Match Day Thread Everton v Southampton 02/01/17 3pm

Next five league games:

Burnley (A)
Leicester (H)
Swansea (A)
West Ham (H)
Sunderland (A)

Surely, we have be looking at 10 points from that lot.

 

Life too short as it is and so many more important things than football to be honest; agreed; hope you and the family have a good 2017

 

Korean lol doh Koeman lol

 

Disagree. The mistake was not replacing them. (If someone dares to reply with Austin and Redmond...)

 

I think with Hull, Sunderland and Swansea in the league we can rest easy for now. Could do with picking up some form soon though!

 

You too buddy, and thanks.

 

I don't think you can put all the blame at Puel's door...he's had to play with the hand he's been dealt.
We lost quality players in the summer...adequate replacements were not bought in, that's down to the club.

As fans we have to realise we are now in a transition period, not easy after being spoilt for the last 7 years.
Certainly not going to be fixed this January but the summer transfer window is going to be massive in determining in what direction we go from here.

 

Does Kim Jong-un have any managerial experience? Players wouldn't dare p**s him off, that's for sure.

 

We do? A squad that can't score goals, don't really create much and lack steel when things go against us.

Lucky for us the current bottom three are mostly appalling and will probably be well adrift in a month's time.

At the moment, I'm dreading the upcoming games. I have a feeling the players are too.

 

No, I understood what you meant. I think we should field a strong side vs Norwich, no taking it or them lightly. Then do the same vs Liverpool.

 

Hopefully, but we have a minimum of 3 and a maximum of 6 cup games in that period. Things will get better, but this period will be difficult, there's nothing we can do.

 

Burnley - Loss
Leicester - Win/draw
Swansea -Win
West Ham - Draw
Sunderland - Loss


My predictions for those for what it's worth. We haven't had one of those threads in a while actually...

 

Yes and no. We weren't really on top for most of the game, instead playing as a typical counter-attacking away side and generating some chances from it, which was a refreshing change of pace. But after an early flurry, Everton was extremely flat; they couldn't pass, moved the ball lethargically, and resorted to long balls with some frequency. We had a couple chances begging for finishes, but past Saints teams would have been all over them, whether we scored or not. We instead let Everton spend a great deal of time showing us their array of (oddly familiar) sideways passing before they kicked up the tempo in the second half.

 

The focus needs to move away from what we think is a striker issue and realize it's very much a problem of service from the midfield and the way Puel is utilizing the formation and individual players. It's all well and good for Puel to come out and say "the players are angry. We are going to channel this anger into a performance" but then we come out and play the same boring football as the previous weeks. The first 30-40 minutes looked promising but then we just sink straight back into our same old ways? If that's what we look liked when we're fired up I'd hate to see us when we're demotivated.


The few chances Jay-Rod gets look promising, but he just isn't given the opportunity to convert enough by the supporting and attacking midfield. Puel seems to favour tactics which takes advantage of the wings using pace and long passing but our build-up play and crossing has just been woeful and Redmond seriously needs to be highlighted as someone whose recent performances have not been good enough for this level of football. I know it's an issue of depth in the squad by how on earth does he manage to be selected every week? I don't have enough fingers to count how many time's he got himself into a silly position, produced a piss-poor cross or just blatantly ran the ball out of touch. Tadic may be inconsistent but at least he can pull an incredible performances out of the bag here and there.


Overall we have a decent defensive line. Cedric, Fonte, VVD and Bertrand is mouth-watering. But they can't weather a storm each week when the midfield are unable to do anything with the ball and it turns into attack after attack coming straight at our back four. You can clearly see the frustration and exhaustion getting to them in form of discipline, injuries and complacency (VD's Red card, Fonte's insanely stupid tackle against spurs to name a few). The amount of goals conceded in the last few games has been hugely concerning, but again the issues arise in the midfield.


At this point i still think the murmurs of us getting dragged into a relegation scrap are utter tripe. We've hit our mid-season hiccup with the addition of us currently having no clear first choice striker and an insane fixture congestion which forces Puel to chop and change the squad to keep the players fit and happy. He can't name the same 9-10 players each game and expect them to perform off less than 48 hours of rest


Saying that though, he needs to bloody figure out what to do because what we're doing now just isn't working. The fact he's considering no business in the January windows is disappointing and he better have a good trump card up his sleeve because we are so uninteresting to watch at the moment.

 

You are correct of course but over two ferkin legs? Here's hoping.

No idea what this little guy represents but I think he's massively underused

 

We have the players. We had a bad summer, but we are better than we are showing.

I think most fans knew that we had a poor summer. Pelle and mané going was absolutely mental. So we always could expect less goals.

The worrying thing is our defence going so far backward. I think it's all the changes.

We can still turn it around, it's not complete panic stations.. But it's genuinely painful to go out of Europe with a whimper, then to lose to what is frankly a bang average Everton side.

Hard to get behind the team when it's a different XI every week.

 

It's hard not to be a little bit down right now and seemingly nothing is going our way. Fixture congestion over Xmas was shown to be worse for us than all other teams on the back of a Europa campaign. The rotation policy was understandable but did not work. Today was very odd - no Bertrand or Boufal, who now we lose to AFCON. Also feels like all the major officiating calls are going against us. Thankfully, that will just be my imagination and we'll start getting the rub again. Also, we have a good foothold league position. We can turn things round - for sure our manager and board need to do something to help this - some loan signings, change of formation/tactics - something positive to turn the corner. We need to roll our sleeves up and throw everything at the cups and play the rest of the prem season without fear. Fans need to be part of the turn around - no boos to Forster, no calls for the Manager's head. Just good old fashioned support. We are not spoilt sofa fans. We are the Saints. Enough moaning and groaning. Man up.

 

The manager must have known he was short with attacking options. Perhaps he's too timid to demand the board spends money?

The only transition we are currently in, is from a good team into a crap one.

 

Burnley away - very tricky game. They have made their place a fortress. Draw at best. 2-0 Burnley.
Leicester home - shocking away form but how will our results in the cups leave home fans. I'm gunna say draw. 0-0
Swansea away - must win. Shocking team and even with a new manager we should be winning. 1-0 Saints.
West Ham home - again tricky and with Carroll back the long ball will be like lukaku today. Draw. 1-1. We score first.
Sunderland away - like Swansea they are **** but defore always scores. Loss.

 

Excellent perspective from a fan who I believe travels everywhere to watch us.