Tom, did you mention that Boufal should have started before we were 2-1 down? If you did I genuinely missed it. Vin
Yeah they weren't great, but we had to take our chances when the time came. Unusual for us to be bad at defending in such a short space of time too.
But even if they had got up there more, I think we'd be replacing "lack of effort" with "lack of ability". It's not like either are known for their shooting etc. Fortunately, for what he does offer us, I am still a Clasie fan. Not as much as PEH, but I like him. So it's only one of those two who I want replaced with someone who can actually offer us attacking threat from the middle of the park.
One of the most disappointing league results for a long time. Complete control and then give away two poor goals and looked totally deflated. Hull are terrible as well, and will get relegated this season. Still, we have the international break for this result to linger.
Oh god, I'd forgotten about Long, haha. Yeh Long's still on zero. It was Jay's poor cross that frustrated me the most today. Completely get your point about finding one on the cheap.
Yeah, unless the sale goes through with unexpected haste, I wouldn't anticipate much in the transfer window. Rarely do teams spend substantial sums under such circumstances.
Really frustrating. Gutted to have bubble burst so easily but it's typical Saints. We will bounce back - be nice to put in a performance against Liverpool- we're going to need to! I know Bertrand is still feeling his way back but right now I would pick McQueen ahead of him. He's been a revelation. Bertie just doesn't seem to be offering much in the attacking third. The other puzzling thing is the seemingly first starter status of Clasie. He must be getting through an awful lot of work I'm not seeing as I really don't think he adds much at all.
He was listed as starting on the original team sheet - but come kick off he was on the bench. Not too sure what went on, perhaps he wasn't feeling 100%? Who knows? But if it was tactical I do think that as strange, I'd have started him too.
Could have been 7th or thereabouts tonight, only two points off Everton, now Hull City are three points away from us and have won as many games. Oh the joy of being a Saints fan. If they last two games have done anything it is any easy summing up of the Southampton FC in a nutshell. Two shots on goal, that's all they had.
Been saying it for weeks ! How clasie gets in the starting 11 is beyond me , he offers nothing , absolutely nothing!
Yep I'd probably play McQueen as well, but he deserves a bit of a rest having played regularly. PEH and JWP both put big effort into Milan so thats why Davis and Clasie played. Whether it should have been the other way round, or if they could actually manage 2 games in 4 days who knows
Just in these three and a bit years alone (of being a top eight team), we dropped points to Watford (more than once), Sunderland (more than once), Villa (more than once), Newcastle (I think more than once?), Burnley, Norwich, QPR, Cardiff and now Hull. I may have forgotten one or two others as well. Obviously we can't be expected to beat every bottom eight team home and away, but through a lack of another top attacker this whole time (whether a striker or a goalscoring CM), we've dropped more than we should have done - particularly given that they're all draws or one goal defeats. And who knows, it may have even cost us CL football previously.
Yeah I was absolutely adamant that we should've gone all out for a striker the year we were 4th(?) going into January. Now I feel it is the lack of an actual number 10 that is hindering us more. I would like to see how the current line up of attackers get on with a genuinely creative central player
Yeah, I agree with this. I don't think you can try to commit players forward thinking you need three goals (which is what it would have taken) to win this game. That is not our game. Either in terms of tactics or in having the players to do it. I understand and agree with the argument we should have been able to put the game away in the first half given how bad Hull were playing. But that's us needing better quality in attack, as opposed to needlessly throwing players forward. And there's little we can do to fix that right now. This is a game that to me, we should have been okay just stroking the ball around the pitch, keeping possession in their end. We can't expect to give up two goals and win very often, but we can expect our defense to not give away two cheap goals and win at worst a boring, workmanlike 1-0 game. Or maybe Hull gets a lucky bounce and it's a 1-1 draw. But 2-1 should never have happened. Not that I want to blast the back four+Romeu, but they weren't very good today. Even in the first half they were sloppy. Maybe it was just one of those games, or possibly they were fatigued or both. But I don't have a big problem with Puel's tactics today. I'm certainly not the biggest supporter of Davis, as I was the one who questioned why we extended him to much opposition. But JWP isn't exactly known for his scoring prowess either. The team we put out and the tactic we used were easily good enough to defeat Hull, and should have defeated them.
