Was at the lane yesterday and a few things stood out...
Firstly, I was sitting sitting high up in the upper tier by the corner flag in the East stand near paxton...from there you could see how little we closed down southampton, how few men we had pushing forward to pressure their defenders and how high our back line was throughout the first half an hour.
Secondly, in the second half it was completely different...we had four front players putting pressure on their defenders and our defenders drop back a bit.
Thirdly, it was very noticeable that sherwood made made a sub at half time (siggy for the very ineffective dembele) when previously he waited until around 70 mins before changing things.
Finally it was noticeable how much of a lead that Kaboul was being on the pitch and he was also getting the crowd to make more noise.
I wonder if tims self imposed exile away from the touchline at the beginning of matches is beginning to pay of in terms of him seeing things tactically that he wasn't before...I am not confident about Sundays trip to Anfield but it will be interesting to see how he measures upto that challenge.
Oh and I am very impressed with how the fans didn't turn on the players during a very poor first half hour...stuck by naughton and continue to get behind soldado.
Yesterday seemed a big step forward to me and shows that we do have potential for next season.
Firstly, I was sitting sitting high up in the upper tier by the corner flag in the East stand near paxton...from there you could see how little we closed down southampton, how few men we had pushing forward to pressure their defenders and how high our back line was throughout the first half an hour.
Secondly, in the second half it was completely different...we had four front players putting pressure on their defenders and our defenders drop back a bit.
Thirdly, it was very noticeable that sherwood made made a sub at half time (siggy for the very ineffective dembele) when previously he waited until around 70 mins before changing things.
Finally it was noticeable how much of a lead that Kaboul was being on the pitch and he was also getting the crowd to make more noise.
I wonder if tims self imposed exile away from the touchline at the beginning of matches is beginning to pay of in terms of him seeing things tactically that he wasn't before...I am not confident about Sundays trip to Anfield but it will be interesting to see how he measures upto that challenge.
Oh and I am very impressed with how the fans didn't turn on the players during a very poor first half hour...stuck by naughton and continue to get behind soldado.
Yesterday seemed a big step forward to me and shows that we do have potential for next season.