Been saying it for ages; our defence would make any keeper look bad. If we allow the opposition to have 20+ shots on goals every game, then the keeper is bound to let the odd dodgy one in. All keepers make mistakes. Understandably they make more when they are given so much to do. Bazunu doesn't deserve any criticism, but then the criticism of McCarthy in previous seasons was also over the top, in my opinion.
Fair enough. Which of my other thoughts did you disagree with out of interest? We weren't awful under Ralph any more than we were today. As I said when he left if, Che, Walcott, Armstrong et al had finished their chances we would be safe in midtable. Today they conceded simple goals and were out of the game in the first half, heads went down, energy gone, no positivity. Same old to me.
I wouldn’t expect to see any change with a new manager after a couple of games (unless they had stopped playing for Ralph, which I don’t think they had).
I don’t think their heads went down at all. First half, with 3 CBs and ABK really not understanding his role, left us totally exposed with huge gaps on his side that were being exploited. Bazunu made 2 really good stops which stopped us going in, at HT even further adrift. Second half Jones made the call on 55 minutes to change to a back four and we started to get into the game and could/should have had 3 goals, were it not for Allison pulling off top drawer saves. There were positives from the game. We didn’t fanny around by passing the ball between the CBs, as much as in other games. We were looking to get the ball forward more quickly and when we went long the midfielders were following the ball to try and support the strikers or to win the second balls. I hope Jones bins the 3 at the back simply because when he changed it we went from a team that didn’t fully understand what they were supposed to be doing, to a team that actually LOOKED like a team. Long way to go but some positives for me.
The first half was Jones' first 'real' view of how the Saints players are performing in a proper match, and as a result of his half time talk and adjustments, Saints were far, far better in the second half. If this level of improvement can be achieved in 15 minutes, just think what can happen in six weeks! We'll be world beaters by Boxing Day!
This reminds me (because I am very old) of a Punch magazine joke: Which is better in a railway crash - Presence of Mind, or Absence of Body? I've got my coat...
Says something about heads not dropping when Alisson noted in reports for excellent saves and comments like "There was much to encourage Nathan Jones on his Premier League bow" Guardian and "Southampton contributed to an enjoyable game and Jones will be encouraged with how his players responded after falling behind to Firmino's goal. The performance of Bazunu, who was playing in League One on loan last season, was also a positive but this is a young Saints team." BBC
Ćaleta-Car in particular needs to learn to angle the long ball. It can be a useful tactic, Liverpool for example play quite a bit of long ball, they're just much better at it.
There was a period a couple of seasons ago that Big Vester was pinging long diagional balls to an advancing KWP and it was a real threat. Not really seen it since then because the current CBs don't really possess that kind of accuracy.
Possibly worth a mention but Robertson, yesterday, reached 59 assists in the premier league, putting him equal with Leighton Baines for the most assists by a defender.
I had meant that heads dropping comment to be about the first half only - which they did, but made it sound like I meant the whole game. 2nd half they were up and at 'em again which was good to see. There were plenty of positives but that's been the story of the season, we haven't been awful in the majority of the games but we sure aren't winning them. It seems that its individual errors all over the pitch compounding into defeats this season.
I remember that, he turned into Andrea Pirlo for about half a season. I think that might be what persuaded Leicester to buy him, in spite of his inability to defend consistently for 90 minutes.
He even had a brief spell of good defending too. Got to be one of the worst deals in a long time from Leicester. He was crap for a good couple of seasons with us, has a decent half a season, and then spunk, what was it, £15m on a player with 1 year left?
Haven't seen the game, haven't even read all of this thread but what I have read seems pretty puerile in places. But anyone who was expecting to see a massive difference in our style from exactly the same group of players, after 3 days in charge, seems to me to be incredibly naive.
