I agree he was like a curates egg today, sometimes at his briliant best, then a period in 2nd half when he vanished, unfortunately they scored both goals during his anonymous period, then he came back towards the end, he may have been wearing the armband, but Fonte seemed to be doing all of the shouting and organizing throughout.
I think most of our side had a very poor second half and we were lucky we were playing an under strength Fulham side. Obviously injuries hindered us today. I thought Lambert looked a bit like he had a knock too. You are right Qwerty we really did lose our shape in the second half and I feel we often lack a shield for our defence (due to dropping too deep and not pressurising the opposition like we did in the first half) or an outlet when we are under pressure, hence the introduction of Chaplow and Guly, which made sense. Paulo Gazzaniga - 7 couple of good saves, faultless for the goals. Frazer Richardson - N/A Maya Yoshida - 4 struggled out of position and possession, he will have better days. Jose Fonte - 8 always committed with his blocks, great second goal header. Danny Fox - 6 a much improved display, still wasteful with possession at times, great delivery for second goal. Jason Puncheon - 6 started well but kept running inside into traffic in the second half. Steve Davis - 6 Morgan Schneiderlin - 6 good in possession but please stop turning blindsided into trouble with the ball, as he did when he picked up his booking, also a little fortunate not to pick up a second. Adam Lallana - 5.5 started well but faded - I wonder if we will have to play him more centrally to minimise his defensive duties. Jay Rodriguez - 6 first touch poor but worked the channels well. Rickie Lambert - 6 great movement off the ball and did defensive duties well but his finishing was not quite right today. Jos Hooiveld - 4 - He has struggled but look at how Fox and Fonte did today, he needs encouragement not derision Richard Chaplow - 6 Guly do Prado - 6
Indeed. I've watched his video and all the games he's played in for Saints, bar today, and his distribution actually makes me laugh occasionally. I mean, it is bloody amazing watching him ping passes long distance or just calmly flip the ball over an opposition head, to a colleague. I'm almost sure he's a frustrated footballer who turned to goalkeeping because he was better between the sticks. I'm slightly astonished Valencia released him. They must have a great suite of keepers.
I agree with this as I felt we broke down a few times when it came to Adam. He'll come good again for sure, but today wasn't his best by a long way.
Don't get this comment OakRiverWizards? He was booked chasing back as they broke down our right and he was coming across to cover from the centre. I thought he played well until he got booked which stopped him sticking his foot in for the last 20 minutes.
Lallana made loads of tackles today. No hiding from stats. He was good. The midfield were excellent. Hoovield and Yoshida were the problem. Lambert and Rodriguez average.
Gazzaniga - 7 - Another competent performance, I think we are yet to see him fully tested, but so far has been excellent. Yoshida - 4 - very poor at right back, but can't particularly blame him. I wonder what other options we could have pursued, Reeves LB and Fox RB? Fonte - 8 - Excellent at both ends of the pitch, perhaps he has alternate good and bad seasons? Hooiveld - 3 - A very bad day for Jos, misjudged the bounce of the ball at least once, what was he doing stretching for that ball first goal? Bad game, but I think he can be an adequate 3rd choice if he plays calmly. Fox - 6 - Played okay, can't say he did anything significantly bad or good. I don't think he deserved the criticism he got before (I think that was largely down to our defensive shape), but today was a definite improvement on past performances. Schneiderlin - 6 - played the breaking up role well, mistimed a few tackles and deserved to be sent off if we're honest. For any other player this would probably be a 7, but not by his usually very high standards. Davis - 8 - Fantastic performance, I can't believe I read on this thread that he gave the ball away a lot, what game were you watching!? Having looked at the stats his passing accuracy was 90%! Lallana - 7/4 - good first half, seemed very lively. Disappeared in the second until the last few minutes. I personally don't think he's found his best form yet, which is good considering 4 assists so far! Puncheon - 6 - Got to be a six for me, was very frustrating first half, seemed to take on a player then lose the ball by getting it caught under his feet. Can't remember a cross or shot from him that found its target this game? Lambert - 5 - not very effective in a CAM role for me, he's most effective in the box, and he seemed to be sitting TOO deep. I can't see a way that Lambert and Rodriguez can play together in this formation Rodriguez - 6 - Tried hard all game, but didn't particularly look like scoring. I have faith that he will come good, but he should be back up for lambert. Chaplow - 6 - Good to see him playing for the first team again; didn't get a lot of the ball, but did a lot of pressing which is one of his best attributes, can't really say much else. Guly - 7 - Came on and caused a lot of problems, and used his physical presence to make an impact. Can't see him getting much of a look in when everyone's fit, but definitely a good squad player
I'm sure if we had that third sub that Nigel will have wanted to hook him for Ward-Prowse. Morgan could have walked for the foul on the half way line (wouldn't be fair to say should have), but he did well otherwise to be fair. Picking up needless bookings in this league costs you games.
