I really want to find something positive about that performance and it is a real struggle. For me, Targett is turning into a really great player. I know it is a cliché but he's a Southampton fan and you can see he really wants it. Ward-Prowse was much better in 10 minutes than Hojbjerg was for most of the match. Maybe that's not fair. Maybe Hojbjerg had 10 good minutes too. Nice for JRod to get a goal, but the lad was just shooting as soon as he got the ball. It was always going to be a goalkeeping disaster for one to actually go in. Van Dijk was awesome - but that's a given. Fonte was abysmal. I thought Cedric was okay, I guess. The shape was all wrong. The possession football was ponderous and littered with missed passes.
Positives: We didn't lose. Jay scored. Some positive spells especially when Redmond was pushed more out wide. Negatives: We drew 1-1 with a team that most of us would have put money on being relegated. Still no real goal threat until Jay came on. The diamond just does not work - 15 minute good spells in each match can't hide the fact it doesn't suit our players. Some of our passing today was dreadful. As mentioned above, hopefully Puel is learning from all of this and isn't as stubborn as Wenger.
Hmmm will this manager change formation? Three games and some friendlies so far and he hasn't regardless of the way the team plays and the results. I feel we're in for a season of this....
Sunderland are not the hopeless mob everyone seems to be saying. Moyes will make them solid, and Januzaj, Borini, and Defoe will cause a lot of problems for teams this season.
Yes, but we made our own problems. Ignore Sunderland. We couldn't pass and we were slow to the second ball. We had no ideas. Tadic couldn't pass to a team mate and doesn't work at the tip of the diamond.
Going to be brutally honest say the only positives today was that we were lucky we were only playing Sunderland (no disrespect) , a better team would of steamrolled us today playing like that, pretty shocking to watch at times A few players had alryt games but we would expect that for the amount of money their on, think it's best to just say we were **** today and move on as quickly as possible. And oh yeah, drop the diamond!
Was just going to say this. They'll do that to better teams than us this year. I certainly don't see them being near relegation this time round. More likely midtable with a couple of signings.
Virgil was the lone cool head in defence, but also can share in the stunning trifecta of failure leading to the penalty for me, stepped way up to try and nick it so needlessly after Hojbjerg gave it away leaving us even more short. Papering over the cracks of an all-round dreadful display, but even as bad as it was I think we might well have won if we started with the front two we ended with, as far off as Jay may be. Or even just if we had Redmond running off the shoulder and Austin coming to the ball, was painful how much space there was in behind for the first 2/3rds of the game and how we failed to exploit it. Austin's runs looked right, but too easy for the Sunderland defence to let him stray when he had to be full sprint to have a chance of beating them for pace. Felt like Long, Rodriguez or Redmond could have got through 1v1 starting from their backsides. Not ready to enter full meltdown with the diamond yet (Certainly would not be sad to see the back of it though...), but the thing for me isn't any of the several fairly glaring issues with the formation and our application of it, even ignoring all the bad... Three proper games in and I still can't figure out any actual benefit of it...
Match Ratings: Forster: 6 - Did nothing wrong Cedric: 5 - Was okay. Worked hard and looked bright early on. Targett: 7 - Very good. Fonte: 2 - Woeful in all ways. Van Dijk: 8 - Very good in the air. Covered for our awful captain. Romeu: 5 - Terrible start but got gradually into it. Hojbjerg: 4 - Nothing went right. Davis: 5 - looked busy but isn't doing enough to make the team gel. Tadic: 2 - Bad Day. Redmond: 5 - Hustled about but did nothing. Greedy. Austin: 5 - If he hadn't been offside the whole game it would have been higher. JWP: 6 - Useful. Long: 6 - Scared them. Looked dangerous. JRod: 6 - Scored a lucky goal. Thank God.
No need to panick yet.we look great for parts of the game.just not why all of a sudden we turn into ****
