No fan of any club would think that was a reasonable penalty if given against them...it was a dive because the pull was not enough to make him fall. The liverpool player concerned did what most players did but it was a dive. Bale did the same thing at times which resulted in him being denied genuine penalties. Imo liverpool deserved to win but it was a **** decision especially when you look at the one we were denied
He had been on the pitch for 5 seconds when he got dispossessed. For sure he could have done better, but he had a right to expect better cover than he received. Dier, who went AWOL a couple of times against QPR last week, yet apparently is viewed by some as "world class", was nowhere to be seen and then another of our "world class" players, Hugo Lloris, allowed the shot to pass acrooss him, when there was only one place the guy was going to put it. A truly horrendous goal to concede.
I would start Sandro. Ie our best defensive midfielder Bentaleb is fine against the average sides, but Sandro is a big game player.
Agree re. Sandro - unfortunately, he has a history of injuries. I don't agree with selling him but I can understand if that is the reason for his eventual sale.
I agree - Townsend did nothing wrong. If when we are 2-0 down our wingers can't take the risk of trying to beat their man in the top quarter of the pitch for fear that if they lose the ball the opponent will have a 60 yard unchallenged run on goal then we are in dire trouble. One of Capoue, Kaboul or Dier should have been positioned to cover.
Yeah, I pointed out at the time that there was nobody behind him at all, for some reason, which allowed Moreno a free run at goal from his own half. Very poor all round. Lloris looked totally off his game today, for some reason. His distribution was awful and his decision making was well below what I'd expect from him. He's hardly alone in having a bad day, quite the opposite, but it was a little strange. I was going to talk about right-back being an ongoing issue for us, but the team was rubbish across the board today. Hard to pick out one particular player or position where we were exceptionally bad, as the whole side didn't function.
I can't speak for the current regime, but under Sherwood, there were some who felt Sandro put more effort into promoting his "Beast" image through social media than he did on fighting for a first team place. Irrespective of that, I don't think he has ever regained full fitness after his serious injury.
Looked decent against Limassol, but they're Limassol. Time will tell if he's recovered fully, assuming that he's not sold to Napoli tomorrow.
The Limassol game showed the best and worst aspects of Sandro. He put in a superb crunching tackle (the ITV commentators themselves remarked that the opponent players will think twice about going into a 50:50 with Sandro ) . Yet these are the very tackles that risk him becoming a perma-crock. Too much of last season had a big period when neither he nor Capoue were match fit. I recall 2011-12 he was out for a fair bit too.
We actually had two defenders back: Kaboul and Vertonghen. For some reason Kaboul ran to the centre to cover the pass into the middle although that run was covered by Verts. Kaboul should have covered Moreno and blocked his shot instead of leaving him a free run and shot.
Kaboul started in Man City mode, still mentally tying up his shoelaces and standing miles out of position for their first goal, playing Henderson onside. He never recovered from it all game and had a total nightmare. Edit: Didn't think of it at the time, but perhaps playing 90 minutes on Thursday took it's toll on him. His injury record is poor, so he probably felt it more than most.
As for the penalty, there was an incident in the Leicester v Arsenal game that was more of a hand on the attacker in the box with the player going down (maybe someone can put it up-I'm no good at the tech stuff) that wasn't given As has been said: CONSISTENCY.
As I warned, at the time, Limassol are the Greek equivalent of Nottingham Forest. The fact is, we should be beating teams like that. That we beat them convincingly should be the given; it's when we struggle to beat them that we should be worried, notwithstanding the fact that we beat them.
At 2-0 down we had to take some risks, we needed a goal just to get back in the game, I don't blame Dier for trying to get forward at that stage, had Townsend got the ball forward instead of being tackled Dier would have been well positioned to take part in the attack. A bit like the one against West Ham, he had no right to be there but when it goes right no one complains. I'm surprised you blamed Lloris though, I thought he might've got to the first but Moreno lashed that one right in the corner, I'm not sure any 'keeper would've been expected to save it. Without blaming anyone especially I think the third goal and a lot of our play there after smacks of the deafetist attitude that got us soundly beaten on several occasions last season. I'm trying not to think about that though, it's a depressing thought that we might see more of this in the coming season. I don't think anyone's called him World class but I agree with you about young players being overhyped after a couple of good games. Chambers is another one as is Stones, promising talents they might be but nowhere near proven.
The only good thing about this result is we won't have these silly little Southampton fans appearing wanting to give their informed opinion about Pochettino being this great manager. All Pochettino is /was........ The flavour of the month, he's no more talented then Avb and isn't the next great manager. He's going to get found out and In two years time we will still be saying '' Harry Redknapp was the last manager to get us champions league football ''. Good luck to Pochettino as hope he proves me wrong (that's sincere) but not convinced at all and while this is just one result, I've never been convinced he was right for us.
"50:50 and sandro wins every time." 3 games of a Sandro 50:50 masterclass, followed by 3 months out, is I suspect the underlying issue for whether the manager keeps him or not.
Townsend should not have taken on his man minus any cover behind him but then again his decision making has never been at an acceptable level He is at best quick but this FB whilst controlling the ball outrun him In simple terms pool attacks carried a bigger threat all day we need a 20 plus striker otherwise we have zero chances of top four
I remember United playing us off the park, even with 10 men under Redknapp. It's one result and no reason to rush to conclusions so early on, how we react will be important, we've got 2 winnable games before Arsenal. Another 6 or more from our next 3 and it's a promising start, less than 5 and it's a disappointing start.
Out of interest, if Harry was here still, do you think we would have gotten CL again since our single season in it? - given the Bale sale (which would have happened regardless of who was manager I think) and Liverpool's resurgence (completing a quartet of teams stronger and more financially capable than us)
