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

My comments are from a position of increasing frustration. All season we have played a brand of football which is slow to tepid. We have no ideas. We have no magic. We aren't waiting patiently to break the other team - we're simply too dull to make anything happen. We don't form nice triangles. We don't explode down the wings. We don't lay siege to their box. In summation, we do nothing truly enjoyable to watch. We are so busy stifling the opposition that it is football itself which dies.

 

The goal we scored was quite pretty, tbf.

In terms of excitement level, I'd say we are about average. We do tend to win by graft rather than spectacular goals or crazy high flair passing. But most teams do. Fell like our general excitement/aesthetics quotient is about the same as our place in the standings and reflective mostly of our overall talent, rather than our particular style of play.

 

I'm relatively happy, it was a much better performance than the Bompey debacle but still nowhere near as good as we can be. I think that Tadic should be a regular starter, he makes things happen and we create more with him on the pitch.

 

Exactly my thoughts, and it's not as if he stole it off Tadic's toes, he saw a ball coming his direction, knew he could get it down to have a go on goal, so he did. Unless he clearly knows a teammate is in a better position than him (Tadic was directly behind him, and we have no idea what kind of a shout he got) he's going to take it on, he has to, that's how any striker plays. And considering he created almost all our best opportunities by opting to give it to players in better positions, I don't know how he can be called selfish.

Is he going to take us to the top 6? Of course he bloody isn't (Is anyone? That's a question for a different place). Is he almost single-handedly sabotaging our season as it would seem from reading this forum a lot of the time? Same answer.

 

Certainly not to much to get excited about from where I was sat? The first time in a long, long time I thought to myself that I got better things to spend my time and money on.

 

I wouldn't sell Davis, Fonte probably wouldn't want to be back-up so agree best to sell and Gardos I don't think we've seen enough of to make a full judgement. Agree with the rest.

 

Mostly agree. That was by no means a good game from us, but I have seen much worse this season.

Not yet sold on Tadic, though. I felt he looked quite sharp at moments today, but was anonymous for long stretches. I am not particularly down on him, but to me it looks like 5-3-2 is the better formation for us, and not sure Tadic has a spot if that is the case. Of course a lot could change over the summer.

 

First half - dismal
2nd half - much better but still frustrating. Jose took one for the team, Defoe came on and mugged us, but just as the chill fog of despair began to settle, Virgil solves the striker problem. A point snatched at the death always feels precious.

An afternoon well spent from where I sat. Alright, we were poor at times, but we improved as the game went on. Dont know what some of you expect sometimes

 

It's last-minute excitement like that, that always makes me smug I stay to the end no matter what, Glad the early leavers missed something.

As for the performance - dissapointing and tedious to watch today, in my opinion. That said, their keeper made some excellent saves which on another day would have seen us win by 3 or 4. Romeu, VVD and Bertrand the only players to impress me today, with VVD being the standout.

 

got to love Virgil, after Fonte goes off and before Yoshi comes on, Virgil is the lone CB yet still makes a 60m run into the Sunderland half. I think next season we get a couple of really good CBs and play Virgil in midfield, he scares teams when he runs at them and his passing and tackling is top notch as well

 

A goal for all the believers who stay till the end.

Frustrating afternoon, but a deserved point overall.
We were well on top after the double change of JWP and Juanmi and obviously that changed briefly after the sending off till their goal.

Ref was bad again, but that's a given in this league. One decision brought audible laughter from the stands. It had got beyond anger.

Agree that we need to look at selling Pelle and need more creativity in midfield.
Swansea are looking safe, but Sigurdsson is a potential domestic target

 

And we need a RB

 

Can I please add to that list - Juanmi and Clasie?

 

Agree we looked better after the change, wouldn't say Juanmi contributed to the improvement, I know he's young but he's very lightweight?

 

Not Clasie. Juanmi definetly.

 

Clasie is fine but yeah Juanmi.

 

When Juanmi comes on as sub it reminds me somehow of days spent picking football teams in the playground. Who does your team pick? The scrawny kid with glasses or the fat kid that picks his nose a lot! It's like Juanmi is that all we have got, surely we must have somebody better? Sigh Nope RK is getting him warmed up! I know he's only young and probably trying his darndest but he's so lightweight and ineffectual!

 

He is too lightweight, he made a nice break to set up Pelle and he gave a bit of movement up top. So not anonymous by any means.

Could we have used Hesketh instead this season, probably

 

Thought the ref had a decent game. A few dodgy decisions but certainly got the red right

 

I think last season's run-in was very disappointing with players appearing to have no confidence and belief. Let us hope this rash of injuries and suspensions does not bring about the same, otherwise it really will be not worth watching or even wondering how the team has got on. And that is a bit crap to say the least.

When we play it would be so nice to see an early goal for a change and is it too much to ask to have a storming run-in?

Also we now have had the most players sent off in the Premier League - no 'most sporting club' entry in the Europey League this season