Personally I'd have been furious at whichever player stared down a ball slowly bounce at them from 10 yards away and then let it hit them in their arm.
I'm slightly concerned that retrospective action may be taken against Morgan. Marriner clearly didn't have a clear view of the challenge.
That was the brush on his arm as he swiveled? I'm in the same boat; I suppose that it could've been given, but I really didn't think twice about it during the game because it didn't really affect play.
His arms were by his side. Wasn't even worth a cheeky appeal. Morgan could have gone. The freeze frame of the foot in the air looks bad but doesn't give you an indication of speed, contact etc. But it was rash.
We're agreed panicking is the wrong word. Delighted we spent £30M+. Top of the league??? I might have expectations but I'm not deluded, even though I went to Boro away in a cold January in '84 (if memory serves me right), we won and went top of the league!!! What I expected so far this season??? A home win against Sunderland or West bloody Ham.....tell me, you haven't answered??? am I asking too much for us to beat Palace at home??
Lawro reckons Nolan got away with it. I'm inclined to say no penalty, myself. My doubt is that the ball wasn't travelling at speed, so Nolan had time to get his arm out of the way. He was trying to, at least. The other penalty shout I thought was one. OK, the ball was travelling at speed, but the player's [I forget who it was] arm was kept stiff to keep the ball close, so there was intention to control, as far as I was concerned. A tough one to give though. I only call it a penalty with the benefit of slo-mo, though the ref should notice these things by now, after a career of making these decisions.
I actually think we got the benefit of the doubt with refereeing decisions. The offside near the start of the game was very tight - we were due one going our way though! And I think Morgan should have been sent off. It was a reckless challenge at best.
Instead of a home win against Sunderland or West Ham, we got an away win against West Brom. Such is life when you're playing tight, low-scoring games...and with PL teams averaging under a goal a game, most are tight, low-scoring games. I have real concerns about our means of attacking, but 5 points from 4 is about what one would expect, we simply didn't get them in the order expected.
For what it's worth I agree with Lawrenson and thought it was a promising attacking display. West Ham did well to occupy our full backs and not give them the freedom to get forward. Rodriguez & Lallana helped to create width at times. In Osvaldo we have another player who can hold the ball up and create in tight situations which allowed Lambert to pull wide without losing a quick outball. I'm really positive after that display that with more playing time we will gel into a strong attacking force.
No easy games in this league but I think we were all agreed it was a gentler start than last season. Sunderland and WHU(depleted) at home, WBA and Norwich away. I would of expected more than 5 points, both very winnable home games and we're more than equipped to make life difficult for WBA and Norwich on their patches. I'm sure MP would feel the same, 7 points from 4 is about what one would expect.
Blimey: http://metro.co.uk/2013/09/15/west-...aaskelainen-exposes-forward-failings-4018993/ ...The second half was so one-sided it was almost as if Southampton were playing down a slope... ...Jaaskelainen made all the difference – Southampton will probably play worse than this in other games this season and come away with all three points...
I disagree (and indeed, I pegged us at five points through four in the pre-season predictions) but the difference between 7 points in four (great!) and 5 points in four (fury!) is still one chance taken or missed. Early in the year variance is a huge factor in any event, but even more so given that the Premier League in general appears to have transformed itself into Serie A West. There haven't been many easy wins -- or guaranteed losses -- anywhere in the PL thus far.
You seem to have your knickers in a twist fella. Not sure when I rattled you but obviously something I wrote somewhere has. I think we should win at home to palace, yes. I said previously that I expected 7 or 8 points from our first 6 games. Still on for that. Last season Sunderland beat us at home and we drew to West Ham. We're a point better of Edit to add: ????!!!!!???!!!!! nah, that didn't make me feel any better. Seems to do something for you though.
Yep, to me the JWP being "hugged" was stone wall pen - it was right in front of me. Not even a mention.
Teams mid table and lower are going to play for point at SMS. Until we figure out how to break them down a point is likely what we are going to get from these teams. Away though they will play and that is where I hope we can score a bit more. Disappointed with the Norwich game as that should have been a game to get 3 from. Palace at home is not likely to be different. I do think we will take points though away from these teams. The game against Liverpool will really tell us something. It will be more open and suit our style. If we cannot generate scoring chances then i will be quite concerned.
We were obviously lacking a link between wanyama and the front 4 for much of that game. To be fair to him and the rest of the defence, when they were in possession they didn't have many options and would have been better served playing it directly. This has frustrated me under adkins and pochettino that we will stick to our principles of good passing football even when the conditions and opposition require more direct football. The fullbacks didn't really have the space to bomb forward as we were playing at too slow a tempo, against west brom wanyama was further forward and would several times switch play to shaw out who would be in a lot of space to attack. West Ham defended very well it must be said and we still had plenty of chances to win the game. We didn't look strong in midfield at all and so couldn't really connect with the attack fluently. Gaston would make a difference when he's on the ball but he needs to receive the ball quickly with either him or others in space and at current we will not be able to achieve this. I'm not sure switching Morgan and Wanyama is the solution although it would probably help, I think our problem is a symptom of the whole teams slow movement and lack of options, even playing it out from defence we had very few options. Equally a better game from wanyama and schneiderlin and our front 4 would have got a lot more of the ball and at a higher quality. Perhaps we need to bring cork back in but I would persist with wanyama.
BBC Sport headlines "Inspired Jaaskelainen Denies Saints" Radio 5 yesterday evening driving home discussed how boring it must be for a travelling hammers fans and how Southampton look like they're not far away from clicking Reading on here makes it seems that all is wrong at Saints. I've watched two home games against two teams that I just knew would do their best to spoil and stifle us (infact the most uninspired I've been at the prospect of the opening two home games). I just don't understand all the criticism; we haven't been great but I still have seen e ough to thnk we are going to be close to mid table this year without having the slight relegation worries of last year. I wonder if Sunderland, West Ham, West Brom, Hull, Man City, Chelsea, Cardiff or several other clubs are really delighted with their teams performances?
