Match Day Thread Brighton v Saints Sunday 29th October 13:30pm - Goals galore thread.

Why insult everyone who might disagree with you? I suppose I must be a Forster apologist, because I don’t think he was to blame, certainly not as much as the other defenders who yet again went to sleep.

I do, however, accept that Fraser is making too many mistakes at the moment, even though that wasn’t one of them. I would go as far as to say he should be dropped, but McCarthy seems to have the same capacity for errors as Fraser, from what I’ve seen of the U23’s lately.

And anyway, isn’t it about time you changed your name?

 

If you're insulted by being called an apologist then I don't quite know what to say to you. Cedric should never have been left isolated against Murray, I agree. However, that doesn't take away from the fact that Forster was in a terrible position, and reacted incredibly slowly to the header. People claiming the deflection altered the direction of the ball leaving Fraser helpless are reaching so hard and I just don't get it. I'm against booing and negativity in a stadium (to an extent) but I'll call **** **** on a forum.

McCarthy does seem to be error prone himself - I just don't understand why the board didn't address this in the summer. In their wisdom they give Fraser a 5 year contract, apparently as our highest earner. Dave Watson needs to be asked questions of as well, there are 0 signs of improvement in any of our keepers.

Probably is, not sure what I'd change it to. Maybe I'll change it to something Forster related - hopefully then he'll leave

 

Forster wasn't great to begin with and injuries have made him worse. He had very little agility anyway due to his size and has even less now. Remember when he first came in and there was a lot of criticism for him about getting beaten by long range efforts? That to me was an agility problem, as he couldn't get across and dive in time.

I saw a table the other day, showing save % from shots on target and how many shots on goal it was on average for a keeper to concede. Surprisingly (to me at least) Forster was about 5/6th in the league with these stats (Mignolet by far the worst fwiw). Some might use this as something to defend Forster with, I see it the other way. Look at the goals he has conceded and the amount of shots etc shows to me that our defence really don't give up many "golden" opportunities for the attackers to score. If we had a good keeper we really could try and 0-0 ourselves to victory.

 

He's an instinct keeper, his best moments are when he doesn't have time to think about what he's doing. It was away to Villa a few years back when we lost 2-1 (iirc) that I realised how poor he actually was as a keeper. He's done nothing since then to suggest I was wrong. He's got progressively worse. That 10 (?) game clean sheet run coincided with him having virtually nothing to do for those games, other than a great performance against Arsenal. You're absolutely spot on with the shots/goal ratio point. Last season his save/goal ratio was the worst in the league for keepers that played over 10 games.

 

Just one thought, I thought Hoedt? had failed to make a clearance, but at the time I hadn't noticed that the ball had struck an arm, and although handball wasn't given it affected what followed. I still think the Fraser of old, would have saved it, but the deflection did change the trajectory enough to make it more difficult for him and a taller player marking Murray would have prevented him from getting the header in, sh1t happens.

 

I am reading elsewhere that Redmond was given some seriously offensive abuse by a small contingent after the final whistle, now I appreciate why people are angry and I understand the need to vent spleens, but query whether it would be more effective if the response was to encourage Nathan to do better for the shirt, rather than giving him the lynch mob mentality abuse? How is abusing him going to encourage him to bother? That goes for any player that is having a hard time, they need nourishment, not punishment. I am thinking our problems are more to do with mind set rather than lack of ability. Every game MoPo2 is learning more about his individual players and has his work cut out to to get them to understand his ways, it could go either way, but our support is essential from the start, losing the fan base will only end in failure, we all lose out in that circumstance.

 

Quite a lot of football fans are utter ****ing idiots tbf. It's not just Saints either - I talk to a lot of fans of other clubs, and they all say the same thing; that a small but vociferous (and usually pretty ignorant) bunch are quick to make their presence felt.

 

Yeah, Hoedt went out to make a challenge. Brighton player accidentally knocked the ball down with his arm onto his thigh which directed it behind Hoedt. If the ball was left to go into the air Hoedt may well have won it. In addition because he was now out of position, Virgil moved across to cover him and left the far post to be guarded by Cedric - we all know the result.

