Match Day Thread Brighton v Saints Sunday 29th October 13:30pm - Goals galore thread.

So basically we will play any 11 of our squad. With 7 on the bench. I agree, that would be my line up

 

Yeah okay. Not sure your displeasure will be uppermost in the manager's mind.

 

Yep, think you’re right. MP has been very cautious to date & cant see that changing. Also, with Boufal’s rant, I think he be lucky to get on before 80th min. Score line might affect tho. We’ll see.

 

Surely his performance against West Brom is of more relevance than the Newcastle one, when he still wasn’t fully match fit? On Saturday he seemed to spend more time coming forwards and playing as a midfielder than he did defending, and I don’t recall any defensive errors, certainly not of the magnitude of those in the Newcastle match. He looked back to his imperious best I thought.

 

No mention of the 20 yard rocket that clipped the post?

 

Why couldn’t you just say “yeah okay”? You didn’t really need to add the next.

 

lol and when Mr Walcott signs for us you will have no arse as you will have eaten it

#ForumNeverForgets

 

That’s how I saw it too.

 

Had that in the back of my mind. Redmond was rested and then brought on to make the difference....in fact, Maya said that MP2 told him he was going to do that prior to the match. And it worked. The team played well but couldn't break down WBA despite having chances, so Mauricio did his already planned subs and doesn't get any praise for it.

If the situation is the same at Brighton, I would bring on Sofiane as a sub (a bit earlier this time)....he would certainly distract the opposition who had seen his goal. Making Brighton wonder who was the main threat would help.

 

Having nothing better to do this afternoon, and remembering that I’d recorded the game on Saturday, I just watched the whole thing again, and something struck me about our second half performance that I don’t think has been mentioned yet. During the whole game, West Brom were very happy to let us pass the ball around in front of the box, and happy to let us cross, either high balls forward, or low balls pulled back from the byline. They knew they had enough cover in the middle to keep us out, even though we came close a few times.

From the start of the second half though, we tried running at them directly down the middle. Lemina and Tadic both had at least one go, as did Van Dijk, and although no shots resulted, we almost broke through the blue wall a couple of times. Pellegrino must have told the team at half time to try this, as we hadn’t really employed this tactic in the first half. When Boufal came on at 80 minutes, both he and the manager would have seen that the combination of direct running with the ball, with forwards making runs to occupy the defence, was beginning to bear fruit. Whether MP or Boufal thought of it first doesn’t really matter, but you can bet your life that as soon as Sofiane picked up that ball deep in our half and skipped away, he only had one thing on his mind.

Against Brighton I would imagine that the home team would be a lot less negative and defensive than WBA were, so we may not need that direct running ploy as our only chance of breaking them down. On the other hand, speedy counterattacking might well be high up on our agenda, and Boufal is definitely a speed merchant, more so than Tadic or even Redmond, so he might just get the nod.

 

Not sure what the need is for a flippant response but hey ho, each to their own.

 

I think Redmond challenges the notion that players are either regulars, impact off the bench or full-time bench/squad players. His inconsistency is frustrating but some games he starts well and other games he plays well once he comes on. This season, he's been lacking in both departments.

 

Could have come across better for sure, but it's why I never get annoyed at team selections etc. Nothing we can do about it, just have to go with it regardless of what you think.

 

Think you're referring to the game against Newcastle. The message you quoted referred to WBA. There was no second goal in that game.

Indeed, VVD looked much more like his old self. Coming out of defence with the ball. Encouraging, shouting, instructing. And the bullet shot from 35-40 yards was a whisker away.

 

This is why I rarely post line-ups.

 

I reckon he will be cautious and try not to lose rather than try to win. Which means probably no boufal and a solid safe midfield romeu lemina JWP and davis wouldn't surprise me. Based on what I have seen so far he is a safety first manager. I don't think he will last long like that. Hopefully he will change his mindset soon.

 

I'd suggest that against Newcastle, we started to see such a change in mindset. By (a) dropping Davis, and (b) starting Gabbi and Long.

OK, it's not ultra aggressive or anything, but it was a small step in the right direction. And equally, yes OK, returning to Davis for the WBA was maybe a small backward step - especially given how much we dominated the ball, and how little WBA threaten on the counter - but sacrificing Romeu in the second half certainly reversed that. If anything, it reversed it too much, as I felt we left ourselves too open all of a sudden.

I agree that he has looked like a safety first manager, and that he won't survive like that. But I do think we have just started to the odd glimpse of something different.

 

I would suggest that the team you have has an effect on whether a manager is gung-ho, safety first or in between. Mauricio may be more of a risk taker if we were free scoring. Faced with a lack of goals, it seems reasonable to be careful initially as we rarely score two. Admittedly being careful makes it harder to score....so it's a matter of balance.

 

https://southamptonfc.com/news/2017-10-24/gallery-southampton-training-pre-brighton-24-october