I remember Rogan Taylor’s work observing football crowds and how for example if one or two stand up everyone around them joins in and also the same with chants. Has anyone suddenly found at a game they’ve joined in with a chant they really didn’t realise they were going to? Herd mentality is strangely powerful ( and also applies to politics I feel)
It’s interesting how he has apparently been under the radar for some Saints fans. I think he’s a real gem.
As I go to more away games than home, I see more of our yoof supporters. I do wonder where their carers are, and how they find their way home after the match. I usually move seats two or three times to avoid sitting near the space cadets. Maybe you need a stimulated view of Saints games to keep turning up.
I’d rather a player gave the ball away on the edge of the opponents area than ours. I enjoyed watching Adams running the length of the pitch to take play as far away from our goal as possible.
Totally agree. I think he could be a really good player in a 3 man midfield. No idea why Ralph persists with him in a 2, never works
Adams? Or Adam Armstrong? Cos if the latter then I agree. It's his best asset. Turns defence into attack with one quick burst. It's really refreshing considering what the rest of our players tend to do; pass it around ten yards from our own box until we lose it. Also, Stuie Armstrong was decent at getting the ball and running with it too. Another thing we did too often that irked me, was going down too easily looking for a free-kick. The ref was a stubborn bugger, and Ralph should have realised that, and told the players to stay on their feet, cos they wouldn't be winning many free kicks. Half a dozen times our players flopped to the ground, while the Bompey player tackling him would simply take the ball and push on.
TBF the ref was giving a free kick virtually every time a Bournemouth player went down. He was far too inconsistent. You've either got to take the Anthony Taylor approach and hardly give anything or give every little foul. The ref last night seemed to go one way then the other.
Someone mentioned that the yellow card affected his performance, doing an Oriel job of not getting a red, particularly as this Ref was inconsistent to say the least?
One odd thing that I noticed was that Twitter went balistic just before kick off, with tweets about the fact we were wearing white shorts! What does that have to do with anything?
Just read the interesting Athletic article on the match. I didn’t watch from the beginning but apparently we started with a return to the 4-2-2-2 Given the lineup used (and factoring in injuries) it seems apparent that we are still three players away from where we need to be: - Upgrade on Elyounoussi - Upgrade on Adam Armstrong - CM cover for Lavia The last one has seemingly been acknowledged by Ralph quotes recently. And I’d like to think that links to Gakpo and Delap in the summer show that the other two are on our radar For January I’d expect the best case scenario would be if two of those gaps get filled with the attacking ones likely to be a loan whilst we wait for the summer to invest permanently with more scouting. Or at least I hope that is the plan. Given the prices of players in January I don’t see both those attacking roles being filled in January with permanent signings. If all three of those “gaps” are filled one way or the other then I’d like to think we will ultimately be fine this season. But still some way to go and it is a big “if” because it would be a tough market.
That’s the Adam Armstrong point - he played up front in the 4-2-2-2 at least in the first half. And he was signed as a striker
I mentioned that last night.Once he got the yellow, it changed the way he could play as that ref was likely to give a yellow for almost anything, so unpredictable. Perraud had a good game, obviously got the assist, he's a real threat going forward and very good defensively too, luckily Bournemouth were not able to exploit the yellow he received. He is a player I very much rate, to be fair we have got some good players and I'm hoping this is a turning point for us, as I already mentioned the players are clearly by and large playing for Ralph, and that's got to be a good thing, let's see what happens against Arsenal!
Glad they posted this, I wanted to rewatch this after the match yesterday. It was an insane amount of confidence to do that at that stage of the game. He's gotta be one of my favourite players, I don't necessarily want him as a starter but for these moments of crazy skill and the passionate geeing up of the crowd, it's great to have him around!! What a guy!
I agree, Lyanco is just a really fun player to have. Won’t be a world beater or someone we sell for £50 mil but every time he’s come on to help out the defence, he’s done that very well. Plus this sort of flair and #passion is just what you want to see as a fan
I thought that but it looks like every team is now putting two men to mark him which has really buggered our main attacking side. Saw the same when tino was making great runs at the start then became less effective when teams realised they could just foul him around the half line before he gets into his full stride.
