When you think about it how many times this season have we been compleltley outplayed and been deservedly thrashed. Happened a few times at the start of the season but our only two recent defeats (cups aside) were far from a thrashing although we were poor against sunderland. We've played Arsenal Everton and United recently and arguably should have had 7 points from those games. Now the question is, is this just normal and we lack the clinical edge to be a top side. Or is it that we're abit naive and inexperienced at this level but the quality we have enables us to compete against anyone. I think it's the latter. A few good singings in summer and I know it goes against our policy but perhaps a few old heads who've done everything in the game and if we can get that ability to kill games off we could really push ourselves up the table. At the moment though we just have to stay up and hope all this good form turns into more wins rather than turning.
Just watched the extended highlights and we were far away the better side. Need to be more clinical.We could do with a Steve Moran!
Arguably one of our faults....not taking our chances or at least not making the most of our possession.. Also maintaining concentration right up to when the game ends.........is another we need to think on. Last but not least get our centre backs in particular to stop panicking when we are being attacked.......Just do the job in hand!
And when we were taking our chances we had a keeper to level things up for the opposition, its a cruel game football.
It's maybe not the best time to throw this out there, considering Wigan's late goal yesterday, but I do think that if we go down this season, it will be for different reasons to 2005. Maybe it's my memory playing games with me, but I do think back then, relegation was ultimately because we threw away too many points in the last few minutes of matches. I don't think we generally played particularly well that season, but if we'd have hung on in games better we would have survived. This season though, whilst we have occassionally thrown the victory away at the end of a game, I would say that if we go down it will be because too often we didn't convert possession and domination into results. In the last six weeks alone, we've been (just) the better side against Arsenal, Everton and Man Utd but didn't win any of them - and yet we didn't even concede one second half goal in those games.
With Jose back soon I hope we will finally hit our peak and convert some performances into wins. Certainly if we don't get ourselves out of trouble we will only have ourselves to blame. It's a three point margin at the moment which is not much, but at least we're on the right side of it.
Agree, we are far better than our league position shows. We are an exciting team with a great blend of players. Glad to be a saints supporter rather than Sunderland,Norwich, west ham etc who are all above us at the moment.
God help the team we are playing if we manage to click for an entire match rather than just one half like has happened in the last 3 matches. If we do play like we did in the first half v Everton, and the 2nd halves against United and Wigan for a whole match we will beat anyone in the division IMO and we will destroy any team in the bottom half (I so hope it will be West Ham! )
I agree too. Someone is due a spanking and how I would love it to be Arry's QPR. But, yesterday at times I found myself commenting on how well we pressed the ball. Under Adkins we had a tendency to stand-off and let teams play. That wasn't the case yesterday. After losing the ball 1,2,3 players would immediately close the man in possession and shut off his options. I just hope we can convert these draws into wins by the end of the season as I still feel there are 3 teams who we are better than.
Yes the work rate yesterday was excellent. Thought Punch has a poor game by this seasons standrads but he still chased everything down! Cork was huge yesterday!
Punch was poor, but there was one moment when he was brilliant. On the edge of the box, he dummied to cut inside but went outside his man and crossed with his right. If he can do more of that sort of thing he will keep the defenders guessing and be a much better player than he is.
I think in retrospect our pressing under adkins was our weakness, I remember being frustrated that when the opposition had the ball we wouldn't get close enough to them. We are definitely a good side, we do lack goals though. From our starting lineup Rickie is the only proven finisher in this league, Rodriguez and puncheon are willing but not in the same class as Lambert. Ramirez will be much more potent when he gets himself sorted out, Lallana's finishing is his weakness, and from the rest we have Fonte who is a decent threat from corners. Schneiderlin has scored some good goals this year but I wouldn't say he is a good finisher.
Agreed about Puncheon. By his standards, this season, he had a poor game. But it was still an OK one. Nobody had a bad game. Lambert had a cracker, as per usual. As did Rodriguez. Schneiderlin and Cork were excellent. Boruc was immense. He's actually getting visibly better with every game.
I think there are comparisons to this and our premiership relegation seasons. On both seasons we had some good performances, or at least some good periods within matches, but we also threw leads away (Arsenal away anyone) In both cases I also always felt that it was just a matter of time before we could consistently play a good game for the whole 90 mins. The difference (I think) in this season, compared to 2005, is self beleif. The team today are playing positive football and keeping their spirits up, unlike the bowed heads on the likes of quashi when things were going wrong. Let's also not forget that this time round saints are premiership new boys still learning and improving virtually with every match. If we do stay up, an I think we will, we could be quite a team next season.
The Saints team has gradually evolved this season. Look at our starting 11 earlier in the season and we had maybe 4/5 players from our League 1 promotion season plus a number heavily involved in last season's promotion - Recently it has been two from the League 1 days thus indicating that the players who have come in, are at a far higher level and have enabled those survivors from those distant Divison 1 days to improve their game. Saints are beginning to play and look like a Premiership team!
Anyone know when the highlights are up on player after a Saturday match? I missed the game yesterday and I've been waiting all day today to see how we played!
I agree with this. The team are playing very attractive football now as well as pressing the opposition high up the field. Some comments are being made that Saints only play well for 45 minutes, but I thought we dominated the play for most of the first half as well yesterday, and as Morgan said in his interview, in the BPL the quality playing against us means they are obviously going to get SOME time on the front foot. It seems to me Saints still are giving sloppy goals away! Maya and Luke had very good games against Wigan, yet one disastrous error each cost us 2 valuable points. We are very close to being a 'very good side'.
I agree with this. The team are playing very attractive football now as well as pressing the opposition high up the field. Some comments are being made that Saints only play well for 45 minutes, but I thought we dominated the play for most of the first half as well yesterday, and as Morgan said in his interview, in the BPL the quality playing against us means they are obviously going to get SOME time on the front foot. It seems to me Saints still are giving sloppy goals away! Maya and Luke had very good games against Wigan, yet one disastrous error each cost us 2 valuable points. We are very close to being a 'very good side'.
