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jonny 'hasen' shuttle

Well-Known Member
Feb 25, 2011
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It cant just be a coincidence that we tend to not win at home.
Our away from has see some excellent wins but its like we are a different team at home.
I am interested why people think this is?

Some possible reasons -

1. Psychology - players lacking confidence in front of a crowd that have seen many poor home results for the last couple of seasons and its affects their performance when under 'home' pressure. (Bit like when your Wife is on your case)
2. Tactics - are we setting up wrong / too easy to counter attack and nervous when facing set pieces etc.?
3. Fans - Are the away fans (who tend to be loud and proud) inspring a better performance. Is that it?

Its been well documented that we have the least amount of points at home in the league so whats the solution do people think?
 
Feel free to shoot me down in flames on this but I have a few ideas why our home form is so poor, but there may be more:

St Mary's just doesn't seem as friendly a place these days, at least not like it did a few years ago. It feels sterile and too corporate with the heart of the club, 'the fans', being reduced to customers on a 'take it or leave it' basis.

Too many of those attending matches seem more interested in moaning and groaning rather than shouting support and joining in with the singing to support the team. We don't play as well at St Mary's as we do when we play away but it feels like a lot of people are expecting us to screw up, and then we do. It has to have a negative affect on the players.

There isn't much connection between the fans and the club, in fact there's a very real disconnect and that needs to be changed. It would be very nice if the manager and players came all the way round the pitch, not just to where the vocal support is coming from, after every game, and not just when we win. I know the disabled fans I sit with would absolutely love to see the players and manager close up and it would do a lot to reward fans for their loyalty.

The players and manager, and the club in general, need to remember that when we loose a match, we all loose and most of us don't get to go home to million pound homes in swish cars. At least show the fans all round the ground that they care, win or loose. Then watch the atmosphere and the results on match days at St Mary's improve.
 
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speaking of the skates they have been on a fairly decent run ever since the 4-0 game...
and now after 9 years on Not606 I am going to finally reveal that I am a secret skate supporter
play up poppy!
 
jonny 'hasen' shuttle said:
speaking of the skates they have been on a fairly decent run ever since the 4-0 game...
and now after 9 years on Not606 I am going to finally reveal that I am a secret skate supporter
play up poppy!
Click to expand...

Yeah I'm a big poppy fan too

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Kaito said:
Feel free to shoot me down in flames on this but I have a few ideas why our home form is so poor, but there may be more:

St Mary's just doesn't seem as friendly a place these days, at least not like it did a few years ago. It feels sterile and too corporate with the heart of the club, 'the fans', being reduced to customers on a 'take it or leave it' basis.

Too many of those attending matches seem more interested in moaning and groaning rather than shouting support and joining in with the singing to support the team. We don't play as well at St Mary's as we do when we play away but it feels like a lot of people are expecting us to screw up, and then we do. It has to have a negative affect on the players.

There isn't much connection between the fans and the club, in fact there's a very real disconnect and that needs to be changed. It would be very nice if the manager and players came all the way round the pitch, not just to where the vocal support is coming from, after every game, and not just when we win. I know the disabled fans I sit with would absolutely love to see the players and manager close up and it would do a lot to reward fans for their loyalty.

The players and manager, and the club in general, need to remember that when we loose a match, we all loose and most of us don't get to go home to million pound homes in swish cars. At least show the fans all round the ground that they care, win or loose. Then watch the atmosphere and the results on match days at St Mary's improve.
Click to expand...

I agree, Kaito - far too many of our fans (and my guess is these are the ones who never go to away matches) seem to arrive with the express idea of moaning at the players and expecting us to lose. The constant cries of “get it forward” or the groans accompanying a player who, when facing his own goalkeeper and with an opposition player on his back, passes to the keeper, doesn’t exactly give the players any confidence. I once tried to explain to the vocal group behind me that just lumping it aimlessly forward doesn’t help if there are no players in space or if the opposition are set up with 10 or 11 behind the ball, but they didn’t want to hear. I am disappointed that we don’t win more at home, but I honestly think that these “supporters” would only be happy if we won every game and I have suggested to them that they might want to go and support Liverpool or similar because we won’t compete with teams who can pay players 3 or 4 times what we can afford and we should get behind our team come rain, shine, win or lose. Yes, I’m disappointed, but I will never boo nor barrack my team - I support them and it’s a game of football for ****s sake
 
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A big part of the problem imo is a fair percentage of our PL STH's aren't actually Saints fans but rather exiled supporters of other clubs happy to pay for a bit of PL footy.

Ditching the stupid flamethrowers/light shows along with the prematch music would go along way to allowing it to build up to kick off.

We also don't have enough songs and I can understand why people can't be arsed with the 7th rendition of OWTS in the 17th minute.
 
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A big issue, for me, is the lack of pace in the midfield and back line.
Since VVD left we haven’t replaced him with a CB that is quick enough to cover the gaps before they are exploited, nor with a CB who reads the game quickly enough to do likewise.
In the midfield, JWP, Hojbjerg and Romeu aren’t very quick and once we are hit on the break, they are never going to catch up with the attackers.
We may not concede directly from a breakaway, but we often find ourselves disorganised which then leads to chances, and this is more likely to happen when we are at home, and expected to take the initiative.
Also, crowd perception also plays a part. At SMS the fans expect us to be the more dominant attacking team, and when it doesn’t pan out that way, they are too quick to let the players know, which must have an effect on the players, undermining their confidence.
Away from home the fans are more understanding and expect the home team to come on to us, so are more supportive when we aren’t attacking so much.
 
