match ratings vs Bristol

Didnt hear any booing in the itchen, if I had heard anyone boo I would have had words!

 

I personally didn't hear any booing,just alot of people clapping for the overall home record i think.

 

Anything derogatory was probably aimed at the officials, not the players.

 

Was caught for pace, but he should not have been the one to be tracking him, that was Foxies job.

 

Agreed , we allowed him way to much space.

 

I was amazed how many times we showed Adomah inside in the first half when clearly that is where he wanted to go.

 

Spot on. Made the same mistake twice did super kelvin, but also made two brilliant saves.

 

We played well in patches. Tonight though i thought the final pass or cross was poor. Too many times crosses from Fox, Frazer and de Ridder went behind or too far beyond the far post.

Steve de Ridder gave them problems, bur needs to improve decision making and crossing.

 

Davis - 6.5 - 1 good save,but should have done better for the goal
Richardson - 6 - Not one of his better games
Martin - 7 - Shaky start, but settled down and looked pretty solid
Hooiveld - 7.5 - Solid display
Fox - 5 - Struggled against Adamoah again
Cork - 6 - Pretty ineffectve
Schneiderlin - 7 - Cracking shot in the first half,got over run in midfield but never had a lot of help
Lallana - 5.5 - Probably his most ineffective display of the season
De Ridder - 8 - Always looked the most likely source of a goal, often had no one to cross to when he broke free
Guly - 5 - Shocking first half,improved in the second half but never really looked like scoring
Lambert - 7 - Never had a lot of chance to shine as was fouled every time he went to win ball

Was very suprised with some of Adkins decisions tonight.
Fox got torn a new one in Bristol by Adamoah,so surely it would have made sense to rest him for this match,and start with Harding.
I would have replaced Cork with Hammond after an hour to try and put a bit more bite into the centre midfield area,and would have swapped Lallana for Holmes,and Guly for Connoly with 15 minutes to go if we hadnt made a breakthrough by then.
Tonights display again showed how badly we are missing Chaplow. We just havent looked the same side since he got injured as we miss his non stop running,and his ability to win the ball back. The sooner he gets back the better.

 

It's all very well rating players, bit what about the manager? We played them before so no real shocks. If Guly was that bad why wasn't he taken off for Connelly if he is Lallana's mentor? More things going on i am sure. Yes, we are all a bit miffed, the year may be over but not the season...and It's a long season gents:

The end of season target was top half, top ten or top six at a push.

Happy New Year!

 

I am of the opinion that Adkins is very very inflexible. He doesn't make changes quick enough and I don't see him ever change the formation, if he does it's far too late in the day. He has no all or nothing tactics and formation which every manager should have. As a result of our inflexibility and the fact we always try to play the same way I believe we've been found out. It's come to the stage of the season where we've played enough games for teams to know what to expect from us and this dip in form won't end unless we learn to mix up our tactics and formation when is necessary.

You have been reading too much bs from Messi fans on youtube. Portugal are utter garbage and leave Ronaldo as a lone striker and give him no product, just pray he comes up with some magic. Messi plays for a great Argentina side and has a woeful scoring record in Internationals. Lallana has been rubbish this season in terms of end product in attack and he's poor defensively

 

You can't play the same way every time. Because different teams will set up differently against you and have different tactics in terms of method of attack (playing the ball on the ground all the time, long ball, counter etc etc), certain teams will play deeper than other enabling us to throw more men forward if we want, others will play higher and press very high, offside trap etc etc. If you think we should play the same way every single time then you are a clown

 

Was at the game but can't be arsed with ratings

Well I was in Itchen south and didn't hear any booing. Saints have played worse than that this season and won. City took their chances and their back 5 were physically brave. Agree we were shot-shy, some players passing responsibility to others - may sound obvious but you don't score without shooting. Lallana was guilty of this on one glaring occasion in the 1st half from a de Ridder pull-back and it seemed to affect him from then on, disagree he's been playing poorly in other games though, just not as well as he can, such a great player when on song

Was also at Ashton Gate and said before the game it was a judgement call for NA on whether to play Fox up against Adomah again and on this occasion and in hindsight, I think he got this one wrong, Harding should have started. Havn't got any probs with his subs, Adam's confidence on the night had obviously gone, some rebuilding required there. Blimey, we've made Bristol City look like world beaters, no goals scored in 180 mins of football....a look at the league table reveals they're not though if they continue playing like that, they won't go down

For Brighton, I'd look at starting Connolly if fully fit and I'd stick with de Ridder, a dangerous player and once our other strikers get more used to his play, will be a valuable asset - Frustrating night but ONWARDS AND UPWARDS

 

To say we play one way is wrong,we have mixed it up a few times,Nigel has changed formations quite a few times in games to try and change it.There are only so many ways we can actually play a game of football,tell me how you would have us playing that what we haven't already done this season? Makes me laugh how every time we suffer a defeat it means teams have sussed us out and everyone are getting wise to how we play,we got beat,these things happen! I really can't fathom how anyone can have any complaints against Nigel this season,really i can't.God forbid we ever REALLY struggle!

 

We will enter the new year top (at least on goal difference depending on results today) and we have been top for 3 months. This says that we are as consistent as those below us. We have never been miles ahead of second so haven't really lost a vast number of points there, though the fact that we are so close to third is more worrying. That gap has gone. I think our strengths can sometimes be our weakness...we usually carry on with our tactics regardless of the other team and rely on wearing them down with our passing, consistency and fitness. Nothing wrong with that per se, the better sides usually play to their strengths and make others change their style of play. I just feel that sometimes we look jaded and the joy has gone from the team. It's a long season and I think we've hit a tough spell, but having said that we are not losing a string of matches. We are still getting points and keeping ourselves in contention. No need to throw the baby out with the bath water just yet.

 

De Ridder splits opinion as flair players often do but for me he is quality he is a box of tricks with pace to spare he was murdering the full back all night long and lets remember he has actually started few games and is still kind of finding his feet in our team looking ahead he is a great asset and is pretty much the only pace we have.With regard Kelvin i dont like making excuses for professionals but the original save for the goal was from a low firm strike on what was a very greasy surface so maybe i can cut him some slack there but overall he is great for usas he was in general last night.Ialso thought Richardson was pretty good again he is very consistant and is a player of the season in the making

 

0. Rating on trying to pass the ball into the net

0 Ratting on anybody who should have had a shot and didn't

0. Rating on not taking Guly off at half time

0. Rating on Davis for paring a long range shot back into play

If we had enforced those 4 things then I feel our performance was good enough to have pinched a result

I also gave the ref a 0 rating but you can't put that right.

 

Not if West Ham win 6-0. which is possible against a poor Derby.

I can understand why you are saying this.

SOmetimes he does change formations. from 442 to a 41212. with lallana playing in the hole behind the strikers. i still don't understand why he bought holmes on from frazer and then played him at RB?

 

Richardson picked up a knock. I doubt he'll play against Brighton.

Lambert was also struggling towards the end of the game