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

I didn't think the game was that dull. Tactically, Sunderland set up well, although their execution was at times sloppy. Sort of the same for us.

I thought we played like a mid-table side which is bad for us. And Sunderland played like a mid-table side which was good for them. So some of the lack of goals was just the sides canceling each other out, plus bad weather.

Not like that was an instant classic or anything, but it probably won't even be the dullest game this week.

 

He doesn't rate us

 

Also, wtf? Pelle had a pretty good game today. Not like MOTM quality but was one of the better players. He held the ball up pretty well. He was deeply involved on the build up to the goal, he fed Tadic for his chance, and Romeu as well. So pretty much was behind all of our best chances.

 

Martina's towards the end, too.

 

Sunderland did all they could to stifle us but we struggle to break down teams who sit back.

 

Not sure anyone was particularly bad, there was just no quality all-game bar the move and finish for the goal (and one bit of Mane skill)

 

I can't agree.

Poor hold up, poor passing which seemingly requires someone to sprint off into the flanks to rescue the ball from going out of play on a regular basis, and he snatches at his chances. This is the Premier League and if we have ambitions to be a regular top six side then Graziano can't be starting.

He had chances today and he scuffed/snatched at them and he got in the way on occasions, then berated his teammates. Not a fan of that. At all.

 

I thought we'd lost, so a draw never tasted as sweet. Changed my mood completely.

 

And some wide players...

 

We drew so your match thread run is to continue

 

And if we're feeling frisky, a creative attacking mid to deploy centrally. Definitely agree that it's time to renew the squad if we're to be a bit more incisive in attack.

 

Pelle wasn't totally abysmal or anything but for me that chance he had summed him up. He shouldn't have tried to claim the ball at all and it took him too long to get a shot away, which meant he ended up scuffing it under pressure. Appropriate because he can often be too selfish and too slow. Not so much in terms of his pace - although he's not quick - but his thinking and general play. He often either tries to be too clever or takes too long to get a pass away for me. There were a couple of times today he could have played a ball into space for Mane or shifted it out wide and he kept the ball so long that the chance eventually had gone. I also agree with DTLW that a lot of his attempts on goal and passes were poor. He's been a decent stop gap, certainly better than I expected, but we need to move on from him as first choice. We look much better with Long up top and while he has a lot of excellent qualities Long is by no means a world beater.

This summer I'd try to keep Stekelenburg here if he's happy to be backup and look for someone else to play that role if he's not. Another RB is needed, I'd prefer someone better than Gardos or Yoshida as our third choice CB (especially if 3-5-2 is going to be a formation we play fairly frequently), we need a creative attacking midfielder and wide player(s).

 

I think some people are being too kind on the team. We've berated other teams for their approaches, but how many exciting games have we contributed to? How many sweeping moves have we engineered. I might do something fun next game, like my marking...

 

Well that was a long, long 90 minutes, sadly our 3 front players are on a very poor run of form. Sunderland came to fraustrate, but we have to be better than that if we want to kick on from mid-table.
Even forgetting the last 3 games is it just me that really does not rate Frazer Forster? Good shot stopper, but his decision making and speed out to balls coming in from out wide are at times are pretty poor.

 

Sell:

Pelle
Martina
Yoshida
Gardos
Davis
Mane
Wanyama
Fonte

All to China for £300m.

 

Each?

 

So what did we do wrong that made it so boring and anti-football? Not being sarcastic, genuine question, I seem to be in the minority and I want to understand. I saw a team patiently trying to break down a team that was very well organised defensively purely looking to not concede. A lot of time play broke down, it was sloppy, but that's just how it's going to go sometimes, you can't just decide to play electric football and turn on the quality with a flick of a switch. I've seen games where we've played much more aerial football and games where we've created far fewer chances and they've not met with this kind of backlash. I don't know what I'm not seeing.

 

Pelle was far better then our any of our other forwards btw.

 

Think you just moved the goal posts there.

No Pelle shouldn't be in the side if we have top six ambitions. But if that is the criteria, based on today's' game none of our players bar VVD should be.

It was kind of a team loss where no one played THAT bad, but no one played great either. But if I had to pick who were the worst performers it would be Davis and Forster (though he could do nothing about the one that actually scored). And if I had to pick a section of the team, I would say it was midfield. But Davis and Forster are untouchable on this board and everyone wants someone to blame so sure, it was all Pelle's fault.

Pelle is playing because Long and Austin are hurt. And he was better then Mane and Tadic so even if you want to blame the front three there are better places to look.

 

Yeah, I get the Pelle criticism most of the time, but today wasn't the game where his foibles were more on display than usual (though that chance he took which wasn't for him frustrated me, but he may not have got a shout, and he's a striker at the end of the day...they go for those).

We're saying we don't want him in as Plan A next season (again I agree) and we'd be fine if he's sold (again, agree). Long looks better up top (agree) and he's not a world beater (agree).

Did we not buy Charlie Austin for that though?