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

I understand what you are saying but if anything I thought Ron set us up to be more adventurous against United, than more defensive.
At OT, Ron went against his own advice and selected 3 strikers (Long/Mane/Tadic) instead of the two strikers he says is more suitable to the 3 CBs and wing backs formation.
I think we were forced to be more defensive, as a result of this, because we ended up hitting too many long balls, losing possession, instead of playing short balls through the midfield, and keeping the ball. At OT we got away with it, partly because Utd were dire and fairly easy to manage on the day.
We tried the same at Bournemouth and they took full advantage of the space we gave them in midfield, forcing Ron to change formation.
Had you used the Chelsea game, at SMS, as an example then I would have agreed with that, because we were, IMO, ultra defensive in that game.

 

I'm just saying both our centre backs are perfectly capable of playing good service into the feet of our forwards, but seem content with passing either to Romeu or Clasie and each other. They do pass wide often only to receive the ball back.
Passing between themselves and the central midfielder rarely opens up space further up-field. There's nothing wrong with keeping possession, but it doesn't have to be pumped long. How often do you see top centre backs bypassing their own midfield with precision passes into their forwards, in order to break down a well organised side. VVD especially is capable of that.

 

Just to balance out the arguing, I agree with you (FLT) here. I like it when we keep the ball and look for an option. However, our general lack of good movement often drives me mad. Too often that pass to the DM can only be followed by one back to the CB as there is nothing on. So, there is nothing wrong with making these passes - but there is something wrong with HAVING to make them over and over!

 

Well ours do those balls into the forwards feet too, so I'm not really sure what you expect. They're not going to do it all the time; they'll do it when the feel It's the right option. I saw them do it Saturday.

I'd also add that having a CF who regularly holds the ball up would possibly give them the confidence to do it more often, but that's a different debate

 

Ok, take my point on the tactics and the fact the opposition can play how we do Then my point stands.

I meant Chelsea anyway ...

 

It's much more often Clasie and Romeu who do that though. Toby was excellent at bringing the forwards into play both short and long ball, Virgil can do the long balls, I'd like him to try the precise passes to feet more often. Yes it would help if the forwards could move and being others into play. It's not really Long's game to do that but Mane and Pelle certainly

 

Look at all the great sides and it is the CM who do that the most too. Yes, they have CB who can do it but usually it is the CM. A really good CM will go and take it off the CBs toes. It's like a quarter back role.

I think we both like to see it passed rather than lumped though

 

Yep and we had one in Morgan, which is why the Cbs have a more important role now

 

I'd rather see Clasie making that pass than Jose.

 

So would I it's not one of Jose's strong attributes!

 

We need Mark Wright back

 

I think of it as a spectrum rather than a binary state. So while I wouldn't argue that our football is exciting, I don't think it's dull either. It's just kind of average, normal, regular-ass football. Neither particularly attacking or defensive, or long-ballish or tiki taka or whatever. Which I suppose is boring in it's normalcy, but I don't see us playing anti-football or anything.

We don't have as pronounced a philosophy as we did under MP, we just kind of take what is given or we get what we get. In a way, I suppose that's rather vanilla and boring. But I wasn't much a fan of MP's possession/pressing aesthetically so to me we're more exciting (though perhaps less effective) than we were back then. I also wasn't a big fan of the "fast wingers" approach I felt we fell into last year with Elia.

 

Nah. If we had Mahrez and Vardy.... I think it's a bit presumptious to say we'd be top of the table, but I'm pretty sure we'd be top four. Could probably say the same thing about us last year or the year before as well.

 

I only saw a pleasant discussion, no arguing

 

Jose has wonderful attributes.

 

We are on about his ability to make a pass...

Oh, so are you!

 

Sadly, he hasn't made a pass.

So at least we know his eye sight's good.

 

The inter passing between the CBs doesn't concern me, too much, but it does bother me when they do it to the extent that they get closed down, have to play it back to FF, who then has to launch it long, because he too is being closed down.
This, kind of, undermines the ethos of "keeping possession", as a longer pass, hit under pressure is more likely to miss it's target than a shorter pass made with time to spare (in theory).
Off the ball movement will often dictate whether or not a pass is on, and I can't be the only one who wonders why some players don't always seem to react very quickly to an opponent putting himself in a position to block a pass to him.
As I suggested yesterday, maybe we are too regimented, with regards to positioning. When the CBs have the ball, you could close your eyes for 5 seconds, open them and our players would be pretty much in the same places as when you closed them.
In the 3-5-2 formation, the wing backs will be hugging the line. The defensive midfielders will be just ahead of the CBs and the two strikers will be wondering if they should make a run, or is the ball going back to FF.
It's like zonal marking, only in open play, when we have the ball.
I think we could do better at creating space to receive the ball.
Geometry classes?

 

The court order probably means that you can't get close enough for Jose to see that the pass is on.

 

On that note, take a look at throw-ins. Any guesses as to what we might do with the ball?