Article: West Ham v Saints match thread Football Southampton

Where are you getting your stats from, I highly doubt this is true. Admittedly I'm sure you don't play as much long ball as is common belief, I can't believe there is a team in Europe that plays less long balls than Barcelona.

 

nah Teddy, none of that spoting niceness ... let's nick it one nil, no matter how we play.

 

I want to win this game by playing fluent beautiful football with all the team receiving commendations from the FA for sporting play. Alternatively.......a dodgy ref, dreadful penalty decision, or a flying dive with loops by Lallana which gives us 3 points will be acceptable.

 

Dreamt about the match last night. Was 3-0 at HT. Then I woke up.

 

This is a game that I fear we will lose. Hammers may have had an easier start but they do have a lot of muscle and hard tacklers and that is my main concern.

 

3-1 West Ham

 

I fear you may be right , but I will follow my heart and go for 2-1 to us .

My Manager and Team leader are both big hammers fans , work will be unbearable for me on Monday if we lose !!!!!!!

 

It was a stat that came out about a week ago and you did misquote it slightly, as Barcelona have averaged 56 long passes per game and Real 66, to your 64, so only Real made more long balls than you. It's also a bit of a false stat too, because it's not just about how many long passes per game you make, it's about how many you make per short pass you make. For example, Barca average about 70% posession per game, so if they have the ball more, then they're obviously going to make more passes of every type, it's a simple matter of ratios, also take into account that the vast majority of Barcas long balls are cross field passes to full backs rather than aimed for the box. Real do make a reasonable amount of long balls, which Mourinho is criticised for a lot by some fans (Although again, there are a lot of cross-field balls), but again they average 57% posession to your 44% posession.

The key stats are long passes per short pass and long passes to posession. Barca made 648 short passes to 56 long balls, and Real made 421 to their 66, you made 306 short passes to your 64 (as a side note, we made 415 to 51). That means that Barca made 11.57 short passes for every long pass they made, and Real made 6.37 short passes for every long pass, whilst you only made 4.78 short passes per long pass (again, unrelated but since this is a Saints forum, we made 8.13). And Barca made 0.8 long passes for every % of posession, Real made 1.15 and you made 1.45.

Regardless, as much as I love to spout stats until the day is done, you don't need stats to see that you are a very direct and fairly long-ball orientated team. I mean you don't have Xabi Alonso or Xavi spreading long balls around the pitch to feet from 40 yards, yours are mostly high balls to the head. Your team is just built for that kind of football. That being said, it is not a unique approach to the premiership (Stoke, Villa, Norwich and Reading have all done it more than you so far this season) and it is not a bad thing if you actually have a method to it and is not just blind hit-and-hope (Again see Villa, Norwich and Reading). We can bleat on about the lovely football we play and people can criticise West Ham and Big Sam for not stroking the ball around like Barca, but at the end of the day this league and this game is about getting results and getting points. And a simple glance at the table indicates at the moment which team is getting points and which team isn't. And right now I'd damn sure rather watch us play some down and dirty direct football against you and grind out a point or sneak a win, than watch us try and play beautiful football and get manhandled. Unfortunately, I fear the latter is a very distinct possibility. This is also probably a pretty bad time from your point of view to have a discussion about how much you play long balls because this game will probably be the most direct game you play all year except for possibly the return leg at St. Mary's. Would be amazed if Big Sam didn't dial up the long balls and crosses because that is easily the best way to attack us, almost all of the goals we've conceded have been from balls into the box, usually which we don't clear right away and let it fall to someone on the opposite team, which is what Big Sam teams are best at.

I look forward to the game, think it could easily be just as big a test as the Manchesters, Arsenal and Everton.

 

Oh Mikey, I started applauding your post at the start and then I got to the sentence when I thought you were selling out. I definately don't want us to "get down and dirty" Saturday to get a result if it means hoofing it. Stick to our playing principles is my belief. If we get a result lumping it then how big will the temptation be to do it again? If you mean scrap for our lives, then fair enough; lumping and hoofing - no thanks.

I'll just round off by congratulating you on those stats; pretty impressive work.

 

Definitely mean scrap rather than hoof. I mean we do have one of the best target men in the business so long balls are not a dreadful route, but I was mainly just hoping that we do what we need to do to win rather than trying above all else to play the way WE want to play and try and play beautiful football even if it means losing. I love Adkins' mentality of going out to win games and believing we can beat the best etc. etc., but in this league you can't expect to be able to go out there every weekend (or every other weekend because of these bloody international breaks) and dictate games and play the way you want to play. We've done this a bit too much this season, the Everton game being a prime example. Every team in the league whether you're Southampton or Man City has to adapt and play in a way you don't really want to against some opponents. We can stick to our core principles but we also have to accept that West Ham away is a game that you will most of the time need to adapt for. We don't need to kick the **** into Carroll, and we don't need to hoof the ball out every time we touch the ball, but at the same time unless everything goes 100% perfectly (Including Gaston magically returning to fitness), we're unlikely to have 70% posession, 90% pass accuracy, limit them to a couple shots in the game and comprehensively smash them 3-0 (Anti-jinx?). A balance needs to be found between our ambitions of how we WANT to play, and the reality how we NEED to play to get results, and we definitely haven't quite found it yet. Besides we can save all our lovely stuff for when we give Spurs a footballing lesson at St. Mary's in a couple weeks and show Bale that he never should have left!

 

Agree with all this!

 

I was going to see if I could track down the numbers, but not only did you refute the original point, you did it in a far more comprehensive fashion than I had intended to. Excellent post.

 

Officials appointed

West Ham United v Southampton (3pm)
Referee: N Swarbrick
Assistants: J Collin, L Betts
Fourth Official: J Moss

 

The referee for this game did our game at home to Pompey last season. He likes dishing out the cards if i remember correctly.

 

Hammers don't like him because of this bit of comedy - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1FRj8ei1JkY&t=5m48s

 

I had a dream about this match as well - we won 8-3! Do not ask me where this came from as I don't have a bloody clue!

 

Unfortunately, if I was putting money on this, I would predict a Hammers win. They play exactly the type of football that we will struggle against, especially with our fragile confidence at the moment. They have also made some great signings since we last played them (here's looking at you Diame.)

 

Don't match threads usually have "previous game", "last time they met" and "team news"? Every thread should aim to be as good as the one the Boro fan did at the end of last season.

Heart: West Ham 2-5 Saints. I expect a crazy game with lots of goals
Head: 3-1

 

No offence but if you are going to make the match thread at least make an effort. It wouldn't have hurt to do a form guide, accurate line up prediction, injury doubts, pictures etc. Something I would do if someone didn't always make the thread so early

 

From Simon Peach's Twitter:

From Radio Solent Twitter:

Seen these over on SaintsWeb and not seen them here ... apologies if already posted!!