First half, Bournemouth sat too deep inviting us onto them, with clearances being picked up by our back four, to keep us going forward. We scored two quality goals and on another day if we had been "lucky" we would have had one or two more. My concern, building up to halftime, was the frequency with which we gave the ball away, or put players under pressure with sloppy passes. In a word, I felt we were complacent. Second half Bournemouth pushed their full backs up, giving them passing options when Tadic or Mane drifted infield to press players on the ball. We would have been better off replacing Tadic then and going more or less 442, to more quickly close down the space they were now finding out wide. When Romeu came on, there were a few minutes when we stemmed the flow of Bournemouth attacks, pushing them back, but unfortunately Vic wanted an early shower, which buggered that up. Despite the pressure, we still restricted their chances and were by no means lucky to win.
If a was openly trying to insult another poster do you think it would be allowed as an smiley on here.?
He had less space in the centre so we utilised the width. At home Pelle is a greater threat and away on the counter it is Mane!
You've given me two great options to select. I'll take deluded If you think Bournemouth looked like Barcelona in the second half then you must have been unfortunate to keep catching Barcelona on terrible days. Since the collapse of Tika Taka from its dominance in world football, it's been widely agreed amongst football experts that possession means bugger all if you don't do anything with it. Yes its disappointing that we couldn't maintain possession when the opportunity presented itself, but Bournemouth were kept very much at arms length. My was referring to your drama queen comment
It's subtle. Like making a backhanded compliment followed with a smiley. Tintin is like the player getting booked for retaliation, even if he was on the end of a two footed challenge that went unbooked. I didn't want to say anything but I agree with what he's been saying. Even if he went about it the wrong way.
Losing Fonte may have made a difference, especially when Bournemouth stepped up their game. They were bound to do that in the second half, because they were trying not to concede goals in the 1st half....didn't have that restraint when chasing the game second half.
I'm not going to comment about this anymore. Tintin is absolutely entitled to his opinions. I defend his right to them. I happen to agree with some of them. What posters need to understand is that we will not tolerate insults from/to other posters. Do as many facepalms as you like [cue obvious page fulls] if you disagree.
Possession is important...... you can't score if you don't have the ball and have to waste energy getting it back. That's why we could do **** all going forward second half and it's why Bournemouth put us under pressure.. It is not like Southampton at all to have 25% possession in a half of football. And it was against Bournemouth..
Koeman said before the match that we played in a similar way to Bournemouth, but you also have to defend. He also said that they would make a mistake and we would score. He was proved right. The team (whilst not being happy with how it went second half) would consider that they prevented chances....I think it shreds fans' nerves more than the players actually involved in the game (because we can't do anything about it).
Dusan started on the right and was anonymous, it was when he moved to the left that he did the damage, but second half went back to playing the missing man formation, with Mane seemingly sulking over something we were literally carrying two passengers in the second half, three if you take in Vics red, fair do's to warriors that were left to hold the fort.
Yes, I meant especially in leadership terms. A change of personnel must have an effect on mind set and pace when the ball is played from the back.
Give me 2 goals from 48% possession rather than no goals from 52% any day of the week. Its not how much you have the ball, it's what you do with it when you have it which counts. (% figs from sky for the match). Sven would probably disagree!
Well, I for one, had a cracking day....a couple of great team goals and some champagne football from Saints, then a spirited come back from Bompey, great atmosphere and a very entertaining match, well worth the money. Oh, and of course 3 points!
