Oh dear oh dear......we lost a friendly and it’s the end of the world!!........Saints were not at their best that’s for sure. Three glaring mistakes in midfield 3 goals. I like others were disappointed Lemina in particular was disappointing. Once the other side had got his measure he was marked off the pitch. We just had no answer to their style of play. I hope we can learn lessons from them especially their movement in midfield. They moved the ball so fast and had some nippy wingbacks. Where as we didn’t often pick up the runs of our forward players. We lacked cohesion at times which was very noticeable........,
I'm not overly confident he'll stay injury free this season, but its worth remembering his last long term injury was caused by a terrible landing that dislocated his shoulder. It would have been the same for any of the big guys with the way he fell.
Worth remembering that he got sacked from Stoke who were below us and playing much worse football. I don’t have any confidence in him changing our fortunes.
It wasn’t great today, but not time to give up before a ball is kicked in competition. Sat next to a bloke who moaned from the first minute until the last. Listening to him we need to sell 13/14 players and replace them before the window closes, and that we are relegation certainties. Let’s be honest, only the top 7 in the league won’t be in a relegation battle this season as per most seasons in the premier league. The rest, including saints in all honesty, will be.
Change our fortunes? Was helping us stay up not good enough? Im not convinced he is the right man for us.But, he did a fatastic job in keeping us up that he deserves a chance to prove me and maybe a few others wrong....
Worth remembering that Stoke had their highest-ever PL finishes under Hughes, finishing 9th in each of his first 3 seasons.
Worth remembering Swansea are lining up against Sheffield Utd right now and there are just 3 of their players from last season in their starting 11. There, but for the galvanising ability of Mark Hughes and the fragility of Swansea go we.
I thought that we were abysmal today and after listening to Matt Le Tissier's enthusiastic comments about the match on Wednesday night at the Concorde Club on Thursday, it wasn't what I had expected. Oddly enough, the performance did not seem quite as bad and as disappointing as I should have thought but I think this was only because Hampshire's performance last night in the Twenty20 was even worse!! It was a lacklustre first half performance with Armstrong looking like our best player. I was pleased with Vestergaard's overall performance but can't say much in favour of the rest of the defensive team. Bednarek looked poor and I thought Targett looked out of his depth. The midfield seemed woeful and I must admit that I wasn't aware that PEH was playing!! I am not too concerned as I am not convinced that this is going to be a typical performance or that the team seemed particularly motivated. We will see a different performance against Burnley and think that the starting eleven will be different. It was a poor display with little other than Armstrong about which toy could honestly say made you look forward to the new season. Luckily the match did not matter and I think Hughes will have learned a lot from this match albeit it will largely be negative issues. Come the end of August, everyone will have forgotten about this afternoon's display which has been a marked difference to the high quality of football played by Winchester in the friendly I saw them play on Wednesday night. I cannot see a repetition of the Saints performance this afternoon and will just have to chalk it down to a poor weekend for both Saints and Hampshire. I have more confidence in the football team to rectify the problems!!
Lemina was bent double, hands on knees in the second half yesterday, and looked shagged when he came off. Chances are he wasn't fully ready. His attempts to spin out of trouble and wayward passes got us into some troublesome situations. Romeu starting does not fill me with excitement either. Rather see Reed on but he's supposed to be RB. That could cause us some big problems this season, not having a RB in the squad...
Gabbiadini looks on point too. I reckon it's a big year for Gallagher. Many people have written him off no doubt.
gabbi and austin are very good options. Get both of them playing together and we will be sweet. We are one injury away from being desperate though and that's when we need new blood or to be showing faith in the young players. I cannot stomach having shane starting game after game, he has a role but its limited. When we are up and coasting we can bring on a young player, when we need to score goals we need a goalscorer, when we need to get balls over the top and have a tireless chaser we need Long. One injury from desperate is not a good way to start the season. January is a long time away.
It was blazing hot, we played 3 games in a week and it was a bit experimental for Hughes. Losing the game doesn't bother me at all. However, Borussia showed us how to attack and take chances. The defence will gel I feel but our creativity is very poor and needs addressing.
The defensive problems were probably exaggerated yesterday with the absence of Cedric and the fact that Yoshida was not fully fit. I think the defence is broadly strong enough and am not convinced that either Bednarek or Targett will feature that much. I don't see either any thing more than fringe players. The main concern for me in Hoedt whereas the Vestergaard struck me as being a very valuation addition. It will be interesting to see how things pan out this season because I also think that Armstrong looks very good too. I just hope that we don't miss Tadic too much. The main concern with me is that we have stuck with a front line that has not really functioned in the last two seasons. I know there has been a lot of chatter on here about Gabbi finding form yet it faded out in the game yesterday for me. There were some good moments in the first half going forward but not enough. The second half cannot be truly reflective because there were too many changes. JWP seemed to pep things up when he came on yet the rest of the midfield performed very poorly throughout the 90 minutes. I think we will not be threatened by relegation this season as there are too many other teams who I feel will struggle. I am not convinced that the current line up without an additional striker will be sufficient to get up in to the top 8 and think we will finish mid-table. I would imagine that there will be another striker in the ranks added in the January window as much as I am pleased for Gallagher. Sam looked very promising when he debuted for Saints and his style of play reminded me f Rickie Lambert. I think he deserves a try and maybe more suited to playing with better players than those he encountered at both Birmingham and Blackburn. I would not be so fussed to see Targett loaned out again or even sold. I think McQueen deserves anther chance.
