Paulo Gazzaniga - 7, Looked excellent in goal today and commanded area well. Distribution very good. Frazer Richardson - Unlucky injury. Maya Yoshida - 6, Didn't look comfortable but did ok at right-back. Can't fault him. Jose Fonte - 8 MOTM, Scored both goals and looked very comfortable at the back. Danny Fox - 7, Looked solid and steady, his best game of the season. Jason Puncheon - 6, Some nice touches but very frustrating overall. Steve Davis - 7, Very good midfield display, with some good balls. Works well with Morgan. Morgan Schneiderlin - 6, Looked good but not up to his usual high standards. Adam Lallana - 6, Some nice moves but again, wasn't up to his usual high standards. Jay Rodriguez - 6, Caused Fulham a few problems at the back. Rickie Lambert - 6, Wasn't his usual self imo and some wayward shooting. Jos Hooiveld - 5, Has become a bit of a liability I think. Didn't look at all comfortable Richard Chaplow - 5, Isolated out wide Guly do Prado - 5, Didn't look like he had a set role - we lacked up front with him on the field. Post your ratings below!!!
Cba with ratings but man of the match has to be Fonte. I voted Puncheon just to be difficult, but I thought he was our second best player. Put in a lot of work defensively too, which helped Yoshida who looked dodgy.
Lallana deserves a mention for a very good first half and an assist. I think he's joint top for assists in the league now. Voted Fonte though.
For me, the things that stick out: Gazzaniga 8 - excellent saves today! Fonte 8 - very comfortable at the back, an obviously up front...! MOTM Fox 7 - much more composed, better performance Yoshida 5/6 - out of position and looked like he was struggling a lot at times Guly 7.5 - changed the game and added some bite up front and was very strong and held the ball up well. Looked very comfortable Lambert 6 - one of those days where nothing went right for him
Gazza - 8 - Did nothing wrong but didn't have much asked of him to be truth, made one stunning save but was time wasting in the 55th minute!? Yoshida - 0 - I've never seen a more inept performance from a professional footballer, yes he was out of position but he couldn't do simple things like passing and controlling the ball which he'd have to do as a centre back. Shame because he's been brilliant so far. Fonte - 9 MOTM - He was a rock defensively considering he had bugger all help, then when you add his 2 goals in he had a near perfect game. Hooiveld 5 - Poor in my opinion not a lot he could have done about the own goal but looked rusty and consistently lost headers that he should have been winning. Fox - 5 - At fault for both goals I'm afraid, however he was much improved from past games. Still hoofs it too much but is brilliant from dead balls and a useful attacking outlet. Davis - 7 - He was good today cleaned up nicely in midfield and kept us ticking over. Schneiderlin - 7 - Much the same as davis cleaned up well but not his best game offensively. Credit has to be given for his "team yellow" to stop Fulham breaking. Lallana - 7 - Not his best today but caused a few problems and got an assist, he's joint top in the assists chart Mata, Hazard and Adam all have 4! Lambert - 8 - Bullied the defenders all day long as per usual gutted when he went off. Did miss a sitter by his standards. Puncheon - 9 - Worked himself to the bone, fantastic offensive and defensive performance I was incredibly impressed. Rodriguez - 8 and a half - Worked really really hard, will have to work on his heading if he's going to our lambert replacement though. Chaplow - 4 - did bugger all but didn't have long to do it in. Guly - 8 - Despite idiots in the crowd booing him and slagging him off every time he touched the ball he played well with some lovely quick feet and he ever won an header or two. Adkins - 3 - Now I don't know who's injured or plays well at training but his subs confused me two of our best players on the day subbed off and replaced with Chaplow and Guly? I'd rather Mayuka than Chaplow and I think he made a big error there.
Apart from the corner, I thought Adam was pretty poor. Both of Fulham's goals were down to him leaving his man (the right back). He's been a bit of a liability defending this season... I know thats not his game, but when he's not performing in the other half of the pitch either, its a worry as every manager in this league knows to attack us down our left flank. Lallana needs to up his game a bit. Wonder if the Captain's armband is a hinderance? (shouldn't be)
Not going to do all ratings but: Gazzaniga was excellent throughout, looked commanding of his area, very good distribution, great save in the 2nd Half. Fonte- A great game for him, defensively pretty sound and of course two good goals! Schneiderlin- He is the key to this team, certainly gets us playing the right way and his defensive work is very good. Lambert- Thought he had an off day, passing was sloppy, shooting was strangely wayward for a man of his quality, believe it was the right decision to substitute him. Also, those that booed Guly as he entered the field never return to St.Mary's! We are 1-0 up and people have the nerve to boo, absolute madness!
