Southampton did a professional job on us tonight. They created the better chances and by and large prevented us from playing. We have to do more than just launch long balls to Long and Jelavic though. We have to mix it up a bit and sometimes play through the middle using the likes of Huddlestone, Aluko and Brady to their best.
Our points per game ratio goes down dramatically whenever Alex Bruce plays. Soultuon = don't play him.
Just got back...Southampton play that high tempo pressing game where you have to basically beat your man to get through them...the only player to do this was Aluko! He was fouled 3 times in 10 minutes and they couldn't get the ball off him. If he was on from half time we wouldn't have conceded. He's the key to linking midfield with Long/Jela. Brady, Long and Aluko in behind Jela for Cardiff please Brucey
There a good side. We will stay up by getting points off cardiff, fulham, villa, wba etc. Games against teams like Southampton will always be hard to stay up on.
They might have been good but our attitude was not good enough and we did not pass the ball well enough. Figueroa should have been taken off much earlier. He consistently let us down with shockingly rubbish long balls.
I only half watched on a dodgy stream so not going to pass judgement, sorry to hear about the injury at the start, it sounded quite bad. Anyway worth noting that you're in a better position than we were after this many games last season, in the end we had a. the right manager and b. enough goals in the team to do it with a few games to spare (even though Wigan kept annoyingly getting results). With so many teams around you that you can beat, I expect you will get the last three wins plus a couple of extra draws quite quickly.
Southampton always seemed to have 12 men on the field ,they got all the "second balls" and had time to pick a pass.It didn't help that our midfield was so ineffective Meyler had a shocker and Hudd appeared asleep at times.Humping long balls forward didn't help and so many misplaced clearances just put the pressure back on. Problems for us now with so many defenders out injured we'll need to fight a backs to the wall action for the remainder of the season.
Southampton are a very good team and have done a job on us in both of the games this season. They're only a player or two of consistently finishing in the top 7. Today was a good test and unfortunately we came up a little short.
It was a tough game against a good side. There goal was quite comical were we made like 3 goal line blocks before someone put it in, but the third was already over the line. We hit the post, McShane got injured. Other than that, nothing much happened.
Lewis, would you say we played good and look like we're getting better with the additions from the transfer window?
There's only one thing I don't understand about tonights game. Why were we not pressuring Southampton when they had the ball? I mean it looked as if we were still sitting back. This team will never win big games against good teams like tonight without putting in a little extra work. Edit: I'm talking about after they took the 1-nil lead.
I don't think we looked 'good' tonight, but that was mainly due to Southampton playing well. We definitely had a chance to win the game. We look much more of a threat going forward! Long and Jelavic make defenders turn and face their goal, while also offering a goal threat. They're 10 times better than what we had.
