Match Day Thread Saints Vs WBA Tuesday 9th December 19:45

Absolutely Tom, had he criticised the players publicly the same people complaining about his apparent lack of concern would be on his back.

 

Did anyone have a closer look at what he did at the end of the game? He went over to a group of fans with placards in both Kingsland and Itchen and looked like he gave out a shirt / scarf or something and just wanted to see if anyone had a better view of it.

He loves the crowd and its fair to say the crowd loves him.

 

I agree the second half was ridiculous but we held on; that in itself is something we wouldn't have been able to have done a couple of months ago, let alone score three goals. Tonda's learning on the job, and what a job he's doing!

 

True, but subs didn’t start until 63 and we’d already looked poor and let them score the goal that gave them hope

We were just far too passive and with no pressure on them they got too much space

Baz saved us here

 

Just seen that Pompey have the joint-lowest goals scored this season along with Wednesday. They've failed to score in 6 or their last 8 games. And this is just as our lot have discovered their shooting boots. Seeing as Pompey started the season well, and are now fading, it really does seem impossible for both clubs to play well at the same time. Weird.

 

Jelert, Mads and Stewart should help too

At least we’ve got proper Downes back now

 

Just watched the highlights. I still don't understand what Quarshie was doing when he let the ball run at the end. He did the right thing in the first half and put it out for a corner from a similar situation so why didn't he deal with it the second time?

 

Still annoyed we barely registered an attempt against their 3rd choice keeper. They've been appalling away from home.

 

He's still so raw. He doesn't seem to have a CB's instinct just yet. At corners he never seems to be in the right place; can't seem to read the crosses coming in. At 6'5 he should be our main asset defending and attacking set-pieces.

And he has at least one big mistake in him every game. Shame because apart from that he is clearly improving in other aspects. Passing is better, and spends less time dallying on the ball.

 

For me, we looked jaded fairly on in the second half, like we were chasing shadows. Granted, WBA started to knock the ball around a lot sharper but our press of that looked disjointed which ended up with them pulling as around all over the place.

The subs didn't really help. Archer I thought was very effective in an attacking sense but lacked Armstrong's knack of doing little defensive pieces higher up the pitch. Robinson and Fraser were virtually non-existent compared to the players they replaced. Aribo and Romeu were so late in the game that I can't really judge them too much.

Biggest concern was the defending of set pieces though (which had already shown in the first half). I feel our team is lacking in experience and aggression from a defensive perspective. Perhaps lacking leadership and decision making of who's marking who and tracking of players. Stephens I feel would have marshalled it all better but I understand the reasons why he was not playing vs Quarshie. THB is not a leading defender and nor is Wood ... the kind that endeavours to settle everyone down (ala Fonte).

All the above said, it's lovely to be able to watch an ambitious, exuberant attacking display when it clicks. The defensive side will improve I'm sure, and when Roeslev, Jelert, Charles and Stewart return from injury then I think we'll have players that are more capable of coming in to see out a game when we're under the cosh.

 

I wasn't criticising him, just pointing out that he seems unconcerned as we are winning. As am I.

 

Just watched the highlights back and the "defending" for the two goals we conceded was extremely poor, as it was for all the other corners.
We have 3 CBs that are marking zonally and are completely static when the corner comes in with little reaction to where the ball goes so it's little wonder that it usually goes to an oppo head. Also there is nobody covering the edge of the box as with their first goal and their player gets a free shot at goal uncontested.
I don't know who is coaching defensive set-pieces but it desperately needs work because the chances we are giving up from them are leading to goals too often. Bazunu did make a couple of good reaction saves from them but he is not attempting to deal with the ball as it comes across initially.

 

Tonda has mentioned in interviews the desire to keep a clean sheet so I'm sure he's aware of the defensive frailty but looking at the squad he has available you can't really argue he's not using them to their strengths which is attack but we then run out of steam and invite too much pressure on ourselves.

It also feels like we still lack a bit of height in set pieces (ie fraser trying to mark someone clearly a large margin taller than him at the end of the game).

The subs all lack something compared to who they replaced and improving the bench is where we can improve the tail end of games.

Not discounting the need for a more robust taller forward and I'm going to ignore the goalkeeper question as it won't be resolved until the summer at the earliest anyway but improving on the likes of Aribo and Fraser should be doable either through injuries returning or new blood.

 

I’m sure the plan in the second halves of games we are winning comfortably is to manage the game and save legs to some degree. Sitting deep and inviting pressure is a way of doing that, but a stupid way that will eventually cost us.

We have to figure out the way of killing the game by keeping the ball, like we did under Martin to a certain degree. If we have a 2+ goal lead and we possession the other team for the first 15/20 mins of the second half they will run out of steam

 

Play possession football second half and tonda ball first half

 

That`s when I lost any confidence in Still - we were at home and never laid a glove on them. When the dodgy rooky sub keeper came on, we had several corners and free kicks. They were all outswingers, rather than landing them right on top of him. I couldn`t believe it.

 

Ah but you didn't create a thread ranting and raving about him though did you?

 

FFS. ****s. Lifetime ban from St Mary's for those responsible please.

 

Am I too late ??

 

Apologies, I threw brick realising I had to post another match day thread