It's all right Mr Club President , Gary Lineker himself has announced that Saints are safe barring some ridiculous mathematical miracle, so the relegation haunted sheep can go back to chewing the grass [I'm kidding..!]. Lineker even emphasised how ridiculous the mathematical miracle had to be by waving his hands in front of his face in a gesture of despair at how one should figure out the remote permutation. Actually, it was relatively easy and even my lousy arithmetic could work it out. It's still remote though.
This game made me appreciate the southampton way because for the first time all season i think we didn't play the southampton way. I hope we never play like the way we played today ever again, I would rather be relegated than watch 38 games of that, I know that sounds like an overly emotional reaction to what was actually a very good result, but I watch football for enjoyment not to be pissed off. I sincerely hope JWP does not turn out like lallana. Lallana has a lot of ability and a wonderful first touch as he demonstrated again today when he plucked the ball out of the air and had it under perfect control, however for pretty much the whole year he has been impotent. On the positive he has the technical ability as does JWP but he doesn't make the right decisions in the final 3rd and can't shoot. As we saw with Rodriguez maybe a bit of confidence will turn his game around.
http://www.premierleague.com/en-gb/matchday/fair-play.html we have slipped a place but I think that some of the assessment is dubious to say the least!
I didn't think we were that bad tbh, certainly saw a big difference in quality between us and sunderland. They hit us on the break a couple of times and we looked shakey but we have had far worse performances this season. I think the difference is lallana is getting less time to get his shots off. Contrary to what people were banging on about in close season "we'll get much more space and time in the prem" our attacks are generally being closed down quicker. All our attacking players simply take too long to cue up their shots, even lambert sometimes (who's first touch is nearly always perfect). Think this is why we haven't seen lallana score as much. True, he hasn't torn apart midfields as he has for the past 3 seasons but we're in the PL- not going to happen here.
We were pretty good in the first half, a little soft in the final third, but we had control of the game for the most part. In the Second half we didn't look half as effective, but this was no way the worst performance of the season some people are saying it was. The first 45 minutes at home to Spurs gets my vote for that, closely followed by a couple other games, but again, not this one.
I think we've lost a cutting edge in the last few games. In the process of becoming a tighter unit we've lost some of the enterprise which wins games. This may or may not be deliberate, and could be put down to tactics, confidence, priority, etc... Yesterday, while Saints were set up to win the game, they had a look about them which suggested that their first priority was not loosing, hence a total dominance of possession without creating much in the way of scoring opportunities. In comparison, an Adkins side, for example, which would have sacrificed tightness for the ability to score more easily. I have been reflecting recently on whether an Adkins Saints side might have been relegated. I'm not sure. Undoubtedly, the threat would have been greater, in my opinion, but a Saints team, with this squad, playing as well as they can, stays up in this division. A drop in form and it becomes much less certain.
We can sit back and enjoy the last game and use it to applaud the club, manager and team. Next season will be the litmus test on whether we will be an also rans to the league, or put up a serious challenge in all or some of the competitions
I think that for the first time in a long time a saints side were playing for a draw. And we had the ideal personnel to pull it off. I don't want to be too critical of Davis as he had quite a good game by his standards yesterday, but he is only capable of one decent attacking pass a match on average, and with lallana, lambert and schneiderlin being out of goalscoring form and cork not having scored we could have played 3 games and not scored from open play. Rodriguez wasn't especially threatening although he had a few decent headers and a good chance in the first half from a scrappy corner. In the first half apart from this one chance we were pathetic in the final 3rd, very little movement and no creativity. The 2nd half was an improvement particluarly after the substitutes. If Bardsley hadn't have scored I doubt we would have made any attacking substitues, instead we probably would have continued with controlling possession without ever really threatening. Perhaps we were tired but even so Lambert was hardly going to be motivated to make many attacking runs when there wasn't a player on the pitch capable of splitting the defence. I would also say that Adkins was the king of possession without penetration. We have looked better with Pochettino unfortunately he doesn't have the personnel atm. I was wrong when I thought that we didn't need signings to improve, we could stagnate if creative players aren't brought in.
Fair enough on your other comments. I would always suggest that in the PL, if you don't strengthen with personnel there is only one way you are going to go. Saints did that following their 8th place in 2003, and look what happened. Lowe even had the gall to say that Saints had one of the strongest squads in the division. He was talking out of his arse, as usual, as WGS had got the lads to play out of their skins all season, and couldn't sustain that level forever. Next season must not be a rude awakening. Opposition clubs know what we're capable of now. We need to be able to better that.
Next season must not be a rude awakening. Opposition clubs know what we're capable of now. We need to be able to better that ___________________________________ I'm not even sure I know what we are capable of!
Yeah definitely. If we can bring in a natural winger or inside forward with pace and creativity, and a central midfielder who can either score on the counterattack or win headers that will revolutionise the way we play and mean that we will play with the element of surprise once again. Gaston would bring the element of surprise but it wouldn't hurt to have a few players for him to pass to as well.
Just got home - I think I must`ve been at a different game to some posters. Or maybe I was max`d out on Double Maxim. I thought Saints played well - typically though, we hade more possession and chances, but still couldn`t win.
