Thought he wasn't bad, but got exposed with people running off of him and into his channel, same problem as earlier in the season where he's just sluggish on the turn and in the first few steps, he makes everyone around him look like Walcott. And his slowness also meant he couldn't get to and clear the ball when I'm pretty certain Fonte would have done for both of their goals. Don't think he had a poor game though, but very surprised to see anyone name him MotM.
I wouldn't say he was man of the match but that's a bit harsh, Davis and Yoshida's weak clearances were far more at fault than Hooiveld was for either goal. Not to mention everyone watching the ball instead of Hazard for the second one.
Hooiveld did alright, but it was credit to the hard work in midfied that he didn't get run across too much. Didn't cover himself in glory for their second when his botched clearance fell to Ramires, but otherwise he was solid. Did fairly well, but surprised he got motm. Looked perfectly capable though, whic is positive. Morgan and the 2 fullbacks were the standouts.
I didn't say they were more or less at fault, or that Jos was at fault for the goals at all - I merely said that I believe Fonte (or possibly even Yoshida if he was playing at LCB) would have gotten to the balls when Jos didn't.
Yeah, perhaps needless to say I don't think he would have. Though he'd have been on the other side of course and might have made a better effort at clearing the ball than Yoshida did, but we're getting into ludicrously hypothetical territory now! I'd have said that was a block, considering he was sliding in to make the block he wouldn't have had any control over where the ball went after that really. Yoshida's weak clearance led directly to that situation. Totally agree that most of the work was done by the midfield though, Cork and Schneiderlin were exemplary.
Take that back about the second, it was Yoshida's bad clearance. As you say, Steven Davis' crap clearance put us under pressurre for the first. Both our own mistakes though and it says a lot that we otherwise limited them well That Steven Davis chance in the first half deserved a finish on it. The moveent, touch and turn from Rodriguez was subime.
Was going to watch the extended highlights, after watching the highlights late last night/very early this morning, but the whole 90 minutes is available on the Saints Player [Excellent..!]. Which basically means... there's one less mod on here for at least the next hour and a half..! I'm going to watch this one with a nice whisky or three. Cheers
What can I say..? Just watched the 90+ minutes. Totally and utterly deserved 1 point. There were times, in the first half, where we were giving Chelsea the runaround, with our keep-ball. It was patient stuff and we looked so comfortable on the ball. Yes, Chelsea did a bit of the same, but you would expect that from a team comprised of players who cost so much more, and are 3rd in the table. In the 2nd half, Nigel twisted the screw, tactics wise, and each time brought on a substitute, and a goal resulted. I think it took nearly 3 minutes from Rickie coming on, to him scoring. Well, Ramirez came on and 2 minutes later, we'd scored, because Chelsea didn't know who to pick up, defensively. Puncheon's control and shot, as you've all seen was... wowee..! Then we semi-comfortably saw out of the rest of the game, giving almost as good as we got. Yeah, Chelsea had a few long balls into the box, etc... but that was meat and drink to Hooiveld and Yoshida. Standouts..? Schneiderlin was totally immense, as was Cork. The rest played really well, without exception, but without those two it would have been a different game. Boruc was really, really good too and I've totally changed my opinion of him. He has now got his eye in and it clearly shows. He is a very, very capable goalkeeper, who is certainly the current number one. On what I've seen since he's got his act together, he's a significant step ahead of SKDavis, in the PL, and he's just older and wiser than Gazzaniga who, as Adkins says, is the future at Saints. I'm fascinated by the tactics book, which Dean Wilkins flips pages over prior to advising a substitute. It's almost American Football..!