You are taking the piss right? Fonte was covering two men half the game. Hoovield and Yoshida were woeful. He got 2 goals as well. Perfect 10 and the ****ing rest. If he gets an 8 for that what can he do to get 10 exactly? He was beyond immense today. Gazzaniga - 8.5 - Made one big save and looked solid. Good distribution. No chance on the goals. Yoshida - 3 - He looked very uncomfortable at RB. Poor passing ruined the flow of our game. But it's unfair to be too harsh. I still have to rate by performance as a RB. Fonte - 10 - 2 goals and our best defender. Had to give him 10 he was immense covering for Yoshida and Hoovield at times, great all round display. Hoovield - 3 - Looked shaky most of the game. He is an accident waiting to happen. Poor decision making and execution in certain situations. Made a mistake just before half time as well which we were lucky to get away with. Fox - 8.5 - Decent enough defensively and excellent set pieces. Surprised me today with a very solid display. Morgan - 9.5 - Immense in the midfield. Epitomized his attitude when he was at the kick off when we were 2-1 down with Rodriguez. So many tackles and interceptions, good in the air. Another great performance. Davis - 9.5 - Excellent to back up Morgan. Him and Morgan were both brilliant. Davis passed it very well. Puncheon - 9 - He was an outlet for us as he could counter. So many times the first man out to press Fulham after a defensive corner, put in a great shift making a few tackles. Was almost playing like a right wing back at times or deep lying right mid as he understood Yoshida was struggling. It was what was missing defensively when he went off. Chaplow went too high and didn't provide enough cover defensively. Lallana - 8.5 - Great deliveries like Fox. Worked very hard like Puncheon and clever at times. Lambert - 6 - Not at his best at all today. Rodriguez - 7 - Worked extremely hard so I bumped his rating up a little for that. Also the fact he made some great runs that were ignored didn't help. Was more of a threat when Lambert went off. --- Guly - 8.5 - Was great when he came on. Took players on and didn't lose the ball without a fight, good passing. Chaplow - 5 - I'm afraid I was disappointed. Whether he was listening to advice or not his positioning was poor and he didn't help Yoshida enough. He should have seen how much Puncheon tracked back during the game. Adkins made a mistake making this change unless Puncheon was knackered. ---- My summary is that we were unlucky. An own goal and a deflected goal. Could have been a clean sheet on another day. I'm happy with the performance I feel we were very unlucky Richardson got injured confident we'd have won otherwise, It truly screwed up the balance of the defence and play. Thought the ref had a bad game. For us to end up on 4 yellows compared to them on zero sums it up really. Haven't seen the disallowed goal so can't comment, we thought it might have been disallowed for climbing on the defender.
The impression I got from the radio was that Gazzaniga had an excellent game. I really hope that's true because I have very high expectations of the lad. It's difficult to look past Jose as MOTM though. I still find his decision to drop to League One slightly amazing, but it has proved to be absolutely right, and he is earning his place in the side. I think he may well survive as a starter too, when reinforcements are [inevitably..?] brought in, come January.
There are people that will forever say Lambert played 10/10. But today just wasn't his day, hence why I have him a 6.
I'll need to see the goals again to see if there was anything he could have done, but he was very solid. Safe hands on crosses all game, one mix up with Hooiveld (I think) towards the end of the first half but other than that, very solid, with one very good save. His distribution is astounding.
YES! Successfully merged threads without making a meal of it. Ok I'm not gonna rate everyone but here's a couple. Gazza was good Maya was OK IMO on the understanding that he is not Richardson or Clyne and isn't going to end up pulling back a cross from the edge of the box. I have no idea if he has played much at RB, but I am fairly confident he doesn't take many throw ins Fox played well I think so credit to him Puncheon, love that guy to bits, how did we have that guy in League 1 and not slaughter everyone (don't answer that) By the way I think there was a some booing for Guly which is definitely sad, but also a chant which was good to hear. I felt like we lost a bit of shape after he came on but that is not his fault. The big problem for Adkins is "how do you replace Lambert", well if anyone has a good answer then I'm sure he would appreciate your thoughts. The best answer has to be that you don't but you try and do something a little different. The only other option from the bench was Mayuka and I think saying "run at full backs" is just too simple particularly when we are trying to keep possession in midfield. Maybe if we had the third sub that could have happened also. Also after the Fulham goal to make it 1-1 the Guly-hater behind me (fast becoming a not606 celebrity) said "I can't believe he put bloody Guly on, what a waste of a sub, I don't even want to watch any more". You can guess what I thought. He was a bit lighter on Fonte today though...can't think why.
