And here lies the problem. Any criticisms of any Saints players expressed on this website and you are instantly shot down as being negative or a gloom monger. Me personally, I am very negative and enjoy the occasional doom mongering, but to criticise a player doesn't mean you think they are crap or we are crap, it just means they have had a bad game/made a mistake.
Exactly this^^^ For the doom-mongers.... Schalke is a Champions League side that beat Arsenal 4-2 across their two fixtures in that competition last year (2-0 @ The Emirates, 2-2 @ Veltins Arena). We on the other hand lost 2-7 to Arsenal if you aggregate the scores of our two Prem fixtures. Add in we didn't play any of Boruc/Yoshida/Gaston, and the fact that Schalke was playing their 7th of 9 pre-season games having started back 19 days earlier than us compared to our 3rd of 6, and it's not really a massive surprise that we lost by a couple of goals. Rome wasn't built in a day. We need to improve our cutting edge a bit, but it's still reasonable to expect top half even without any further signings. Lat
We were also very poor last season away from home (3-7-9) and playing abroad in Europe against Champions league sides is much harder even in friendlies.
Can I suggest a good cut-throat razor for a few people.? When you do it, keep it quiet, eh..?. Don't want it to get in the papers.
there has been no doom mongering or unreasonable complaint and yet there have been at least 20 posts complaining about negative posts. We were poor in a friendly, the fact that it was a friendly against good opposition doesn't change the fact that we were poor and the majority of players need to improve, some quite a lot. Friendlies are actually very important matches, not only for the players to prove their worth to the coach and club but also for implementing the tactical system and improving the fitness of the players. The result might not matter but the performance of the players over this run of friendlies will play a big part in whether they play in the premier league or not. Under pochettino we have really struggled to create decent chances which is a massive problem, to see the same problem play out for 90 minutes isn't really a cause for concern but I will be concerned if we see the same impotency over the next 3 friendlies.
I posted a stat in about April, where it showed we created more chances than every team we played since Pochettino arrived with the exception of one game. That game escapes me now and that was close, but it was just one game. Why have I been reading recently that we create less under him? I don't know how many friendlies Shalke have played, but Bayern had played 9 as of yesterday so if they were similar, then you'd say they were more match sharp than us. It was a friendly, slowly put down the gun. Step away from the sharp knives. Breathe deeply. Relax. Now where is my friend Mr Mannering?
Let's leave the doom and gloom, if we are bottom 3 after r first 6 matchrs then we can start worrying. We won't be though! COYR!
Goals just shown on Sky. Also said Besiktas was our last game of tour, whereas the OS says we are yet to play Celta Vigo. Just noticed reason...Saints are returning home after Besiktas game, then going back to Spain in August to play Celta Vigo.
We only scored 7 goals directly from a team mates pass under pochettino, and only 2 of these weren't from crosses. That's over 16 games, clearly there is a significant problem in creating chances and finishing them particularly from central areas. Those statistics suggest very strongly that we haven't been an attacking threat with the ball under pochettino. I don't know how to fix the problem, perhaps Ramirez will fix it single handedly I doubt it though.
But FLT is talking about chances created, not goals scored. That would suggest we need better striking options, which we're clearly trying to buy.
Yes, I don't quite know why people are getting their knickers in a twist with regards to "doom-mongering" of which I have seen none. The facts are we played generally ok against a good side, but it doesn't matter how good they are, they didn't have to work for their goals. Yes it's early days but these defensive errors are not acceptable even in a pre-season friendly. This should be a time for forming good habits not continuing bad ones.