a few players short of being a Top 8 team. The problems today were untypcial and unfortunate because the issues were extensive throughout the team today. We could have put in a team perfprmance where all eleven players were at the top of their game. but the exact opposite happened today. The error was playing one up front .and not changng it sooner when ot was obvious it was not working. The decision to play Smallbone was robably logical although a shame that it did not work out. I would like to know how Ralph is supposed to assess what his full squad is like if he does not give them a game. I do concur that he whould have brought Armstrong on in the second 45.
Thank goodness we've got those difficult games out of the way so we can concentrate on next week's easier match. Really looking forward to watching us play City with a team not as good as today's. I think I'll wait outside the ground until the team is announced then drive back home.
I didn’t check the line up properly before the match, wtf is going with Adam Armstrong? Why did he not start… and why did he not get on the pitch?
