Bournemouth fans and therefore probably players alike. I don't see how that affects anything I've said in my post. If they feel it is a proper Derby they will be more fired up. Nothing to do with whether Saints fans thought it was.
By the way saw Forster in one of the corporate boxes yesterday. When he's in goal you don't notice how tall he is but when he's stood up next to someone else it's a completely different matter! He made someone who was 6ft tall look like a midget!
I would have been even angrier if someone had burst through and a polite invitation was offered to allow the player to run through and score! On this occasion Maya was about to clear when Vic came bumbling in, a brainless moment no doubt about it, sh*t happens, this time apart from the problem of playing with ten men and a future suspension, we got away with it and a clean sheet to boot. What Dave Merrington and Jimmy Case both said was that having picked up a yellow you simply have to be a bit more cautious, both Vic and Sadio did not apply common sense, I suspect everyone else in the team has offered them some suitable advice and a fly on the wall in the Managers office may have been wise to wear ear muffs?
Just back from my traditional Monday Latte and read of the nations papers. Interesting that what reports there were came up a little short most Bournemouth fans might feel. With no manager related rubbish to intrude most fell back on a 'quite good' Saints vs 'plucky' Bournemouth approach. Thought the 'i' paper was most unfair saying Bournemouth were unable to get a foothold in the game 2nd half. True they lacked the final bit of quality but they had me sweating (esp' after Leicester) a bit. Just shows (as does reading this thread) how different people see the same game. I agree with ChilcoSaint that being a little under the radar now reduces pressure somewhat. You can almost feel the press waiting for Leicester to fail. But the perverse/ambitious bits of me would like us to be stirring things up in the top 4 again soon. Can you just imagine the ire if both Leics' and Saints were in the top 4 around Christmas, it'll bugger that elite 'real Prem table' thing on the Liverpool forum
In my opinion, there are two main reasons why things changed second half. As I said, in an earlier post, Howe pushed his full backs further forward, which gave Tadic and Mane more defensive duties, which isolated Pelle, much like Murray was isolated for Bournemouth in the first half. Plus, when either Tadic or Mane were closing down players, on the ball, the full backs were now an easy out ball, going forward, instead of a back pass, as in the first half. Reference Pelle, not holding the ball up so well. Second half, too many long balls were aimed at his head, giving Distin a chance, to compete, as against so many balls, first half being aimed at his chest, which is preferable to him. Add in the fact that Mane and Tadic were, second half, taking on more defensive responsibilities, long balls to Pelle's head were being hoovered up by Bournemouth, even when he did win them. Leicester did similar, when they sent on Dyer and Mahrez to stretch play, so, IMO, this is what the team needs to work on. How to combat teams that use the full width, when in possession, without isolating Pelle when we do launch balls up to him.
Leicester are really where we were last season and everyone is waiting for them to hit the same issue we had last year that the squad isn't big enough with enough back up talent to sustain a real campaign to break into the top 4. If they loose Vardy and Mahrez they are in trouble up front Wonder if the Big Boys will be poaching them rather than all our players?
I love a good stat, me. Saints last ten games in all competitions.....W 6 ,D 3, L 1, GF 24, GA 9... Just imagine what we'll be like when we hit form, eh?...
It'll be interesting to see how Ron changes things up in midfield without Big Vic. Presumably Romeu has to start but who gets the other CDM berth. Davis, Clasie, JWP. I'd include Reed as an option, but Ron doesn't seem to rate him at the moment.
True, though I think you may have been slightly tongue-in-cheek. We're a hard team to beat, but our form isn't as consistently good as it could be. And we are not yet playing beyond the sum of our parts, in my opinion. Just occasionally we do something that makes me realise how good the team can be. The first goal against AFCB was the best obvious recent example, and there has been the odd passage of play in a few of the games this season. But we're emerging from our European depression now and I expect us to improve on last season's quality.
I think that's spot on TSS, that any frustration comes because as yet we're not quite at the 'sum of the parts' level. Says a lot about our expectation and how well we've done that we've come to expect that. That's exciting though.
Yes it does. The members on here, for example, have certainly changed in their expectations, and they may well be a good reflection of the fanbase as a whole. We're not quite all-as-one in expectation as yet, but even the most pessimistic on here must be thinking about a mid-table finish. Of course, there are a few of us in the expectation vanguard who look a lot further up the table and think about perhaps hitting that glass ceiling hard enough to break through. Sooner or later, it'll come. One hopes it is sooner.
Absolutely. A steady January will help immeasurably. What's funny was the depth of devastation that we didn't quite convert our opportunity to break the glass season last year and people were very quick to say that the season was an anomaly as far as the performance of the big clubs went, and that opportunity would never happen again. Well, it's happening again this season....
The thing that stands out most after this game was the use of the word IF, mostly hypothetical, the most important word was WON. Some of the contributions are more like Saintsweb OCD rants, everyone telling us what happened, well we all know what happened, what we would like to know is why!
Seems to be coming together. That ball from Clasie shows what he is capable of. Hoping that Romeu puts in a good performance next game. Just watched that goal again, and it was a great goal, slick, technical and confident.
Yep. Two things for me. 1] In truth, we're a bloody rich, secure and thoroughly well managed club, despite that the lazier pundits are finally getting the 'plucky' word out of their mouths, and 2] the newer PL deals are making the PL a more competitive playing field [sorry]. For me the competition will only get closer, as the new PL deal kicks in. Generally, PL footballers are paid so much these days that the toss up between regularly playing actual matches over sitting on the bench, or not even getting into the squad, all season, but being paid twice as much, will often fall on the former side. They'll want to play each game. Which means that the glamour clubs won't have it all their own way, which means a more competitive PL, which means a better show for TV. Got to be good, eh.? As for that one season anomaly, I think that opinion may have been pundit led. It seemed like every week one of them would mention that last season was the opportunity and it would never come again. Pundits, fans and people in general, should learn to stop saying never.
I actually wrote a response almost identical to this and then didn't post it. Thank you for saying my thoughts!
I'm of the opinion that Mane is a hyper-efficient player, a skill developed through playing to conserve energy in the blistering African heat. (Other cliches are available.) He seems to work his magic only when he absolutely needs to, quite often in dying minutes of games. He is so lackadaisical sometimes, it's untrue. He stands out as wide as he can get, and either cuts in or works the line when in possession with his silky touch - he seems to make a few lovely touches, and then weigh up the impact on his energy levels and the likely impact on the game of continuing that run. If the energy expended exceeds the desired outcome of his actions, he just lays the ball square to a water-carrier player, and either makes a run without the ball or moves back out wide. He could see we'd got the game sewn up yesterday, so saves his strength and energy for eventual bursts of pace. Either that or he's lazy, or saves his best for shop window games.
He should have worn shades then. What an amateur. Totally unacceptable. . . Ps. Vic had the floodlights in his eyes, otherwise he'd have won the ball
