Charlie Adam is just thuggy... Fortunately for him he cleaned up his act second half so it was almost forgotten about. Frustrated that we seem to have a lack of pace and counter-attacking threat in the team. We constantly try and walk it in. We seriously need to have more log shots, we seem to 'sprint' to the D and then play it out wide for a cross into the box...
Unfortunately we were playing against the Stoke football team today, not against a form book. In the second half they reverted to type, the style that we have most trouble with. Defend and hoof. We're a bit flummoxed in how to break it down (though I don't think we're alone - it's a cynical but very tough to beat tactic). The half time talk must have been short. "OK, in the second half I want ten men behind the ball. If we get it, hoof it up to Crouchy and...er...well...er...that's it." Vin
We just can't cope with physical, agressive sides who do nothing but defend, defend, defend against us. We had no Plan B, no-one on the bench to change the game today, and I feel it cost us.
we can with wanyama in the team, unfortunately it doesn't appear that he's fully ready to come back yet
Thought that after today's game I'd take a look at Rickie's record for Saints. 110 goals in 219 games. Also, the 'similar' suggested page for Rickie Lambert on Wikipedia is... Matt Le Tissier.
Yeah, there have been many games where we've struggled to break down packed defenses since returning to the Prem, but that game against West Ham wasn't one of them...Jaaskelainen was simply immense.
What do you think he would have done differently given that it was in the attacking third that we weren't finding space?
Re lambert.is it just me or has he stopped jumping for headers? I may be imagining it but i cant remember the last time i saw him with both feet off the ground. Great freekick today btw
Just because we had a few excellent chances, doesn't mean we didn't struggle. I'm aware of that. We still struggled to break them down.
The best teams in the world struggle to break down defensively disciplined, physical sides. Why the odd panic about it? We scored twice. As Mauricio said, if you won every game, you'd be top of the league.
Very flat game today. I thought the atmosphere was flat, tempo was flat, and the entertainment on the pitch was non existent. Really poor game of football, and we just never got our game going today. Stoke defended resolutely but we played into their hands at times. Long diagonal balls into the box, are just going to be eaten up by players like Shawcross. We certainly didn't deserve the win, so it is frustrating but we move on.
I thought it was the most unentertaining 2-2 game I have seen. Didn't enjoy it all. We just sat back after we scored the first. I thought we would kick on and control the game but Stoke had a lot of the first half.
Why can't we counter attack. The quickest players on the counter attack are Clyne and Rodriguez. Wish we could shoot long distance. Amazed no one took advantage of the wind today.
