A draw's not a bad result, but it's sad to see such constant cheating rewarded, even with a point. It was so obvious and consistent, yet Moss and his assistants seemed completely oblivious to it. Hopefully it'll be highlighted by the media and he'll get the Bale treatment, but I doubt it'll happen. I don't think I've ever seen one player commit so many blatant dives in a game. We need to have a strong finish to the season now to ensure European football, but our injuries are mounting up. They're all in the same positions, which has an unfortunate tendency to happen, for some reason. Not sure what they were doing to the pitch today, but it seemed to contribute.
Moss with another howler of a performance, big decisions with the first goal and Mane's persistent and increasingly blatant diving and play acting went unpunished, he could've had 4 bookings to get him sent off twice, he dived so much. No complaint about the result, we were lucky they didn't have their shooting boots on and Chadli did but I didn't think we were too bad considering all the diving and the awful state of the pitch. Defensively we were poor once again but played the offside very well. Their second was abysmal marking from Fazio once again though. Second half we attacked much better and Chadli's chance was just brilliantly finished, if we'd had a ref that was not just making it up as he goes along we'd have had a lot more freekicks in dangerous areas too. No idea why Pochettino didn't bring Townsend on though, we were desperately short of pace all game.
Commentators on my stream not even mentioning Mane's diving. It is simply an accepted part of the game now in many ways (talk of "there was contact", in the last couple of years "there was no contact but he had to avoid the challenge" has come in, often people blame the defender for attempting a tackle "inviting contact", players are *criticised* on TV for not going down. Etc). Sad and annoying how quickly and thoroughly that change has happened.
I agree, but he got conned every time. The ref can't book him for what he cannot see. Total incompetence all the same.
They picked it out on BT Sport pretty early on and mentioned it every time he did it. Even the more apologetic diving sympathisers weren't happy with him. He could've easily been sent off several times over for that alone, but he also left his boot in on a number of occasions. ****bag.
Absolutely spot on really don't now how he didn't get at least a yellow, I thought that Fazio was excellent today best I have seen him play.
Owen spoke about 2 of them in the commentary and talked about how he was going down very easily but BBC live text had a total black out of it too. Embarrassing, they complain about it when it suits them, if a Spurs player had done it, it would be in the headlines and heavily featured in every match report.
Interesting this. Being honest, of course had the shoe been on the other foot, it would have annoyed me, but I think the fouls that were given against him were fouls - he was just exaggerating them a little too much for comfort. He wasn't simulating fouls, he was making sure they were given - but yeah, it looks frustrating. I don't think they were out-and-out dives though. Good game though. Frustrating not to have a half decent keeper for us. Going to be tight the rest of the season.
There was the fazio double dive in the penalty area...a dive with bentaleb which gave you a free kick on the edge of our box in added time and one out side your box...he was not touched in 2 of the and barely touched on the other. No disputing your lot played better and we had to battle for a point but i honestly think he was an embarrassment. Glad to see your lot doing well after being considered relegation fodder pre season
I suggested that the injury to Forster might be costly to you at the time, as I'm not a fan of Davis. He's a decent shot-stopper, for the most part, but his box control and defensive organisation are suspect, in my opinion. I think you'll be looking for at least one keeper in the summer, especially if you're in the Europa, which is probable. I agree about it being tight. The fixtures are a bit odd. Sunderland and Leicester have been poor, but they're still fighting for points. Villa might lose focus and be looking ahead to the cup final and City might have nothing to play for. Interesting to see how it turns out.
There didn't look to be any contact in the Bentaleb one that got you a freekick just outside the area and the Mason one was utterly blatant on the replay because he's going down before he even reaches Mason and again it doesn't look like any contact other than a feather touch caused by Mane leaving a leg out. Those were just the 2 most blatant ones which were given replays. I'm not going to act like Spurs are perfect, I've seen both Chadli and Rose dive this season and both were rightly punished. Townsend has dived previously too. I am a bit more angry as I've never seen one player do it on so many occasions in a game, it was non stop dirty play. He exaggerated injury, went in late on a couple of players making clearances and persistently tried to create fouls where their were none, whether by diving or running into the back of Fazio and then falling over him once again once he'd got up. It was embarrassing. My main beef is with the ref though, he let it go unpunished even after it was pointed out on several occasions he continued to buy what Mane was selling. A simple booking and a word to him that he won't get away with falling over all the time could've nipped it in the bud but it was allowed to go on and on. Moss is a ref I have no time for though, he's never consistent and always makes ridiculous decisions everytime we have him. Anyway, fair play, as I said I thought we should've lost today but you guys kept us in it with your finishing. I actually like Southampton and how they go about things but I can't deny with all the hatred directed at us over the past season by certain fans of yours would've made me enjoy a win today a lot more. Hopefully it all cools off next season and we get back to normal. Chelsea, Arsenal and Liverpool are all far more fun to hate
Yeah, we're a bit sensitive to those taking advantage of our situation over the summer, but I bear no ill-will to Poch really. I dislike Liverpool far more because of Rodgers and their innate superiority complex. I hear you re Mane and it's something he needs to look at as he's a cracking player. Far more annoyed at Davis's finishing today, and the other Davis was gone a couple of seasons back I'm afraid. Needs must though. We desperately need a capable back-up to Forster.
Wait til this summer! The unfortunate thing with this sort of situation, as we've found out, is that it doesn't stop. Teams pick off your best players, you develop more, then they do it again. The standard of the sides might improve a bit, though. The media speculation has already started and it probably won't let up, even if the club refuses to sell.
Southampton will lose schniederlin and bertrand imo and we will lose lloris...we are both vulnerable as we won't be in the CL. if we go another 2 seasons without qualifying then we will struggle with kane, bentaleb, mason etc. if they keep progressing...just the way of the world unfortunately
