Match Day Thread Saturday 30th April 2022. Southampton v Crystal Palace. 3 p.m. KO. St. Marys Stadium.

Picking up on distribution of the ball I would say that this is also an issue that has worsened since we have stopped pressing.
When we press, we regularly have 3,4 or 5 players in close proximity to each other and when we regain possession we are actually quite good at making accurate first time passes, as the passes are only going 5 yards or so.
When we aren’t pressing the distance between our players is greater which often deters first time passes. This then leads to slower passing, often delayed too long allowing for interceptions, or poor control leading to a hurried, misplaced pass, giving the recipient little or no chance to control the ball comfortably.
We often get the pace of the passes wrong as well, putting the recipient under immediate pressure.

 

Why aren’t we pressing then? Has Ralph told them to stop (unlikely) or have the players not got the same intensity now we aren’t playing for anything (more likely)

 

It's ****ing hard work trying to play 90 minutes in your opponents half, most of them without the ball. I expect that's why.

 

Maybe but we beat MU 6-3 with Dryden, Dodd, Charlton & Neilson in the team & not exactly household names. Most teams perform occasionally. The managers job is to over achieve on a regular basis. Maybe RH is; maybe not?

 

Yes & that might be a direct result of effort dropping that marginal 2-3% now we’re safe. RH can probably motivate when we really need but come this period we just can’t do.

 

Well he's doing better than Branfoot, Souness or Merrington. Arguably as well as Alan Ball and Dave Jones, probably not as well as Hoddle.

I'm not sure what point I'm trying to make here tbh. We've mostly been **** since Lawrie left

 

The teams under Lawrie were great to watch. They did not worry about how many goals they conceded. The football was so free flowing, they just went up the other end and scored a couple more... But in truth, our best days were under Poch and Koeman.

Anyway, with Everton beating Chelsea we are officially back in a relegation fight. So flip flops have to be put away and Ralph has to throw a few tea cups around.

 

Yeah it’s weird isn’t it. I find myself prattling on about similar I suppose it’s the frustration which there’s abundance of at mo.

 

We are not safe

 

Ok guys. Stand down. We aren’t getting relegated.


You’re welcome.

 

Very occasionally awesome.

 

Pretty unlikely Everton, Leeds and Burnley will get 8, 7 & 6 points to sink us, even if we do get 0, but a point would be useful and three would be enough to end speculation

If this acts as any sort of motivation then that’s good, because we need something, anything!

 

Please do tell me the last time a team with 40 points went down.

 

West Ham 2002-3, 42 points.

 

Thank you, 19 years ago.

 

*years vary. Past performance is not necessarily an indication of future performance.

 

We'll enter the relegation battle at the weekend if we lose and Leeds and Everton both avoid defeat. But until/unless that happens, we're not in the battle - we're just annoyingly closer than we ever should have been when we kicked off at Villa Park two months ago.

 

Hope you are right. Leeds look the most vulnerable but wins against Brentford and Brighton not beyond them. Burnley are on fire at the minute and Everton... ....could go wither way but they still have 5 games left! As you say, 3 points and we should be safe but where those come from is anyone's guess.

 

It's a good point and I hope you're right, but I think we could easily see a team going down on 40 points this year.

 

Yep that was the turning point. It's a long time since I felt so down about Saints as when I came away from that game.