Match Day Thread Burnley (H) Sunday 12/08 13:30

Two completely different teams.

Playing that retched 5-2-2-1 formation (or whatever you want to describe it as), we were awful. Why would we set up so defensive at home to Burnley? And Austin up front by himself does not work!!!

I know that some people out there absolutely love to criticise an old school 4-4-2, but we were so, so much better. I'm fully in agreement about the above sentiments in relation to back three, so I won't repeat them. Instead, I'll also focus on the fact that the changes gave us two up front. Given that I don't believe that we that genuine quality behind the strikers, I think playing two up front against sides we're looking to beat, should pretty much be essential. Especially when Austin is on the pitch. He has to be partnered.

Vestergaard was my MOTM by a very long way. But there was also McCarthy, plus Ings and Ely when they came on. All big thumbs up. Lemina was a mixture of good Lemina and bad Lemina - he needs to lose the latter. Armstrong showed glimpses of promise until his injury (probably our second best outfield player until his injury). Romeu unfortunately, aside from two very good tackles, I thought was poor. And then there's Redmond. First 30 minutes, he was useless. Towards the end of the first half, he started to up his game (such that I no longer wanted him hooked at HT). And then once we changed formation, with him having a more defined position out on the right wing (and more options ahead and around him), he arguably put in his best 35 mins in a Saints shirt. That Redmond can play every week. But not until the Redmond of the first 30 minutes stops appearing.

 

It was almost as if Hughes made that, rather attacking, double change on 55 mins at a time when we were 2-0 down (which we could have been, and probably deserved to be, without McCarthy), with it duly resulting in us fighting back and getting a 2-2 draw.

It evened out the 90 minutes, and made the draw a fair result.

 

It must be close between his number or headers won today versus headers won by our center backs for the whole of last season

 

On the train back to London from the game.
We made Burnley look like Barcelona in the first half the way we sat back and they passed it about. Ratings
McCarthy: 9 stopped everything that came at him and will ignore the risky pass he played to Hoedt
Bertrand:7 nice runs. Glad we have kept onto him as for long periods (before the subs) he appears to be the only person able to make a run and cross. Despite the person behind me complaining all he does is back pass
Hoedt: 6 quiet game. Couple of miss placed passes but nothing major
Big friendly giant: 9 won the majority of headers and some great tackles. Also took control of hoedt and Stephens which was great to see and something we have lacked since Fonte
Stephens:5-7 It may just be me but I really enjoyed seeing Stephens as a right back over Cedric. Managed to prevent the usual hit it high to our smallest player and did some good runs up the pitch. He could do with working on his crossing but so could Cedric.
Cedric. 5 I love him as a player but unless he can cross or at least try to, then I am not sure what he brings. Bertrand back passed but got some good crosses in. Couldn’t see any crosses from Cedric.
Lemina. 7 Shocking first 30 minutes and gave away everything. The ball just seemed to bounce off him or want to go to a Claret shirt.From then on made some great runs
Romeu: 6 some good tackles but at times I would watch us break on the counter and both him and lemina were jogging behind our cbs. Know they have just sprinted but meant any counter became useless and Austin had to dive for a foul each time.
Redmond: 9 Very impressed. He will never be a great striker but it is great to see him running at players again as a AM/winger He was brilliant at it Norwich and a mixture of he makes a terrible pass and everyone screams to burn him at the stake and poor confidence has certainly not helped. This time he got it back and beat them plenty of times. Just needs to work on the finishing.
Armstrong: 6 the right ideas and was very impressed at Celta friendly but felt he got a bit nervous on his debut. Looking forward to his saints future.
Austin: 6. Not a lot he could do today. No real 1 on 1 chances. Didn’t win many headers and not really a counter attacking player. A few dives to win a free kick. Positive he will get plenty of Sevice if we use the formation in the second half.
Subs.
Ings 8. changed the way we played when he came on. Great triangles, great runs, a few nice shots. He is not great at heading but gets into great positions for it. Very excited he has signed after we initially missed out on him and can’t wait for him to be starting.
Eli. 7 nice runs, nice corners. Likes to turn and face. Didn’t seem to Get the ball as much as others though. Look forward to him.

Overall, happy with the new signings and if the second half is anything to go by, we should finish 10-13th.

 

This is another good point. For one thing, having Redmond on the right takes away his temptation to cut on his favoured foot and shoot, something that generally doesn't work on terribly well and usually sees his dribbles turn into a series of stutters to open an angle.

 

To be fair Saints didn't get the luck sometimes their play deserved. Saints didn't wake up until about the 35th minute...sadly. The second half started slowly but gradually Saints began to wear them down especially when Ings and Ely came on. Saints were a different team and should perhaps have bagged the goals. The Burnley Defence to give them credit played very well and one was headed off the line. Ok we didn't win but it was the best performance of the season IMO once they had woken up.

 

It really wasn't. Swansea were lucky to get nil. Burnley look ready and willing, which is commendable after only getting back on Friday.

 

Well, I am going to have to bow to public pressure on the Vestergard issue.

I don't buy that. They are a competitive match ahead and it really should work in their favour. No way you should be tired at this stage of the season.

 

I find myself in almost total agreement with all the recent posts
Enjoyed this more than I have in a while. Redmonds improvement is a biggie. All the new guys look to have improved us. Jan, well, he’s a monster! Alex! Alex!

 

More about preperation than tiredness. My post wasn't a dig at Burnley.

 

Why did it feel so Americanized and NFL like with the stupid fire and Sammy saint on a drum to attempt an atmosphere?

****ing cringe.

 

Oh, I know. Just saying our rustiness trumped their Thursday night Europyness.

 

That fire was HOT. I could feel it down in the corner. Perhaps it is a new effort at central heating?

 

I could feel it in the Northam!

 

We were better in the second half, no doubt. But I saw less of a difference than everyone else.

We really weren’t that bad in the first half, and we really weren’t that great in the second. It’s interesting you say it felt like being down 2-0 and coming back to draw 2-2. I felt like 0-0 was a reflective scoreline if the game.

Burnley seemed happy to take the draw, so our better showing in the second half (while still not scoring) was somewhat a result of their tactics and not just us seizing the game. They took us seriously as opponents and so for an away game it’s not surprising they let us have more of the ball late in the game. This still beats last season when teams were pushing for wins against us late in these types of games.

 

Just want to offer a different view on Redmond. I’m fed up with him working hard when we don’t have the ball and f-Ing it up when we do. I think he was told to save himself for when we had the ball and consequently was really effective

Let the defence deal with defending and maybe we’ll get more of this from him

 

What’s BMG and why wasn’t I told it had ended?!

 

Thought Redmond was much improved on last year - long may it continue!

Ings, Mo & Vestegaard impressive.

 

If today was a learning curve, then our next game should be a cake walk!

 

We went 3 because none of our CBS were quite good enough for a 2. Now we have JV maybe that’s changed but picking a pecking order is tough. I liked Jack at RB though