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I am a long distance fan, coming to SMS is a 350 mile round trip but for years have been down once a month and go to a good number of away games that are closer than travelling down to Southampton. Last season the atmosphere was getting worse and worse and this season I have stopped going to SMS completely because the atmosphere is toxic but away support is so positive that it’s a pleasure to go.
 
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St Badger said:
A big issue, for me, is the lack of pace in the midfield and back line.
Since VVD left we haven’t replaced him with a CB that is quick enough to cover the gaps before they are exploited, nor with a CB who reads the game quickly enough to do likewise.
In the midfield, JWP, Hojbjerg and Romeu aren’t very quick and once we are hit on the break, they are never going to catch up with the attackers.
We may not concede directly from a breakaway, but we often find ourselves disorganised which then leads to chances, and this is more likely to happen when we are at home, and expected to take the initiative.
Also, crowd perception also plays a part. At SMS the fans expect us to be the more dominant attacking team, and when it doesn’t pan out that way, they are too quick to let the players know, which must have an effect on the players, undermining their confidence.
Away from home the fans are more understanding and expect the home team to come on to us, so are more supportive when we aren’t attacking so much.
Click to expand...

Yeah agree with pretty much all this, our tactics are more naturally likely to result in being better away than at home anyway, but our lack of pace in key areas make us really susceptible to teams sitting deep and hitting us on the break.


I'd expect it to improve once Ralph can get a midfielder and defender of his own but think we'll still perform better away.
 
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Saturday was a good example - Saints find it difficult to break down opposition that get behind the ball - away, we play on the counter more, and our press is more effective, because the opposition come out and play at home.
 
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We are much better without the ball - playing against the ball, as Ralph calls it; we set up to press the opposition, force the mistake, and capitalise quickly, but many visitors to SMS are happy to stay in their own half and let us have the ball, and when that happens we sometimes lack the guile to break them down. We are always vulnerable ourselves to the quick break because, let's face it, opur defence maybe getting better but we lack the real quality at the back, that you need to deal with threats when outnumbered in our own half.
 
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I was thinking about this on Saturday although along more broader terms in that the home performances seem to have stagnated since Koeman left. I have not been impressed with the three managers who came in afterwards and although we now have someone on board to transform our fortunes, I have to say that I don't feel Ralph is getting the backing of the board with signings. If I am honest, there has been no real improvement since last season and the same issues remain. The 9-0 reverse against Leicester was a shock and I feel that some of the issues that were apparent beforehand have not been addressed. We do not look as shaky as we have in the past yet the better performances all seem to be away from home so that the lack of expectation now seems to be typical when playing at home. Despite this, I do not feel Ralph is achieving anything like his potential and has been held back by the club's lack of ambition. If we invested in more quality, I think we would be transformed . However, I feel that the club is not fully behind Ralph who, with better player staff to step out on the field of play, would transform out fortunes.

We seem to have lost the ability to put teams to the sword. I would love a repeat of the hammering of Villa next Saturday but we seem unable to do that at St Mary's these days. I keep on thinking that someone visiting St Marys is due for a thumping yet it never seems to materialise. I would love Saints to totally humiliate the opposition at St Marys for once.

I agree about St Mary's having no atmosphere although I do not feel it is necessarily anything to do with "corporate fans." That is not what I am witnessing at the Chapel end. In my opinion, Saints fans seem more considered and reasonable in their support without exhibiting the "heart on the sleeve" mentality of other teams' supporters where realism often goes out of the window. The fans seem more knowledgeable. I do not feel there is necessarily a lack of passion but there is a lack of how the passion is communicated. If you want to generalise, a typical Saints fan appreciates fast, attacking football where entertainment is paramount. There is only so much negative play that they will tolerate even if the results are not too shabby. The new ground will never replicate The Dell in atmosphere and there is a trade off between more comfortable , modern grounds and those old grounds which may be best described as having character. The price of football is also a contributing factor as the game now costs so much that it is increasingly a middle class occupation being a supporter.
 
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Thought I'd take a look at the home/away tables and we're fifth in the away one!

No surprise to be bottom of the home one but what's interesting is that our entire negative GD of -16 is solely from home matches.


30 goals conceded in 13 matches at home is pathetic.
 
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Archers Road said:
We are much better without the ball - playing against the ball, as Ralph calls it; we set up to press the opposition, force the mistake, and capitalise quickly, but many visitors to SMS are happy to stay in their own half and let us have the ball, and when that happens we sometimes lack the guile to break them down. We are always vulnerable ourselves to the quick break because, let's face it, opur defence maybe getting better but we lack the real quality at the back, that you need to deal with threats when outnumbered in our own half.
Click to expand...

This. Additionally, teams are much less likely to play about with the ball in their own half, which makes it harder to press.

Our numbers at home are actually even worse than they appear. We generate less than four shots on target per match at home...that's really bad! It's hard to win games with a leaky defense and an aversion to testing the opposition keeper, and our only saving grace has been a large number of goals from set pieces.
 
Libby said:
Thought I'd take a look at the home/away tables and we're fifth in the away one!

No surprise to be bottom of the home one but what's interesting is that our entire negative GD of -16 is solely from home matches.


30 goals conceded in 13 matches at home is pathetic.
Click to expand...

Well, take away the anomaly that was the Leicester game and let’s say it was 0-2, then that’s 23 in 13, which isn't good, I’ll admit, but not desperate. I know it’s no good saying “if only”, but, if you think of the points we’ve thrown away in the last few minutes or in injury time, we’d be a lot better off if we could have defended those .....
 
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