 

Agility.

That's the problem. Always has been for Fraser. And it seems to have got worse since his injury.

As Fran has stated, he has that slight look of 'giantism' about him, and he's a huge specimen, but that just means he doesn't move terribly well. Of course it gives him other advantages, not least just the amount of space he fills, but like most big blokes, he's not too light on his feet.

That's where someone like De Gea or Lloris are so good - they're spectacularly agile.

I think it's certainly a position we need to be looking at in January or next summer at the latest. Along with AMC and more of a lump of a striker for Gabbi to feed off. We're so built right now for a 3-5-2 formation in every other area of the pitch.

 

On the brighter side, there are plenty of tweets from Brighton fans saying that we were the best away support that they had seen at the Amex this season, especially praising the lack of homophobic chants that have been common place from others. There is no doubting that our away support is better than our home crowd at the moment? If those moaners could use that effort and energy in to supporting the team we would solve some of our current malaise.

 

Saints done it! They entertained me and before I knew it I expected it. How am I gonna readjust now?

We've got a top 6 defence and a bottom 6 attack and sometimes I wish it was the other way round

 

Proud ❤️

 

I was calling out to push the boat out and sign a top class Keeper before we signed Fraser and was delighted when we did. I had no issues with him in his first couple of seasons here, but he has regressed to the point where I wish we had Boruc back.
For a big man he doesn't use his size to his advantage and command his area and take the pressure off of the defence and he is slow to get down to ground shots and there is the issue of him looking like a deer in the headlights at SMS recently.
I happen to think that the GK is among the most important positions in the team and think that we should again push the boat out to sign a top class one.

 

The problem is with Forster just having signed a 5 year deal, reportedly making him one of our top earners, will we bother to sign a new number 1 so quickly? I can't see it personally and think we will have to hope that somehow he gets better.

 

We had it the other way around in 2004/5.

 

Some comments from me...

Firstly, what a fantastic stadium, really wonderful compared to other newer stadiums I've been to over the last few years.

Only real positive for me was the performance of Cedric...thought he was brilliant. Defence looked largely untroubled but still managed to leave Murray unmarked for the goal. Gabbiadini was so glaringly, frustratingly isolated but put in a good shift and kept going. I really do think we've gone backwards this year.

 

I think a lot of people are upset that we just don't have a real go at teams anymore.
The last ten minutes was excruciating. If we had gone for it, Brighton were there for the taking. We would rather not lose, than win.

Watching saints is like watching England.

 

Except England have Kane, Ali and Dier.

 

I’m not sure that the team aren’t playing for each other.
I have said, in the past, that we are too structured when in possession of the ball.
We, in the stand, know exactly what is going to happen, because the movement, off the ball, is always the same, if indeed there is any movement, so defending against us must be fairly straightforward, in PL terms.
Unless we are desperately looking for an equaliser or winner, our players are nearly always in their allocated starting position. It is only in those desperate moments that our players start appearing in random positions, giving defences problems.
When we don’t have the ball, that is fine, because we can defend as a unit knowing that the gaps are mostly covered. But, when we have the ball, we need to be more positionally positive and unpredictable.
If Redmond is left wing, and the ball is on the right, I want to see him making diagonal runs across and through the back four. He may not receive the ball, but he may drag a defender out of position and create space for someone else.
Likewise Tadic from the other side, or the right/left sided midfielders.
I want to see our full backs appearing in the opposite penalty area, trying to get on the end of a cross. I want to see random movement creating doubt in the minds of the opposition defence.

For me, our way of playing IS playing to instructions, with little leeway made for individuality. We are playing a safety first style of football, which would be enhanced by having some very quick and direct forward players.
Puel, I think, will be a good fit at Leicester, because he has players who can hit quickly on the break.
He had that at Nice, where he was successful and his team was “attractive to watch”.
At Saints he didn’t have that get out, so the football, at times, was turgid.
MP2 still needs time to create his own blend of players, and is possibly sticking with what the players know, as a safety first option, whilst searching for the right formula.
I am looking forward to January to see if he can/will bring in players that might give us more attacking threat.

Sorry that is so long.

 

...and all we are is dire