Definitely nothing he could do about the goals. The second one got a big deflection off Jos. Goals here with amusing Yank commentary - http://www.footytube.com/video/southampton-fc-2-2-fulham-fc-all-goals-134345?ref=wv_relbox
I thought Puncheon and Jay put decent shifts in, and Fonte obviously got two goals. But that's about it for me.
Gazzaniga 7-decent display. Richardson n/a-didn't have time to do anything. Fonte 9-who needs Rickie? Good at both ends of the pitch. Yoshida 5-too far up the pitch, out of position though. Fox 6-didn't do many mistakes today, I believe he set up the second? Davis 6-gave the ball away a lot, looked relentless to press at times. Schneiderlin 8-done so many tackles, been better though. Lallana 7-showed some good skill at times but wasn't that consistent today. Puncheon 8-looked a threat all game, tracked back well too. Lambert 6-didn't feature in the game much, a bit unfit maybe? Rodriguez 7-didn't think he did bad, won some arial balls and his ball retention was good. Hooiveld 5-another poor performance, and a nice strike in the top corner of his own net! He needs to find a way to put all this bad form behind him. Chaplow 6-did alright, had a good workrate on him and got stuck in. Guly 6-did the simple things and looked okay, didn't feature for that long though.
Agree that was best performance from Fox this season. Was straight up Duff and was not guilty of the usual backing off. Special mention for Schneiderlin who was like a rash on Ruiz in the 1st half and stopped Fulham at source. My football brain is too slow to work out whether it was the Southampton shape change or a Fulham change which ended up allowing Ruiz to see more of the ball unopposed in the 2nd half. Shame for Maya who looked very uncomfortable at right back but he was defensively admirable. Think he should have at least attempted to cross the ball in like Richardson no doubt would of done. Another great display from Puncheon and was my MOTM till he came off. Hope he picked up a knock or that was a poor decision from Adkins. Think Lallana should have made way if he wanted to shut up shop more.
Gazzaniga - 7 - Good solid game, had no chance for either goal obviously, only really needed to make one tough save which he did, was tempted to give him an 8 for his distribution but a 7 will do. Fox - 7 - Good game defensively mostly, came unravelled a touch in the second half when Fulham were pressing but so did most of the team so can't blame him too much. Hooiveld - 3 - 2 OGs, looked uncomfortable the entire game and Rodallega ran off of him over and over again and made him look a touch pedestrian. An afternoon to forget for Jos. Fonte - 10 - Can't really mark him down, was a brick wall defensively and salvaged us a point. Yoshida - 4 - Feel for him as he was stuck in a really tough spot, but he just lost it mentally and made some really basic footballing errors. Schneiderlin - 8 - Average Morgan performance, solid defensively, gave the ball a little bit more than usual but overall the quality you expect from him. Also probably a bit lucky to stay on the pitch, could easily have accumulated a couple of yellows. Davis - 8 - Put a very good shift in as he has done regularly so far this season, did a lot of covering defensively, was a few moments where he was a little bit untidy with his touch and passing but overall his efficient self. Lallana - 6 - Obviously notched another assist, but not great defensively and I've been a bit disappointed with his end product all season, expecting more from him. Didn't have a great day at either end of the pitch. Puncheon - 6 - I'd give him a 4 or 5 if it weren't for his great defensive work. He put a good shift in and covered well defensively, so I have to give him credit for that, but going forward it was just not there. His touch was frequently poor which broke up a few moves, passing wasn't great at times either and when he gets squared up against a full-back he just never looks like doing anything. He so clearly wants to get onto his left foot and any full-back with a brain can close him out, whenever he was one-on-one with Riise he just jinked back and forwards a few times, got nowhere, and then passed it back to Yoshida. That might be OK with Clyne or Richardson behind him but with Yoshida it just killed so many of our moves. I've seen a lot of people praising him for the shift he put in, and while he does deserve credit for that, his job is to attack and going forward he had a very poor game and killed a lot of our attacking play. Also should have scored when he shovelled the ball onto the post with the goal gaping. Rodriguez - 6 - Another fairly unconvincing game, another player who put a pretty good shift in, but like Puncheon, his job is to attack, and more specifically to score goals, which he had a couple of good oppurtunities to do and didn't. Simple as that! Lambert - 6 - Was a fairly typical Rickie display, apart from not doing what he usually does - put the ball into the back of the net! He had a couple of oppurtunities, which to be fair to him, were technically very difficult the way he took them, but you just expect him to put one of them away. No point rating Richardson, Chaplow didn't do much, and Guly looked alright but didn't have time to effect much.
