Yes, I guess those players that had played Thursday shouldn't have shown any sign of fatigue, they did have nearly two days to recover after all.
I suspect Koeman could spot a fishing expedition when he saw it....if he said he didn't know Josh, the media would ask why and if he praised him, the media would ask why he didn't give him a chance before. However, he could easily have said something pleasant.
JWP had one of his best performances today, but how he didn't score I don't know...well, there was one excellent save by Stek, but the open goal from Austin's cross, all he had to do was stick a foot out. I know none of our strikers are prolific, but with the midfield also consistently firing blanks, we continue to be goal starved. JWP needs to add that to his game.
Well he was polite earlier in the interview and happy to point out our defence, DM and keeper are "the same" and "still strong" but got quite visibly annoyed by the question about Sims. Fran is probably right that he'd spotted the booby trap in the question but he could easily have sidestepped it by saying something complimentary about Sims and finishing by saying he'd rather talk about his own players. I'd like more performances like this (though they haven't been rare) but mainly I want more goals. It would be nice to have a couple of games where we perform like this but go two or three up and the players can... not relax, but where they don't have to frantically chase and defend every ball because the other side are still very much in the game.
It is pretty damning on Koeman that he had never heard of Josh. Josh is well regarded by the U23 management, is a regular player and scorer for the U23, he had a very good tournament with England last year, basically pretty sure that every fan even if they do not watch U23 games has heard of Josh. Maybe it was the beard that confused him- or maybe not
Don't konw if it was already mentioned - but I can confirm the tannoy PA system in the Itchen North corner has very much been fixed. Fixed too well in fact - please can it be turned down a bit!
A bit too loud in Kingsland South too, but at last I can understand what is being said. it ruins the art of conversation though.
Agreed. I couldn't hold a conversation with people at half time for the loudness of the noise they kept blasting out. Some music would have been nice.
Surprised nobody has pointed out how poor a cross it was from Austin for JWP. Yes he is a professional footballer so should still be doing better, but all Austin had to do was roll it across the goal and he really drilled it, a bit off the ground which may have taken JWP a bit by surprise.
So chuffed. I'm not getting too high, though - Everton's shot at revenge is both soon and good (comes at the end of our three games in five days or whatever it is across the New Year period. Still slightly concerned that other than a nod into an empty goal from zero yards, we can't put anything away. It's pretty worrying, but not much we can do at the moment.
RK's argument with the board earlier this year, today bit him in the Ass. He was asked why he wasn't using any of the academy his reply was in his view there was none ready for the step up!!!! Puel for all his faults has proved him so wrong. As good a manager as RK is not trying youth is obviously a fault which tends to mean he lacks a bit of judgement.
My manager is an Everton fan, and I'm surrounded by loads more at work, and I gave him a fair and decent assessment of Koeman early on in the season. I said, though, that he is almost guaranteed to give you at least one ten game unbeaten run per season. Almost to the next game, Koe delivered on that promise, both making my weeks entertaining and fulfilling, and making me look like I know what I'm talking about. Thankyou Ron!
Chant of the day. Not in the ground, but on the way home. I was driving (so totally sober) and my mate didn't come, so I had his 19 yr old step kid in the car (who I've known since he was 9). Koeman came on the radio and on cue both of us shouted "You're just a fat lying Dutchman, fat lying Duuuutchmaaan!" We then proceeded to piss ourselves for 5 mins and missed the interview [emoji4] Edit: it's things like this that make football so great. Edit2: you had to be there [emoji16]
Well, we all needed that! Great game that never really looked uncomfortable for the Saints. This formation really worked for the team. Once again its a squeaky 1-0 on paper but should have been 3-0. Not sure what the answer is, JWP needs a couple of goals under his belt, give him a season with 4-5 goals and he'll start delivering 7 in the long term. The whole team played brilliantly today, just missing that bit of luck/sharpness in front of goal. Extremely satisfying to **** Koeman over on his return and to do it with three academy graduates he never heard of is to do it in style. Not good enough my arse. He's not good enough. Wanted to buy success from the Eredivise, thats not the Southampton way.
Yeah noticed that as well. He had enough time to compose himself, but he hit it way too hard. Definitely his fault more than James'. But anyway, he scored the goal and we won, so it doesn't matter any more. And it's class to see him always praising the youngsters on their debuts. Good man.
I too noticed the eerie Sims-Lambert similarity. They really do look alike. I also realised who Nathan Redmond strikes a slight resemblance to as well...
Noticed too that we can almost field a team entirely made out of post-promotion youth players (to have made the debut for the first team already); GK McCarthy CB Targett McQueen Reed Ward-Prowse Sims Hesketh Gallagher Olomola Not bad considering Luke Shaw and Callum Chambers should also be in the team. And Jack Stephens' debut seems long overdue now. So it's only really GK where we haven't produced. Well played, the academy.
