Well, very disappointing obviously. I just hope that we earn some more points (and sincerely hope we have enough already) by the end of the season, otherwise it will end in a bit of a damp squibb. I feel sorry for Davis and Clyne, who both looked quality and put in a great shift. Lallana's really off the boil and Ramirez was making a difference before getting himself sent off. West brom were excellent, credit to them.
Ok so maybe the second one you quite often see players go round keepers easy when they have the pace. It still does frustrate me, and even when it's not a team I support, when a keeper lets a goal through their legs. I agree that he is certainly a long way away from being the 'most to blame', and at no point did I say that! Just a reactionary comment having seen the three goals replayed.
Yep. And he's trying just as hard as anyone in the team. It's not his fault he's out of his depth, giving him a hard time is unfair. Clyne did well going forward but he messed up for the first goal and lacked strength against Lukaku and Fortuné in general. Had to 'get rid' instead of keeping his composure a few times. Agree re Davis though, our best player today I thought.
Getting done for pace I can live with. It's the fact that he makes the same fundamental errors in positioning several times per game that drives me insane. He'll tuck in to within five yards of the next-nearest defender while ceding an immense amount of space to the outside...there really shouldn't be a moment where all four defenders are back yet a player is able to generate a one-on-one off of a simple pass without anyone within eight yards.
Credit to West Brom who are a better team than many give them credit. Their formation surprised us today and we could not deal with Lukaku. We have some tough games comping up and I wonder if we should shuffle our pack slightly, problem is depth in some areas is quite thin.
One of those games where it just snowballed and got worse and worse for us, whilst it got better and better for West Brom (apart from Fortune's moment of madness). Great work from Steve Clarke - quick, strong front three, identified the weakness of Fox and lack of mobility of Hooiveld and picked on them both, men behind the ball, invited us on and then quick, neat passing or long balls into the channels and we never had the personnel or numbers back to handle it. For us our pressure was aimless, usually our pressure takes space away from the other team but all it did today was create it, I lost count of the number of times we got sucked into towards the ball and then got played around. Our back-line couldn't push up the pitch because we couldn't handle them in behind, but all that meant was whenever we attacked we'd play a 4-1-5 formation (when we still had 11 men! ) and have one man whether it be Cork, Schneiderlin or Davis trying to cover an area the width of the pitch and about 20 feet long in between our defence and attack. I thought we played reasonably well going forwards but unfortunately our best attacking players were Davis and Clyne, and they couldn't do enough to affect the game for us going forwards. Our delivery is a real problem when we can't get behind teams, if a team sits back on us we can't generate any pressure by just forcing the ball into dangerous areas in their box because our crossing is invariably average at best, which is such a waste with Rickie up front, he should have 20 goals by now if the service to him was better. JRod's recent sharp, incisive threat looked blunt with him having no more than 2/3 opportunities to run with the ball and I don't think he got behind their defence once, he's a big talent but for him to inherit Sir Rickie's role he will have add weapons to his game to pose more of a threat in these types of games. I think the recurring problems are clear; inconsistency, no 'Plan B', no threat posed from crosses, and suspect defending from set pieces. However I think our main downfall today was... We played the wrong team on the wrong day! Doesn't gloss over our shambolic display, but they were fantastic.
Did anyone see Ramirez' foul from head on or behind? The stream I watched only had one camera angle on it, from over the defender's shoulder and you couldn't see the elbow at all. The commentator was fairly convinced though. And no doubt about Fox. So that's the last of Fox and Ramirez this season. Hopefully Shaw will be fit for Spurs!
Clyne, back post again but other than that he was very good. Cork was off colour as was Lallana. Lambert didn't really wake up until he got the armband. Schneiderlin and Davis were superb. Fox was OK bar a few disappointing crosses and the lunatic tackle at the end. Ramirez did OK for his few minutes on the pitch but it was a blatant elbow. He definitely meant that. Overall Poch needs to sort something out when we are playing defences that sit deep and play for the counter. We had so much possession today and never really looked dangerous. As for the fans chanting '**** ref' at each sending off and at the end. They will be embarrasesd with theirselves when they see the replay. Though the ref had a pretty good game considering it was his first in the Prem
Stats from todays game: Possession (%): 62-38 Passes: 454-272 Accuracy (%): 82-65 Final 3rd: 130-108 Accuracy (%): 72-56 Shots(OT): 17(3)-10(8) Things that stand out. A lot of possession but not doing enough with it. A lot of speculative shots from way out today, but overall shooting quality is awful. 17 shots and only 3 on target.
I'm a Saints fan, it's in my nature! Realistically, I don't see it happening but until its mathematical I will worry!
We have a few things to improve. I feel today we played terribly as a team, individually most of our players were good even fox did good things. I still think we will finish 6+ next season and we will play fantastic football, however I am no longer quite sure of Yoshida I think he is a good player and has had many very good games for but his poor passing and lack of physicality might see him on the bench next year if we bring in 2 defenders or fonte and forren up their game. As a team we need to improve our defensive and offensive set pieces and our communication. Quite a few times a player has been in a great position in the box only for his own team mate to take it off his boot. On a positive I thought Ramirez was good. He has the silkiest left foot ever.
Indeed, I never saw a decent angle of Gaston's arm itself, but the damning aspect for me was that he definitely seemed to look back at Long just before he did it, as if he was eyeing up his target. Didn't see a replay of Fox's because I was in stitches. But it was the kind of laughter where you're a fraction away from crying instead.
A great example of where stats don't tell the whole story. If someone purely looked the stats you'd be surprised to see we lost 3-0, when in reality we were controlled and dominated all game.
Apart from Clyne, our defenders had no pace going forwards, or more importantly, going back. That has to be sorted for next season or we will a.ways get hit on the counter playing the way we do.
The Lukaku one-on-one midway through the first half. All four defenders were behind the ball, and West Brom had possession in front of them...didn't look a particularly dangerous move until Fox ducked inside and Lukaku was slid in.
Who's gonna play left back next week? I don't fancy Yoshida, Hooiveld or Forren (apparently not that quick?) against Lennon.. Targett at lb? Chambers or Richardson rb and Clyne lb?
