Well, the one positive out of today is that we should, barring injuries and suspensions, see less rotation from now on. Edit: I've fully understood the need for it up until now.
Interesting. He didn't have a good game tonight. But then neither did Stephens, Gardos, McQueen, Clasie or Reed. I don't want to over react because although twitter was full of criticism for the team selections, there weren't to many moans on here. It could have worked. But it didn't. My only minor concern beforehand was that there was no commanding centre back to organise the defence ( I could not see a captain in any shape or form) and that showed time and time again as the defence lost shape. You could say the same about midfield. I honestly expected to see Yosh and Romeu come on at half time. In the end Arsenal were clinical and we were poor in front of goal - we actually had more shots than they did! Couldn't fault Lewis for any of the goals - he was just left exposed. The biggest disappointment for me was that we reduced the ticket price, filled the ground and watched it empty around 75 minutes. On any other day I would say that is disgraceful but in all honesty you cant blame them today. We re never getting bak in it. As Blackmore says, win Tuesday this will all be forgotten. Let's hope the confidence is not badly damaged.
That also continues the run of not winning a single Saturday fixture this season. Thank **** the final is on a Sunday
Well, just got back. Funny there was confidence on here, because anyone at the ground could see our defence was all wrong against that attack. We were never in it and if we had more shots that was more down to all Clasie's woeful long rangers. Who cares, in the grand scheme, but there was little to smile about on the pitch tonight. The only positive for me was Sims, who worked his socks off and showed some flashes of brilliance. Reed seems to be sinking into mediocrity. Hojbjerg is ridiculously inconsistant. Gardos wasn't ready. Meh.
Well that result was inevitable from the moment the teams came in. Not going to slag off Puel or the players because Puel HAS got us to Wembley and the players were thrown in at the deep end tonight. However, I do not want to see Martina, Gardos or Isgrove play for Saints again. They are simply not good enough. And why bring on Tadic and Redmond when 3-0 down? Didn't get that at all.
Pretty poor but we won Wednesday so I really can't be disappointed at all. Stephens looked much better with decent senior players in Yoshida and Bertrand in the week, I don't think he was particularly at fault today and Martina is just poor and didn't help him at all. Hojbjerg really needs to discover his start of season form as well. It was a disjointed team, we could tell from the first 5 minutes it wasn't going to work, we didn't lose any points, we march on... TO WEMBLEY
Says a lot about the team we put out when Tadic is captain in the second half. He'd be, at a guess, around 8th/9th choice on normal match days. It was our C team and I'm really not too gutted.
Back down to earth with a bit of a bump today! I haven't read the thread (and don't intend to). Bring on Swansea.
Have to agree with this, he needs to step up when he is picked and try and dominate in the middle. We have seen him do that, particularly against Everton a couple of years ago, but today he was very ordinary and his passing was too safe and he seemed to lack any energy and presence.
This is one of those where we'll have to agree to disagree. I have no problem with the actual result given the team but what I can't get my head round is why a league match away at Swansea should be considered a more important game and that is the crux of it for me. If there was more to the selection than simply that then, fair enough but that's not how it seems.
Today's game was more important to me personally, especially seeing other PL clubs struggling in the cup, but I can understand why Swansea is more important to the manager and the club.
Well if we could've asked the FA to switch the games so the Swansea game was today, yeah. As it was I our options were: Play first team in 4 games in 9 days Rest against Leicester, no momentum going into Liverpool Rest against Swansea, 3 games in 6 days with an injured and fatigued squad Rest against Liverpool, obviously not an option Rest against Arsenal, very hard to progress in FA Cup Rest both league games, makes it hard to stop our downward momentum, hinders two very winnable games Rest both cup games, again obviously not Rest one of each, again, keeps us at risk of staying wobbly So in terms of team selection, I don't think we really had a better option.
It's actually pretty chilled. We didn't play well and deserved to lose in a game that most of us would have picked to lose if we had to lose a game this week.
I can understand supporters getting pee'd off, but I doubt if it will live long in the memory of most. Nobody likes losing in the FA Cup, but as soon as I saw the Saints line-up I realised the priority Puel was giving this competition. Quite obviously, he is concentrating his efforts on the Premier League, League Cup and developing the strength of the squad. It's much more medium-long term than one game in one competition. I'm sure he would have thrown I few stronger resources at the FA Cup if we hadn't been so buggered with injuries. Can you imagine how buggered we'd be if he hadn't rotated the squad.?
That's good to hear. I would rather we beat Swansea if I had to pick this match or that one. When I saw today's team and their attack I knew we were in trouble. We had to rest a fair few players after Wednesday so it was always going to be a tough game.
