We've let in 5 In two games,today we scrapped a clean sheet. One step at a time,next game (fourth of season) must win LMAO,those saying this very Saints Web.
Let's consider the ship steadied and hope it is transformed from a tugboat into a catamaran by next week!
Our passing is just so lacklustre compared to last season. I'll take a point, but I'm hoping for a much better performance against Norwich. They have to start gelling soon. I can't wait for Bertrand to come back, for the first time today I'm beginning to think playing Targett is a mistake. He didn't do much wrong, it's just his general lack of composure. A loan to the championship is what he needs IMO
Key difference to me is 3 players. 1. Schneiderlin - even though he wasnt a creative midfielfder as such he moved the ball forward quickly which allowed us to break and removed the fact that we havent got anyone who can unlock a packed defence 2 + 3 Clyne and Bertrand - these 2 are so much better going forward than Cedric and Targett, and for the most part were our most creative players last season in terms of opening up space for others and driving the team forward. It allowed us tyo have 3 relatively defensive midfielders in the 3 central players (Davis, Schneiderlin and Wanyama) as all those 3 had to do was find one of the full backs out wide which is miles easier than trying to go through centrally.
Watford are this season's QPR, without the finesse. Fortunately they don't have a Charlie Austin either. I'm not too unhappy we didn't win: we played much better in the second half and Vic and Oriol are looking pretty solid. I think Caulker got frustrated with nothing to do so decided to be an extra AM, which isn't exactly his best position, but we definitely needed Tadić or Juanmi to come on and run the show.
I think he looked better second half, but his positioning (though at times useful) was.....confusing.
Sadly, I disagree with you about why Targett is looking poor. I think he is very composed. It is his absolute lack of pace which is holding him back. It is also a flaw which can never be rectified - but I suppose can be made up for with positional coaching?
He didn't do much wrong but that's loan him out anyways? He is our back up lb. I think people expect far too much from a young lad getting the longest run of games he has had in the first team.
After the way we have started the season, I am happy with a clean sheet and a point, away from home. People that expected a win, just because we were playing Watford, come across as a bit of a plastic Manc type of supporter, and need to get a grip on reality. What disappoints me most, about our performances to date, is how wasteful we are with the ball. So many of our problems, at the back, seem to stem from sloppy passing just after players have moved forward, leaving gaps behind.
Oh well. Its a point at least. Some positives in that tho. Romleu is mustard.cedric looked good aswell imo. We are improving,long way to go tho
Can't deny the result is disappointing as we hoped this would be a banker. Positives: early in season, only lost 1/3 matches (OK...desperate there ), 2 away points, got back to a clean sheet which was our strength last season. Negatives: it's Watford for f........, we are struggling to score, seem to be missing our defectors more than last season, and our players seem more fragile this season (better lay in fresh supplies of bandages).
Just from listening to Solent, it did sound like Fonte and Caulker were gelling well, that could bode well for the future, as someone mentioned JWP came on and we didn't get any dead ball situations to get the JWP / Caulker combination working, I reckon that will be lucrative given the chance.
Tough going. Ron taking the team back to basics and once Mane went off, so did our hopes of creating something out of nothing. For me the team is lacking quality, it's all very workmanlike. Davis didn't do enough and once again Ward-Prowse was bullied out of it when he came on and we only had one set-piece. I think with a back five and two DMs we could have afforded to have Juanmi or Tadic come on for the last 10-15 minutes in a bid to unlock Watford as they only really threatened us with set-pieces.
To the people: Always begging for the fashionable 3-5-2 Criticising the team for not creating enough This is the cost of playing three defenders - not enough creativity. We only had 2 attacking players on the pitch at all times today, which is not enough to play creative and attacking football. Perhaps with Clasie in for Davis we may have had a better link between midfield and attack, but the reality is in this formation we can never get enough players up in support of the attacking players fast enough, so we HAVE to rely on the pace of either Mane or Long to create things for us.
