Match Day Thread Southampton V West Bromwich Albion Saturday 16th January KO 15:00

Cedric's defensive deficiencies get covered very well in this system too.

 

FLT he has been listening! I counted he said "positive" 5 times in this interview!

 

Shut the front door, I've only gone and predicted the score correctly again !!!
I expect a return to norm for the next game.

We were awesome. Talent + Work rate = Victory.
MOTM JWP for looking like Clasie and scoring the goals.
Steve Davis & Shane Long! Will they ever stop running?
Targett - Doubters silenced?
Forster just has to be there to get a clean sheet.
Ryan - new star Centre Back.
Cedric - looks so good when he stays away from our goal.

And now we have Charlie. Happy Days

 

So, am I allowed to put the sandals back on now, or will I be accused of giving Koeman and the board and the players too uncritical a time?

Oh hell, sod you lot, I'm wearing them anyway.

 

Met Fat, Dave and LTL at the pub and was happy to be told it was safe to come back (and that was before today's performance).

All I can say is that my feelings about Ronald and the quality of our team have never dipped for a second. I genuinely had no doubt that we'd be back to winning very soon and that it'd carry on as before. We were creating the chances and it was just bad luck that they weren't going in. It happens and it doesn't last.

Steven Davis was my MOTM today - astounding work rate, involved in almost everything of note that happened anywhere on the pitch.

As for Shane Long, he's 5ft 11 and ALWAYS outjumps defenders who are well over 6ft. He should have been unable to walk at the end of the game after all the effort he'd put in but he was still chasing them down in the 90th minute. What a hero!

I also felt that Cedric came of age in the team today. One swallow doesn't make a summer and all that jazz but he looked very, very competent in defence in a way that I hadn't felt previously.

Mystic Meg award goes to the chap who sits next to us. This was his first game back after an operation to remove a very large brain tumour. As Ward-Prowse lined up, he just casually said "I reckon it's about time Ward-Prowse gets one of these in.." in such a way you knew it was going to happen. Clearly the brain op has had a Marvel Comic type effect and he now has super powers of precognition.

A good day. For the result, for meeting good people in the pub and for a friend returning from a deadly serious operation in good health. And with magical powers.

Vin

 

Funny isn't it, of all the things someone might have suggested, playing Ryan as a 3rd CB would have seemed a bit mad. And yet it so bloody works.
Will it work v ManU? Why not, it gives us more space with Matty & Cedric sitting wide and it can be as attacking or defensive as circumstances demand.

 

Needs pointing out:

• James Ward-Prowse was the first Southampton player to score a Premier League goal from a direct free-kick since Rickie Lambert in February 2014

 

It will be interesting to see if any other sides try to emulate the tactic and whether they will make it work? No doubt they will already be trying to fathom out a way to counteract it. Watching Sky Choice and not impressed with the summarizers remarks, but I am a little biased.

 

I did wonder if that was the case. I imagine Lambert did a secret fist pump seeing a young prodigy bang in a free kick and penalty.

 

Forster's comeback is made a lot better by the other 19 goalkeepers in the Prem all being quite rubbish at the moment.

 

Sky summed it up, Saints won because WBA were poor, heard that one before too.

 

Bit harsh on Pickford. He had a good game today despite conceding 4.

 

Yeah, that Palace keeper used up all his luck against us.......now he's ****e again. Typical.

 

Forster stuck to his no wave policy like a true professional this afternoon.

Let's see how long he can last it out. Looks set to be a good running joke

 

There were some top chants throughout. Great fun singing for Rickie too.

 

Imagine that .......we have played 2 teams that were piss poor and that's the only reason we won...........
Sky sports is so wrong sometimes it's embarrassing.

 

Arsenal were off colour too don't forget

 

Oh yeah too much Xmas turkey is why they lost.........makes sense now

 

WBA were terrible and their performance lacked energy, but then they were equally terrible in the reverse fixture and we only got a point.

Looking forward to seeing the worst attempt at a penalty save ever from Myhill again

 

They were really bad today though. To someone who didn't know any teams that was like Barcelona turning up at the newly promoted and soon to be relegated new boys and calmly despatching them without getting out of 2nd gear, let alone 3rd, 4th, 5th gear. We looked a division (or more) above WBA today. I remember McCauley at Lincoln City. Was a great CB. Lincoln were in L2