Match Day Thread Southampton v Swansea Saturday 26th September 2015

Sky 402 Goals on Sunday featuring us next.

 

Brief and underwhelming!

 

Mmm she's said that before!

 

We managed to achieve a comfortable victory while not looking at our best. Pelle was probably only one of our attacking players that was playing on his level. Tadić played well but his final ball was lacking yesterday, none of his crosses found the target. I remember also when he needlessly lost the ball from which we almost conceded (that chance for Ki, saved by Stek). Mane was also bellow his level. Credit to Neil Taylor, who marked Mane very well.

On the plus side, Cedric kept Montero silent. I was a bit frightened when Montero entered, but Cedric stopped him surprisingly easy. JWP played a great match. He got stronger, he's no longer losing duels, can run all day, pinging pass all over the field, really making a good case for himself to be starting every match. I also though Davis had a good match. Make of it what you will, but Swansea only got going when he was subbed. Bertrand I thought did ok, but he's not yet on the level he was prior to the injury. He control and passing was a bit off, you could tell he needs a bit of time to get used to the ball again. He's already an improvement on Targett, but it will take a couple of rounds for him to return to the level of last season.

Van Dijk was superb, scored a goal, destroyed Gomis, great with the ball, already looks very comfortable on this level.

 

I got to say i like the way how Koeman joins two word, confident and comfortable, into a single one - confitable.

 

Hooray, a chance to discuss Cork. He had one of those performances yesterday which highlighted why various managers haven't really fancied him. He basically doesn't appear to add a great deal and you only really appreciate what he offers when he's not playing. The first 25 minutes of the second half our midfield swamped Swansea in a way they didn't in the first. They did recover when we began to play deep (as we did against Utd) but up until then the absence of Cork had a big impact.

 

One thing I wish Ron would try is taking Pelle off at some point. He played well enough but with the game won we should be trying different combinations up front. Just swapping Rodrigues for Tadic isn't telling us anything as we continue to play in the same way. I would like to have seen the Saints' MK Dons forward line-up for the last 10 or 15 minutes

 

It really didn't. Jack spent much of his time dropped into defence, and lost VVD for the first goal. He was taken off because he had a poor game.

 

Funny how people see things. I felt we suddenly found a lot more room to play in after Cork went off.

 

I have begun to wonder whether his pronunciation of possession, as in ball possession, is actually position. Or both.

 

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I'm probably being a bit harsh on reflection actually. I honestly didn't notice a big difference though. I like Jack as a player, but all the "we shouldn't have let him go" stuff is irritating. As has been stated, we didn't have a choice unless in some moment of blind madness we decided to drop Morgan or Vic permanently in a misguided attempt to keep him. It was the right thing, both for him and us. People saying it was stupid, or a mistake, are really misunderstanding the circumstances around his leaving.

 

And, in all seriousness, would we rather have JWP or Cork? One is developing into a very interesting star of the future and the other is Mr dependable. We can't keep everyone. I am happy for Cork. He gets to play more than a bit part. He would be filling Reed's role if still here... and what kind of role is that?

 

Agreed. Neither Ki nor Shelvey filled in the room which Cork vacated, in my mind.

Strange tactic from Swansea to always allow Pelle to be marked by Cork when we had the ball down the other end of the pitch, throughout that first half. Always gave us an easy out ball, because aerially it was always going to be no-contest. Never did either CB step up the pitch and mark Pelle themselves.

 

I know Ron is having a go at the players, for letting Swansea get on top for the final 10/15 minutes, but he's also having a go at the slack period, after 25 minutes, when we also allowed them too much time and space on the ball.
Swansea got a few shots away, from outside the box, that on another day, given the lack of closing down, could have resulted in an equaliser and the game going in the same direction as the Utd game.
There is still a lot of work to be done, with regards to the organisation of our midfield, when defending, which allows the gaps and time for our opponents to shoot.
I agree with another poster, about Soares and Montero. I was also concerned about how he would cope, but he did very well in one on one situations.
The only time he got caught out, was when the left back also bombed forward, creating a two on one situation, which brings us back to the work still needed to be done by other players when defending.
A few times, when Montero was attacking Soares, JWP's positioning was that of a player trying to stop a square pass, rather than that of a player who knew to get deeper, so that if Montero had skinned Soares, he would be able to cut off his progress.
This can be taught, just by reviewing the videos.

 

I don't think Juanmi added anything when he came on, other than that gold performance.

 

On another point, the Swansea 33, spent so much time with his arms wrapped around Pelle, I'm sure I saw him light up a post coital cigarette on more of than one occasion.

 

Because of their formation, not the ability of the player removed.

 

Bit of both maybe. In fact though, if there was one Swansea player I would like to see at Saints, on yesterday's evidence it would be Sigurdson.

Still think Monk made a mistake taking Jack off though. He's high on my list of fondly remembered ex Saints, right up there with Jason puncheon.

 

Agreed on both counts. I would also take only Gylfi Sigurðsson from Swansea, because I think he's capable of playing at a higher level. The rest I believe are almost exactly right for where they are, including Jack.

On the subject of Cork, yes I think Monk made a mistake, in hindsight. Jack can do the job he was doing, but he's better when he's allowed to be more creative and playing higher up the pitch. He looked quite hemmed in by his role. I might have taken someone else off and freed him up. I also noticed him take a couple of glances back at the Lads when the teams were in their huddles. I hope that wasn't regrets.