Match Day Thread Southampton v Swansea Saturday 26th September 2015

From BBC:
Graziano Pelle failed to add to his four goals this season, but he was integral to his side's success. The 6ft 4in Italian was a nuisance in the air, winning 50% of a team-high eight aerial duels, and was the pick of the Southampton XI when it came to passing stats - making 31 in the opposition half.

Of course it was his contribution to the goals that made the biggest impact. His first was a lovely lofted ball for Tadic, whose intended square pass for Mane was deflected in.

And he had a big hand in Mane's goal when his strike came off the boot of defender Ashley Williams and arrived at the feet of the impressive Mane, who produced a delightful composed finish.

Perhaps lucky, fans didn't get to decide whether Pelle played or not.

 

Of course. But it wouldn't be more or less important, in any case. It only becomes less important when you're uncatchable in the league with games to play. For me, Saints have to win every game.

 

We shall have to continue to differ on this. Chelsea would be a lot more likeable if they got rid of their racist elements. For a huge London club, I am surprised there are so few black and Asian faces in their crowd compared with Arsenal or Spurs.

 

Well that was fun!

Okay, please listen, and listen well:

PELLE WAS FANTASTIC!

Over the ninety minutes he had a better game (in terms of the team) than he did against United. He was excellent for the whole game. Strong, decisive and intelligent. Only reason he's not my MOTM is because of the majesty of VVD who was just exceptional.

My rankings -

1 - VVD
2 - Pelle
3 - JWP (who worked tirelessly)/Vic (monster) /Cedric (excellent both going forward and in defence).

 

I've long since stopped bothering to defend Pelle. I just let him do it for himself.

 

VVD or Cedric MOM for me.

 

Were people suggesting he shouldn't play? That's madness.

 

Did I just see an advert for a tv game show with Le Tiss being expected to break into a run and sweat? Well that aint going to happen. I know this is off topic but I am excited by the win.

 

Pleased that Saints won comfortably, and had a crowd over 30,000. Hope Saints can continue to get gates approaching 31,500 every home game.

 

Ronald is not satisfied with just a good result. Good:

Not good says Koeman
Southampton 3-1 Swansea

It was not a very good performance today. The way we played is not the level we expect. But much more now today than normally we were clinical. That was the difference between Swansea and Southampton. You need good communication in the team but we had some problems - they were allowed four or five good shots from outside the area. At 3-0 up we should have dominated more in the last 30 minutes. We were too much in mind to defend the result rather than go and score more. I like to win and play good football.

 

Yes, it's true. Already been recorded, and yes he ran and tried.

 

A word for Bertie - 90 minutes under his belt and he was excellent. It's very good, very very good, to see him back.

 

Yeah.! I'm looking forward to downloading the 90 minutes tonight so I can luxuriate in the good performances.

 

Set up the third goal too.

 

Glad to see I was totally wrong with my match result prediction - not an even-handed steady draw! Good result and seemingly good performance too - although RK thinks it should have been better - he's the manager and his opinion counts. Pleased to see VVD on the score sheet and from a corner too!

 

I haven't read anyone else's views on the game as I've just back. Everyone played well but there were also stand out performances. They were: Ryan Bertrand, Virgil Van Dijk and last but not least Graziano Pelle. Everyone else played well, but those three deserve singling out. For Ryan to be out injured for a few months without having pre-season training and play like that is remarkable. He was outstanding. Graziano was superb as well, his hold up play was excellent and was very unlucky not to score, he deserved a goal. My man on the match though is Virgil Van Dijk. He was a rock at the back. He had Gomis in his pocket in the first half before he went off. I've not seen as commanding a centre back display for a long time. Nice for him to open his account for Saints as well.

 

Good day out for Pie.

Pelle MOM. Van Dijk close second.

 

So we've lost him next season.

 

I think he's being a bit harsh. OK we eased off in the last 15 minutes and got a bit sloppy but there was a bigger difference between Saints and Swansea than just clinical finishing.

 

Can't afford to ease up next week if we are going to get anything from Chelsea