I thought it was a silly challenge really for the booking and the ref did him, and us, a favour by not giving him that second booking.
I thought he was going to get sent off but the ref showed rare restraint and common sense by not brandishing a 2nd yellow for what was a foul, but neither malicious or professional like the 1st.
Jol makes a good point about our second goal. Fulham should have received a free kick - and Yoshida a second yellow - immediately before we won our free kick. He didn't win the ball back Yoshida, he was slightly over the top and hit the guy's shin instead. Anyone who thinks Clattenburg was completely biased towards Fulham needs to rematch the game (the more I see of Morgan's challenge, the more it's just a clear second yellow as well).
When in possession Schneiderlin keeps trying to pivot away with the ball and he has had his pocket pinched a number of times, like against Arsenal, which is not good if he is our deepest midfielder. I thought that he played well today, however himself and Yoshida were slightly fortunate not to get a second yellow. Mind you - I thought Sidwell could have had two and I the referee saw neither as a foul but booked Hooiveld for a handball which he could do nothing about.
There's no doubt the ref did us some huge favours. Both Schneiderlin and Maya could and probably should very easily have been sent off, we never should have had the free-kick for our second, and another ref could also very easily have given a couple of penalties for handballs by us in the box. They weren't handballs as they were classic ball-to-hands but you see a lot of them given by other refs. The only calls he really made that went against us were a harsh Hooiveld yellow, and our (correctly) disallowed goal. And Sidwell walked the line without going into the book for a while. He was an absolute angel for us. Since this is the Saints match ratings I'd give him a solid 9, great display, only possible thing he could have done was given us a ridiculous penalty at some point, that was the only thing that kept him from stealing MoTM from Jose.
Bloody hell, I was the only one (thus far) to vote for Morgan... when I'm normally the one who downplays his contribution when most are saying how amazing he was! Today, was one of the best performances I've seen from him. Less flash & showy, but my god he covered some miles for the team.
I don't know about the rest of you - but I am always fascinated by the marks we give our players - I sometimes wonder if we were all at the same match (Added the smile to make the point I am not criticising other fans) Have had some time to contemplate what I witnessed at the game. Overall, I rate most at 6.0 to 6.5 - because we witnessed an otherwise average (being kind) match at the end of the which we have scraped a draw... Fonte had his best game for about a year - not just because he scored twice - 8. Yoshida is a left footed centre back being asked to drop into a right back role; I think it a little unfair to criticise him too heavily - 5. Jos was simply awful - just seems to be struggling with the pace of the game - 4. Mentally; he is looking very shakey - I still struggle today to comprehend the tackle from behind on Van P in the penalty area against Man Utd Puncheon had an good game - 7. Seems so more motivated this season. For the period that Guly was on the pitch - looked very effective.
Thought he had a very good game, but that is just his usual standard. The things that took him down a bit for me were the fact that he probably deserved to get sent off, he did give the ball away poorly a couple times (which for most players would have been no issue but by his standards there were a couple of poor moments), and less so, for the second goal since Richardson was the first runner into the box from midfield, I felt he maybe should have been picking him up. But the last one might be harsh as I only saw it once, don't even know where he actually was, but felt that was an area he should really have been. There was no real debate on man of the match to me, Fonte was almost single-handedly the reason we got a point from that, not to mention he was solid defensively. My choice after him would probably have been between Schneiderlin and Davis.
The first one the player played the ball out of play so was going no where.. the ref would have had that in mind and it was just enough to let him off
