Match Day Thread Southampton v Sunderland Saturday 5 March 15:00

I think we now play the most tedious brand of football in the Premier League. So dull, every game. It is only exciting oppositions against our solid back line that made our winning run interesting. Oh, and winning. Which I would give up (here and there) to start playing the way we used to consistently.

 

Can't see all 22 staying on if he's consistant.

Do you think there's a PL directive to Ref's ? "If the games crap spice it up witha few cards".

 

What an awful half of football. Bertrand was lively, Davis hard working, and Tadic OK, and Clasie and Romeu reasonably good, but nobody else seems to be all that interested.

 

Sunderland playing a half-decent press, then immediately falling back to 11 men behind the ball. Have to give them some credit for some of difficulties.

Pelle hasn't been bad. A couple of bad giveaways early on, but then created excellent chances for Tadic and Romeu. Two good saves from Mannone.

Defense/Forster have been a bit sloppy. Not awful, but a few too many mental lapses.

We can still win this game, easily.

 

Missed the first five minutes of the game, must have been an incredibly dreadful five minutes because apparently we've been shocking whilst we've looked fine to me... Lacklustre for sure but not that bad and forced Mannone into good saves.

Amazing how drastically the tone can change on here after four halves of football. Actually, come to think of it, it isn't that amazing to me!

 

ehhh... ref hasn't been that bad. Khaboul's foul is a yellow all day long, and if it were in the late stages of the game might have warranted a red.

Our yellows have been arguably a little harsh, but not crazy bad or anything.

 

My issue isn't about being bad. It's about being dull. This is not nice football to watch.

 

Wtf is going on with our set piece balls

 

How about Ward-Prowse for Martina to give us a bit more dead-ball quality?

 

I was thinking along the same lines. A lot of our games seem to be dull affairs.

On a related note, our best chance of a goal seems to be from a set piece and our delivery has been pretty average so far so I think JWP needs to get on the pitch ASAP.

 

Maybe it is because a lot more teams play on the counter these days making games more edgy and frequently it is about teams closing out space, getting everyone behind the ball and press the opposition for mistakes.There is little between most teams in the division.

On the other hand Saints do rely on being solid and we have a lot of good players but little flair and creativity.

 

Martina is not great at the passing thing.

 

Defoe coming on...

 

Woeful at dead ball situations and look clueless in the final third. We could lose this if we do not find some inspiration from somewhere. We are poor, thankfully Sunderland are worse than us.

 

Worrying :s. You feel a goal is coming, unfortunately not sure at which end!

 

Looks like we're going for 3

 

JWP and Juanmi on for Clasie and Davis.

 

Juanmi coming on.

I'm getting unpleasant flashbacks to November/December.

 

Just cashed out an acca for £63.