Gazza did alright, bump him up to a 6. Fox gets a 3 from me, he's becoming more of a liability every game.
Lallana was incredibly unlucky. Thought he played well tonight but was bullied too much. Ramirez wasn't looking sharp and to be honest, none of them really looked to have any enthusiasm. Trying to pick out the positives but struggling. I understand WBA are a good side, but we need points against even the good sides, and even away against the good sides. We need to get 4 from the next 6 or I'm starting to think the PL is a bit too far for the current set of players.
Gazza - 5 Clyne - 6 Fonte - 5 Yoshida - 4 Fox - 5 Davis - 3 (had an awful game. Gave so much away) Schneiderlin - 4 Lallana - 6 Ramirez - 5 Lambert - 5 Rodriguez - 4
Gazza - 6 - could do bugger all for either goal and his distribution was fantastic Fox - 5 - Lots of aimless hoofing all game, dealt with odemwingie well considering he had no support Fonte - 5 - Did he do much? Won a few headers but no defence from midfield Yoshida - 4 - Same as Fonte but marginally worse Clyne - 7 - Did really well but was visibly frustrated at his lack of options. Schneiderlin - 5 - Pretty poor put in a few tackles but largely dominated by Mulumbu. Davis - 2 - Abysmal showing i'm afraid offered nothing offensively or defensively. Ramirez - 4 - Wasteful offensively and defensively gave the ball away far too often Jay Rod - 6 - No end product but one of the few who worked hard all the time he was on the pitch Lallana - 5 - Good first half always impressive offensively bugger all in the second half, didn't offer fox enough protection he always seems to realise too late and end up sprinting to cover the full back. Lambert - 5 - did okay against a tremendous physical presence in Ollson unlucky not to score. Fans - 20 - Out sung the West Brom fans all game!
Gazza - 6 - didn't really do anything wrong, still think he looks very calm in pressure situations. Was on a hiding to nothing tonight. Clyne - 7 - by far and away our best defender. Made some great tackles and got forward well. No concerns Tbh, would look even better with a more complimentary back line. Fonte - 5 - just panics, although had a couple of good moments. Yoshida - 4 - he can make good blocks etc, but with the ball at his feet is just a terrible footballer to be honest. Fox - 4 - slightly better tonight, but still not good enough. Keeps leaving that massive hole on the left. Schneiderlin - 6 - couple of silly mistakes, but otherwise fairly solid. Davis - 5 - worst performance in a saints shirt to date. Badly weighted passes and gave the ball away far too easily, confidence looked a bit shot. Lallana - 7 - best player for me tonight, wanted it more than everyone else. Ramirez - 5 - wish I hadn't got myself so worked up for this. Bought back too early and not match fit, 2nd to everything and 1st touch was poor. Looks like he is used to having more time on the ball than he was getting tonight. Lambert - 5 - doesn't look particularly interested at the moment. Rodriguez - 6 - worked hard, the better of the 2 upfront. Subs Guly - made no impression on the game. Mayuka - made no impression on the game. Shaw - think he touched the ball once before making a very good tackle in the dying seconds, **** it, give him a go, can't be any worse.
All 5s for me except for clyne who should get a 6 on endeavour alone and gazzaniga who had good distribution. Ramires shouldn't have started, puncheon should have played with lallana through the middle. LBs our biggest problem for me - fox too often caught out of position giving our CBs too many problems- fox should be dropped with shaw starting. Don't understand the selection and don't understand why we waited too long, again, to change a team selection that wasn't working. 3 points on Sunday or we need a change at the top for me.
Gazza - 6 Clyne - 6 MOM Fonte - 3 Nearly another Le Fondre moment was worrying. Yoshida - 4 Fox - 5 Davis - 3 (had an awful game. Gave so much away) BENCH for a while I think. Schneiderlin - 4 Lallana - 6 Worked his socks off Ramirez - 4 Unfit Lambert - 6 Tried to make something from what little he had but to no avail. Rodriguez - 4 Shaw - 6 Do Barcelona's centre backs just pass to each other all game? Bores me to tears. Those 2 need to listen to Jagielka
Think you are reading far too much into that. 1500 fans have just travelled up to the Midlands on a cold Monday night, watched their team lose in poor style, but out sung the home fans for 90 minutes. Then sung "there's only one Nigel Adkins" after the final whistle has gone. Adkins would have been a tit to not have gone and applauded them.
