Match Day Thread Leicester v. Southampton. Thursday 19th April 7:45pm

Nobody.... yet..... has managed to name a single Saints game, in the past, (in which they have won) when the atmospere [in the Dell/St. Mary's] has been as negatively charged as have games this season.

Players respond to the atmosphere created. And, yes, it's a cop out to suggest that the team have the first reponsbilty to create the buzz. Yes, it helps; but........

 

Your analysis doesn’t explain why, with Saints 2-0 up last Saturday and the atmosphere in St. Mary’s the best it’s been all season, the team responded by losing 2-3.

 

Atmosphere was pretty pants at home to Sunderland in the league cup last season. Terrible game but Boufal produced a moment of magic to win the game.

 

The support will always turn somewhat hostile when the team is bad. It would be nice if they didn’tdo it, but that’s how it is. It’s no excuse. The West Hsm fans nearly rioted, and they still thrashed us 3-0 at home.

I have been pretty negative on the talent level of the team, but it is honestly worse than I thought. The results under Hughes have been no better than Pellegrino. Our defense is mediocre at best, the attack is incompetent. We can throw more players forward and lose 3-1 or 3-2, or we can stay back and lose 1-0 or draw.

In retrospect, while I was down on VVD’s effort, him playing at 75% was still better than what we have now. He was still doing his basic defensive duties, he just wasn’t joining the attack or doing the things that made him special. But just knowing where to position himself, how to win headers, and how to tackle put him above any of our other defenders.

We are just a bad team, and one that deserves to go down. I do not think we will be coming back up, either. Not until Reed is gone, there are wholesale changes to how the club is run, and some actual investment. On the plus side, we do have a new owner so a shakeup is more likely than if the same people were in charge.

 

You'e trying to be a wee bit too clever when relating it to last week' partial defensive melt down. The atmosphere, as you say, was v.good
However, the question I posed (a while back now) still stands. Namely, where is the support when the team is struggling in games.... and really, really need it ~ you know, the 12th man, and all that.
The Chelsea game was a classic example of the 'boys doin' good' and the crowd buzzin' but hey, it is still a St. Mary's mausoleum when the Saints have been struggling. Then it's a case of the boos and cat-calls starting, almost from the first misplaced pass, and any sporadic show of support is lost or short-lived; with more jeering gaining the upper hand. Hence my question for an example of when, in such an atmosphere, has that produced a tangible turnaround in the team's performance?

Fair play to "RSS" at least he understood the question posed and made a pretty good stab at an answer albeit a early round League Cup match

 

But there weren’t any boos and catcalls after we went behind on Saturday. Obviously the fans hadn’t read your script and so decided that the team were capable of losing that match by themselves, as indeed was the case.

My point is that (fairly obviously) there might just be other reasons for football teams playing badly than the lack of a positive atmosphere in the ground. In fact the very opposite of your thesis was proved on Saturday, where the team going out and playing decent football and scoring two goals led to the very thing that’s been lacking all season, which was indeed a great deal of positive encouragement from the crowd! How very strange...

 

I would suggest that any game where we went behind by a couple of goals and came back to win the atmosphere was pretty bad when we went 2 down and, shock horror, improved when we got level and took the lead. That Liverpool game when we were 2 down at HT and won 3-2 under Koeman I'm sure the atmosphere was crap at HT

 

Last February at Wembley the atmosphere was still good when we went 2-0 down. At 2-2 it was as good as I can ever recall at any match I've been to.

As for that Liverpool game under Koeman - no, it wasn't crap at 2-0 down as I recall. The truly **** atmospheres are quite a recent thing.

 

Ah, still trying to put a different spin on it..... so fair play to you for trying.
However, my point (& I would also say fairly obviously) is that players will always play better or attempt to play better when being encouraged, cajoled and vocally supported. QED, home support is normally seen as a benefit and an advantage..... home cup draws often being a prime example.
When a club needs support most, is at a time when that club is truggling in that particular game; is it not?

Losing when well supported is accepted; though not encouraged! e.g the Chelsea game.

 

Always, except when, as was the case last Saturday, the players suddenly lost the plot completely. My recollection is that after Giroud scored his first, the noise levels actually went up, as the crowd were urging them to hold on to the lead. Likewise the last 20 minutes when the crowd were urging them to get at least an equaliser.

Your agenda seems to be to try and pin the blame for the team’s poor performances on a crowd who have had literally nothing to get excited about this season, 5 league wins and 4 cup victories excepted. Sorry, but I’ve been watching Saints for as long as you have, and it really doesn’t work like that. Yes, I agree that some fans are self-entitled, and others are ignorant morons who pick on their scapegoat of the day, but the crowd as a whole generally try and get behind the team. This season their efforts have largely fallen on stony ground.

 

with 10 minutes to go i was literally surrounded by empty seats. had a ring around me. i was starting to wonder if i should take offence

 

Ah yes, the "self-entitled" and the "moronic ones"........
And, lest we forget, the many who couldn't be bothered to buy FA Cup tickets for the earlier rounds but hey, they suddenly turn up for Wembley today!

 

Todays the first FA cup game I've actually been around to attend ... rest of them clashed with work commitments.

 

Ah, this historic chestnut. Everyone is entitled to my opinion so here it is-again. The crowd reacts as a barometer to what they see on the pitch. First misplaced pass-shrug. Fifth misplaced pass-sigh. Twelfth misplaced pass and you are not going to get a lot of joyful singing, are you?
The atmosphere is great at St Mary’s when the team is showing real intent and building pressure. If a player makes a mistake and the fans sing their name, I am sure that helps that player, in the same way that getting on a player’s back is entirely counterproductive. It’s no good expecting the crowd to sing their hearts out when the performance is dull as dishwater but I do not boo my own players- that is poisonous to the atmosphere. I also don’t leave early as so many do, particularly just after we have conceded. So I stay, I applaud the good stuff and sing when those around me do, but I don’t feel obliged to sound happy when the fare on the pitch is so poor. Unhappy with the fans for leaving early or booing? Fine, but the atmosphere is really just a reflection of what’s happening on the pitch.

 

And, lest we forget, there are still hundreds of unsold seats in our sector at Wembley.

 

So, it’s the crowd, rather than the crippling ineptitude of the board?

 

We’ve already established that the woes of this season are entirely down to:
1. The crowd.
2. The toxic presence of Virgil Van Dijk.
3. Er, that’s it.

 

Saints fan in peace!?

I'm sure we can all agree that there have been a number of factors of which the crowd and VVD are just two

ITS FA CUP SEMI FINAL DAY

 

I think you’re being harsh Chilcs. Nobody has said it’s all the fans fault. What has been said (and by me) that the fans over the last two seasons have played their part. The ease at which they have turned on the team over the last two seasons is incredible. I haven’t been to as many games this season, but went to all home games last season and a few this one.

Brighton was a classic example. First five minutes the players looked like a bag of nerves and Stephens hit a couple of wayward balls over the top and the fans just bowled. What they needed at that point was full on support. It didn’t happen.

Again, not the fans fault, but they have contributed.

Too many people talk in absolutes.