Blaming Bony is a tad obvious don't you think - of course Bony was at fault for a bone-head play - does anybody really need to state or debate that. But at the point Bony was sent off the game was not lost - it was tied and South didn't show much creativity for all of their possession in the second half. We lost the game because knackered players were not replaced in a timely manner with fresh legs and we left one pair of fresh legs on the bench (WHY???). South's goal was scored by a pair of fresher legs they put on field at the 69th minute, which was their second pair of fresh legs. Our first sub was Montero for Dyer - now I don't know if Dyer was tired or injured, but he wasn't at the core of our midfield, which is where our first sub should have been made.
Thanks mate, I have to agree with you, the support in the Liberty today was the loudest I've heard it in a long while, Fantastic!
It's strange that all the people who are criticising the substitutions (wrong or lack of) were not at the game. Why is it that no-one around me at the ground or conversations I overhear walking back to the car, no-one is ranting like they are on here?
Emnes hasn't scored 14 goals in a season in forever; certainly not in the top flight of any national league, and has never been worth the money we payed for Gomis. I'd like to thing that Emnes is of the same calibre as Gomis and therefore we stole him from wherever he came from but .... somehow I can't convince myself.
I didn't see the match today due to work commitments, but the general feeling is that had Bony not been sent off we would have probably won the game. I would say that points wise, we are now exactly where we would have hoped to be. We would have normally expected defeats at Man U and Chelsea, and 3 wins against Burnley, WBA and Southampton - 9 points from 5 games....... would be good to get a win away to Sunderland next week though.
I dont have to convince myself yankee , we could have lost Bony and been ok with Gomis and Emnes. But we didnt lose Bony so we have a very strong strikeforce . Bony is getting sick and tired of being kicked and grabbed , and he broke and dished out a bit of the physical stuff himself imo .
Before the first yellow, Bony had been fouled twice in the box by their CB and the ref didn't catch it. He drilled the CB for the first yellow, which he didn't need to do but it was a golden opportunity to give it back. The other South CB then went straight through Bony from behind. This doesn't excuse Bony's second tackle, which was just reckless and unnecessary. He should have been much smarter. There are plenty of opportunities in a game for a forward to quietly dig the CB without having to do something like that.
I was at game and don't understand that we did not use all our subs when 10 players have to do a lot a of running for over half the game. Monk did something similar last season when were down to 10 against Chelsea. I am not saying we need to make changes straight away but at half time but at least give us a few fresh legs with 20 -30 minutes to go. Anyhow I think ref lost control of the game by 30 minutes and Bony was reckless. Still deserved a point. Very impressive for first 40 minutes.
With all due respect, if that is all your club has when 11v11 then you are in for a world of pain this season.
59% happy with that game, unfortunate about Bony but the lads fought on well. The crowd did great trying to be the extra man too.
Pleasing everyone is a bitch when your a manager . Took me a while but totally happy with Monks choices in most things the last little bit .10 minutes left and down a man ,, perfect time to give Emnes his first minutes imo.
Because Bony was yellow carded twice, is it only a one game ban? If so, does that come into v Everton Tuesday or is he free to play in the cup? Could be why Gomis wasn't used? He'd have to play Tuesday and Saturday, depending on Bony's ban? That would be a lot of football for someone who hasn't completed a full 90 minutes yet.
Is it me or was it too obvious to swap Siggy for Gomis at 70 mins, as we had no player on who could hold up play for the wingers to get up field! Siggy isn't exactly a holding player. Also I can't understand why no one has mentioned how good fernandez was on his PL debut!
Absolutely Breezy, the trouble is we are still not at full strength in the midfield, and it showed today when on the back foot, but I'm very pleased with the way things are developing this season other than Bony and Gomis up front which I'm sure will sort itself out!............
Me too, he had a very solid game, as did all our players except Bony, but I'm sure he will learn from this, it seems the saints came to foul as much as they did to play footy, and Bony got sucked in, he should have used his elbow on their backline when the ref wasn't looking!...............
Well I've seen enough of Emnes in the three games he came off the bench last season, got us two penalties and scored a goal, that's not bad and I think he has bags more to give hopefully this season under Monk!...................
An interesting point. I'm not sure 20 minutes would have had much of an impact on Gomis for Tuesday. However, what about the other players that played the full 90+, like Sig and Shelvey. Are they going to start / play on Tues?
