Pretty sure Koeman was concentrating on defence before this game....sometimes you have to dismantle and rebuild. Footballers can't handle too many messages at once....this weeks lesson was obviously not to let them score.
Defence should always come first, especially away from home. Thing is, when you play 3 central defenders, you want at least one of them to be a ball player capable of bringing the ball out of defence; something that came naturally Alderwottsit, less so to Caulker who seemed to be assigned that role yesterday. We're missing Toby and Schneiderlin massively right now, but give it time and it may turn out we have more than adequate replacements.
http://www.saintsfc.co.uk/news/arti...reaction-watford-0-0-southampton-2641856.aspx Fonte talking about match. What you would expect....pleased with clean sheet, but should have been more clinical in final third. Talks of adjusting to a new season. Says Mane hurt his hip and felt dizzy but is okay.
I'm surprised at the praise of Caulker from last night tbh - I mean, I really hope he works out because as I've said before I think he's all the physical attributes to be a cracking CB. But from what I could see last night (and admittedly it was on a stream on a computer screen so may have got this completely wrong) it felt a little bit like playground football - running around in what felt like a free role sometimes (!) whilst finding defending a little bit boring....
As someone else said, Fonte had words. He also has a good teacher in Koeman....be good to get Ron back on his feet. If Caulker has the skills, the rest can be taught.
10) Saints suffer lack of creativity without Tadic Southampton were crying out for a creative spark, as their fixture at Watford ticked towards its inevitable 0-0 conclusion and the thought occurred that Ronald Koeman had Dusan Tadic among his substitutes. Was the attacking midfielder, who was a revelation when he joined Southampton last season, not worth a whirl? Koeman, though, revealed that Tadic was not fully fit. The manner in which the 26-year-old struggled with a groin problem in the final months of the previous campaign is well documented but it was supposed to have cleared up. Not so, according to Koeman, who said that Tadic was feeling “more tired than normal” and blood tests had shown that something was not right. Tadic came off at half-time in the 3-0 home defeat by Everton on the Saturday before last and he was an unused substitute against both Midtjylland in the Europa League last Thursday and Watford. “Dusan was working hard the whole summer … still he had some groin problems and it was looking good at the start of the season,” Koeman said. “But after that, he was more tired than normal. There was something in his blood and that was maybe the reason why he was a little more tired than normal. We have to recover Dusan, so that he can come back on his level.” This was from The Guardian. Seems Tadic may not be at his best, again.
Virgil Van Dijk is a ball-playing CB. He may not get many chances to do it in the Premier League, but playing for Celtic he seems to bring the ball right up almost to the opposition box several times in a game. And he can pass the ball accurately. Looking at what we didn't do yesterday, which was link defence and attack, he will hopefully provide a solution, especially if, as I suspect, he ends up playing as a DM sometimes. Changing the subject, Steven Caulker is an intriguing player too, this season he must have had nearly as many headed attempts on goal already than Pellè did in the whole of last season!
Unlucky to be with out Jordi and Dusan but these things happen. We've not played well but should still have won 2 games from 3 so I'm not feeling at all despondent. Look how strong the squad is when everyone is fit.
Blood issues mean it is about more than football. I hope there's nothing serious or too concerning coming to light, and Dušan will be back to his best soon.
Sounds like he could have anemia, which isn't the easiest thing to rid yourself of. Get well soon Dusan!
One of those funny viruses kicking around perhaps? Wasn't it Duncan Fletcher who was out for around forever with something like that? Didn't Scholes have one too?
Hardly surprising considering how negatively the team was set up. We could play ten games with that lineup and struggle to score three goals in open play. I will admit right now I didn't bother watching one minute of the game after seeing our lineup
It'll be interesting to see if we still try "We play on the floor, We play on the floor, We are Southampton, We play on the floor" The only noise I heard from the Watford fans in the entire game was "hoof!" Vin
I'll refer you to what I posted before.. I don't expect the same team and formation for future matches, but circumstances dictated Ron's thinking for this game. Once we get a settled defence, it will be different.
Incidentally St Kitch, I assume you'll be doing the next Europa thread or I'll just alter the title to include the 2nd leg. You've turned our fortunes around perhaps.
