Well, I got stuck in on the Echo site before the game yesterday. There's a guy on there who sees Les Reed as the devil incarnate. Les is incompetent and, worse, bonused on selling players. In the midst of this argument, he posted a list of bad deals Les was responsible for that included: Pochettino Lovren Shaw I did argue back then realised in a moment of clarity that people like that cannot be engaged in a sensible debate. So I gave up. Unfortunately, people with deeply negative views seem to be in the majority within St Mary's during games. A bloke 2 rows in front of us was giving Matty abuse from kick off the final whistle. I genuinely (and I do mean genuinely) believe that being vocally unhappy at Saints whether at the game or online in some mysterious way makes these people feel more manly. Otherwise, why would they bother "supporting" the team? Vin
Oops sorry about that I seemed to have kicked a hornet's nest there. Anyhoo onwards and upwards hopefully will win 2-0 next week, 1-0 on Sunday and the garden will be rosy - that's not a prediction, that's what I hope.
Yep, guy who sits behind me (unfortunately, he appears to be a regular) is a nightmare. Everytime he opened his mouth, it was to criticise someone in the side. Doing my nut in after only 2 games (!)
I sometimes look on Saintsweb to see if there is any news but it's difficult to find anything in amongst all the bickering which I skim over. Don't know the history of these people but sometimes something quite innocuous can be said and someone will get really nasty because that same person said something 10 years ago which they didn't like. Pathetic really. Why would you pay for that?
That's why so many of us left the BBC 606 site before it was shut down and migrated here - was a rancid site towards the end.
I only started looking at that site when we were in meltdown about administration. Desperate to get information from somewhere. It made me even more stressed! Luckily Markus came along and there was euphoria
I'm not denying the stats but with the exception of the Targett chance (and the disallowed 'goal') I never felt a goal was coming. Generally, our build up play was slow with lots of lateral and back passes allowing their defence to wander back and get 10 men behind the ball. As JWP says, a lot of those shots were from miles out because we seemed incapable of playing through or round them. I reckon we had more long distance shots in that game than we had in the whole of last season. Still I think our overall look was far better than against Everton although we do need to consider the quality of the opposition.
Following on from Lff above, one thing that does frustrate me is that we seem unable to break with the ball and bear down quickly on opponents' goals. I simply can't imagine Saints doing what both Newcastle and Everton did to us in the first two games when they broke with a couple of attackers and scored. Last night it happened a few times - we break, their defence is in disarray trying to get back as fast as we're moving with the ball then suddenly it looks like our attackers think "we're not doing this the way we've been taught". Someone then hooks it back, stops, looks for a sideways or backwards pass, the defence reforms and the slow build up begins again. I want someone to tell them that it's sometimes OK to attack without enough people in the right places if the opposition defence is still reforming. A minor niggle but a niggle still. Vin
Probably depends where you are. The bit of the Chapel I'm in is pretty positive and philosophical in the face of setbacks. I agree, I can't see what some people get out of loving Saints when it upsets them and makes them angry. (Controversial?) This is Entertainment !!! OK I know that is a slight simplification but still if they can't enjoy it now then they can be assured that it might easily get worse and they really won't enjoy it then. Or will they ???
IMO, if you want to play through a team you need and advanced midfielder to link play, not ask Pelle to keep dropping into that space to receive the ball, as kept happening last night. Equally, if you want to go round the outside you need players capable of doing that, and other than the times Mane tried it, we weren't well equipped for that either. I'm finding our team shape and player selection a little odd, just now, in some ways.
We could say we were somewhat unlucky, for sure. But even with some bad luck we still should have been able to win, easily. But we didn't. We were also not that great in our first two Prem matches. That's concerning. OTOH, we should be able to beat them away if the team is right so a draw doesn't really set us back any. I do think we need to adjust our tactics somewhat. We've always been somewhat vulnerable on the counter because we tend to push up. The thing is, Schneiderlin was super-fast and saved us many times by being able to recover fast enough to often just completely snuff out the counter, but even in the worst case he would slow someone down for a half second, which is all we needed. Also Clyne seemed to get back pretty well. And Bertrand wasn't bad. Which isn't to say we are screwed now without MS and/or Clyne. Just saying I think we need to be more aware and maybe think about our passing a bit more and/or maybe not commit quite as much at times. We have beefed up our offense so we can maybe afford to be a tad more conservative.
It's always going to be hard to break down a team as well drilled as last night's opposition. We had some good periods of prolonged possession but they held their shape well and didn't get pulled out of position. We'll need to be patient next week and the chances will come. Vital that we don't concede obviously. Will be tough but I'm pretty confident. We have better players than them, but last night they were extremely well drilled.
We have a batch of very different players and it's hard to find a formation to suit them all and still have a balanced side. In the attack, I would say that arguably our strongest weapon is the Pelle-Mane partnership. They played some great matches last season and Mane is deadly playing off Pelle. But to have two strikers, we need to play a flat 4-4-2 formation, but then we encounter some new problems. Mainly, our lack of wingers or wide midfielders. Tadić is the closest we can get and he can be used on both sides, but other then him, there's nobody that can fit that role without problems. Long and Jay are strikers, they can play on the wing, but we would be too offensive and it wouldn't work as witnessed against Newcastle and Everton. But Davis and JWP might be used wide, it has happened before. They would tuck in a bit more and help in the midfield rather than provide width on the flank, but it could work, especially if they play on the right, where Cedric is no stranger to marauding runs down the touch line. So a formation Stek Cedric - Fonte - Yoshida - Targett Davis/JWP - Wanyama - Romeu - Tadić Pelle - Mane might be the best fit because it's made to support the partnership of Mane and Pelle, with Jay an Long as natural substitutes for them. Of course, we might use a 4-3-3 formation, but then we have a new set of problems. Mainly, we are losing Mane as a striker, and he's not nearly as effective as a winger. So we lose something (a lot, I would say) in the attack, but we gain more control in the midfield by having an additional midfielder. Stek Cedric - Fonte - Yoshida - Targett Wanyama - Romeu Mane - Davis/JWP - Tadić Pelle
I would have JWP over Davis in my line up as his dead ball delivery was so good last night he deserves another shot. His open play was no more effective last night than Davis has been this season but Davis isn't very good at corners and free kicks
We still need to score and win. So if they score it doesn't really matter too much as long as we score more.