Adkins tactics - 1 Gazza - 5 Clyne - 6 Fonte - 5 Yoshida - 4 Fox - 4 Ramirez - 5 Davis - 2 Schneid - 5 Lallana - 5 J Rod - 4 (but he did try) Lambert - 4 Me for watching that crap - 10
Goodison Park - same fans, same outcome, same song at the final whistle. Just thought he looked like he knew the game was up, rather than his usual optimism (which isn't a dig)
Gazzaniga - 6 Clyne - 6 Fonte - 4 Yoshida - 4 Fox - 4.5 - better 2nd half Ramirez - 5 Morgan - 4 Davis - 3 Lallana - 6 Rodriguez - 5 Lambert - 3 Adkins - 4 - sorry Nigel
not anywhere near good enough. Clyne was probably the best playe but a 7 would be far too high so 6. He was well out of position on many occasions. Davis was shocking as were fox fonte and yoshida. Schieders has also become a ghost recently what has gone wrong? How on earth can the tide be turned. If it continues then most quality defenders wont want to join come Jan anyway! I reckon it would be too dangerous to sack Nige now with the games we have coming up....
Gazza - 6 - 6 is usually my average rating, find it hard to rate him down or up either way, not at fault for either goal, did pretty well other than that but nothing that I think makes him deserving of a 7. Clyne - 8 - Can't really fault him and thought he had a very good game, one of the only players showing real direct desire going forward although he didn't have much end product apart from very nearly producing a beauty of a ball to Ramirez, and also made some great tackles. 8 might be a touch generous but still thought he did very well. Fonte - 6 - Find it hard to rate either CB down, couldn't do much about either goal, did reasonably well defensively other than that, distribution going forward was a bit poor but not enough to rate them down for me. Yoshida - 6 - As Above. *EDIT* Actually considering the wafty waved-leg deflection that lead to the first goal I'll have to give Maya a 5. Fox - 5 - More issues on his side of the defence but hard to blame him with West Brom frequently sending 2 or 3 men down that wing, constantly doubled up on and actually did fairly well under those circumstances. But the thing that continues to make me get frustrated with Fox is the amount of times we give the ball away from his long balls. He played a combined 14 long balls and crosses and only one of them found a teammate. And this seems partly team strategy and partly his intiative, but it just grinds on me and has caused me to rate him down. Schneiderlin - 5 - Huge fan of Schneiderlin but Mulumbu showed him up a bit, and I don't know if it was a tactic or not but he seemed to be a lot higher up the pitch than usual many times in the match and found himself ahead of the ball too often. Also seemed to be doing the opposite and shrinking back into the defence a bit too much when WBA had possession, should be sat in front of them protecting them but it looked like too often he was shrinking back into a back five. And the more I see his attempted block for the first the worse it gets. Davis - 4 - Very disappointed in Davis as well, defensively was nowhere, going forward was nowhere, and was unusually wasteful with the ball. Lallana - 6 - Thought he was one of the brighter players going forward when he turned and came inside, but the problems continue for Adam defensively. Actually thought he tracked back a lot but the problem was when he did he just seemed afraid to press and make challenges around his own box. Happened several times when players cut inside and in the end he found himself in a bit of a nomansland for their first goal. I think our problems on that side go deeper and it is incredibly daft to dismiss our problems as Lallana not getting back or being lazy etc. Ramirez - 5 - Tough game for Gaston and there were a few bright moments but as a whole he just looked off the pace and uninvolved. We need big things from him. Rodriguez - 5 - Might be a touch harsh as I don't think he was particularly bad but he just really had very little effect on the game, disappointing enough for me to rate him down to a 5. Lambert - 6 - Non-factor in the first half and didn't look like he wanted to be playing, but improved in the second and was the closest we came to getting back into the game. Came very close to giving him a 5 as well but I'll be kind.
