I can only watch saints games from the internet, and we all know we have a crap record on TV. I have heard people rave about our free flowing football, but I have rarely seen it. Saturday for example, in the first half we were dire (west ham in disguise) but for the first 20 minutes of the second half we played some really nice control and pressure football. What little I came away with from the game on saturday was- our right hand side sucks, only Richardson has a decent delivery on him. Cork and Hammond play too square and are easily by passed. Cork is a good player (Hammond too to a point) but we need an attacking midfielder to play with spider who can chip in with 10-15 goals (maybe Guly if he stays). Jose and Jos may not be the best, but they will die for each other. Sharp(7 goals in 7 games) and Lambert(11 goals in 11 games) are forming a good partnership. Nicola was there in the stands and i'm sure that all problems will be resolved before the start of next season. Maybe our run of form this season was not expected and they thought it best to refrain from changing anything. This is meant as a positive post
If we don't go up we can only blame ourselves. Reading have been magnificent but they shouldn't have had a sniff.
Pushed their way through like a bad mannered social climber. They did what Leicester City [are you reading this Foxes..?] were being billed as being capable of doing and never did. Leicester need to sign off this season with the right intention. Also, Reading have been an established, settled Championship side for a few years now. They knew their way round the place. Signing Roberts was a masterstroke.
I can't help agreeing with bendit. For too long now home and away our right side has been too weak. It wasn't always that way and seemed to become apparant with Chaplow's injury that kept him out. Two other things that seem to have dried up; When did Saints last score from outside the 16 yard box? When did a cross come into the box from the right that turned the opposition defense?
To go back to the OP's point. I've rarely been able to see Saints this season, but when I have there is always a proportion of the match where the opposition simply can't get the ball off us. We ping it around for fun at times, and it is a joy to watch. Just for a few minutes we did it to Boro on the weekend, during our best spell. Thing is, we don't do it often enough, or for long enough. And, in my opinion, if we want to play the same way in the PL, we are going to have to get a few extra personnel in to be first choice at it, with some of our our present grand chaps being their backup. I take this moment to point this out because it's my one nagging doubt about how Saints might fair in the PL.
we scored a 26 pass goal against Boro at home, and I haven't checked on TV, but at 1 nil up in the first half, we could have scored about a 30-40 pass goal (I may have exaggerated) but Chappers was the one on the end of it. We can play and did play at times on Saturday. I sometimes feel we lack a real leader on the pitch. I don't like Barry Robson from Boro, but he was certainly leading the team on Saturday, albeit a little agressively.
the man city goal yesterday came from clichy who played a wonderful pass, by-passing 3 defenders. he played it on the floor and not just banged it forward like fox does
30-40? I've told you a million times about exaggerating! It was a good move though. Our right hand side is an issue. Chaplow is not terrifying defences as he once did. Guly is class on a stick, but right side midfield is not his best position. Shame Lee is injured. He completely bamboozled defences (including ours) and gave us some pace. But overall, the OP has not seen the right games. Leeds at home set the scene and we've played some great stuff. They now remind me of weary boxers looking forward to that final bell.
The issue I have is that we run out of patience too quickly and resort to pumping it up to Rickie. Our two full backs are the worst offenders by continually driving long diagonal balls up field, it drives me mad
