Why was Long marking Duffy. Got nowhere close and was never going to out jump him. Long might have a leap on him but he isn't exactly the best header in defensive positions
Its funny what you perceive live or on telly. Watching it on telly I didn't get that impression about the ref. Saying that, I couldn't see why there was a penalty for them at the time
Hojbjerg was immense before running out of steam a bit and getting outnumbered in the second half. Redmond was also excellent and caused them all sorts of problems with positive attacking play. Thought Cedric had a very poor game, but as a whole team we are utterly useless mentally. We crumble under any sort of pressure and drop too deep. I’d still like to see Yoshida alongside Vestergaard at CB. I’m not sold on Elyounoussi yet, but he deserves more of a chance. Not sure about him playing on the right though, think Cedric needs more protection. Also, and this is hardly breaking news. Murray is a thug and was fouling literally every time the ball was hit up in the air toward him. I was surprised about how quick he is though (though that’s probably more to do with the comparitable pace of our CBS).
Having got over the disappointment of conceding a two goal lead, I have to say I really enjoyed last night. Good build up with pyrotechnics seemed to get the crowd going - though I was half expecting players to emerge with helmets and shoulder pads. Lemina, PEH and Redmond were excellent but as they tired in the second half you could see the anxiety creep in. Crowd did not give up on them though. I have to agree with the radio 5 pundit - NEVER make a sub when you’re defending a corner. It’s just asking for trouble. Incidentally, there’s a lot of talk about Brighton’s first goal and who should be marking who. Unless I missed it no one seems to have highlighted the quality of the cross which made it very difficult to defend against. For me it was a brilliantly worked goal.
A few observations, in general, our build up play, it is a bit one dimentional, sideways, backwards on the halfway line, too many hit and hope hoof balls, and got even slower after the substitutions. We are clueless when it comes to free kicks in the midfield area. There seems to be no communication at throw ins in the attacking half, do they not have any set practice moves? We have a 6ft 7 inch player that never seems to have the ball targetted on him at Corners and free kicks, he should be winning the high crosses. The best tactic to beat the Brighton defence was to run at them, Ings was the only one to try it and got the penalty through doing it. Injury time in the first half? Hoedt was down with a head injury for at least three or four minutes, and we got one minute extra? I am sure he wasn't completely fit in the second half, I think he should have been checked out for possible concussion. We have players like Armstrong, Romeu, Stephens, Sam G, Fraser not even making the bench. They should be raising their game to push for places, (but are probably a cause for unrest in the dressing room), there is no opportunity for them to do that except on the training pitch.
There was a ton of niggly fouls he let go (particularly as Murray got frustrated against Vestegaard's height) and every 50/50 felt like it went to them. I said to my mate "we need to be very, very careful in the area because he'd love to give them a penalty".
If he hadn't the game would have been very stop start. There were some he should have given (on Long in particular) but you can't give every little nudge otherwise it would be a very poor spectacle. I also thought he should have had a word with the Brighton captain in the first half. The foul count kept rising. He should have brought the captain over and warned that the next one gets a yellow card.
Redmond was doing it a lot in the first half, and so was Elyounoussi to a lesser extent. I agree with your other points though.
https://southamptonfc.com/news/2018-09-18/highlights-southampton-brighton-premier-league-1819 Looked a bit soft to me, Often given when a Referee is looking for an opportunity to even things up! There had been some worse unpunished stuff, earlier that could have resulted in a penalty or two!
Talk about a game of two halves. Anyway, at the end I was annoyed with MacCarthy. Murray took an identical penalty last week. I was screaming at the TV for him to stand still. All of which was a tad pointless seeing as though it was on TV AND I was watching a recording. Still, I have to ask, if I knew where it was going how come MacCarthy didn’t. It was one of the worst penalties you’ll ever see and still it went in.
Completely agree with this. We are so fragile at the back mentally, but willing to give him time to sort it out, and that means for me, binning hoedt and Cedric. They are utterly useless
I feel that other teams now target Cedric as a weak link. Lots of examples yesterday. Wesley goes from great to calamity in seconds, but Mark likes pairing him with JV. God knows what Yoshi thinks!
Seems like it’s most teams tactics now to hit long balls over cedrics head and draw him out of position. Hoedt cant deal with any form of long ball and loses most duels in the air. Partner Yoshi and JV.
Just going to say, I enjoyed it so that's a big step forward from last season, we'll be ok once the players learn how to handle teams coming at us when we are winning. I should add that Chris Hughton deserves credit for motivating his team at half time and rectifying their system, he's a top Manager.
Yeah; Vest & Hoedt lock out For the life of me I can’t understand why MH hasn’t tried Vest & Maya. Think he’s getting his arm twisted to persevere with Hoedt. Defensively, I haven’t seen any PL ability in the man. Still, what do I know.
